A special probe has been launched with the State Intelligence Service (SIS) officers to uncover the origin of the Covid-19 cluster linked to the Brandix apparel factory in Minuwangoda, says Police Spokesperson DIG Ajith Rohana.
He commented that the all of the recently-identified novel coronavirus cases were traced to the Minuwangoda cluster, however, it is still a question as to how the Brandix employees contracted the virus.
Hence, an investigation, assisted by health authorities and Sri Lanka Police, is being carried out to trace the root of the cluster, DIG Rohana said further.
He made these remarks speaking to the media today (17).
It has been made mandatory for all air passengers to undergo a PCR test before departing from Sri Lanka, stated the Airport & Aviation Services (Sri Lanka) Ltd (AASL).
The company states that passengers must undergo the test within 72 hours of their departure time.
This decision will be in effect from 6.00 pm this evening (17), AASL said.
The Indian Government has
repeatedly intervened in the domestic affairs of Sri Lanka based on the
assumption that the policies of Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) needs correction
by the Big Brother, using the cane if necessary. This interventionist policy continues
to prevail even though the overall Indian experience as a regional power
has proved that it is not the best policy for building up trust and
easing tensions and confrontations among neighbours. In the latest summit
between the two heads of statesPrime
Minister Narendra Modi and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse the usual
interventionist exhortations were reiterated with neither party shifting from
their standard positions, or benefiting from it. It is now a predictable
ritual at Indo-Sri Lanka meetings for India to chant the usual mantra
in which India calls on the GOSL to address the aspirations of the Tamil
people for equality, justice, peace and respect ……”
Pushing the
political claims of Tamils of the North has been primarily India’s entry point
to intervene in the domestic politics of Sri Lanka. In a multi-ethnic,
multi-cultural society where there are rival claims of competing
communities, India has taken only the side of the Tamils of the North.
For instance, India has not backed the claims of the Muslims stated
in the Oluvil Declaration of January 29, 2003. It has, however, backed the
Vadkoddai Resolution (May 14, 1976) and actively intervened to extract
concessions from the Sri Lankan government to consolidate the mono-ethnic extremism
of the Northern Tamils.
This
intervention on behalf of the Tamils of the North alone, which, of course, can
come only at the expense of other communities, happens to be the main
bone of contention. The rationale for the intervention too is based on
the litany of complaints listed in the Vadukoddai Resolution. Exhorting the
GOSL to address the aspirations of the Tamil people for equality, justice,
peace and respect ……” comes directly from the political agenda of the
Vadukoddai Resolution.
It is this
premise that gives the leverage India needs to intervene, assuming the
role of the highly moral Big Brother ever willing to bring the little brother
into line. Whether the blaming of only the GOSL
(aka ‘the Sinhala state”) for the
inevitable clashes of multi-factorial socio-economic forces competing in rival
fields of multi-ethnic conditions is valid or not has not been examined
critically, either to understand the problem in all its dimensions or to
work out a viable solution. In hindsight, it can be argued that it is the
blind-sided acceptance of a mono-causal theory, blaming only the
Sinhala-Buddhists in a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and, hence,
multi-dimensional political environment, that distorted the rational
perspectives necessary to generate conditions for peaceful coexistence.
Particularly
in the post-Donoughmore period when the Tamil Vellala elite that dominated
Jaffna politics realised that they were losing their dominance in the
entrenched colonial administrative and legislative seats, they laboured
incessantly to manufacture a history to boost their claim to be the founders
and the masters of nation from the dawn of time”. (Vadukoddai
Resolution). Their tactic was to rewrite yesterday’s history to fill in the
yawning gaps to boost today’s politics. Above all, in the absence of a
substantial history, they felt the need to pose as a superior breed,
standing heads and shoulders above the rest, including the regional and
Tamil-speaking Muslims. It is the self-serving conclusions derived from
distorted historical realities that led to the worsening of North-South
relations – a tragic logic that ran all the way to Nandikadal.
The Tamil Vellala elite had nothing to offer by way of a political
program except their claim to be superior human beings because (1) they
speak Tamil, one of the oldest languages in the world (2)
they were in Sri Lanka from the dawn of time” and (3) they are the
God-anointed caste, in the absence of the Brahmins in Jaffna, chosen to rule
Jaffna, as defined by Saivite casteist guru, Arumuka Navalar ( 1822 –
1879 ). It is Arumuka Navalar who played the decisive role of defining
the superior status of the Vellalas. He is the most
revered religious guru of Jaffna mainly because he has been the patron saint of
the Vellalas, the dominant majority in the peninsula. It was his revisionist
Hinduism that elevated the Vellalas to the highest caste in Jaffna hierarchy.
Though he attained the status of a demi-God in the eyes of Vellalas the
low-caste stoned his statue when it was taken round Jaffna by V. Navaratnam in
the sixties. The Sinhala state” had to send Police from the South to protect
the right of the Vellalas to honour their guru.
The arrogant sense of Vellala supremacy was taken to extreme ends. They
went to the obnoxious extreme of restricting the membership of the Tamil
community only to the Vellalas. They denied the low-caste Nalavar and Pallar
slaves as being Tamils. They were excluded from the Tamil community.
Prof.
Bryan Pfaffenberger, a leading authority on the Jaffna caste system, wrote: To
maintain the social boundary between Vellalars and untouchables, Vellalas
employ ritual to sustain a belief that Minority Tamils (low-castes) are a
non-Tamilian, “aboriginal” people of a despicably low status….
According to extreme Vellalar thinking, this stigma denies Minority Tamils full
membership in the Tamil community. The Nalavars’ and Pallars’ recent historical
origins in Dutch-sponsored immigrations from South India and their putatively
darker skin serve to deepen the Vellalar sense that the Minority Tamils are a
people apart from the mainstream….
If
Vellalars deny that Nalavars and Pallalars are Tamils, as some indeed did in
the early 1970s, where are the grounds for unifying the Tamil community? The
Minority Tamils have long laid claim to full membership in the Tamil community,
but in a way that could not fail to alarm Vellalars and stimulate a defensive
reaction. As Kenneth David has noted, the Pallars of Jaffna expressly conceive
themselves to be descended from one of two Vellalar brothers; after the older
brother’s death, the widow-a “bad woman,” according to the tale-made
the younger one into a landless slave (David 1976: 189-90). Thus, Minority
Tamils’ claim to full membership in the Tamil community is also a claim to
Vellalar status-which is precisely why Vellalars have fought their mobility
campaigns with such vehemence.” (Bryan Pfaffenberger: Political Construction
of Defensive Nationalism: The 1968 Temple-Entry Crisis in Northern Sri Lanka).
Religion, casteism intertwined inextricably with religion, and the Tamil
language borrowed from S. India, were the three main strands that were rolled
into one ideology– three inter-meshing forces that went to make the Tamil
identity in the twentieth century. The identity politics of Jaffna was based
primarily on this ideology. In the twentieth century when the Vellalas were
turning into a class from being dominant caste in feudal and colonial
times they had no progressive ideology – liberalism, socialism, democratic pluralism
etc — to justify their supremacy. Every one of those ideologies would
have undermined their casteist supremacy. So the Vellalas manufactured Tamil
identitarian politics as a vital for their own survival.
Their initial struggle to preserve their supremacy was based on casteist
Saivism of Arumuka Navalar which they did with extra-legal force against the
low-castes when necessary. But invading market forces, democratisation of the
political system and modernity were undermining their casteist supremacy. It
was when the outdated Vellala feudal fortress was crumbling that they took to
the Tamil identitarian politics to unite Jaffna fragmented on casteist
faultlines. It was also the last defence available to them to retain
their supremacy. Sir Ponnambalam Ramanathan’s last mission to the Colonial
Secretary in the late twenties was to persuade the colonial masters on the
necessity of maintaining the caste system for the preservation of law and
order. Every aspect of Jaffna society, everything from the womb to the tomb,
was determined and enforced by the Vellala norms, ranks and gangs.
Any threat to the universe of the Vellala supremacists was seen as
chaos. To maintain their supremacy they did not hesitate to reduce the
low-caste slaves to subhuman conditions. In Jaffna,” wrote
Pfaffenberger, in the 1940s and 1950s, for instance, Minority Tamils were
forbidden to enter or live near temples; to draw water from the wells of
high-caste families; to enter laundries, barber shops, cafes, or taxis; to keep
women in seclusion and protect them by enacting domestic rituals; to wear
shoes; to sit on bus seats; to register their names properly so that social
benefits could be obtained; to attend school; to cover the upper part of the
body; to wear gold earrings; if male, to cut their hair; to use umbrellas; to
own bicycles or cars; to cremate the dead; or to convert to Christianity or
Buddhism (Holmes1980:232-34). To enforce these restrictions extralegally,
Vellalars have fielded gangs of thugs to punish upwardly mobile Pallars or
Nalavars. These gangs pollute untouchable wells with dead dogs, fecal matter,
or garbage; burn down untouchable fences or houses; physically assault and beat
Minority Tamils, and sometimes kill them. Preceding the Maviddapuram crisis there
had been several altercations in which Minority Tamils died (Times of
Ceylon, Feb. 17, 1968, p. 1).” (Ibid).
One
more critical issue that reveals the inhuman way in which the Tamil leadership
treated their own people down the ages. It was demonstrated in 1968 when the
low-castes staged a non-violent protest at the Maviddipuram Temple to gain
admittance. Here’s the description of the events that followed by Prof.
Pfaffenberger: After days of tense but peaceful confrontation, the
demonstration turned violent as dozens of self-styled “Defenders of
Saivism,” Hindus of high-caste rank (Vellalars and their domestic
servants, the Koviyars), beat back the Minority Tamils with iron rods and
sand-filled bottles. Feelings ran very high throughout the peninsula, and there
were many incidents of violence, some lethal.” (Ibid).
The
obscene record of Tamils massacring Tamils, of Tamil oppressing Tamils, of
Tamils dehumanising Tamils is the darkest chapter in Sri Lankan history. No
other community was treated with utter contempt by their leaders as the
Tamils. No other community was persecuted, tortured, oppressed and reduced to
subhuman slaves as the Tamils of Jaffna. It was a haven for the Vellala
supremacists who ran Jaffna with an iron-fist. It was also a glorious regime
for the Tamil Tigers who turned the peninsula into a fascist gulag. But
to the victims of these fascist leaders it was a hell-hole.
It is against
this background that the accusation of blaming the Sinhala state” should be
judged. Any judgement or accusation levelled against the GOSL must be
compared with the treatment meted out to the Tamils by the Tamil leaders.
Before pointing the accusing finger at the Sinhala state” isn’t it only fair
that there should be a fair and objective assessment of the manner in which the
Tamil leaders treated the Tamils? After all, the Sinhala state” had been
there only for the last 72 years. The Tamils of the North were ruled by
their Tamils leaders during the feudal and colonial periods. Besides, the Tamils
also came under the rule of a Tamil leader from around 1976, after the
Declaration of War by the Tamil leaders at Vadukoddai, when the North and
the East were occupied by the de facto state run by the Tamil Tigers. What kind
of treatment did the Tamils get under Velupillai Prabhakaran, their
Surya Devan”? How does the treatment meted out to the Tamils by the Tamil
leaders compare with the treatment they received under the Sinhala state?
So, when the
Indian panjandrums pressure Sri Lanka to address the aspirations of the Tamil
people for equality, justice, peace and respect ……” have they ever paused to
ask what degree of equality, justice, peace and respect was given to the
Tamils by the Tamil regimes / leaders throughout their history? In comparison,
the historical record proves that the Tamils never had it so good as under the
Sinhala states”. For instance, no Tamil residing in other parts of the
world, including India, their one and only homeland, has had the privilege of
being represented in the national flag – the highest symbol of
recognition and respect given to any community. The Tamils fly high among
the 193 flags at the UN because the Sinhala state” has given them their due
respect and place. Their language and their equal status have been
recognised and honoured in the currency, the stamps and all official
records of the Sinhala state”. No Tamil regime in the past or in
contemporary times have delivered justice, however, flawed it may be, as
the Sinhala state”. In fact, the best of Tamil lawyers practiced law in the
courts of the Sinhala state” and not in the Tamil courts of the de facto
state of Prabhakaran. What justice was given to the low-castes Tamils
protesting non-violently at the Maviddipuram Temple by the Vellalas? What equality
did the Vellalas grant to the Tamil protestors when they cracked their heads
with iron rod and bottles filled with sand merely because they asked for
permission to pray to the same God/s in the same temple?
It is the
Vellala leadership which dehumanised their fellow-Tamils and treated them as
outcasts. It is the same leaderrship that is going behind India to put pressure
on the GOSL to address the aspirations of the Tamil people for equality,
justice, peace and respect.” The Tamil community will agree, if they are honest
enough, that the record of their leaders treating their fellow-Tamils stinks to
high heaven. Again, they will agree, if they are honest enough, that on balance
the Sinhala state” has applied the principles of equality, justice and peace
in dealing with all communities. There are, of course, instances of deviating
from this norm. But any judgment on an historical scale will confirm that
the Sinhala state” have been far fairer and just to the Tamils than the
Tamils have been to the Tamils.
So, where
does this leave the Indians who are asking the Sinhala state” to address the
aspirations of the Tamil people for equality, justice, peace and respect”? What
justification is there for India to lecture to GOSL in dealing with only the
Tamil minority who, tragically, has been the perennial victims of their
fascist leaders? The GOSL which has been in search of peaceful coexistence has
gone a long distance to ameliorate the conditions of the Tamils. For instance,
the first ever legal step to dismantle the fascist caste structure was
taken by S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike who passed the Prevention of Social
Disabilities Act of 1957. In 2009 it was Mahinda Rajapakse who liberated
the Tamils from the fascist tyranny of the Tamil Pol Pot.
The Tamil leaders
of Jaffna, of course, have been shedding crocodile tears for the
oppressed Tamils. Their humbuggery in blaming the Sinhala state” for their
failure to deliver their people from the systemic evils of casteism
is unforgiveable. Jaffna political class has survived by passing the buck to
the Sinhala state. They never took responsibility for the consequences of the
decadent and evil caste system that enslaved the Tamil people from the Dutch
period to modern times. What is worse is the Indian morality that goes along
with the Tamil humbuggery. They know what is happening under their noses. And
yet they opt to go along with Tamil humbuggery.
Tamil leaders
of Jaffna are the last whingers who are entitled to complain about the denial
of equality, justice, peace and respect” to the Tamil people. Would
Prabhakaran ever have invited R. Sampanthan to be his leader of the
Opposition? Would India have allowed Muthiah Muralidharan to step into
any part of Indian territory if he was throwing hand grenades for Prabhakaran?
Wasn’t it because Murali was given respect and treated equally that he
became a famous Tamilian? India, on the contrary, trained Prabhakaran to throw
hand grenades in Sirumalai, near Madurai and paid for it dearly.
So, when
India accepts the humbuggery of the Tamil oppressors and lectures to the
GOSL on how to deal with its most privileged minority it degrades its claim to
be a moral leader. It deviates from the Gandhi-Nehruvian morality that
made it a shining star, pointing the way to peace and security in a troubled
world. Following the Tamil accusations blindly has given India a moral
veneer in the past to (1) violate international law (air space), (2) train
Tamil terrorists to subvert and destabilise a democratically elected
neighbour, (3) send its military forces in the guise of disarming the
Tamil terrorists it trained, financed and exported to Sri Lanka and (4)
generally twist the arm of GOSL to thrust the 13th Amendment down the
throat of Sri Lanka devolving power to the Tamils – its main objective –
and (5) leave Sri Lanka achieving nothing to resolve the problem after beating
Sri Lanka with its Big Brother stick.
After
throwing in all its resources, after mobilising all its diplomatic,
military and economic power India is still stuck in the place where it began.
Besides, Sri Lanka too has gone the distance it could to accommodate the Indian
solution”. Sri Lanka even opened its gates and invited the Indian forces
to come and fix the problem. It accepted the Indian political formula
it imposed in the form of the 13th Amendment. Sri Lanka has been
bending over backwards not to offend India. And yet, after going along
with India’s solutions” s far as it could, India is refusing to take any
responsibility for the failure of its interventionist policy. It is still
exhorting Sri Lanka to address equality, justice, peace and respect” as
claimed by the Tamils of the North. Didn’t India come in to do that job saying
that Indian Big Brother can do what Sri Lankan younger brother can’t do? So why
is India pointing a finger at Sri Lanka after failing in its mission?
The fourth
largest army in the world couldn’t even disarm, as promised in the Indo-Sri
Lanka Agreement, the terrorists it trained in Indian soil. Indian
meddling in Sri Lanka has not brought a satisfactory solution to the Tamils,
the Sri Lankans and, least of all, to the Indians. The issue continues to
simmer with the Tamil tail twisting the Indian head in Delhi.
Consequently, isn’t its India’s duty to revisit the problem and examine
critically where it went wrong and ask: why has India gone nowhere so far?
Could it be that India has got its fundamentals wrong? Isn’t it clear
that India has failed, even after exhausting all its options, because it
has not come to grips with the historical and political realities that fuelled
the North-South crisis? Can India provide a solution if it can’t get its
basics right?
With all its
accumulated experience that adds up to a failure so far, it is obvious that
India must go for a mid-course correction. If so from where should India
begin? The most appropriate place would be to test the Indian premise on which
India has acted so far to intervene in Sri Lankan affairs. Accepting the usual
litany of complaints made by the Tamils of the North as its official line for
intervention questions India’s judgemental capacity to evaluate critical issues
relevant to its national and regional interests. So where should India begin
since it has failed in achieving a solution by follow slavishly the political
line sold by the Tamils to India.?
It is common
knowledge that if you begin with the wrong premise you end up with the wrong
conclusions. No logical, rational or acceptable solution can come if you start
from a wrong premise. For instance, if a new critical analysis establishes that
it is the Tamil leadership that has been guilty of denying the oppressed
Tamils their rights and their due place in the sun will not the
conclusion lead to different solutions? Why did the Tamil leadership fail to
redeem their own people who were suffering under the yoke of Vellala casteism?
Why did they go along with Prabhakaranist fascism and blame GOSL for not
giving into his demands? Why did they pass the buck to the Sinhala
bogeyman and still continue to mislead the world with their self-serving
narrative?
Since India
has adopted the usual litany of complaints made by the Tamils of the North as
its official line for intervention it is imperative that India should, even at
this late stage, revisit its premise and evaluate how far it can go down
the failed path with the Tamils. The success of foreign policies depends on
objective and critical analysis, particularly if it is stuck in a rut. No
foreign policy can survive for long on myths and fiction.
Sri Lanka has recovered before, from colonial rule and civil war. As the country’s vital tourism industry prepares to leap back into life, Andrew Harris recalls his pre-lockdown adventure in the land of serendipity
Oblivious to the pandemic that was on the way, I had only a darting mongoose, a parading peacock and an Olympic-sized pool for company. In such surroundings, surrender to an off-grid tropical afternoon is inevitable.
Eschewing Sri Lanka’s famous sinews of sand, I’d headed straight for the hills. The mongoose and peacock were waiting inside Ulagalla, an ethereally beautiful property near Anuradhapura, the former 4th-century BC capital in the north of the island.
Time, if not standing still, was definitely dragging its feet. Ulagalla is one of several exceptional properties buried in the verdant, undulating folds of Sri Lanka’s interior. Conceived around a tastefully restored 150-year-old village chieftain’s mansion, 58 acres of luxury are interwoven into rurality with 25 secluded villas scattered around working rice paddies: back to nature without getting back to basics. In the middle of the paddies, a hut is converted into a rustic restaurant, presided over by women from local villages.
They have no English, but behind non-stop smiles they do have extraordinary culinary skills, which translate into a blissfully bucolic dining experience.
The principal restaurant, whose open sides invite open warfare with the monkeys, gazes out towards the lake and lost afternoons kayaking through the lily pads of its lost world landscape.
There are horses and bikes to explore surrounding villages, and tours curated to the many cultural landmarks, from the incredible Sigiriya fortress to Unesco-listed Anuradhapura which, after a thousand years as capital, disappeared into creeper clad obscurity for another millennium. National parks occupy 12 per cent of Sri Lanka’s surface area.
The busiest, Yala in the south, where Ulagalla has an equally stylish sister property, Chena Huts, boasts the highest density of leopards in the world. It might also have the highest density of safari jeeps, all seemingly driven by Lewis Hamilton wannabes.
Leopards, though, can be spotted in less frenetic parks such as Minneriya, accessible to Ulagalla, where we also marvelled at ‘the gathering’, the largest congregation of Asian elephants on the continent. As we emerged on to a huge expanse of wetland, suddenly there they all were. Hundreds of them, totally unperturbed by our presence. A magnificent spectacle. Sri Lanka’s abundance of riches, from secret surf spots to tranquil tea estates, the colonial streetscapes of Galle Fort and a plethora of palm-fringed beaches, is intoxicating.
One way of absorbing as much or as little as you choose is by car and driver: enter Terence, who, once conditioned to avoid jewellery showrooms, disports an encyclopaedic knowledge of his island. Setting out from the Dambulla Caves and their stunning centuries-old Buddhist imagery, we’re soon ruminating on the differences between Sri Lanka and its lugubrious neighbour, India, which he’s learned all about from Discovery Channel, rather than making the trip across the Palk Strait.
***
As we launched back into the kaleidoscope of colour and noise, with women in saris, diesel-choked highways, pungent spices wafting through a relentlessly tropical landscape, we could be in South India. But the illogical, endearing chaos that often defines the Indian experience is absent.
Scratch that multi-coloured Sri Lankan surface and an image of ordered calm emerges: it might look like India, but it feels more like Thailand. With Terence explaining how ordinary Buddhists don’t become monks, as in Thailand (again, he credits his own teacher, the Discovery Channel), we glide sedately into the drive of Nine Skies, a stunningly situated 1920s tea planter’s bungalow.
After a recent makeover rendering it more PG Wodehouse than PG Tips, Nine Skies is close by the colonial town of Ella, currently recolonised by backpackers. They pour off the little train built to transport tea to the coast, Instagramming away, as it chugs through timeless misty hidden hills of improbable perfection.
Named after the famous nearby Nine Arch bridge, Nine Skies looks down on to the Demodara Loop – not a Bulgarian gymnastic manoeuvre but another marvel of colonial engineering, where the track loops around a hill and back under itself, with tiny Demodara station in the middle.
Nearby, a bright yellow butterfly the size of a sparrow flutters aimlessly around the gorgeous gardens. Nine Skies is a picture of sleek sophistication, with an Art Deco bar and working fireplace. The five bedrooms might benefit from a more demonstrative design statement, perhaps, but the property remains an elegant escape route for seekers of solace.
Cruising through Ella, whose new-age visitors look disturbingly like the old ones I remember from Bali half a lifetime ago, (isn’t it time those tie-dye trousers just stopped now?), we’re suddenly plunging down the twists and turns of a valley draped in stunning Game of Thrones-type biodiversity; the Ella Gap.
The cascade from temperate cloud forest to stifling sea level surely ranks the Ella Gap among the world’s great drives. It definitely focuses Terence’s attention – he doesn’t mention the Discovery Channel once.
Television has nothing on these views. Smothered in sunshine, the late afternoon has us meandering trance-like around the back roads of low tea country, close to Kandy, the second city and final redoubt of Sinhalese culture, which surrendered to the British only in 1815.
Originally part of a larger estate belonging to Aollin Ondaatje, great-uncle of Booker Prize winner Michael Ondaatje, Rosyth Estate House blends imperceptibly into the hillside, from which several staff members are heading purposefully toward us.
At the heart of 62 picturesque acres, with its little tea factory teleported out of the 1940s, Farzana and Neil Dobbs, who divide their time between Sri Lanka and London, have crafted a rural retreat of immense charm.
A lack of pretension melds with attentive service from an army of staff. There are 11 rooms of varying standards: the best is the imposing Rock Villa, opened in 2019. Perched on a huge boulder away from the main building, it commands 360° views across a spectacular slice of central Sri Lanka.
***
he gastronomic goings-on in Rosyth’s glass-sided dining room, suspended dramatically amid tropical flora, soon exude an allure. Especially if Farzana is around. From the ubiquitous egg hoppers to subtly structured curries capable of administering shock and awe to unsuspecting taste buds, she remains passionate about her native cuisine.
Cookery classes with head chef Dhanushka are actively encouraged – as are estate tours with Subramanium, into his fifth decade with Farzana’s family at Rosyth. Amid spears of sunlight darting through the king coconuts and huge jackfruit bending their branches like great green dumbbells, he expertly demonstrates how to tap a rubber tree before eventually depositing us at the tea factory.
There has, of course, been trouble in paradise. A 26-year civil war was brutally concluded in 2009 and the Islamist attacks of Easter 2019 delivered a death blow not just to 270 victims, but also to a tourist industry responsible for 11 per cent of GDP.
Covid-19 has been managed in a predictably competent manner, however: the official death toll at the time of writing, in contrast to the alarming statistics emanating from India, stands at just 11, and the FCO removed Sri Lanka from its list of countries ‘posing an unacceptably high risk’ in late July. While the country remained closed to foreign travel, a reopening is planned for the earliest opportunity.
As the island known as Serendib to Arab traders (from which Horace Walpole derived serendipity) picks itself off the canvas yet again, the lush landscapes of the interior appear as ripe as ever for a voyage of discovery. And where Discovery’s concerned, I might have just the man for you.
Spear’s was a guest of Ulagalla by Uga Escapes (ugaescapes.com); Nine Skies (teardrop-hotels.com); Rosyth Estate House (rosyth.lk); bespoke journeys by Sri Lanka specialist travel-gallery.co.uk
by Stephanie Takyi London courtesy https://www.standard.co.uk/
Planning a long haul escape for when things (finally) open up again? Stephanie Takyi gets lost in the lush landscapes of this unique South Asian island
Sri Lanka has long been a destination for travellers seeking escapism. This small beautiful island, situated south of India, is larger than life with idyllic beaches, sprawling tea plantations and exquisite properties that have the luxury credentials to rival any major city in the world.
There are plenty of towns hidden away from the well-trodden tourist paths of Sri Lanka. One is Piliyandala, where you’ll find Bolgoda Lake – which at a staggering 342 square kilometres is the country’s only natural and largest fresh water lake.
Just 45 minutes away from the capital of Colombo, it’s a secluded gem for those looking for a serene lakeside break.
For those who want to stay as close to the water as possible, local and international visitors can stay on board Flow by The Amber collection – a luxury river cruise aboard two floating houseboats docked on a secluded inlet on Bolgoda Lake.
Flow 1 and Flow 2, which were originally two steamers, channel old school elegance and luxury, with cosy four-poster colonial beds, antique furnishings and in-room standing bath tubs.
This is a boutique experience, with just five bedrooms in addition to a living area and dining space, all only accessible via Flow’s private marina. The crew on the vessels include an ex-Navy Captain, engineer, chefs, steward and deckhand.
Flow, as I discovered, is a haven for naturalists and also promotes well-thought out sustainability. The Flow ‘steamers’ are fitted with bio-tanks, which dispose of fuel waste in an earth-friendly way causing no harm to the very lake and ecosystem they sit in.
Every day on Flow immerses you in the lake safari experience. On my first day, at the crack of dawn, the captain set sail for Flow’s nature-watching cruise with naturalist Ajantha, who shared his knowledge on the rich and diverse flora and fauna of Bolgoda Lake.
Flow, Sri Lanka
As we cruise through unspoiled mangroves, we spot eagles, parrots and kingfishers. The Sri Lankan Monkeys also make an appearance leaping from palm tree to palm tree, calling to each other. In distant shores you can also spot the holiday homes of some of Sri Lanka’s wealthy elite.
Breakfast is served on the upper deck’s floating lawn and is a banquet of traditional Sri Lankan dishes: string hoppers, dhal curry, coconut sambol, fish curry, coconut roti and spiced chickpeas – all served up on a banana leaf.
The relaxing mornings are followed by fun-packed afternoons curated by The Marina – an exclusive water sports private members club, which arranges outdoor activities and excursions for Flow’s guests on a complimentary basis.
A Sri Lankan spread
I opted to hop onto the back of a jet ski to enjoy an adrenaline-fuelled escapade speeding downstream the Bolgoda river to the south to the mouth of the Indian ocean at Panadura.
On the right day you may even spot the salt-water crocodiles, who are known to circulate the area mostly unnoticed.
A more relaxing excursion is fishing on an ‘Oruwa’ – a traditional Sri Lankan fishing boat made entirely from wood, held in place with bamboo poles. They are hard to miss as the sight of local fishermen steering the rudders and casting their nets are very much a part of everyday life on the lake.
Even for beginners like me, Bolgoda Lake is a fishing paradise with over 40 species of fish in this lake – if you’re lucky, your catch of the day will be on the menu for dinner.
Flow, Sri Lanka
On-board, guests are also encouraged to take part in cookery classes with Flow chefs who can lift the lid on many of Sri Lanka’s delicacies.
While I pride myself on being able to handle spicy foods, my taste buds were put to the test when I tried my hand at a traditional dish of beef curry and devil’s potato using a fiery concoction of spices and seasonings.
Flow is located near enough to Colombo for guests to also dip into the hustle and bustle of city life. There is an abundance of attractions to explore, many of which are easy to get to using Sri Lanka’s most popular mode of transport – a Tuk Tuk.
A personal highlight of visiting Colombo was learning about Sri Lanka’s Buddhist culture. This included a visit to Gangaramaya Temple, one of the most well-known and elaborate Buddhist temples in the country.
Barefoot visitors can marvel at the gigantic Buddha statues, all lined in formation to tell a story. The high ceilings also tell tales, with wall paintings that depict Buddha’s triumphs. In the background devotees can be heard chanting Buddhist prayers. Gangaramaya also boasts a museum that houses a robust collection of Buddhist artefacts.
For eating and drinking in Colombo, you’re never too far from a bounty of places to dine. Sri Lanka is a tropical island known for its great seafood and more uniquely its celebrated speciality of the lagoon mud crab.
I headed to grounds of the old 400-year-old Dutch Hospital in Colombo, where you’ll find The Ministry of Crab restaurant. This well-regarded eatery was set up by chef-restaurateur Dharshan Munidasa together with Sri Lankan cricket legends Mahela Jayawardena and Kumar Sangakkara.
The menu includes a variety of crab dishes freshly prepared on the day – thanks to the restaurant’s no freezer policy. Do visit on an empty stomach as the crabs’ weigh from 500g ‘1/2 Kilo’ up to a 2KG ‘Crabzilla’ and are plated up in a variety of ways from fiery Pepper Crab to Garlic Chilli Crab and the succulent Baked Crab. Other seafood choices are available including jumbo prawns, cuttlefish, clams and oysters.
Post-lunch drinks can be toasted nearby at Rooftop bar Botanik, where you can try your hand at a cocktail making class using Aarak – a traditional Sri Lankan spirit, which be warned is 47% ABV.
After a short adventure in Colombo it’s a nice feeling to retreat back to Flow, where you can watch the spellbinding pinkish-purplish sunset during a sunset dinner cruise. The moonlight of nightfall on the marina is just as enchanting with the added bonus of enjoying an alfresco film screening and, of, course more food.
Palmstone Retreat
Sri Lanka’s relatively small size makes it easy to town hop.
After leaving Flow I took a three-hour car journey to Kitulgala – which is also known as the adventure capital of Sri Lanka. Tucked away in a 10-acre rainforest jungle near the town is the Palmstone Retreat, a five-star boutique hotel which lives up to its ‘retreat’ name.
Compromising three chalets and two suites hidden amidst the rainforest, Palmstone blends Mother Nature with the unique artistic craftmanship of Sri Lankan architecture.
I stayed in the super deluxe Aarliya suite, which boasts a king-size bed, a 40” Flat screen TV with Satellite TV, an en-suite bathroom with shower, a sauna and a private outdoor heated plunge pool.
Stephanie enjoying the suite
Outside the suite is a natural landscape to soothe mind, body and spirit. There was no better start to my day then with breakfast looking out at a stream steadily flowing past from a nearby waterfall.
While you can lounge at Palmstone all day long, there are adventures to be had nearby too, from a mountain cycling tour to white water rafting on the infamous rapids of the Kelani Ganga.
I enjoyed a hike up to Belilena Cave, one of Sri Lanka’s hidden wonders. Waiting to be found in the thick of Kitgula’s luscious rainforest jungle, the caves are one of the most important historic and cultural heritage sites of Sri Lanka.
Stephanie visits Belilena Cave
Evidence of human occupants from 16,000 years ago has been found in the caves. On the walls you’ll find scrawlings from former inhabitants, including monks who have used the cave as a retreat for meditation. It’s easy to see why they picked this spot, beautifully secluded and surrounded by nature.
Nearby is a secret cascading waterfall, which can only be reached through a short but arduous hike. Every step is worth it as the endless vistas of green hills swoop all the way down to the gushing waters of the Kelani River. I long to go back there.
Non- Governmental Organizations (NGOs) linked to the LTTE assisted the investigations conducted by former CID IP Nishantha Silva, who fled the country last year, former President Maithripala Sirisena informed the PCoI probing Easter Sunday attacks.
Testifying before the Commission on Wednesday, the former President said that several Buddhist monks, military and intelligence officers had complained against IP Nishantha Silva’s investigations.
“As the President, I had to decide whether I’m allowing IP Silva to carry out those investigations. Most of the people complained that the investigations led by him were biased,” he said.
The former President made the above statement while responding to a question raised by the representative of the Attorney General’s (AG) department whether the witness had instructed the former IGP to transfer IP Silva at an NSC meeting.
The witness further added that former IGP Jayasundara had sent a letter to the National Police Commission regarding the transfer of IP Silva indicating facts presented at the NSC and it was a serious mistake done by a responsible higher official.
“This was also one of the reasons for not inviting the IGP to NSC meetings,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Commission again questioned the witness why he had re-appointed IP Silva to the CID after transferring him to Negombo Police division.
The former President said that former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, various other ministers and several NGOs had strongly objected to the transfer of IP Silva to Negombo Police division and he was recalled to the CID due to those issues.
India’s federal counter-terrorist force NSG has trained a select group of personnel who protect Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, the chief of the commando force said on Friday.
According to Economic Times, NSG director general (additional charge) S S Deswal said this in his address on the occasion of the force’s 36th Raising Day.
He said the force has acquired the most modern weapons and equipment to distinguish itself as a “world class zero-error force”.
“The NSG close protection force has trained 21 personnel of Sri Lanka’s PM security division in close protection skills. The honourable Prime Minister of Sri Lanka wrote to the honourable Indian PM and praised the training,” Deswal said.
He, however, did not mention the time period when these personnel were trained by the NSG.
The National Security Guard, also known as the ‘black cat’ commandos, was raised as a federal contingency force in 1984 to undertake specialist counter-terrorist, counter-hijack and hostage rescue operations.
It has a special component called the CPF (close protection force) that provides security to high-risk VIPs under the top category Z+ cover.
It has about 13 protectees under its charge at present, including Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah.
The Minuwangoda Covid-19 cluster has confirmed 49 more positive cases this evening (16), says the Commander of Sri Lanka Army, Lieutenant General Shavendra Silva.
Thirty-five of them have been identified as apparel factory workers and contacts who are in quarantine centers.
The remaining 14 are contacts of Covid-19 positive patients from the cluster, according to reports.
Sri Lanka registered 110 novel coronavirus infections so far within the day.
Thereby, the total number of Covid-19 cases reported from the Minuwangoda cluster has soared to 1,899.
Three days have passed since the Attorney General directed the Police to arrest MP Rishad Bathiudeen, however the investigation officers are yet to locate him.
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) meanwhile recorded statements from Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa and MP Rauff Hakeem with regard to the phone conversations they have had with the parliamentarian.
They also recorded a statement from MP Bathiudeen’s wife at their residence in Colombo last evening (15). However, she has told the investigating officers that the parliamentarian had not kept in touch with her since October 12 and that she is unaware of his whereabouts.
In the meantime, an attorney-at-law representing MP Bathiudeen filed a writ application yesterday, seeking an order from the Court of Appeal to prevent his arrest.
The writ application has been fixed for support on the 20th of October before Appeals Court justices Kumudini Wickramasinghe and Sobhitha Rajakaruna.
Acting Inspector General of Police C.D. Wickramaratne, Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) S.P. Ranasinghe, Sub Inspector Gamini and four others have been named as its respondents.
Then-Minister of Industry and Commerce Rishad Bathiudeen, the director of the project Mohamed Yaseen Samsudeen and the project accountant Alagarathnam Manoranjan are accused of violating Article 82(1) of Presidential Elections Act, No. 15 of 1981 by misappropriating public funds to the tune of Rs. 9.5 million.
They have allegedly misused 222 buses belonging to the state-owned Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB) for transporting IDPs from Puttalam to polling stations in Silavathurai, Mannar during the 2019 Presidential Election.
The CID, upon the direction of the Attorney General, had sought the Colombo Fort Magistrate to issue a warrant to arrest MP Rishad Bathiudeen and the other two suspects on charges of criminal misappropriation of public funds and violation of election laws.
However, the magistrate ruled that the Police can proceed to arrest the suspects without a warrant.
Thereby, Attorney General Dappula de Livera directed the Police to arrest the three suspects according to the law.
Alagarathnam Manoranjan was taken into custody by the CID on Tuesday (13) in the area of Kirulapone. He was remanded until the October 26 after being produced before the Fort Magistrate’s Court.
In the meantime, a constable attached to MP Bathiudeen’s security detail was also taken into custody the following day, for allegedly aiding the parliamentarian to evade the arrest. He was apprehended in Wellawatte area, along with two cars and two firearms.
On October 14, the Fort Magistrate issued a travel ban on MP Bathiudeen upon a request by the CID.
Notorious underworld figure Janith Madushanka, operating under the alias ‘Podi Lassie’, who was arrested and remanded for threatening the VIPs, has been granted bail.
However, he will continue to be held by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on detention orders.
The Galle Magistrate delivered the order when the suspect was produced before court today (16).
During the proceeding, it was revealed in open court that ‘Podi Lassie’ had used cosmetic products which weighed up to 5kg in total, while in remand custody at the high-security prison in Boossa. The focus of the judicial members fell on how the products were smuggled into a maximum-security jail.
It is further reported that an overseas travel ban was imposed on the infamous criminal figure.
‘Podi Lassie’ was named as the second suspect in the case filed over the death threats made in public at the Boossa Prison, against the President, the Defence Secretary and certain high-ranking officers of the Prisons Department.
What is this ‘creative balance & equilibrium in Sri Lanka’s favor’ that the Moragoda Doctrine espouses to achieve? Exactly how many votes would the Moragoda Doctrine have delivered to Gotabaya Rajapakse or the SLPP had that been the basis of their election manifestos & election campaigns?While Moragoda is the head of Pathfinder, the very organization that is promoting the implementation of the MCC, advocated via its Post-Covid Economic Proposal, MCC actually demands changes to the constitution and land policy and land laws prior to signing of the agreement. If so, how can Moragoda claim to ‘protect Sri Lanka’s interests and safeguard her sovereignty’? This is in direct contrast to the election manifesto that won the Presidency for H.E. Gotabaya Rajapakse & helped SLPP win a 2/3 in Parliament.
‘nationalist isolationist strategy’ Moragoda claims is counter-productive, however it was the nationalist strategy that placed this Government in power. It is nationalist strategy that has been the winning streak in all of the powerful mandates leaders have secured across the world. Ask Narendra Modi how he came to power!
A nationalist policy and strategy is what inspired the ancient leaders to use diplomacy to win friends that came to Sri Lanka’s aid during adverse periods. Fast forward to present context, it is these friends that came forward to help Sri Lanka eliminate a terrorist organization banned by 32 nations while those promoting chit chats with tigers were attempting to whisk off the tigers to safety via sea. It is these alliances and friends that stand up for Sri Lanka on international forums. Does Sri Lanka need friends who shake hands and plot to stab Sri Lanka?
Moragoda high-commissioner designate is claiming that the model strategy was during the ‘international cooperation formulated & implemented during 2002-2004’ under his former hero Ranil Wickremasinghe.
This period saw some of the worst treacheries take place. A Norwegian brokered ceasefire agreement was signed keeping the document secret from the country’s President. A foreign monitoring mission was brought in simply to do clerical work & record violations. Over 3000 violations committed by LTTE remained just confined to paper. The highest number of child soldier recruitment took place during this period. The National Army was confined to barracks while the terrorists were allowed to roam the country with arms. Terrorists for the first time in history were officially given territory in a sovereign country. In addition to the treacherous Cease Fire Agreement two more detrimental agreements were in queue for signature – the PTOMs and ISGA. Terrorists were sent sophisticated communication and satellite systems, passed by Sri Lanka Customs with officials even waiving duties & taxes and helping transport items to the terrorists! So this was the ‘model strategy’ that Moragoda emulates!
In this age of social media and alternate news – it is natural that targeted parties escape is to shout ‘fake news’ ‘false news’ and attempt to hide their guilt. Who decides what is fake news anyway? Who decides the truth? Who can verify if anything is fact or fiction? To some the 2002 Cease Fire Agreement was Sri Lanka’s golden era but is this true? Is this fake news? Isn’t it up to the people to decide what they deem is correct or wrong? No one can and should force people to believe anything they do not wish to believe by branding it false news.
It is interesting that Moragoda brings up the ICC statute which was also a component of the Ranil-Moragoda ‘golden era of international cooperation’. The Rome Statute/International Criminal Court was established in 1998 to prosecute and adjudicate individuals, not states accused of genocide, war crimes & crimes against humanity.
In 2000 President Bill Clinton signed the Rome Statute. On May 6, 2002, the Bush Administration announced that the United States does not intend to become a party to the Rome Statute which went into force in 2002 July. SrI Lanka has not signed or ratified the Treaty. If so what is the boasting of Moragoda to stop any Sri Lankans from being extradited? But Sri Lanka signed with US in November 2002 agreeing not to transfer a person of the other Party to a third country without the consent of each other. There is also reference to the US gift of a ship claiming it helped defeat LTTE, but then it completely contradicts the fact that US wanted to save Prabakaran & whisk him off to safety. It is also to be noted that RanilW & UNP wished IMF not to provide aid & even suggested sanctions when it became clear LTTE was on their way to defeat. The 2002-2004 period also saw the defection of Karuna from the LTTE and Moragoda claims to be the mastermind of the ‘international safety net’ trapping LTTE. Invariably, it is more than possible that for Plan B of the international geopolitical game in Sri Lanka, Prabakaran needed to be out of the way and removing Karuna would deliver a major dent to LTTE & Karuna. While, West pretended to be LTTE’s friend, it was clear, they were merely using them for their own advantage. The leaders of the 2002-2004 were playing their role in this bigger game.
Who are the like-minded group Moragoda has been assigned to establish and what is their modus operandi or objectives? Moreover, if the Ranil W administration had been so gaga, why did it face electoral defeat and why did Moragoda himself jump to the Opposition? Two years of giving and giving to the LTTE eventually resulted in the assassination of Sri Lanka’s most loved foreign minister Mr. Lakshman Kadiragamar.
Why is Moragoda plucking out the 2002 Extradition Treaty between Sri Lanka & US?
Is this to convey a message to members of the Government & key heads of the armed forces on behalf of the US?
It is curious that there is reference to Sri Lanka depending on the ‘intelligence provided by the West particularly the CIA’ because even the US envoy claims to have had no intelligence of the Easter Sunday attack when India had sent Sri Lanka 97 security intel alerts! Also to date the FBI who took away the telephone records of the suicide attackers have still to provide the results to Sri Lanka and it’s been over 1 ½ years since the mass murder!
Yet, its good ot know that there had been very ‘close cooperation’ with US intel during the presidency of Mahinda Rajapakse – if so, it explains why US envoy Blake claimed to the US Congressional Committee of 40,000 deaths though he cannot produce any names or details of the deceased as yet!
Contrary to the claim that Sri Lankans have forgotten the wretched-three decade conflict – is the fact that, Sri Lankans very well remember every person who colluded with the enemy, propped them up and made use of the LTTE for their personal gain and who today are pointing fingers at the people. The people made sacrifices – those in power didn’t. The armed forces made sacrifices and sadly it was even at the cost of bad judgements.
The CFA did not turn any tide against the LTTE. The CFA only strengthened the LTTE. It was the will of the President to take the decision to military defeat the LTTE and the LTTE’s error in refusing to return to guerilla tactics that caused their eventual defeat.
No support of India or US can overpower the support that came from China & Pakistan. We cannot forget the number of trips and cost of those trips that the leaders had to make to India simply to keep the Indians happy. Sri Lanka had to play the bogus part of India’s role in claiming ‘India’s concern for Tamils’. If the West and in particular the US are so supportive of ending LTTE Terror, why do they not take action against the LTTE fronts operating from their shores and continuing the illegal international nexus which US admitted in 2015. LTTE fronts operated and continue to operate a campaign of fundraising & lies on western shores. Why are Western governments continuing to allow this if they are on the wave length that LTTE terrorism should be defeated and will help Sri Lanka do so? Why did US knowing the illegality of the Ban Ki Moon personal report, use it as a basis for 3 UNHRC resolutions based on LTTE heresay against Sri Lanka? Why are the West not going after the runaway LTTE combatants who are living on western shores as refugees/asylum seekers? Why is the same emphasis on the accountability of armed forces personnel being targeted at LTTE, when everyone knows LTTE was harming peace for all citizens of Sri Lanka. In a just war why should the armed forces be subject to retributive justice while the LTTE are to get restorative justice? Why are the armed forces vilified and ridiculed why LTTE are presented as innocent lambs? Is this the doctrine of the like-minded coalition that Sri Lanka has to accept?
As ambassador designate to India with ministerial powers – we hope the policy adopted will be nation-centric Gotabaya doctrine only!
Backed by an overwhelming majority at the Presidential & General Elections, the Government in power rightly has decided to work towards a closure of the successive UNHRC Resolutions against Sri Lanka by initially withdrawing from the co-sponsorship of 30/1 & 34/1 Resolutions. UNHRC has every provision to take up human rights issues at the Universal Periodic Review. Four of Sri Lanka’s dearest friends are members of the UNHRC – China, Pakistan, Russia & Cuba and Sri Lanka must initiate their cooperation to bring all of the former legally questionable procedural error resolutions to a grand finale.
Sri Lanka must re-write the narrative and present a dossier to the UNHRC Membership of Sri Lanka during LTTE reign of terror and post-LTTE defeat. The decision to militarily defeat LTTE came after enduring 30 years of terror and failed peace talks, negotiations and even foreign-backed cease fires including foreign monitoring missions and foreign peace keepers. Sri Lanka was up against a terrorist movement banned by 32 countries which continue to maintain that ban even 10 years after LTTE defeat owing to the international illegal nexus that operates overseas. Sri Lanka must initiate action against the international LTTE fronts together with the diplomatic community. The world must know that all of LTTE’s victims included every ethnic denomination in Sri Lanka even foreigners.
Sri Lanka must showcase what LTTE denied their own during their defacto reign and what Sri Lanka afforded to the people in the areas where LTTE ruled with gun. No reconciliation is required to take place with terrorists, while Sri Lanka acknowledges how Tamils also suffered under LTTE. This must be highlighted to the world once more. The false claim of discrimination must be nullified by producing examples of how minorities are represented in both public and private polity & the positions they hold. Every fabrication that has gained momentum via bogus propaganda channels must be nullified with facts & figures. The manner that 3 successive UNHRC resolutions were artificially birthed must also be shown. A privately commission 3-member panel report made available to the UNSG became the foundation for successive resolutions quoted even by UNHRC head now parroting for the LTTE in her retirement. The Ban-Ki-Moon Report was never tabled in the UNSC, UNGA or UNHRC for Sri Lanka to officially respond. Instead intrusive allegations went for vote in a political witch hunt against a UN member state, going so far as to even suggest constitutional amendments and annulling of even penal codes. That Sri Lanka brought peace, eliminating terror to the 21million people were ignored and those voting against Sri Lanka had no explanation for why they could not stop LTTE terror killings though questioning how LTTE were killed. The dossier of questions that those alleging needs to be prepared and endorsed by our friends in UNHRC together with the closure resolution. Sri Lanka has been unfairly treated in the manner the UNHRC has been used by lobby groups as a result of the power of international funding & lobbying.
Nevertheless, the country & its people must move forward and should move forward. If we are going to continue with the question of accountability then we have plenty of accountability questions for those who joined the witch hunt against Sri Lanka.
Today, these countries are facing their nemesis.
Sri Lanka has backing of 33 non-aligned member nations against a handful of Commonwealth member states of which UK heads. It is also a good time with UK now isolated as a result of Brexit for Sri Lanka to even consider leaving the Commonwealth as Sri Lanka has had no support other than sipping tea inspite of being a member.
Of the 47 UNHRC Members 26 countries are non-aligned movement members while 7 are Observe Member states of the Non-Aligned Movement (33 countries are NAM Members)
Resolutions against Sri Lanka in 2009, 2012, 2013, 2014
Italy has voted 4 times against Sri Lanka
Voting Once Against Sri Lanka
Netherlands (2009)
Korea (2013) – but abstained in 2009
Cameroon ((2012) – but voted for Sri Lanka in 2009
Uruguay (2012) – but voted for Sri Lanka in 2009
Twice voting against Sri Lanka
India (2012-2013) – but voted for Sri Lanka in 2009 and abstained in 2014
Argentina (2013-2014) – but abstained in 2009
Bahamas (2013-2014) – but abstained in 2009
Brazil (2013-2014) – but voted for Sri Lanka in 2009
Libya (2012-2013)
Poland (2012-2013)
Thrice voting against Sri Lanka
Mexico (2009-12-13)
Germany (2009-2013-2014)
Austria (2012-2013-2014)
Thrice abstaining
Japan (2009, 2013, 2014)
Burkina Faso (2012, 2013, 2014) – but voted for Sri Lanka in 2009
Thrice voting Pro-Sri Lanka
Indonesia (2009-2012-2013) – but abstained in 2014
Philippines (2009-2012-2013) – but abstained in 2014
Pakistan (2009-2013-2014)
Twice voting for Sri Lanka
Bangladesh (2009, 2012)
Mauritania (2012, 2013)
Venezuela (2013, 2014)
Once voting for Sri Lanka
Senegal (2009) but abstained in 2012
Algeria 2014
Abstaining
Ukraine (2009)
Namibia (2014)
UNHRC Resolution 2009-2012-2013-2014
Italy has been the only country to have voted against Sri Lanka in all 4 UNHRC Resolutions
Sri Lanka’s diplomats have their work cut out for them.
· Why Italy voted against Sri Lanka in all of the 4 resolutions against Sri Lanka
· Why Korea abstained voting against Sri Lanka in 2009 but voted against Sri Lanka in 2013.
· Why Cameroon & Uruguay voted for Sri Lanka in 2009 but voted against in 2012
· Why India voted for Sri Lanka in 2009 but voted against Sri Lankan in 2012-2013 and abstained in 2014
· Why Argentina & Bahamas abstained in 2009 but voted against Sri Lanka in 2013 & 2014
· Why Brazil who voted for Sri Lanka in 2009 voted against Sri Lanka in 2013 & 2014
· Why Libya and Poland voted against Sri Lanka in 2012 & 2013
· Why Mexico voted against Sri Lanka in 2009, 2012 & 2013
· Why Germany voted against Sri Lanka in 2009, 2013, & 2014
· Why Austria voted against Sri Lanka in 2012, 2013, & 2014
· Why Libya & Poland voted against Sri Lanka in 2012 & 2013
· Why Japan did not vote for Sri Lanka but abstained in 2009, 2013 & 2014
· Why Gabon abstained in 2009 & 2014
· Why Burkina Faso voted for Sri Lanka in 2009 but abstained in 2012, 2013 & 2014
· Why Indonesia & Philippines voted for Sri Lanka in 2009, 2012 & 2013 but abstained in 2014
· Why Ivory Coast voted against Sri Lanka in 2013 & 2014
· Why Senegal voted for Sri Lanka in 2009 but abstained in 2012
· Why Ukraine abstained voting in 2009
· Why Namibia abstained voting in 2014
Bangladesh voted for Sri Lanka in 2009 & 2012
Bolivia & Brazil voted for Sri Lanka in 2009
Mauritania voted for Sri Lanka in 2012 & 2013
Venezuela voted for Sri Lanka in 2013 & 2014
Pakistan voted for Sri Lanka in 2009, 2013, & 2014
China, Cuba & Russia voted for Sri Lanka in 2009, 2012, & 2014
Sri Lanka cannot forget the nations that defend Sri Lanka on international forums. That amity must always prevail. At the same time, Sri Lanka must also canvass among the other nations who may have a wrong notion of the conflict in Sri Lanka & correct the narrative using the best of diplomatic channels available.
The nation is being
entertained by some circus artistes at the CID. Who are the directors and
producer of this grand illusion?
First it was
Rajitha and Ravi K. Then it was Sampayo. These are people who were only a day
earlier in the view of the public. When warrants are issued for their arrest
they disappear from their palaces – sometimes two three or more around the
island. Today it is Rishard Baithudeen’s case. He seems to have disappeared
while being protected by a ‘government issue’ police guard. They have
‘arrested’ his cars complete with a haul of illegal firearms.
As Galagodaatte
Gnanasara Thero has mentioned the ‘little boy who came carrying a ‘silly silly’
bag to Putlam’ now owns thousands of acres of land, several palaces around the
island and businesses. Is there any score of how this ‘innocent youth’ of
yesteryear came to own so much wealth? The warrants on issue are for a simple
crime of transporting voters using public transport – damage to the public a
mere Rs 9.5 Million!
This is only rat
shit compared to what he had been doing deforesting WiIlpattu, handling the
Muslim displaced, and all of his handling of several government ministries /
institutions. All this is now unravelling before the Presidential Commissions
of Inquiry that such benevolence towards him happened only in the garb of
placating the all powerful minorities, in this case the Muslims and their
benefactors in the Middle East. It will be a whole different picture if the
whole dung heap is properly unearthed!
What a fiasco,
sleight of hand and a magic show all this is complete with smoke, mirrors and
screens! Are all this for them to appear a few days later in the company of
powerful lawyers who will make them appear as day old innocent babes in
diapers!
As all these are
educated people of standing, and presently standing parliamentarians now before
the public being investigated for various charges ranging from fraud, moneylaundering,
aiding and abetting terrorism they are duty bound to give themselves up to the
law enforcing authorities voluntarily. This is not happening. Even when they
are caught there doesn’t seem to be any retribution for their absconding. Today
Rajitha S, Ravi K goes about as if nothing happened although the cases against
them are still being investigated. Sampayo was given a hug and a kiss when he
‘surrendered himself’ to the ‘law enforcing friends’!
What irks the
public is that the cases against them are taking for ever and a day. Ordinary
simple Simeon gets arrested and put behind the bars with little time lost. In
the instance of Ravi K’s money laundering case, he was not discharged after
being absolved of all charges against him. It was a mere technicality of a
wrong date in a document. The case should have been prosecuted to its
conclusion. Even after 5 years now there is no justice to this money laundering
case involving LTTE and Tamil Diaspora funds.
It is only the
other day an innocent villager came out after spending years behind bars for
travelling without a ticket! The Lord Almighty Judges dole out judgements even
if a person sneezes in their cobweb covered seemingly dirty palaces of justice
smelling of many years old illicit liquor! They even hand out death sentences
for getting a much wanted promotion before retiring!
We implore the
justice system in Sri Lanka to prosecute at least one case serially and get one
of these big wigs behind bars so that the public can be confident that the
wheels of law enforcing is seen to be turning to the benefit of the people who
are supposed to be sovereign and not the Judiciary! Every time the hearing of a
case is postponed it happens by several months! Eventually cases gets dragged
for several years and away from public interest. This is not so for the average
Simeon!
Otherwise it will
be just mirrors, smoke and screens and a disappointing circus of appearing and
disappearing monsters and ghosts for the citizens of Sri Lanka. The Law
Enforcement should not only appear but also actually seen to be delivering
Justice!
The High Commissioner of India Gopal Baglay called on
Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa this afternoon at Temple Trees and discussed
several ongoing projects as well as possible cooperation in new sectors.
The primary purpose of the High Commissioners’s visit
was to follow-up on the virtual summit that was held between Prime Minister
Rajapaksa and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month. Both leaders have
expressed satisfaction on the virtual summit, which was the first virtual
engagement of Prime Minister Rajapaksa since resumption of office as the Prime
Minister.
One priority sector for Prime Minister Rajapaksa is
water and sanitation. The High Commissioner noted several areas on which the
two countries could collaborate, including water requirements in schools,
sanitation needs, rainwater harvesting, building of toilets for deprived areas,
and a project that could convert sewage into fertilizer.
Prime Minister Rajapaksa indicated that the lack of safe
drinking water in certain parts of the country is the main concern, including
the role it plays in chronic kidney disease. This is now a key priority for the Sri Lankan Government.
High Commissioner Baglay spoke of the possibility to
collaborate with Prime Minister Modi’s Jal Jeevan Mission” (Water for Life
Mission), which is the Indian Government’s program that aims to provide potable water for every household.
Prime Minister Rajapaksa noted that the lack of drinking
water is a particularly serious problem in the dry zone region of Sri Lanka and
requested the High Commissioner to look into any assistance that can be
provided towards that end.
The Prime
Minister also requested India to look at the pharmaceutical sector and
encourage Indian investors to establish research and manufacturing facilities
in Sri Lanka to help the country meet its medicinal drug required.
Attorneys-at-Law and other parties from curfew-imposed areas have been requested to refrain from entering the Supreme Court premises at the Superior Court Complex in Hulftsdorp.
The Registrar of the Supreme Court, Pradeep Mahamutugala communicated the decision in a notice.
Accordingly, the aforementioned parties have been advised not to enter the Supreme Court premises for any purposes including filing new cases, referencing of cases, obtaining certified copies and filing motions.
The decision will be in effect until the quarantine curfew imposed in the Covid-19 affected areas is relaxed, the Supreme Court registrar said further.
Attorney General Dappula de Livera has instructed DIG Prasad Ranaweera of the CID to act without disregarding the advice of the Attorney General and court orders.
That was when the DIG of the CID was summoned to the Attorney General’s Department this afternoon (15) to inquire into the delay in the arrest of MP Rishad Bathiudeen.
The Attorney General yesterday ordered the police to arrest three persons, including the former Member of Parliament, on charges of misusing public property and violating election laws by transporting displaced voters to Mannar on SLTB buses on the day of the last Presidential Election when he was the Minister of Resettlement.
Meanwhile, MP Rishad Bathiudeen has filed a writ petition in the Court of Appeal seeking and order to prevent his arrest.
The Acting Inspector General of Police, the DIG of the CID and seven other officers have been named as respondents in the petition stating that the allegations of misusing government funds are baseless.
He has emphasized in his petition that he was transporting the displaced voters with the approval of the then Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera.
The Presidential Commission of Inquiry probing alleged incidents of political victimisation has issued notice to former President Maithripala Sirisena and former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to appear before the Commission on 19 October.
They were summoned to testify regarding a complaint made by former Ambassador to Russia Udayanga Weeratunga.
In addition, former Inspector General of Police Pujith Jayasundara, former Ministers Mangala Samaraweera, Ravi Karunanayake and MP Anura Kumara Dissanayake were also issued notices to appear before the Commission on the same day.
