The unit of the Navy, which was established to protect the land belonging to the Pottuvil ‘Muhudu Vihayraya’, has commenced duties.
A Navy unit for the protection of the Pottuvil ‘Muhudu Maha Viharaya’ which has been invaded by illegal land grabbers, was established under the directive of Defense Secretary Retired Major General Kamal Gunaratne. This was after he visited the area to inquire about the safety of the Pottuvil Muhudu Maha Viharaya based on the Hiru CIA revelation.
The Secretary of Defense, Army Commander, Navy Commander, Acting Inspector General of Police and other government officials came to inquire into the security of the temple recently, following reports of a forcible takeover of land reported by Hiru CIA.
On several occasions, the Hiru CIA program revealed about the plunder of land at Pottuvil, highlighting the importance of protecting this historic sacred site.
Under the advice of the Defense Secretary, the Navy had taken steps to provide security to the sea temple.
They commenced their security duties today, exploring the boundaries of the Pottuvil ‘Muhudu Vihayraya’
Meanwhile Chief Incumbent of the North- East, Thamankaduwa Thepalatte Ven. Panamure Thilakawansa Thero and former Member of Parliament Padma Udayashantha also visited the temple to check the current status of the Pottuvil ‘Muhudu Vihayraya’
Politicians including the clergy today expressed their views against the former minister Mangala Samaraweera for making a defamatory statement regarding the Maha Sangha.
It has been revealed that IGP Pujith Jayasundara and DIG Nalaka Silva have advised to stop the operation to arrest Saharan Hashim in connection with a clash in 2017 between two churches in Kattankudy area.
OIC of the Negombo Division’s Intelligence Unit at the time of the attack gives evidence
This was when the former OIC of the Negombo Division’s Intelligence Unit gave evidence before the Presidential Commission probing into Easter Sunday attack
Yesterday a sub inspector attached to the Negombo Police Superintendent’s office was the last to testify to the Presidential Commission probing into Easter Sunday attack. He was the OIC of the Negombo Division Intelligence Unit at the time of the Easter Sunday attack. He testified stating that he served in the Colombo Terrorism Investigation Division in March and April 2017.
Information of clash instigated by Saharan’s lectures
The Sub Inspector of Police said that information was reported about a clash between two churches in Kattankudy area and that a person named Saharan had been primarily involved in the clash. He said that the reason for the clash was a person named Saharan delivering extremist speeches and another party opposing it.
Photgraphs – “I was not aware that it was the same Saharan”
The Commission questioned whether Saharan’s photographs were in his possession while he was attached to the Terrorism Investigation Division. Sub Inspector of Police confirmed that there were photographs of him.
The commission then questioned why a photo of Saharan was not given to the then Senior Superintendent of Police of the Negombo Division, Chandana Athukorala, when he requested a photograph of Sharan who was identified as the person who would be involved in the Easter attack.
The sub inspector said that he did not know that Saharan of the Kattankudy clash and the Saharan who was to carry out the Easter attack was the one and same person.
The commission once again asked him why he was not attentive about the fact that Saharan was identified as a person from the area of Kattankudy as mentioned in the letter received by the intelligence agencies regarding the Easter Sunday attack. The sub inspector said “yes, it is correct”.
No knowledge of the Internet
The Commission questioned the Sub-Inspector of Police whether he had no opportunity to search at least through the Internet, and the Sub-Inspector stated that he had no knowledge of the Internet.
No approval to arrest Sharan
He further testified that he had to obtain permission from the then IGP, Pujith Jayasundara to travel to the area to arrest Saharan in connection with the Kattankudy incident. He said that permission had to be obtained through DIG Nalaka Silva, who was in charge of the Terrorism Investigation Division at the time.
The Commission questioned whether it was approved.
The Sub inspector said that he was given permission after two weeks but said that DIG Nalaka Silva informed him subsequently that IGP Pujith Jayasundara had instructed to suspend the operation to arrest Saharan.
The Sub inspector further said that DIG Nalaka Silva had transferred him from the Terrorism Investigation Division to several other areas in the Island following the incident.
The government of Sri Lanka has demanded the retraction of the London Guardian Travel Quiz with reference to Eelam”
According to a press release issued by the Foreign relations ministry, the attention of the Ministry has been drawn to a quiz titled Travel quiz: do you know your islands, Man Friday?” published on the web edition of The Guardian newspaper in the United Kingdom on Friday, 15 May 2020.
The second question reads -‘Eelam is an indigenous name for which popular holiday island?’ and among the answers to this question, Sri Lanka has been listed as one of the choices and when one selects Sri Lanka as the answer, whilst indicating it as the correct answer, a further description ‘the full name of the island’s recent military insurgency was LTTE – Liberation Tigers for Tamil Eelam’ appears.
The High Commissioner of Sri Lanka in the United Kingdom has written to the Editor of the Guardian newspaper Ms. Elisabeth Ribbans with a copy to the Editor in Chief Ms. Katherine Viner, on the inaccuracy of this information requesting that the content be removed.
Currently, this controversial question does not appear and seems to have been replaced in the Travel Quiz.
I am a traitor to Tamils” A slipper garland – Jaffna (May 2020)
Tamil nationalism bordering separatism was birthed by Tamil political leaders and not LTTE. LTTE only hijacked it as a camouflage to justify its existence and Tamil political leaders decided to plug themselves to LTTE, thinking that LTTE would achieve militarily what they could not politically. Far more than the actual realization of the objective was the lucrative gains that Tamil political leaders and LTTE terrorists were able to milk out of the Eelam cow. In this scenario, it was only natural that sets of others would join to fast forward their own agendas. How has this Tamil-nationalism-separatism-LTTE separatism pillow has passed from different hands over the years? With the Tamil political leaders initially poo-pooing nationalist-separatism all dead, with LTTE leadership all dead, who now owns the pillow and manipulates the Eelam quest?
Tamil separate state quest was birthed in 1949 with the creation of ITAK clearly nullifying the baseless argument that Tamils sought separate state because of Sinhala discrimination. In fact, it was Tamils themselves that weathered the seas to travel to London to beg the UK Privy Council to annul the 1957 Social Disabilities Act that allowed Tamil low castes to obtain basic education and this came a year before the infamous Bandaranaike-Chelvanayagam Act which had nothing to do with rectifying language issue but sought devolution.
Thus, the quest for a separate state was plugged into the overall plan of ‘ask a little now and more later’ strategy. It was these same elites that objected to school standardization in 1970s where again it meant low caste Tamils could gain university entrance which meant the elite Tamil monopoly was getting reduced.
LTTE only came into the scene in 1972 firstly using name Tamil New Tigers, incidentally timed to coincide with the first Republican constitution while TNT was rechristened LTTE in 1976 the year the Tamil politicians officially called for a Tamil separate state and inferred that Tamil youth should take to arms via the Vaddukoddai Resolution https://www.sangam.org/FB_HIST_DOCS/vaddukod.htm
All these are nicely hidden by a well-designed propaganda of crocodile tears claiming Sinhalese were discriminating totally ignoring the level of humiliation high caste Tamils were subjecting the low caste Tamils because of the caste system. It was in 1920 that Tamil legislator Ramanathan led 2 delegations to Colonial Office in Londondemanding encoding of Caste into legislative enactments in Ceylon.
Until we come to the roots of the problem and be genuine and honest enough to call a spade a spade the reconciliation, peaceful-coexistence are just sham shows to cover the truth.
Let us ask some bold questions.
Who wants Eelam a separate Tamil Only state in Sri Lanka? Is it all the Tamils?If some, how many? Is it Tamils living overseas – if so, are they planning to return, if not, why are they calling for a separate state, they don’t plan to live in? How can demands of people living overseas be accepted as the voice of people in Sri Lanka? So far other than a few TNA collected demonstrators we have hardly seen more than 100 even commemorating LTTE/Prabakaran for Mahaveer Naal.
Is it West?If so, why? Is it part of their pivot to Asia, a means to turn North into a base in South Asia, a plot to eventually balkanize India? This explains why LTTE fronts are all operating from Western countries 24×7 demonizing Sri Lanka diplomatically and using UN/UNHRC to slap Sri Lanka with resolutions. LTTE diaspora are their quislings to realize their hidden objective. Isn’t this why a Swiss court ruled LTTE was not a terrorist organization. But the same entity killed a foreign leader inside his own country (Rajiv Gandhi assassinated by LTTE on contract in 1991)
All of the demands – demlilitaization, removal of military camps from North & East, separate Land & Police powers, devolution, right to directly liaise with foreign aid agencies and diplomats, self-determination are all beneficial not to the ordinary Tamil people but nicely fit into a separate state occupied by foreigners and run by Tamil quislings for the West.
All these solutions have nothing for the real victims be they Sinhalese, Muslims or even Tamils including India.
Even the LTTE former combatants promised the sun and the moon are today just outcasts in their own society.Most treat them as having ‘failed the cause’. Many are finding solace among the Sinhalese who realize they too have been victims.
In all this the politicians of the LTTE propped party have gotten away not only fooling the Tamils but fooling their handlers. Of course in this game of deceit all are taking each other for a ride be they Western power houses, INGOs, NGOs, civil society etc. All are trying to make the most for themselves.
It is in this scenario that we have to now wonder who is steering TNA, Wigneswaran, Ananthy, LTTE Diaspora and all other Tamils claiming to represent Tamils. By steering, the question is who has bought” them – India, West, foreign intel, anyone else? Are they all acting individual roles as per wishes of their handlers or are the handlers at odds with one another?
In January 2015 a regime took place with the assistance of TNA who gave orders for Tamils to vote Sirisena as President. The regime change was backed by West and India. A lot has changed since.
In February 2015 hardly 2 months after TNA supported regime change, Sumanthiran’s & Sambanthan’s effigies were burnt. Toasted in January, both Sumanthiran and Sambanthan were roasted by Tamils in the UK.
Why would some pro-LTTE Diaspora (TYO & BTF) suddenly turn against Sambanthan and Sumanthiran? It has to be more than them attending the independence day celebrations! Days earlier (21Feb2015) in Jaffna too, demonstrators shouted slogans against the same duo & had their effigies ready to burn too. How did Ananthy Sasitharan, wife of Elilan suddenly have powers to decide who was a traitor & burn their effigies? Wigneswaran was one-time part of TNA and now parted ways. Sasitharan was also with TNA and now on her own. Though Sumanthiran is part of TNA, he had no direct links to Prabakaran, his clan or the TNA politicians working under LTTE. Neelan Tiruchelvan was killed because he was using Tamil nationalism for an external agenda. Sumanthiran fits well into that category. Christian import Chelvanayagam ruled over the Tamil Hindus and dragged them into divisive politics. Secularizing Tamil politics has meant Christian lobby controlling Tamil Hindus.
D B S Jeyraj highlight the modus operandi behind using the ‘traitor’ garland story which was used by Prabakaran against anyone opposing LTTE. LTTE & Prabakaran are no more but the ‘traitor’ garland continues as a character assassination.
The board calls Sumanthiran a ‘traitor’ – traitor to whom? Who is calling whom a traitor and why is Sumanthiran a traitor? Obviously this is the confusion enveloping not only Tamil society.
There is a rationale to Sumanthiran wanting to separate TNA from LTTE. The blood shredded past will forever remain with every mention of LTTE. But then, TNA was formed by LTTE, ITAK is a constituent member of TNA and all of them are co-joined by racism and the same theme keeps them together. Simply for propaganda claiming to want to separate LTTE is committing hara kiri.
Moreover, so long as Tamils think that LTTE and Eelam is there airline ticket to live in Western countries, Sumanthiran will forever be regarded as a ‘traitor’ to that quest. Which is why Sumanthiran has had to backtrack and praise LTTE and Prabakaran for sheer political survival.
Sambanthan’s days are now numbered. ITAK was a Christian-created feigned nationalism experiment. Will TNA be baptized by Sumanthiran on behalf of the West, if so what is the role for Hindus in TNA and Hindu nationalism which links to India.
India is already realizing the dangers of allowing the NGO-faith lobby to roost in South India. India will have to come to terms with India being roasted and on its way to balkanization if this lobby is allowed to prevail in Sri Lanka & South India. By weakening Sri Lanka’s Central Government with incessant interfering, India has let its only slip down and allowed its turf to be intruded. India claiming to be concerned about its security, has, by helping LTTE lobby to weaken Sri Lanka, weakened itself.
If India wants to secure its turf, India must stop weakening Sri Lanka and instead ensure that the Tamil political elements don’t get baptized or adopted by elements that are earmarking time to balkanize India.
Canada’s National Inquiry into Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women & Girls in June 2019 confirmed that Canada has committed and CONTINUES to commit colonial genocide. The 2015 Truth & Reconciliation Commission report evaded the use of ‘genocide’ on advice of lawyers. The 2019 Report claimed genocide is ONGOING in Canada, leaves little room for Canada to be patronizing or preaching to other countries.
In January 26, 2016, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ruled that the Government of Canada (Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada) racially discriminated against 163,000 First Nations children. Sri Lanka can statistically present the positions Tamils hold in public and private sector as well as in Parliament to nullify any claims of discrimination.
Canadians have been, collectively, given a history of themselves that is not accurate. Canada is a created country by European settlers grabbing the land & resources of the Natives living in the territory now called Canada. The modern Canadian ‘identity’ has come in systematically vanquishing the indigenous cultural identity that existed. Canada with a history of just over 150 years, even regarded women as ‘PERSONS’ only in 1929 & all women in Canada were given to vote only in 1960!
This is probably why Canadians are quick to fall for the lies of the LTTE fronts operating from Canada where many found refuge on bogus claims. With LTTE fronts unable to clearly name the civilian dead, Canadian leaders making statements on ‘Mullaivaikkal genocide’ are realistically mourning the LTTE terrorist dead and not civilian dead.
The UNSG himself along with the international community appealed to LTTE to release civilians held as hostages to be used as human shields and many of these civilians were shot dead while trying to escape LTTE. Has Canada thought of counting how many such fleeing civilians LTTE killed without crediting that number to the Sri Lankan Armed Forces?
The Lessons Learnt & Reconciliation Commission declared 22,247 LTTE dead of which 11,812 were identified with names. Were the remaining 10,435 identified by their family members and named? This 10,435 cannot be quoted by LTTE Diaspora as CIVILIAN dead and their names cannot be used by NGOs or quoted by the UN/UNHRC.
11 years after the comprehensive defeat of LTTE in 2009, all those claiming that ‘genocide’ was committed cannot even name 200 dead or find their skeletons!
How can any country be accused of genocide without the dead, without relations naming the dead or without any evidence of anyone being murdered? So many videos and phone edits have been circulated since May 2009 via documentaries none have clicked any Tamils being killed on a mass scale or having their dead bodies buried and dumped into mass graves! If the Sri Lankan Army had presumably killed 40,000 to 200,000 Tamils during the last days of May 2009 surely someone should have taken some footage of this. It’s not easy to be killing civilians (identifying them from LTTE in civilian clothing), while fighting the LTTE and digging mass graves to put so many dead bodies in a small stretch of land. Why don’t’ people just imagine this scenario in their mind to realize the absurdity of these claims!
We would like to know if Canada’s leaders want to commemorate LTTE Terrorist dead and why?
A news report in The Island of May 9, 2020 under the heading ‘One
location for national heroes’ (by Zacki Jabbar) says that Media and Higher
Education minister and co-cabinet spokesman Bandula Gunawardane told a news
conference held at the Information Department that a cabinet decision was taken
on Wednesday (May 6) to locate statues of national heroes in one place so they
wouldn’t stand scattered across the island. This, the minister explained, was
for introducing a uniform policy with regard to honouring those who had
served the nation in outstanding ways. I for one don’t at present see any
special merit or demerit in establishing a single sculpture garden or park
dedicated to the memory of national heroes, nor do I have any idea about the
circumstances that caused the caretaker government to worry about where to
stand memorial statues of national heroes.
However, what really stirred my curiosity was the simultaneous
announcement that the Cabinet of Ministers had also made a decision to allocate
some space in the Colombo Municipal Council premises for the erection of a
statue of freedom fighter and former president of South Africa Nelson Mandela
at the request of the South African High Commission in Colombo. Why a request
had to be made by the diplomats of a friendly nation to have their late
national hero honoured by Sri Lanka in this way is hard to guess. The costs are
to be borne by the South Africans themselves, it is implied. On the other hand,
does Sri Lanka owe Nelson Mandela or South Africa special thanks or grateful
acknowledgement for any outstanding services done to her in the past? It is
true that South Africans have played a tenuous supplementary role in the
interventionist Western interest in Sri Lanka’s internal problem between the
state and the Tamil separatists. That role was not the sort that earned the
respect or gratitude of Sri Lankans. It only contributed towards paving the way
for UNHRC resolutions 30/1 (2015), 34/1 (2017) and 40/1 (2019) pushed against
Sri Lanka at Geneva during the previous Yahapalanaya, from whose co-sponsorship
the country recently withdrew with the change of government subsequent to the
election of President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa in November 2019.
Nelson Mandela (1918-2013) provided a truly heroic leadership to the
longdrawn struggle for South Africa’s freedom from the White supremacist
Apartheid system. He spent a gruelling 28 years in detention and in jail
(1962-1990) because of this. He proved more powerful as a prisoner than as a
free person in turning world opinion in favour of black South Africa’s
emancipation, and he had already become a globally celebrated freedom fighter
by the time of his release from prison in 1990. The last Aparheid president
F.W. de Klerk held a series of negotiations with Mandela between 1990 and 1993.
De Klerk’s government took a number of unilateral steps and arranged for the
country’s first non-racial election in 1994, which Nelson Mandela easily won as
leader of the African National Congress. He led South Africa as president from 1994
to 1999. Mandela won great sympathy as well as great admiration from Sri
Lankans, who also had experienced the inhumanity of Western imperialism for
over four centuries.
As far as I can remember, South Africa started showing an
interest in Sri Lanka’s domestic problem around 2007 during Mahinda Rajapaksa’s
first term as president, and continued to do so during his second term as well.
Of the 58 million SA population, over 80% are native black, about 8% white, and
only 2.6% Asian Indian citizens. Tamils form a large proportion of the last.
This factor seems to have enabled the interventionist West and their minions
the Tamil diaspora to imagine a false analogy between South Africa’s ending of
the Apartheid system in 1994 and Sri Lanka’s termination of the
separatist civil conflict in 2009, which they wished to exploit to force Sri
Lanka to adopt South Africa’s model in resolving ‘reconciliation and
accountability’ issues (which, in reality though, seems to have left the
dispossessed blacks in no better economic position vis-a-vis the White
minority. It is said that the White 8% still possess 80% all arable land in
South Africa!). Whatever the proffered wisdom of the South Africans meant, the
ultimate aim of those antinationalist forces and their local proteges seemed to
be the achievement, through political, diplomatic, and constitutional
skulduggery, of the separatist aim which they couldn’t realise through armed
terrorism. The fact that prominent UN functionaries Yasmin Sooka who drafted a
damning report on Sri Lanka based on unreliable evidence and Navaneetham Pillay
who served as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (2008-14) were both
from South Africa, would have been a morale booster for the aforementioned Sri
Lanka baiters (that is, the meddling Western powers and the Tamil
diaspora).
Another tormentor of Sri Lanka has been Louise Arbour, Canadian
lawyer, international prosecutor and jurist. She made history by successfully
indicting an incumbent head of state, the former Yugoslavian president Slobodan
Melosevic over alleged war crimes. Arbour is currently the Special
Representative of the United Nations Secretary General for International
Migration. As former president and CEO of the South Africa based International
Crisis Group that wanted to play a role in bringing about a so-called
reconciliation in Sri Lanka, she wrote an article in the organization’s website
on July 24, 2011 under the title ‘What South Africa can do to help with
reconciliation in Sri Lanka’. She began:
‘As South Africa knows better than most, a country cannot begin to
overcome decades of internal conflict without a sustained effort at revealing
the truth of the past and a committed push for reconciliation. If only Sri
Lanka could learn that lesson.’
(If only LA could understand how very different Sri Lanka is from
South Africa in every imaginable respect!)
She arbitrarily asserts that the final months of the conflict saw
both the Sinhala majority government and the rebels contribute to the massive
loss of Tamil civilian lives, but that, instead of ‘starting on the slow
painful path towards a more democratic and equal society….the post-war policies
of President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his powerful brothers have further
undermined the country’s damaged political institutions and deepened the ethnic
divide’…..the government has increasingly cut minorities out of decisions on
their economic and political futures, clinging to its claim that the war was
about terrorism” and not an ethnic conflict….
Louise
Arbour also claims that ‘the unwillingness of the million strong Sri Lankan
Tamil diaspora to recognize the brutality of the LTTE and its share of
responsibility for a largely broken Tamil society has only strengthened the
government’s hand’.
(Occasionally blaming both the government and the rebels in common
is a feeble attempt at pretending impartiality. How misinformed or ill-informed
on the subject LA is!)
According
to her ‘the process of reconciliation and accountability partly through the
Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission was criticised as deeply flawed by
a UN panel of experts that included South Africa’s Yasmin Sooka. The panel had
specifically addressed the government’s claim that it had drawn on South
Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), finding that the LLRC falls
far short of that important precedent’. This panel claim must have been a
fabrication, because the LLRC commissioners were not ignorant of the fact the
South African experience contained no lessons that Sri Lanka could learn from.
Louise
Arbour thought that ‘The country’s post-war course will not change unless the
Rajapaksas decide it has to’ and that, up to that point, they had shown no
interest ‘in doing anything that would diverge from the Sinhalese nationalist vision
they have embraced fully as both a means to stay in power and an end in
itself’. The Rajapaksas came to rule only because they got elected to do so by
the people with whom sovereignty lies. How ethical was it for an ignorant
prejudiced professional service provider to impugn in this way the personal
honesty and the worth of the political ideal of the most successful and the
most popular head of state Sri Lanka had had since independence until then?
In
the article she accused the Rajapaksas of repressing the media and political
opponents, while manipulating elections, and silencing civil society. The truth
is that it was the Yahapalana politicians who were really guilty of those
violations of democratic norms during their term. Arbour also blamed the
(pre-Yahapalana) Rajapaksa government for rejecting the allegedly growing body
of evidence supporting allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity by
both sides in the final stages of the war, allegations that, she asserted, were
supported by the UN panel of experts, and the Channel 4 TV documentary ‘Sri
Lanka’s Killing Fields’. Arbour recommended that ‘The international community
should push for a fundamental change of course’. This is unwarranted
interference in the affairs of an independent and democratic sovereign nation.
This
UN functionary wanted South Africa to ‘use its influence with other emerging
powers and members of the non-aligned movement to advance the recommendations
in the UN panel report, including their call for an international investigation
into alleged atrocities by both sides. It should encourage other governments to
reject Sri Lanka’s attempt to dismiss any international scrutiny of its
war-time and post-war policies as a neocolonialist assault on its
sovereignty….If the government would stick to its promises to ensure
accountability and devolve power to the traditionally Tamil-speaking north and
east, such scrutiny would disappear.’
Isn’t
this plain blackmail unworthy of an international dignitary? Louise Arbour
concludes her International Crisis Group article of July 24, 2011 thus:
‘Finally,
South Africa should resist the government’s attempts to gain undeserved
legitimacy by comparing the LLRC with South Africa’s TRC. Such a comparison is,
frankly, an insult. Sri Lanka desperately needs a fair accounting of its
violent history to avoid repeating it. The Sri Lankan people should not have to
settle for anything less’.
Who
or what was Louise Arbour to determine that the then Mahinda Rajapaksa
government didn’t have legitimacy? The war winning Mahinda had been returned to
a second term as president only a year previously (2010) with a majority of 1.8
million votes (the largest ever in a presidential election) beating his commander-in-chief
Sarath Fonseka conspiratorially fielded against him under the auspices of the
meddlesome international community that Arbour serves. The three decade
persecution of all communities by the LTTE had united the nation under Mahinda
Rajapaksa. Peace reigned for five years 2009-14. The destabilizing forces
succeeded in toppling him in January 2015 with his second betrayal at the hands
of his own closest partners. The so-called Yahapalanaya worked to polarize the
electorate as minorities vs majority. The result was that Gotabaya Rajapaksa
won the presidency with a convincing majority of 1.3 million only on the
strength of the Sinhala voters, not without substantial support from minority
voters, nevertheless. So much for the contribution made to ‘re-con-silly-ation’
in Sri Lanka by the so-called international community including South
Africa.
What
does this all mean? In the final analysis, what this old conscienceless
salary-paid foreign jurist and international civil servant, completely ignorant
of the history, the culture, the population composition, the demographic
distribution, the geography, etc etc of the island nation, is trying to do is
to hold the 22 million citizens of the country to ransom through the medium of
South Africa, for the sole purpose of dividing the country on ethnic lines,
which was the goal of the defeated LTTE.
The
LTTE was militarily defeated, but its ghost ideology has not been exorcised.
The Tamil National Alliance was not the largest partner of the later disintegrated
Yahapalanaya coalition; but it was the most influential in the dodgy
circumstances in which the Yahapalana misrule managed to survive for four and a
half years, and also the clearest in its head about its goal, i.e., separatism
(temporarily camouflaged as federalism). The TNA today is led by the senile R.
Sampanthan possessed by the separatist ideology, but he himself is guided
(i.e., led) by M.A. Sumanthiran, former MP. He was reported to have met with
the prime minister recently and offered to work together on condition that a
devolution model, i.e. a federal solution to the so-called Tamil national
question would be adopted. Needless to point out that this runs counter to the
‘unitary Sri Lanka’ stand that Gotabaya is espousing; but the ‘devolution
model’ (euphemism for federalism) is exactly what the international community
supports.
Meanwhile,
Sumanthiran appeared in a Sinhala language TV interview a day or two ago and
pretended to denounce the LTTE. He belittled, in the eyes of some
northernTamils, the separatist cause that it fought for.
Sumanthiran uttered the falsehood that the northern Tamil youth took to arms
because of economic deprivation and joblessness. He also claimed that the LTTE
killed more innocent civilians than the Sri Lankan security forces did. He must
have been uttering these things with an implicit knowing wink at the
incredulous Tamil viewers. The veteran TULF leader V. Ananda Sangari, of
probably the same vintage as Sampanthan, in an immediate response, says that
Sumanthiran is only play-acting to hoodwink the Tamils.
Extremist
racist minority politicians like Sumanthiran and Hakeem will never see eye to
eye with nationalists. At the next parliamentary election, nationalists will
definitely find favour with the ordinary Tamils and Muslims who are led by
young minority politicians like former LTTE deputy leader Karuna Amman
and Mohamed Musammil of Jathika Nidahas Peramuna (JNP) led by Wimal Weerawansa.
Prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa will not alienate the latter group of fresh
thinking young minority politicians (actually they are national politicians) by
trying to be politically correct with the former group of fair-weather friends
(belonging to the communal regional group of politicians).
The
South African High Commission’s gratuitous request for a Mandela statue to be
erected in Sri Lanka could be an importunate reminder of the so-called
international community’s past strategic reconciliation efforts, apparently
still not abandoned, but waiting to be re-launched in pursuit of its so far
aborted agenda. Cabinet ministers of a caretaker government shouldn’t act as
undertakers.
I have just watched your statement regarding what you refer to as
Tamil Memorial Day. I am writing to you because I was offended by your
statement and the fact that you are making public statements based on
misinformation and lies without doing any research on the Tamil terrorist
movement in Sri Lanka that lasted for nearly thirty years.
It is obvious that you are ignorant of the situation in Sri Lanka
and the fact that the terrorist movement in Sri Lanka was by a segment of the
Tamil population of Sri Lanka that resorted to extreme violence and terrorised
everyone else who did not support their views. The Tamil terrorists were
classified by the FBI as the most ruthless terrorists in the world. The
thousands who lost their lives for human rights were not the Tamil terrorists
but those who they terrorised. Tamil terrorism was to deprive Sri Lankans
of their human rights, not as you claim, to support humans rights. Their goal,
which was the division of Sri Lanka, was to establish a Tamil only, fascist
state in the north of Sri Lanka. This effort was funded by Tamil terrorist
sympathisers from all over the world including Canadian Tamils and it was
estimated that at least a million dollars a month was sent from Canada. The
RCMP has a lot of information on Tamil terrorism and support from Canada so it
would have been very simple for anyone in your office to check this funding of
terrorism by Canadian Tamils and other facts regarding Tamil terrorism before
you issued this biased, ignorant statement. In plain language, Canadians
were responsible for the deaths of thousands of Sri Lankans of all communities
and successive Canadian Governments and politicians at every level were aware
of this and supportive of it just to get votes in Canada. They not only
condoned terrorism but actively helped in the collection of millions of dollars
to kill the people of Sri Lanka. Your statement indicates that you are another
Canadian politician making inaccurate statements to get Tamil votes in Canada.
The Tamil terrorist movement was ended on May 2009 by the Sri
Lankan security forces without the help of the western countries who had
throughout the years supported the Tamil terrorists from the west just to get
votes in elections in their individual countries. In other words, politicians
in the west supported terrorism in Sri Lanka and are accountable for those who
died in Sri Lanka because of their support of terrorism in Sri Lanka. Although
the military offensive of the Tamil terrorists ended in May of 2009 with the
death of their leader, it is obvious that those who supported terrorism in Sri
Lanka from Canada are still working towards the division of the country but now
they hope to achieve their goal through political pressure and not military
offensives. Your statement is confirmation. I trust you will educate yourself
on Tamil terrorism in Sri Lanka before you make any future statements, unless
you are a supporter of terrorism to achieve your goals.
If there is to be a “memorial day” it should not be
Tamil Memorial Day but Memorial Day for all Sri Lankans killed by the Tamil
terrorists which, for your information, included Tamils. By making this
statement you are offending all Sri Lankans who are the victims of Tamil
terrorism whether they live in Mississauga, anywhere else in Canada or the
world.
Home gardening has boomed in Sri Lanka as residents under lockdown look to grow their own fresh fruits and vegetables.
The government, which has championed home gardening in the past, launched a program to support a million home gardens by issuing 2 million seed packs and offering technical advice to the public to undertake home gardening.
With the country now easing out of lockdown, the government says it will take some prodding to keep people interested in home gardening, including by emphasizing the benefits of growing food at home instead of importing it from abroad.
While the main benefit of home gardens is to ensure people are food secure at the individual and family level, gardening is also a useful stress buster that supports outdoor family time.
COLOMBO — On April 22, Sri Lanka eased its nationwide lockdown that was imposed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. That sparked a buying rush for essential goods, primarily food. But another type of commodity was also high on shoppers’ lists: organic fertilizers, seeds, and clay pots. Demand was so strong that people lined up in queues with little regard for physical distancing guidelines as they sought out home gardening essentials.
Goods have become scarce since the lockdown on March 16, with food supplies from the northwest and central parts of the island suspended to contain the spread of COVID-19. With a shortage of rice and vegetables looming as part of the new normal,” there has been a heightened interest in home gardening among even urban Sri Lankans.
During the lockdown, farming supply stores liked this one in the southern Matara area were among the few businesses still being patronized as people lined up to buy seeds, fertilizer and terracotta pots for home gardening. Image by Malaka Rodrigo.
Promoting home gardens online
Tips and tutorials on home gardening have flourished on Youtube and Facebook, with people showcasing their small-time cultivation efforts to the world.
Nuwan Nilamuni, a member of a local government authority in southern Sri Lanka, set up a Facebook group with colleagues in late March to encourage home gardening and provide a platform to discuss gardening issues. The group reached 100,000 members within a month. Similar groups have mushroomed on social media platforms during the lockdown, while existing pages and channels on farming and gardening have recorded massive growth in subscriber numbers.
Ahead of the lockdown, and uncertain about how long it would last, residents stocked up on food items with a long shelf life. That meant plenty of dry rations, but no vegetables or fruit, which, along with rice, were subject to distribution bottlenecks as a result of quarantine controls between different districts. That led people to the quick realization of the practical value in growing their own produce. And with people confined to their homes, with no outdoor activity possible, there was solace in growing their own plants.
Home gardening gives families an opportunity to connect with nature. Image by Dilrukshi Handunnetti.
Local media rallied behind campaigns such as the Home gardening challenge,” with the country’s cricketers — superstars in a country that reveres the sport — showing how they were taking to cultivate their backyards and inspiring people.
Sri Lanka, a tropical Indian Ocean island, has climate variations that enable year-round crop cultivation. Home gardens in Sri Lanka account for 13% of the total land area. Realizing the value home gardening can contribute to household food security, the government through the Department of Agriculture (DOA) also launched a program called Saubagya (meaning prosperity”) to promote a million home gardens.
Under this program, officials distributed 2 million seed packets to households, W.M.W.Weerakoon, director-general of the Department of Agriculture, told Mongabay.
We offer these vegetable seed packets as a means of encouragement to try home gardening. People can find many other things to plant in their gardens like green leaves, so they can expand on their own,” he said.
The department also had field staff offering advice on tackling pests and maximizing yields. The public can contact our agriculture hotline anytime,” Weerakoon said.
The department has tried to promote home gardening a number of times in the past, but with little success. The current concerns around household food security have caused a wave of their own, making it likely that this program will succeed, Weerakoon added.
The lockdown has since been eased in 23 of Sri Lanka’s 25 districts, so people will need some prodding to retain their interest in home gardening. We are reminding the public of the value of growing your own food, which is healthier as vegetables available in the markets are often having high agrochemical residue,” he said.
Home harvest. Image courtesy of Nalika Ranathunge.
Urban home gardens
While rural areas have more land that can be used for home gardening, urban populations are constrained by a lack of space. Not if you have the will and an interest,” says Arulkumar Jebamani, who lives in a second-floor apartment in Bambalapitiya, in the heart of Colombo, Sri Lanka’s commercial capital. I have two balconies and a terrace with a roof. I use pots to grow vegetables in my tiny urban space,” Jebamani said.
Udaya de Silva, a former director of agriculture, has played a lead role in current efforts to promote home gardening in the island. As Sri Lanka attempts to reduce imports of popular spices such as ginger (Zingiber officinale) and turmeric (Curcuma longa), de Silva says it’s best to grow these medicinal herbs at home.
This is the right time to plant ginger and turmeric as they need about eight months to mature and people can gather harvest in December/January,” he said.
There are a number of medicinal herbs found in Sri Lanka believed to be able to boost the immune system. People can grow their own medicinal plants like polpala [Aerva lanata] and asparagus [Asparagus gonoclados] that do not require special care,” de Silva said.
Home gardening doesn’t require much space to grow a few essential vegetables, such as this lush tomato plant from a balcony pot. Image courtesy of Arulkumar Jebamani.
By early May, farming supply stores had run out of fertilizer. Once again, people had to learn to make it on their own, said Nalika Ranathunga of the agriculture department at the University of Ruhuna, who specializes in plant pathology.
Half of the waste collected in Sri Lanka are biodegradables. If everyone individually turns biodegradable waste into fertilizer, it can effectively reduce the country’s waste production and benefit useful activities such as home gardening,” Ranathunge said.
She told Mongabay that home gardening has a value well beyond food production. Ranathunge, who got her entire family engaged in home gardening, said the activity gives more productive family time and physical exercise.
It is a stressful time and gardening is always a pleasurable activity,” she said. Doing it together brings the family to connect through one productive activity and offers quality family time that can eventually benefit the family with produce from one’s own compound,”
Banner image of capsicum and ocra plants from a home garden in Sri Lanka, by Malaka Rodrigo.
Home gardening has boomed in Sri Lanka as residents under lockdown look to grow their own fresh fruits and vegetables.
The government, which has championed home gardening in the past, launched a program to support a million home gardens by issuing 2 million seed packs and offering technical advice to the public to undertake home gardening.
With the country now easing out of lockdown, the government says it will take some prodding to keep people interested in home gardening, including by emphasizing the benefits of growing food at home instead of importing it from abroad.
While the main benefit of home gardens is to ensure people are food secure at the individual and family level, gardening is also a useful stress buster that supports outdoor family time.
COLOMBO — On April 22, Sri Lanka eased its nationwide lockdown that was imposed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. That sparked a buying rush for essential goods, primarily food. But another type of commodity was also high on shoppers’ lists: organic fertilizers, seeds, and clay pots. Demand was so strong that people lined up in queues with little regard for physical distancing guidelines as they sought out home gardening essentials.
Goods have become scarce since the lockdown on March 16, with food supplies from the northwest and central parts of the island suspended to contain the spread of COVID-19. With a shortage of rice and vegetables looming as part of the new normal,” there has been a heightened interest in home gardening among even urban Sri Lankans.
During the lockdown, farming supply stores liked this one in the southern Matara area were among the few businesses still being patronized as people lined up to buy seeds, fertilizer and terracotta pots for home gardening. Image by Malaka Rodrigo.
Promoting home gardens online
Tips and tutorials on home gardening have flourished on Youtube and Facebook, with people showcasing their small-time cultivation efforts to the world.
Nuwan Nilamuni, a member of a local government authority in southern Sri Lanka, set up a Facebook group with colleagues in late March to encourage home gardening and provide a platform to discuss gardening issues. The group reached 100,000 members within a month. Similar groups have mushroomed on social media platforms during the lockdown, while existing pages and channels on farming and gardening have recorded massive growth in subscriber numbers.
Ahead of the lockdown, and uncertain about how long it would last, residents stocked up on food items with a long shelf life. That meant plenty of dry rations, but no vegetables or fruit, which, along with rice, were subject to distribution bottlenecks as a result of quarantine controls between different districts. That led people to the quick realization of the practical value in growing their own produce. And with people confined to their homes, with no outdoor activity possible, there was solace in growing their own plants.
Home gardening gives families an opportunity to connect with nature. Image by Dilrukshi Handunnetti.
Local media rallied behind campaigns such as the Home gardening challenge,” with the country’s cricketers — superstars in a country that reveres the sport — showing how they were taking to cultivate their backyards and inspiring people.
Sri Lanka, a tropical Indian Ocean island, has climate variations that enable year-round crop cultivation. Home gardens in Sri Lanka account for 13% of the total land area. Realizing the value home gardening can contribute to household food security, the government through the Department of Agriculture (DOA) also launched a program called Saubagya (meaning prosperity”) to promote a million home gardens.
Under this program, officials distributed 2 million seed packets to households, W.M.W.Weerakoon, director-general of the Department of Agriculture, told Mongabay.
We offer these vegetable seed packets as a means of encouragement to try home gardening. People can find many other things to plant in their gardens like green leaves, so they can expand on their own,” he said.
The department also had field staff offering advice on tackling pests and maximizing yields. The public can contact our agriculture hotline anytime,” Weerakoon said.
The department has tried to promote home gardening a number of times in the past, but with little success. The current concerns around household food security have caused a wave of their own, making it likely that this program will succeed, Weerakoon added.
The lockdown has since been eased in 23 of Sri Lanka’s 25 districts, so people will need some prodding to retain their interest in home gardening. We are reminding the public of the value of growing your own food, which is healthier as vegetables available in the markets are often having high agrochemical residue,” he said.
Home harvest. Image courtesy of Nalika Ranathunge.
Urban home gardens
While rural areas have more land that can be used for home gardening, urban populations are constrained by a lack of space. Not if you have the will and an interest,” says Arulkumar Jebamani, who lives in a second-floor apartment in Bambalapitiya, in the heart of Colombo, Sri Lanka’s commercial capital. I have two balconies and a terrace with a roof. I use pots to grow vegetables in my tiny urban space,” Jebamani said.
Udaya de Silva, a former director of agriculture, has played a lead role in current efforts to promote home gardening in the island. As Sri Lanka attempts to reduce imports of popular spices such as ginger (Zingiber officinale) and turmeric (Curcuma longa), de Silva says it’s best to grow these medicinal herbs at home.
This is the right time to plant ginger and turmeric as they need about eight months to mature and people can gather harvest in December/January,” he said.
There are a number of medicinal herbs found in Sri Lanka believed to be able to boost the immune system. People can grow their own medicinal plants like polpala [Aerva lanata] and asparagus [Asparagus gonoclados] that do not require special care,” de Silva said.
Home gardening doesn’t require much space to grow a few essential vegetables, such as this lush tomato plant from a balcony pot. Image courtesy of Arulkumar Jebamani.
By early May, farming supply stores had run out of fertilizer. Once again, people had to learn to make it on their own, said Nalika Ranathunga of the agriculture department at the University of Ruhuna, who specializes in plant pathology.
Half of the waste collected in Sri Lanka are biodegradables. If everyone individually turns biodegradable waste into fertilizer, it can effectively reduce the country’s waste production and benefit useful activities such as home gardening,” Ranathunge said.
She told Mongabay that home gardening has a value well beyond food production. Ranathunge, who got her entire family engaged in home gardening, said the activity gives more productive family time and physical exercise.
It is a stressful time and gardening is always a pleasurable activity,” she said. Doing it together brings the family to connect through one productive activity and offers quality family time that can eventually benefit the family with produce from one’s own compound,”
Bandaranayake Mawatha in Colombo 12 and the Suduwella area in Ja-Ela, which were placed under isolation, have been re-opened, Army Commander Shavendra Silva said.
With the lifting of restrictions in these areas, there are no isolated areas due to Covid-19 in Sri Lanka now,” the Army Commander said.
The deadline for accepting online applications to select the 4th batch for the Interest-Free Loan Scheme granted to Advanced Level students of 2016, 2017 and 2018 for pursuing degree courses in non-State higher education institutions has been announced.
Accordingly, the deadline has been declared as the 20th of May, the Ministry of Higher Education, Technology and Innovation said today (15) issuing a media release.
The Ministry had previously set the 23rd of March as the closing date for sending in applications, however, the deadline was indefinitely postponed following the outbreak of COVID-19 in the country.
The interviews for these applicants, which were prepared using Microsoft Team software, will be held on the 1ts of June, the release read further.
Former Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera yesterday acknowledged that the government has provided the necessary funds to transport IDPs from Puttalam to Mannar during the last presidential election.
This was when he spoke to the media after making a statement to the CID regarding the incident.
However, former Minister Rishad Bathiudeen had earlier stated that the money had been provided by an NGO.
The Criminal Investigations Department (CID) has recorded statements from Former Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera for over five hours regarding the incident of providing the necessary facilities to transport IDPs by bus from Puttalam to Mannar during the last presidential election.
Meanwhile, the ‘Sinhale’ National Organization has strongly condemned the statement made by the former Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera that there are Sangha cliques in the country.
Other politicians expressed their views regarding the statement made by Mangala Samaraweera regarding the Sangha.
DIG Chandana Athukorala, who was in charge of the Negombo division at the time of the attack</strong>
DIG Chandana Athukorala, who was the SSP in charge of the Negombo division at the time of the attack, said that although the officers in the lower ranks were instructed to provide armed police protection to Catholic churches, no officers had been deployed for security.
This was when he was giving evidence before the Presidential Commission of Inquiry appointed to probe the Easter Sunday attacks. He is currently serving as the DIG of the Police Welfare Division and was the first person called to give evidence today
When did you first become aware of the threat?
The Presidential Commission asked him when he first became aware of an attack of the Thawheed Jamaat organization. Responding to this, DIG Chandana Athukorala stated that on the evening of April 12, 2019, he received a file through a messenger and that he had opened it the next morning.
The Presidential Commission asked him when he first became aware of an attack of the Thawheed Jamaat organization. Responding to this, DIG Chandana Athukorala stated that on the evening of April 12, 2019, he received a file through a messenger and that he had opened it the next morning.
He further stated that it contained information about the attack and that it was sent by DIG Deshabandu Tennakoon, who was in charge of the Western North Division at the time.
The DIG stated that he had sent a letter he had prepared to the Police OICs, District Officers and the OIC of Negombo Division Intelligence, after he had looked into four files.
Not aware of Islam extremism or any such organisation
The Commission then asked the DIG whether he had any prior knowledge of Islamist extremism or any such organization. Deputy Inspector General of Police Chandana Athukorala stated that he was made aware of such an incident after the letter.
The DIG has also pointed out that he had not received more written or verbal information from the superiors by the 17th.
DIG Nandana Munasinghe called and informed
However, Senior DIG Nandana Munasinghe, who was in charge of the Western Province, telephoned him and informed him that there could be an attack on Catholic churches the following day.
The DIG said before the commission that he had acted in accordance with the instructions and informed the officers in charge of the police stations to provide armed police guards to the catholic churches.
DIG Chandana Athukorala stated that since he did not receive a response to his letter, he inquired further details from the OIC of the Negombo Division Intelligence but he did not have any further information.
Special attention not provided
The Presidential Commission asked him whether he did not give special attention, since the Senior DIG Nandana Munasinghe provided information over the phone.
The DIG stated that he did not pay any special attention to the telephone calls since they receive calls very often.
Do you feel that you have failed in your duties?
The Presidential Commission has inquired whether he does not feel that he has failed in his duties in this regard and the DIG has said that it is his junior officers who are responsible for it.
However, DIG Chandana Athukorala has admitted that he is also responsible in the face of continued interrogation by the Commission.
I did not believe such a serious incident would take place
The Deputy Inspector General of Police, giving evidence before the Presidential Commission today, said that although he had received information from his superiors, he did not believe such a serious incident would take place.
Defense Secretary Retired Major General Kamal Gunaratne has taken steps to establish a navy sub-divison for the protection of the Pottuvil Muhudu Maha Viharaya which has been invaded by illegal acquisitions.
This was after he visited the area to inquire about the safety of the Pottuvil Muhudu Maha Viharaya based on the Hiru CIA revelation.
On several occasions, the Hiru CIA program revealed about the plunder of land at Pottuvil, highlighting the importance of protecting this historic sacred site.
The land invasion was so intense during the last Yahapalana regime that the Pottuvil Pradeshiya Sabha had taken steps to turn the beach adjacent to the Pottuvil Muhudu Maha Viharaya into a cemetery.
While the Pottuvil Muhudu Maha Viharaya was losing land at an alarming speed, the ‘yahapalanaya government turned a blind eye into those revelations.
After the election of the present government, the invaders were silent and gradually recommenced their work during the Coronavirus pandemic, when countrywide curfew was in force.
The Hiru CIA team exposed the demarcation of the coastline around the Pottuvil Muhudu Maha Viharaya using illegal fencing, amidst the obstruction of the invaders.
Minister S.G.M. Chandrasena and a group of officials were deployed to investigate the plunder of lands belonging to the Muhudu Maha Viharaya on the instructions of the President and the Prime Minister after the illegal land grabbing incidents were exposed by Hiru CIA.
Meanwhile, yesterday the Defense Secretary Retired Major General Kamal Gunaratne also visited to look into these issues.
The International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute has written an open letter on 13 May 2020 to Sri Lanka’s Minister of Justice urging Sri Lanka to abide by due process in the case of arrested lawyer Heejaz Hizbullah. While the International Bar Association President is Horacio Bernardes Neto. The IBAHRI is only an entity within the IBA. IBAHRI President is Michael Kirby. The IBAHRI in its letter is asking Sri Lanka to ‘uphold the rights of lawyers to be able to carry out their professional responsibilities” but the arrest has nothing to do with any lawyer being denied his/her right to carry out professional responsibilities. The arrest is related to his connections to the mass murder that took place on Easter Sunday. IBAHRI should not confuse the prima facie reason for the arrest nor try to divert attention away from that fact. The rest of the letter is virtually a cut and paste of ICJ and Amnesty International statements being circulated.
A lot has since happened. How
come IBAHRI did not question the due process followed in the removal of Chief
Justice Mohan Pieris, if they saw fit to question the removal of Chief Justice
Shirani Bandaranayake? Didn’t IBAHRI see fit to question why a sitting CJ
was removed from post by not allowing him to enter his chambers on the flimsy
argument that the rulers never considered him appointed as CJ. Didn’t IBAHRI want to question the status
of his judgements and verdicts made during the 2 ½ years he was Sri Lanka’s
Chief Justice?
Attorney Hejaaz Hizbulla was arrested on 14 April 2020 by CID along with former Minister & ACMC Leader Rishad Bathiudeen’s brother Riyad
Bathiudeen and another in connection with the Easter Sunday mass murder.
15 April 2020 – CID in writing informs BASL that the
attorneys arrest and detention is owing to his connection with terrorist
activity that took place on Easter Sunday.
16 April 2020 – The police spokesman informs that the arrested
lawyer was associated with the bombers and had been involved with the bombers
as an office bearer in an organization. The
Sri Lanka Bar Association claims this association is purely based on
professional capacity. However, the Bar Association President had been informed
by the Registrar of the Supreme Court that the attorney’s arrest was not
related to any function he attended on a professional capacity. The arrest was due to a clear prima facie
evidence against him. Was this not communicated by the BASL to the IBAHRI given
that other details of the arrest had been communicated to them?
25 April 2020 – 158 persons most claiming to be
lawyers (less than 1% of
the entire lawyer fraternity in Sri Lanka) without disclosing their Bar membership numbers release
petition claiming it is the right of
lawyers to defend the ability to function as
lawyers, without obstruction, fear or favour”
29 April 2020 – 216 attorneys giving their Bar
Association member sends a detailed letter to the Bar Association President.
Poignant remarks in that letter is quoted
undue collateral pressure must not be
brought to bear or be exerted on the investigative process or on the
investigation officers”
there are various forces and unlawful influences
that are at play, who/which are attempting exert pressure to release Mr.
Hizbullah and to discontinue the investigations against him, but that most
fortunately, the investigation officers and the Sri Lanka Police are remaining
steadfastly committed to their duties and to not succumbing to these pressures.
The investigation must be taken to a full and logical conclusion and no amount
of repetition would be in vain, in emphasising this fact”
Immediately after the
Easter Sunday attacks in 2019, 6 foreign intelligence units arrived to assist but
we are yet to know what they unravelled. The disappointment in not getting to
the bottom of those who planned the attack is what has resulted in a new
investigation with new teams.
Only people in
high places can pervert course of justice in preventing justice being meted
This is evident from
the propaganda and hype associated with the arrest & arguments for release.
Every attempt is being made to dilute the arrest – propaganda depicts his
arrest due to him being a Muslim, being a minority, handling high profile cases
against the govt… all of these are clearly to divert the attention of the
people from wondering if the arrested lawyer really had been involved in the
crime of killing innocent people.
The legal fraternity must put the human rights of the
victims before surrounding a colleague simply because he is ‘one of them’. How can the legal fraternity international and local,
lobby for one person immediately following arrest without giving benefit of
doubt and waiting for the investigators to reveal on what grounds and why he
has been arrested.
The allegation
against him is no small a crime. It is linking him to the killing of over 300
people 46 of whom were foreigners.
There is
nothing the international nor local legal fraternity can say that a lawyer
cannot be part of a conspiracy against the country.
Turkey arrested 14
lawyers in 2017 for alleged terrorist involvement
The main suicide
bomber Zaharan Hashim has Rs.140million in gold and cash. This shows a bigger
nexus at play.
No one is
above the law and no lawyer is above the law as well.
The police arrests
people not by status but by evidence before them.
Lawyers on the other
hand depending on their ability to argue a case can even turn a murderer into
an innocent and an innocent into a murderer. The value of lawyers and their
ability to twist the law increases their demand.
The police however,
can only frame charges based on the evidence before them.
Therefore, it is
morally wrong and indefensible for the international bar association human
rights institute to interfere in an investigation which has hardly got off the
ground. Allow the police to prove the arrested lawyer was part of the Easter
Sunday plot. Defend him in court but it is incorrect to demand
his release simply because he is a lawyer. This is a very specious
argument.
It is unfair by the victims who have died, the
victims who are injured and the victim families who continue to mourn their
dead. Did one of these lawyers writing petitions even consider to appear on
behalf of them for legal issues that may require legal attention?
But, in a matter as
serious as that which happened on Easter Sunday, which is of national security
risk and concern, the Government has every right to lift the
lawyers cloak and determine if the arrested lawyer was involved in the mass
murder.
The cloak of ethics does not apply when a criminal
lawyer defends a known murderer because it is his professional service to
defend a murderer and he is paid handsomely to win the case. Even if a man has committed murder, a good lawyer is
able to present him as innocent and win the case based on legal arguments. Strange
is the justice system that prevails.
The cloak of ethics
does not excuse or exonerate anyone in the legal fraternity simply because they
are a member of the legal fraternity from being investigated, arrested or even
charged for wanting to kill innocent people. None of us have made any
conclusions. We are all keenly watching how the investigations unfold. If there
is circumstantial evidence, then he is very much answerable. Let the court
decide that. Natural and probable consequences of his conduct in the Easter
Sunday mass murder as well as plans to carry out further mayhem cannot be
exonerated simply because the international legal forums international and
local send letters and petitions. Being lawyers they should know this is not
how justice is meted out.
There is a thin line
that will determine if he has provided only legal advice to the suicide bombers
or whether he provided material support to carry out the suicide bombings. Let
the police produce the evidence and let his legal defence argue his case and
allow court to decide.
No lawyer can be afforded
preferential treatment simply because he is a lawyer. In a crime of the nature
that took place on Easter Sunday, all suspects whatever their status or
profession should have no favors afforded to them. Given, the scale of the
crime it is unfair for the Bas Association – international or local to be
issuing statements without allowing the course of justice to prevail. The
context of the matter is not to argue the merits or demerits of his legal
professionalism but to fathom if the arrested lawyer was part of the mass
murder that took place on Easter Sunday and planning another attack as revealed
following mass arrests made. The Bar Associations both international &
local must surely view the possibility of more murders as a concern far above
demanding release of a lawyer implicated in the plot simply because he is a
lawyer!
“Not
only must Justice be done; it must also be seen to be done”
With dedicated
medical-personnel and with selfless and disciplined military and police cadres
leading the way, Gota very likely saved the lives of about a Million Sri
Lankans who may otherwise have died if the medical-lockdown strategy had not
been initiated.
This strategy, as was
explained previously, is logically simple: Isolate the people from the virus
and prevent the spread of this highly contagious disease; in military parlance,
interdict the population from the disease: And, in the meantime, medically
treat all those infected by the virus
From statistics on
COVID virus fatalities, it would appear that Sri Lanka has found a cure for
those affected by the disease.
The rationale of this
anti-COVID campaign-approach was placing human life at the apex of Sri Lanka’s
concerns. Every single human life was considered precious; there was no
discrimination in treating patients; their wealth, station in life, age,
infirmities etc mattered not the least.
This was in total
contrast to the approach taken by America. The American approach to the
anti-COVID campaign was ‘herd-immunisation’; the rationale for that approach
was not ‘Humans first’, but rather ‘Economy first’.
In pursuing this
policy of ‘herd-immunisation’ – an entire population being deliberately exposed
to the COVID virus – all those who are infected and survive, develop immunity
to the virus; those who are poor and cannot afford medical treatment, those who
are old and infirm, those who have no medical insurance, those who are
homeless, they are all considered expendable. Many in this category are
the black, coloured and Hispanic communities in the US.
In short, the
Americans are adopting a policy of ‘survival-of-the-fittest’ as their solution
to the COVID virus; the resources in the country will be available only to
those who are young, strong, wealthy and healthy.
This is the law of
the jungle that was first publicly propounded and practised by Hitler and the
Nazis. Now, following this law are the US and their crony European states.
With the Nazi-style
‘herd-immunisation’ programme in place, Americans today are dying like dogs, on
the streets of the US. In New York alone the daily death-tally is presently
about 3oo0. As at date the total death count in the US, due to COVID, is nearly
100,000 and is expected to rise to a million before the virus is brought under
control.
It is ironic that in
this scenario, some Americans, like vultures, are feasting on the misery of the
doomed.
It is indeed
pertinent that the US in 2018, prior to this pandemic, surprisingly closed down
the ‘National Security Council Directorate for Global Health Security and
Biodefense’.
It is also
interesting to note that the Americans warned NATO and Israel in November 2019
of a deadly virus attack that would unfold anon.
Whistle-blower Rick
Bright – Head of the ‘Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority’-
having prior knowledge of the virus forewarned the Americans about it, in
January 2020; he was sacked from his job by the US Administration.
It is pertinent that
news coming out of the US on COVID-19 is censored.
Interestingly, a
former Editor of the Japan Times Weekly, Yoichi Schimatsu, a regular
contributor to several reputed global media outlets including those in US and
China, writing to ‘Rense’ asserts that COVID 19 is augmented with HIV proteins
and a DNA sequence of M-tuberculosis for upgrade to make it a lethal biological
weapon.
Yoichi adds,
COVID-19 targets human testicles and its TB strand blocks the immune system.”
A reader could be
forgiven if his or her mind went immediately to the US-Government funded
‘Pathfinder International’, a eugenic organisation, committed to de-populating
the world by employing viruses and other means; ‘Pathfinders’ believe that the
world is overpopulated and that there is a need to make the world, its land and
its riches the exclusive preserve of a selected breed of persons, by culling
selected segments of the human population.
Are they looking at a
blond haired, blue-eyed, white skin breed?
Over the years,
Pathfinders have fine-tuned eugenics to a fine art; they have come a long way
since the terrible days of the Auschwitz extermination camps.
As was mentioned in
Part 1 of this article, Agent-Moragoda, the founder of ‘Pathfinder
Foundation’, unsolicitedly and without raising any security concerns from
the previous Sri Lankan Government, had the impertinence to draft Sri Lanka’s
National Security doctrine; the paper has been broadly described as a shoddy
piece of work, not worth the 34-pages it is written on.
Agent-Moragoda,
basing his arguments on several fallacious assumptions and drafting his
unsolicited paper in the immediate aftermath of the Easter bombings last year,
has floated the notion that Sri Lanka’s National Security should be handed over
to the Americans!!
What is indeed
revealing is that Agent-Moragoda in August 2019, when drafting America’s
doctrine for Sri Lanka’s National Security, appears to have had a premonition
of the COVID-19 attack.
Says Agent Moragoda
in page 2 of his document, Quote: …. National Security policies of a
country should bring within its purview, the broader issues of survival of
humanity and connected long term threats to human security concerns, such as
food security and environmental security, which some security policy makers
advocate countries to adopt in their national security policies. Long term
survival of humanity, though a noble task, is a far broader objective, beyond
the capabilities of a single state.” Unquote.
This writer is unable
to resist asking Agent-Moragoda. Who are these security policy makers who are
so powerful as to advocate so many countries on National Security, huh?”
Agent-Moragoda’s
comments, put a new spin on the Easter-Bomb attack and the COVID virus attack.
Were these two attacks, from Sri Lanka’s perspective, contrived to drive us
desperately into the waiting arms of the Americans and willingly sign the MCC
Agreement which remains the most contentious issue between the two countries;
over 6.9 Million Sri Lankan adults are opposing it while the American
Administration is trying to force their ‘gift’ horse down our throats?
The face behind the Islamic veil?
Sri Lankans
distinctly remember how ‘Easterbomb’ Teplitz gleefully and very insensitively
announced, just two days after the Easter tragedy while the country was in deep
shock and mourning, that the MCC booty had been upped by 60Million USD;
Teplitz’s Matara-boy Samaraweera was quick to chortle ‘This is the proverbial
silver lining in the dark cloud’.
Matara Americanisation Centre
It was
Agent-Moragoda who, about a month ago, attempted to coerce Gota to rescind Sri
Lanka’s ‘human-lives-first’ strategy and adopt instead America’s
‘economy-first’, ‘herd-immunisation’ strategy. This was widely opposed by the
medical fraternity. Fortunately, saner counsel prevailed.
It is hoped that the
exit-strategy from the medical-lockdown presently in progress, is strictly in
line with the laid-down medical guidelines.
What was
Agent-Moragoda’s motive to push for the Nazi style herd-immunisation strategy?
Was it Agent Moragoda’s plan to get a Million Sri Lankans to die like dogs on
the streets of our country?
Agent-Wickramasinghe
had already done the necessary spadework to allow an American-led Indo-Pacific
military force to invade our country, in such circumstances.
In the first week of
June 2017, feigning sickness and pretending to seek urgent medical attention,
Agent-Wickramasinghe slipped furtively into the US in what he termed was a
private visit. He went through this charade at a time when there was an ongoing
National Disaster with hundreds dead and hundreds missing in flood waters and
mud slides; his presence in Sri Lanka was considered vital, at the time.
In the US,
Agent-Wickramasinghe shed his medical garb to attend the Ocean Conference
organised by the UN; he committed Sri Lanka to SDG 14 (Sustainable Goal 14)
which permits US led forces to ‘invade’ Sri Lanka in certain circumstances
including those caused by pandemics similar to those being encouraged by
Agent-Moragoda.
It is presumed that
the Auditor General has made sure that Agent-Wickramasinghe has not
misappropriated State funds during his private visit to the US.
The whole concept of
achieving Sustainable Development Goals (there are many SDGs) is a part of the
globalisation process (or colonisation of the world by the US) which has come
under attack by the COVID 19 virus. This will be touched upon in Part 3 of this
series where the main thrust is on what economic guidelines should be followed
in the post-COVID era; Agent-Moragoda, echoing his master’s voice, is pushing
for solutions, within the ‘globalisation’ template.
Ven. Ellawala Medhananda was born on
28th January 1937. He was
named Piyaratne. His father was Ellawala Imiyahami Punchi Mahatthaya and his
mother was Hapurugama Kiri Ethana. Father was a person of some standing in the
village. He owned considerable land. He
was a building contractor and had 12 or so workers under him. He
also engaged in gemming. He was
not very religious, but would read the Pujavali or Jataka Pota before going to
sleep.
Piyaratne was the sixth of eight
children, 5 girls and 2 boys. He first attended a school in Ellawala. On
passing the Grade 5 exam, he attended Ruwanwella Madhya Maha Vidyalaya. According to his biographer, young Piyaratne
met a bhikkhu on the road and decided, then and there, to become one
himself. His mother welcomed the idea.
His father did not, but advised him not to back out halfway, now that he had
taken the decision to be a monk.
At thirteen he went to Napawala
Sumangalaramaya, in Getahatta, hoping to be ordained as a samanera. Instead he
was made to work all day long at household tasks including cooking and washing
up. He did not like it. He left the temple and went home, walking all the way,
not once but thrice. Each time Loku
Hamuduruwo, Ven. Soratha, came to his house and persuaded him to return. Piyaratne returned for the fourth time and was ordained a samanera in 1950.
In 1955 he was sent to Ratmalane
Parama Dhamma chetiya for his education. He
recalled that at the time, the Pirivena was not developed unlike now. The food was inadequate. He got lunu kanda
for breakfast every day. Loku
Hamudurowo gave him five Rupees a month and his mother gave another ten, but
this was not enough for his needs. However, he got pens and copy books as
pirikara.
From Parama Dhamma he moved to
Vidyodaya Pirivena. He stayed at Hunupitiya Gangarama while attending
Vidyodaya. His subjects were Sinhala, history, Sanskrit. Medhananda was at Vidyodaya when it was elevated
to a University. He obtained an honors
degree in Sanskrit, with a class, from there. Then he obtained a second honors degree
from University of Ceylon, Peradeniya, specializing in Sinhala. He also
obtained a Masters degree from University of Sri Jayewardenepura. He started on
a Ph.D thesis but could not complete it,
due, he said, to his teaching commitments.
On graduating, in 1962, Ven.
Medhananda went headlong into secondary school teaching. He taught in several schools in the Uva-Sabaragamuwa
provinces. They were, in sequence,
Badulla Dharmaduta Vidyalaya, Karandana Maha Vidyalaya, Kuruwita Maha Vidyalaya, Uduvaka Siddhartha Vidyalaya, Ellepola Maha
Vidyalaya and Anura Maha Vidyalaya, Getahetta. (Dates
not provided)
W.J.M. Lokubandara , when he became
Minister of Education decided that Ven. Medhananda should be in the Education
Department, not puttering about in secondary schools. He appointed him as assistant director in the Education Department,
where his first task was inspection of schools. Medhananda was also in the
religious education section.. Ven. Medhananda
worked in several zonal and provincial education divisions in Sabaragamuwa and retired from the Eheliyagoda division.
Medhananda‘s first appointment was to
Badulla Dharmaduta Vidyalaya. He stayed
at Kailagoda Vihara while teaching there. Dharmaduta was a leading school in
the district, it had 3000 to 4000 students. It was trilingual. Medhananda taught history, Sinhala and Buddhist
civilization. Medhananda introduced Advanced
level classes to Dharmaduta, with
history as one of the A level subjects. Students
were eager to take up History at A level, Medhananda said. He
also started a sil movement in the school.
Karandana Maha Vidyalaya had
excellent students, recalled Medhananda. They came from good homes and were
well brought up. He taught Buddhist civilization and history at A level. When
Medhananda transferred to Kuruwita these students had no one to teach these two subjects. There was just 8 months
left before the exam. Medhananda got them down to his temple every evening and
taught them.’They did well in the exam.’
Medhananda’s longest period of teaching
was at Kuruwita. At Kuruwita he started
a school magazine ‘Gaveshana’ to encourage pupils to write creatively. Kuruwita
was a large school and the principal was too old to manage the school. MP Nanda
Ellawala asked Medhananda to find a good principal for Kuruwita. Medhananda scouted
around and found a suitable person, the principal of Weligepola Maha Vidyalaya.
Medhananda was next asked to accept the post of principal at
Uduvaka Siddhartha Maha Vidyalaya for one year. it was a neglected school. No
principal ever stayed long .Medhananda
was asked to turn it round.
Uduwaka was in a bad state, recalled Medhananda . The school had just three
classrooms, the lavatory had no door, the access road was so bad that not even
a tractor could go on it. Medhananda obtained donations from well wishers and provided the school with class rooms, an open
air theatre, library, playground and
Budu medura .He also built class
rooms for ‘industrial training.’ He spoke to the owner and obtained the
adjoining land for the school, when others had failed to do so.
The school had no water, Medhananda obtained
water from a stream one kilometer away on a hill. His team did all the work .The wood needed for building was obtained from nearby Danagala
Kanda. Medhananda obtained a permit, cut down trees and with the help of pupils, the logs were carried downhill and loaded to
lorries below.
Medhananda said he too participated in the
physical labor involved. He said he had
carried bricks and sand, dragged wood,
cut drains, and dug the soil when necessary. He was Principal and labourer,
both. He arrived in school early. He returned after
school had closed and stayed there till 7 or 8 pm. Sometimes he slept there, on
a bench, especially when building was in
progress.
Ven. Medhananda found that discipline was very
lax in the school. students came and went as they wished, were absorbed in love
affairs and spent school time in the nearby boutiques. Medhananda put
stop to this. No pupil could leave school once he came in, except with
permission. Parents could not hang around in the school either.
Despite this, some pupils left the school premises during school hours
without permission. Medhananda caned
them before the whole school. Parents protested. Medhananda did not
give in.
Medhananda
created a prefect committee of 15
girls and 15 boys and gave them much
responsibility; They were entrusted with looking after classes when teachers were not available.
Medhananda
insisted that the staff must be punctual and should take less leave. They must go to class
on time. Teachers must move from one class to another quickly, without wasting
time chatting. he was very strict about this.
The staff resented all this for about a month, then settled down said Medhananda .
The number of pupils increased from the
initial 300 to 1500 during Medhananda’s time. they came from Hanwella,
Dehiovita, Eheliyagoda and Karandana. There
were only 5 in the A level class when he arrived. He coached them and all
five entered University to study in the Arts
faculty. The numbers in the A level class then rose to 150.
In addition to the arts stream, Medhananda
introduced commerce. He wanted to start science as well and began to build a
laboratory. Vasudeva Nanayakkara, MP helped with money from the Decentralized Fund.
Then in 1977 the government changed . UNP
came to power. UNP supporters in Uduwaka were opposed to Medhananda . They
wanted Medhananda removed. but the MP of
the area, resisted. He said it was
Medhananda who had developed the school.
A meeting to decide on the building needs of the schools in the area, took place in the Education Department . Medhananda
participated and said that his science building needed to be completed. The MP for the
area, who was also present, said that Uduwaka
did not need a science lab. Medhananda pointed out that pupils from ten miles away attended Uduwaka.
The school served about 10 villages, ‘These
are poor people. Please approve the
remaining money.’ No said the MP,
Uduwaka does not need a science
lab. Education must be done the way I want it.
There was an argument between
Medhananda and MP. A few days later
Medhananda got a letter transferring him
to Ellepola Maha Vidyalaya in
Balangoda as ‘upa guruverayek’. Medhananda
went to Nissanka Wijeyeratne,
then Minister of Education , and got the transfer cancelled, he then returned
to Uduwaka, signed in as principal, and then asked for a transfer.
M.L.M. Aboosally was MP for Balangoda
at the time. He intervened. He personally visited Medhananda and asked Medhananda to name any school he
wanted. Medhananda had no preference.
Aboosally then appointed Ven. Medhananda as principal of Ellepola Maha
Vidyalaya since the principal there was going on transfer. Medhananda observed that it was a Muslim politician who
had come to his aid, not the Sinhalese.
Ellepola Maha Vidyalaya gave him a welcome when he arrived. Ellepola
had sufficient buildings but otherwise,
Ellepola was a bad as Uduwaka, Medhananda recalled. Medhananda
started A level classes and gave the school an open air stage.
Wimal Wickremasinghe, MP for
Eheliyagoda, then asked Ven. Medhananda to take over Anura Maha Vidyalaya, Getahatta . Medhananda improved that school too. The access road was
improved and buildings renovated. Medhananda
added new buildings, including a
library and shrine room. Pupil
count rose from 364 to 2000. There were only 3 pupils in A level class
initially. Under Medhananda , Anura Vidyalaya’s Arts and Commerce results for ‘O’ and ‘A’
levels improved so much, that Anura ended
up as one of the five schools with the best results in Sabaragamuwa.
Medhananda taught Sinhala, History
and Buddhist civilization in the schools he went to. He encouraged students to study these
subjects. He also encouraged them to
explore the historical sites in their area.
At Dharmaduta, he told the pupils to
go and look at historical places in Badulla.
They first went to Matigahatenna pansala, where Medhananda found an
inscription. Pupils then went to Alupota and other archaeological sites in Moneragala. Karandana students were taken on exploration
to Valaellugoda kanda. Advanced level
students from Uduwaka joined Medhananda
in his exploration of the ‘whole of the Sitawaka kingdom.’
When history was removed from the school
syllabus, in 1972, Medhananda tried to compensate. He wrote many essays to the
mass media on history and archaeology and also arranged for an all island
series of talks. There was a good
response, said Medhananda to his biographer.
Medhananda has been among the group who had
agitated for the return of history to the school syllabus. He had very
unflattering things to say about its removal. When
Histoyr was brought back to schools, Medhananda, then in the Ministry of
Education, was on the board responsible for Grade 9 History textbook.
Ven. Medhananda has also had a successful, though
brief, career as a University teacher. After his spell at Kuruwita Maha
Vidyalaya , he was asked to join the University
of Sri Jayewardenepura, his University , as a lecturer. Ven. Kaluachchimulle Mahanama had left for
postgraduate studies abroad and Medhananda was asked to fill in. He was given a room in the Vice Chancellor’s
quarters to live in.
He taught Sanskrit at both undergraduate
and postgraduate level. Medhananda
recalled that some lectures were attended by more than 400
students. University teachers had also attended his lectures. My view (
Kamalika Pieris) is that he would have lectured on history and Buddhist
civilization in addition to Sanskrit and the increased audiences would have been
for these, not Sanskrit.
In
1971 the teaching at Sri Jayewardenepura
was hampered by the fact that the
JVP was giving the lectures inside the University . The University closed. Medhananda and some other s decided
to use the time to translate Sanskrit works to Sinhala.
While teaching at Sri Jayewardenepura,
Medhananda accepted a request to take over Uduwaka Anura Vidyalaya. When the undergraduates
go to know of this, they signed a petition asking that Ven. Medhananda be persuaded to stay on in the University. The petition was
signed by undergraduates of Colombo,
Peradeniya and Sri Jayewardenepura . Medhananda observed that as far as he knew, this was the first time that such a request
had been made. Medhananda said he still
had a copy of this petition.
Medhananda insisted that he must go
to Anura Vidyalaya as he had accepted the position. The University was
determined not to lose his services. Sri Jayewardenepura asked Medhananda to teach on weekends, as a substitute could
not be found. Medhananda readily agreed. He taught in the University during
weekends, for two years, without pay. But the University eventually found a way to pay him, and he got paid for
his full period of work, including arrears. University had kept a complete
record of the lectures he had given. Medhananda
travelled to Nugegoda from
Getahatta in his own car. He owned
a Vauxhall car, ‘in rather poor
condition,’ bought for 3000 rupees.
Ven. Medhananda is a prolific
writer. That is well known. He has
written many books on Sri Lanka history and on Buddhism. Medhanand. also
composed many kavi. His biographer, Kahatapitiya says, Medhananda had learnt
how to write Kavi from ‘Sirisena Maitipe pavat va gena yanu labu Arunaloka
grantha vidyalayen”.
Medhananda has contributed poems and prose writings to Ambavanaya” and ‘Sinhala Bauddhaya’. His first published book of poems was
Athvasi hasna’( date not available). In 1956 he wrote Abhinava swarna mayura sandesaya.’ This was a sandesa sent from Napawala to Natha devale, Kandy,
asking Vishnu to protect rata, jatiya,
agama.
In 1958 he published ‘Sokaye geethaya’ which was based on a story written in English. A relative gave him the money to print this
work and Medhananda had sold a
considerable number of copies, each
priced at fifty cents, which was a big sum those days. His next composition, influenced by the
Sanskritwork on the subject, was Buddha charita maha kavya. ( continued)
High Commissioner Gopal Baglay said he has prayed to Lord Buddha for the prosperity of Sri Lanka and India
Colombo, May 14 (newsin.asia): The new High Commissioner of India in Sri Lanka Gopal Baglay presented his Letter of Credence (credentials) to the Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Thursday in a ceremony held through video-conferencing, a release from the Indian High Commission said.
The High Commissioner thanked the President for arranging the traditional ceremony in an innovative manner and stated that the use of technology to overcome challenges, such as those posed by the global COVID-19 pandemic, has been stressed by the leadership of India as well as Sri Lanka.
He pointed out that today’s novel initiative underscores the significance the two countries attach to their friendly and multi-faceted ties, and also highlights India’s continued commitment to closely working with Sri Lanka in facing common challenges.
The High Commissioner conveyed to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and the people of Sri Lanka warm greetings from the leadership and the people of India. Stressing the immense significance attached by India to its relations with Sri Lanka, he reiterated the abiding commitment at the highest levels in India to developing and strengthening the existing close friendly ties and cooperation between the two countries.
Highlighting the shared Buddhist heritage of Sri Lanka and India, the High Commissioner stated that he had prayed to Lord Buddha through video calls earlier this week to Most Venerable Mahanyake of Asgiriya Chapter and Most Venerable Anunayake of Malwatte Chapter, for peace and prosperity of our two peoples.
The High Commissioner recalled that as Sri Lanka’s closest maritime neighbor, India has been the first responder when Sri Lanka faced difficulties, be it natural calamities, or the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. In this context, the High Commissioner noted that India has sent four consignments of essential life-saving medicines and medical material weighing over 25 tonnes to Sri Lanka in the last few weeks as goodwill support from the people of India.
In addition, Sri Lankan health professionals have also participated in various online-training program organized by eminent health institutions in India on management of COVID 19 pandemic.
Re-iterating Prime Minister Modi’s commitment to jointly fight COVID-19 pandemic, the High Commissioner assured President Gotabaya Rajapaksa of India’s continued cooperation to Sri Lanka, including for economic recovery, in all manners possible.
The High Commissioner recalled that Prime Minister Modi had paid a solidarity visit to Sri Lanka during his first overseas tour after assuming the office in his second term. He noted that the first overseas visit by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to India in November 2019 had imparted significant momentum to the bilateral relationship. Similarly, the first overseas visit by Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa in February 2020 after assuming office to India had guided the implementation of bilateral understandings for shared prosperity and security.
The High Commissioner stated that he looked forward to working closely with the leadership of Sri Lanka for their further implementation as well as deepening India’s long-standing partnership with Sri Lanka as our closest maritime neighbors in South Asia and the Indian Ocean Region.
Prior to his current assignment, High Commissioner Gopal Baglay served as Joint Secretary in Prime Minister’s Office in India since 2017. Earlier, he had worked in the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India including as the Official Spokesperson of the Ministry, Joint Secretary (External Publicity) Division, Joint Secretary (Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran), and Joint Secretary (States) from 2014-’17.
Baglay also served as the Deputy High Commissioner of India to Pakistan (2011-2014), and in Indian Missions in Kathmandu, London, Russia and Ukraine. A Masters of Science, he speaks Hindi, Urdu, English and Russian and has also studied Sanskrit, Ukrainian and Nepali. He is currently observing the stipulated health protocols, at India House.
The coming two weeks are critical to Sri Lanka’s battle against COVID-19, Army Commander Lt. Gen Shavendra Silva said, yesterday, urging people to follow health guidelines. “If people follow these regulations, we will be able to rid the country of COVID-19,” he said.
Silva, who also heads the presidential task force battling the coronavirus, said that the new COVID-19 cases were found only from quarantine centres and no new cases had been reported from the community.
“A lot of sacrifices were made by all to ensure this. If we act responsibly, in the next two weeks, we should be able to overcome this,” he added.
The government has worked out a roadmap for reopening the Bandaranaike International Airport for inbound and outbound passengers with guidelines that include the setting up of a laboratory to test them for COVID-19, Civil Aviation Minister Prasanna Ranatunga said today.
He made these remarks regarding the inauguration of a new passenger terminal and an access road to the airport. He said arrangements had been to reopen the airport anytime soon, subject to clearance by the health authorities.
The Minister said precautions would be taken to ensure that COVID-19 cases were not entering the country.
According to health guidelines, all inbound passengers would be disinfected upon arrival. The disinfectant cubicles have already been installed at the airport. There will be arrangements made for social distancing.
Brandix Apparel Limited has started to export 200 million face masks to the United States, the company said.
Issuing a statement Brandix said that Special Representative of the President and Head of the Presidential Task Force on Economic Revival and Poverty Eradication, Basil Rajapaksa, symbolically handed over the first batch of face masks from a production of 200 million face masks for export by Brandix, to U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka and Maldives Alaina B. Teplitz.
The handover took place at the Brandix Headquarters on 14th May 2020 in the presence of A. Sukumaran – JAAF Chairman, Ashroff Omar – Brandix Group Chief Executive Officer and Ms. Ranga Ranmadugala – Board Member of Brandix Apparel Limited.
U.S Ambassador to Sri Lanka and Maldives Alaina B. Teplitz expressed her appreciation to Mr. Rajapaksa and Brandix. As the world combats this global pandemic, the long friendship between the United States and Sri Lanka is helping both our countries overcome this challenge. Our collaboration has resulted in quality products that can help mitigate the spread of COVID-19. Impressively, the fabric used for the face masks was produced in Sri Lanka, while the chemicals used for the antimicrobial finish were made in the United States, demonstrating a synergy that benefits all. We look forward to continuing our cooperation with the Sri Lankan Government and Brandix to sustain the global supply of PPE.”
Speaking at the occasion, Mr. Rajapaksa said, We are proud that products manufactured in Sri Lanka such as these 200 million face masks are being exported to nations like the US, where it will play a vital role in combatting the COVID-19 pandemic. This collaboration between the two countries has resulted in sustaining our national economy, in addition to paving way for global customers to reach out to Sri Lanka for quality products in the months ahead. We are glad that a leader in apparel like Brandix utilized its resources to lead the way in this journey, giving the global market a glimpse of the advanced infrastructure and agility that is already in place within Sri Lanka, in order to meet the current and future market demands.”
The face masks produced by Brandix have been manufactured combining the efforts of over 15,000 of the company’s Associates and an extended network of several supply chain partners in the country. The face masks, produced as 3-ply and of cotton-based fabric with antimicrobial finish, is stretchable for better fit and meet stringent hygiene standards.
Speaking on the endeavour, Ms. Ranga Ranmadugala – Board Member of Brandix Apparel Limited commented, The apparel industry is a key export revenue generator in Sri Lanka, generating $5.6 billion of exports in the last fiscal year itself. However, the unavoidable decline in trade and production output resulting from the COVID-19 crisis, has left the industry facing its toughest predicament in recent times, impacting Sri Lanka’s positioning against other apparel export markets. In this daunting background, the production of a large volume of face masks for export to the US is truly heartening as it reaffirms the continued trust and partnership the two nations uphold.” She added, Despite the challenging conditions and the tough road ahead, the industry will continue to do its part to combat potential long-term impacts of the pandemic and bring in revenue to replenish the national economy. We are also happy that we can continue to sustain livelihoods through continued production as well. As a leader in apparel, we assure the Government of Sri Lanka that we will do our utmost to support the journey ahead.”
Wesak Day is marked with great veneration in Sri Lanka. It is the day celebrating the birth, enlightenment and passing away of Buddha. It is one of the most colourful events in the world. It is also a day many Buddhists go to the temple to meditate. It was also why LTTE on orders of LTTE Mannar Commander Victor chose 14 May 1985 to kill pilgrims and Buddhist Theros inside Buddhists’ most sacred town of Anuradhapura arriving in buses dressed as Sri Lanka military and then going on a shooting spree that killed 146 civilians and wounding over 80 and killed a further 18 Sinhalese civilians in Wilpattu while escaping. This was just one of over 300 such attacks by LTTE over 3 decades which finally saw an end to LTTE in May 2009. The so-called international community that never bothered to end LTTE attacks against innocent unarmed civilians, is today questioning the Sri Lanka Armed Forces on whether it applied proper laws of war to eliminate LTTE and doing its best to frame charges against Sri Lanka for ending LTTE. It highlights the hypocrisy of the entities supposed to be protecting unarmed civilians that did nothing to question what rules of war LTTE was using to kill people.
LTTE terrorists in arms are no more but there are plenty of terrorists operating in suits and holding foreign passports and today there are more non-Tamils representing LTTE than when Prabakaran was alive. The secret lies in the very rich and powerful LTTE kitty which was $300m annual profits in 2004 and which must be far more now that expense for maintaining combatants and buying arms and ammunition is not required.
The power of money is what prevents justice against all those that were linked to LTTE terrorism covertly/overtly. Today, Tamils that had nothing to do with LTTE, Tamils who realize that LTTE was simply fooling them and Tamils who are fed up, with the lies of their Tamil politicians, want to just live in peace. They have far more important things to think about than an elusive Eelam. But, they are not allowed to live in peace because the political system is such that the miscreants continue to pressure their lives and the justice system is weak not to take action against those that were party to terrorism while the political system is such that the biggest sinners end up getting elected to Parliament and prevent any legislation that will take action against them. The international system is such that lobbying and money can influence them to turn the other way or go on a witch hunt against the victims.
This is the sorry state of affairs we have to live in.
Mourners gather during a mass funeral at St. Sebastian’s Church in Negombo on Tuesday, following a series of coordinated bombings of churches and hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sund
Fast forward to 2019, exactly 10 years after LTTE defeat, members of the other minority has been roped into to quote hate speech from their religious texts and carry out the gruesome multiple mass murder on another religious event – Easter Sunday. Over 300 innocent lives perished including some 46 foreigners when rich and educated Muslims struck 7 venues almost simultaneously. We do not know why or what their objective was but from the recent arrests taking place, it is noted that some high profile people are involved. The arrests also note that these people are camouflaging their ulterior motives behind the positions they hold and this is far more dangerous than a terrorist carrying a gun.
Why do people want to take the life of another? How many do they need to kill to achieve their objective? Can they really reach their objective?
Who are steering people to kill and who are controlling the one’s steering people to kill?
What is important at this juncture is to identify the bigger enemy. Is it the men, women and children who were trained to take up arms and kill or the one’s that provided the training and indoctrination to kill?
We all know the answers, but nothing gets done because of the web of deceit that prevails. All of these murderous entities have powerful political ‘friends’ and monetary backing that are able to use people and propaganda to their advantage. That is how LTTE has prevailed and that is why Easter Sunday plotters and planners are still on the loose.
The power of money is such that they are able to get other influential people to canvas for their release, the power of propaganda is such that they can present any wicked mind as an innocent lamb. The apparatus is run and influenced by money and able to play with people’s minds and divert, distract or completely change people’s perceptions – they can make the most innocent person into a psychopath and a psychopath as an innocent being.
Is it a surprise that in 1945 when World War 2 ended there was no other conflicts plaguing the world? Today, apart from 11 countries, every country in the world is having some sort of conflict. Who is benefitting by these conflicts? Who are the actual victims?
One thing that is clear and should be understood is that – if people are going to back evil plotters just because he/she belongs to their community or is a member of their religion, the world will never see peace because people who back the wicked are themselves aiding and abetting murder indirectly.
People must not simply denounce LTTE. LTTE is just a name but that name is given life by people who promote it – therefore when denouncing LTTE people must openly denounce all those linked to LTTE (Tamils, non-Tamils)
People must not simply denounce the Easter Sunday bombers (they are now dead) people must now identify and denounce the one’s linked to them, the one’s that planned and plotted this crime.
People must not defend wrong doers just because they belong to one’s community or religion. Let this be a start to change!
The Island on Monday 11, 2020 reported: ‘Samagi Jana Balawegaya
leader Sajith Premadasa, yesterday, called for an end to the discriminatory and
prejudicial manner in which the government conducted the last rites of Muslims
who had died of Covid-19, and continued racist attacks on Muslims.
“Racist attacks perpetrated against our Muslim brethren is
abhorrent and should be confronted by all of us. Such heinous acts are contrary
to the noble teachings of the Lord Buddha”’
According to another news report in the same newspaper, All
Ceylon Makkal Congress leader Rishad Bathiudeen in a long petition to the
president appeals to him ‘to permit Muslims dying of Covid-19 to be buried and
not cremated…’.
We saner ordinary Sri Lankans feel that both the defeated
presidential candidate and the controversial Muslim politico who has been
under a cloud for some time now accused of causing environmental damage to the
Wilpattu forest reserve, and considered worthy of being questioned in
the course of fresh investigations being conducted into last year’s April 21
terror bombings, are making a mountain out of a molehill to gain some political
advantage out of the Covid-19 emergency. Their desperate pretensions need not
worry anyone and need not be answered.
It was regrettable that even the sedate Bimal Ratnayake of the
JVP, former MP, lamented alleged discrimination against Muslims, who, he
said, should be allowed to have an honourable burial if they are not let live
honourably (as reported in lankacnews a couple of days ago). I never believed
the formerly decent Bimal Ratnayake could utter falsehoods, but now I do.
UNP parliamentary candidate Oshala Herath has filed a fundamental
rights petition (May 11, lankacnews) before the Supreme Court challenging the
practice of cremating bodies of Muslims who died of Covid-19 infection. Whether
the judiciary will intervene to countermand a vital scientific recommendation
of the health authorities of the government appointed task force to maintain
and control the spread of the deadly Covid-19 contagion is yet to be
seen, as my common sense tells me.
However, opinion in the Muslim world about cremating bodies of
dead Muslim Covid-19 victims is divided. Most sensible Muslims accept cremation
as a scientific imperative which should be accommodated with necessary
adjustments if possible to make it compatible with their religious beliefs in
the prevailing situation. A report by Agaddir Ali carried in Gulfnews.com
on April 3, 2020 under the headline: ‘Coronavirus: Sharjah Ruler issues
directive on burials’ ran:
‘His Highness Dr Shaikh Sultan bin Mohamed Al Qasimi, Supreme
Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah, on Friday directed the Department of
Islamic Affairs in Sharjah not to allow the burial of any coronavirus victims
in Al Saja’a area of Sharjah’
(Doesn’t ‘not to allow the burial of’ in this context mean
‘allow the cremation of’?)
A month ago (April 12), Colombo Times carried this piece of news:
‘President of the All-Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama Sheikh Rizwie Mufthi said here
in a TV interview that the ashes of the dead person who is cremated could be
buried with due Islamic rites in a Muslim graveyard’.
The General Secretariat of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation
(OIC) has issued a statement (as reported in The Island of May 9, 2020 and in
other print and online sources) expressing its ‘deep concern over reports on
escalating hate speech and hostility towards Muslims in Sri Lanka and rejected
the publication of allegations ….(against)… the members of the Muslim
community…………… as responsible for the spread of the new coronavirus epidemic
(COVID-19) in this country, the authorities’ cremation of bodies of the Muslim
victims of the pandemic, and the arrest of members of the community who reject
these practices’. The OIC ‘reaffirms its position rejecting all policies and
practices targeting the rights of Muslims anywhere, and calls on the
authorities in Sri Lanka to ensure the safety and security and rights of the
Muslim community, a commitment to respect their practices and religious
rituals, safeguard their dignity and stand firmly against all parties behind
the promotion of hatred, Islamophobia, and anti-Muslim sentiment in Sri
Lanka’.
While thus articulating its cautious expression of concern, the
OIC stresses the importance of synergetic global cooperation among nations in
the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. My description of the OIC’s ‘expression of
concern’ as cautious is because it diplomatically expresses concern only over
‘reports’, rather than perceived or actual instances, of discrimination against
the Muslim citizens of Sri Lanka. We Sri Lankans know that these allegations
are fanciful fabrications.
The objective way The Island reported on the issuing of the OIC
statement was not followed elsewhere. The tamilguardian and the Daily FT
websites ran the headline: ‘OIC deeply concerned over the targeting of
Muslims………’, and Colombo Times similarly cried out ‘OIC rejects targeting
Muslims in Sri Lanka…’., where mere allegation was reified as reality, perhaps
in the interest of journalistic sensationalism.
The relevant Sri Lankan government authorities will respond to the
OIC statement in an appropriate manner if they consider it important to do so.
I as an ordinary Sri Lankan think that the document is based on misinformation
provided by some source/s in Colombo that is sympathetic to one or more of a
number of fundamentalist Islamic groups that are said to be active outside the
mainstream Muslim community in Sri Lanka. Muslims form some 9.7% of the
country’s multiethnic, multi-religious population. Although it has been
issued from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where the OIC is headquartered, it refers to
Sri Lanka as ‘this country’, which suggests that it originated in Colombo. So,
the voice is likely to be that of the fundamentalist sympathisers in Sri Lanka.
It does not reflect the opinion of the peace-loving mainstream Muslim
community.
Those reports about hate speech and general hostility towards
Muslims in Sri Lanka that the OIC communique mentions are baseless. Sri
Lanka is a democracy. People have a right to criticise persons, groups, and
institutions freely, but without infringing their rights in the process.
Criticising persons, institutions, or ideologies that deserve such
criticism cannot be should not be identified as hate speech. That some young
Muslim men vandalised a number of Buddha statues in Mavanella, and that
they had some relationship with a fundamentalist terrorist group that had a
secret arms dump at a place called Wanathavilluwa are facts. That the April 21
terror attacks om some churches and hotels last year were carried out by young
Muslim suicide bombers is also a fact. However, ordinary Muslims were not
attacked in retaliation by Sri Lankans of other faiths including the victim
Catholic community.
Actually, it was not the rights of the Muslims that were being
violated in this connection during the six months prior to the election of the
current president followed by the change of government. Before November there
was general dissatisfaction in the country with the lackadaisical way
investigations were being conducted into these heinous crimes, barely a month
ahead of the tenth anniversary of wiping out Tamil separatist terrorism. Some
tangible progress has been made since, with breakthrough discoveries of secret
hideouts, training centres, and arms caches of terrorist suspects, and some
significant arrests by the CID, which seems to be working with fresh
initiative. Media are being apprised of the progress of the investigations with
utmost care and necessary restraint so as not to unnecessarily expose the
normal innocent Muslim community (amongst whom the terrorists were taking
refuge incognito) to the threat of indiscriminate suspicion and social
exclusion. Some powerful Muslim politicos who were flourishing in previous
administrations thanks to their conscienceless ability to switch allegiance to
the winning party or alliance with each change of government are being
suspected of having had undisclosed relationships with the terror
suspects.
As reported in the media, latest revelations made in the
course of investigations seem to confirm those suspicions. Naturally, other
people tend to look askance at them when these individuals appear to be too
worried about performance of funeral rites that tend to violate the health
guidelines laid down for the safe disposal of bodies of victims of the deadly,
highly contagious Covid-19 disease, which is still killing hundreds of
thousands around the world.
The Island on Monday 11, 2020 reported: ‘Samagi Jana Balawegaya
leader Sajith Premadasa, yesterday, called for an end to the discriminatory and
prejudicial manner in which the government conducted the last rites of Muslims
who had died of Covid-19, and continued racist attacks on Muslims.
“Racist attacks perpetrated against our Muslim brethren is
abhorrent and should be confronted by all of us. Such heinous acts are contrary
to the noble teachings of the Lord Buddha”’
According to another news report in the same newspaper, All
Ceylon Makkal Congress leader Rishad Bathiudeen in a long petition to the
president appeals to him ‘to permit Muslims dying of Covid-19 to be buried and
not cremated…’.
We saner ordinary Sri Lankans feel that both the defeated
presidential candidate and the controversial Muslim politico who has been
under a cloud for some time now accused of causing environmental damage to the
Wilpattu forest reserve, and considered worthy of being questioned in
the course of fresh investigations being conducted into last year’s April 21
terror bombings, are making a mountain out of a molehill to gain some political
advantage out of the Covid-19 emergency. Their desperate pretensions need not
worry anyone and need not be answered.
It was regrettable that even the seemingly sedate Bimal Ratnayake
of the JVP, former MP, lamented alleged discrimination against Muslims,
who, he said, should be allowed to have an honourable burial if they are not
let live honourably (as reported in lankacnews a couple of days ago). I never
believed the formerly decent Bimal Ratnayake could utter falsehoods, but now I
do.
UNP parliamentary candidate Oshala Herath has filed a fundamental
rights petition (May 11, lankacnews) before the Supreme Court challenging the
practice of cremating bodies of Muslims who died of Covid-19 infection. Whether
the judiciary will intervene to countermand a vital scientific recommendation
of the health authorities of the government appointed task force to maintain
and control the spread of the deadly Covid-19 contagion is yet to be
seen, as my common sense tells me.
However, opinion in the Muslim world about cremating bodies of
dead Muslim Covid-19 victims is divided. Most sensible Muslims accept cremation
as a scientific imperative which should be accommodated with necessary
adjustments if possible to make it compatible with their religious beliefs in
the prevailing situation. A report by Agaddir Ali carried in Gulfnews.com
on April 3, 2020 under the headline: ‘Coronavirus: Sharjah Ruler issues
directive on burials’ ran:
‘His Highness Dr Shaikh Sultan bin Mohamed Al Qasimi, Supreme
Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah, on Friday directed the Department of
Islamic Affairs in Sharjah not to allow the burial of any coronavirus victims
in Al Saja’a area of Sharjah’
(Doesn’t ‘not to allow the burial of’ in this context mean
‘allow the cremation of’?)
A month ago (April 12), Colombo Times carried this piece of news:
‘President of the All-Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama Sheikh Rizwie Mufthi said here
in a TV interview that the ashes of the dead person who is cremated could be
buried with due Islamic rites in a Muslim graveyard’.
The General Secretariat of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation
(OIC) has issued a statement (as reported in The Island of May 9, 2020 and in
other print and online sources) expressing its ‘deep concern over reports on
escalating hate speech and hostility towards Muslims in Sri Lanka and rejected
the publication of allegations ….(against)… the members of the Muslim
community…………… as responsible for the spread of the new coronavirus epidemic
(COVID-19) in this country, the authorities’ cremation of bodies of the Muslim
victims of the pandemic, and the arrest of members of the community who reject
these practices’. The OIC ‘reaffirms its position rejecting all policies and
practices targeting the rights of Muslims anywhere, and calls on the
authorities in Sri Lanka to ensure the safety and security and rights of the
Muslim community, a commitment to respect their practices and religious
rituals, safeguard their dignity and stand firmly against all parties behind
the promotion of hatred, Islamophobia, and anti-Muslim sentiment in Sri Lanka’.
In this statement, quarantining is interpreted as arrest!
While thus articulating its cautious expression of concern, the
OIC stresses the importance of synergetic global cooperation among nations in
the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. My description of the OIC’s ‘expression of
concern’ as cautious is because it diplomatically expresses concern only over
‘reports’, rather than perceived or actual instances, of discrimination against
the Muslim citizens of Sri Lanka. We Sri Lankans know that these allegations
are fanciful fabrications.
The tamilguardian and the Daily FT websites ran the headline: ‘OIC
deeply concerned over the targeting of Muslims………’, and Colombo Times similarly
cried out ‘OIC rejects targeting Muslims in Sri Lanka…’., where mere allegation
was reified as reality, perhaps in the interest of journalistic
sensationalism.
The relevant Sri Lankan government authorities will respond to the
OIC statement in an appropriate manner if they consider it important to do so.
I as an ordinary Sri Lankan think that the document is based on misinformation
provided by some source/s in Colombo that is sympathetic to one or more of a
number of fundamentalist Islamic groups that are said to be active outside the
mainstream Muslim community in Sri Lanka, who form some 9.7% of the country’s multiethnic,
multi-religious population. Although it has been issued from Jeddah,
Saudi Arabia, where the OIC is headquartered, it refers to Sri Lanka as ‘this
country’, which suggests that it originated in Colombo. So, the voice is likely
to be that of the fundamentalist sympathisers in Sri Lanka. It does not reflect
the opinion of the peace-loving mainstream Muslim community.
Those reports about hate speech and general hostility towards
Muslims in Sri Lanka that the OIC communique mentions are baseless. Sri
Lanka is a democracy. People have a right to criticise persons, groups, and
institutions freely, but without infringing their rights in the process.
Criticising persons, institutions, or ideologies that deserve such
criticism cannot be and should not be identified as hate speech. That some
young Muslim men vandalised a number of Buddha statues in Mavanella, and
that they had some relationship with a fundamentalist terrorist group that had
a secret arms dump at a place called Wanathavilluwa are facts. That the April
21 terror attacks on some churches and hotels last year were carried out by
young Muslim suicide bombers is also a fact. However, ordinary Muslims were not
attacked in retaliation by Sri Lankans of other faiths including the victim
Catholic community.
Actually, it was not the rights of the Muslims that were being
violated in this connection during the six months prior to the election of the
current president followed by a change of government. Before November 2019
there was general dissatisfaction in the country with the lackadaisical way
investigations were being carried out into these heinous crimes, barely a month
ahead of the tenth anniversary of wiping out Tamil separatist terrorism. Some
tangible progress has been made since the re-opening of investigations with
breakthrough discoveries of secret hideouts, training centres, and arms caches
of terrorist suspects, and some significant arrests by the CID, which seems to
be working with fresh initiative. Media are being apprised of the progress of
the investigations with utmost care and necessary restraint so as not to
unnecessarily expose the normal innocent Muslim community (amongst whom the
terrorists were taking refuge incognito) to the threat of indiscriminate
suspicion and social exclusion. Some powerful Muslim politicos who were
flourishing in previous administrations thanks to their conscienceless ability
to switch allegiance to the winning party or alliance with each change of
government are being suspected of having had undisclosed relationships with the
terror suspects.
As reported in the media, latest revelations made in
the course of investigations seem to confirm those suspicions. Naturally, other
people tend to look askance at them when these individuals appear to be too
worried about the performance of funeral rites that tend to violate the
health guidelines laid down by the authorities for the safe disposal of bodies
of victims of the deadly, highly contagious Covid-19 disease, which is still
killing hundreds of thousands across the world. Should we worry about the
selfish concerns of those politicians who are indulging in a desperate struggle
for political survival, clutching at straws?
You basically just want to prepare as though you know you’re
going to get a nasty respiratory bug, like bronchitis or pneumonia. You just
have the foresight to know it might come your way!
Things you should actually buy ahead of time (not sure
what the obsession with toilet paper is?):
• Kleenex,
• Paracetamol,
• whatever your generic, mucus thinning *cough
medicine* of choice is (check the label and make sure you’re not
doubling up on Paracetamol)
• *Honey and lemon* can work just as well!
• *Vicks* vaporub for your chest is also a great
suggestion.
• *a humidifier* would be a good thing to buy and use
in your room when you go to bed overnight. (You can also just turn the shower
on hot and sit in the bathroom breathing in the steam).
• *If you have a history of asthma* and you have a
prescription inhaler, make sure the one you have isn’t expired and refill
it/get a new one if necessary.
• *Meals* This is also a good time to meal prep: make a big batch of your favorite
soup to freeze and have on hand.
• *Hydrate (drink!) hydrate, hydrate!*
Stock up on whatever your favorite clear fluids are to drink – though tap
water is fine you may appreciate some variety!
• *For symptom management* and a fever
over 38°c, take Paracetamol rather than Ibuprofen.
• *Rest lots*. You should not be leaving your
house! Even if you are feeling better you may will still be infectious
for fourteen days and older people and those with existing health conditions
should be avoided!
• *Wear gloves and a mask* to avoid
contaminating others in your house
• *Isolate* in your bedroom if not
living alone, ask friends and family to leave supplies outside to avoid
contact.
• *Sanitize* your bed linen and
clothes frequently by washing and clean your bathroom with recommended
sanitizers.
*You DO NOT NEED TO GO TO THE HOSPITAL unless* you are having
trouble breathing or your fever is very high (over 39°C) and unmanaged with
meds.
90% of healthy adult cases thus far have been
managed at home with basic rest/hydration/over-the-counter meds.
*If you are worried or in distress or feel
your symptoms are getting worse*
*Preexisting risks* If you have a pre-existing lung condition
(COPD, emphysema, lung cancer) or are on immunosuppressants, now is a great
time to talk to your Doctor or specialist about what they would like you to do
if you get sick.
*Children-* One major relief to you parents
is that kids do VERY well with coronavirus— they usually bounce back in a few
days (but they will still be infectious), Just use pediatric
dosing .
*Be calm and prepare rationally* and
everything will be fine.
[4/1, 10:04 PM] Karen Allen: This
is to inform us all that the pH for corona virus varies from 5.5 to 8.5.
All we need to do, to beat corona virus, we
need to take more of an alkaline foods that are above the above pH level of the
Virus.
Some of which are:
*Lemon – 9.9pH*
*Lime – 8.2pH*
*Avocado – 15.6pH*
*Garlic – 13.2pH*
*Mango – 8.7pH*
*Tangerine – 8.5pH*
*Pineapple – 12.7pH*
*Dandelion – 22.7pH*
*Orange – 9.2pH*
How do you know you have coronavirus?
1. *Itching in the throat,*
2. *Dry throat,*
3. *Dry cough.*
4. High temperature
5. Shortness of breath
6. Loss of smell or taste
So where you notice these things quickly take
warm water with lemon and drink.
I am not a medic, but in this Covid-19 pandemic, the most qualified medical experts or scientists appear to be clueless as we are as to how Covid-19 behaves. Hence, I like to put the above question for our medics to ponder, giving my own observations and those of a few others.
A few days ago I wrote an article that was published in this forum giving a link to a video showing how the 5G mobile transmissions affect bees by the distortion effects it has on earth’s magnetic field. That discussion explains how a compound called ‘cryptochrome’ present in all living beings including viruses are being shaped by the earth’s magnetic field and helps them to find a sense of direction on earth. So, it is natural to think that man-made EMFs of very high frequencies ( in GigaHertz) affect the covids as well as all animals including we humans. I give that video link once again below:
I give below another link to a write up by an expert who had worked in the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) of the US giving the very bad effects of high-frequency radio communication.
I have heard that living very near to transformers or staying or playing in fields over which high tension power lines cross also cause cancer and leukemia type of diseases due to high-frequency radiations coming from them. I had to point out all these to stop a 5G testing program in Colombo.
The point I am trying to make is that it is mostly in countries where 5G is being used where we observe the effects of Covid-19 is felt most. In the case of patient 32 in Korea about 10,000 worshipers were packed to a single hall and an enormous amount of radiation of 5G,4G, etc would have been concentrated in that building. Even in Singapore, the sudden upsurge of cases occurred in congested living spaces of construction workers who no doubt would have used mobiles all the time. Similarly in all those cruise ships and battleships where thousands of passengers and sailors got affected there would have been heavy mobile users. Even in the case of the Welisara Naval base, those young guys would have been using smartphones most of the time. Even the non-smart phones use high-frequency waves (~ 1.2 GHz) with sufficient power to give a headache if used for a long time.
Therefore
my humble opinion is that our medics should study how Covid-19 has spread in SL
and see whether there is a link to the two.
