Swiss embassy caught on the wrong foot?

Colombo, December 1 (newsin.asia): The Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry said in a press release on Sunday that there is clear evidence” that the sequence of events and the timeline of the alleged abduction” of a Swiss embassy staffer, as formally presented by the Swiss Mission on behalf of the alleged victim to the police, did not in any way correspond with the actual movements of the alleged victim on that date.

That was borne out by witness interviews and technical evidence, including Uber records, CCTV footage, telephone records and the GPS data,” the press release said.

In the light of the incontrovertible evidence presented by the law enforcement authorities to the Swiss Mission, it is underlined that investigations will need to be continued to ascertain the actual facts surrounding this allegation.”

For this, the alleged victim will have to be interviewed by the law enforcement authorities,” the release said.

Further: Given that the alleged victim had also claimed that she had sustained injuries during the alleged abduction, it was noted that she should be presented for a medical examination by a Judicial Medical Officer in Sri Lanka.”

The Embassy has been requested to cooperate fully with the Government of Sri Lanka to establish the veracity of the claims relating to this alleged incident.”

But till date, the embassy has not allowed the police to interview her saying that she is too traumatized to make a statement.

Alleged Abduction

Sunday Times said that the incident is said to have occurred just after 5 p.m. on Monday (November 25) along R.G. Senanayake Mawatha (former Gregory’s Road) where the Swiss embassy is located. In the vicinity are the Japanese embassy and the Australian high commission.

The female Sri Lankan embassy staffer was an aide to the lady Migration Officer in the Swiss embassy, a national of that country. For reasons of security and for their safety their names are not being divulged.

When the local staffer had walked out of a school nearby, to her office premises, five persons in a white Toyota Corolla car had followed her, bundled her into the vehicle and driven away. She had been released only two hours later.

She complained that she was sexually molested. The abductors had bound her and covered her eyes with a black cloth,” said a diplomatic source familiar with the incident.

She was questioned on why she helped her embassy in the issue of a visa to CID Chief Inspector Nishantha de Silva.” She was questioned on this repeatedly. At times, they threatened her of consequences she would have to face if an answer was not given, said the source.

Some Colombo papers reported that the Swiss embassy has asked for government’s permission to take the employee away to Switzerland for she feared that Sri Lanka will not be safe for her any more.

Chief Inspector Nishantha de Silva, who was head of the Organized Crimes Investigation Division of the CID, fled Sri Lanka on November 24 with his family, clearly with the connivance of the Swiss embassy.

The government has learnt that he has sought asylum in Switzerland. It alleged that Nishantha de Silva had been used by the powers-that-be in the then government and some Western embassies were motivating the officer to pursue cases against some people including those in the forces and the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) and fix them.

After Nishantha de Silva’s escape, the government alerted the authrorities to watch out for over 700 investigating officers who might try to flee the country.

Courtesy Adaderana

The Ministry of Foreign Relations stated that the timeline of the alleged criminal incident against a local staff member of the Swiss Embassy, as presented by the Embassy, does not correspond with the actual movements of the alleged victim on the relevant date.

The Ministry, issuing a statement, states that the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) launched an investigation on the matter despite not being able to interview the alleged victim through law enforcement officials.

The investigations have found that the sequence of events and timeline of the alleged incident, as presented by the Swiss Mission on behalf of the alleged victim, did not correspond with the actual movements of the victim on that date according to witness interviews and technical evidence, including Uber records, CCTV footage, telephone records, and the GPS data, stated the Ministry.

Secretary to the Ministry of Foreign Relations and Secretary of Defense and relevant officials have, this evening (01), briefed the Ambassador for Switzerland in Sri Lanka and the Deputy Chief of Mission on the results of the investigation.

Stating that further investigations, including interview of the alleged victim by law enforcement officials, must be carried out on the matter, the Ministry stated that the alleged victim must be presented for a medical examination by a Judicial Medical Officer in Sri Lanka as the victim had also claimed that she had sustained injuries during the events.

Full statement issued by the Ministry:

Media Release by Ministry of Foreign Relations by Ada Derana on Scribd

උපුටා ගැන්ම හිරු නිව්ස්

ස්විට්සර්ලන්ත තානාපති කාර්යාල නිලධාරිනියක් පැහැර ගත්තේ යැයි පැවසෙන සිද්ධිය නව රජය හා රට, ජාත්‍යන්තරයේ අපකීර්තියට පත් කිරීම සඳහා සිතාමතා සකස් කළ නාට්‍යයක් බව ආචාර්ය පූජ්‍ය මැදගොඩ අබේතිස්ස හිමියන් පවසනවා.

මේ අතර, මෙම සිද්ධිය සම්බන්ධයෙන් දේශපාලනඥයන් කිහිපදෙනෙක් ද අදහස් පළ කළා.

We sure hope the Swiss will not be caught doing a Rajitha on Sri Lanka’s new Govt?

Doing a Rajitha is what we now call the fake white van story using a dressed up driver. Humour aside, the Swiss claims an injustice has happened to its local staffer, who is a Sri Lankan citizen so we are all naturally concerned because she is a Sri Lankan citizen. We are no investigators but we don’t like the negative and biased publicity against Sri Lanka by very unfair remarks made by Swiss authorities and their silence in correcting distortions spread via international media. This is why we are asking questions that the international readers should also be thinking about without accepting the lies spread regarding this supposed ‘temporary kidnapping’ & questioning. Up till 30^th November, the Swiss did not say anything about her being ‘ill’ (5 days after the temporary kidnapping) but we predicted this would be the likely excuse the Swiss embassy would give. We also predicted the likely scenario of transporting her & family to Switzerland and now 1^st December the Swiss makes request to ‘air ambulance’ her! So case gets closed with international tarnishing campaign done against Sri Lanka. Sorry, but Sri Lanka is not ready to be humiliated until we come to the bottom of this. Whoever has done this – we want to know who it is and we don’t care who it is – we just want to know who!

This woman is a local recruit. She therefore, has no diplomatic immunity. She cannot be kept by force inside an embassy compound. Keeping her inside the embassy compound since 25^th November 2019 is a fundamental rights violation. What about her family? Are they inside too? If not, this family has every right to see their daughter, mother, wife!

Why was she not allowed to leave the embassy compound since 25^th November? The embassy could have requested police escort to her home which the Foreign Ministry would have obliged.

Why did the world get to know this ‘temporary kidnapping’ only via a web portal?

Why did the Swiss Foreign Ministry make a statement only on 27^th November?

Why is the Swiss authorities denying Sri Lankan police to question her?

The Swiss officials can be present at questioning – they can even hire a lawyer for her!

If the abductors knew her identity enough to abduct her, only we the innocent public don’t know who she is, so what’s the problem? If the CID abducted her then they would know her identity, but given that the police don’t know who she is, that leaves out any CID abducting her! The Sri Lanka Foreign Ministry may have a list of staff and probably that will include her name.

How did a local recruit get to handle such important subjects as handling files of people discretely being helped out of Sri Lanka by a foreign embassy in exchange for sensitive information!

The truth of this will come out only during next Geneva sessions. So we await to see what the West will use against Sri Lanka using information handed by Nishantha Silva in exchange for asylum!

After 5 days since the incident happened the Swiss embassy says due to a deteriorating health condition, the victim is currently not in a state to testify”. How did her health ‘rapidly deteriorate’ an ailment that the Swiss did not inform on 26^th Nov, 27^th Nov, 28^th Nov, 29^th Nov and only on 30^th Nov the Swiss say her health is ‘rapidly deteriorating’?

If the woman is ill after being asked to give a statement it is only right that Sri Lankan medical attention is given to her immediately. Has the Swiss embassy given her medical attention? If not why? Shouldn’t the police seek magistrate intervention for both questioning and examination of this Sri Lankan citizen by a Sri Lankan doctor?

Swiss Embassy Colombo, don’t get us wrong, but as members of the general public, we want to certainly find out who did this and our questions are only based on what your embassy, your western media and others are publicly stating. We are only breaking down what is in public domain and asking questions.

If she was put into a car, blindfolded, where was the car heading, whereabouts Gregory’s Rd did this kidnapping take place – this is where some 100 US Marines are also residing. Was she walking from her car to the Embassy or was she coming by bus and walking down the road when the car came to abduct her? Did she scream, refuse to get in or was she dragged inside the car and how many did she see inside before she was blindfolded, if at all that too took place. Why did no one see all of this drama happening? What time did it happen?

Where did the car drop her off – before the embassy, after the embassy or on another street? Did they take her belongings, did they steal her money or did they take her phone? Or was it just a nice tete-a-tete. We are dying to hear what she was asked.

The Island newspaper now reports of the Swiss requesting an ‘air ambulance’ which in other words imply to be flown to Switzerland where she will join Nishantha Silva & family, a naval officer and probably scores more of others who have fled Sri Lanka for refuge in Switzerland the supposed to be ‘NEUTRAL’ country!

The Island newspaper also says Sources said that Norwegians were among those who secretly moved out Sri Lankans, including LTTE cadres over the years. Sources recalled how Rajapaksa administration sought an explanation from former Norwegian Ambassador in Colombo Hilde Haraldstad regarding clandestine moving of Sri Lankans via the BIA”

So the Swiss wants to end this drama by simply claiming she is sick and flying her off to Switzerland. Move over Hollywood!

So she isn’t in a condition to answer a few questions but she is well enough to fly to Switzerland the fastest of flight times is 14hours, longest being 32 hours!

The Sri Lanka Foreign Ministry must understand the bigger picture here – it’s not just immigration formalities. This incident cannot be allowed to be swept under the carpet by simply allowing this local recruit to leave the country along with her family after making accusations which have now spread across the world.

According to Sunday Times from what has obviously been leaked by the Swiss embassy for public consumption

http://www.sundaytimes.lk/191201/columns/swiss-embassy-employee-abduction-shakes-new-govt-380360.html

The local employee is an assistant to the Swiss Lady Migration Officer

The local staffer had dropped her child to a school nearby and was walking to the embassy when a WHITE TOYOTA COROLLA (NOT WHITE VAN) had bundled her into the vehicle and driven away. New York Times please make correction!

However, this is what the Swiss Foreign Ministry spokesman said on 27^th November 2019 ‘local employee of the embassy was detained against her will on the street and threatened at length by unidentified men in order to force her to disclose embassy-related information’.

Interestingly from what the snippets leaked to the Sunday Times is that in between the 2hours she was ‘temporarily abducted’ she was blind folded & bound (which can be tested), questioned on why she helped her embassy give visa to CID CI Nishantha de Silva, threatened if answers were not given and sexually molested too (this too can be medically tested)

However, the Swiss Foreign Ministry made NO MENTION of any Nishantha Silva in their official statement and Nishantha Silva & family had already fled Sri Lanka on Sunday 24^th Nov)

Quite a lot of fiction seems to be getting in the way of facts. It is no secret that ‘bogus witness’ and third party accounts were the basis of every UNHRC resolution/report against Sri Lanka in such a scenario while ‘unknown sources’ ‘questioning NGOs’ ‘white vans’ ‘intimidations of NGOs’ going to get visa are going to be used as a blanket to protect the lies spread against a democratically elected government, we general public have every right to ask questions and expect answers.

Swiss Embassy Colombo, this local staffer is only your employee, hope you are paying her EPF/ETF, she is a citizen of Sri Lanka and we are concerned that she is being kept inside an embassy compound and if her family is not inside the compound it means she is denied access to them by the Swiss authorities. Perhaps not seeing her family since 25^th November is more traumatic for her!

Swiss Embassy should know when a crime has taken place, in whatever part of the world, it is the police who are tasked to take a statement and then start an inquiry and conclude the investigation. This is an universal procedure. Enough and more sensitive cases have had to face questioning. You will remember how the Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade, was arrested & questioned by US State Dept and she was both a diplomat & India’s Deputy Consul General.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/india-protests-arrest-diplomat-devyani-khobragade-in-new-york/

So, why is the Swiss Embassy making such a fuss over a questioning which is an universal procedure? Why don’t they hire the best Sri Lankan lawyer to represent her!

Sri Lanka needs to clear its name and we as citizens want to find out who the culprit is – we don’t care if it is the Govt, the Opposition, the Embassy or anyone else – all that we want to know is the truth. Did such an incident take place or didn’t it. If such an incident did take place we want to know who did it and if such an incident did not take place we demand to know all of the players who contributed to humiliate and tarnish the image of Sri Lanka.

We sure hope all this doesn’t end up a case of someone’s fertile imagination backfiring!

Shenali D Waduge

In 2015 regime change took place and common candidate Maithripala Sirisena was elected as President. Democracy and elections were ‘virtues’ handed to former colonies by former colonial invaders. Diplomacy is part and parcel of international relations and enshrined in code of conduct via Vienna Convention/Protocols. When a candidate is voted victor in an election it is only polite that a congratulatory message is issued even to the most personally hated candidate. Isn’t that gentlemen’s behavior and part and parcel of the white man’s ‘civilizing’ burden? No Western leader can boast of getting a mandate from their voters as the one given to President Gotabaya and it is very disappointing that Western world leaders have chosen to be shallow in their diplomacy by not sending a customary congratulatory message.

This is how the world bodies and foreign governments reacted to Maithripala Sirisena becoming 6^th President of Sri Lanka

United Nations

UN General Secretary Ban Ki Moon congratulated the Sri Lankan people

“on the successful conclusion of the presidential election”,

UNSG praised the election commission for its “professionalism”

European Union

EU Foreign Affairs High Representative Federica Mogherini issuing statement on 9^th January itself declared “EU looks forward to working with him to further develop its relations with Sri Lanka”

Australia

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop on 10^th January 2015 congratulated Sri Lankans on a peaceful and orderly election.

PM Tony Abbott telephoned President Sirisena

Norway

Prime Minister Erna Solberg on 9 January 2015 congratulated the Sri Lankan people and President Sirisena, saying she looked forward to working with the new government to “promote a peaceful, inclusive and democratic Sri Lanka”

UK

PM David Cameron on 9 January 2015 congratulated President Sirisena and encouraging him to co-operate with UN investigation into alleged war crimes “so that the issues of the past can be addressed and the country can move forward to a brighter, peaceful future where all Sri Lankans can play a role”

Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond issued a statement commending the Sri Lanka people “on the successful completion of their elections”  

USA

President Barack Obama on 9 January 2015 congratulated “the people of Sri Lanka on the successful and peaceful conclusion” to the election and Sirisena on his victory, saying that it was “a symbol of hope for those who support democracy all around the world”

Secretary of State John Kerry issued a statement praising Sri Lanka people “on the successful conclusion of their elections”, commending Rajapaksa for accepting the resulting and saying that he looked “forward to working with President-elect Maithripala Sirisena”

Now see the above reactions against the reactions to Gotabaya Rajapakse’s election victory!

Gotabaya Rajapakse was announced President on 17^th November 2019. But the reactions of international bodies & governments even for diplomacy sake has been dismal.

Its 1^st of December 2019 and so far

UN Secretary General has NOT issued a congratulatory message

EU issued a statement

We congratulate President Rajapaksa and look forward to working with him to uphold Sri Lanka’s commitments to implement international conventions on fundamental rights and to continue efforts aimed at improving governance, human rights and reconciliation”.

USA Embassy has issued a statement

“We commend the Elections Commission, civil society and government authorities for promoting a peaceful election. We are ready to continue our work with the new President and with all the people of Sri Lanka in supporting the country’s sovereignty through heightened good governance, expanded economic growth, the advancement of human rights and reconciliation, and in fostering an Indo-Pacific region where all countries can prosper.”

No Congratulatory message from US President Trump

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo congratulated President Rajapakse only on a tweet on 19 November 2019

U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka and the Maldives Alaina B. Teplitz said,

we look forward to working with President-elect Rajapaksa on issues of good governance, economic growth, the advancement of human rights and reconciliation in support of a strong, sovereign Sri Lanka.”

No Congratulatory message from UK Prime Minister

British High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, Sarah Hulton OBE, congratulated Gotabaya on his election and “the people of Sri Lanka on a more peaceful election period than ever.” and officially visited him on 26^th November 2019.

Lord Ahmad, Minister for the Commonwealth, UN and South Asia, congratulated Gotabaya on Twitter said he looks “forward to the UK and Sri Lanka working together constructively as Commonwealth partners.”

No Congratulatory message from Australian Prime Minister or Foreign Minister

Australia welcomes the high voter turnout and historically peaceful day of polling for #SriLanka’s Presidential Election. We look forward to building on the strong Australia-Sri Lanka relationship,” tweeted Australian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka David Holly.

The first countries to congratulate President Rajapakse was India, China, Iran, Pakistan, Maldives, Singapore, Bangladesh, Nepal, Afghanistan

Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulating President Rajapaksa said,

it definitely meets the fundamental interests of our people and is in line with strengthening the regional stability and security.”

Lord Naseby PC, President of the All Party British Sri Lanka Parliamentary Group, has extended his congratulations to the newly-elected President (20 Nov)

Issuing twitter messages is not diplomacy and following diplomatic protocols. These are only social media platforms and not official mode of diplomacy.

Courtesy, Respect and Professionalism are most important components of a diplomatic protocol” – Tomasz Orłowski

Shenali D Waduge

Nothing they do is right. Everything right they do is wrong. What exactly is their problem? This is really puzzling to most patriots and nationalists who are grappling to pinpoint what the root cause of this hate ailment against Rajapakse’s by the West is in order to even remotely consider avenues for reconciliation. Native American Indians said the white man speaks with a forked tongue and we can see that in its diplomacy and tools.

Are they angry that LTTE their pet tiger was defeated?

Why should they be, LTTE was after all murdering innocent people, terminating their lives for no reason, they made $300m annual profits but did not spend a cent on Tamils whom they claim to represent. Scores of Tamil low caste, poor children were turned into child soldier depriving them their fundamental right to education and living with their families. Right to freedom was denied by forcing people to remain encircled in a defacto area they ruled. How can the West choose the tiger over the innocents that they killed unless their geopolitical-military-trade mattered more than lives of people.

Were the successive UNHRC resolutions their punishment?

A bogus dead figure that has no names (or are giving names of dead LTTE terrorists), no skeletons or evidence to prove is the basis for successive resolutions claiming war crimes/genocide against Sri Lanka. Naming terrorist dead as civilians completely ignoring how many Tamils LTTE shot and killed while trying to flee LTTE. Refusing to even imagine how 40,000 dead bodies could have been dug and pushed into graves without US satellite imagery seeing them or Ban Ki Moon and his foreign delegation not seeing newly dug graves as they travelled over terrain in helicopter 3 days after LTTE defeat. Name dead Tamil civilians not LTTE dead. Prove the Tamil civilians dead were killed by Sri Lanka Army purposely – just don’t ridicule a national army benchmarking against the proven crimes committed by Western troops in illegally invaded nations.

Was this why a totally irregular and unprecedented action was taken by UNSG?

When illegal invasions/interventions/bombings have taken place none of which resulted in UNSG appointing panels to personally appraise him, why did the UNSG decide to appoint a panel AFTER a conflict that lasted 30 years ended? Why did UNSG not seek permission from UNSC or UNGA assembly to appoint a UN panel & instead appointed a non-UN member panel which was to only appraise him of the final months of Sri Lanka’s conflict, which became the basis of the UNHRC’s recommendation for investigation against Sri Lanka. We continue to question the legality of this entire process adopted with malice against a UN member state that was suffering 30 years of terror and did not see any assistance of the UN or West to end LTTE terror though all LTTE fronts were operating from these Western countries inspite of the West banning the LTTE. When UN and West know that LTTE fronts are operating from their countries why are they not taking action against them for materially supporting terrorists?

Is this why using UN nomenclatures Western governments are plugging aid and assistance with demands to make legislative changes and weaken/destabilize Sri Lanka

One good example was the GSP plus requiring Sri Lanka to make legislative/penal code/policy changes which cannot be reversed easily but West could with a stroke of a statement revoke GSP. Where does that leave Sri Lanka after making the changes the West demanded? The MCC agreement is one such ‘grant’ where drastic legislative changes have already taken place as preconditions to giving a grant which is to be audited by US govt and coming through a US incorporated company in Sri Lanka.

White van abductions?

Was this a foreign intel-psy ops as part of psychologically scaring people at the mention of these two words? The fanfare over that died out with the stupid stunt played by a former Minister and a driver! But it would be good for the West making wild allegations to be a little responsible in their accusations by providing names and even court cases related to such abductions. There was a period that people were abducted never to be seen again – this was during the 1980s – where were all these human rights angels and free media then? The leader of the JVP was toasted alive in the Borella crematorium – where were the human rights voices?

A plethora of other mud campaigns have been sponsored by the West against Rajapakse’s. 

Thajudeen-Ekneligoda-Lasantha-recirculation

Take any foreign media release – a disclaimer at the end will carry something or the other about abducted journalists – murdered journalists implying that no journalist is safe in Sri Lanka. Where were these media when Richard De Zoysa, Sagarika Gomes and a host of others including lawyer Wijayadasa Liyanarachchi was killed? How is it that their names never make it to international print?

Surely, the past 4 ½ years with entire West-UN agencies backing the Wickremasinghe government the perpetrators of these crimes should have been brought to book.

Thajudeen’s case has been blown to bits by an OIC put in prison simply because he refused to say the crime was by Rajapakses for which he & his family would get to live in Canada

https://www.facebook.com/VoteMahinda/videos/559884671469187/ (a must listen)

while a former military/lawyer has revealed shocking disclosures about Ekneligoda

and the PM and Lasantha’s own brother is on record for giving the name of the perpetrator of Lasantha’s killing – all these revelations do not point to any Rajapakse.

Human rights/R2P-democracy-rule of law-transparency-accountability

These are all Western policy tools and are keys used to sway allegiance diplomatically-politically-economically-culturally-socially with last resort of military action (R2P).

But what is the credibility of these countries to preach?

The West carry a legacy of colonial crimes lasting over 500 years with atrocities far atrocious than the isolated one’s they go after – genocide, elimination of entire tribes, dividing families/tribes by artificial boundaries, inflicting disease and starving with intent to murder, killing elephants as a sport, hanging people while eating breakfast, throwing indigenous babies to crocodiles as punishment for natives not towing their line. Plundering treasures and resources of these nations. How about accountability for these heinous crimes? 

Every year, more than 30,000 people are shot, murdered, or commit suicide using guns, and over 200,000 people are wounded in gun-related violence in the US.

Before giving money to look after the poor in other countries take care of the rising poor in the West as a result of failed capitalism. Nearly 40 million people are living in poverty in America. 20% of UK people live in poverty including 8 million working-age adults. In 2017, 112.8 million people in the EU lived in households at risk of poverty.

Racial discrimination is deeply rooted in the US – racial equality exists only on paper. US speaks about torture – what about the torture-interrogation methods adopted by CIA many similar to what was used during the Inquisitions.

US has militarily intervened in 142 countries since 1991. https://nationalinterest.org/feature/why-america-addicted-foreign-interventions-23582

Dictators sponsored by West – Batista, Somoza, Marcos, Mobutu Sese Seko, Pinochet, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (the former shah of Iran), Zia ul-Haq, Syngman Rhee, Suharto, Idi Amin.

Bombs dropped by West and collateral deaths – as of November 2018, at least 244,000 civilians in Iraq, Afghanistan & Pakistan have died violent deaths, this excludes Yemen, Syria, Somalia and other countries US & NATO are daily bombing.

How can the West demand Sri Lanka to remove military bases in its own country when US has nearly 800 military bases in more than 70 countries and territories abroad while UK and France have military bases in 11 countries? British armed forces are already deployed in more than 80 countries. The US has 1.3 million troops stationed around the world.

6.9million people voted for Gotabaya Rajapaks in 2019, previously though Mahinda Rajapakse lost elections in 2015, he too got 5.8million votes. The masses have placed confidence in him. Far more voters go to vote in Sri Lanka than they do in the West, so people do exercise their democratic right.

Just as they voted out a Rajapakse in 2015 they voted in a Rajapakse in 2019. So don’t cry over spoilt milk. We understand the West has invested heavily in the previous government plus much more on a coterie of dark ‘princes’ who run civil society & NGO outlets, but it may be good to assess their performance against the remunerations given and replace them – they have absolutely no credibility in society and are just good for the cocktail circles they call ‘civil society’.

Shenali D Waduge

Ratanapala

1 Dec 2019

Muslim overtures in a Buddhist land!

Mr Latheef Farook on the Island Newspaper – 26 Nov 2019, says, all what they expect from the new President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is to create an environment with new overtures where they could live in peace. What the Muslims need is for the new government to understand their plight, stop violence against them, and attend to their grievances.”

 It was the short-sighted racist politics of the two main national parties that forced Muslim to support when some ambitious individuals decided to exploit the helplessness of the community by forming a separate political party.” So, this too is the fault of the Sinhalese belonging to the two main political parties! In other words, Muslims are mere children who have been misled by very bad Sinhalese!

Finally, it was the arrogant dismissal of Muslims by the late President J. R. Jayewardene when he said that Muslims could remain in the government or leave when a delegation led by All Ceylon Muslim League leader Dr M.C.M Kaleel met him and appealed not to allow Israelis into the country in view of their century’s old hostility and crime records against Muslims.” There we go again and now on an entirely different tack – Two communities that sprang from two brothers ‘one legit and the other not’ have been fighting over a piece of desert for millennia and suddenly this has become Sri Lanka’s problem!

In the end, for Jayewardene’s arrogance and Indian conspiracies to divide Tamil and Muslim communities, Sri Lankans must suffer!”

In the aftermath of Easer Sunday bombings and killings, while Muslims were subjected to violence, dogs were taken into mosques by soldiers wearing shoes and hundreds of Muslims were taken into custody for no valid reason, shameless Muslim politicians invited Maithri and Ranil   for their family functions.” After having ‘painted’ the Easter Sunday bombings to a corner what irks the bleeding hearts is not so much the killings, but soldiers in boots and sniffer dogs entering suspect mosques looking terrorist paraphernalia – suicide vests, swords, knifes, bombs and explosives and the ‘hurt’ in the Muslim community when many Muslims were taken into custody on suspicion. How can the Good Muslims feign innocence after a dastardly crime has been committed by their brethren? What about the Good Muslims climbing on top of Stupas with their shoes on and elsewhere defacing Buddhist statues? Does hurt only apply to Muslims with special ‘hurt’ nerves that the rest of the Sri Lankans do not have or just a case of selective amnesia?

All what they expect from the new President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is to create an environment with new overtures where they could live in peace.They are eagerly expecting positive signs from President Gotabaya and his government though it includes many known for their hatred towards Muslims.”

The writer wants positive overtures from the President. For what we may ask? For having bombed several churches and hotels, killed and maimed hundreds of innocents they want positive overtures! Or are they for positive overtures from the government and if not for more of the same! May we ask what harm all those innocent victims of the Easter Bombings have done to the Muslim community in Sri Lanka? Has there been a single UNPROVOKED attack on the Muslims by the Sinhala Community?

Defaced Buddha Statue in Mawanella just days prior to Easter Sunday attacks.

Well if the Muslims are fed up with their politicians and even their mullahs are they not their own domestic problems? Wahabbism, Sharia, Halal, child marriages, FMG are all their religious and domestic problems. Nobody asked them to send their children to Madraasa Schools where foreign mullahs came and radicalised them. All Muslim parents know what their children are being put through. They do this wittingly with heaven and all that entails in mind. This is how one finds in the same family, old Sufis, middle-aged Salafis and young Wahabbis. Old Sufis of 1915 and Salafis and Wahabbis of today read from the same holy book and act.

For a change, it is the Muslim Community who should make amends and make positive overtures towards the Sinhalese and Tamils, both Buddhist and Christian who have been at the receiving end of Islamic excesses.  When there was an attack on the Muslims in Christchurch it was the Christians, Hindus and Buddhists and the government in power who took upon themselves the burden of the dastardly deed by a deranged non-Muslim. The spontaneous outpouring of grief sometimes over shadowed those of the victims! The parallels of the same has not happened in Sri Lanka over the attacks by the Muslims. There was no admittance of ‘mia culpa’ from the Islamic Muslim brotherhood who are responsible being a highly knit and organized community through their mosques. Instead of what happened was the reverse. Within a week of the Easter Sunday attacks the situation reversed and the Muslim community became the aggrieved party. Even at the Parliamentary Select Committee the main issue was niqabs, hijabs and burqas and the slights felt by those wearing them. This was while swords, knives, guns, explosives were being found inside mosques and in the houses and lands surrounding.

Sri Lanka cannot go back to before the Easter Sunday attacks as if nothing happened. What happened on Easter Sunday was just the tip of the iceberg and the symptoms of a greater malady that is taking place 24/7 in Sri Lanka and elsewhere in the world. The writer’s continuing theme is about ‘innocent’ and ‘peaceful’ Muslims be allowed to live in ‘peace’ – problem is Muslim Peace according to Sharia does not necessarily translate into peace for the rest of the world! Just two days ago attacks that killed two innocent civilians in the environs of the London Bridge show the savagery of the Islamic Terrorist!

The Easter Sunday attacks brought into limelight many underlying dangerous currents that are in motion to ‘unmake’ Sri Lanka and make it a Muslim State. All those currents should be investigated deep into their constituent parts and agendas. I am talking about Sharia, Halal, Encroachment on land – Willpattu and elsewhere, outright purchase of entire streets in Capital Territory Colombo – most government tax invested city in the country, the real estate changing hands and the demographics are changing rapidly. Elsewhere Islamaisation, desecration of Buddhist places of worship and of archaeological value, large scale and unimpeded building of mosques all over Sri Lanka making us and anybody visiting Sri Lanka wonder whether Sri Lanka is still a Buddhist Country. When a mosque built on temple land try to outsmart Dalada Maligawa they are making a very loud statement of their intentions. Will they allow similar constructions in an Islamic Country?

Every Muslim leader that had the privilege of bargaining with a ruling party, exacted the utmost on behalf of their community, although the writer tries to show otherwise. It is the economic war that they are waging in Sri Lanka that the ordinary Sinhalese and Tamil must be vary of more so than the bombs!

All that the majority Sinhala Buddhist community expects of the new President is not to take minority Shylocks who are only interested in ‘the exact pound of flesh’ into his confidence. They did not collect swords, knives, guns and explosives to go hunting or fishing! Their war is multi-pronged –  the womb bomb, economy bomb or the terrorist bomb. What the non-Muslims of Sri Lanka want are not overtures but firm commitments from the Muslims that they will not resort to downright lowly actions and violence again; that they are mindful of the majority community, the Sinhalese their culture and land and live peacefully under a one set of rules in one civilized community as Sri Lankans. By all means no special status for Muslims!     

Dr.Sudath Gunasekara 1.12. 2019.

Lakisuru Gothaabhaya Rajapaksha Metitumani !

Abolish the white elephant and the curse that is Provincial Councils and its root the JR/ Rajiv Accord of 29^th July 1987 at least now, before this Indian born Rathaksiya gobbles up the Sinhala Buddhist Nation and this whole Island in its entirety.

(Please note that this is a revised version of an article I wrote to Lankaweb on 7.6. 2018 on the same subject, updated to suit the present situation)

While congratulating again for the historic and unprecedented victory  you have gained, as I predicted on the 14^th   Nov via my E-mail, addressed to you (Published in Lankaweb) and also while adoring  all patriotic and courageous steps you have already taken within these few days like no other, such as the brief but dignified speech you made  at the Election Commissioners office on the day you were declared elected as the President of this country and your historic address to the nation at the swearing in ceremony under the shadow of Ruwanweli Seya  (which I have been yearning for 14 years for the Head of the State to do), the most sacred Buddhist Stupa in the world and the crest jewel of the Sinhala Nation restoring an age old tradition of ancient Sinhala Kings, the lean Cabinet of 15 Ministers, the smallest since 1956, the excellent way you have handled all Indian politicians and the Indian press on you visit just concluded and many more wise and bold decisions you have taken since you assumed Office, I am writing this note to you  to earnestly request you to  abolish the JR/ Rajiv Accord of 1987 and the disastrous 13^th A that gave birth to Provincial Councils and  many an inconsistency and historical travesties in the Island’s long and checkered history  (explained in detail below), to rescue this tiny Island nation from disappearing forever from this planet earth in few years due to disintegration, disunity and infighting between Bhoomiputra Sinhalese and intruder Tamil and Muslim ethnic groups, resulting from this  well designed Indian political Atom  bomb called the Provincial Councils, planted  to destroy this 2500-year-old Sinhala Buddhist civilization.

Colossal wastage of Public funds with no results

Since the first elections for Provincial Councils took place on 28 April 1988 this is how public funds have been spent or rather wasted on their upkeep.

Sri Lanka Provincial Councils: Expenditure

1996 – 2017 | Yearly | LKR mn | Ministry of Finance

 Sri Lanka’s Provincial Councils: Expenditure data was reported at 286,031.000 LKR mn in Dec 2017. This records an increase from the previous number of 276,147.000 LKR mn for Dec 2016. Sri Lanka’s Provincial Councils: Expenditure data is updated yearly, averaging 103,769.000 LKR mn from Dec 1996 to 2017, with 22 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 286,031.000 LKR mn in 2017. So with an average of almost 104 mn, you can visualize how much national wealth has gone down the drain for the past 31 years, which is approximately 3224 mn or 3.2 Billion. What a colossal wastage and pathetic and unpardonable misuse of public funds.”

The other important aspect is much of this money has gone for unproductive items like salaries and remunerations of Politicians and public Servants, buildings, vehicles, meaningless regular and luxury tamasas in five start hotels, foreign joy trips and other activities unrelated to development. Once the Secretary of the Ministry in charge of this subject told me that only 10 % of voted funds are spent on capital work and the balance 90 % is spent for recurrent activities which do not contribute anything for development.

With all this wastage of public funds, the billion-dollar question the people of this country ask is what benefit PCC has brought to the Country since 1987. Besides the colossal financial lost to the country, the political, and administrative and institutional mess, chaos and confusion by way of duplication of institutions, an increase of an utterly unproductive and lotus-eater set of politicians, and public servants. What benefits it has brought to the country over the past 31 years. Officials, offices, and expenditure have exponentially increased in the ratio of 1 to 15 with zero output. It also has brought about a complete breakdown of the once highly efficient District Administration in this country. Thus the Provincial Councils have come to stay as a veritable Huniyama for this country’s peril.

In this backdrop, I pose the pertinent question as to why we should have Provincial Councils at all in this country; today the whole nation asks?  Who asked for Provincial Councils?  Was it a request by the people of this country or by some genius politicians for better governance? No one at Home asked for it. It was India who proposed it first, to appease the Tamilnadu electorate to consolidate power at Home by imposing it on the Sri Lankan President by force, almost at gunpoint, well-timed when there was an old and weak President as the Head of Government. I still remember how India invaded our air space with their war jets and dropped parippu? to the north and how arrogantly and undiplomatically their Ambassador Dixit behaved in front of the elderly Statesman JR, the Head of this country at his Ward place residence, as if Dixit was the viceroy of India conveying the message of the Indian ‘King,’ threatening a Head of a Vassal State of India of an imminent Indian invasion of the Island, if he refuses to sign the Accord.  

The Accord was strategically designed by India , to divide and destabilize  this country on  an ethnic basis giving Tamils full power to own and rule nearly half of the country including the North and East and Central Sri Lanka (inclusive of Central, Sabaragamuwa and Uva Provinces), although India did not clearly specify these three Provinces. This was nothing but an extension of the same divide and rule policy started by the colonial British in 1832 by the creation of the Provinces in a different form. This Indian conspiracy becomes crystal clear when we analyze the following impositions India made in this country by the Rajiv/JR Accord of 29^th July 1987.

1 The declaration of the Northern and Eastern Provinces comprising 1/ 3 the land area of the Island as the Traditional Homeland” of the Tamil People was a complete travesty of the Island’s authentic history. These two Provinces have never been a traditional Tamil land at any time of known history. On the contrary, this whole Island had been the traditional Homeland of the Sinhala people at least from 543 BC and it is a historical fact accepted by all historians, other than the Tamils and Indian politicians.

First, this Accord enabled the Tamils to claim 1/3 of the land area of the country for a mere 5 lakhs Tamils and thereby depriving any Sinhalese or Muslims being settled there while Tamils can settle down in any part of the Island

Second, giving Tamils the right to own 1/3 of the country, 2/3 the coastal belt and nearly 3/5 of the marine territory and its resources including the Trincommallee harbour

Thus this Accord deprived the Bhoomiputras, the Sinhalese their birthright over their Motherland, which their ancestors have protected against all foreign invasions, both Indian and European for 2500 years and enjoyed for millennia from the dawn of history. This Accord was designed by India in order to fix the last nail on the Sinhala nation, with a vicious plan to annex the Island to India in the future.

2 Made Tamil also an Official language, nullifying Sec 18 of the Constitution of the Republic whereas even in India Tamil is not recognized as an Official language in spite of the fact that there are nearly 70 million Tamils there.

3 Forced to give Citizenship to all estate Tamils of Indian origin in the Central, Sabargamauwa and Uva Provinces and even Indians living in other parts of the country even if they are illicit immigrants, disregarding all internationally accepted norms and our own laws on the subject of granting citizenship to foreigners in any country.

4 imposed that the Northern and Eastern Provinces should be merged to form one Tamil Province with provision to merge two or more Provinces as one in the future.

Thus in sum the Accord completely destroyed the Independence, sovereignty, the Unitary status and the freedom of this Island Nation and its Constitution as well, within few minutes, by one man against Island wide protests organized by the Opposition and the objections by some of his own Ministers, reducing this country to a veritable vassal State of the Subcontinent without any resistance. This was a meek submission on the part of JR he committed for survival.

 Therefore while taking action to abolish this Accord, I also earnestly request you to reverse the above 4 conditions as early as possible.

JR was forced to accept the Accord almost at gunpoint and India laid down these 4 serious conditions reducing the 1987 Constitution to mere paper scrap. Adding to this JR created PCC to all other Provinces as well accelerating the process of division and disintegration and leading to future political and administrative confusion. This Accord was signed under Island wide emergency and after confining all his MPP to a five-star Hotel having obtained their undated letters of resignation.

The implementation of this Accord, to its logical conclusion will definitely wipe out the Sinhala Buddhist nation from the surface of this planet in the long run. Therefore the crying need, to abolish it immediately, with no delay.

It is in this dangerous backdrop that I urge all patriotic people to rise against this Accord and disastrous Provincial Councils to strengthen the President’s hands and request him to abrogate it immediately as it constitutes the foundation for the division of this small country in to 9 antagonistic pieces and finally falling in to the hands of India (As you know Sir a scrambled egg can never be un-scrambled).  This is exactly what the people of this country have been agitating and demanding every government, for the past 31 years. But tragically it has not fallen on the deaf ears of our selfish and timid politicians who have no concern for the country or the future of the people. The SLFP under Sirimavo protested against it right from the beginning although later it also embraced it without realizing the inherent dangers that underlies these clauses of the Accord.

Let us abolish this PCC immediately

As such why talk of PCC elections now, instead of abolishing this national curse and disaster immediately? This is a crucial political decision long overdue that has to be taken by a patriotic statesman like you, who loves this country and its people, in order to save this country from an imminent total political, economic, social and cultural disaster in the offing. In fact, this is a priority decision that has to be taken as early as possible by your Government. The whole country wants it to go. Once the Accord is abolished, the 13th A and the PCC set up under that will also get abolished automatically. We all expected MR to do this immediately after 2009 when he had all the power including a 2/3 in Parliament.  Had he done that then no one could have dared to contest it? But unfortunately, he did not do it.  

Once that is done all superficial Officeholders such as the so-called 9 Governors, 9 ‘Cheap’ Ministers, 45 Provincial Ministers and all such parasitic politicians will also go home relieving the burden they have overloaded on the country. Thereafter every one of them will at least plant a manioc stem that will do some service at least to a wild boar. The professional public servants presently working in these Councils will have no problem as they could be accommodated in suitable places in the public service.

Another reason why I argue for the abolition of PCC is the need to avoid a total disaster in District Administration that will make any retrieval of governance in this country impossible. Furthermore, that will put an end to all divisive political manipulations such as federal status, self-determination, self-rule of Muslims and EELAM dreams of the Tamils. It will also save billions of rupees now being spent for the upkeep of these monkey cages and piggeries called Provincial Councils, a political appendage and a dead weight around the nation’s neck that has burdened the nation for the past 31 years and destabilized the total administration almost beyond recovery. Finally, it will also relieve us from any future subversive Indian or Arabian invasions and conspiracies hatched to divide this country on the ethnic basis with a dream of Indianization of this country or converting it to an Arab land as Hisbulla has planned in the Eastern Katthankudi area.

 I  call upon all Patriotic people to make this request in one voice from the new President to abolish these monkey cages and dens of thieves that have exponentially increased waste and corruption and completely ruined the decent political culture of this country for the past 31 years and multiplied separatists tendencies and communal agitations dragging the nation to complete disintegration on ethnic lines with no chance of redemption in future

I know it very well that no political party, even the UNP that invented it under J.R. or even those who were against them in 1987 will ask for their abolition, as they use these Councils members to net votes at all elections for their political survival. But for the general public, these Councils are an eyesore when they see the way how public funds are been wasted criminally on the upkeep of these useless lotus-eater Governors, Chief Ministers, Ministers, Members, a plethora of officials and the institutions that house them. Other than enjoying the luxuries of office, attending openings, weddings, funerals school functions like sport meets, temple functions, and various other social and private tamsas, roaming all over the world on pleasure trips and running all over the country to show their loyalty to their political masters,  misusing public funds, and collecting votes and funds for their political leaders in Colombo and herding people for their meetings like Mayday rallies and propaganda meetings of their masters in Parliament who in turn ruin the whole country and throwing their weight on the innocent and helpless masses on the other hand, I ask these parasitic creatures as to what service they have done to the people of the country that pay their salaries and ill-gotten fabulous perks 

Why can’t the SLPP, as a group who constitutes the majority who opposed the 13th A in 1987 at least now agitate for the abolition of this tragic national curse? The people hate this system and curse them too. Now that the SLPP already has the Local Government bodies in its hand to organize the election campaign for them at the village and the local levels there is no need for a Provincial apparatus for elections either.

Now that the country has functioned smoothly without these parasitic and wasteful institutions, almost for the past two years and has proved beyond all doubts their uselessness there is no justification for their retaining. A reorganize strong District Administration headed by professional administrators will ensure better governance as it had been the indigenous system of administration in the past. Even the British adopted certain aspects of this system to run the country very effectively and efficiently for 133 years.

The Provincial Councils have already become redundant and dysfunctional. As such if he SLPP can get them abolished, its vote base will rise up exponentially at all future elections.  Therefore the SLPP will not lose anything by getting them abolished. Instead, people will definitely rally round the party as a mark of appreciation and gratitude for relieving them of this 31-year curse and disaster. Furthermore, MR also can make use of this golden opportunity to punish all those ungrateful rascals and double-dealers who have betrayed him after the 2015 elections and send them permanently to the political wilderness. In this backdrop, if the SLPP does this, I can assure that the grateful masses who have suffered for the past 31 years under this curse will rally round it in a manner nobody would have ever imagined.  Besides increasing its vote base it will also be doing a yeoman service by this country and the nation, for liberating this country out of this wishful Indian trap that has already done enormous political and economic damage to this country and that will definitely play the main role in dividing and destabilizing this Island nation in future if we retained them.

 I can assure you that the abolition of the Provincial Council curse and its umbilical code, the Rajiv/JR Accord will not be second to liberating the country from the LTTE in 2009 and it could be even a bigger achievement of higher historical significance.  It will definitely go down in history as another historic landmark in the Rajapaksa legend.

India also cannot contest the abolition of the JR/Rajiv Accord as it had already been unilaterally broken by India at the very early stages, by not complying with its obligations. As such it has ceased to have any legal validity as an international agreement signed between two countries

Finally  I also suggest you seek a mandate from the people at the next election for the abolition of these two items and other vital issues like the repealing of the 19th A and revising the electoral system by removing the preferential voting, District representative system, removing the crazy National List and reducing the number of MPP in Parliament to a meaningful level, say about 150, and laying down qualifications for politicians like minimum education, character, assets and residence within the electorate etc. so that returning to the democratic practice of electing their representatives and  just governance is restored once again in this Island nation.

C. Wijeyawickrema

When R Premadasa was killed Paskaralingam, his master, servant and agent and the Balasingham spy, left Sri Lanka the next day to join his tiger crowd in Australia. While everybody is talking about the CB robber Mahendran, Ranil got down Paskaralingam in 2015 and kept him as his advisor unknown to the country. If Sajith won Paskaran would have continued with double blessings of Ranil and Sajith.

Does anybody know whereabouts of this genius Paskaralingam?

Readers could understand what a dangerous man this P had been from a previous message appeared on the Lankaweb website linked below.

C. Wijeyawickrema

Dr David Hoile Courtesy: Africa Research Centre

shows how the ICC has ignored all European or Western human rights abuses in conflicts such as those in Afghanistan and Iraq or human rights abuses by Western client states.

The Africa Research Centre published Justice Denied: The Reality of the International Criminal Court, a 610-page study of the International Criminal Court by Dr David Hoile in 2014.

http://www.africaresearchcentre….

The study has 27 chapters: The International Criminal Court; A European Court; The Court and the Security Council; The United States and the Court; The Court and Non-Governmental Organisations; A Glaring Democratic Deficit; Judges elected by vote-trading; The Office of the Prosecutor; Avoiding the Crime of Aggression; Granting immunity, entrenching impunity; The European Guantánamo Bay?; Inaction over Iraq; An Afghan casestudy; The International Criminal Court and Africa; The fiction of self-referral”; The fiction of deterrence; The fiction of a victims’ court; The Court and Uganda; The Democratic Republic of the Congo; The Court and the Central African Republic; The Court and Sudan; The Court and Kenya; The Court and the Ivory Coast; The Court and Libya; The Court and Mali; European Double Standards; A Way Forward; as well as a videography, bibliography and 2,075 footnotes.

Justice Denied: The Reality of the International Criminal Court finds the ICC, established in 2002 by the Rome Statute, to be unfit for purpose. The ICC’s claims to international jurisdiction and judicial independence are institutionally flawed and the Court’s reputation has been irretrievably damaged by its racism, blatant double-standards, hypocrisy, corruption and serious judicial irregularities.

The study demonstrates that while the ICC presents itself as the world’s court this is not the case. Its members represent just over one quarter of the world’s population: China, Russia, the United States, India, Pakistan and Indonesia are just some of the many countries that have remained outside of the Court’s jurisdiction. The author points out that a court is only as credible as its independence. Far from being an independent and impartial court, the ICC’s own statute grants special prosecutorial” rights of referral and deferral to the Security Council – by default its five permanent members (three of which are not even ICC members).

Political interference in the legal process was thus made part of the Court’s founding terms of reference. The Court is also inextricably tied to the European Union which provides over 60 percent of its funding. The EU is additionally guilty of blatant political and economic blackmail in tying aid for developing countries to ICC membership. The expression, He who pays the piper calls the tune”, could not be more appropriate.

Justice Denied: The Reality of the International Criminal Court shows how the ICC has ignored all European or Western human rights abuses in conflicts such as those in Afghanistan and Iraq or human rights abuses by Western client states. As one example, in Afghanistan, an ICC member state, alleged war crimes by ICC member states such as the slaughter of 120 civilians in Kunduz in September 2009, directed by a German army colonel in flagrant violation of NATO standing orders, have been ignored by the ICC and the German state. Rather than prosecuting the colonel, Berlin promoted him to general. Instead of impartially enforcing the Rome Statute, the Europeans have chosen to focus the Court exclusively on Africa.

The ICC is self- evidently a racist court, in that it treats one race of people differently to all others. Despite having received almost 9,000 formal complaints about alleged crimes in at least 139 countries, the ICC has chosen to indict 36 black Africans in eight African countries. Given Africa’s previous traumatic experience with the very same colonial powers that now in effect direct the ICC, this is an alarming déjà vu for those who live on the continent. The ICC has emerged very much as an instrument of European foreign policy and its actions are increasingly being seen as recolonisation by spurious legal diktat.

The book also documents how the United States, on the other hand, has forcefully pointed out that the ICC is a kangaroo court, a travesty of justice open to political influence and that no American citizen will ever come before it while at the same time demanding that black Africans appear before the ICC when it suits American foreign policy.

Justice Denied: The Reality of the International Criminal Court shows how the Court’s proceedings thus far have often been questionable where not simply farcical. Its judges – some of whom have never been lawyers, let alone judges – are the result of grubbily corrupt vote-trading amongst member states. Far from securing the best legal minds in the world this produces mediocrity. At least one elected judge” had neither law degree nor legal experience but her country had contributed handsomely to the ICC budget.

The Court has produced witnesses who recanted their testimony the moment they got into the witness box, admitting that they were coached by non-governmental organisations as to what false statements to make. Dozens of other witnesses” have similarly disavowed their evidence”. And then there has also been the ICC chief prosecutor who was not only seemingly unaware of the legal concept of presumption of innocence but also threatened to criminalise third-parties who might argue a presumption of innocence on the part of those indicted – and as yet unconvicted – by the Court. A clearer case of Alice in Wonderland justice, along the lines of sentence first, verdict afterwards”, is difficult to find.

There have been numerous prosecutorial decisions which should have ended any fair trial because they would have compromised the integrity of any legal process. The ICC’s first trial proceeded erratically because of crass prosecutorial misconduct and judicial decisions to add new charges half-way through proceedings, a move that was subsequently overturned. Simply put, the Court and the prosecutor have been making things up as they go along. The ICC claims to be economical” and to bring swift justice”, yet it has consumed more than a billion Euros and still has not even fully completed its first case, the deeply flawed trial of Thomas Lubanga. Despite being held in ICC custody since 2006, as of May 2014 the appeal stage of Lubanga’s case had not yet been concluded.

The ICC claims to be victim-centred yet Human Rights Watch has publicly criticised the ICC’s ambivalence towards victim communities. The ICC claims to be fighting impunity, yet it has granted de jure immunity to the United States and afforded de facto immunity and impunity to NATO member states and several serial abusers of human rights who happen to be friends of the European Union and United States.

Justice Denied: The Reality of the International Criminal Court also shows that far from deterring conflict, as it claims, the ICC’s double-standards and autistic legal blundering in Africa has derailed delicate peace processes across the continent – thereby prolonging devastating civil wars. The court is responsible for the death, injury and displacement of many thousands of Africans. The ICC’s involvement in Uganda, for example, destroyed peace talks in that country, intensifying the conflict which then spread into three neighbouring countries. The study concludes that the ICC is an inept, corrupt, political court that does not have Africa’s welfare at heart, only the furtherance of Western, and especially European, foreign policy and its own bureaucratic imperative – to exist, to employ more Europeans and North Americans and where possible to continue to increase its budget – all at the expense of African lives.

Dr David Hoile

About the Author Dr David Hoile is an African scholar and public affairs consultant specialising in African affairs. He is the author of The International Criminal Court: Europe’s Guantánamo Bay? (2010), Darfur: The Road to Peace (2008), Images of Sudan: Case Studies in Propaganda and Misinformation (2003), Farce Majeure: The Clinton Administration’s Sudan Policy 1993-2000 (2000), Mozambique, Resistance and Freedom: A Case for Reassessment (1994), and Mozambique: A Nation in Crisis (1989). He is also the editor of Mozambique: 1962-1993 – A Political Chronology (1994) and The Search for Peace in the Sudan: A Chronology of the Sudanese Peace Process 1989- 2001 (2002). He has commented on public policy issues on CNN, BBC News 24 and TV News, BBC radio, France 24, Al-Jazeera English and Arabic, Chinese Central TV, Press TV, Al-Arabiya and the Islam Channel. The author can be contacted by email at justicedenied2014@gmail.com.

Courtesy: Africa Research Centre

KAMALIKA PIERIS

Revised 2. 12.19

The Presidential election of 2019 was a landmark election. It was the first time that a Presidential candidate had won on a Sinhala vote alone. There hadn’t been a previous instance of a Sri Lankan leader declaring that his victory at national election was due to the votes of the Sinhala majority, said observers.

I knew that it was possible to emerge victorious with the sole backing of the Sinhala community,”  said President Gotabaya after the election. I knew from the beginning that the majority Sinhala community would be the decisive factor in this victory.”

It was observed, however, that earlier, at the 2010   Presidential election Mahinda Rajapaksa had also   shown that it was possible to win on the strength of the Sinhala majority vote.  In the 2010 election Sarath Fonseka got the Tamil and Muslim votes, but Mahinda Rajapaksa defeated Sarath Fonseka by over 1.8 million votes.

The popular notion is that President Gotabaya won exclusively with a Sinhala Buddhist vote. That is not correct. The election was won jointly, by the Sinhala Buddhists and Sinhala Catholics.  The entire Catholic coastal belt (except for Negombo and Wattala) voted overwhelmingly for Gotabaya, pointed out Fr Vimal Tirimanne.

The support of the Sinhala Catholics definitely helped to give Gotabaya   a good majority. It must also be emphasized that Catholic politicians, such as Sudarshani Fernandopulle, worked hard to ensure his victory. They appeared on the election platform with him. This election has shown, therefore that a combination of Sinhala Buddhist   and Sinhala Catholic votes can win an election comfortably.

Until 2019, it was held that that a candidate could not win the Presidency without the Tamil and Muslim vote. At a conference in Cologne, In November2005 the Tamil delegates had told Kusal Perera  ‘We decide the results, not the south. The minorities held the Sinhalese in contempt, observed Chandraprema. The minorities knew they could always win against the divided Sinhalese. The 2015 Presidential election confirmed this. President Sirisena lost in the Sinhala districts. He won because of     the overwhelming majorities received from the north and east.  Maitripala Sirisena won because the majority of the minority and a minority of the majority voted for him, said critics.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s election has challenged the notion that a candidate could not win the Presidency without the Tamil and Muslim vote. The myth that no candidate could win without the support of the Tamil and Muslim political parties, has been exploded, said analysts.  

The 2019 Presidential election showed that a presidential election could be comfortably won without support of minorities   provided the Sinhalese voted in a single group. Up to now, there was no strong united Sinhala vote. The Sinhala vote was divided between the SLFP, UNP, JVP and left parties.  This time, the Sinhala voter rallied round Gotabaya Rajapaksa, magnificently   and voted for the Pohottuwa. The Tamil Separatist Movement can no longer dictate at elections, said analysts.

There was a sizeable ‘minority’ vote going to Sajit Premadasa in 2019 too. The TNA, SLMC (Sri Lanka Muslim Congress) and the ACMC (All Ceylon Makkal Congress) delivered the entire northern and   almost all eastern polling divisions to Sajith Premadasa. The South infuriated by the   alleged UNP-TNA deal, voted heavily against Sajith Premadasa. The Sinhala vote was so large that the significant gains in Jaffna, Vanni, Batticaloa, Trincomalee and Digamadulla electoral districts were wiped out in the final count.

The minorities could always pull off another 2015 style coup in the next election by ganging up behind a Sinhala leader who was willing to do their bidding, but that would then lead to another 2019 type of election, observed Chandraprema. After 2015, voters will now always be vigilant at every election.

Tamil and Muslim voters have been voting for their candidates and for Tamil separatism at every election. No criticism has been made about a ‘communal vote’ then .But after the 2019 elections, where Sinhalese voted en masse, critics complained about a ‘communal vote’.

The recent presidential election is a clear indication of the fact that voting has taken place based on communal lines, said Jayatissa de Costa. Especially after 1977 it is very evident that Sri Lankans cast their vote based on ethnicity and this must be stopped. Sri Lanka’s voting trend based on ethnic lines is not a good thing for the country as a whole, he concluded.

Those supporting the   Tamil Separatist Movement have made strong comments about the 2019 election. In what many have noted to be a disturbing trend, the North and East voted overwhelmingly for Premadasa, they said. That was expected, but what was not expected was the scale of his victory in these districts, they continued.

Premadasa polled over 80 per cent of the vote in the Jaffna and Vanni districts and over 70 per cent in the Trincomalee and Batticaloa districts and over 60 per cent in Digamadulla. Its magnitude has been an eye-opener they said.

The Tamils vote in 2019 was ‘worse’ than in 2015, they continued. In 2015 Mahinda Rajapaksa, in 2015, received 20% of the Northern vote, 26% of the Eastern ballot, and 24% from the N&E vote. Maitripala Sirisena, who received 72% in 2019. Gotabaya Rajapaksa received only 8% of the Northern vote, 24% of the Eastern ballot, and 18% of the total N&E vote.

The low scores for Gotabaya Rajapaksa compared to Mahinda Rajapaksa are not surprising. Gotabaya Rajapaksa has been depicted for the last few years as the person who unleashed the army on the ‘innocent Tamil people’.  Mahinda Rajapaksa on the other hand, went around saying that the war was not against the Tamil people.

 The voting pattern is not as bad as it looks. The North and east had the lowest voter turnout. Voter turn out in Jaffna was 68.43%, in Vanni 76.59%, Puttalam 76.53%, and Trincomalee 78.75%.  In contrast, Hambantota had 87.40 % voting. The population density in the North is also low.

There is also the question of the so called powerful Tamil Diaspora living abroad, who, we are told were very active against Sri Lanka in the west. They did not come to vote at this very critical election.  That is because such a grouping does not exist. The majority of the Tamils in the west   do not wish to get entangled in the Tamil politics of Sri Lanka. They are not interested and they avoid the separatist groups. The Tamil separatist organizations in the west are hired groups. They are of poor quality. The Tamil representatives appearing at the Human Rights Council, Geneva are proof of this. They look and behave like thugs.

 The Tamil vote for the defeated Sajith Premadasa has been interpreted as a great victory for Tamil Separatism. The Tamil National Alliance requested the people to vote for Sajith Premadasa and for his symbol the Swan, said Leader of the Tamil National Alliance R. Sampanthan  .Accepting our request and rejecting the call to boycott or to vote for a Tamil candidate and by voting for Sajith Premadasa the Tamil people have sent a clear message to the leaders of our country and to the international community, that the Tamil people are firm in achieving their rights, within a united, undivided,  indivisible country.

On behalf of the Tamil National Alliance, I wish to take this opportunity to thank the Tamil people who followed our advice and voted for Sajith Premadasa and his symbol of the swan. I also urge that this unity must be preserved and continued said Sampanthan.

Sampanthan urged President Gotabaya to “respect the very substantial democratic verdict of the Tamil people of the North and East.”The people belonging to all Administrative and Electoral districts in the North and the East have very largely voted for Sajith Premadasa who in his Election Manifesto outlined certain features pertaining to the resolution of the longstanding national question.

                       Presidential election 2019

The above map of the 2019 Presidential election shows significant new trends. It shows that there is a strong separatist movement along the coast line. But there are significant breaks in this. In Puttalam electoral district, Chilaw, Wennappuwa, Naththandiya and Anamaduwa were won by Gotabaya. Wennappuwa electorate extends to the sea.

 On the opposite side, on the eastern shore,  Gotabaya Rajapaksa won Seruwila due to the Sinhala population there. Sainthamarathu   also voted  for Gotabaya. Seruwila and Sainthamarathu extend to the sea.   It is now possible to recommend that the Eastern Province be eliminated. The three Eastern divisions should be absorbed into the North Central Province and Uva Province.

NOTE In this series, I have used ‘President Gotabaya’  where relevant,  ‘Gotabaya’ and ‘Gotabaya Rajapaksa’ for events before Gotabaya  Rajapaksa became president. Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa is referred to as ‘Mahinda Rajapaksa’ throughout. (Concluded)

By Shivanthi Ranasinghe Courtesy Ceylon Today

It has been two weeks since Gotabaya Rajapaksa was elected to Office. As hoped by those who voted for him, steps could be seen to be taken to change the prevailing political culture. 

One of GR’s first directives to State institutions was to replace the usual gallery of photos that consist of the Head of State and the subject Minister with only the State emblem. 

Road signs are to include only the name of the road and not any names of the politicians. He went on to appoint the smallest Cabinet since 1956. 

His entire government is a 51% reduction from the previous Yahapalana Government.

 That is, from 108 ministers, deputy and state ministers, the number has come down to 53. His words to his ministers were to treat the appointment as a responsibility and not a privilege.

Appointing Board members to State Institutions is no longer the prerogative of the minister, for the names need to be approved by a central committee. His entourage on his first visit to India consisted less than 10 members and not a single family member accompanied him.

 Colombo is visibly getting cleaner. These are obviously very simple tweaks, but the perception created has been very positive.

However, not everyone is impressed with his decision to reduce his vehicle convoy from over ten plus an ambulance to just two vehicles. For so long, VIP transfers, where the escorts push fellow travellers out of the way, even in heavy traffic, had annoyed commuters to no end. 

Yet, when GR chose to sit in traffic with the rest of his citizens, people were not amused. Most feel he is taking an unnecessary risk.

Many feel that persons like the former President Maithripala Sirisena or Ranil Wickremesinghe did not have a security threat to warrant the kind of security detail or vehicle convoy that the VIP transfers of the previous governments did. 

Had Sajith Premadasa become the President, he too would not have had a security threat is the opinion of many. The reason being, these politicians are much in alignment with the Western agenda – wittingly or otherwise.

GR on the other hand is expected to go against the very grain of this Western agenda. He has proven himself to be a man of iron clad will and not one who could be browbeaten into agreeing to anything out of line.

 US State Secretary Mike Pompeo expressly stated that US expects any future Government of Sri Lanka in power too to honour all agreements entered into with the US.

Despite this statement, GR has unequivocally pronounced that he will review all agreements entered by the Yahapalana Government, including the controversial MCCC. He went to the extent of giving a written assurance that he will not proceed with the MCCC in its current standing.

In that context, his decision to reduce his security detail has not been well taken. Unlike any other Presidential Election, this one garnered a lot of attention from voters as many felt the sovereignty of the country was about to be compromised. 

Sri Lankan expatriates came in large numbers, as never before, to cast their vote. 

Even monks in meditation monestries came out to vote. GR’s supporters thus do not see him as just the President of the country, but the man who had come to save the country. 

It has been repeatedly said during the presidential campaign that if he failed to secure the presidency, the country would not get another opportunity to stand up for itself.

The Easter Sunday Massacres were a cruel emphasis of a country that was fast peddling backwards. Yet, it was not the point that people decided that GR would be the better alternative to the Yahapalana Government.

 People’s discontent was visible as far back as in early 2018. It was then, when the much delayed Local Government elections were finally held that all partners of the Yahapalana Government got its warning that marching orders are not far behind.

Apparently, the UNP had had a review as to analyse reasons for their failure. However, for reasons best known to them, they decided not to heed the facts and take the necessary corrective measures. 

Mangala Samaraweera, who was an absolutely heartless Finance Minister, particularly seemed hell-bent on continuing to humiliate the Sinhalese and especially the Buddhists.

 On the whole, he seemed to have placed a very low value on human life for he thought USD 480 million that was promised with the MCCC justified the tragedy.

Taken as a package, the Yahapalana Government strives to create a weak centralised government whilst making the provinces very powerful entities.

 In effect, they were trying to discount the years of misery and terror people put up with to safeguard the unitary status of the country. 

It became apparent to people that the Yahapalana Government was trying to give the separatists what was not possible through terrorism by tweaking the Constitution.

The fact that the Yahapalana Government could not prove any of their allegations against the Rajapaksa Administration also proved that the allegations did not have any basis.

 Instead, these were fabrications designed to splinter the trust people had in that political leadership became clear. The Yahapalana Government also could not prove the allegations against the military – especially against the military intelligence.

It was in such a background that Professor Thenuwara promised to deal with the ‘ranawirugaaya’ after the Yahapalana presidential candidate secures the presidency. This sinister promise vaporised any doubt one may have had of the stand the Yahapalana Government had of our war heroes and of our National Security.

 Before, people were uncomfortable with the countless arrests and detentions of our military, not to mention the summing of military leaders to be questioned for hours by the CID. Afterwards, people became positively angry. Fear of losing our country was the root of that fear.

Therefore, to those who voted for GR, he is not just the holder of a position, but the hero who had once more come to save the country from extremists and separatists. 

In his hands people have placed the future of their children. The stakes he is thus holding are too great for him to take a chance.

In that sense, whether GR should worry his citizens is questionable. Being a pragmatic man, he may not identify a justification to warrant a large vehicle convoy or to zoom past through the traffic. Yet, people are worried and it might be a good idea for him to assuage that worry.

On the other hand, his clear message is that Colombo is safe. This may be just the message that people really need to believe for the country is yet to fully recover from the Easter Sunday Massacres. People are still not sure whether the coast is really clear of extremists.

 His confidence will help people get their lives back on track, which is essential if to attract investors and kick-start the economy.
This however, must be really pushing the intelligence units to the limit.

 Especially after five years of being treated as Cinderella, whether the intelligence units overnight can outperform any mischief maker is the question. Therefore as citizens, we could also try to do our part.

 One thing we should avoid is taking pictures of him in traffic and posting in social media. The other thing would be to keep our own eyes and ears sharp and help the authorities to protect our President.

ranasingheshivanthi@gmail.com

Courtesy Adaderana

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa says he will revoke the 19th Amendment to the Constitution if he receives a two-thirds parliamentary majority on it.

The President mentioned this in an interview done with the ‘The Hindu’ during his official tour of India, his first trip as the President.

When asked if he planned to move to a more parliamentary system as envisaged by the 19th Amendment passed by his predecessor, the President said that while the transfer of powers was to be discussed”, the 19th Amendment itself had proved to be a failure”, and should be scrapped.

He said: The 19th amendment (passed in 2015) is a failure and if we get 2/3rds majority in parliament we will drop it from the constitution.”

Speaking on terrorism, the President said that IS [Islamic State] is a global threat and that India and other countries have more information on this threat than Sri Lanka.

President Rajapaksa stated that he hoped for more cooperation with India on national security issues, particularly on terrorism.  As a part of his government’s focus on security issues, the President said that he was reversing the Sirisena government’s moves to curtail the powers of the military.

When the journalist inquired President Rajapaksa whether he promises devolution of the 13th amendment on rights for the Tamil majority areas, the President stated while the 13th amendment is part of the constitution and is functional he cannot implement some areas of it such as control of police powers.

However, President Rajapaksa said he is willing to discuss alternatives to this.

Further, promising to be ‘frank’ and ‘upfront’ to avoid the misunderstandings of the past between New Delhi and Colombo, President Rajapaksa said that India and other countries in the region must invest more in Sri Lanka if they want to provide an alternative to Chinese investment. 

He also assured India that on the ‘main issues’ of Sri Lankan ties with China and Pakistan, there would be no problem ‘that creates suspicions amongst Indian authorities’.

Full text of the interview

How do you hope to take India-Sri Lanka ties to a higher level”, as you said here in New Delhi, and what are the priority areas?

Even during [former President] Mahinda Rajapaksa’s time we had very close relations with New Delhi, and then at the end (2014-15), it suddenly went down. And even if with the Sirisena government, they started with a very good relationship, but it ended with a lot of frustration. I would like to be consistent. I am usually very frank, so I hope to tell New Delhi honestly if I can’t do something; and if I can, then do it soon and not drag out commitments. We were successful during the previous government because we had a separate mechanism, the Troika (a 3-man coordination team) with New Delhi. We needed that mechanism because the conflict was on, and we were able to solve sensitive problems because of the close links.

Will you bring in the same mechanism for coordination again?

Well, at that time there was a necessity because of the conflict, but now I don’t think it is necessary, as we can work through the Foreign Ministries. If we are upfront and work genuinely, we will not have issues. I think the main issues India could have with us would be on [our relations] with China or Pakistan, but if we don’t do anything that creates suspicions amongst Indian authorities, there will not be any problem.

On development cooperation with Delhi, for which PM Modi announced an additional $400 million, will you honor the MoU signed by former PM Ranil Wickremesinghe on projects like the Trincomalee oil farms and Port development projects?

There are certain projects where we have to change certain modalities, and we discussed it during this visit. I haven’t studied all the projects in detail yet, but I will promise that we will expedite all the projects that are important to Sri Lanka.

You have said publicly you will renegotiate the Hambantota port agreement with China, which India was concerned about. Along with that is the future of Mattala airport, which India has shown an interest in. Now that you are in power, what will you do?

I believe that the Sri Lankan government must have control of all strategically important projects like Hambantota. After all, these are not like a hotel or a terminal, but to give control of a port or an airport or our harbors is different. With our control, they can do anything, but these 99-year lease agreements [that the previous government signed] will have an impact on our future. The next generation will curse our generation for giving away precious assets otherwise. That is why our party protested these decisions.

But the reason the lease had to be given was because of the debts incurred by the government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa…

No, that is wrong. It is also wrong to say there was a debt trap. In fact, during our time the ports authority paid back the first installment [to Chinese banks]. The Sirisena government, on the other hand, got more money as loans and just spent it. If they were worried about the debts piling up why didn’t they first service the debt, rather than give away sovereignty?

India has also had issues with Sri Lanka’s defense cooperation China in the past, especially over the docking of Chinese submarines, when you were Defence Secretary. In 2017, you said, India had a bee in its bonnet” on the issue. Will you be more sensitive to those concerns this time around as President?

We were sensitive to too, but the submarine issue was a simple issue overlooked by officials at the time. Warships were visiting Sri Lanka regularly, and all ships that were part of the naval piracy task force for the Arabian Sea, including Russian ships had docked there. When the Chinese asked for the submarines to be docked, officials considered it a normal port call and approved it. Former NSA Shiv Shankar Menon has written in his book that Gotabaya gave his word that he would not do anything counter to India, and he kept his word”, so I was genuinely sensitive.

You mentioned India’s suspicions of the past, those include differences over China, and the Tamil issue, but also your allegation that Indian agencies conspired for regime change against your brother. Can your government turn the page on these past suspicions?

I am sure [we can turn the page]. We did hear about agencies conspiring, including the US, for regime change. Some of their suspicions were due to our ties with China, but that was a misunderstanding. We had a purely commercial agreement with China. I want to tell India, Japan, Singapore and Australia, and other countries to also come and invest in us. They should tell their companies to invest in Sri Lanka and help us grow, because if they do not, then not only Sri Lanka, but countries all over Asia will have the same [problem]. The Chinese will take the Belt and Road Initiative all over unless other countries provide an alternative.

What kind of cooperation on terrorism do you foresee now with India?

The threat in Sri Lanka has now changed: unlike the LTTE which was a specific threat to Sri Lanka, IS [Islamic State] is a global threat posed by terrorists across the world. India and other countries have more information on this threat than us. The previous government didn’t give much priority to security and intelligence issues. During our time, military intelligence was always the most important organization, but the last government took their [oversight] away from the military. We have now reversed that. We also hope to upgrade our intelligence as it was earlier geared towards only LTTE threats, not the IS, and we need help from India and others on this as well as on technological cooperation.

Your focus on national security also raises fears about human rights violations of the past, about disappearances and the White Vans”, as well as worries about violence against journalists in particular. Will you give assurances that those will not return?

Those are bogus allegations, and certainly, nothing of the sort was done by me. Post-2009, we had tried to study the allegations, but it is difficult. We were not responsible, and even though we did ask the CID (Criminal Investigation Department) to investigate the charges, but they didn’t have any evidence. If it was easy, why didn’t the [Sirisena] government pursue these charges? The fact is we were strict about journalists during the war, but not in peacetime. Remember, MR’s government didn’t start the war, we finished the war. Why aren’t previous Presidents being asked about these allegations?

Last week, after Dr. Jaishankar’s visit to Colombo the Indian government issued a statement urging justice and equality for Tamils. What is your reaction?

My approach, as I told the Foreign Minister, is that it is more important to give the [Tamils] development, and better living. In terms of freedoms, and political rights there are already provisions in the constitution. But I am clear that we have to find ways to directly benefit people there through jobs, and promoting fisheries and agriculture. We can discuss political issues, but for 70 odd years, successive leaders have promised one single thing: devolution, devolution, devolution. But ultimately nothing happened. I also believe that you can’t do anything against the wishes and feelings of the majority community. Anyone who is promising something against the majority’s will is untrue. No Sinhala will say, don’t develop the area, or don’t give jobs, but political issues are different. I would say, judge me by my record on development [of North & East] after five years.

Are you promising talks on devolution or the 13th amendment on rights for the Tamil majority areas?

Look, the 13th amendment is part of the constitution and is functional, except for some areas like control of police powers, which we can’t implement. I am willing to discuss alternatives to that.

In the past as defense secretary, you led Sri Lankan forces to victory, but amidst allegations of human rights abuse, and you were accused of declining to take forward the internationally-mandated truth and reconciliation process. What would you like your legacy to be at the end of five years?

Those allegations are wrong. In peacetimes, my engagement was even more than during the war to try and work on these issues. I did demining, I worked on resettlement and rehabilitation and development, and I got all militia to disarm. Without me, there would not have been provincial council elections, which our government conducted for the first time in the North and the East. We ensured the elections were free and fair; we didn’t try to manipulate them or bring in a candidate of our choice. The international community did not recognize these things, even the Tamil politicians did not recognize these things which led to a [better situation in the North & East].

Your elder brother Mahinda is now Prime Minister, while another brother Chamal is a minister. How will the relationship with your brothers work now, and will there be a transfer of power towards a more parliamentary system as under the 19th amendment?

The 19th amendment (passed in 2015) is a failure and if we get 2/3rds majority in parliament we will drop it from the constitution. The only way you can even make the 19th amendment work is with two brothers (laughs) [at the top]. For a country to be governed successfully, you need stability.  This was not the case during the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government, where they were fighting all the time and there was no development. Without stability, investors won’t come.

Is it true you are called the Terminator in the family?

(Laughs)  That is not true. I am the most innocent person in our family, since my childhood. When I joined the army, my family said Mahinda should have joined the army, and I should have joined politics.

 Hiru News

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa returned to the island last night after concluding his visit to India.

By Graham Dockery, RT

London Bridge attacker Usman Khan was a convicted terrorist and, in the eyes of the law, a threat to the UK.” So why was he released from prison early and paraded as an example of successful rehabilitation?

28-year-old Usman Khan stabbed two people to death and injured three others on Friday, before he was wrestled to the ground by members of the public and shot dead at point-blank range by police on London Bridge. Khan was wearing a fake suicide vest, and the incident is being treated as a terrorist attack by investigators.

ALSO ON RT.COMWATCH moment London Bridge stabbing suspect shot by police

Khan was not the archetypal US-style lone-wolf attacker, the kind who one day snaps and opens up on the public with an AR-15. Instead, he was a hate preacher and hardened terrorist who should never have been allowed back on the streets.

Together with a band of jihadists from London, Cardiff and Stoke-on-Trent, Khan was sentenced in 2012 to an indeterminate stretch in prison for his role in a plot to bomb the London Stock Exchange. He had also preached radical Islam on the streets of Stoke,  planned to establish a terrorist training camp on family land in Kashmir, considered executing smaller attacks before the stock exchange hit and, though he was only 19 at the time of his arrest, was considered a serious jihadi.”

In his sentencing remarks, Mr. Justice Wilkie said that the group were involved in a serious, long-term venture in terrorism.” Wilkie noted that these offenders would remain, even after a lengthy term of imprisonment, of such a significant risk that the public could not be adequately protected by their being managed on licence in the community.”

Police officers aim at Khan, on London Bridge, November 29, 2019 in this still image obtained from a social media video © Hand Luggage Only via Reuters

Yet just a year later, Khan’s sentence was fixed to 16 years behind bars. He served only seven of these years and was automatically released on licence (parole) in 2018, exactly as Judge Wilkie had warned against.

In a bitter twist of irony, Khan attended a ‘Learning Together’ conference in the hours leading up to his attack. Organized by academics from the University of Cambridge, the conference gave criminology students a chance to meet and chat with convicts, to learn more about  stigma, marginalisation and the role of intergroup contact in reducing prejudice.” Khan had reportedly been invited to the conference by organisers.

Breaking stigmas and fighting marginalization is the kind of thing that event organizers Amy Ludlow and Ruth Armstrong tweeted excitedly about in the run-up to Friday’s conference. However, they have both since locked their Twitter accounts. 

Khan’s rampage began during a storytelling and creative writing workshop, and among his victims was Jack Merritt, a 25-year-old course coordinator. The man’s father described his son as a beautiful spirit who always took the side of the underdog,” while an associate hailed his “deep commitment to prisoner education and rehabilitation.”

ALSO ON RT.COMLondon Bridge hero grabbed 5ft NARWHAL TUSK off wall to confront terrorist (PHOTOS, VIDEOS)

Softening the punitive edges of the criminal justice system has been the goal of certain criminologists and commenters around the world for centuries. In the run-up to next month’s general election, advocacy organizations have even written to political leaders warning them not to stigmatize criminals by calling them names, and arguing for shorter sentences and second chances” for offenders.

Society did not fail Khan and his co-conspirators. The band of jihadists chose to marginalize themselves, and willingly embraced their stigmatic identity as terrorists. Organizations like the Prison Reform Trust may wring their hands and fret over the social injustice of calling a criminal a criminal, but extremists willing to wipe out scores of innocent lives with high explosives are motivated by pathological hatred, and likely don’t give a toss what they’re called.

They’re also, in Khan’s case at least, proof that some criminals cannot be rehabilitated. Unlike a robber who, given the right opportunities, can be turned away from robbing, Khan viewed ordinary Britons as kuffars” and dogs,” and was bent on waging holy war against the country that gave his family a home, and him a shot at life in the civilized world.

Police officers walk near the site of the London Bridge attack © Reuters / Peter Nicholls

And there’s more like him out there. Of the nine conspirators who were jailed in 2012, five are rumored to be out on parole, including Mo Chowdhury, referred to by Judge Wilkie as the lynchpin of the group.” Tracking those down and reassuring the public they aren’t a threat should be the first order of business for the British government now that the failure with Khan has been made so tragically obvious.

Speaking before an emergency meeting on Friday night, Prime Minister Boris Johnson called it a mistake to allow serious and violent criminals to come out of prison early,” and vowed to enforce appropriate sentences for dangerous criminals.”

For those stabbed to death in cold blood on Friday and for their families, Johnson’s words came too late. For policymakers and law enforcement officials, the difficult but necessary questions that must now be asked are: is it fair to treat irreconcilable terrorists like ‘ordinary decent criminals’? And how can someone who fundamentally hates your civilization possibly be rehabilitated by its institutions?

by Shamindra Ferdinando Courtesy The Island

Having accused the government of interrogating a female local employee of the Swiss embassy in Colombo last Monday (Nov 25) in the wake of top CID detective, Chief Inspector Nishantha De Silva, his wife and three children taking refuge in Switzerland, the Swiss government has sought approval to move the embassy employee along with her family to Switzerland, authoritative sources told The Sunday Island.

The CI and his family left the country last Sunday (Nov 24) having stayed at a luxury hotel on the previous day, sources said.

Citing rapid deterioration of her health after she was interrogated in a car by unidentified persons, Switzerland requested that alleged victim be allowed to be moved out in an air ambulance, sources said.

The Sunday Island learns that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, on a two-day state visit to New Delhi had been apprised of the developments as Switzerland sought to bring the contentious matter to an end by moving the alleged victim out of the country.

In a brief statement issued on Friday, Nov 29, the Swiss embassy in Colombo claimed that its employee wasn’t in a condition due to testify due to deterioration of her health.

Highly placed government sources said that the embassy owed an explanation as to why the local employee was in such a bad health condition. Did the embassy imply she was tortured during the interrogation? ministerial sources asked, pointing out the diplomatic mission alleged the employee was seriously threatened at length by unidentified men who forced her to disclose embassy-related information.

Responding to a query, sources said that the government didn’t object to Switzerland accommodating the alleged victim, her family or even extended relatives in an asylum program though they should follow proper immigration procedures. Having demanded an investigation into alleged abduction, the Swiss embassy couldn’t expect to move the employee without her being subjected to immigration formalities.

Sources asked whether if the employee was in such a bad condition which required Switzerland to deploy an air ambulance the government should know whether she was currently receiving medical treatment in a state or private hospital.

In spite of Sri Lanka seeking access to the alleged victim, the Swiss embassy is yet to accede to that request, sources said yesterday afternoon.

Referring to Swiss embassy statement that a formal complaint had been lodged immediately after the incident and the embassy was fully cooperating with law enforcement authorities, government officials pointed out the police were yet to receive a complaint, five days after the incident.

Sources said that Swiss Ambassador in Colombo brought the alleged incident to the notice of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa on Wednesday, Nov 27, at his Wijerama Mawatha residence. One-time External Affairs Minister and Premier Rajapaksa’s foreign affairs advisor Prof. G.L. Peiris, acting IGP and the senior officer in charge of the CID had been present, sources said, adding that the identity of the alleged victim was not revealed.

Responding to another query, sources said that Switzerland could swiftly move the embassy employee out once immigration formalities were completed. The embassy couldn’t be allowed to skip immigration formalities under any circumstances especially against the backdrop of very serious claim that she was in such bad shape that the police could not record a statement, sources said.

Ministerial sources said that the incident caused a severe headache for the new government. Sources pointed out that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa left for New Delhi amidst the crisis caused by Swiss accusations as regards abduction of an embassy employee. Sources acknowledged that the latest accusations had to be examined against spate of high profile long standing allegations pertaining to ‘white van’ abductions, disappearances and extra judicial killings.

Sources said that with Geneva Human Rights sessions scheduled for March 2020, fresh accusations could place the new government in an extremely delicate situation with Western powers demanding the full implementation of the accountability resolution the previous government co-sponsored in Oct 2015.

Sources said that Norwegians were among those who secretly moved out Sri Lankans, including LTTE cadres over the years. Sources recalled how Rajapaksa administration sought an explanation from former Norwegian Ambassador in Colombo Hilde Haraldstad regarding clandestine moving of Sri Lankans via the BIA.

Foreign Ministry issued two statements last Thursday, Nov 28, regarding the alleged abduction.

Sources said that though the government declared that it directed the CID to investigate, the premier agency was yet to receive the required support from Swiss embassy. Sources said that the Swiss turned down police request to reveal the identity of the victim following the Swiss representations to the Premier Rajapaksa.

Meanwhile, the government was yet to seek clarification from Switzerland embassy as regards the CID Inspector receiving privilege status on the basis of accusation his life was at risk in Sri Lanka. The statement issued by the Switzerland embassy on Friday categorically denied ever receiving a request from Sri Lanka to extradite De Silva.

Well informed sources said that a senior navy officer who gave evidence against Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Admiral Ravi Wijegunaratne, too, reached Switzerland.

President’s Counsel Manohara De Silva yesterday told The Sunday Island that the government machinery seemed struggling to cope up with unprecedented accusations regarding abduction of embassy employee. During the war though successive governments knew the LTTE remained in touch with some persons working for foreign missions they were not at least questioned, De Silva said. The latest incident underscored the pivotal importance of having a mechanism capable of swiftly responding to accusations, De Silva said. According to him, the Swiss move revealed significant shortcomings in the relevant government machinery meant to counter accusations.

KAMALIKA PIERIS

Tamil Separatist Movement complained that the land taken over by the armed forces in the Northern Province were not given back once the Eelam war IV ended in 2009. When the war ended in 2009, altogether 82,555 acres of lands in the North and East were held by the military, of which 30,300 acres were private lands, reported the media. Only 5.2 % of the lands seized had been given back to their rightful owners since 2009, Tamil Separatist Movement complained.

Once Yahapalana government came to power the Tamil separatists were able to put pressure on the President to get their lands back. In January 2018 Yahapalana announced that it had released a total of 55,510.58 acres of private and state land in Jaffna, Kilinochchi, Mullaitivu, Mannar and Vavuniya. 

In August 2018 The President said that 88 per cent of land used for security purposes, had already been released. Only 12% remaining lands have to be released. In November 2018 Yahapalana said that the releasing of the lands occupied by the Security Forces in the North and East is in its final stage. In 2019, the Government has released about 80 percent of state lands and around 90 percent of private lands held by the military in the Northern and Eastern Provinces.

Yahapalana reported, in greater detail, that the lands which were held under the Security Forces Jaffna in 2009, was released gradually spread over 20 stages. Most of these lands were held in the high-security zone. In stage one, 370.65 acres were released to the public on October 28, 2010. In Stage two 1952.13 acres was released on November 27, 2010. In stage three, 1971.9 acres was released on May 9, 2011.

Under stage four, 345.94 acres was released on October 6, 2011. Under stage five, 617.76 acres was released on November 29, 2011 in the Thondamannaru area. Under stage six, around 1,000 acres was released on two occasions on March 23, 2015 and April 10, 2015. Then under stage seven, 18.04 acres was released on November 12, 2015.

Under stage eight, 712.98 acres was released on January 15, 2016 while under stage nine, on March 10, 2016, 0.67 acres was released. Under stage ten, 6.73 acres was released on March 2, 2016. Under stage eleven, 214.18 acres was released on June 25, 2016. Under stage 12, 499.49 acres was released on October 31, 2016 and another two acres was released under stage 13 on January 14, 2017. Under stage 14, on April 7, 2017, the military released another 33 acres

Under stage 15 another 54 acres of land was released on July 03, 2017. Under stage 16 the military released 29 acres on November 30, 2017 and another 683 acres was released under stage 17 on April 13, 2018 and two more acres on February 2018. On May 28, 2018, the military released another 0.25 acres and again on June 4, 2018, 36.6 acres was released. In total, 8550.32 acres have been released up to July 2018.

All private lands that were non essential for the national security have been released, said the Army Commander Lt. General Shavendra Silva in 2019. However,  he released further150.15 acres, in Kilinochchi belonging to the State and private owners.

Statistics are also given according to army divisions. The 51 Division in 2009 had occupied in total 2,692.60 acres of land and since 2009 they have so far released 2,512.16 acres to their rightful owners currently occupying 180.53 acres as at May 20, 2018.

The 52 Division in 2009 had occupied in total 10,839.83 acres of land and since 2009 they have so far released 10,665.37 to their rightful owners, currently occupying 174.46 acres as at May 20, 2018. The 55 Division in 2009 had occupied in total 1,821.17 acres of land and since 2009 they have so far released 1,303.00 acres to their rightful owners, currently occupying 518.17 acres as at May 20, 2018. (Daily News 10.7.18 p 11)

The total amount of land occupied by the Army in the Palaly Cantonment area is 2082.66 acres. The total land area occupied by the Army in other areas is 873.16 acres . The Sri Lanka Navy currently occupies 636 acres while the Sri Lanka Air Force occupies 996.74 acres. The total area utilised by the security forces is 4627.11 acres. (Daily News 10.7.18 p 11)

The lands released included  23-hectare land in the Mundirrippu Forest Reservation . 35 acres of land in Urani, 21.84 acres, belonging to 17 land owners in Seeniyamottai village area. The Ottapulam-Vasavilan road, Point Pedro to Kankesanturai road, Ponnaleivithi Road, which runs through Parthithurai, Jaffna to Myliddy,  road connecting Vattappalai and Puthukudiyirippu  and  the main road that runs between Kankesanturai and Point Pedro  were opened to the public.

The  Tamil Separatist Movement  specially targeted  the Palali cantonment near  Kankesanturai where  the military had occupied 10632.98 acres In the Palali Army Cantonment area in 2009.

1,473 petitioners from Achchuveli, Jaffna had complained to the Court of Appeal In May 2013, that 6,381 acres of land, which belonged to them, is to be acquired by the state for the use of security forces in Palali. The petitioners said they had been displaced from their villages during the war. When they wanted to return, they had been prevented by the Army.

 Notices of acquisition had been pasted on trees on those lands. The notices were under land acquisition Act Section 2 and dated April 27, 2013.The petitioners requested the Court to restrain the Minister of Lands from effecting this mala-fide acquisition. An amended petition was submitted later, K. Kaneg Ishwaran PC, appeared with M.A. Sumanthiran, for the petitioners. The bench comprised Justice S. Sriskandarajah, the President of the Court of appeal.

Security forces said in 2016 that the army had occupied 27,250 acres of which 21,134 have been given back. It was not possible to give all the lands back due to security reasons. The lands now  come under the Jaffna and Palaly high security zone. There will be no more releasing of land from Palaly cantonment. Security forces said  in 2016.

But  in 2017, 29 acres including the buildings belonging to St. Mary’s Church and Roman Catholic Tamil Mixed School, located inside the Palaly Army Cantonment, were handed over . In 2018 a further   683 acres which was held under the Palaly Army camp area, were released. This was the biggest chunk of land released to the Jaffna public on a single day.

Attention then turned to Valigamam North. Valigamam North was classified as a High Security Zone.  Sampanthan said  in 2017 that civilians were evicted from several thousands of acres of land in Valigamam North in order to protect the Palaly Air Base from artillery fire almost 25 years ago. But even after the fighting had ended in 2009, only a fraction of that land had been returned for civilian resettlement,  he said.

After Yahapalana took office, many areas in Valikamam were returned to their  owners. The army returned 28.8 acres of land to its owners in Valigamam North In 2017. These lands, belonging to 400 families, were held by the security forces since 1990.  However, some of the owners found only empty grounds. Houses had been bulldozed and wells filled up, reported the media. A further extent of land encompassing 4.4 acres in the Valikamam North hitherto used by the Army for service requirements, was released in 2018.

Another area which got much attention was Myliddy. Myliddy is near the high security zones of Palaly airport and Kankesanthurai harbour   and is home to vital military installations, including ammuniion dumps.

Myliddy was one of the first areas of land to be taken over by the military .It has also been one of the last areas to be handed back to its civilian owners. The Army  needed Mailady and the area shouldn’t be vacated under any circumstances, said Sarath Weerasekera, retired Navy Chief of Staff .

The owners of the Myliddy lands  believed that the military did not intend to return this land to them at all as the lands  were  near to the high security zones of the airport and harbor. Jehan Perera recounted that in 2012,  three years after the war had ended,  at Myliddy bulldozers entered the land and completely flattened all remaining buildings, which in any event had become dilapidated due to being vacant for close to three decades. The people had returned to theirhomes to find nothing remaining, not even the boundaries that separated their properties

In 2016,Tamil politicians were making a determined bid to compel the Army to vacate Mailady in the Jaffna peninsula. Tamil National Alliance politicians are demanding Mailady for resettlement in spite of the Army repeatedly offering alternative housing, observed critics. Those who had been displaced aren’t allowed by Tamil politicians to settle elsewhere because  the TNA wanted somehow to evict the Army from Mailady,  they said.   

500 acres of Myliddy in Jaffna, which was a long-term request of people, were released in April 2018.  In 2019  on Maha Sivarathri Day  Army released a further  19.72 acres in Myladdy north and east within the Palaly Army Cantonment and a section adjoining it. A small section of 0.25 acres of the released land in Myliddy belongs to the state while the remainder is owned by private owners, reported the media

Urani Primary School, occupied for over 27 years by the military for security reasons, was returned to the school community in 2017. In 2018  a block of 2.75 acres, belonging to the Kalaimagal Vidyalayam, Myliddy North was returned.

A  big fuss was made over the  land taken over  at Kepapilavu.  Sri Lanka army’s 59^th division had its   Headquarters at Kepapilavu in Mullaitivu , in a camp that spanned over a thousand acres,  using up much of the residential land, ‘believed to be legally owned’ by private individuals who hold legal documentation, complained Tamil Separatist Movement .

The army had displaced the villagers of Kepapilavu, said Tamil Separatist Movement .  An additional 54 families  had been displaced by the Air Force. These were their private lands or lands with permits. The villagers are in Seeniyamottai close to Nandikathal. They are in very infertile area and are suffering. The military is treating them badly, said Tamil Separatist Movement  in 2013.

Shenali Waduge had gone to Kepapilavu, in 2013. The villagers looked happy, after living for 30 years in cadjan huts.  The 125 families are now in Kepapilavu model village, bordering Seeniyamottai. They have 40 perches of land for each family, six months of dry rations, 12 roofing sheets per family, 8 cement bags, kitchen ware, plastic mats, grant of 25,000 and eventually a brick house of 550 sq feet. Also 100 bicycles gifted and overseas visitors donating goodies, she said.

After Yahapalana, things improved for the owners of lands in Kepapilavu. In 2017 another 133.34 acres in Kepapilavu was released to 68 land owners together with newly-built or completely renovated 28 houses. At the time the Army acquired those lands, there were only 8 buildings and one foundation in the location.

But the matter was not over.  In 2017 it was reported, that families in Mullikulam and Keppapulavu, were protesting for the return of lands held by the Navy and Air Force. In small tents set up right at the entrance of the camps, these families took turns to sit in for 24 hours calling for the return of their land, said Groundviews. It was only after months, and after continued media coverage, that the state began partially releasing land.

A group of Keppapilavu residents also staged a protest opposite the Mullaitivu Security Force Headquarters on December 31, 2018 demanding that their lands be released to them as promised by the government. 55 families were demanding for the return of their lands some of them had legal documentation proving their ownership, while some do not hold such ownership documents, reported the media. The protestors said that this would be their last warning and if their lands are not released prior to January 25, they would forcibly take possession of their lands.

It was reported in 2019 that around 2014, the majority of these families had consented to accepting compensation for their lands and around 270 houses had been built for them. However, around nine  families had not agreed to accept compensation and had wanted their lands returned to them.Subsequently, the rest of the families who had earlier agreed to give up their lands and accept the compensation by the government,  had changed their minds and are demanding that their lands be returned to them, said Tamil Separatist Movement .

President Sirisena said people have the right to decide whether they want to resettle in their original lands or in alternative lands and instructed the release of these lands.  However, it was said that only some of those demanding for the lands possess legal documentation to prove ownership to these lands. In 2019 the army had reported to the President that they were working towards an amicable solution”, in consultation with civilians, regarding the lands occupied by the army in the Keppapilavu area in the Mullaitivu District. (Continued)

චන්ද්‍රසිරි විජයවික්‍රම, LL.B,.Ph.D.

උතුරේ දෙමළ ජනයා චන්දය දුන්නේ සිංහල බෞද්ධ සජිත්ට යයි කියන කටින්ම, සිංහල බෞද්ධ චන්ද වලින් පමණක් ගෝඨාභය දිනීම අශුභ කරුණක් යයි සුමන්තිරන් ප්‍රකාශ කිරීම යහපාලන දෙමළ බොරුකාරයින් වැටී සිටිනා ඔල්මාද ස්‌වභාවය, අන්දමන්දවීම එලිකරන්නේය. යහපාලන සිංහල බොරුකාරයින්ද ඉන්නේ මෙම ඩිලූෂන් මනසේ බව පේන්නේ ඔවුන්ද දැන් ඉතිපිසෝ ගාථාව මතක්‌වී, අළුතින් නැවත බුද්ද්ධාගම වැළඳගැනීමට යන නිසාය. රෝසි සේනානායකලා, මිසිස් චන්ද්‍රිකාලා, ලංකාවේ බෞද්ධ පදනම නැතිකල යුතුයයි ක්‍රියාකරද්දී, රන්ජන් රාමනායකලා, මංගල සමරවීරලා සිවුරට නිගාකරද්දී, ලංකාව සිංහල බෞද්ධ රටක් නොවේයයි කියද්දී නිහඬව සිටි, 2015 සිටම සිවුරු දඩයමේ ගිය යූ‌එන්‌පී කාරයෝ මේ වනවිට ගලේ පැහැරූ බළලුන් වී සිටී. ඉදිරි පාර්ලිමේන්තු මැතිවරණයේදී වෙන්නට යන කෲර සෝදාපාළුව දැන්තියාම ඔවුන්ගේ මනස් අවුල් කරණවාසේ පෙනේ.

ගෑණු-පිරිමි සිංහල අගමැතිලාගේ, ජනාධිපතිලාගේ ලංකා ඉතිහාසය හා භූගෝල ‌විද්‍යාව නොදන්නාකම හා ඔවුන් ලෝභ-ද්වේශ-මෝහයෙන් පිරි, බොහෝසෙයින් හිරි-ඔත්තප්ප නැති පංචස්කන්‌ධ වීමත් නිසා, ඉංග්‍රීසීන්ගේ බෙදාපාලනය කිරීමේ උපක්‍රමයේ ප්‍රතිඵලයක් වශයෙන් 1921/23 කාලයේ පොන්නම්බලම් අරුණාචලම් ආරම්භකල ටැමිලක්කම් දෙමළ රාජ්‍ය ව්‍යාපාරය නිසි ආකාරයට බෞද්ධ රාජ්‍ය පාලන සංකල්ප මඟින් දමණය කර ගැනීමේ හැකියාවක් ඔවුන්ට නොවීය. ඔවුන් ධර්‌මපාලතුමාට හිරිහැර කර රටින් එලවා ගත්තේද මේ නිසාය. උදාහරණයක් වශයෙන් 1957 දී බණ්ඩාරනායක හා 1965 දී ඩඩ්ලි විසින් දෙමළ නිජභූමියක් යයි චෙල්වනාගම් කියන ප්‍රදේශයකට ඉඩම් බලතල දීමට එකඟවීම කෙළවරවූයේ 1987 දී 13 සංශොධනය මඟින් ජේ‌ආර් යටතේ ලංකාවේ පෙඩරල් රාජ්‍යයක් බිහිවීමෙනි.

මෝඩ සිංහලයින් මෙන් නොව චෙල්වනායගම් ක්‍රියාකලේ රේල්පාරේ නොනැවතී හෙමින් දුවන කෝච්චියක් සේය. උතුරේ දෙමළ නිජබිමක් තිබේ යන ඔහුගේ මිථ්‍යාවට විරුද්ධව කට අරින්නට කිසිදු සිංහල දේශපාලකයෙක්ට ශක්තියක් නොවීය. අනිත් අතට, දැන් ටිකක්, පසුව ගොඩක් යන ඔහුගේ න්‍යාය (ලිට්ල් නව්, මෝ ලේටර්) දැන දැනම, දෙමළ මන්ත්‍රීන්ගේ චන්ද පෙරේත කමින් අන්‌ධව, සිංහල නායකයින් විසින් වරින් වර ගිලගත් ඇමක් විය. මේ පිළිඹඳ ඉතිහාස කතාව මීට පෙර ලියා ඇති අවස්ථා බොහෝය. මිසිස් චන්ද්‍රිකා 1994-2000 කාලයේදී පැකේජ් ඩීල් මඟින් රට කැබලිකර දෙමළ නිජබිම සාදාදීමට නීලන් තිරුචෙල්වම් හා ජයම්පති වික්‍රමරත්න නම් මාක්ස්වාදියා යොදවා රහස් ප්ලෑනක් සැදුවේය. 2009 මැයි 19 දාට පසුදා යුද ආඥාවක් මගින් 13 සංශොධනය අහෝසි කිරීමට ඉඩක් තිබුණේය. ඒ වෙනුවට 2013 දී දෙමළ මධ්‍යස්ථ මතධාරියෙක් යැයි සැළකූ විග්නේශ්වරන්ව කරට ගෙන ලෝකයේ නොම්මර එකේ ඉල්ලාගෙන කෑමක් විඳගත්තේය. සිංහල නායකයින් අල්ලේ නැටවීමට මේ අළුත් කොටි වල්ගයට හැකිවිය. ඕනෑම නරක දෙයක වුනත් හොඳක් තිබිය හැකියැයි කියනවා මෙන් විග්නේශ්වරන් රටට ඔප්පු කලේ බෙදුම්වාදය නමැති පිළිකාව බිලි පිදේණිදී සමනය කල නොහැකි බවය. දෙමළෙන් ජාතික ගීය ගැයීම ඊළම් කාරයින් දකින්නේ තවත් එක් ජයග්‍රහණයක් සේ මිස සංහිඳියා අත්වැලක් ලෙස නොවේ. මේ නිසා සංහිඳියාකාරයින්ගේ වැඩ නිසා යම් පමණකින් හෝ තිබෙන සංහිඳියාවත් මකබෑවී ගියේය. වැඩ බකල් කර චන්ද්‍රිකා නැවතත් ලන්ඩන් බලා පලාගියේය!

ඇමෙරිකන් තානාපතිනියවද සහභාගි කරවාගෙන, මාදුළුවාවේ සෝභිත හිමියන්ව රවටාගෙන, සිරිසේන මහතාව ඉත්තෙක් කරගෙන 2014 අග කරන ලද මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ රෙජිමය පෙරලීම සිංහලයා විසින් කල ඉඟුරුදී මිරිස් ගැනීමක් විය. මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ ආණ්ඩුවේ අඩුපාඩු වලට දුන් දඬුවම බඩ සුද්දවෙන්නට දුන් බෙහෙතෙන් ලෙඩා මළා වැනිවිය. එහෙත් මේ වෙනස සුමන්තිරන් ඇතුළු දෙමළ ඊළම්කාරයින්ට, ප්‍රභාකරන් මඟින් යුදකර ලබාගත නොහැකිවූ ඊළම, චන්දයෙන් ලබාගැනීමේ උපාය මාර්‌ගයේ හිනිපෙත්ත විය. රට කැබලි කිරීමට රනිල්-චන්ද්‍රිකා-මංගල සමරවීර-ජයම්පති වික්‍රමරත්න-ලාල් විජේනායක හා එකතුව සුමන්තිරන් විසින් බොරු නාඩගමක් නටා අන්තිමට 2018 දී ඉදිරිපත් කලේ රට කැබලි කිරීමේ 1994-2000 චන්ද්‍රිකාගේ පරණ ප්ලෑනමය. යහපාලන හිරකාරයෙකුවූ ජනාධිපති විසින් 2018 ඔක්තෝබර් 26 දින පුපුරවන ලද යහපාලන අත්බෝම්බය නිසා මෙම කූඨ ප්ලෑන කොට උඩ ගියේය. 2019 අප්‍රියෙල් 21 පාස්කු ප්‍රහාරය මෙම කූඨ ප්ලෑනට සම්බන්‌ධද යන්න මෙතෙක් තහවුරුවී නැත. කෙසේ වෙතත් නීතියෙන් පැවැත්‌විය යුතුවූ ජනාධිපතිවරණය කල්දමන්නට හේතුවන තරමේ කලබගෑනියක් රටේ ඇති නොවීය.

සිංහලයා පරද්දන්නට සජිත්ට චන්දය දෙන්නයි සුමන්තිරන් ප්‍රසිද්ධියේ සිංහලයින්ගෙන්ම ඉල්ලා සිටියේ, මෝඩ සිංහලයින් විසින් මළායයි සිතුවත්, වැළලී පමණක් පවතින රට බෙදන ව්‍යවස්ථා ජරමරය යලි ගොඩගන්නටය. සජිත් නමැති විහාර 1200 ක් රට පුරා හදන්නට ප්‍රතිඥාදුන් සිංහල බෞද්ධයාට චන්දය දීමෙන් දෙමළ ජනයා ජාතිවාදීන් නොවන බව රටට ඔප්පුවුනා යන සුමන්තිරන්ගේ මෙම ඉල්ලීම හරියට 1861-65 ඇමෙරිකන් සිවිල් යුද්ධයේ අගභාගයේදී වහල් ක්‍රමය රැකගන්නට ඔවුන්ගේ ඒ වනවිට පැරදෙමින් පවතින යුදහමුදාවට බැඳෙන ලෙස දකුණේ වහල් හිමියන් ඔවුන්ගේ වහළුන්ට කල ඉල්ලීම වැනි විය. සුමන්තිරන්ගේ මේ කතා අනුව බලනවිට මීට පෙර දෙමළ ජනයා සරත් ෆොන්සේකාට චන්දය දුන්නේ ඔහු ප්‍රභාකරන්ව විනාශකල බව අමතක කර විය යුතුය.

සුමන්තිරන් මෙවැනි විකාර කතා කියන්නේ ඔවුන්ගේ කූඨ සැලස්ම මෙවර චන්දයෙන් ව්‍යවර්‌ථව ගිය නිසා එය රෙපයාර් කරගන්නට සිතාය. එහෙත් මේ පාර ඔවුන්ට සිදුවූයේ නයාට ගසා පොල්ල වරද්දාගත්තා වැනි කොටුවීමක්‌ය. මෙම ලිපියේ අරමුණ මේ අබ්බැද්දිය පෙන්වා දීමය. 13 සංශොධනයෙන් ලැබුණ පෙඩරල් පදනමෙන් පසු ඊළග පිම්ම පනින්නට සූදානමක් වශයෙන් ප්ලෑන් ඒ (ප්‍රභාකරන්) වලට අමතරව ප්ලෑන් බී එකක් වශයෙන් දෙමළ නායකයින් කලේ ලංකාවේ චන්ද සිතියමේ ඊළම් නිජබිම හා සෙසු ප්‍රදේශ අතර ඇති බෙදීම ඉස්මතුකර ලොවට පෙන්නීමය. 2004 ජනාධිපති චන්දයේදී සිට 2016 පලාත් පාලන චන්දය දක්‌වාම මේ බෙදුම් රේඛාව දිස්විය. මේ නිසා 2019 චන්දය සඳහා ඔවුන්ගේ උපායවූයේ දමිළ සිසුන් ලවා කිසිසේත් ලබාගත නොහැකිබව දන්නා ඉල්ලීම් 13 ක් ඉදිරිපත් කරවීමය. ඒ මඟින් වෙනදා මෙන් දෙමළ චන්ද තොගපිටින් ඔවුන්ට ලබාගෙන චන්ද සිතියම ජාත්‍යන්තරයට පෙන්‌වීමටය. එහෙත් මෙවර සිතියමින් දෙමළ-මුස්ලිම් චන්ද නැතිව සිංහලයාට ආණ්ඩුවක් හදන්න බෑ යන මිථ්‍යාව බිඳ වැටී ගොස් ඇත. සිංහලයා සමඟ මිස සිංහලයා නැතිව තවදුරටත් ගමනක් නැතිබව විචක්‍ෂණ බුද්ධිය ඇති බටහිර ඊළම් සපෝටර්ලාට අවබෝධවෙනු නිසැකය. සිංහලීකරණය යනු විග්නේශ්වරන්ලාගේ ප්‍රෝඩාවක් බව පැහැදිලි වනු ඇත.

ශිෂ්‍ය ඉල්ලීම් 13, සුමන්තිරන් මූලිකව සැදූ 2018 යහපාලන ව්‍යවස්ථා මගඩියට එහා ගිය එකකි. එහත් මේ ඉල්ලීම් හරියට රත්‌වූ පිහියකින් බටර් කපනවා මෙන් ගෝඨාභය විසින් ප්‍රතික්‍ෂේප කරාවියයි ඔවුන් නොසිතූ බව නිසැකය. ඔවුන් සිතුවේ ගෝඨාභය තවත් එක මෝඩ සිංහල අළුත් දේශපාලකයෙක්‌ය කියා විය යුතුය. නමුත් සජිත් ඔවුන්ගේ ලණුව කෑවේ වංක ලෙස තම චන්ද ප්‍රකාශණයට ඉල්ලීම් 13 හා 2018 ව්‍යවස්ථා මරාළය ඈඳාගැනීමෙනි. සිංහලයා රැවටීමත්, දෙමළා රැවටීමත් යන එක ගලෙන් කුරුල්ලන් දෙන්නෙක්ම මරාගැනීම සජිත් තොත්ත බබාගේ අරමුණ විය. දැන් මෙම සුමන්තිරන්-සජිත් ප්ලෑන දෙපක්‍ෂයටම පාරා වලල්ලක් වී ඇත. සජිත්ලාට එන පාර්ලිමේන්තු චන්දයේදීත්, සුමන්තිරන්ලාට උපායක් වශයෙන් චන්ද නිජබිම් සිතියම පවිච්චි කිරීමේදීත් බලවත් අර්බුදයක් හටගෙන තිබේ.

යහපාලන සංහිඳියාවෙන් බෞතීස්ම‌ව දැන් යන එන මං නැතිව සිටිනා චම්පික රණවක නම් මේ සිතියමේ දකින්නේ අනාගත ලොකු අවුලක අඳුරු සෙවනැලිය. යම් ආකාරයක සිංහල-දෙමළ ජාතිවාදී කෝලාහලයක් චම්පිකටත්, සජිත්ටත්, සුමන්තිරන්ටත් ඇති එකම ගැලවීමය.
එහෙත් මේ සිතියම යටින් ඇති පාර්ලිමේන්තු ආසන මට්ටමේ චන්ද සංඛ්‍යා විමසා බලනවිට ඉන් එලිවන්නේ ලංකාවේ දෙමළ බෙදුම්වාදයේ මළගම ලංවී ඇතිබවය. දෙමළ බෙදුම්වාදීන්ගේ ඉල්ලීම් කෙළින්ම ප්‍රතික්‍ෂේපකල ගොඨාභයට, උතුරේ දෙමළ ජනයා ආසන මට්ටමින් දී ඇති චන්ද සංඛ්‍යාව, දෙමළ හා මුස්ලිම් චන්ද නැතිව තනිකර සිංහල චන්ද වලින් සිංහලයෙකුට ජනාධිපති වීමට පුළුවන් යන කරුණ සමඟ බලනවිට එය රටට ඉතාමත් හිතකරය.

මේ සමඟ ඇති සංඛ්‍යා සටහණේ මුල් කොලමෙන් පෙන්වන්නේ දෙමළ නිජබිම යයි කියනා චන්ද කොට්ඨාශවල ගෝඨාභයට ලැබුණු චන්ද සංඛ්‍යාවය. දෙවැන්න කොට්ඨාශයේ නරක්‌වූ (ප්‍රතික්‍ෂේපවුණ) චන්ද සංඛ්‍යාවය. තුන්වැන්න චන්දය පාවිච්චි නොකල අයගේ සංඛ්‍යාවය. ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදය යනු පුදුමාකාරයේ බිබික්කමකි. ඇමෙරිකාවේ, ලක්‍ෂ 395 ක් සිටිනා කැලිෆෝර්නියා ජනපදයටත්, ලක්‍ෂ 7 ක් සිටිනා උතුරු ඩැකෝටාවටත් ඇත්තේ සෙනේට් සභිකයින් දෙන්නෙක් බැගින් පමණය. නඩුකාරයින් චන්දය ඉල්ලා තේරෙන්නේද ඇමෙරිකාවේය. ලංකාවේ දෙමළ පක්‍ෂයට හා මුස්ලිම් පක්‍ෂ වලට ලැබෙන මුළු ආසන සංඛ්‍යාව ඔවුන්ගේ මුළු ජන සංඛ්‍යාව හා සසඳනවිට ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍ර විරෝධීය. මේ අනුව සිතනවිට යම් දෙමළ මන්ත්‍රී ආසනයක දිණන මන්ත්‍රීට ලැබෙන චන්ද සංඛ්‍යාව, ඉහත සඳහන් දෙවන හා තුන්වන කොලම් සමඟ සසඳන විට පෙනීයන්නේ ටී‌එන්‌ඒ‌කාරයින්ට චන්දය නොදුන් විශාල පිරිස් ඒ ඒ චන්ද කොට්ඨාශවල සිටිනා බවය. රාජාලියා හා හංසයා අතර වෙනස පවා නොතේරුණු දෙමළ ජනයා ආරියවංශ දිසානායකට, සිවාජිලිංගම්ට වඩා චන්දය දී ඇත. හිස්බුල්ලාට වූ දේත්, අනුර කුමාර අතරමංවීමත් හොඳ පාඩම්‌ය. මේ අනුව යමින් වෙනදා මෙන් නොව මෙවර සිදුවිය යුත්තේ මේ එක් එක් දෙමළ චන්ද කොට්ඨාශවල ඉන්නා ගෝඨාභයට චන්දය දුන් දහස් ගණන් දමිළ ජනයා එකතුකර ඒ චන්ද කොට්ඨාශවල දෙමළ-සිංහල මිත්‍රත්‌ව සංවිධාන පිහිටුවා සෙසු දෙමළ ජනයාට සත්‍යය කියාදී කොළඹ සිට ඔවුන් රවටන සුමන්තිරන්ලා වැන්නන්ගෙන් ඔවුන් ගලවා ගැනීමය. 1931 ඩොනමෝර් ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම කාලයේ සිටම සිදුවූයේ යාපනේ කුලහීනයයි සළකණ ජනයා පාගා කොන්කර දැමීමය. අත්‍යාවශ්‍ය පාරක් (කෝස්වේ) දැමීමට යාමේදී පවා ඉන් කුලහීනයින්ට උපකාරයක් වෙන නිසා වෙල්ලාලයෝ ඊට විරුද්ධවිය. මා සමඟ කැනඩාවේ ඉගෙනගත් ප්‍රභාකරන්ගේ ඥාති සහෝදරයෙක් (ඔහුගේ නමත් ප්‍රභාකරන්) මට කිව්වේ පෙඩරල් පාටි සෙන්ට්‍රල් කමිටි එක තරුණ ප්‍රභාකරන්ව කොන් කිරීම ඔහුගේ වෙල්ලාල වෛරයට මුල් හේතුවවූ බවය. කොළඹ සිට සිමෙන්ති සංස්ථාවේ නිලධාරියෙක් වශයෙන් වරින් වර කන්කසන්තුරේ කම්හලට ගිය විට එහි කම්කරුවන් මට (එසේ ගිය අනිත් සිංහලයින්ටත්) දැක්‌වූයේ ඉතාමත් සුහද ලැදි භාවයකි. සුද්දන් විසින් දෙමළ ජනයාට වැඩි සැලකිල්ලක් දැක්‌වූයේද මේ ගතිගුණය නිසාම වියයුතුය. කර්‌නල් රත්නප්‍රිය බන්‌දුට දෙමළ ජනයා දක්‌වන ආදරය හදපත්ලෙන්ම නැඟෙන්නක් මිස, බොහෝවිට සිංහලයින් පෙන්වන ආකාරයේ ව්‍යාජ බැඳීමක් නොවේ.

දෙමළ මාධ්‍යයෙන් පේරාදෙණියේ සරසවියට 1963 දී ආ සිසුවෙකුට දෙන්නෙක් වෙනුවට තනියෙන් කාමරයක ඉන්නට සිදුවූයේ ඔහු කුලහීනයයි අනිත් දෙමළ සිසුන් ඔහුව කොන් කල නිසාය. ශාලාධිපතිවූයේ දෙමළ මහාචාර්යවරයෙකි! 1957 දී බණ්ඩාරනායක මහතා මොවුන්ට සාධාරණයක් කිරීමට ප්‍රිවෙන්ෂන් ඔෆ් සෝසියල් ඩිසැබිලිටීස් නම් නීතියක් ගෙනාවේය. ඒ මැත් ප්‍රොෆෙසර් සුන්දරලිංගම් හින්දු කෝවිල් හරිජනයාගෙන් කිලිටිවීම වැලක්‌වීමට සටන් කල කාලයේය. මේ හරි ජනයා දෙමළට හරවා ගත් ආදි සිංහල ජනයා කියාද මතයක් ඇත.

දෙමළ-සිංහල මිත්‍රත්වයක් දැනටමත් බිම් මට්ටමෙන් හටගනිමින් පවතී. බොදු බල සේනාව හා ලංකා හින්දු සම්මේලනය එක් උදාහරණයකි. මෑතදී ඇතිවූ ගුරුකන්ද විහාර ආදාහන අවුලේදී හින්දු සම්මේලනය ඉදිරිපත්‌වුනේ, කෝවිලක් තිබුණත් නැතත් ආදාහනයක් නිසා එය කිලිටි වනවා යන තර්‌කය වැරදි ආගමික අදහසක් බව පෙන්‌වා දෙමිනි. රතන හාමුදුරුවන් උපවාස කලවිට මඩකලපුවේ දෙමළ මන්ත්‍රීවරයෙක්ද ඊට සහයෝගය දෙමින් උපවාස කලේය. නැඟෙනහිර පලාතේ දෙමළ ප්‍රාදේශීය ලේකම් කාර්‌යාලයක් ඉල්ලා පැවති අර්බුදය විසඳීමට ඥානසාර හිමියන්ගේ මැදිහත්‌වීම දෙමළ ජනයා අගය කලේය. නාගානන්දගේ මැදිහත්‌වීම නිසා ප්‍රසිද්ධියට පත්‌වූ අරුන් ආවා කල්ලිය පිළිඹඳ සත්‍යය එලිකලේය. දෙමළ බෙදුම්වාදය යනු යම් කොළඹ වසන දමිළ නායකයින් යයි කියාගන්නා අතලොස්සකගේ ජීවනෝපායයක්‌ය යන කරුණ උතුරේ දෙමළ තරුණයින් විසින් වටහා ගනිමින් සිටින බවට හොඳම උදාහරණය අරුන් ය. කඳුල වැඩසටහනේ බ්‍රදර් චාල්ස් බෙදුම්වාදයට විරුද්ධව යාපනේත්, ලන්ඩන්වලත් කතා කරමින් සිංහල-දෙමළ සංහිඳියාව ගොඩනඟමින් සිටී. මඩකලපුවේ අරුන් තම්බිමුත්තු කලක සිටම දෙමළ බෙදුම්වාදයට විරුද්ධව පෙනී සිටියේය.

මේ සියල්ලටම වඩා වැදගත් භූමිකාව වන්නේ හාමුදුරුවරු දෙමළ ජනයා අතරට යාමට ගත් තීරණයය. උතුරේ හරි ජනයා තබා ඉන්දියාවේ ඩලිත් ජනයා බුද්ධාගමට හැරවීමටවත් ලංකාවේ හාමුදුරුවරු මැදිහත් නොවීය. අම්බෙඩ්කාර් එය කලාට පසුවවත් අන්‍යාගමීකරණය හාමුදුරුවරුන්ට අකැපය. පෙඩරල්කාරයින් කහ සිවුරට බයවූයේ මාක්ස්වාදීන් ඊට බයවූ අන්දමටමය. මේ නිසාම හමුදුරුවරු කලේ ඔවුන් සඳහා ඉල්ලීමක් තිබූ ජර්‌මණිය, ප්‍රංශය, ඇමෙරිකාව, ජපානය යන රටවලට යාමය. රතන හා ඥානසාර හාමුදුරුවරු මෙම අළුත් සමාජ සේවා ක්‍රමයේ (දෙමළ ජනයා බුද්ධාගමට හැරවීමට නොව), දෙමළ ජනයාට අතහිත දීමේ මූලිකත්‌වය ගෙන ඇති සේ පෙනේ. ‌එක අතකින් චන්ද්‍රිකාත්, අනිත් පැත්තෙන් මනෝ ගනේෂනුත් කරගෙන ගිය සංහිඳියා නම් බොරු මුදල් නාස්තිය වෙනුවට ඒවා විසුරුවා හැර දැනටමත් මතුවෙමින් පවතින මේ සිංහල-දෙමළ බැඳීමට උපකාර කිරීමට ජනාධිපති ගෝඨාභය අවධානය යොමු කරතැයි සිතමු.

1840 ස් ගණන් වල වලානේ සිරි සිද්ධාර්‍ථ නාහිමියන් පානදුරේ සිට රත්මලානට ගොස් පරම ධම්ම චේතිය පිරිවෙන ආරම්භකලේ සටන් බිමේ පෙරමුණට (කොළඹට) යායුතුයයි කියමින්‌ය. උන්වහන්සේගේ ගෝලයෝ විද්‍යෝදය-විද්‍යාලංකාර මහ පිරිවෙන් දෙක පිහිටුවේය. දශකයකින් දෙකකින් ලංකාවෙන් බුද්ධාගම නැතිවී යනවායයි ජේම්ස් ද අල්විස් අනාවැකි පලකලේ මේ කාලයේය. අන්තිමේදී 1873 දී පානදුරා වාදයෙන් ලංකාවේ බුද්ධාගම සුරැකුණේය. සියළු සත්‌වයෝ (මිනිසුන් පමණක් නොව) නිදුක් වෙත්‌වා යයි කියන එකම ආගම බුදු දහම නොවේද? මතවාදයෙන් බෙදුම්වාදය හා ශාරියාවාදය පරාද කිරීමේ කාර්යය කිරිමේ දැණුම, දැකුම, අධිෂ්ඨානය හා වටිනා කාලය ඇත්තේ සිල්වත්, විනයධර, භික්‍ෂූන්ටය. එය ඔවුන්ට භාරදීම සිංහල දෙමළ පාසැල්වල ඉගැන්‌වීම, මුත්තයියා මුරලිතරන්‌ව උතුරේ ආණ්ඩුකාරයා ලෙස පත්කිරීම වැනිම ඥානාන්‌විත ක්‍රියාවකි.

cwije77@outlook.com

Ivan Amarasinghe Northampton

Mr Corbyn,

You and your Deputy Leader’s unwarranted and intentional defamation of the Sri Lankan State and the Sinhala people as some kind of monsters intent on genocide of the Tamil people has cost your party over 100000 votes in the UK; and quite rightly so.

We can only take so much of your false allegations and intentional politically motivated spin doctoring done to appease the LTTE diaspora. The Sinhala people have now communicated on the social media and decided that we can no longer vote for a Party which tells blatant lies about us and our roots.

I need not write a lengthy letter of facts and figures as you and your party henchmen  know all that but willingly apportion blame on the innocent Sinhala people.

Why you would tell lies for Tamil votes is something the Labour Party will repent henceforth. I used to be a Polling Agent for the LabourParty since 1978. But enough is enough. All my family and friends have no choice but to vote against those who spread lies and empower themselves through false slanders of innocent Asian people.

Ivan Amarasinghe

Northampton

By Sheena McKenzie, CNN

(CNN)When it comes to the big questions plaguing the world’s scientists, they don’t get much larger than this.Where do you safely bury more than 28,000 cubic meters — roughly six Big Ben clock towers — of deadly radioactive waste for the next million years?This is the “wicked problem” facing Germany as it closes all of its nuclear power plants in the coming years, according to Professor Miranda Schreurs, part of the team searching for a storage site.Experts are now hunting for somewhere to bury almost 2,000 containers of high-level radioactive waste. The site must be beyond rock-solid, with no groundwater or earthquakes that could cause a leakage.The technological challenges — of transporting the lethal waste, finding a material to encase it, and even communicating its existence to future humans — are huge.But the most pressing challenge today might simply be finding a community willing to have a nuclear dumping ground in their backyard.

Searching for a nuclear graveyard

Germany decided to phase out all its nuclear power plants in the wake of the Fukushima disaster in 2011, amid increasing safety concerns.The seven power stations still in operation today are due to close by 2022.With their closure comes a new challenge — finding a permanent nuclear graveyard by the government’s 2031 deadline.Germany’s Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy says it aims to find a final repository for highly radioactive waste “which offers the best possible safety and security for a period of a million years.”The country was a “blank map” of potential sites, it added.Currently, high-level radioactive waste is stored in temporary facilities, usually near the power plant it came from.But these facilities were “only designed to hold the waste for a few decades,” said Schreurs, chair of environmental and climate policy at the Technical University of Munich, and part of the national committee assisting the search for a high-level radioactive waste site.As the name suggests, high-level radioactive waste is the most lethal of its kind. It includes the spent fuel rods from nuclear power plants. “If you opened up a canister with those fuel rods in it, you would more or less instantly die,” said Schreurs.These rods are “so incredibly hot, it’s very hard to transport them safely,” said Schreurs. So for now they’re being stored in containers where they can first cool down over several decades, she added.There are dozens of these temporary storage sites dotted across Germany. The search is now on for a permanent home at least 1 kilometer underground.

Between a rock and a hard place

The location will need to be geologically “very very stable,” said Schreurs. “It can’t have earthquakes, it can’t have any signs of water flow, it can’t be very porous rock.”Finland, which has four nuclear power plants and plans to build more in the future, is a world leader in this field. Work is well underway on its own final repository for high-level waste — buried deep in granite bedrock.Germany’s problem is “it doesn’t have a whole lot of granite,” said Schreurs. Instead, it has to work with the ground it’s got — burying the waste in things like rock salt, clay rock and crystalline granite.Next year the team hope to have identified potential storage sites in Germany (there are no plans to export the waste). It’s a mission that stretches beyond our lifetimes — the storage facility will finally be sealed sometime between the years 2130 and 2170.Communications experts are already working on how to tell future generations thousands of years from now — when language will be completely different — not to disturb the site.Schreurs likened it to past explorers entering the pyramids of Egypt — “we need to find a way to tell them ‘curiosity is not good here.'”

People power

For now, nobody wants a nuclear dumping ground on their doorstep.Schreurs admitted public mistrust was a challenge, given Germany’s recent history of disastrous storage sites.Former salt mines at Asse and Morsleben, eastern Germany, that were used for low- and medium-level nuclear waste in the 1960s and 1970s, must now be closed in multibillion-dollar operations after failing to meet today’s safety standards.The fears around high-level waste are even greater.

Protesters block railway tracks outside Gorleben in 2010.For more than 40 years, residents in the village of Gorleben, Lower Saxony, have fought tooth-and-nail to keep a permanent high-level waste repository off their turf.The site was first proposed in 1977 in what critics say was a political choice. Gorleben is situated in what was then a sparsely populated area of West Germany, close to the East German border, and with a high unemployment rate that politicians argued would benefit from a nuclear facility.Over the decades, there have been countless demonstrations against the proposal. Protesters have blocked railway tracks to stop what they described as “Chernobyl on wheels” — containers of radioactive waste headed for Gorleben’s temporary storage facility.An exploratory mine was eventually constructed in Gorleben, but it was never used for nuclear waste. And in the face of huge public opposition, the government in recent years decided to start afresh its national search for a dumping ground.”If we did not build this big, strong and long-lasting resistance, I think the salt mine would already be used,” said Kerstin Rudek, 51, who grew up in Gorleben and has been campaigning against a permanent nuclear repository for the last 35 years.That doesn’t mean she and other activists plan on quitting their campaign anytime soon. “They haven’t canceled out Gorleben completely, so we are very suspicious it might still be chosen,” said Rudek.With more than 400 nuclear power plants around the world, many nearing the end of their operating lifetimes, the issue of waste storage will only become more urgent, said Schreurs.Germany is in the unique position of knowing exactly how much waste it will be dealing with. Knowing where to put it is the challenge.

Courtesy Ada Derana

Courtesy The Hindustan Times

President Rajapaksa, when you spoke briefly to the cameras after taking the Guard of Honour at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Friday, you said your expectations from your first official visit to India were very high. You are about to leave now. Were they fulfilled?

The entire experience was very good, especially the one-on-one discussion with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. I am very happy with the outcome. There were a lot of misunderstandings on both sides during the end of my brother Mahinda Rajapaksa’s presidency. Now, we have to put those behind and move forward. And with PM Modi, I think it is possible. I came to know that he is a very practical person, so he will understand our needs. We genuinely want to strengthen our relationship.

I have always said that we don’t want to do anything which will jeopardise the security of India or, act against the concerns of India in any way. We also want to be a neutral country and not get involved in world power rivalries. We are small, so we don’t want to get in the middle. But strategically, of course the Indian Ocean has become very important. And geographically, Sri Lanka is especially positioned at a very crucial location because of sea lanes which pass close to it. We have always have said that the Indian Ocean must be a zone of peace. We will do whatever we can to keep it that way.

When PM Modi meets world leaders, there’s a lot of talk of chemistry,”: the rapport he seems to enjoy with some of them. Did you sense that too when you met him ? People draw parallels between you and your brother and Mr Modi and his administration, you know. They say that you share a zero tolerance approach” to tackling terrorism. Is that an accurate perception?

Most definitely. But that commonality is not only on security but on matters pertaining to development too. PM Modi has done a lot for India and we appreciate his approach. Chemistry”-wise too – yes, (laughs) it worked well.

Islamist terrorism is not new to India. But the Easter Day suicide attacks in Sri Lanka, in which 259 people were killed were certainly the first of their kind in your country. Sri Lanka’s Muslim community is small and very peaceful. There were no such instances of radicalisation until April this year. India is already the target of Islamist terrorists nurtured by its north-western neighbour, but also of sleeper cells supported by them in other countries surrounding India. W hat assurances can you offer India that Sri Lanka will not become a launching pad for such attacks?

Islamist terrorism has become a global issue. It is not specific to India or Sri Lanka. Every country is threatened. The only way to tackle it is to be very conscious of it. Our government has to be aware and give it top priority, especially on the intelligence side. You must have your own intelligence within the country. But at the same time and because the nature of the beast is global, you need to have intelligence-sharing with your neighbours and others. You also need to develop your technical capability for intelligence-gathering. It is important to work with others because today, a lot of technology is needed to monitor cyberspace, phone conversations etc.

We were very good at countering terrorism wreaked by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) because over the years, our intelligence agencies knew their whole background, history, modus operandi, their leaders and their whereabouts. Unfortunately, this Islamist terrorism is a new threat for us, so we have to develop the capacity and the capability to tackle it. And no, we will definitely not tolerate any terrorism of any kind at all in our country.

Your determination to end the 30-year-long bloody civil war against the LTTE, which killed 120,000 people, came under very sharp global criticism – and even sanctions – for alleged human rights violations. Still, your country then saw 10 years of peace. So what happened in April this year to shatter it? What made Sri Lankans so complacent ? Surely something went wrong within your society itself that allowed this seed of terrorism to take root?

Look, Islamist terrorism is not specific to Sri Lanka, it’s all over the world. We have a Muslim community. Many members of that community and others from Sri Lanka go to the Middle East to work there. Remember, anybody can be motivated or radicalised just by sitting at home. Because as far as fundamentalism is concerned, the preaching, the sermons — they are all there on the Internet. Perhaps our previous government did not pay attention or give much priority. That is why the attacks could take place. But our intelligence agencies certainly have the capacity to immediately develop their skills, and that is what we have to do now.

In his brief press statement on Friday, PM Modi expressed the hope that the 13th Amendment to the Sri Lankan Constitution, which was based on the Indo-Sri Lanka accord signed by former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, is adhered to. It envisages maximum devolution to the Northern and Eastern Provinces of Sri Lanka, where Sri Lankan Tamils are in the majority. That Amendment is dated 1987. Much water has flown under the bridge since then. Does it need revitalization in keeping with the ground realities in those provinces today ? Or, can it be implemented exactly the way it was conceived?

The 13th amendment of our Constitution has certain areas which we can’t implement as they are, so we need certain changes. But why have we always been trying to approach the so-called Tamil question” from only one angle? Our Tamil politicians have been speaking of devolution and other models since Sri Lanka’s independence. But even they must realize that they were not taking into consideration the development of those provinces, addressing the problems of the people there — and those are employment, education, issues with fisheries, agriculture, etc. One has to move forward. These are issues that I want to tackle while discussing the overall framework. Otherwise, one gets nowhere. Now, our previous government was even drafting constitutions and such things. But you have to understand, without the consent of the majority, you can’t give solutions. If you come out with certain things that are suspicious to the majority community, they cannot be implemented. That is a reality. If you ask anyone in our government whether we must give our Tamil citizens the same opportunities, the right environment — whether in religious matters or otherwise — to live in dignity, nobody will disagree with you. That is no problem. But unfortunately, Tamil political leaders have been harping only on the one thing since independence and they are getting nowhere. So they have to be realistic. To them I say: go to the people of the area, look after their livelihoods, develop these areas, address their issues, work with them. I am willing to do so.

And what would you say to Tamil Nadu leader Mr Vaiko and several others who were protesting in New Delhi against your arrival here?

I don’t have anything to say. They are not really looking out for the people in those areas of our country. Our people of Northern and Eastern Sri Lanka want to live peacefully and they want us, their government, to address their issues. So, Mr Vaiko and the other leaders, too, should address these issues realistically. They should help, rather than place roadblocks.

Security analysts express concerns over China’s growing commercial but also strategic presence in your country. Recently, you said that you will re-examine the 99-year lease on Sri Lanka’s China-built Hambantota port, that your previous government granted to China in a bid to work off your country’s huge external debt. Is it really still possible to renegotiate that lease?

I think it is possible. Remember, our party – today in government – objected to that 99-year lease. We protested against it. Nationally and strategically, this is a very important asset, not some land being given for a hotel or something ! Such assets must be under the control of the government. We should not think only of the present, we also have to think of future generations. They will curse us if we give our important assets away to other countries! That is why we are not happy. We want to discuss it and come up with a good solution.

Courtesy Swissinfo

The employee of the Swiss embassy in Sri Lanka who was temporarily abducted and threatened by unknown men on Monday is still unavailable for questioning. 

The woman’s state of health has deteriorated, the Swiss embassy in Colombo said on Friday. She is therefore currently not in a position to make a statement. The embassy did not provide details on the woman’s state of health. 

The local embassy employee was reportedly dragged into a car and threatened by unknown menexternal link in a street in Colombo, the Sri Lankan capital, on Monday. After about two hours she was released. 

According to media reports, the kidnapped woman was ordered to disclose mobile phone data of Sri Lankan citizens who had recently applied for asylum in Switzerland. 

On Wednesday, the Swiss foreign ministry confirmed the incident and told swissinfo.ch in a written statement that the woman was threatened in order to force her to disclose embassy-related information”. The ministry has not said what the perpetrators were looking for. 

Switzerland promptly reported the incident to the Sri Lankan authorities and is demanding an immediate and complete investigation into the circumstances surrounding the incident,” wrote ministry spokesman Pierre-Alain Eltschinger. 

The Sri Lankan Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statementexternal link published on Thursday that Sri Lanka had launched an immediate investigation”.

උපුටා ගැන්ම හිරු නිව්ස්

හෙම්මාතගම, මඩුල්බෝව මුස්ලිම් මහා විද්‍යාලයේ ඉගෙනුම ලබන තම දරුවන් දෙදෙනා පාසල තුළදී දේශපාලන පළිගැනීම්වලට ලක්වන බවට එම දරුවන්ගේ පියා චෝදනා කරනවා.

ඔහු පවසන්නේ බලධාරීන් දැනුවත් කර තිබුණද මෙතෙක් ඊට නිසි විසඳුමක් නොලැබුණු බවයි.

දරුවන් සිව් දෙනෙකුගෙන් යුත් මෙම නිවස පිහිටා තිබෙන්නේ හෙම්මාතගම, දෙල්ගහදෙණිය ගම්මානයේයි.

මේ වන විටත් දරුවන් දෙදෙනෙකු හෙම්මාතගමල මඩුල්බෝවල මුස්ලිම් විද්‍යාලයේ සිය අධ්‍යාපන කටයුතු සිදුකරන අතර ඔවුන් ක්‍රීඩා කටයුතු සඳහා ද දක්ෂතා දැක්වුවන් බව දැරියන්ගේ පියා පවසනවා.

කෙසේ වෙතත් ඔහු පෙන්වා දෙන්නේ මෙවර ජනාධිපතිවරණයේදී පොදුජන පෙරමුණට සහය දක්වමින් දේශපාලන කටයුතුවල නිරතවීම හේතුවෙන් තම දරුවන්ට පාසල් කාලය තුළදී පාසලේ ගුරුවරුන්ගෙන් සහ ප්‍රදේශයේ දේශපාලනඥයින්ගෙන් බලපෑම් සිදුවන බවයි.

එම්.ආර්.එම් අසාම් නැමැති මෙම පියා මුස්ලිම් ජාතිකයෙක් වන අතර මොහු තම දරුවන් පෝෂණය කරනු ලබන්නේ කුලී වැඩ කරමින්.

උපුටා ගැන්ම හිරු නිව්ස්

වර්තමානයේ මෙන් රටට හිතකර නායකයින් ඉදිරියේදීත් බිහිකර ගැනීමට මහා සංඝරත්නය කැපවිය යුතු බව කැලණිය විශ්වවිද්‍යාලයේ ජ්‍යෙෂ්ඨ කථිකාචාර්ය පූජ්‍ය කුඹුක්කන්වෙල රේවත හිමියන් පවසනවා.

පුලතිසිපුර ඒකාබද්ධ භික්ෂු පෙරමුණේ පොළොන්නරු දිස්ත්‍රික් සංඝ සමුළුව අමතමින් උන්වහන්සේ මේ බව සඳහන් කළා.

උපුටා ගැන්ම හිරු නිව්ස්

සාවද්‍ය සාක්ෂි රැස් කරමින් රණවිරුවන් සිරගත කළ හිටපු අපරාධ පරීක්ෂණ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ නිලධාරින් මෙන්ම, පසුගිය රජයේ සිට ඊට උපදෙස් ලබා දුන් දේශපාලනඥයින්ට ද නීතිය ක්‍රියාත්මක කළ යුතු බව නව සිංහල රාවය සංවිධානය පවසනවා.

කොළඹ අද පැවති මාධ්‍ය හමුවකට එක්වෙමින් එහි මහලේකම් පූජ්‍ය මාගල්කන්දේ සුදත්ත හිමියන් මේ බව කියා සිටියා.

මේ අතර, හිරු මාධ්‍ය ජාලයට එරෙහිව සිදුකළ මඩ ප්‍රචාර සම්බන්ධයෙන් මෙතෙක් නීතිය ක්‍රියාත්මක නොවීම පිලිබඳව ද අද කැඳවා තිබූ මාධ්‍ය හමුවලදී අදහස් පළ වුණා.  

ඒ සම්බන්ධයෙන් අදහස් දැක්වූ නව සිංහල රාවය සංවිධානයේ මහලේකම් පූජ්‍ය මාගල්කන්දේ සුදත්ත හිමියන් කියා සිටියේ මසක් ගතව ඇතත්, විමර්ශන නිසි පරිදි සිදුව නොමැති බවයි.

එමෙන්ම, මඩකලපුව මංගලාරාමාධිපති පූජ්‍ය අම්පිටියේ සුමනරතන හිමියන් ප්‍රකාශ කළේ සාක්ෂි සහිතව හිරු මාධ්‍ය ජාලය විසින් පැමිණිලි සිදුකළත් මෙතෙක් නීතිය ඉටු වී නොමැති බවයි.

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Several ministers in the former UNF government will be probed for alleged financial irregularities which include charging bribes from investors to execute projects in the country, a top government source told the Daily Mirror.

Some of the former ministers who will be probed are senior members from the UNP and its alliance partners.

The government has denied it is on a witch hunt or on a path of political revenge by conducting such probes but said the new interim government had received information on alleged financial irregularities committed by several former ministers.

New State Minister of Investment Promotion, Keheliya Rambukwella, when contacted confirmed that investigations would be launched against the former government over financial irregularities and said the AGs department would be consulted in each case.

The Minister said the commission reports on the bond scam would also be reviewed.

“The law will be followed in every case. The CID will conduct the necessary investigations and the AG’s department will be consulted,” Minister Rambukwella said.

Cabinet Spokesperson, Bandula Gunawardena also told a cabinet briefing last Thursday that the new government would probe allegations of financial irregularities that had taken place at national and international levels during the previous regime. (Jamila Husain)

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Promising to be frank” and upfront” to avoid the misunderstandings of the past between New Delhi and Colombo, Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa says India and other countries in the region must invest more in Sri Lanka if they want to provide an alternative to Chinese investment. He also suggested closer coordination between the two countries and assured India that on the main issues” of Sri Lankan ties with China and Pakistan, there would be no problem that creates suspicions amongst Indian authorities”.

In an exclusive interview to The Hindu here during his first visit as President abroad, Mr. Gotabaya said it was necessary to build a consistent relationship with India, and to be clear about which projects in Sri Lanka were viable and which were not, including those in the April 2017 MoU signed by former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on port and oil farm projects in Trincomalee. On November 29, India announced an additional $400 million for development projects in Sri Lanka. Mr. Gotabaya said he hopes to discuss the projects further with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whom he has invited to Colombo as the first State guest during his tenure. 

I think the main issues India could have with us would be on [our relations] with China or Pakistan, but if we don’t do anything that creates suspicions amongst Indian authorities, there will not be any problem.”

On the issue of rights for Tamil-majority areas, Mr. Gotabaya said he intends to focus on development of the region, not political issues as the previous push for devolution, devolution, devolution” has not changed the situation there. Full devolution of powers as promised by the 13th Amendment to the Constitution in 1987 could not be implemented against the wishes and feeling of the majority [Sinhala] community.” He added: No Sinhala will say, don’t develop the area, or don’t give jobs, but political issues are different.”

Mr. Gotabaya said he hoped for more cooperation with India on national security issues, particularly on the threat from the Islamic State that was behind the Easter Sunday attacks. As a part of his government’s focus on security issues, he was reversing the Sirisena government’s moves to curtail the powers of the military.

 Mr. Gotabaya is now in the unusual position of being President, while his elder brother and former President Mahinda is now the Prime Minister, and his other brother Chamal is a Minister. Asked if he planned to move to a more parliamentary system as envisaged by the 19th Amendment passed by his predecessor, he said that while the transfer of powers was to be discussed”, the 19th Amendment itself had proved to be a failure”, and should be scrapped.

Full text of the interview

‘Need more coordination between Delhi, Colombo’
How do you hope to take India-Sri Lanka ties to a higher level”, as you said here in New Delhi, and what are the priority areas?
Even during [former President] Mahinda Rajapaksa’s time we had very close relations with New Delhi, and then at the end (2014-15), it suddenly went down. And even if with the Sirisena government, they started with a very good relationship, but it ended with a lot of frustration. I would like to be consistent. I am usually very frank, so I hope to tell New Delhi honestly if I can’t do something; and if I can, then do it soon and not drag out commitments. We were successful during the previous government because we had a separate mechanism, the Troika (a 3-man coordination team) with New Delhi. We needed that mechanism because the conflict was on, and we were able to solve sensitive problems because of the close links.

Will you bring in the same mechanism for coordination again?
Well, at that time there was a necessity because of the conflict, but now I don’t think it is necessary, as we can work through the Foreign Ministries. If we are upfront, and work genuinely, we will not have issues. I think the main issues India could have with us would be on [our relations] with China or Pakistan, but if we don’t do anything that creates suspicions amongst Indian authorities, there will not be any problem.

On development cooperation with Delhi, for which PM Modi announced an additional $400 million, will you honour the MoU signed by former PM Ranil Wickremesinghe on projects like the Trincomalee oil farms and Port development projects?
There are certain projects where we have to change certain modalities, and we discussed it during this visit. I haven’t studied all the projects in detail yet, but I will promise that we will expedite all projects that are important to Sri Lanka.

You have said publicly you will renegotiate the Hambantota port agreement with China, which India was concerned about. Along with that is the future of Mattala airport, which India has shown an interest in. Now that you are in power, what will you do?
I believe that the Sri Lankan government must have control of all strategically important projects like Hambantota. After all, these are not like hotel or a terminal, but to give control of a port or an airport or our harbours is different. With our control they can do anything, but these 99-year lease agreements [that the previous government signed] will have an impact on our future. The next generation will curse our generation for giving away precious assets otherwise. That is why our party protested these decisions.

But the reason the lease had to be given was because of the debts incurred by the government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa…
No, that is wrong. It is also wrong to say there was a debt trap. In fact during our time the ports authority paid back the first installment [to Chinese banks]. The Sirisena government, on the other hand, got more money as loans and just spent it. If they were worried about the debts piling up why didn’t they first service the debt, rather than give away sovereignty?

India has also had issues with Sri Lanka’s defence cooperation China in the past, especially over the docking of Chinese submarines, when you were Defence Secretary. In 2017, you said, India had a bee in its bonnet” on the issue. Will you be more sensitive to those concerns this time around as President?
We were sensitive then too, but the submarine issue was a simple issue overlooked by officials at the time. Warships were visiting Sri Lanka regularly, and all ships that were part of the naval piracy task force for the Arabian Sea, including Russian ships had docked there. When the Chinese asked for the submarines to be docked, officials considered it a normal port call and approved it. Former NSA Shiv Shankar Menon has written in his book that Gotabaya gave his word that he would not do anything counter to India, and he kept his word”, so I was genuinely sensitive.

You mentioned India’s suspicions of the past, those include differences over China, and the Tamil issue, but also your allegation that Indian agencies conspired for regime change against your brother. Can your government turn the page on these past suspicions?
I am sure [we can turn the page]. We did hear about agencies conspiring, including the US, for regime change. Some of their suspicions were due to our ties with China, but that was a misunderstanding. We had a purely commercial agreement with China. I want to tell India, Japan, Singapore and Australia and other countries to also come and invest in us. They should tell their companies to invest in Sri Lanka and help us grow, because if they do not, then not only Sri Lanka, but countries all over Asia will have the same [problem]. The Chinese will take the Belt and Road Initiative all over unless other countries provide an alternative.

What kind of cooperation on terrorism do you foresee now with India?
The threat in Sri Lanka has now changed: unlike the LTTE which was a specific threat to Sri Lanka, IS [Islamic State] is a global threat posed by terrorists across the world. India and other countries have more information on this threat than us. The previous government didn’t give much priority to security and intelligence issues. During our time, the military intelligence was always the most important organisation, but the last government took their [oversight] away from the military. We have now reversed that. We also hope to upgrade our intelligence as it was earlier geared towards only LTTE threats, not the IS, and we need help from India and others on this as well as on technological cooperation.

Your focus on national security also raises fears about human rights violations of the past, about disappearances and the White Vans”, as well as worries about violence against journalists in particular. Will you give assurances that those will not return?
Those are bogus allegations, and certainly nothing of the sort was done by me. Post-2009, we had tried to study the allegations, but it is difficult. We were not responsible, and even though we did ask the CID (Criminal Investigation Department) to investigate the charges, but they didn’t have any evidence. If it was easy, why didn’t the [Sirisena] government pursue these charges? The fact is we were strict about journalists during the war, but not in peacetime. Remember, MR’s government didn’t start the war, we finished the war. Why aren’t previous Presidents being asked about these allegations?

Last week, after Dr. Jaishankar’s visit to Colombo the Indian government issued a statement urging justice and equality for Tamils. What is your reaction?
My approach, as I told the Foreign Minister, is that it is more important to give the [Tamils] development, and a better living. In terms of freedoms, and political rights there are already provisions in the constitution. But I am clear that we have to find ways to directly benefit people there through jobs, and promoting fisheries and agriculture. We can discuss political issues, but for 70 odd years, successive leaders have promised one single thing: devolution, devolution, devolution. But ultimately nothing happened. I also believe that you can’t do anything against the wishes and feeling of the majority community. Anyone who is promising something against the majority’s will is untrue. No Sinhala will say, don’t develop the area, or don’t give jobs, but political issues are different. I would say, judge me by my record on development [of North & East] after five years.

Are you promising talks on devolution or the 13th amendment on rights for the Tamil majority areas?
Look, the 13th amendment is part of the constitution and is functional, except for some areas like control of police powers, which we can’t implement. I am willing to discuss alternatives to that.

In the past as defence secretary, you led Sri Lankan forces to victory, but amidst allegations of human rights abuse, and you were accused of declining to take forward the internationally-mandated truth and reconciliation process. What would you like your legacy to be at the end of five years?
Those allegations are wrong. In peacetimes, my engagement was even more than during the war to try and work on these issues. I did demining, I worked on resettlement and rehabilitation and development, and I got all militia to disarm. Without me there would not have been provincial council elections, which our government conducted for the first time in the North and the East. We ensured the elections were free and fair; we didn’t try to manipulate them, or bring in a candidate of our choice. The international community did not recognise these things, even the Tamil politicians did not recognise these things which led to a [better situation in the North & East].

Your elder brother Mahinda is now Prime Minister, while another brother Chamal is minister. How will the relationship with your brothers work now, and will there be a transfer of power towards a more parliamentary system as under the 19th amendment?
The 19th amendment (passed in 2015) is a failure and if we get 2/3rds majority in parliament we will drop it from the constitution. The only way you can even make the 19th amendment work is with two brothers (laughs) [at the top]. For a country to be governed successfully, you need stability.  This was not the case during the Sirisena-Wickremsinghe government, where they were fighting all the time and there was no development. Without stability, investors won’t come.

Is it true you are called the Terminator in the family?
(Laughs)  That is not true. I am the most innocent person in our family, since my childhood. When I joined the army, my family said Mahinda should have joined the army, and I should have joined politics. 

By Sulochana Ramiah MohanCourtesy Ceylon Today

China Merchants Port Holdings Company Ltd. which owns an 85 per cent stake in Hambantota Port – given to them on a 99-year lease agreement, has said the port deal was between two sovereign countries and renegotiating it can only be done through mutual consent.

A senior official of the Hambantota International Port Group Ltd. (HIPG), who wished to remain anonymous, said that only a commercial agreement can be revisited and renegotiated, but not an agreement signed between two sovereign countries. 

He said that can only be possible if there is mutual consent and understanding.

Last week, in a television interview with an India Security Expert, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa said it was unfortunate that the previous Government gave the Hambantota International Port to the Chinese on a 99-year lease and that he would renegotiate it. Reportedly the Chinese are confused and are wondering what the outcome will be.

It is said there will be huge sum to be repaid to the Chinese even if there is a mutual consent to reduce the 99-year lease contract.  

When the Colombo Port City project was halted in 2015 right after Maithripala Sirisena and Ranil Wickremesinghe administration was formed, the China Communication Construction Company, which handled the project’s land reclamation, claimed USD 143 million in compensation for delaying the USD 1.4 billion project.

 In the end the previous Government gave the Chinese additional acreage of the reclaimed land as compensation.

The official said he cannot comment further on the President’s opinion but stressed that they have seen reports and the interview and are waiting for a full official statement in the coming days.

The Sri Lanka Ports Authority, which owns only a 15 per cent stake in HIPG, identified restructuring the Hambantota Port and transforming it to become a commercially-viable national asset.

President Rajapaksa told the interviewee, Nitin Gokhale, “Even though China is a good friend of ours and we need their assistance to develop. I’m not afraid to say that it  was a mistake”.

The President went on to say that he will ask the Chinese to renegotiate and come up with a better deal to assist his Government.

He noted that Sri Lanka’s relationship with China, during former President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s tenure, was purely commercial, adding that geopolitical analysts have over exaggerated the relationship.  

“Even Hambantota Harbour, they tried to show was part of the ‘String of Pearls’ circling India. But in our scheme of things it was not so. 

The requirement was ours, we understood that we should have never given control of the port to China. So that was a mistake… Today people are not happy about the deal. We can think of one year, two years, five years, we have to think of the future; what will happen,” he said.

He said that giving a small land for investment is different to giving an installation of strategic importance such as a harbour, “To develop a hotel or a commercial property is not a problem, that’s not an issue.

 Given away a strategically and economically important harbour is not acceptable; that we should have control over. We have to renegotiate. 

Giving a terminal for an operation is a different thing, giving some location to build a hotel is different, but not the control of a very important place; it is not acceptable.”

However, he pointed that he is willing to deal with China as well, “India is working closely with China. I know Indian investment goes to China and Chinese investment comes to China.

 Similarly, we want investments and help, but we will not do anything that would get us involved in military and geopolitical rivalry.

 I also want to mention that world powers like India, Singapore, Japan, Australia and the like, are afraid of Chinese involvement, and that’s the reality. 

We are a small country and we want foreign investment to improve our economy. So I invite India, Singapore, Japan and Australia to come and invest here; don’t just allow only China to invest.”