Threats by Sirisena to derail probe risk placing personal pride before thepublic good
Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena attending a naval ceremony in Colombo. Dinuka Liyanawatte / Reuters
The wounds of Sri Lanka’s Easter bombings, which left 250 people dead on a single bloody day in April, have yet to heal. Reminded of the very worst atrocities of the country’s decades-long civil war, the Sri Lankan people showed remarkable solidarity and resilience in the aftermath. Within hours of the last blast, emergency blood banks across the nation were full. However, the same cannot be said of the nation’s leaders.
On Friday, President Maithripala Sirisena threatened to end a parliamentary investigation – launched by his political nemesis, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremensinghe – designed to identify security lapses that allowed April’s attacks to happen. His threats followed two high-profile testimonies that accused Mr Sirisena of mishandling the nation’s security.
In one, the inspector general of police told parliament that the president had offered him a diplomatic posting if he quit his job and took the fall for the attacks. When the inspector general refused, he was put on leave. Rather than seeking to stifle an investigation, Mr Sirisena should be doing all he can to help identify security gaps and take urgent action to plug them.
Despite repeated warnings from Indian intelligence agents to Sri Lankan authorities of the possibility that an ISIS-linked plot was under way, Colombo was slow to act. According to his allies, Mr Wickremesinghe had been kept out of security council meetings altogether by the president. The deteriorating relationship between the two men followed the sacking and subsequent reinstatement of Mr Wickremesinghe by Mr Sirisena late last year. The Easter bombings were a day of reckoning for Sri Lanka’s warring leaders, who had to contend with the possibility that pride and politics had indirectly cost hundreds of Sri Lankan lives.
This context makes Mr Sirisena’s latest actions all the more irresponsible. Politically motivated investigations help no one, but the flaws in Sri Lanka’s security apparatus enabled a local group to commit indescribable atrocities, with the help of an international terrorist network. This must be addressed and those responsible held to account. In the aftermath of the attack, Sri Lanka’s leaders fought hard to deny that their negligence had played a part. Judging by his behaviour on Friday, it appears Mr Sirisena is losing that battle
President Sirisena fires chief of national intelligence for suggesting he had been forewarned about Easter bombings.
Sirisena’s move could escalate political tensions over the ongoing parliamentary probe [File: Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters]
Sri Lanka‘s President Maithripala Sirisena has fired the country’s chief of national intelligence after he suggested that the president was forewarned about the deadly Easter bombings.
Indian intelligence agents sent several warnings to Sri Lankan authorities that a plot was under way, but Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe have both said they were not briefed about the warnings before the April 21 attacks, claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS).READ MORE
A parliamentary select committee, led by allies of Sirisena’s rival Wickremesinghe, is investigating possible lapses that allowed the fighters to target hotels and churches, in which over 250 people were killed.
In his May 29 testimony before the parliamentary committee, intelligence boss Sisira Mendis said security council meetings were irregular, making it difficult to properly protect the island nation.
Mendis said that when he brought up the warnings during a meeting on April 9, director of the State Intelligence Service Nilantha Jayawardena, who has a direct link to the president, told him Sirisena had already been briefed.
Jayasundara said that Sirisena, who is also the minister of defence and police, asked him to resign to take responsibility for the blasts and ensure that he would have his name cleared in any subsequent inquiry.
Hemasiri Fernando, former secretary to the defence ministry who resigned after the blasts, told the committee that Sirisena, as his minister, was not easily accessible for private discussions.
On Friday, a day after the two critical testimonies were made, Sirisena announced the removal of Mendis.
“Everybody who testified before the select committee are the officers whom I removed. We have sacked Sisira Mendis also,” Sirisena said late on Friday evening.READ MORE
Al Jazeera’s Minelle Fernandez, reporting from Colombo, on Saturday said Mendis’s removal could escalate political tensions over the parliamentary probe.
“Everyone knows that Sirisena had been livid about the parliamentary committee. Right on the very first day, we had the Chief of National Intelligence going before the committee, and giving testimony and evidence on the lackadaisical attitude of the president towards national security.”
“Now on the second day, we heard that there were efforts to try and stop the committee session and that the president was unhappy with all the information that is coming out. He also ordered a stop to a live telecast of the proceedings,” she said.
Sirisena opposed to police testifying
On Saturday, Sirisena’s media unit said in a statement that the president was opposed to police testifying before the parliamentary inquiry.
Sirisena met senior officers on Friday evening and told them he was not in favour of intelligence officers being summoned by the parliamentary committee to discuss sensitive details in the presence of the media, the president’s media unit said in a statement.
Sri Lanka president pardons hardline Buddhist monk
Sirisena promised to protect the officers who refused to attend the committee hearings, the statement said.
Sirisena said there were five cases being heard at the Supreme Court in relation to the blasts, and that the attorney general had informed him that the parliamentary hearing might be a hindrance to the court cases.
Sri Lankan leaders and the security establishment are under fire for not acting upon near-specific information ahead of the blasts on possible attacks on churches.
President Sirisena has vowed to restore normalcy in the country which is still emerging from a 37-year Tamil separatist war that ended almost a decade ago.
Sri Lanka’s police said last month they had either killed or arrested all those responsible for the bombings, but that the threat of further attacks persisted.
President Maithripala Sirisena, at a hurriedly summoned special Cabinet meeting last night, has warned the Government to immediately stop the Parliamentary Select Committee proceedings on the Easter Sunday attacks.
President Sirisena has also threatened that he will not hold Cabinet meetings if the Government is determined to continue with the PSC proceedings. He had threatened to do so following a heated argument with a few Ministers during the Cabinet meeting.
You have appointed Malalgoda Committee to probe this. It was also promised to submit the report in two weeks. Forget about making it public, the report has not even been presented to Parliament,” one Minister had pointed out.
The President has said that the report would come to Parliament at the right time.
Those reports will be presented in Parliament in due course. There are five cases filed in the Supreme Court in connection with the Easter Sunday bomb attacks, and I have also been connected to it. If this is the way you are going to act by opening PSC proceedings to media and divulging sensitive security information to public, I will not hold the Cabinet meeting hereafter. I will also not attend any of the Government functions or programmes. You act on your own accord and I shall not support the Government,” the President has reprimanded the Cabinet.
He has also said that it is absolutely unacceptable for the intelligence officers to be summoned before the PSC and he would not let information pertaining to national security be compromised through the media.
He had also taken Speaker Karu Jayasuriya to task for not presenting a memorandum he sent, in which the President had shared the sentiments expressed by the Attorney General. He pointed out that the Attorney General had informed him about the implications the information revealed in the PSC could have on the pending cases and had requested necessary action.
I sent it to the Speaker but it is disappointing that he chose not to present it in Parliament,” he added.
He also said that he can even give the information he has to all the MPs even if the 225 of them came to him seeking that information.
He also said that he could not understand why the Government Ministers do not understand the gravity of information being revealed in this manner and what threat it poses to national security.
The Chief of National Intelligence Sisira Mendis has resigned from his post with immediate effect.
Mendis, Director of Sri Lanka’s Centre for National Intelligence under the Ministry of Defense, had served as DIG of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and was also head of the Terrorism Investigation Division (TID) from 2008 to 2009.
The national intelligence chief’s resignation comes after testifying last week to the parliamentary select committee that the April 21 attacks could have been averted.
President Maithripala Sirisena summoned an emergency cabinet meeting on Friday night and has refused to allow any police, military or intelligence personnel to testify before the committee.
The President’s office did not comment on the meeting, but said the president had told senior police officers on Friday that he will not allow any serving officer to testify, AFP reported.
The President said last week that he met with the national police chief and his top brass 13 days before the attacks but no officer raised warnings passed on by India and based on information from a detained jihadist.
Former minister Rauff Hakeem says that the Muslim MPs who quit their government posts will use the leverage they have in order to see that their grievances will be addressed in the proper way, without affecting the national unity and cohesion among communities.
He made these comments while speaking to journalists after meeting with Opposition Leader Mahinda Rajapaksa along with the other Muslim parliamentarians who recently resigned from their ministerial portfolios.
The Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) leader said that they explained to the Opposition Leader the reasons for their collective resignation and also requested him to understand it in the correct context.
He said they also requested Rajapaksa to assists them in trying to build reconciliation and understanding about the Muslim community’s plight as well as to see that whatever they do collectively for the sake of this nation and its reputation internationally.
We have assured him that whatever action we have taken is limited to the immediate risks that our community faced and that we would collectively take forward our agenda to appraise other party leaders as well as the religious leadership of the country in order to bring about national consensus on the proper manner in which we should work towards eradicating terrorism forever from this country.”
Hakeem said that they will be meeting a variety of different political leaders as well as the religious leadership of the country, particularly the Maha Sangha.
He said they also intend to meet important civil society leaders and important emissaries of the foreign governments and explain to them the situation in which they had to take this drastic decision.
But hopefully things will settle down soon,” he said.
Asked whether they will now sit among the government backbencher MPs, he said: We are right now without our portfolios. Some of us may occupy the frontbenches. It may literally not mean the backbenches.”
He said that party leaders will occupy the frontbenches according to parliamentary traditions, but apart from that they will not be holding any privileged office in the executive.
Nevertheless we will use the leverage we have in order to see that the grievances we have will be addressed in the proper way without affecting the national unity and cohesion among communities,” he said.
The
Parliamentary Select Committee is hunting down the President in an
unprecedented manner. If the witnesses are telling the truth, then any
ordinary citizen could form an independent opinion.
The
President systematically dismantled the Security Council. He changed
Prime Minister with a most trusted man, Mahinda Rajapakse. But even when MR was
the Prime Minister, he has also not been invited for the Security Council
Meetings. So, President neither trusted Ranil nor Mahinda. At what
cost?
It
is noteworthy that Jayampathy Wickremaratne is a member of the PSC and
continuing his line of questioning leading to cornering the President to the
wall.
We
should not be surprised, if the findings of the PSC in some way find
recommendations to impeach the President. If MR also agrees, 2/3 votes
can be obtained for such a resolution under Article 38 (2) and 38 (b) (2). It
is extremely doubtful MR will support such a resolution, paving way for the
complete take over of SLFP by SLPP.
To
avoid such distressing set of circumstances, the President might call for an
early Presidential Election.
The term Non-governmental organization” (NGO)
came into existence in 1945 when the United Nations was set up. The UN granted
‘observer status’ to approved ‘International non-state agencies’ (INGOs) and
permitted them to attend UN assemblies and meetings. In July 2018, there were 5,081 NGOs in
consultative status with ECOSOC. These consisted of 134 organizations in
general consultative status, 3,974 in special consultative status and 973 on a
third list known as Roster.
There are several categories of NGOs. Some
NGOs are funded by foreign governments and act like extensions of
government (GONGOs). It is alleged that they are used for hidden political
agendas. USA’s National Endowment for Democracy is said to be a CIA front. Some NGOs, such Berghof Foundation are
quasi–government (QUANGOs). They
receive state subsidies.
NGOs
such as ‘Human Rights Watch’, ‘Transparency International’ and ‘Amnesty International’,
are international NGOs, with branches worldwide ((INGOs). These NGOs are funded by private
financiers having strong links to the US government, such
as Soros,
Rockefeller, and Ford Foundation. These
funding agencies are considered warmongering agencies and the grants
carry political agendas.
‘International Crisis group’, ‘Human Rights
Watch’, and the ‘Open Society ‘ have
been described as ‘shady INGOs’ funded by George Soros.George Soros started Human Rights Watch
with specific instructions to develop field offices staffed by local operatives.
He gave a fresh grant of 10 million to ‘Human Rights
Watch’ in 2010.
There are other NGOs, registered as private,
but they too are set up and funded from outside the country they work in. Some
NGOs have misleading names. ‘Asian Human Rights Commission’ suggests a
dignified supra government organization set up by sovereign states. Instead it
is a Hong Kong based, private NGO. Rajiva Wijesinha referred to it as
the ‘bizarrely named’ Asian Human Rights
Commission.
Today,
practically every sovereign state has a huge number of GONGOS, QUANGOS and
INGOS
working
inside it. They have been introduced into these countries by the west. This sudden
rise of NGOs is a part of the western policy of world dominance, say analysts,
which starts with interference in the internal politics of countries. NGOs
intervene in domestic politics and help to install puppet governments. NGOs
are used to brainwash people, to make them revolt against democratically
elected governments, to cause regime changes.
They
encourage citizens to challenge elected government, usually under the guise of
‘protesting’ against something. They
clamor for foreign intervention and work toward changing public opinion.
They charge governments with corruption and human rights violations on flimsy
grounds.They draw media
and political attention onto selected countries, which are fighting to maintain
their territorial integrity. They find HR abuses in these countries and clamor
for western government intervention through the UN.
They
are also used for intelligence gathering, to obtain data against national governments. NGOs are also used to support
terrorism against legitimately elected democratic regimes. Some dubious NGOs
have been front groups for weapons purchases. Many countries have found that the NGOs create
difficulties for the government, by their conduct, their mission, methods of
work and sometimes through their connections to government.
NGOs funded by
the west have been used to topple governments and destabilize countries.
Critics say NGOs helped to split Sudan and create South Sudan in 2011. Foreign
funded NGOs were thought to be fomenting revolution in Russia and many believe
they did so successfully in Georgia, Ukraine, Moldova, and Kyrgyzstan. . NGOs in Mozambique are accused of ruining the
local health system.
The
media reported in 2016 that more than 100 countries, from Algeria to Zimbabwe,
have started to register and monitor NGOs. These countries accuse the US and
European countries of using NGOs to support political unrest in the guise of
supporting democracy, rule of law and Human Rights.
Armenia,
India, Egypt, Cambodia, Russia, China, Israel and Uganda in the past year have
enforced draconian laws to regulate NGO activities, the media said in2016.
Mostly on suspicion that they are agents of foreign governments interfering in
their internal affairs.
In 2012, UAE shut down the local office of the
National Democratic Institute, a US based NGO, whose mission is to promote
democracy around the globe. It also
shut down Conrad Adenaur Stiftung office.
Egypt, in 2012, arrested members of a number
of NGOs promoting democracy saying they were meddling in Egypt’s internal
affairs. Egypt said that three US NGOs,
‘National Democratic Institute’, ‘Freedom House’ and ‘International Republican
Institute’ had received USD 65 million to influence Egypt’s politics.
The ALBA bloc in Latin America issued a
statement in 2012 to say that USAID (US Agency for International
Development) openly meddles in
sovereign countries domestic affairs, sponsors NGOs and supports activities
intended to destabilize legitimate governments. The statement was signed by
Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
Cambodia has some 5000 NGOs, many providing
key services to the country. In 2015
Cambodia passed a controversial NGO law, which said all domestic and
international NGOs must report their activities and finance to government. NGOs
can be disbanded if they jeopardize peace, stability, public order or harm
national security, unity culture and traditions of Cambodian society. The law
was passed, despite boycott by opposition and protests by NGOs.
In July 2017, Hungary passed a law where NGOs that receive
more than 23,000 euros ($24,000) annually from a foreign source had to register
as a “foreign-supported
organization.” The law, first mooted in January, had been
delayed after widespread criticism, including opposition by the European
Commission and United Nations experts who urged its withdrawal.
Russia said that the west is using NGOs to
destabilize Russia. USAID was ordered
out of Russia In 2012 on charge of distributing grants to anti-Putin political
groups in order to influence politics. UNICEF was also
asked to leave.
In 2015 Russia passed the Undesirable NGOs Law
which gave Russia the power to declare any NGO as undesirable, if it acted
against Russians interests.
NGOs receiving finances from abroad would now be known as, ‘Foreign government
organizations” (FGO). All monies beyond a certain sum must be
reported to Russian authorities. If they engaged in political activities they would be treated
as spies. Russia blacklisted seven US based NGOs as
‘Undesirable’ in 2016. ( continued)
In Sri Lanka too,
the GONGOs, QUANGOs and INGOs are engaged in meddling with political matters. This
essay looks briefly at some of these NGOs.
The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is a U.S. non-profit organization
for promoting democracy abroad. It is
funded by the US Congress. It is supposed to be a tool of the CIA as well. The ‘umbrella
protests’ in Hong Kong were funded by the NED.
In Sri Lanka Bar Association of Sri Lanka was accused of being funded by
the NED which was a CIA arm”. The National Peace Council, Centre for Policy Alternatives, Centre for
Monitoring election violence, Campaign for free and fair elections (Caffe), and
People action for Free and fair Elections (PAFFREL) were also said to have received funds from NED.
NED is today
funding several projects
in Sri Lanka. They are listed in the NED website. The focus of
these projects is very clear.
Local NGOs are paid to indoctrinate the public about ‘democracy’, ‘human
rights,’ ‘good governance’. They are also paid to encourage citizen participation
in politics, and train youth ‘to assume leadership roles in their communities.’
Here is one example.
Viluthu, Ltd was given $70,000 for Strengthening Civil Society Networks for
Active Political Participation”organize a series of community
discussions and learning workshops aimed at engaging youth, including
university students, and women’s network leaders on democracy, good governance,
and transitional justice.
Here
are two other grants.
Law and Society Trust was given $50,000T
for Improving Legal Literacy on
Land Rights”The organization will manage a nationwide network of
organizations focused on land rights, convene government officials and citizens
on land laws and policies, document land disputes, and advocate for new,
equitable laws.
Verite Research was given $65,000 for Parliamentary Tracking Tool for
Accountability and Good Governance”. The organization will, inter alia,
maintain and refine an online platform that documents the biographical
information and political activities of Members of Parliament and conduct
outreach to promote its usage by the media and civil society.
Amnesty International (est. 1961) is a London-based non-governmental
organization
focusing on human rights. It has branches in dozens of countries
including India, but not in Sri Lanka. . It has a high profile and is well known,
but it is no longer highly regarded.
Amnesty International has been described by
one of its former officials as ‘highly political, highly coercive. If you get out of line, they get rid
of you. You can’t trust
them”. Amnesty International’s founder resigned in
1967, saying Amnesty International had been infiltrated by British intelligence
agents. Others said the Central Intelligence Agency was also inside it.
Amnesty International’s agenda fits nicely
with the political needs of the United States and Great Britain, said critics,
contemptuously. AI draws attention to Human rights violations in countries that
are not allied to USA or UK. But it is extremely reluctant to draw attention to
Human rights violations by USA or UK.
Amnesty International is the only human rights
organization in the entire world to have refused to condemn apartheid in South
Africa, said critics. Amnesty
International has not supported Palestine and has not charged Israel
with war crimes.
Amnesty International regularly issued adverse
statements on Sri Lanka. The most serious critique of Sri Lanka at the 6th
session of UN HR Council session at Geneva in 2007 was by Amnesty
International. Amnesty launched its
“Sri Lanka, Play by the Rules” campaign, timed to coincide with the 2007 cricket
World Cup held in the
Caribbean islands, to focus on Sri Lanka’s alleged
human rights violations. In 2006 and
2007 it said that human rights were affected, the government was attacking civilians,
there was no mention of LTTE.
Amnesty
International has openly supported the LTTE. A delegation of Amnesty
International came to Sri Lanka on
invitation from LTTE for a two week visit in 2002 government of Sri Lanka facilitated
the meeting. They met in the Vanni.LTTE
and Amnesty International had discussed
training for ‘Thamil Eelam police’, and ‘Thamil Eelam judiciary’. Amnesty International
said that LTTE must be ready to take over law and order operation as soon as
the ISGA came in.
Transparency International is an international
non-governmental organization focusing on corruption. It has local chapters
to carry out this work. In
USA, Transparency International
funded by multinational corporations, such as Citigroup, ExxonMobil, General
Electric, Lockheed Martin. Transparency
International gave its Integrity Award to Hillary Clinton in 2012. Transparency
International has its own transparency issues with respect to donor funds. It accepted
money from Siemens, while Siemens was under investigation for corruption.
Transparency International, Sri Lanka, received
USD 79,000 from NORAD to look into the work of the Sri Lanka Police. It
thereafter issued a report titled ‘The Police of Sri Lanka, which critics
charged, affected national security.
Human Rights
Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, dealing with Human rights around the world.
HRW was formed from the earlier America
Watch, Asia Watch, Africa Watch and Middle East Watch. HRW is seen and heard ever
where, but it is not highly regarded. HRW has carried out information and propaganda
work for USA and NATO, charged critics. It helped to break up Yugoslavia. Milosevic was brought before Hague on the uncorroborated
evidence of HRW. HRW has sanitized Israel war crimes.
HRW has loudly supported Eelam in Sri Lanka. HRW supported the UNHRC resolution on Sri Lanka and in March 2019 wanted a time-bound plan for
implementing it. HRW Annual Report
of 2008 was critical of Sri Lanka.
Government
of Sri Lanka responding observed that the HRW had failed to distinguish between
a democratically elected government and the LTTE. Further that it is the government
that is running the schools in north and east, paying salaries of teachers,
there are no private schools in the area. State hospitals are run by the state that
funds them. Sri Lanka armed forces are
fully trained to take every precaution against harming civilians. The government
is actively delivering all essential services in the LTTE controlled areas even
today the GA of Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu are actively deliver in all
essential services. The salaries and pensions are fully met with by government .
The International Crisis Group is a
transnational non-profit, non-governmental
organization
founded in 1995 by George Soros. It is supported by the governments of UK,
Norway, Sweden, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany and Australia as well as Ford and
Carnegie. 23% of the ICG’s budget comes from the government of Qatar in 2019.
International
Crisis Group sent a petition to
the UN Secretary General in September 2008 that was deeply critical of the Sri
Lanka government. In May 17 2010,
it published a monograph on ‘war crimes in Sri Lanka.’
Solidar is a European network of NGOs working to advance social justice in the
world. The three SOLIDAR NGOs in
Sri Lanka were the German organization known as ASB, a Swiss one called SAH and
Norwegian People’s Aid. Norwegian Peoples
Aid had allowed the LTTE to use 38 of their vehicles including heavy earth
moving machines that were used to build up the wall that cost so many lives in
the final assault.
Solidar’s Country Representative for Sri Lanka,
Guy Rhodes had compiled reports from various NGOs which had maintain a presence on
the ground in the conflict zone, such as
Oxfam, care, Danish refugee Council, Forut, ZOA refugee care, World University Service
of Canada and Save the children Fund. Rhodes had challenged the government order to
leave the Wanni at the start of the final offensive.
Rajiva Wijesinha has spoken of a Coffee club
of international NGO personnel” who attended gatherings designed to subvert
government policy. In August 2008 they were busy drafting allegations to be
sent to the UN by local NGOs, said Rajiva. The Head of Solidar had taken a lead
role in this activity. Benjamin Dix who was working for
Solidar was featured in the Channel 4 film on the Eelam war.
FORUT
is a Norwegian aid organization for social work. FORUT has project activities in Sri Lanka,
Nepal, India, Sierra Leone, Malawi and Zambia. FORUT has a
framework agreement with NORAD, The Norwegian Agency for Development
Cooperation, which ensures long-term financing of the programmes and projects
in each country. The work and commitment to Sri Lanka’s development has always
been the largest part of FORUT’s portfolio.
Until 2012, FORUT
had its own organization called FORUT-Sri Lanka. FORUT Sri Lanka has helped create several smaller local organizations
in all parts of the country. These organizations have since become independent ‘and
fully dedicated to the development of Sri Lanka’. Some of these organizations
have signed partnership agreements with FORUT-Norway. Wikileaks has established the link between
the FORUT and Solidar. These two
organizations seem to have been engaged in plotting against the Sri Lanka government,
said critics.
Rajiva Wijesinha reported that R.Tveitnes,
former country director for FORUT had told the American ambassador that FORUT
and a number of other INGOs had local staff on the ground [in the war zone], with satellite telephones, providing
brief but consistent situation reports. Tveitnes
also would text specific questions to the contact and receive response.
In August 2008, three
FORUT vehicles were detained in Omanthai checkpoint by the LTTE till it
was dark. Then they left, proceeding at high speed to Kilinochchi. Soon after they left the checkpoint, the middle
car was caught up in a claymore blast. Wijesinha thought that this was a trick
to launch a massive attack on the military, using harm to NGOs as the cause.
The INGO officers were a sort of cabal, drifting
between the US bureaucracy, UN agencies and the INGO circuit, observed
analysts. Almost without exception INGOs recruits were trained operatives who had earlier lived in a
developing country under NGO, UN or journalist cover. Human Rights Watch
officers often had a previous UN involvement, usually in Cambodia and
Indonesia. Charulata Hogg was a former HRW staffer. She had worked in Sri Lanka
as a foreign reporter for media organizations like BBC.
Gareth Evans, and
Charulata Hogg, knew each other. Louise Arbour has taken over from Evans at ICG.
Suzanne Nossel was Deputy assistant Secretary for international organization s
at the US Department of State before she became Executive Director of Amnesty
International. Attitudes and values are also relevant. Gareth Evans, CEO International Crisis Group had earlier supported Suharto, downplayed Jemmah Isalamiyah and backed
immunity for Khmer Rouge. He signed the Timor Gap Treaty which allowed
international oil companies to exploit the seabed off East Timor.
INGOs and NGOs clearly supported the Eelam
War. That is why they were there in Sri Lanka in the first place. NGOs were
functioning in the Wanni along with UN agencies during the Eelam war. Most of them worked primarily through local
staff, reported the media. INGOs played
a role during the Vanni offensives in
2009. INGOs thought that the government
should not and could not interfere with its operations, said Shamindra
Ferdinando.
In 2008 a Select committee of Parliament for
investigation of the operations of NGOs and their impact was set up. This committee said in its interim
report that many NGO were working for Tamil Separatism and the LTTE. They said
that International Alert had published a map which shows half the country as
belong to Tamils. In this map they have marked a large are of land in the
central hills and in the south as Tamil areas. This extent is even larger than
in the map prepare by the LTTE.
ZOA and World Vision had in 2005 built400 houses and these had
been distributed to the elite cadres of the LTTE. Ministry of Defence had received credible
intelligence reports that Medicine Sans Frontiers, Medicine du Monde, and
Doctors of the world (U.S.A.)
carried out acts which have threatened National Security and state
policies.A certificate issued by MDM at a health education project, had
the emblem of the government as well as LTTE.
The ‘UK
Peace Building strategy’ operated , without consent of the GOSL, a ‘monitoring centre’ in eastern province for
intelligence gathering on a daily basis and a network of support to local level
NGOs known to be infiltrated by the LTTE . UK based
NGO ‘Act Now’ , working in the north
and east during the Eelam wars, wanted the UN to push for a Sudan type
referendum in Sri Lanka.
‘Sri Lanka Kolping Society’ , A Catholic society with a parent
organization in Germany, a social commitment, had provided the LTTE with
funds during 1996-1999.
The
Berghof Foundation for conflict
studies was invited into the country by the government of Sri Lanka on a Memorandum
of understanding between the governments of Sri Lanka, Germany and Switzerland.
It was signed by Ministry of Constitutional
affairs and national integration, Sri Lanka . Swiss Federal department of Foreign affairs and German Federal Ministry
of Economic cooperation and development. Berghof Foundation had entered into
MOUs with government in 2001 and 2006. Berghof Foundation worked in Sri Lanka
from 2001-2008. Berghof‘s work in
security reform was carried out from 2002-2004 with the knowledge
of the Ministry of Defence. Berghof also wanted to assess
the High Security Zones.
Berghof was also expected to facilitate
workshops between the military and civil society ‘to help them understand each
other’. Former chief of Defense, Dennis
Perera and the Defense secretary had invited BF to initiate a dialogue between
security forces and civil society. This project met with hostile criticism. There was a
proposal for a workshop of air force personnel. This was shot down after the Defense
authorities heard of it.
Concerned observers shouted that Berghof was
engaged in ‘security reform’ of
military, paramilitary and police forces. Berghof wanted to ‘right size’ the armed forces,
and bring it under foreign control. Berghof
Foundation vehemently denied this charge. However, SPUR
(Society for Peace, Unity and Human Rights for Sri Lanka) said that Berghof Foundation had consistently
interfered in the island’s national security affairs. It had promoted the
unconditional dismantling or resizing of High Security Zones, and had also
wanted the Sri Lanka Armed Forces to change its thinking. SPUR asked the
government to send Berghof away. Berghof terminated its work on security related issues
in 2004 due to hostile criticism. In
2008 Berghof Foundation was asked to leave Sri Lanka.
The Select Committee of Parliament
investigating into the operation of NGOs
set up in 2008, (PSC) had made a deep,
penetrating study into the work of the Berghof Foundation and found that Berghof had links with the LTTE and the
armed forces. This had serious implications for national security. This well researched document has not
received the public acclaim it deserves, said Chandraprema.
Berghof had resisted appearing before
this Committee and instead had attempted to exert international pressure to squash the Committee. This is a grave intervention,
said the Committee. PSC noted that former Chief of staff Denis
Perera had invited Dr Rophers to build bonds with the security officers in
order to initiate a dialogue. PSC observed that this enabled access to sensitive military matters.
This was detrimental to national security.
Berghof had contact with both LTTE and army.
Director of Berghof, Norbert Rophers
had direct links with Balasingham in
London and with Pulidevan in Kilinochchi. Berghof sent a delegation of LTTEers to Europe on a study tour of
federalism, on the instruction of Eric Solheim. Critics wanted to know whether Solheim had
the authority to do this and whether Berghof had the authority to implement
this. This is outside the Memorandum of
Understating that Berghof had signed with the government . LTTE is a designated
terrorist outfit.
Berghof had also told PSC that Berghof was there to introduce power sharing through
various means. Berghof supported self determination and has
accepted the notion of Tamil homelands. The
PSC objected to the fact that Berghof promoted only federalism. Also that
Berghof had its own agenda. ( Continued)
(Unsolicited verbatim translation by Rohana R. Wasala without any commitment to the veracity of its contents.)
It has now been revealed that, in the recent past, there were safe
houses that provided security for Wahhabist terrorists in the Muslim villages
established by the person called Rishad Bathiuddeen in the thousands of acres
of land cleared in the Wilachchikulam forest reserve. Member of Parliament
Udayashantha Gunasekera, Secretary for Youth Affairs, Jathika Nidahas
Peramuna/National Freedom Front (NLF), pointed this out during a press briefing
held at the NLF Headquarters at Pitakotte.
Following the Easter Sunday terrorist attack, Muslim politicians
Rishad Bathiuddeen, Azath Salley, A.M.L.M. Hizbullah, and Mujibur Rahman met
with strong public opposition because they were identified as a pack of cunning
foxes who spread Wahhabist terrorism, thereby shielding the terrorists it bred.
Mr Gunasekera questioned why other Muslim Ministers who faced no such
allegations issued a joint statement and resigned from their positions. He
charged that, though there were many (gravely critical) situations in which
they ought to have issued such joint statements and behaved responsibly, they
just spent their time, enjoying their perks to the fullest, without doing
anything about them.
Let alone resign from their posts, these politicians did not at
least issue a joint statement in respect of such instances of extremist
terrorism as the vandalizing of Buddha statues at Mawanella, shooting at
Minister Kabir Hasheem’s liaison officer by Wahhabist terrorists, discovery of
a Wahhabist terrorist camp with a haul of high explosives at Wanathawilluwa,
and the killing of more than 400 people on April 21, Mr Gunasekera recalled.
But, he further stated, the resignation of these Muslim ministers
who stood by the extremist who fostered Wahhabist terrorism, in order to
protect him, endangers (the lives of) not only Sinhalese and Tamil people, but
also the moderate Muslim community. Mr Gunasekera added that it was most
unfortunate that the nineteen Mustim politicians including Rauf Hakeem and
Kabir Hasheem, by siding with the Saharans (i.e., potential suicide bombers),
made the whole Muslim community capitulate to Wahhabist terrorism.
He revealed that Wahhabist extremism is spreading dangerously in
Sri Lanka. Extremists have travelled throughout the country indoctrinating
their disciples with such extremist teachings as that Allah has encouraged his
followers to acquire all large scale resources and land from non-Muslims and to
possess land still not trodden on by people of other religions. These doctrines
could lead to much bloodshed in this country.
When I read the statement made by the President I wonder whether words
are uttered by politicians without thinking about the repercussions .Mangala
also made some statements about Monks and The Cardinal which not accepted by
the public positively .
Whether it is religion or trade craft which are traditional areas politicians should be weary of treading
?
It reminded me of Buddha’s first words
where he said that he demolished the house built by the builder .He
broke the rafters and purlins so that he can never build again .
It looks to me that President is also of the same path and wants to break
the backbone of house builders like carpenters.?
Underline message that the President achieved his Nibbana in Politics and
will never be reborn as a politician?
Please enlighten yourself by
watching the video by the Guru Goenka..
The Buddha’s first words after enlightenment were these:
“Seeking but not finding the house builder, I traveled through the round of countless births. Oh, painful is birth ever and again! House builder, you have now been seen. You shall not build the house again. Your rafters have been broken down; your ridge-pole is demolished too. My mind has now attained the unformed nirvana and reached the end of every kind of craving.” (Dh. 153-54.)
In this video, Sri SN Goenka explains it in more detail. Please listen to this in full:
New evidence suggests that the government of Saudi Arabia not only had foreknowledge of the brutal bombings (and did nothing to stop them) but may have played a more active and direct role in the bloodshed
COLOMBO, SRI LANKA — A leaked Saudi diplomatic memo obtained by Lebanese outlet Alahed News claims that the government of Saudi Arabia had foreknowledge of the Easter bombings that occurred last month in three cities on the island nationof Sri Lanka, killing nearly 300 and wounding over 500 more. The contents of the memo, which additionally suggests Saudi complicity in the attacks, are supported by the connections recently uncoveredby Sri Lankan authorities, that the alleged ringleader of the bombings, Zahran Hashim, had to Saudi Arabia.
The document carries the Islamic calendar (Hijri) date of 11/8/1440, which equates to April 17, 2019 in the Gregorian calendar — just a few days before the bombings — and is addressed to the Saudi ambassador to Sri Lanka, Abdul Nasser bin Hussein al-Harethi, and authored by Saudi Foreign Minister Ibrahim bin Abdul Aziz al-Assaf. It carries the labels urgent” and top secret.”
The brief memo states the following (translated from Arabic):
His Excellency Ambassador Abdul Nasser bin Hussein al-Harethi
You should carry out the following measures immediately:
First: You should delete all documents, computer data and latest correspondence with domestic and foreign members and groups, in addition to imposing a curfew for the embassy personnel unless [travel] is necessary;
Second: You should inform all those related to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia — including counselors, security forces and intelligence during the three coming days, especially on the Christian Easter Day — to avoid presence in public and crowded places, namely churches;
Third: You should send written news about the Sri Lankan authorities and their viewpoints regularly to this ministry
Ibrahim bin Abdul Aziz al-Assaf
Foreign Minister
The memo, seen here, carries the seal of Saudi Arabia, conforms with the format of other leaked Saudi diplomatic memos, and carries two watermarks. MintPress was unable to obtain a copy for independent confirmation of its authenticity.
The memo dovetails with other new evidence
The contents of the memo from the Saudi foreign minister to the Saudi ambassador to Sri Lanka, particularly its indication of prior knowledge of danger in crowded places and churches on Easter Sunday, have taken on a new significance following the arrest last Friday of Mohamed Aliyar, a 60-year-old, Saudi-educated Wahhabi scholar who operated the Center for Islamic Guidance in Zahran Hashim’s hometown of Kattankudy. According to a plaque outside of the Wahhabi religious center operated by Aliyar, the center is funded by unnamed Saudi and Kuwaiti donors.
A statement released by Sri Lankan police stated that Information has been revealed that the suspect arrested [Mohamed Aliyar] had a close relationship with … Zahran and had been operating financial transactions” on his behalf and was also involved” in the training of the suicide bombers responsible for the massacres on Easter Sunday.
A group of board members of the center, who spoke to the South China Morning Post prior to Aliyar’s arrest, stated that the center was funded by local donations, student fees, and private donors who were classmates of Aliyar’s in Riyadh;” denounced Zahran Hashim as a troublemaker;” and could not recall having seen him at the center recently. However, the police statement that followed Aliyar’s arrest suggested that his relationship with Zahran Hashim was not a part of his public persona.
Of key interest in the police statement is the mention of Aliyar’s operating of financial transactions” on Zahran Hashim’s behalf in the lead-up to the attacks. Several reports, such as this one from the BBC, noted that the attacks required detailed planning, safe houses, an extensive network of planners and handlers, expertise on bomb-making, and significant funding.” Aliyar’s connections to wealthy Saudi donors and to Zahran suggest that he may have been a liaison for much of that funding.
In addition, the leaked memo’s instruction for the Saudi ambassador to delete all documents, computer data and latest correspondence with domestic and foreign members and groups,” suggests that the Saudi Embassy in Sri Lanka may have been aware or party to these or other transactions related to the Zahran-led attacks.
While it is possible that funding had come from elsewhere, the fact that Zahran’s sister, Mohammad Hashim Madaniya, had been sent 2 million Sri Lankan rupees (around $12,000) from Zahran just days before the blast suggests that the amount of money involved in funding this operation was significant indeed and likely of foreign origin.
Extent of Saudi role
The fact that the Islamic State quickly claimed responsibility for the bombings — and that Zahran pledged loyalty to the group just hours before the attack — further suggests a Saudi role, since the Saudi government was revealed to be funding and logistically aiding the terror group in 2014. Leaked emails from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton revealed that the U.S. government has long known that Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states are among the main financiers of the international terror group.
The leaked memo contained in the email to Clinton states:
We need to use our diplomatic and more traditional intelligence assets to bring pressure on the governments of Qatar and Saudi Arabia, which are providing clandestine financial and logistic support to ISIS and other radical groups in the region.”
While mainstream reports have long asserted that it was private Saudi donors funding the terror group, this email revealed that U.S. intelligence had determined that the Saudi government was funding the group and also providing them it logistical assistance.
The Islamic State’s widely acknowledged role in the attacks and its known relationship to the Saudis — in combination with the recent arrest and role of Mohamed Aliyar in the attacks and the contents of the memo from the Saudi Foreign Minister — strongly suggest that the government of Saudi Arabia not only had foreknowledge of the brutal bombings (and did nothing to stop them) but may have also played a more active role in the bloodshed.
Feature photo | A screenshot from an ISIS video shows Zahran Hashim, alleged ringleader of the Sri Lanka Easter Bombings.
Whitney Webb is a MintPress News journalist based in Chile. She has contributed to several independent media outlets including Global Research, EcoWatch, the Ron Paul Institute and 21st Century Wire, among others. She has made several radio and television appearances and is the 2019 winner of the Serena Shim Award for Uncompromised Integrity in Journalism.
The Foreign Office has changed its advice for Sri Lanka and no longer advises against all but essential travel to the country.
It is currently low season for Sri Lanka, meaning very few people will have had holidays booked for this time.
Travel providers will now review the advice and make decisions as to when they will resume their programmes. Customers who are due to travel in the coming months should contact their travel company for more information.
If you have booked your travel arrangements independently, you will be able to go ahead with your trip as planned.
Microplastics and overfishing are the leading causes of extensive marine pollution in Sri Lanka, a new survey has found.
The survey, the first of its kind carried out in 40 years, showed that the island’s fish stock had dropped drastically by about 80 percent, in part due to high levels of microplastic contamination.
The island’s northwestern seas recorded the highest levels of marine pollution, while seas to the east remain rich with marine life and should be made a conservation priority, researchers say.
Plummeting fish stocks and crisis-level volumes of plastic pollution should spur Sri Lanka to adopt new regulations and mechanisms to prevent further contamination of the seas around it, experts say.
The call comes in the wake of findings from a 2018 survey — commissioned by the National Aquatic Resources Agency (NARA) and supported by Norway’s Institute of Marine Research (IMR) and carried out on the Norwegian research vessel Fridtjof Nansen — that were published in January.
The survey, the first of its kind in 40 years, found that nearly four-fifths of small pieces of the plastic waste in Sri Lanka’s territorial waters arrived via rivers and canals, said Terney Pradeep Kumara, general manager of the Marine Environment Protection Authority (MEPA).
This means, only about one fifth of waste is sea-originated microsplastic [MPs] wastage, caused by fishermen dumping plastic in mid-sea and oil spills from ships,” he said.
The Nansen survey also highlighted that seas around Sri Lanka were polluted by second category” microplastics, such as fishing gear and packaging material.
Kumara called for collective and effective waste management mechanisms to avoid extensive marine pollution. Making coastal regions of Sri Lanka polythene-free and campaigning to reduce domestic use of plastics are essential to avert a further crisis, he said.
The severity of the microplastic contamination has contributed to a nearly 80 percent depletion in fish stocks, according to the Nansen survey findings.
In the last fisheries stock survey, carried out from 1978 to 1980, it was estimated that fish resources at the seabed level were likely between 250,000 and 350,000 tonnes. In contrast, the Nansen survey showed a plummeting of the fish stock to around 53,000 tonnes.
The drivers are overfishing, microplastic contamination and unauthorized fishing,” Prabath Jayasinghe, co-cruise leader and senior scientist with NARA, told Mongabay. This has happened over a period of time and now it has reached crisis proportions. Besides affecting fish exports, this also means Sri Lankans will have not have the benefit of their main source of protein.”
He added that the number of fishermen has also increased, putting pressure on the country’s fish stock. Aquaculture is a main source of income in the northwest, as well as coastal tourism. These industries have not grown in a sustainable manner, increasing the stress on the marine environment.
Our marine ecosystems are now at deep risk, be they the mangroves, coral reefs or estuaries,” Jayasinghe added. Pollution threat is amplified by climate change.”
Regional disparities
The survey was carried out over one complete fishing season in 2018. Throughout the study, microplastic particles were found in all the sampling stations along the Sri Lankan coast; the highest concentrations were discovered in the northwestern seas, while eastern and southern regions recorded lower levels of pollution.
The total swept area biomass estimated from the survey was 53,000 tonnes, excluding jellyfish, garbage, coral debris and sponges. The lowest biomass estimate came from the northwest (967 tonnes) and the highest on the continental shelf off Batticaloa in the east (8,173 tonnes), the preliminary findings showed.
The eastern coast showed so much promise,” Jayasinghe said. Its waters comprise rich marine resources, including fish larvae and baby fish, unlike the other regions surveyed. This region deserves a special conservation and management plan.”
In June 2018, Sri Lanka joined UNEP’s CleanSeas campaign, a global movement to tackle plastic pollution in the ocean.
A 2017 report by the U.K.-based Ellen McArtur Foundation warns that plastics in the oceans will outweigh fish by 2050, as the use of plastics has increased more than twentyfold in the past half a century. The U.S.-based Ocean Conservancy estimates that more than 150 million tonnes of plastic are currently circulating in the ocean, with another 8 million tonnes added annually. In 2016, South Asia, including Sri Lanka, generated 26 million tonnes of plastic waste into the ocean.
Sri Lanka’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), which stretches up to 200 nautical miles (370 kilometers) off its coast and spans about 510,000 square kilometers (197,000 square miles), is eight times larger than the island’s landmass and is highly vulnerable to pollution. As a preventive measure, Kumara said, the country’s Marine Pollution Environment Act No. 35 of 2008 must be amended to impose strict punishment against polluters.
Then we need extensive awareness creation among the people. They need to share this journey,” he said
The indictments against ten suspects including Central Bank’s former governor Arjuna Mahendran, Perpetual Treasuries Ltd., owner Arjun Aloysius and its CEO Kasun Palisena have been prepared and will be filed in the High Court by the Attorney General in connection with Treasury bond scam.
The Attorney General’s Co-ordinating Officer, State Counsel Nishara Jayaratne said that having considered the nature and the gravity of the case, the AG had requested the Chief Justice to direct the institution of Criminal Proceedings in the Colombo High Court before a trial-at-bar comprising three judges.
No sooner the directive is received from the Chief Justice, the AG will file the indictments on 23 counts against the ten suspects under sections of the Penal Code, the Public Property Act and the Registered Stocks and Securities Ordinance.
The suspects to be indicted are — Lakshman Arjun Mahendran, CBSL’s former deputy governor Paththinige Samarasiri, the Perpetual Treasuries Ltd, Arjun Joseph Aloysius, Kasun Oshadhee Palisena, PTL directors Jeffery Joseph Aloysius, Pushya Mithra Gunawardane, Chitta Ranjan Hulugalla, Muthuraja Surendran and Ajahn Gardiya Punchchihewa.
The suspects will be indicted in connection with the charges arising out of the Treasury Bond auction held on February 27, 2015 (in respect of the face value of Rs.10.058 billion) causing a Rs.688 million loss to the government.
Following are the charges:
1. Conspiracy to commit criminal misappropriation in respect of Treasury Bonds to the face value of Rs.10.058 billion.
2. Criminal breach of trust against the 1st and 2nd suspects and causing a loss to the Government of Rs.688,762,100.
3. Aiding and Abetting the 1st suspect to commit criminal breach of trust.
4. Criminal misappropriation in respect of Treasury Bonds to the face value of Rs.5 billion against the 3rd suspect.
5. Aiding and Abetting the 3rd suspect to commit criminal misappropriation.
6. Committing insider dealing by 3rd suspect.
7. Aiding and abetting the 3rd suspect to commit insider dealing against all the other suspects.
The above charges have been formulated considering all the evidence presented during the Bond Commission Inquiry conducted by the Commission of Inquiry appointed by the President and also considering the material disclosed during the investigation conducted by the CID.
According to the Auditor General, the estimated avoidable loss suffered by the government at this auction alone (on February 27, 2015) was approximately Rs. 688,762,100.
According to Co-coordinating Officer to the Attorney General, State Counsel Nishara Jayaratne, it has been a painstaking approach by the prosecutors to study thousands of pages of evidence and thereafter consider and present charges against the accused which has been so far the largest organized financial crime perpetrated in this country by any person or person which had an impact on the Financial Markets and the country’s economy.
More indictments are expected to be presented on the basis of the evidence revealed at the Bond Commission Inquiry and investigations conducted by the CID. (
Colombo, June 7 (newsin.asia): The Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena told an urgently convened cabinet here on Friday, that he does not want intelligence officials to testify before the Parliamentary Select Committee on the April 21 suicide bombings as it would expose vital information to the detriment of the nation.
He said that he disapproves of the practice, the Presidents Media Division (PMD) said.
Since media is allowed to hear the proceedings, what is said at the PSC becomes public knowledge instantly.
EArlier too, President Sirisena had objected to military intelligence personnel being detained for alleged involvement in crimes committed during the war years, though such detainees were only small in number and the charges against them were serious like abduction and killing of civilians. He had felt that such detentions would demoralize the intelligence services.
Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who is now the Leader of the Opposition, is also against calling upon intelligence and security officials to testify openly at the PSC. According to him this will result in the kind of disabilities the intelligence services suffered when an army safe house in Athurugirya was raided in 2002 under the then United National Party government headed by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.
The cabinet had been called against the backdrop of certain explosive revelations made by the former Defense Secretary Hemasiri Fernando and the Inspector General of Police (on compulsory leave) Pujith Jayasundara, at the hearing of the Parliamentary Select Committee on the April 21 suicide bombings by Jehadists in which over 250 were killed in Colombo, Negombo and Batticaloa.
According to Daily FT, the duo told the PSC that the Easter Sunday bombing could not be averted due to systemic failures within the security establishment, caused by lack of communication and coordination between different agencies tasked with national security, as well as a lackadaisical attitude towards security by the political leadership, two top officials told a Parliamentary Committee yesterday.
The officials, Inspector General of Police (IGP) Pujith Jayasundera and former Defence Ministry Secretary Hemasiri Fernando, who appeared before the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) looking into the attacks, painted a picture of national security being heavily compromised, with the IGP kept out of National Security Council (NSC) meetings for nearly six months, and Council meetings held erratically at the whim and fancy of the President.
The IGP, in his evidence, said he had been excluded from the NSC meetings since October last year, over a trust issue that had come up over the transfer of a Police inspector.
I was informed by the then Secretary to the Ministry of Defence Kapila Waidyaratne that there was no necessity for me to attend the NSC meetings around the end of October. I was told the President had said there was no need for me to attend,” the IGP said.
The former Defence Ministry Secretary, in his evidence, disclosed that between November 2018 and April 2019, the NSC had only met four times, and that too at short notice, with both the IGP and the Prime Minister kept out of them.
Fernando, who took over as Defence Ministry Secretary on 30 October 2018, and resigned from his post after the Easter Sunday attacks, said that neither the National Thowheed Jama’ath (NTJ) or its activities were discussed at any of the NSC meetings he attended, while a large amount of time was devoted to discuss trivial issues .”I remember there was a long discussion on a fishing issue and possible terrorist attacks using drones. Makandure Madush was also discussed at length,” he said.
The former Defence Ministry Secretary said that State Intelligence Service (SIS) Director Nilantha Jayawardena reported directly to the President on all important intelligence matters. I was told twice by the President that the SIS Director directly reported to him. Thereafter I did not communicate intelligence reports to the President during my five-and-a-half month service in the position of Defence Ministry Secretary,” Fernando said.
The two witnesses told the Committee of the intelligence reports that had come in from early April 2019, warning of possible attacks by the NTJ, but that they were not discussed seriously.
The IGP said that in a Top Secret document dated April 9 2019, information of an alleged plan of attack by Zahran Hashim of the NTJ and his associates was sent to him by the Chief of National Intelligence (CNI) Sisira Mendis. He said he had taken measures to inform senior DIGs about the letter. He said the letter spoke of an alleged” attack, but did not speak of a specific or imminent threat.
Hemasiri Fernando said that the particular intelligence report had been brought to his attention on 8 April, and he had informed CNI to raise the matter at the weekly intelligence briefing held at the Defence Ministry the following day, which he (Fernando) presided over, but the matter was not discussed seriously, with both the SIS Chief and CNI saying that they would investigate the matter and report back.
The IGP said that on 18 and 19 April, there were two other reports of possible activity by associates of Zahran, but there were no specific details, and no warning of an imminent attack. These reports were based on the explosion of a motorcycle at a remote location in Kattankudy, which had taken place on 16 April, and the report said that a close associate of Zahran had been involved in it and it was possible he was experimenting ways to carry out a bomb attack. The 9 April report spoke of possible suicide attacks, but these reports that came later made no reference to such attacks,” the IGP said.
The two officials disclosed that they were told by the head of the State Intelligence Services (SIS) hours before the attacks that something dangerous could happen” on Easter Sunday.
On 20 April evening around 7.30-8.00 p.m., the SIS Director gave me a phone call and said the following day would be dangerous and something would happen. I conveyed that warning to all relevant Senior DIGs. On the morning of the attacks too, around 6.45am-7.15 a.m., the SIS Director called again that something dangerous would happen on that day. I again informed the Senior DIGs. I did what I could do,” the IGP said.
The former Defence Ministry Secretary said he, too, had been given similar information by the SIS chief on 20 April, who urged him to also speak to the IGP on the matter. I called the IGP, by which time he had been informed by the SIS chief as well,” Fernando said.
He added that he had received a call close to 8 a.m. on 21 April from the SIS chief, who asked him how many Methodist Churches are in Colombo, saying that attackers are likely to target these churches and not the Catholic ones. I told him I am a Buddhist and I don’t know, but I would check with someone and get back to him. I got some information and told him, but within a few minutes I heard that there had been a bomb explosion at one of the hotels,” he said.
Both officials said that it was due to system failures that the attacks could not be averted and there must be collective responsibility for the security failures, Daily FT reported.
(The featured image at the top shows National Intelligence chief Sisira Mendis testifying before the PSC)
IGP Pujith Jayasundera, currently on compulsory leave, dropped a bombshell, on Thursday, while testifying before the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC), which is probing the Easter bombings and allied issues. He revealed an abortive attempt by President Maithripala Sirisena to make him the fall guy. He said the President had asked him to take the blame for the security lapses that had led to the Easter carnage, resign and accept a diplomatic post, or lose both his job and pension. His noncompliance had resulted in a presidential directive sending him on compulsory leave, he said.
If IGP Jayasundera has told the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, then the President has a lot to answer for. Former Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando, who resigned over the Easter bombings, obviously under duress, also said, in his testimony before the PSC, that the President had made such an offer to the IGP. Parliament ought to probe this particular allegation separately.
Going by what transpired before the PSC, on Thursday, one wonders whether President Sirisena naively thought Jayasundera would do a Mahinda Balasuriya with no questions asked.
It may be recalled that in June 2011, the then IGP Mahinda Balasuriya took the full responsibility for an incident where police shooting left a youth dead and dozens of others injured during a workers’ protest in the Katunayake free trade zone. The protesters had taken to the streets against the Rajapaksa government’s decision to introduce a private sector pension scheme. Had that regime succeeded in railroading the workers into accepting that scheme, they would have had to settle for meagre amounts of money given by the government as pensions instead of EPF withdrawals.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa was very powerful at that time and Balasuriya fell in line for obvious reasons. President Sirisena, who was a senior minister in the Rajapaksa government, at that time, may have thought of doing something similar following the Easter bombings. He has been left with egg on his face.
In December 2016, IGP Jayasundera was shown on television talking to a minister over his mobile phone, in a servile manner, at a public function in Ratnapura; he was heard assuring the minister that he would not arrest someone. The Opposition called for his removal. About two and a half years on, the police chief, who used to kowtow to ministers, has plucked up the courage to stand up to the President himself! What has strengthened his backbone is anyone’s guess.
The IGP should be commended for refusing to give in to the President’s dictates, but he cannot absolve himself of the responsibility for the failure on the part of the police to prevent the Easter carnage by neutralising the National Thowheed Jamaath (NTJ) threat. The intelligence warning at issue was an unusually detailed one, providing all necessary information about the terrorists and their movements. Jayasundera, as the police chief, should have given his subordinates specific instructions on how to handle the situation rather than merely acting as a post box to convey the warning.
The IGP ought to explain why his officers and men were not placed on red alert and ordered to clamp down on the NTJ. In February 2013, the police descended on a small schoolgirl who had stolen a few coconuts as she had no other way of raising funds to pay her school fees. She was produced in courts and released on bail. They also hauled up before courts another little girl for stealing five rupees from her neighbour, unable to bear the pangs of hunger. She was also enlarged on bail. Why the guardians of the law lacked that kind of urge to swoop on the NTJ terrorists and prevent the suicide bombings is an enormous question. Had they been under political pressure to steer clear of those extremists with links to some government politicians?
Joint Opposition (JO) MP Shehan Semasinghe says sufficient attention hadn’t been paid to the now proscribed National Thowheed Jamaat (NTJ) targeting the Tamil community in Easter attacks.
Well over a month after the Easter Sunday carnage the government was yet to give a breakdown of the victims as per the ethnicity, lawmaker Semasinghe said.
Anuradhapura District MP Semasinghe, in an interview with The Island, yesterday alleged that a deliberate attempt was being made to depict the April 21 bombing campaign and subsequent developments as a conflict between the Sinhala Catholic community and the Muslims.
The NTJ attacked Zion church in Batticaloa and St. Anthony’s church, Kotahena when the Tamil mass was in progress at the latter church, MP Semasinghe said. In fact of the three churches attacked, Tamil Catholics were targeted in two-in Batticaloa and Colombo, the SLFPer said, underscoring the pivotal importance of establishing the NTJ’s motive.
Responding to another query, MP Semasinghe said that the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and civil society had been largely silent on the NTJ attacks on the Tamil community, though in the immediate aftermath of the bombings a section of the TNA called for military protection for northerners. MP Semasinghe said that the TNA, subsequently, changed its stand and called for a division on the vote on Emergency.
“Of the 16 member parliamentary group, eight voted against government proposal to extend emergency by another month,” MP Semasinghe said.
Estimating about 50 Tamils perished in Batticaloa and Kotahena and well over 100 wounded, MP Semasinghe said he was quite surprised over the TNA voting against emergency.
When The Island pointed out the JO’s failure to vote for the emergency, MP Semasinghe said that he wouldn’t try to defend the lapse on their part. The MP having regretted JO’s absence at the emergency vote, said that the parliament shouldn’t be divided over security measures taken by law enforcement authorities and the armed forces to neutralize the NTJ threat.
Parliament extended emergency on May 24 with 22 MPs (18 UNP and four UPFA lawmakers loyal to President Maithripala Sirisena) voting for the extension of the emergency whereas eight TNA voted against.
Referring media reports pertaining to Minister Mano Ganesan taking up current security measures in place with Jaffna Security Forces Commander Maj. Gen. Dharshana Hettiarachchi, MP Semasinghe said that ministers shouldn’t intervene in security matters under any circumstances. The government called in the military in the wake of April 21 attacks as law enforcement authorities couldn’t cope up with NTJ challenge, MP Semasinghe. Asked whether the JO felt Minister Ganesan had interfered in purely a security matter, the MP emphasized that the government constituent should have instead made representations to the Defence Ministry or the State Minister of Defence Ruwan Wijewardene. How could Minister Ganesan raise the issue with the Jaffna Commander, MP Semasinghe asked.
Semasinghe emphasized that ministers should stop forthwith taking up security issues with the military. The lawmaker said that State Defence Minister Wijewardene was yet to clarify All Ceylon Makkal Congress (ACMC) leader Rishad Bathiudeen’s recent claim that he contacted Army Commander Lt. Commander Mahesh Senanayake regarding the arrest of a terrorist suspect on his advice.
Lawmaker Semasinghe said that the TNA owed an explanation as to why it opposed re-imposition of emergency on May 24 in spite of predominately Tamil Batticaloa district being a key NTJ target. The MP said that one of the would be suicide cadres had married an under-aged Tamil girl from Batticaloa regardless of her parents’ opposition before April 21 attacks. The girl subsequently died in blasts triggered by NTJ members after being surrounded by the police in their Sainthamarudu safe-house on April 26 evening, the MP said. Unfortunately, the TNA had felt comfortable in justifying Easter Sunday attacks, the MP said, referring to TNA spokesman M. A. Sumanthiran blaming the April 21 carnage on Sri Lanka’s failure to address grievances of minorities. If so, could President’s Counsel Sumanthiran explain as to why the NTJ deliberately targeted Tamils, both at Batticaloa and Kotahena, Semasinghe asked.
The Island sought information regarding deaths and injuries caused by the Batticaloa blast from V. Sivagnanasothy, Secretary to the Ministry of National Policies, Economic Affairs, Resettlement and Rehabilitation, Northern Province Development, Vocational Training and Skills Development and Youth Affairs. Sivagnasothy said that there had been 27 deaths and injuries to 67 persons. Compensation to the tune of Rs 25.1 mn had been paid to 25 families and Rs 9.2 million paid to those wounded in the blast, the official said. Sivagnasothy said that the families of two dead and six wounded remained to be paid compensation. According to him 31 perished at Kotahena.
Sivagnanasothy placed the total number of dead and the wounded as a result of six suicide attacks, at 261 and 407, respectively. Responding to another query, the official said that altogether the families of the dead were paid Rs 170 mn and the wounded Rs 32.5 mn. According to him, the compensation were yet to be made to over 200 victims (both categories).
Semasinghe said that the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) probing the Easter attacks was meant to humiliate President Sirisena. The JO spokesman described the PSC as a continuation of the battle between President Sirisena and the UNP over the former appointing a Presidential Commission of Inquiry (P CoI) in January 2017 to look into Central Bank bond scams. However, the proceedings revealed the pathetic state of affairs in the apex body responsible for national security, MP Semasinghe said. Both parties couldn’t absolve themselves of the responsibility for allowing NTJ attacks.
The bottom line was that the government did nothing in spite of receiving specific intelligence warning on April 04, 2019 regarding the attack, MP Semasinghe said.
A section of the Indian media reported that New Delhi warned Sri Lanka thrice, with the last warning coming on the day of the incident, the MP said. Semasinghe said that those who tricked the electorate at the last presidential election in January 2015 with promise of good governance and accountability ruined the country over the past four years. Having robbed the Central Bank twice in 2015 and 2016, the government caused debilitating setback to the national economy, MP Semasinghe said, alleging that every sector was ruined due to waste, corruption and mismanagement.
Those handling economy were in a spin, the MP said.
President Maithripala Sirisena, who is also the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, yesterday, declared that he wouldn’t allow any serving intelligence officer to appear before Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) probing Easter Sunday attacks.
The assurance was given to a group of senior policemen at the Presidential Secretariat.
A Presidential Secretariat official told The Island that President Sirisena had said that he would take the responsibility for preventing intelligence officers from appearing before the PSC. Only those who retired or removed from service have so far appeared before the PSC.
The PSC has so far met thrice. Defence Secretary Gen. Shantha Kottegoda, retd, DIG Sisira Mendis, retd, interdicted DIG Nalaka Silva, suspended IGP Pujith Jayasundera and former Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando have given evidence before the PSC.
The presidential announcement came close on the heels of former Justice Minister Dr. Wijeyadasa Rajapaksa, MP, urging Speaker Karu Jayasuriya to halt PSC probe as it violated Official Secret Act.
President told that police said that the disclosure of state intelligence secrets before the media couldn’t be accepted under any circumstances.
President’s Counsel Rajapakse yesterday told The Island that he had explained to Speaker Jayasuriya, in writing, on Thursday, June 06, how the PSC on Easter attacks violated the second, seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth clauses of the Official Secrets Act.
Rajapakse also pointed out that members of the PSC had no right to receive confidential information relating to national security.
The PSC consists of Ananda Kumarasiri (Chairman), Dr. Jayampathy Wickremaratne, Rauff Hakeem, M.A. Sumanthiran, Dr. Rajitha Senaratne, Ravi Karunanayake, Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa and Prof. Ashu Marasinghe.
The UPFA/JO boycotts the PSC. In his letter, Rajapakse has emphasised that the PSC could not obtain confidential information as per the parliamentary privileges conferred by the Constitution.
He has said that PSC probe cannot continue as five cases filed in respect of April 21 attacks were being heard in the Supreme Court, in addition to Presidential Commission of Inquiry probing the alleged security lapses.
According to the former Justice Minister, President Maithripala Sirisena, too, violated the Constitution by purposely allowing the revelation of confidential information in or outside parliament. (SF)
Jihadi ideology needs to be isolated and eliminated, as it is a threat to regional security and global peace, the High Commissioner of India to Sri Lanka Taranjit Singh Sandhu said.
Addressing an event held at the Bandaranaike International Diplomatic Training Institute (BIDTI) in Colombo today (07), the Indian High Commissioner spoke about India’s foreign policy, with special emphasis on national security, and also touched upon various aspects of India-Sri Lanka relations.
Speaking on Prime Minister Modi’s visit to Sri Lanka this weekend, the Indian High Commissioner commented that this will be part of the first overseas trip of Prime Minister Modi after his re-election and that he will carry the message of solidarity and hope from people of India to the people of Sri Lanka, in the aftermath of the April 21 attacks.
Terrorism and radicalism pose a collective threat to humanity. The recent attacks in Sri Lanka are not just against Sri Lanka,” he further spoke.
The Indian High Commissioner stressed on the fact that terrorism anywhere in the world attacks the conscience of the whole humanity. Emphasizing that the divisive Jihadi ideology is a threat to regional security and global peace, he added that PM Modi has offered all possible assistance in this regard, should Sri Lanka require.
India has always been a First Responder to Sri Lanka’s needs and priorities. Whether it be the flood or drought, India has been the first to respond with men and material. India has also completed several people-oriented development projects all across the island, as pure gifts from people of India,” the Indian High Commissioner further said.
India is not governed by self-interest alone, he said speaking on India’s foreign policy. India has always believed in sharing its developmental successes. Growing together has been the basic tenet of India’s foreign policy.”
As Prime Minister Modi has said, India seeks a future for Indian Ocean that lives up to the name of SAGAR- Security and Growth for All in the Region, the Indian High Commissioner stated.
Individual countries cannot remain peaceful, secure and prosperous if the region and world at large were to be in turmoil, he added. It is a highly interconnected world today. We cannot banish other’s misery as his or her own problem; it is as much as ours as his or hers. It is in our individual and collective interest to maintain world peace and collective stability,” the Indian High Commissioner stressed.
Alienation, compartmentalization and hierarchy of identities provide fertile ground to breed hate and violence. Love and tolerance are virtues which can be nurtured only in the waters of togetherness. India believes in taking everyone along in its journey towards development. Pluralism calls for celebration not confrontation,” he added.
Ambassador Pamela Deen, Director General of BIDTI and many others were present at the event.
Opposition Leader Mahinda Rajapaksa today requested to reconsider the decision taken to close down the carpentry sheds and sawmills in Sri Lanka.
He made these comments while attending a press briefing organized by the Joint Opposition in Colombo today (7).
Rajapaksa stated that the decision to close down all carpentry sheds and sawmills in the country would lead to a large number of people losing their jobs.
The Opposition Leader said that forest plantation should be carried out for the purpose of timber and that logs of timber should be imported from foreign countries.
Rajapaksa further said that he believes the decision to close down carpentry sheds and sawmills should be immediately halted.
President Maithripala Sirisena says he disapproves bringing in state intelligence officers before the Special Parliamentary Select Committee looking into the Easter attacks and revealing state intelligence information via media.
The president stated this during the monthly assembly of the senior officers of the Department of Police held at the Presidential Secretariat today (07).
Stating that suspended officers were thus far called before the committee, the President said that officers currently serving in the security forces will not be summoned to the committee meetings. He stressed he would take responsibility regarding all of them.
The President further commented, the Attorney General has written to him that five lawsuits pertaining to the attacks on April 21st are currently being heard before the Supreme Court, however, a Special Parliamentary Select Committee operating parallelly is unfavourable for the Supreme Court’s procedures. Speaker Karu Jayasuriya was notified on the matter, he added.
Although the Speaker customary announces the documents submitted to him by the President at the commencement of the parliamentary session, this was not mentioned by the Speaker, President Sirisena claimed.
(All Muslim Ministers resign (June 4, 2019 06:02 pm
Island)
5. 6. 2019. (With copy to HE President)
At first sight
it appears to be excellent news for those who agitated for the resignation of
Badurdeen. It also demonstrates the unity of the Muslims politicians and
solidarity with their own people, which sadly our so-called Sinhala politicians
don’t have. Muslims or Tamils have no party politics when it comes to matters
pertaining to Muslims or Tamils and there lies their real strength and
bargaining power. They stand united for their religions, imported nationality and
culture, which they are trying to replicate in this country. They have named
their political parties clearly after their purported nationality such as
Muslim or Tamil in no uncertain terms blatantly displaying their communal and
religious extremism. Both communities openly use the communal and religious
labels to polarize and emotionally rally round all their men, women and even
children from their small days. They
also have different dresses, different food, separate laws and courts, schools
and even separate burial grounds. But the majority Sinhala people have none.
Only Sinhalese have national political parties like the UNP.SLFP, CP. LSSP and
JVP. They are open to people of all communities where as Tamil and Muslim parties
are only meant for their communities. But they cry discrimination by the
Sinhalese against them.
Minority
political parties have a clear policy and it is only to serve their people. t
Even those Tamil and Muslim politicians who join the national parties like the
SLFP or UNP also serve and promote only their own communities. Their open
policy is to protect their perceived identity on someone else’s country, which
they illegally claim to be theirs. To achieve these goals they are prepared
even to die.
On the contrary
our politicians don’t have a nation, religion, a country or a culture after
they join a political party. For them, their political party is their nation
and religion as well. Politics for them is only a means to power and personal
aggrandizement and enrichment. They never consider it to be a service to their
people or the security of the country, which in fact should be the primary and
most basic function of governance. Even Muslim or Tamils politicians share the
same characteristics. There is no difference between the Muslims and Tamils in
this regard. On the other hand our politicians even don’t know that they have a
2600 year old nation that had a glorious past even in the ancient times. I
wonder at least they know whether they stand on their feet or heads for that
matter on these subjects. If Sinhala politicians who are supposed have ruled
this country from 1948 knew these things the story of this country today would
have been different.
In trying to
understand the current political drama unfolding in our country and the
sequence of events connected with the resignation of Asad Sali and Hisbulla and
the threat of a no-confidence motion on Rishard Badurdeen which would definitely have been a threat to
the unstable government if it was take up in Parliament, it is very important
to see how it was manipulated. First they all met at Fausi’s (SLFP) residence and then they moved on to
Temple Trees (the present Head Quarters of all Ranils anti Sinhala and
ant-Buddhist conspiracies are hatched over the past few years) to finalize the
strategy to kill two or even more birds with one stone in agreement with Ranil.
The en-masse temporary resignation of all Muslim Minsters is based on a ploy to
save the government, agreed upon an assurance from Ranil for them to be
reinstated after one month. First Ranil
wanted to appease the rising discontentment among the Sinhalese. Second at the
same time he wanted to save the thin skin of his government from the listed
NCMM. On the part of the Muslim politicians this is first to hoodwink the
Muslim people that their politicians stand with their community. Second to
scale down the wave of public protest in the country particularly arising from
Ratana Thera’s fast unto death supported by the Christian Church and even by
Hindus and some Muslims. Third, to block
the NCM against Badurdeen to save Badurdeen and his cohort from getting exposed
in Parliament which is going to be really fatal for the Government that is in
its last breath now. Forth, to hoodwink
the Sinhala people by announcing that all Muslim Ministers will resign, which
will give them a temporary relief thinking that not only the Alibaba but all
his thieves are gone for good. What is more is the ordinary people could be
made to think that such mass resignation could be the end of the Yahapalanaya
Government. Having agreed upon this work plan they decided to take the
following steps.
The first step
in this conspiracy was to find a way to save Badurdeen from getting exposed at the
no confidence motion by getting to withdraw it at the party leaders meeting
saying that there is no need for it now as he has already resigned. The second
was to save Ranils Government at the NC motion by the JVP with the help of the
TNA to get the 113 life jacket. This they ensured by agreeing to sit with the
Government in the back seats. Third, after that again getting appointed as
Ministers after the countrywide tension is over, probably for which Ranil has
agreed, and carry on until the Presidential election thereafter until November
Presidential elections. The statement
made by Ranil that he has ordered the CID to complete inquiries against this
band of criminals and rogues in one month also confirms the promise he has made
to them. Probably he is planning to get them exonerated as he did to Arjun
Mahendram in the first CB scam and take them back to the Cabinet thereafter to
continue the gambling and bungling. This
assumption is proved with the latest decision announced by Ranil not to fill
those vacancies for the moment and that he has asked the secretaries of those
Ministries to overlook the work probably in consultation with the former
Ministers. This is no wonder for a government headed by a man who has no
concern what so-ever for the people or the country other than remaining in
power surrounded by his Royal College cohort until the last minute possible. The
latest is the threat by Hakeem to take Political action unless situation is
brought under control within a month’ More over it is now reported that even the resignation
papers have not being submitted to President as yet and these Ministers who are
supposed to have resigned on the 3rd are still enjoying all the
privileges of Ministers and even they occupy the front seats in Parliament.
Don’t these events clearly show that this is only a political game of seek and
hide manipulated by Ranil to hang on to power.
Therefore the
whole country and more particularly the President has to be extremely vigilant
and be careful on this conspiracy at this moment. I propose that the President
should not reappoint any of these Muslim Ministers even if they are exonerated
by Ranils inquiries. In case Ranil make
such a dirty request I suggest the President turns it down and ask the PM to
submit a fresh list of Sinhala MPP for these Ministries and teach a lesson to
this Ranil the cunning fox and the Wahabian Muslim politicians. I don’t think
anyone can challenge that Presidential prerogative to refuse. The whole country
will stand by such decision, I can vouch for certain.
At the same time
the whole country must agitate and compel the President to
Stop forth with
all facilities given to those who have resigned and treat them as ordinary MPP
Disband
immediately all personnel staff and facilities that were provided to them and close
down their offices.
Also the President
should immediately remove the present Secretaries, who were invariably
handpicked by the previous Ministers and appoint new Secretaries loyal to the
President to ensure uninterrupted service to people.
This cause of
action is very necessary to ensure security to vital official documents, to
prevent the former Ministers lifting them through their catchers and spies and to
cut down the costs to Government. Action also must be taken immediately in
regard to personnel staff of all Departments, Corporations and Statutory bodies
coming under those Ministries for the same reasons. Also declare the premises out
of bounds for all these personal staff so discontinued.
If this is not
done the holidaying Ministers could run the Ministries from their homes with
pleasure and do enormous damage to your reputation and the country. The President
must send them on permanent leave to teach a lesson to Ranil and his cohort. By
doing that he can tell these arrogant and prodigal sons and their catchers too,
and Ranil & Co that there is a President elected by the people of the whole
country as the Head of the State and the Government, Head of the Cabinet and
the Commander in Chief of the Armed forces in this country.
The JVP also
could be happy at the end as the purpose of their joint NCM conspiracy to save
the Yahapalanaya Government is going to get fulfilled. The first part of this
tragic comedy has already come to an end. Hopefully it will be complete with
the defeat of the JVP NCM motion in Parliament with the support of all
anti-Sinhala votes rallied round a common purpose
In this backdrop
it is very important to try to understand the broader and deeper conspiracies
and long term implications of this type of hasty and narrow political decisions
that lack in-depth thinking and analysis on the country’s security and future.
The statement made by Badurdeen in Parliament yesterday where he said that you
can’t afford to antagonize the Muslim countries is a serious threat to reckon
with in this regard I think. I only hope and wish authorities will take this
statement very seriously. Far more serious is the open threat made by Hakeem in
today’s papers that they will take ‘Political action unless situation under
control within a month’. There appears to be a close nexus between his one
month deadline and Ranils one month dead line fixed to complete inquiries on
allegations against the accused Ministers. Does it mean that the decision to
exonerate them is already inked?
Meanwhile I am
happy that both the President and PM at last and at least appear to have
realized the seriousness of the situation, when both of them have openly said
that the resignation of all Muslim Ministers is a dangerous thing. They may
have implied different things. But I don’t think both of them have any clear
idea about the depth, the seriousness and the far reaching implications or what
is brewing under the carpet of vicious conspiracies these Muslim politicians
have in their heads. Looking at how they have manipulated the 21st
Easter Sunday carnage and their subsequent reactions ending up with en-mass
resignation and the statements made subsequently have to be carefully and
seriously studied as a precaution against any imminent future disasters as this
country cannot afford to have any more.
One thing is crystal
clear when you carefully look at the way these Muslim politicians behaved in
the aftermath of the 21st disaster. That is they all are a part of
this game. There is no doubt about it. Also they are certainly not with us, the
Sinhala majority, especially the Buddhists. To me they are real proverbial camels
presently and temporally living in Sri Lanka tent with the ultimate vicious objective
of ousting us from our own tent which we have made, valiantly protected and
jealously guarded for the past 2500 years with the sweat, blood and lives of
our forefathers.
Therefore I
suggest that the President orders the intelligence personnel to seriously
investigate in to all aspects of their behavior and take appropriate action
immediately in respect of each one of them before they plan the next disaster
where even the President himself could be a target.
Thereafter we
have to ensure that these terrorist Muslim politicians are permanently removed
from the Sri Lankan political arena to ensure the security of the country and
the safety of the people to sustain.
Reflecting back the
ancestors of these present day ungrateful Muslim came here on their own in
search of greener pastures as traders to this country from the then Arab lands which
were all deserts where they had only the burning sun at the deck, sand, dates and
camels and finally decided to stay on this salubrious Paradise Island enjoying
the sympathy and protection of the benevolent Sinhala Kings, until the advent
of British in 1815. Since then over time they developed a mindset to capture
this country and destroy the Sinhala Buddhist civilization which we no longer
can tolerate as this 25,000 sq mile tiny Island is the only place on earth we
Sinhala people have to live and die and untill then to say
This is my own,
my native land’ as Sir Walter Scott wrote in his The Patriot.
As the Great
Russian leader Putin once said to Arabs in Russia We never asked you to come
and if you want to stay in Russia you have to assimilate and live as Russians
or else get back to your own countries” Similarly as we have never asked your
ancestors to come here you have to adjust and live as Sri Lankans peacefully
with the native Sinhala people and be ruled under the Sri Lankan law and not
Sharia or Muslim Law. You have to eat and dress, behave think like Sri Lankans
but never as Arabian or Indians. You can’t have your mind and heart in some
other country and in its culture while you have your body only here to earn
your living and pray for some other country. If you can’t, then you have no
option but to get back to your own countries because this is our country and
our native land as it had been for 2 and ½ millennia.
So I would like
to tell Hakeem and crowed to follow suit without giving us headache and killing
our people using devils like Saharan and sterilizing Sinhala women going in to
thousands using Muslim medical doctors who were brought up and educated with
our money. These barbaric and uncivilized actions on their part clearly show
their underhand plan to overtake the Tamil and Sinhala population in order to
convert this Island to the Third ISIS” State in the near future.
The most
important and outstanding feature in their mass resignation is their sense of
unity and togetherness as a community which we don’t have in us as Sinhalese. Though
they belong to different political parties and different sects, they all think and
act alike, like Arabs, when it comes to the Muslim factor. When they come to
that, they cease to be UNP, SLFP or any other. The best example in this case is
Kabir Hakeem the UNP Chairman who resigned as a Minister. Their common
denominator is ‘Muslimness’. What is even more curious is they call themselves
a nation called The Muslim Nation” not found anywhere on this earth. The whole world knows it. The term Muslim
refers to those who profess Islam and not to a nation. In Pakistan they are
Pakistanis, India Indians Malaysia Malaysians, Iran Iranians etc. Therefore in
Sri Lanka as a nation they have to be Sri Lankans and never as Muslim Jatiya as our politicians call them.
Unfortunately
none of our all-knowing politicians seem to know this .That is why they
recognize Muslims in this country as a nation (Jatiyak) along with Tamils as
another. They are afraid to openly say that only the Sinhala people could be
called a nation in this country. Because they are the people who have founded
the civilization of this country more than 2500 years ago and they are also the
architects of the civilization in this country and therefore the Bhoomiputra
(sons of the soil) of this country. On the other hand what is the contribution
these Tamils and Muslims have done to the life or culture of this country
beside the devastations and destructions they have done from 2nd
century BC up to date in the case of Tamils and from 1818 to date in the case
of Muslims?
Though they
comprise a minority all minorities in this country enjoy more rights than any
minority in any other country in the world. Within Sri Lanka they enjoy
privileges even more than the majority due to the divide and rule colonial
policies left behind by them and the crazy politics of supine Sinhala
politicians who go after the minority votes without making any meaningful
attempt to consolidate the 75 % Sinhala electorate. For example colonial powers
enacted Muslim law for Muslims and Thesavalamei for Tamils while on Sinhale
they imposed the Raman Dutch and English Laws while completely destroying the
native Sinhala laws that existed for 2 1/2 millennia that was applicable to all
people in this country whether one is a
Tamil, Muslim or any other up to 1815. The net result was the tyranny of
minority politics in the spear of Sri Lankan politics. Time has come now to
stop this discrimination against the
Sinhala majority and restore their lost rights even after 71 year of so-called
Independence.
The
Lesson Sinhalese have to learn from Muslim and Tamil minority politicians and
the Sinhala politicians
Why can’t we Sinhalese also at least now
learn a lesson from the behavior of these Muslim Politicians. This is the best
time for all Sinhalese irrespective of
where you live or what religion you profess or to what political party you
belong to unite as Sinhalese –SINHALA’ as the common denominator against
the minority enemies to save this country first and then the Nation and the
religion there after. So making this crisis as a blessing in disguise, why
can’t we also unite as a nation at least now forget the UNP/SLFP, SLPP and JVP and think ‘only as Sinhalese’ and let us find a Leader who can stand up and boldly
say that,
THIS
IS THE LAND OF THE SINHALA NATION AND IT SHALL REMAIN SO FOR EVERWITH A DOMINANT SINHALA BUDDHIST CULTURE
AS ITS CORE AND FOUNDATION, ITS OFFICIAL LANGUAGE SHALL BE SINHALA, BUDDHISM
SHALL BE THE STATE RELIGION AS IT HAD BEEN FROM 307 BC AND THIS LAND SHALL BE
RULED BY ONE LAW HERE AFTER.
ALL
OTHERS WHO HAVE COME HERE AS INVADERS, TRADERS ILLICIT IMMIGRANTS AND
SUBSEQUENTLY GOT NATURALIZED AND GOT ABSORBED IN TO THE MAINSTREAM FROM TIME TO
TIME IN HISTORY SHALL BE GOVERNED BY THE LAWS AND TRADITONS AND CUSTOMS OF THE
LAND AND ALL THOSE WHO WISH TO BE RATAVESIYO (CITIZENS) OF THIS ISLAND NATION
SHALL AGREE UPON SUCH CONDITIONS AND SWEAR IN TO ABIDE BY SUCH LAWS, TRADITIONS
AND CUSTOMES. AND THOSE WHO DO NOT CONFORM TO THESE CONVENTIONS SHALL LEAVE
THIS COUNTRY TO THEIR OWN CHERISHED MOTHERLANDS WITHIN A SPECIFIED TIME LIMIIT BY
THE GOVERNMENT OF THIS COUNTRY WITHOUT ANY COMPENSATION OR ANY OTHER CLAIM
UNDER ANY INTERNATIONAL LAW OR CONVENTION”
It is only within this homemade and Indigenous
framework of national thinking and native culture any one can think of long
lasting national reconciliation in this country and never on the utterly
irrelevant and alien prescriptions evolved in a different environment imported
from western or any other country.
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