Dr D.Chandraratna

As peace loving Sri Lankans we are dismayed by the surreptitious accusations and innuendos cast on the majority Sinhala Buddhist community by Waleed Ali, an Australian TV presenter in his Column in the Daily telegraph, on the recent tragic events in Sri Lanka. This terrorist activity in Easter Sunday was directed at the Christians, but not limited to Christian churches is obvious as bombings have been carried out in 5 and 6 star hotels in Colombo where the majority of the patrons are Sinhalese and Europeans as the numbers of dead and the injured reveal.  The terror extended to the North and the East of Sri Lanka is indicative that the North and the East where the majority are Muslims have become a fertile ground for insurgent activity. Waleed Ali’s reference to Sinhala Buddhists is an unnecessary digression, populist, irresponsible racial backsliding to distract the Islamic terror and mitigate the blame that should squarely fall on the radical Muslims.

Generally the Western media has been for decades noted for their historic partisanship. There assertions implicating the Sinhala Buddhists were tantamount to encouragement of Tamil separatist terrorism in Sri Lanka. The scant sympathy they extended to the Sinhalese victims is still reverberating in our memory for which we have forgiven.  Yet some have seen in the recent events a golden opportunity yet again to cast aspersions and accusations on the majority Sinhala Buddhist community in Sri Lanka.

Let us respond to this man in detail.  He writes, ‘ (E) very terrorist attack in which innocent people are killed is devastatingly tragic. Every one of them is heinous. But what we’ve seen in Sri Lanka this week exists on a rarefied level of depravity.

Of course, there’s the supreme violation of slaughtering people in worship – now an established feature of terrorism and particularly Islamic State’s violence’. We are in total agreement with Ali and might we also add that we extend our sympathy to the dead, both innocent and the misguided guilty, for it is a wanton waste of a precious human life as Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith said at the Easter mass in Colombo. As Sinhalese Buddhists we cultivate no hatred towards other religions for we have no concept of ‘infidels’ and we seek no revenge for not being Buddhists. As intelligent people we must use our words carefully. There is certainly no hatred between the Buddhists and the Christians, just like between Muslims and Christians that Ali is proud of. Moreover the Sinhalese and Christians are frequently consanguineal blood relatives, in the thousands. We have no religious, dogmatic taboos about marrying non-Buddhists and that is how we have been for centuries. The link between Christians and Buddhists is from time immemorial. The previous President is married to a Catholic family and the current Prime Minister hails from a Christian family.

Waleed Ali described the 30-year terrorist war as between Sinhalese Buddhists and Hindu minority is absurd nonsense. He does not know that it was an insurrection against the state. Was there a Hindu temple in Colombo ever attacked, did a single Buddhist ever murder a Hindu, we ask. To keep a 20 odd million agitated Sinhalese subdued when bombs were flying all around them, prevent attacking a single Tamil in the 30-year war is a tribute to the culture of the Sinhalese Buddhists. Yet, in disturbing contrast are his references to the extremism, muted, cagey and sheepish, showing double standards? A Sri Lankan commentator added, quite rightly, that in the Sunday Massacre ‘we haven’t seen outpouring of outrage from Muslim ‘civil society’ of the kind witnessed when the comparatively baby-like acts of violence perpetrated against Muslims by extremist Buddhists in Digana and Teldeniya last year or when similar violence was unleashed in Aluthgama a few years before. One has to ask if it is because Buddhists constitute a soft and preferred target as far as ‘civil society’ outfits are concerned’

This uninformed man must understand the nature of violence, which happens sporadically in a multiracial, politically active society where people are scrambling for the limited resources, in a competitive economy. No society is ever immune to such sporadic episodes for humans are emotionally charged being.  Race riots they are but terrorism they are not. Reality has to be grasped properly. Mob violence is round the corner in any multicultural, multi religious society when there is an immediate event that arouses the sensibilities of people. The rational beings control their impulses but the same does not hold with the under educated and irrational subjects. The Sinhalese – Muslim skirmishes that he so loudly proclaims to mitigate the depravity of the terror must be examined in its proper light. The Aluthgama riots were allegedly over the incident involving Muslim youth desecrating a temple by throwing a severed head of a cow and the Digana Kandy riots were due to the killing of a Sinhalese lorry driver by Muslim youth. These are not terrorist activities in any definition or there were no caches of weapons discovered to indicate they were intent on massacring innocent people. How many lives were lost, perhaps none. But to call something terrorism against a racial group needs a confluence of many things. It cannot happen in a day or two. It is organized as in a war situation by bringing weapons in large quantities. Illegal weapons, explosives, detonators, communication equipment, forged passports, National Identity Cards and vehicles. There must be hundreds and thousands of agents to carry out the mass violence. That is terrorism. The Thowheed Jama’th speaks of 200,000 followers according to Muslim sources. To write that in Digana, houses are set on fire, reminiscent of the old gruesome story of death inside their own home as in 1983, is over the top.

Take the case of the Sinhalese attacks on mushrooming Christian sects. Waleed Ali and others like Amanda Hodge must be factual in what they write. The truth of the matter is that Sinhalese Christians were annoyed as much as the Buddhists owing to the numerous evangelical sects mushrooming in the island after the tsunami. Converting poor Sinhalese was a past time on the pretext of assisting them materially out of the funds collected on the pretext of the disaster in Western countries was an irritant to the established Christian religions as much as to the Sinhalese. For conversion of their brethren the Sinhalese killed none. Unlike in the Muslim community these incidents do not end in blood letting and in a multi religious society these are events the state has to control through legislation. That silence gave the spark to the radical elements in the events after the Tsunami and they were a passing phase. No traditional churches were ever attacked by the rioters. Freedom of religion also has limits for you do not live in isolation.

These uninformed characters should note what Muslim intellectuals have to say. A respected scholar domiciled in Australia says that in a multi racial society that is Sri Lanka, there was a self-inflicted alienation which was widening the gap between some Muslims and other communities, primarily the Sinhala Buddhist community, arousing suspicion. Dr Ameer Ali is emphatic that the vast majority of Buddhists are not fanatics and a vast majority of Sinhalese are not racists either.  He said a minority, who is very vocal and is trying to grab attention should not be allowed to take the country in the wrong direction. The small radical element among the Sinhalese are legally punished and put in jail. At elections these elements are bundled out but the Muslims still go by ethnicity in all-political matters and make democracy really unworkable.

As far as the Muslims are concerned, it must be understood that the new doctrine promotes a vicious cycle

of self-alienation that leads to exclusivism to extremism ending in radicalization and terrorism.           Self-alienation
starts in many ways.  To give a few examples, the Muslim schools operate on a different calendar. It prevents the Muslims children from interacting with other communities. Muslims do not hoist the national flag in front of our mosques and schools and other institutions on the day of Independence, a symbolic meeting point for everyone. Kaththankudy, the newly discovered hot bed of terror was spending  millions of rupees to make it look like Arabia? The planned Arab University premises present an Arabic desert environment with date palms. The other vexatious issue was with halal and cattle slaughter, another reason for the skirmishes. Even moderate Muslims urged anyone with any humaneness to see the way the cows were being slaughtered; the way cows were dragged into the slaughterhouse in a Buddhist country where the slaughter of the cow is abhorrent to the Buddhists. Sri Lankans in general will not tolerate such a practice. A call for a ban on cattle slaughter has to be seen in this context.

The other issue of differentiation is the black dress the Burka that is covering the whole female body, except the eyes, which is alien to Sri Lanka. This attire is only misconstruing Islam.
While Muslim women in the 70s wore sarees, the radical women of today are making a political statement, a misreading of Islamic scriptures that had led to the current situation. Such extremism should be countered through education, which should be done by Muslims themselves. Surely the Peradeniya campus where not one wore the Burka in days gone by is now over strewn with it.  Wahabism from Saudi Arabia and the rising Islamic militant rhetoric in the East has had an impact in places like Kattankudy where allegedly, large scale overseas funding from Middle Eastern countries was fuelling a foreign brand of toxic Islamic revival, Building mosques surplus to requirements is unwarranted when the existing mosques are empty.

The brand of Islam imported from Saudi Arabia is intolerant in its teachings and it is increasingly becoming intolerant of others. This new brand is a misrepresentation of Islam and its scriptures.  The present Director of the Department of Muslim Religious and Cultural Affairs, recently disclosed more than 500 unregistered mosques in the country? It would be pertinent to raise the question, how many of these 500 mosques are involved in “preaching and practicing religious intolerance’. The teachers from abroad are purveyors of the radical ideology contamination the young” Does the government have the political will and the Peace Loving Moderate Muslims the commitment to shut down these 500 illegal mosques and deport the imams for good?

It is a known fact some mosques and madrassas are used by extremists for their destructive activities the world over. While religious freedom is guaranteed in our constitution, it is the state’s prerogative to monitor what goes on inside the religious places of every denomination. By mobilizing the Peace Loving Moderate Muslims membership (PLMM) in actively supporting government efforts to contain and prevent further extremist activities, the moderates can now make a worthwhile contribution.

Silence is complicity. All those who are speaking of inter-faith peace and unity now, irresponsibly ignored extremist Islamic thought on social media for years. They dismissed it as rants of some mad men. An exasperated Muslim journalist remarked that although there were many opportunities to nip such thoughts in the bud, they did not do so. ‘Now that the knife is at your throat you are crying hoarse that terrorism must be defeated and there is no room for violence in Islam’. Now it does not cut with the rest. ‘When more and more religious schools were established, abayas and other masks took root as default symbols of our superior ‘culture’’. Stop bashing the Sinhala Buddhists.  Speak the truth and not degrade the vocation of journalism.

Upali Cooray Former General Manager-SATHOSA(CWE)

Apropos your statement released to the media and the public today ( 25th April)

The Friday Forum which consists of very educated and eminent person’s like you,while expressing solidarity with all those who are fighting the current terrorist menace goes on to state as follows.

“We must also understand the lessons of history, especially Hitler’s rise to power, and reject absolutely the idea that the need of the hour is a strong, authoritarian and dictatorial leader. Leaders of the former government are arguing that they handed over to the new government a secure and peaceful country so that there would be no threats to national security. They must be reminded that they created the nightmare of disappearances, abductions and killings that left people in fear of their personal security. No political party should be permitted to exploit this horrific experience to promote a divisive and authoritarian political agenda. Our nation’s commitment to parliamentary democracy must be strengthened and not undermined, recognizing that some important and positive changes have been made in the last few years.” Here I give an email I received in shortened form.

 In a statement you issued on 14th of July 2018 “From Eliya to Andura and on to vipath maga” with ridicule,you go at  Asgiriya anunayaka Ven. Wanduruwe Upali Thero,Gotabhaya Rajapaksa(probable next presidential candidate) former state minister Wijyakala Maheshwaran and Rear Admiral Sarath Weerasekara for towing their own line of thinking they believe is for betterment of the people. 

“Rev. Upali exhorted Rajapaksa to give leadership for good governance, even if he has to be a Hitler” to do this. Some weeks later Weerasekara denounced Dr. Udagama as an LTTE supporter and a traitor to this country, with the battle cry death to traitors”.  Maheswaran called for a return of the LTTE to ensure the security protection and progress of the people of the North, and especially their women and children. “

Two of these three have made their statements not in it’s metopharical sense but it was in a literal sense except Weerasekara.An educated lot like you should surely know this,but you pretend not to know. Upali thera has said that we need a “Hitler” like person to make this country disciplined and prosperous, Vijayakala has said that only LTTE can give protection and discipline to her people in the North.

What SW has said could be his observation not only of Dr. Deepika Udagama,it applies to entire Friday Forum.  Your line of thinking has right through been in the veil of human rights, democracy, reconciliation etc. In actual fact you are advocates of certain global thinking opposed to stability and development of democratic states. what happened on Easter Sunday this month is this trend. We have Afghanistan,Iraq,Lybia,Syria,Egypt as examples. All these countries had dictators and they violated human rights no doubt,but Libiya was the most economically prosperous country in Africa at that time. I have visited Iraq many times on trade matters during Saddam’s tenure. They were prosperous and most literate in the middle East. Most have got educated in England. There was freedom of speech except criticizing the government. Night clubs restaurants and tourism were thriving. Here I quote an email I received recently.

*A German’s View on Islam :*          

                                      Worth reading because this is by far the best explanation of the Muslim terrorist situation I have ever read. The author of this email is Dr. Emanuel Tanya, a well-known and well-respected psychiatrist–a man, whose family was German aristocracy prior to World War II, and owned a number of large industries and estates. When asked how many German people were true Nazis, the answer he gave can guide and shape our attitude toward the present day Islamic fanaticism. He said, 

“Very few people were true Nazis, but many enjoyed the return of German pride the Nazis brought to the German nation, and many more were too busy to care. I was one of those who just thought the Nazis were a bunch of fools. So, the majority just sat back and let it all happen. Then, before we knew it, the Nazis were in control of the nation, they owned us, and we had lost control. Suddenly they plunged the country into a devastating and costly world war, and by the end of the war we had woken up to a new reality – our world of comfort, peace and freedom had come to an end. My family lost everything. I ended up in a concentration camp and the Allies destroyed my factories.

“I see the same situation playing out today with respect to the attitude of the majority towards the the current Islamist movement. We are told again and again by ‘experts’ and ‘talking heads’ that Islam is the religion of peace and that the vast majority of Muslims just want to live in peace. This unqualified assertion may be true, but the fact is that it is entirely irrelevant! It is meaningless fluff, meant to make us feel better, and meant to somehow diminish the specter of fanatics rampaging across the globe in the name of Islam. The fact is that the fanatics rule Islam at this moment in history. It is the fanatics who march. It is the fanatics who are waging any one of the 50 shooting wars currently going on worldwide. It is the fanatics who systematically slaughter Christian or tribal groups in Africa and are gradually taking over the entire continent in an Islamic wave. It is the fanatics who bomb, behead, murder, and carry out the so called honour killing. It is the fanatics who take over mosque after mosque. It is the fanatics who zealously spread the stoning and hanging of rape victims and homosexuals. It is the fanatics who teach their young to kill and to become suicide bombers. The hard and quantifiable fact is that the peaceful majority, the ‘silent majority,’ has been cowed and made extraneous and irrelevant.”

“History lessons are often incredibly simple and blunt. Yet for all our powers of reason, we often miss the most basic and uncomplicated of points: peace-loving Muslims have been made irrelevant by their silence. Peace-loving Muslims will become our enemy if they don’t speak up, because, like my friend from Germany, they will awaken one day and find that the fanatics own them, and the end of their world will have begun. 

Peace loving Germans, Japanese, Chinese, Russians, Rwandans, Serbs, Afghans, Iraqis, Palestinians, Somalis, Nigerians, Algerians, and many others have died because the peaceful majority did not speak up until it was too late.”

“Islamic prayers have now been introduced into Toronto and other public schools in Ontario, and, yes, in Ottawa too while the Lord’s Prayer was removed due to being so offensive! But to whom? Not to the vast majority of Canadians but to the few Islamic fanatics!”

There are some  noted examples where you applied the policy  in a manner without uniformity. Take the case of LTTE violations of human rights where your response was lackadaisical ,some prefer to call you in disdain,a rapacious NGO  savants.I do not wish to call you such names. You are a most educated lot in this country,but if one scrutinize your policy over the years it idoes not show any impartiality but an inclination towards certain global blueprints. 

Why were these countries destabilized and leaders killed. Whose requirement it is? Why aren’t you suggesting we get the assistance of the Russians who are adoptes sccessful tactics in handling the ISIS specially in Syria. For tthat matter why not the Chinese. The government has preferred to have KGB instead.This rflects to which power block Sri Lanka has been taken and seem to be endorsing iit.

Neither do I for a moment advocate a dictatorship in our country. Nor do I condone human rights violations that happened in the past. Those responsible have to be brought to book but nothing has been proven so far. Why cannot the government expedite this process. Is there a”you scratch my back and I scratch your’s” situation?

Egypy’s Gamal Abdel Nasser, Yugoslavia’s Tito, Mao tse tung,Deng shiao Ping, Chu En Lai all , from China  were dictators while Putin of Russia, Allende of Chili,Peron of Argentina, who were democradically elected,but they used their powers in an uncompromising manner for the betterment of their people. I have seen my self how Yugoslavia and Russia was progressing under Tito and Yeltstin. What happened in Yugoslavia?

Two last examples which is very popular among us when comparing our political affairs,is Singapore’s late Prime Minister Lee Kwan Yu. Was he not virtually  a dictator though elected democratically? Margaret Thatcher of UK was dubbed “Iron lady”because of her uncompromising attitude in state affairs.

Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka in his excellent speech today ,(25 the of April )was devoid of all politics and hatred. In fact he gave credit to former President Mahinda Rajpaksa for eradicating terrorism in this country and vice- versa MR in his  speech. It attracted editorials and comments in the media

The yahapalana government in order to villify the previous government and with a false complacency weakened the intelligence agencies by sending some officers to prison and some others to inactive places. Others fled the country.

This started under the UNP government in January 2002. Kulasiri Udugampola the Police  superintendent incharge of Kandy district under instructions of then interior minister John Amaratumga raided the hide out of Long range reconisceance petrol of the Srilanka army at Millennium City,Athurugiriya and  exposed the entire intelligence net work resulting in the LTTE killing Colonel Muthaliph and other officers fleeing the country.

Six years ago Friday Forum was worried about “Muslim Hunting”. As emphzied earlier,your Colombo elite group is seeing things with a particular aim. Some members are in the camp of Chadrika Kumaratunga. She ridiculed young village boys and girls fighting the LTTE at the risk of their life,by promoting “Sudu Nelum”  (white Lotus) through Mangala Samaraweera. She also promoted ruffians such as Baddegane Sanjeewa and Mervyn Silva. Sinhala people were hiding their faces in shame.It was  Ven.gangodawila Soma Thera who came forward to pump oxygen to the Sinhala Buddhists.  He would brought up the Muslim Rand grab and radicalization issue to the fore. He was not a radical and would have played the role now being played by the Malcolm Cardinal Rangith.Most people now sympathise with Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara thera. What was wrong with him was preached violence instead of compassion to draw Muslims out of extremism. Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith is a shining light in this regard.  The government should nominate him for the Nobel peace prize though he is unlikely to accept it. He even refused to receive a bullet proof car.

Why not the CBK and RW combine excercise due diligence as far back as 2006 when Islamist extirmists raised their head?

Gotabhaya Rajapaksa helped his brother to win the terrorist war and bring peace to this country and development was progressing at a fast pace when yahapalanaya took over. That has now been drawn back at least,by five years. This does not mean that MR government was Lily white. There was large scale corruption and bribery during this period.It is alleged the leaders own seven star hotels in Dubai and slush funds in sychells. Why aren’t these allegations being investigated? Is this to compromise with larger scams such as the Bond scam, Central higway etc?.

You wine and dine in five star hotels and make statement from your comfort  zone. It is time you just limit yourself to your Friday meetings and go home without spreading facts to suit a docket belonging to a source you prefer. Only thing I agree with you is the abolition of the Presidential system. 

Also note that there are very eminent persons  such as Ven Prof. Madagoda Abhayatissa,Prof Janitha Liyange,Prof Raja Gunaratne, President’s councilor Manohara de Silva, Major Genaral Kamal Goonaratna ,Rear Admiral Daya Dharmapriya , Dr. Priyath Bandu Wickrama, President’s councilor Razik Zarook,Dr.Nalaka Godahewa,Gevidu Kumaratunga and many others who supports a Gotabhaya Presidency. 

It has to also be noted that not a single Buddhist  or Hindu Monk is in your forum.

Upali Cooray

Former General Manager-SATHOSA(CWE)

egalawan288@gmail.com

ශී‍්‍ර ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණ මාධ්‍ය හමුව

අද දින (05* පැවැති මාධ්‍ය හමුවට සහභාගි වූ නියෝජිතයින්
x පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්තී‍්‍ර සෙහාන් සේමසිංහ මහතා
x පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්තී‍්‍ර කාංචන විජේසේකර මහතා

පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්තී‍්‍ර සෙහාන් සේමසිංහ මහතා.
අගමැතිවරයා කාර්ය භාරය ඉටු නොකර මාධ්‍ය ප‍්‍රකාශයෙක් වෙලා. මේ වෙද්දි විශේෂ ප‍්‍රකාශ තුනක් කරලා. ආණ්ඩුව බලයට ආ දවසේ ඉදලා අගමැති ජනාධීපති දෙපල මාරුවෙන් මාරුවට ප‍්‍රකාශ කරනවා. ප‍්‍රකාශ නිකුත් කිරීමෙන් ප‍්‍රතිඵලයක් නැහැ. තමන්ගේ වගකීම ඉටු කරන්න කියලා අපි ඉල්ලා සිටිනවා. ඊයේ වෙද්දි රනිල් වික‍්‍රමසිංහ මහතා මේ ප‍්‍රහාරය මාධ්‍ය දඩයම සදහා යොදා ගන්න හදනවා. රජය ජනතාවගේ ආරක්ෂාවට තොරතුරු නොදෙන අවස්ථාවක ආරක්ෂක අංශ සමග එක්ව මාධ්‍යයි ජනතාවට තොරතුරු දුන්නේ. එක මාධ්‍ය ආයතනයක් මේ දඩයමට ගොදුරු වුනොත් සියලූ මාධ්‍ය ආයතන එක්වෙන්න. ජනතාවට නිවැරදි තොරතුරු දිම නිසා ප‍්‍රශ්නයක් වුනු බවයි අගමැතිතුමා කියන්න හදන්නේ.
රනිල් වික‍්‍රමසිංහ ආණ්ඩුවට නැගී හිටපු මාධ්‍යවේදීන්ට වුන දේ, බටලන්ද කොමිෂම ගැන අපි අහලා තියෙනවා. ඒ නිසා තමන්ගේ වගකිම ඉටු කරනවා මිස එහි වරද මාධ්‍ය පිට පටවන්න එපා. වරදේ වගකීම පොලිස්පතිවරයා පිට තියලා අත හෝදගන්නත් උත්සාහ කරනවා. විය යුත්තේ සමස්ත රජයම වරද පිළිගැනීමයි. දැන් ආයෙත් එජාපයේ සුපුරුදු පිළිවෙත පටන් අරන්. රාජිත සේනාරත්න මහතා තමයි මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ රජය බිදදමන්න පදනම් විරහිත චෝදනා එල්ල කලේ. වරස 5ක් තිස්සේ ඒ කිසිවක් ඔප්පු කර ගන්න බැරි වුනා. හමුදා කුමන්ත‍්‍රණයක් ගැන කිව්වා. තාජුඞීන් ඝාතනය ගැන කිව්වා. මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා නමට විදේශයේ තියෙන මුදල් ගැන කිව්වා. දැන් ආයෙත් වැඩ පටන් අරන්. ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ මහතාව එදා අන්තවාදී බෞද්ධයෙක් කිව්ව මොහු දැන් අන්තවාදී මුස්ලිම් ප‍්‍රශ්නයට මැදි කරන්න හදනවා. විජේදාස රාජපක්ෂ මහතා අන්තවාදින් ගැන කියද්දි එහෙම දෙයක් නැහැ කිව්වෙත් මෙතුමා. ඒ ප‍්‍රකාශ නිසා මිනිස් ජිවිත දහස් ගණනක් නැති වුනා.
මේ අය අන්තවාදින් ඒකාබද්ධ විපක්ෂයේ ඉන්න බවයි කිව්වේ. මේ පින්තූර බලන්න. යම් කණ්ඩායමක් ඇවිත් කිසියම් පොතක් පිළිගන්වන එකයි මෙයි තියෙන්නේ. මෛතී‍්‍ර ගුණරත්න ආන්ඩුකාරවරයා, මැතිවරණ කොමසාරිස්වරයා, දඹර අමිල හිමියන්,ට වගේම රාජිත සේනාරත්නටත් ඔය කියන පොත පිළීගන්වලා තියෙන බව මේ පින්තූරවලින් පැහැදිලියි. අන්තවාදි කණ්ඩායම් පෝෂණය කලේ මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ ආණ්ඩුව නෙවෙයි. වර්තමාන ආන්ඩුවයි අන්තවාදය පෝෂණය කලේ. ආණ්ඩුවට අවශ්‍ය වුනේ පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ තමන්ගේ බලය රැුක ගැනීම පමණයි. තමන්ගේ වගකිම නිසියාකාරව ඉටු කරන්න බැරි නම් එහි වගකීම වෙනත් අය පිට පටවන්න එපා.
අපේ පියල් නිශාන්ත මන්තී‍්‍රවරයා කරපු ප‍්‍රකාශයක් සම්බන්ධයෙන් මේ වෙද්දි පරීක්ෂණ සිද්ධවෙනවා. ඒ එතුමාගේ ප‍්‍රකාශය සම්බන්ධයෙන් කණගාටුව ප‍්‍රකාශ කර තිබියදිත්. නමුත් මරණ සංඛයාව 351ක් කියලා පසුව එය 251ක් කීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් මේ වෙද්දි කිසිදු පියවරක් නැහැ. විරුද්ධ පක්ෂය දඩයම් කරන්න දැන් ආන්ඩුව සූදානම් වෙනවා.
ඒ වගේම රජයට සම්බන්ධ මැති ඇමැතිවරුන්ට චෝදනා එල්ල වුනත් රජය නිහඩයි. රිසාඞ් බදියුදීන් හා තියෙන සම්බන්ධතා ගැන කියැවෙනවා. ත‍්‍රස්තවාදින් භාවිතා කරපු නිවසක් දේශපාලකයින්ට සම්බන්ධයි කියනවා. කාගෙන්ද ප‍්‍රශ්න කලේ. ඒ කිසිවෙක් සම්බන්ධයෙන් නිතීිමය විදියට පරික්ෂණ කලේ නැහැ. රිෂාඞ් බදියුදීන්ගේ සහෝදරයාගෙන් ප‍්‍රශ්න කරපු බව පොලිස්පති කිව්වාත් ඔහු එළියට ඇවිත් කියනවා මගෙන් කිසිම ප‍්‍රශ්න කිරිමක් වුනේ නැහැ කියනවා. හිස්බුල්ලා අසාද් සාලි, ආන්ඩුකාරවරුන්ට වගේම මුජිබර් රහුමාන්ට චෝදනා එල්ල වෙනවා. කෝ ප‍්‍රශ්්න කලා. චෝදනා එල්ල වෙන රජයට සම්බන්ධ පුද්ගලයින්ගෙන් ප‍්‍රශ්න කළ යුතුයි. නැත්නම් අපිට හිතෙන්නේ මේකට රජය සම්බන්ධයි කියලා. කිලෝ ගාණක් පුපුරන ද්‍රව්‍ය මොවුනට ලැබෙන්නේ. ඒ සම්බන්ධයෙන් ප‍්‍රශ්න කර දඩුවම් දිය යුතුයි. ඒ වගේම මන්සූර් ඇමැතිවරයා ත‍්‍රස්තවාදියාගේ බිරිද බලන්න යනවා. ඒකට අවස්්ථාව නොදුන්න අධ්‍යක්ෂවරයා පොළොන්නරුවට මාරු කරනවා.
ආන්ඩුව මේ සියලූ දේ දැනගෙන වසන් කරලා මේ බරපතල හානිය රටට කළාද කියලා අපිට සැකයි. හිටපු අමාත්‍ය වසන්ත සේනානයක මහතා තුර්කි ත‍්‍රස්තවාදින් අපේ රටේ ඉන්න බවට හෙළිදරව්වක් කරනවා.මේ සම්බන්ධයෙන් වසර දෙකකට පෙර දැනුම්වත් වෙලා ඉදලා තියෙනවා. මොවුන්ගේ ගමන් බලපත් අංක පවා ලබාදී තියෙනවා. මොවුන්ගේ කීදෙනෙක් දැන් මෙරට ඉන්නවාද. කීදෙනෙක් ලංකාවෙන් පිටත් වුනාද කියන දේ රජය පැහැදිලි කළ යුතුයි.
අද ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණ කෙහෙද ඉන්නේ. පහුගිය කාලයේ මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ ආන්ඩුව හා ගත්ත පියවරයන් දැඩිව විවේඡුනය කළ මොවුන් ජාතික ව්‍යසනයක් ඇතිවුනු අවස්ථාවක මේ විදියට නිහ`ඩ ඇයි. සැකරුවෙක් විදියට අත් අඩංගුවට ගත්ත ඊබ‍්‍රහීම් ඔවුන්ගේ ජාතික ලයිස්තුවේ ඉන්න නිසාද? ජවිපේ පෙරට ඇවිත් මේ ව්‍යසනය වලක්වන්න උදව් කරන්නේ නැත්තේ කියන එකත් අපිට ප‍්‍රශ්නයක්.
මේ 15 වැනිදා වෙද්දි තිරණාත්මක තීන්දුවක් ලැබෙන්න තිබුණා. සජිත් පේ‍්‍රමදාස මහතා අගමැතිවෙලා ආන්ඩුවක් බිහිවෙයි කියන බලාපොරොත්තුව එජාප මන්තී‍්‍රවරුන්ට තිබුණා. අනාගතයේ එජාපය භාරගන්න ඉන්නවා නම්, එජාප ආන්ඩු සමයක වුනු මේ සිද්ධිය සම්බන්ධයෙන් ඉදිරියට එන්නේ නැත්තේ ඇයි. මේ සිද්ධිය ආවරණයක් කරගෙන විරුද්ධ පක්ෂයට චෝදනා එල්ල කරමින් ජනතා අප‍්‍රසාදය වහගන්නයි මේ උත්සාහ කරන්නේ.
ප‍්‍රතිත‍්‍රස්ත පනත ගෙනත් තියෙන්නේ ත‍්‍රස්තවාදය තුරන් කිරීමට කිව්වත් එය අසත්‍යයි. ඒ සදහා ත‍්‍රස්තවාදය වැලැක්වීමේ පනතේ ප‍්‍රතිපාදන තියෙනවා. එක්සත් ජාතින්ගේ මානව හිමිකම් කොමිෂමට වුනු පොරොන්දුවක් මොවුන් මේ ඉටු කරන්න සූදානම් වෙන්නේ. මේ හදුන්වා දෙන පනත හරහා සිද්ධ වෙන්නේ රජයට විරුද්ධව නැගී සිටින පුරවැසියන් පාලනය කරන්නයි. මාධ්‍ය ආයතන වුවත් පාලනය කරන්න ඉඩ තියෙනවා. විදේශිය රටවල සහාය ගන්න හදන්නේ ප‍්‍රතිත‍්‍රස්ත පනත ගේන්න හදන්නේ එල්.ටී, ටී. ඊ ඩයස්පොරොවේ ග‍්‍රහණයට මේ ආන්ඩුව ලක්වෙලා තියෙන නිසයි.
යුද්ධය අවසන් වීමෙන් පස්සේ අපේ රටේ සංචාරක ව්‍යාපාරය සීග‍්‍රයෙන් වර්ධනය වුනා. මේ ත‍්‍රස්ත ප‍්‍රහාරය වගේම එයින් පස්සේ රටේ ආරක්ෂාව විශ්වාසනීය විදියට තහවරු කිරීමට ආණ්ඩුවට නොහැකි වීම නිසා දැන් සංචාරක ව්‍යාපාරය කඩාවැටිලා. මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ රජය සමයේ රජයේ මග පෙන්වීම යටතේ පුද්ගලික අංශය සංචාරක ව්‍යාපාරය දියුණු කරන්න පියවර ගත්තා. මේ ව්‍යසනයෙන් පස්සේ සංචාරක ව්‍යාපාරය සම්න්ධයෙන් රජය කිසිදු අවධානයක් යොමු කලේ නැහැ. දැන්වත් රජය මැදිහත් වී සංචාරක ව්‍යාපාරය ගොඩනැගීම සදහා වැඩපිළිවෙලක් ඇති කළ යුතුයි. එහෙම නොකර ප‍්‍රකාශ නිකුත් කිරීම පමණක් ප‍්‍රමාණවත් නැහැ.
අද වෙද්දි ආනන්දි ශසිදරන්, මාවෙයි සේනාධිරාජා උතුරු පළාතට හමුදා ආරක්ෂාව ඉල්ලනවා. ඔවුන් තමයි අපේ රණ විරුවෝ යුද අධිකරණයට ගෙනියන්න උත්සාහ කලේ. අද දෛවයේ සරදමක් විදියට උතුරු පළාත හා නැගෙනහිර පළාත ආරක්ෂා කළ හැක්කේ හමුදාවට පමණයි කියලා ඔවුන්ටත් විශ්වාස කරන්න සිද්ධ වෙලා. දැන්වත් මානව හිමිකම් කොමිෂමේ සම අනුග‍්‍රහය දැක්වූ යෝජනාවලින් ඉල්ලා අස්වෙන්න. මේ ත‍්‍රස්තවාදය වැලැක්වීම සදහා වහාම වැඩපිළීවෙලක් දියත් කරන්න කියලා අපි ඉල්ලා සිටිනවා.
පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්තී‍්‍ර කාංචන විජේසේකර මහතා
මේ විපත වූ අවස්ථාවේ සිට මේ දක්වා දේශපාලන නායකත්වයේ අඩුපාඩු මග හරිමින් අවශ්‍ය නායකත්වය දුන්නේ අගරදගුරු මැල්කම් කාදිනල් රංජිත් පියතුමන්. පොදුජන පෙරමුණ විදියටත්, ඒකාබද්ධ විපක්ෂයේ මන්තී‍්‍රවරුන් විදියටත් අපි අගරදතුරුතුමන්ට අපේ ගෞරවය දක්වනවා. තමන්ගේ ජිවිත ගැන නොහිතා මේ වෙනතුරු රාජ්‍යයේ ආරක්ෂාව වෙනුවෙන් කටයුතු කරන ආරක්ෂක අංශවලට, සෞඛ්‍ය අංශවලට වගේම ජනතාවට නිවැරදි තොරතුරු ලබා දුන්න මාධ්‍යයටත් අපේ ගෞරවය දක්වනවා. ආණ්ඩුවට නිවැරදි තොරතුරු ජනතාවට ලබා දෙන්න ඒකකයක් පත්කරන්න දින54ක් ගත වුනත් මාධ්‍ය මුල් අවස්ථාවේ සිට එය නිවැරදිව කළා.
අගරදගුරුතුමන් තමන්ට දුන්න වෙඩිනොවදින වාහනය ප‍්‍රතික්ෂේප කරමින් ජනතාවගේ ආරක්ෂාව තහවුරු කරන්න කිව්වා. සමස්ත ජනතාවගේ ආරක්ෂාව වෙනුවෙන් බුද්ධි අංශ තොරතුරු ජනතාවට නොදී දේශපාලන නායකත්වය වෙනුවෙන් ආරක්ෂාව ඉල්ලන අවස්ථාවක මෙවැනි ආගමික නායකයෙක් අපේ රටේ සිටීම ගැන අපි සතුටු වෙනවා. පහුගිය සති කිහිපයේ උන් වහන්සේගේ ප‍්‍රකාශ තුලින්ම රට පාලනය වූවා හැරෙන්න දේශපාලන නායකත්වය තුළින් රටේ සාමය පවත්වා ගැනීමක් සිදුවුනේ නැහැ.
පියල් නිශාන්ත මන්තී‍්‍රවරයාගේ සිද්ධිය සම්බන්ධයෙන් අපි කණගාටු වෙනවා. නිවැරදි තොරතුරුම පමණක් මුලාශ‍්‍ර කරගත යුතු බව අපි විශ්වාස කරනවා. නමුත් පහුගිය කාලයේ පොලිස් මාධ්‍ය ප‍්‍රකාශවරයාගේ ප‍්‍රකාශ අපි දැක්කා. ත‍්‍රස්තවාදින් කියලා වෙනත් රටවල පුද්ගලයින් ගේ ජායාරූප පවා නිකුත් වුනා. ඒ සම්බන්ධයෙනුත් පියල් නිශාන්ත මන්තී‍්‍රවරයාට මෙන්ම නීතීය කි‍්‍රයාත්මක විය යුතුයි.
මේ දින කිහිපයේ රජයේ පාර්ශවය නියෝජනය කරන අය මේ අවස්ථාවත්් මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ ආණ්ඩුවට ඇගිල්ල දිගු කරන්න උපයෝගි කර ගෙන තිබෙනවා. රටේ ජාතික ආරක්ෂාව සම්බන්ධයෙන් එජාපයේ පසුපෙල මන්තී‍්‍රවරුන්ගේ විරෝධය පලවෙද්දි ඔවුන්ට උපදෙස් ලැබී තිබෙන්නේ මාධ්‍ය ඉදිරියට ගිහින් මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ, ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂට හා විපක්ෂයට මේ සිද්ධිය බැර කරන්න පුලූවන් කියලයි. අවසාන දින දෙකේ සමාජ මාධ්‍ය දිහා බැලූවම නැවතත් මුස්ලිම් අන්තවාදී කණ්ඩායම්වල නිර්මාතෘ විදියට පෙන්වා දෙන්න උත්සාහ ගන්නේ ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ හා මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ දෙපල බව පේනවා. රාජිත සේනාරත්න 2015 මැතිවරණයට පෙර බොදුබල සේනාව අන්තවාදි කණ්ඩායමක්. එය මෙහෙයවන්නේ ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ, මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ ඇතුන්‍දා ආණ්ඩුවයි කියලා කිව්වා. මැතිවරණයෙන් පස්සේ ඒක මෙහෙයවන්නේ පාඨලී චම්පික කියලා කිව්වා. ආවා කල්ලය ප‍්‍රචණ්ඩ කි‍්‍රයා සිදුකරද්දි මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ ඇතුලූ ඒකාබද්ධ විපක්ෂයේ නායකයින්ගේ නිර්මාණයක් කිව්වා.
ජනාධිපතිවරණයට ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ මහතා තරග කරන්න සූදානම් කිව්ව අවස්ථාවේ මොවුන්ගේ සටන් පාඨය වුනේ ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂට සුලූ ජාතික ඡුන්ද නොලැබෙන බවයි. ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ මහතා තවදුරටත් ද්විත්ව පුරවැසියෙක් නෙවෙයි කිව්වටා පස්සේ දැන් මේ අන්තවාදි කණ්ඩායම්වල නිර්මාතෘ ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ මහතායි කියන්න උත්සාහ ගන්නවා. රටේ විපතක් සිදුවෙලා තියෙන අවස්ථාවක මිට වඩා වගකීමෙන් කටයුතු කරන ලෙස අපි රාජිත සේනාරත්න මහතාගෙන් ඉල්ලා සිටිනවා. පහුගිය කාලයේ බොරුවෙන් ගෙන ගිය ආන්ඩුව මේ විපතෙන් පස්සෙත් බොරුවෙන් ඉදිරියට ගෙනියන්න එපා.
රාජිත සේනාරත් මහතා සෞඛ්‍ය අමාත්‍යංශය ඇතුළට ගන්න පෙර නිලධාරීන් මැදිහත් වෙලා හෝ ඔහුගේ මානසික සෞඛ්‍ය තත්ත්වය සම්බන්ධයෙන් වාර්තා ගන්න කියලා අපි ඉල්ලා සිටිනවා. එතුමා කරන්නේ හොද මානසිකත්වයෙන් ඉන්න පුද්ගලයින්ට කරන්න පුලූවන් විදයේ ප‍්‍රකාශ නෙවෙයි. ජාත්‍යන්තර මාධ්‍යට රනිල් වික‍්‍රමසිංහ මහතා විවිධ ප‍්‍රකාශ නිකුත් කරනවා. අයි. එස්. අයි. එස් නායකයා වසර 5ට පසු කරපු ප‍්‍රකාශයට අනුව තුර්කියේ හා සිරියාවේ ඔවුන් ලබපු පරාජයන්ට ප‍්‍රතිප‍්‍රහාරයක් විදියට ලංකාවේ තෝරාගත් ඉලක්කයට කරපු ප‍්‍රහාරයක් කියලා කියන්න අගමැතිවරයා උත්සාහ කරනවා. රාජ්‍ය ආරක්ෂාවේ දුර්වලකම අයි. එස්. සංවිධානය ප‍්‍රයෝජනයට ගත්තා කියන දේ එයින් පැහැදිලියි. ඒ වගේම තුර්කිය සිරියාවට පස්සේ ඔවුන්ගේ ඉලක්කය ලංකාවද කියලා දෙවරක් හිතන්න සිද්ධ වෙනවා. අපි දිගින් දිගටම අනතුරු හැගවිම් කළා. බුද්ධි අංශවල මානසිකත්වය කඩා වැටීමේ ප‍්‍රතිඵලයි මේ දකින්න ලැබෙන්නේ. 21 වැනිදා සිට ආරක්ෂක අංශ දිනපති අත්අඩංගුවට ගැනීම් සිද්ධවෙන ආකාරයෙන් අපිට පේනවා. රටේ ආරක්ෂක අංශ ශක්තිමත් බව මේවායින් පැහැදිලියි. දැන්වත් ජාතික ආරක්ෂාව අනතුරේ දාන්න එපා. විදේශ ඔත්තු, තොරතුරු වගේම අපේ අංශවල තොරතුරු මගින් ප‍්‍රහාරයන් වළක්වා ගන්න අපේ හමුදාවන්ට හැකියාව තියෙනවා.
ඇමරිකානු තානාපතිනිය ලංකාවට අනතුර තවමත් තියෙන නිසා අවධානයෙන් ඉන්න කිව්වා. මේ තානාපතිනියම නැගෙනහිර පලාතේ යුධ පුහුනු කටයතු වලට සම්බන්ධ වෙනාව. ඇමරිකානු යුද අභ්‍යාස සිද්ධවුනා. මාස තුනකට කලින් නාවික හමුදාව ශක්තිමත් කරන්න කියලා තානාපති කාර්යාලය හරහා ඩොලර් මිලියන 38ක ප‍්‍රධානයක් දුන්නා. ඒ වගේම මහා බි‍්‍රතාන්‍යට අයත් දුපතක් තියෙනවා දියොගොගාසියාව කියලා. පළවෙනි , දෙවැනි ලෝක යුද්ධය වගේම මැද පෙරදිග යුද තත්ත්වයන් සිරියාව, වගේ රටවල තත්ත්වයන්ටත් ඉන්දියානු සාගරයේ කේන්ද්‍රස්තානය බවට පත්වුනේ මේ ¥පතයි. මේක ඇමරිකාව බදු ක‍්‍රමයට අරන් තිබුණු ¥පතක්. මිට සති කිහිපයකට පෙර හේග් ජාත්‍යන්තර අධිකරණය මේ ඇමරිකාව මේ ¥පතේ පරිපාලනය නිති විරෝධීයි කියන තීන්දුව දුන්නා. ඒ සමග ඇමරිකානු හමුදාව ඉන්නේ අනතුරක. ඉන්දියන් සාගරයේ ඔවුන්ගේ මූලස්ථානය නැති වෙමින් පවතිනවා. මේ මොහොතෙත් ඇමරිකාව ඉන්දියන් සාගරයේ මූලස්ථානය බවට ලංකාව පත්කර ගැනීමේ උත්සාහයක් තියෙන්න පුලූවන්. මේ නිසා ලංකාව ලෝක බලවතුන්ගේ යුධ පිටියක් කරන්න අවස්ථාව දෙන්න එපා කියලා අපි ආණ්ඩුවෙන් ඉල්ලා සිටිනවා.
2013 දිණමිණ පුවත්පතේ තියෙනවා නිති රිති කඩපු විදේශිකයින් 3000ක් රටෙන් පිටුවහල් කරපු බව කියනවා. මේ ආගමන බුද්ධි නිර්ක්ෂණ ඒකකය 2010 ආරම්භ කරලා විවිධ ජාවාරම් වලට සම්බන්ධ ත‍්‍රස්තවාදය වරපුරන පිරිස් ඉන්න බව හදුනා ගෙන 3000ට අධීක පිරිසක් මෙරටින් පිටුවහල් කළා. එයින් 161 අන්තවාදී ඉගැන්විම් කරන පූජකවරු. ඒ බුද්ධි අංශය අද කි‍්‍රයාත්මක වෙනවාද දන්නේ නැහැ. චම්පික රණවක ඇමැතිවරයා කියනවා 300ට ආසන්න විදේශයින් ත‍්‍රස්තවාදය, අන්තවාදය වපුරන ගැන්විම් කරන අය සිටින බව, විජේදාස රාජපක්ෂ මහතා කියනවා අයි. එස් අයි. එස් සම්බන්ධකම් තියෙන අය ගැන කියනවා. වසන්ත සේනානායක රජය දැනුවත් කළාලූ තුර්කි ත‍්‍රස්තයින් මෙරට සිටින බවට. නිති විරෝධීව මෙරට රැුදී සිටින විදේශියකයින් පිළිබදව ගණනය කිරීමක් මෙතෙක් සිද්ධ වුනාද කියලා අපිට සැකයක් තියෙනවා. ආන්ඩුවේ හිටපු දෙන්නෙක්ට ආන්ඩුවට එරෙහිව කරුණු දක්වන්න කොන්ද පණ තිබුණ හතක ගැන අපි සතුටුයි. විජේදාස රාජපක්ෂ මහතාටත්, වසන්ත සේනානයක මහතාටත් මේනිසා අවසානයේ තනතුරු අහිමි වුනා. අනතුරු හගවන එවැනි පුද්ගලයින්ට වෙන දේ අපි බලන් ඉන්නවා. හිටපු හමුදාපති සරත් පොන්සේක් මහතා ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ මහතාට කරපු චෝදනාවලට ප‍්‍රතිචාර දක්වා තිබුණා.
එදා ආන්ඩු පෙරලිය වෙලාවේ සිංදු කියමින් බූරුවා ගසමින් හිටපු අජිත් පෙරේරා, හරීන් ප‍්‍රනාන්දුලාත් අද ජවිපේ වගේම නිහඩයි. ජවිපේ වගේම නියෝජ්‍ය නායක සජිත් පේ‍්‍රමදාස නිහඩයි. මේ ව්‍යවසන වුනාට පස්සේ ජවිපේ නායකයාට මෙරටට එන්න දින 6ක් ගත වුනා. රාජ්‍ය නායකයාට පැය 12ක් ගතවුනා. මුජිබර් රහිමාන්ගේ හිතවත් කොළඹ නාගරික මන්තී‍්‍රවරයෙක් කඩු කිනිසි එක්ක හසුවුනා. ආන්ඩුවේ මන්සූර් මන්තී‍්‍රගේ රියදුරා අවි ආයුධ එක්ක අසුවුනා. ජවිපේ ජාතික ලයිස්තු පුද්ගලයෙක්ගේ පවුල කෙලින්ම ප‍්‍රහාරය සම්බන්ධ වුනා. බැරිවෙලාවත් බැසිල් රාජපක්ෂ මහතාගේ මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතාගේ හිතවතෙක් මෙතැන හිටියානම් මොකද වෙන්නේ. ඉදිරියේ පැවැත්වීමට නියමිත ජනාධිපතිවරණය නොපවත්වා ඉන්න කුමන්ත‍්‍රණ දියත් වෙනවා. කුමන්ත‍්‍රණ කරලා බලයේ සිටින්න හෝ ඡුන්ද කල්දාන්න සුදානම් වෙන්න එපා. අපි ඒ වෙනුවෙන් පෙනී සිටිනවා.
නිපුණතා සංවර්ධන ඇමැතිවරයා විදියට ඩලස් අලහප්පෙරුම මන්තී‍්‍රවරයා මඩකලපු ශරියා විශ්ව විද්‍යාලය අනුමැතිය දුන්න බව සමාජ මාධ්‍ය ඔස්සේ ප‍්‍රචාරය කරනවා. 2012 වසරේ ආන්ඩුව අධ්‍යාපනය වෙනුවෙන් ප‍්‍රතිපත්ති තින්දුවක් ගනිමින් විෂය ධෘරාවට තාක්ෂණ විෂය ඇතුලූ කරනවා. තාක්ෂණ විෂය උසස් පෙලට එකතු විමත් සමග යුනිවසිටි කොලේජ් 25ක් මේ රටේ ඇති කරන්න තීරණයක් ගන්නවා. යුනෝ ටෙක් විදියටයි මේ තීන්දුව ගන්නේ. රාජ්‍ය මැදිහත්වීමෙන් විශ්ව විද්‍යාල 20ක් හා රාජ්‍ය හා පෞද්ගලික ඒකාබද්ධ වි තවත් විශ්ව විදයාල 5කුත් ඇති කරන්න තිරණය වෙනවා. ඒ අනුව රාජ්‍ය පෞද්ගලික ඒකාබද්ධ එකගතා ගිවිසුම් තුනක් ඇති කරනවා. පළමුවැන්න ශී‍්‍ර ජයවර්ධන පුර රෝහල එක්කත්, දෙවැන්න ශී‍්‍ර ලංකා ඉංජිනේරු ආයතනයත් සමගත්, තුන්වැන්න හිරා ආයතනයත් එක්කත් මේ ගිවිසුම් හැදෙනවා. එදා පාඨමාලා තුනකටයි අනැමැතිය හිමි වෙන්නේ. එදා අනුමැතිය ලබාදෙනයඅනෝ ටෙක් ආයතනය අද දවසේ බිහිවෙන භූමියට නෙවෙයි දුන්නේ. කාත්තන්කුඩිවල තියෙන වෙනත් එකකටයි අනුමැතිය දුන්නේ. හයිරා පදනම කියන මේ කටයුත්ත පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට ඉදිරිපත් වෙන්නේ 2015 දෙසැම්බර් මාසයේ. ඒ නිසා මේකට මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ හෝ ඩලස් අලහප්පෙරුම මහත්වරු පහසුකම් දීලා නැහැ. මේ ආන්ඩුවේ එවැනි අනුමැතියක් ලබා දුන්න කණ්ඩායම් කවුද කියලා සෙවීමේ වගකීමක් ආණ්ඩුවට තියෙනවා.
මාධ්‍ය – මේ වෙද්දි ජනතාවට බියෙන් සැකයෙන් තොරව ජිවත්වෙන්න වාතාවරණයක් නිර්මාණය වෙලා නැහැ නේද?
සෙහාන් සේමසිංහ – රටේ ජාතික ආරක්ෂවා සම්බන්ධයෙන් ප‍්‍රමුඛතාවයක් දීපු නිසා පසුගිය ආන්ඩුව සමයේ මෙවැනි සිද්ධියක් වුනේ නැහැ. සංහිදියාව පිළිබද කාර්යාලය තමයි අපේ රටේ ජාතික ආරක්ෂාව පැත්තකට දාලා සංහිිදියාව කියන දේ තුල කටයුතු කරලා මේ අවාසනාවන්ත සිද්ධියට රට ගොදුරු කලේ. මේ සංහිදායව පිළීබද කාර්යාලයට ලැබුණු මුදල් හා ඒ මුදල්වලට වුනු දේ දැන ගැනීමට අවශ්‍යයි. ඩොලර් මිලියන 480ක් මේ ප‍්‍රහාරය නිසා රටට ලැබෙන බව මංගල සමරවිර මුදල් ඇමැතිවරයා සතුටෙන් කිව්වා. මේ මුදලට රට පාවාදුන්නද? අගමැතිතුමන් මෙම්රටේ කි‍්‍රස්තියානු භක්තිකයාට හිංදු ජාතිකයාට බෞද්ධයාට ආගමික ස්ථානවලට යන්න හැකියාවක් නැහැ. පළමුව රටේ ආරක්ෂාව තහවුරු කරන්න. මේ ව්‍යසනය වෙලා ෂතියක් ගිහිල්ලත් පරික්ෂණ කරන්න ප‍්‍රමාණවත් නිලධාරීන් අපරාධ පරික්ෂණ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ නැහැ. ඒකාබද්ධ විපක්ෂය විදියට ති‍්‍රවිද හමුදා හා පොලිසිය කරන සියලූ කටයුතු වෙනුවෙන් අපි පෙනී සිටින බව කියනවා. මේ ආණ්ඩුව ඇතුලේ ඉන්න ය කලේ රණවිරුවන් බාල්දු කිරීමයි. ඒ නිසා අපි ඔවුන් වෙනුවෙන් පෙනී සිටිනවා. අගමැතිතුමාට නැවතත් කියන්නේ රටේ අගාමික නිදහස ස්ථාපිත කරන ලෙසයි.
මාධ්‍ය – ජනාතවගේ ආරක්ෂාව නැති වුනත් පාර්ලිමේන්තුව ආරක්ෂා කරලාතියෙනවා.
සෙහාන් සේමසිංහ – අද දේශපාලනඥයින් ගැන තියෙන්නේ කළකිරිමක්. සිමිත දේශපාලනඥයින් පිරිසක් බලය රැුක ගන්න නොකළ යුතු දේක රලා තියෙනවා. ව්‍යසනය වෙලා සතියක් යන තැක අගරදගුරුතුමන් ඉල්ලා සිටින්නේ ජනතාවගේ ආරක්ෂාව තහවුරු කරන්නයි කියලා. රජය අන්තවාදින් ජයස්පෙර්රාව සමග කටයුතුකළා මිස ජාතික ආරක්ෂාව ගැන හිතුවේ නැහැ
මාධ්‍ය – පාසල් ඇරඹෙන්න නියමිතයි නේද
සෙහාන් සේමසිංහ – දෙමව්පියන්ඉන්නේ අවිනිශ්චිත තත්ත්වයක. පාසලට යන දරුවා නිරුපදි‍්‍රතිව නිවසට එයි කියන විශ්වාසය දෙමව්පියන්ට නැහැ. 6 වැනිදා පාසල් ඇරඹෙන්න පෙර දරුවන්ගේ ආරක්ෂාව සුරක්ෂිත කළ යුතුයි. 6 වැනිදා පාසල් අරින්න සුදුසු තත්ත්වයක් රටේ තියනවා කියලා දෙමව්පියන් තුළ විශ්වාසයක් නැහැ. රජය වගකිම ති‍්‍රවිද හමුදාවට භාරදීලා පැත්තකට වුනොත් හරි. සිවිල් ආරක්ෂක කමිටු කිට්ටුවෙන් රාජ්‍ය අංශ එක්ක කටයුතු කළා. මේ ආන්ඩුව බලයට ඇවිත් සිවිල් ආරක්ෂක කමිටු අකී‍්‍රය කළා. ස්වේජාවෙන් රටට ලබා දුන්න ආරක්ෂාව නොසලකා හැරියා. මෙ ්සිද්ධියෙන් අපි කිසිද් දේශපාලන වාසි ගන්න උත්සාහ නොකළාටඅ ාණ්ඩුවත් ආන්ඩජුවට උදව් කරන පාර්ශවයත් දේශපාලන වාසි ගන්න උත්සාහ කරන බව පේනවා.
මාධ්‍ය – නිතිය සාමය අමාත්‍යංශය සරත් පොන්සේකා මහතාට දෙන්න කියලා ඉල්ලිමක් තියෙනවා.
සෙහාන් සේමසිංහ – සරත් පොන්සේකා මහතාගේ දේශපාලන මතයකුමක් වුවත් ජාතික ආරක්ෂාව සම්බන්ධයෙන් එතුමා දරන්නෙ අපේ දේශපාලන මතයමයි. රජය දිගින් දිගටම ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ මහතා ඉලක්ක කරගෙන අසථ්‍ය ප‍්‍රචාරයක්අරන් ගියා. ත‍්‍රස්තවාදය පරාජය කරන්න දේශපාලන නායකත්වය ලැබුනේ කොහොමද කියන දේ සරත් පොන්සේකා මහතා ප‍්‍රකාශ කරනවා.මේක රජයේ අභ්‍යන්තර ප5ශ්නයක්.ත‍්‍රස්තවාදය මුලිනුපුටා දැමීමට අපේ සහාය උපරිමෙයන් ලබා දෙනාවා.

ශී‍්‍ර ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණ මාධ්‍ය හමුව

අද (02 දින පැවැති මාධ්‍ය හමුවට සහභාගි වූ නියෝජිතයින්
x ශී‍්‍ර ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණ නීතිඥ සංගමයේ ප‍්‍රධාන ලේකම් අතුල ද සිල්වා මහතා
x නීතීඥ රවීන්ද්‍ර ජයසිංහ මහතා
x නීතීඥ පියුම් පෙරේරා පෙරේරා
x ශී‍්‍ර ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණ නීතීඥ සංගමයේ නියෝජ්‍ය ලේකම් සාගලා අබේවික‍්‍රම මහතා

ශී‍්‍ර ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණ නීතිඥ සංගමයේ ප‍්‍රධාන ලේකම් අතුල ද සිල්වා මහතා
ත‍්‍රස්ත ප‍්‍රාහරයෙන් පස්සේ අගරදගුරුතුමා ජාතායට දුන්න නායකත්වය අපි අගය කරනවා. මේ සම්බන්ධයෙන් කෙරෙන පරික්ෂඛ සම්බන්ධයෙන් සෑහීමකට පත්වෙන්න බැරි බව කාදිනල්තුමා සදහන් කර තිබෙනවා. අගමැතිවරයා ලංකාවේ පිරිස් අයි. එස්. අයි. එස්. ත‍්‍රස්තවාදින් සමග කි‍්‍රයාකරන බව දැන හිටියත් ඔවුන්ට එරෙහිව කටයුතු කරන්න රටේ නිතිය ප‍්‍රමාණවත් නැති නිසා ත‍්‍රස්තවාදය තුරන් කරන්න ප‍්‍රතිත‍්‍රස්ත පනත සම්මත කරලා දෙන්නයි රටේ අගමැතිවරයා සදහන් කර තිබෙනවා. මෙය සම්පුර්ණයෙන්ම අසත්‍යයක්.
ත‍්‍රස්තවාදය වැලැක්වීමේ පනතේ පළවෙනි වගන්තිය නීතීඥවරයෙක් වුනු අගමැතිවරයා කියවලා නැහැ. ශී‍්‍ර ලංකාවේ ත‍්‍රස්තවාදි කි‍්‍රයා වැළෑක්වීම සදහාද, ශී‍්‍ර ලංකාව තුළ හෝ ශී‍්‍ර ලංකාවෙන් පිටත යම් පුද්ගලයෙක්, පුද්ගලික කණ්ඩායමක, සමිතියක, සංවිධානයක හෝ සමිතියක නැතහොත් පුද්ගලික මණ්ඩලයක නීතිවිරෝධී කි‍්‍රයාවැළැක්වීම සදහාද ආනුෂංගික වූ කරුණු සදහාද තාවකාලික විදිවාධාන සැළැස්වීම සදහා වු පනතකි. මේ පනතෙන් ශී‍්‍ර ලංකාව තුළ හෝ පිටත කිසියම් නිතිවිරෝධී කි‍්‍රයාවක් හෝ ත‍්‍රස්තවාදී කි‍්‍රයාවක් වැළැක්වීමේ ප‍්‍රතිපාදන සළස්වා තිබෙනවා.
ත‍්‍රස්තවාදය වැළැක්වීමේ පනත ප‍්‍රයෝජනයට ගෙන එයත් සමග නිතිය කි‍්‍රයාත්මක කිරීම මගිනුයි මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා තිස් වසරක යුද්ධයක් අවසන් කලේ. තමන්ගේ නොහැකිව වසා ගන්න කියන කාරණයකුයි මෙය. අගමැතිවරයා නොහැකියාව වසා ගන්න කරන ප‍්‍රකාශයක් නම් අපිට මේක විහිලූවකට අරන් බැහැර කරන්න පුලූවන්. ඔහු ඒක කියමින් කියන්නේ පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ ඇතුලේ පොල් ගාන්නේ නැතිව ප‍්‍රතිත‍්‍රස්ත පනත සම්මත කරන්නලූ. මේක ගේන්නේ ත‍්‍රස්තවාදය වැළෑක්වීමේ පනත ඉවත් කරලා ඒ වෙනුවට නව පනතක් විදියටයි. මේක දෙයාකාරයකින් රටට අහිතකරයි. මේ විධි විධාන දැනට තියෙන පනතට වඩා ලිහිල්. අරමුණ ත‍්‍රස්තවාදය වැළැක්වීම නම් ඒක තියෙන පනතෙන්් කරන්න පුලූවන්. නව පනත ගෙනත් 45 වෙනි වගන්තියෙන් අපරාධ විධිවිධාන සංග‍්‍රහයේ 115, 116, 120 වගන්ති අත් හිටුවනවා. 115 තියෙන්නේ පැය 24ක් ඇතුළත විමර්ශන අවසන් කළ නොහැකි නම් දින 15ක් බන්ධනාගාරගත කරලා ප‍්‍රශ්න කිරීමේ හැකියාව. ඒ වගන්තිය අත්හිටුවීම ත‍්‍රස්තවාදය වැළැක්වීමට ප‍්‍රයෝජනවත්ද,නැද්ද? විමර්ශනය සදහා බන්ධනාගාර නිලධාරීන් යටතේ පොලිස්නිලධාරීන්ට සැකකරුවන් විවිධ ස්ථානවලට ගෙනිහින් පරීක්ෂණ කිරීමේ හැකියාව තියෙනවා. ඒ වගන්තියත් අත් හිටුවනවා. මේ අත් හිටවීම මගින් පරීක්ෂණවලට වෙන්නේ බාධාවක්. විමර්ශන කටයුතු අවුරුදු 5යි 10යි අතර කාලයකට අත් හිටුවීමේ හැකියාවත් තියෙනවා. අත් හිටවලා මොහුව සමාජගත කරනවා. මේවායින් වෙන්නේ ත‍්‍රස්තවාදය වැඩි කිරීමයි. ත‍්‍රස්තවාදය ගැන කළකිරෙනවා වැනි ප‍්‍රකාශයක් මගින් නඩු කටයුතු අහෝසි කර ගැනීමේ හැකියාවත් තියෙනවා. මේවා ත‍්‍රස්තවාදය වැළැක්වීමට හේතු වෙනවාද.

රනිල් වික‍්‍රමසිංහ මහත්තයාට අවශ්‍ය වෙලා තියෙන්නේ ත‍්‍රස්තවාදය වැළැක්වීමටද? නැත්නම් ත‍්‍රස්වාදය වැඩිකිරිමටද? මේ වගේ පනතක් ගේන්නේ ඇයි. මෙයා ජාත්‍යන්තර කොන්ත‍්‍රාත්තුවක් ඉටු කරමින් සිටින්නේ. තමන්ගේ හිනවල ජනපි‍්‍රයත්වයත් එක්ක බලය පවත්වා ගැනීමට අවශ්‍ය කරුණු මේ පනතට ඇතුලූ කරලා තියෙනවා. රටේ වෘත්තිය සමිති ශිෂ්‍ය ව්‍යාපාර, වැනි දේට රාජ්‍ය මර්ධනයට ගොදුරු වෙන වගන්තිත් මෙහි තියෙනවා. ආන්ඩුවේ කි‍්‍රයාවක් වැළැක්වීම, ආන්ඩුවට යමම්කිසිවක් කරන්න පෙලඹීමත් මේ පනට අනුව ත‍්‍රස්තවාදී කි‍්‍රයාවක්. ෂරියා නිීතිය ඉගැන්වීමේ පනතක් ගෙනත් ඒකට කවුරු හරි විරුද්ධ වුනොත් ඔවුන් ත‍්‍රස්තවාදින් කියලා නම් කරන්න පුලූවන්. මැතිවරණය නොපැවැත්වීමට එරෙහි ජනතා අරගල ත‍්‍රස්තවාදය කියලා නම් කරන්න පුලූවන්. අත්‍යවශ්‍ය සේවාවය බරපතල හානි කිරිමත් ත‍්‍රස්තවාදි කි‍්‍රයාවක්. වෛද්‍යවරු වර්ජනයක් කලොත් ඔවුන් ත‍්‍රස්තවාදින් කියලා ඔවුන්ට එරෙහිව කටයුතු කරන්න ඉඩ තියෙනවා. මේක ත‍්‍රස්තවාදය වැළැක්වීමේ පනතක් කියනවා නම් මීට වඩා තියෙන පනත හොදයි. ත‍්‍රස්තවාදය නමින් ජනතාවගේ අයිතිවාසිකම් වෙනුවෙන් කෙරෙන වැඩපිළීවෙල වැළැක්විමයි මෙමගින් වෙන්නේ. මේකේ නිසි බලධාරියා විදියට නම් කරලා තියෙන්නේ නිතිය හා සාමය විෂය භාර ඇමැති. හැබැයි පනත ඉදිරිපත් කරන්නේ විදේශ කටයුතු ඇමැති. මේකේන්ම පේනවා අවශ්‍යතාවය මොකක්ද කියලා. මේ රනිල් වික‍්‍රමසිංහ මහත්තයා කරන්නේ බොරදියේ බාලූබෑමක්.

නීතීඥ රවීන්ද්‍ර ජයසිංහ මහතා
මැලිකම් රංජිත් කාදිනල් තුමන්ගේ භූමිකාව අපි අගය කරන්න ඕනේ. ව්‍යවසන වුනු තැන්වලට සංවේදීව ගමන් කළා. කිතුණු බැතිමතුන් ළගට ගිහින් උන් වහ්නසේ කි‍්‍රයාකළ ආකාරය පරමාර්ශීයි. ත‍්‍රස්තවාදයට ගොදුරු වුනු කටුවාපිටියට නුදුරින් මුස්ලිම් ජනතාව ජිවත් වන ප‍්‍රදේශයක් තියෙනවා. ආගමික සුහදතාවය සමග තත්ත්වය බරතපල විම වැලැක්වුවා. ආගමික නායකයින් සමගත් දේශපාලන නායකත්වය සමගත් සාකච්ඡුා කරලා අවශ්‍ය පියවර ගත්තා.පහුගිය දින කිහිපයේ රජය වෙඩි නොවදින වාහනයක් දුන්නත් අන් වහ්නසේ එය ප‍්‍රතික්ෂේප කරමින් මගේ ආරක්ෂාවට වඩා ජනතාවගේ ආරක්ෂාවයි වටින්නේ කිව්වා. කාදිනල්තුමා වචනයේ විදියට නෙවේ වගකිම් සහගතව නායකත්වය පෙන්නුම් කෙරුවා. රජයේ වගකිවයුත්තන් වගකිම භාර ගන්න සූදානම් නැහැ. ජේසුස්තුමා එදා අසාධාරණයට අයුක්තියට එරෙහිව පෙනි සිටියා. සාධාරණය හා යුක්තිය වෙනුවෙන් කිතුණුවන් පෙනි සිටින්නේ. එදා සමාජයේ හිටපෙු හෙරේත්ලා, පිලාත්ලා වැනි වගකිම භාරගන්න බැරි නායකයෝ ඉන්න සමාජයක කාදිනල්වරයාගේ හැසිරීම අපිට වැදගත්.
අපේ සමාජයේ ප‍්‍රගමනයට සාධනීය විදියට යොදා ගන්න පුලූවන් අදහස් කාදිනල්තුමා ලපහුගිය කාලයේ ප‍්‍රකාශ කළා. ත‍්‍රස්තවාදය මඩින්න නව පනතක් අවශ්‍ය නැති බවත් කාදිනල්තුමා කිව්වා. පවතින පනතින් ත‍්‍රස්තවාදය නැති කළ හැකි බවත් එතුමා කිව්වා. අවශ්‍ය නම් සංශෝධන ගෙනත් මේ ත‍්‍රස්තවාදය මඩින්න හැකියාව තියෙනවා. මේ ම්ලේච්ඡු ප‍්‍රහාරය වුනු මොහොතේම උන් වහන්සේ කිව්වා මේ පිටුපස විදේශීය හස්තයක් තිබිය හැකි බව කිව්වා. ත‍්‍රස්තවාදය මර්දනය මුවාවෙන් සමහර රටවල්වලට කරපු මැදිහත්වීම් නිසා වුනු දේ උන් වහන්සේ දුටුවා. වහාම මේ ත‍්‍රස්තවාදය මර්ධනයට විදේශ බලපෑම් වලින් ඉවත් වෙලා දේශීය ක‍්‍රම පිලිබද විශ්වාසය තැබිය යුතු බව අන් වහන්සේ කිව්වා. මෑත ඉතිහාසයේ දරුණුම ත‍්‍රස්තවාදය වුනේ, මරාගෙන මැරෙන සංකල්පය හදුන්වා දුන්න එල්. ටී.ටී. ඊ මර්දනය කළා නම් මේ ත‍්‍රස්තවාදය මර්ධනය කරන්න අපේ හමුදාවන්ට බැරි මොකද? සිරියාවට ලිබියාවට වුනු දේ අපි දැක්කා. උන් වහ්නසේ මේ සියලූ කාරණා පෙන්නා දුන්නා. බුද්ධි අංශයට ලැබුණූ තොරතුරු පමණක් ප‍්‍රමාණවත් නැහැ. ඒ තොරතුරු විමර්ශනය කළා නම් ඒ තොරතුරේ තියෙන දේවල් හොයා ගන්න බැහැ. මේ ත‍්‍රස්තවාදී ව්‍යවසනයේ තියෙන අක් මුල් සොයන්න අවශ්‍ය බව උන් වහන්සේ ප‍්‍රකාශ කළා. පවතින විමර්ශනයන් ගැන අන් වහන්සේ සෑහීමකට පත් වෙන්නේ නැහැ. යුද හමුදාව අත් අඩංගුවට ගැනීම් කළාට ප‍්‍රශ්න කිරීමේ හැකියාවක් නැහැ. අත් අඩංගුවට ගත්ත සමහර පුද්ගලියින් කෙටි කාලයක් තුල නිදහස් වෙනවා.
දේශපාලනපක්ෂ ආගම හා ජාතිය මත පදනම්ව නිර්මාණය වීම මේ විදියේ ව්‍යසනයන්ට හේතු වුනු බව අන් වහන්සේ සදහන් කළා. මිට වසර 10ට පෙර කිතුණු බැතිමතුන් පිරිසක් ඇවිත් කිතුණ්ුවන් නියෝජනය කරන දේශපාලන පක්ෂයක් බිහිකරන්න යෝජනා කළත් උන් වහන්සේ ඒ මොහොතේම ඔවුන්ට පිටව යන්න කිව්වා. අගරදගුරුතුමන්ගේ වගකීම, අදහස් නිසා මේ ව්‍යසනයෙන් අපේ රටට යහපත් මාර්ගයකට පැමිණීමේ හැකියාව උදා කළ බව අපි ගෞරවයෙන් සිහිපත් කරනවා.

ශී‍්‍ර ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුනේ ගම්පහ දිස්ති‍්‍රක් නීතීඥ සංවිධානය නියෝජනය කරමින් නීතීඥ පියුම් පෙරේරා පෙරේරා
අපිට පේනවා මේ රට අරාජික බව. කාදිනල්තුමා නොසිටින්නට රටේ තත්ත්වය නරක අතට පෙරලෙන්න ඉඩ තිබුණා. මේ රටේ මිනිස්සු මෙතරම් අරාජික වටපිටාවක හමුදාව හා පොලීසිය කෙරෙහි නෙත් අයාගෙන බලන් ඉන්නවා. මිට වසර 10ට පෙර හමුදාවන්ට නිවැරදි නායකත්වය ලැබීම තුළින් කෲර ත‍්‍රස්තවාදයක් අවසන් වුනු නිසා අපි තුළ රණවිරුවන් සම්බන්ධයෙන් බලාපොරොත්තුවක් තියෙනවා.
දැන් අපි 19 අඩුපාඩු ගැන කතා කරනවා. ඒ වගේම 15 වෙනි සංශෙෘ්ධනයත් අපි කතා කළ යුතුයි. ජේ. ආර්. ජයවර්ධන මහතා හදුන්වාදුන්න සමානුපාතික නියෝජන ක‍්‍රමයෙන් මන්තී‍්‍රවරයෙක් පත් වෙන්න 12.5%ක ඡුන්ද ප‍්‍රතිශතයක් ගත යුතුව තිබුණා. සජිත් පේ‍්‍රමදාස මහතාගේ පියා රණසිංහ පේ‍්‍රමදාස මහතා තමයි 15 වෙනි සංශෙෘ්ධනය ගෙනත් තමන්ට ජනාධිපති වෙන්න අෂ්රොප් මහතාගේ ඡුන්ද මිටිය වෙනුවෙන් ගෙනාවේ. මේවා මිනිස්සු කතා කළ යුතු මාතෘකා. රනිල් වික‍්‍රමසිංහ මහත්තයා ගෝලීය ත‍්‍රස්තවාදයක් ගැන කියනවා. ප‍්‍රති ත‍්‍රස්ත පනත ගේන්නෙම කොන්ත‍්‍රාත්තුවක්විදියටයි. නැත්නම් විදේශ කටයුතු ඇමැතිවරයා මෙම්පනත ගේන්නේ ඇයි. මේවගේ දේවල් වෙන්නේ අපේ රටේ විතරයි. රටේ මිනිස්සු කොන්ඬේ බැදපු චින්නු කියලයි මේ පාලකයෝ හිතන්නේ. එහෙම වෙන්නේ නැහැ. මිනිස්සු ඇස් අරගෙන ඉන්නේ.
මේ පින්තූරය රිවයින් කරද්දි මේ පිටපස විදේශිය අත පෙවීමක් තියෙන බව පේනවා. බැලූ බැල්මට අයි. එස් සංවිධානයේ අත පෙවීමක් මෙහි තියෙනවා. මේවිදේශ අත පෙවීම් කෙර’ම් වලට, ජාත්‍යන්තර කුමන්ත‍්‍රණවලට සෙල්ලම් පිට්ටනියක් බවට ලංකාවට පත් කරන්න මිනිස්සු කැමැති නැහැ. අපි දැක්කා මේ රටේ ත‍්‍රස්තවාදය වැලැක්වීමේ පනතෙන් වසර 30 යුද්ධය අවසන් කළා. අඩුපාඩුවක්තියෙනවා නම් සංශෙෘ්ධනයක් කරමු. නැතිව මැජික් පොල්ලක් වැනි පනතක් ගෙනා සැනින් ත‍්‍රස්තවාදයනැති වෙන්නේ නැහැ. එහෙම කියන්න හැකියාව තියෙන්නේ ත‍්‍රස්තවාය එන බව දැන දැනත් හිටපු අයට විතරයි. මේ ප‍්‍රති ත‍්‍රස්ත පනත සම්පූර්ණයෙන් හකුලා ගත යුතුයි. මෙහි තිරය පිටුපස ත‍්‍රස්තවාදයාටත් රණවිරුවාටත් එකම හැන්දෙන් බෙදීමක් සිද්ධ වෙනවා. ජිනීවාවලට ලංකාවේ නීතිය වෙනස් කරන්න දුන්න පොරොන්දුවයි මේ ඉෂ්ට කරන්න හදන්නේ.
සේපාල ඒකනායක සිද්ධිය වෙලාවේ අතීතයට බලාපන විදියට නිති හදලා සති තුනකින් දඩුවම් කලේ ජේ. ආර්. ජයවර්ධන මහතායා.මාතෘ භූමියට ආදරය නොකරන අයයෙ හිස් ප‍්‍රකාශ කරමින් සිටින්නේ. මේ සියල්ල පසෙක දමා බල දේශපාලන වෙනුවෙන් පෙනි සිටින්නේ ඒ වගේ අයයි. සේපාල ඒකකානායකට දඩිවම් දෙන්න මාමාට හැකිවුනා නම්බෑනට බැරිද. මේ විදේශ අත පෙවීම් අපේ විරෝධය දක්වනවා.

ශී‍්‍ර ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණ නීතීඥ සංගමයේ නියෝජ්‍ය ලේකම් සාගලා අබේවික‍්‍රම මහතා
ඵසුගිය පාස්කු ඉරිදා ප‍්‍රහාරයෙන් විපතට පත් පවුලිවලට සංවේගය පළ කරනවා. රටක් අරාජික වුනු අවස්ථාවක ආගමික නායකයෙක් විදියට මැදිහත් වෙමින් මග පෙන්වීමක් කරන අගරදගුරුතුමන් නොසිටින්නට අපි අසරණ වෙනවා. මවක් විසියට තිස් වසරක යුද්ධයෙන් බැට කමින් ගත කරපු කෙනෙක් විදියට අපි කාලයක් ගත කළා. ත‍්‍රස්තවාදයට වගේම එජාප භීෂණයටත් අපි ගොදුරු වුනා. නිල ලත් ඇදිරි නිතියට වගේම රතු සහෝදරයින්ගේ නිල නොලත් ඇදිරි නිතියටත් අපි මුහුණ දුන්නා. දරුවාගේ පාසලත් මුරකළා. ත‍්‍රස්තවාදය නිම වුනාම අපි සතුටු වුනා. අගමැතිකම අහිමි වුනු රනිල් වික‍්‍රමසිංහගේ මුහුණත් පාස්කු ප‍්‍රහාරයෙන් පස්සේ මුහුනේ තිබුණ ෂතුටත් අපි දැක්කා. මිනිස්සු මැරිලා තියෙද්දිත් මේ සිද්ධිය වෙස්වලාගත්ත ආශිර්වාදයක් කිව්වේ ප‍්‍රතිත‍්‍රස්ත පනත ඉදිරිපත් කරපු එවකට සිටි විදේශ ඇමැති වත්මන් මුදල්අමාත්‍ය ඇමැතිවරයායි. ලෝකයේ බිහිසුනුම ත‍්‍රස්තවාදය වළක්වන්න ත‍්‍රස්තවාදය වැලැක්වීමේ පනත ප‍්‍රමාණවත් වුනා නම් වෙනත් පනත් අවහ්‍ය නැහැ. අපි ගෙවල්වල ඇඩූ කදුලින් හිටපු කාලය නිමා වුනා. 2015 ජනවාරි 8 වැනිදා අරලිය ගහ මන්දිරයෙන් නික්මෙන මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා කිව්වේ මම ඔබතුමාට තිළින කරන්නේ සම්පූර්ණයෙන් නිවහල් රටක්. ඒ රට ආරක්ෂා කරන්න කියලයි. නමුත් ඒ අයට බැරිවුනා ගෙවුනු වසර හතරහමාරේ රට ආරක්ෂා කර ගන්න.
හරීන් ප‍්‍රනාන්දුගේ තාත්තාට වගේම අපිටත් දරුවෝ ඉන්නවා. අපිට හමුදාවන් විශ්වාස වුනාට ඔවුන්ට අණදෙන පුද්ගලයෝ විශ්වාස නැහැ. විනාඩි 15න් වගකිව යුතු ඇමැතිවරයාගේ සහෝදරයා, සහෝදරිය නිදහස් වෙනවා. ලේකම්වරයා නිදහස් වෙනවා. කාදනල්තුමා පාරට බැස්සේ අන් වහන්සේ පිටුපසින් සියලු ජනතාව එනවා. අපේ දරුවන්ට නිදහසේ පාසල් යන්න නිදහස අවශ්‍යයි. ස්වාමියාට නිදහසේ රැුකියාවට යන්න අවශ්‍යයි. රටේ ආරක්ෂාව එක්ක දියුණුව එක්ක පොල් ගෑවා ඇති දැන් ගෙදර යන්න රනිල් මහත්තයෝ.

Sunil Vijaya

Burqa, the most repulsive dress on this planet, should be banned in every country.

No saudi should be allowed to enter Sri Lanka.

And we must stop sending our women for slave labour in Saudi, the country the filthy Americans support, anything can happen.  The journalist murder is linked to ruler but filthy American ignores this as that will mess up the oil flow.   If there was no oil in Saudi there would not have been a presence of filthy American.

Why does the world comply with American demands to stop oil flow from Iran. Let the whole world go to war with filthy Americans!

Some women feminists say it’s the right of a woman to cover or hide her identity. But the world had changed. It is a right of other women too to know who is behind the covered face! A woman or a man. A terrorist or an innocent woman. We have a right to challenge this abominable irrelevant dress in Sri Lanka and world over except that stupid country run by a corrupt royal family saudi Arabia.

No one should impose their culture on others and that is not right either. Cover of head us fine but certainly not the face.

Colombon english speaking Catholics and Christians, the darlings of the West saw to that galaboda gnanasaara monk end up in jail.

They were harping on this issue. This monk brought up the issue at wilpattu and wahabis involvement. NIP AT THE bud.

But no one cared and he was incarcerated.

Oh what a relief! No wahaabis on Mount Lavinia beach or anywhere!

Here’s what should happen.

1.  We must lead the world on burqa ban and make it to the UN.
2. We must round up all wahaabis in sri lanka, including the ministers, and send them to Saudi.
3. All slaves who work for filthy smelly Saudis to be brought back and paid a subsistence by government to compensate their income.
4. Release Ven, galaboda gnaanasara immediately.
5. Round up all English speaking catholics and christians and send them to Britain or any

Other western country who is willing to accept their darlings, ON GOVERNMENT expense.

• Incarcerate indefinitely the wahaabis who have been rounded up.  We should never make the

Mistake we made with tigers at initial stages releasing them.

Sunil Vijaya

By Neville Ladduwahetty Courtesy The Island

The return of terrorism to Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday after the lapse of nearly a decade is a day of infamy in the history of Sri Lanka because of its scale and spread. The whole nation is trying to understand the motivations that drove a group of radicalized individuals to engage in such a dastardly attack. Just as much as such a group was motivated enough to vent their anger for whatever reason, there always will be other groups with other motivations to resort to similar acts in the future. Therefore, the lesson for Sri Lanka or any other nation is eternal vigilance.

Failure of vigilance does not mean failure of intelligence. Vigilance means not only effective intelligence, but also taking effective action on the intelligence information gathered. For the political and security establishments to say that they were unaware of the goings on in the Muslim community is unacceptable. Equally unacceptable is the claim of the moderate Muslim community that it was unaware of the developments within their community, as it was with the Tamil community and the activities of “their boys”. Therefore, collectively there was awareness all around that a process of Muslim radicalization was underway based on religious fundamentalism. What failed was how to act on the information that was common knowledge.

Even if they may not have been aware of the manner, scale and timing as to how the radicalization process was to manifest itself, the intelligence establishment was aware that the radicalization process would manifest itself in one form or the other, even if it did not know details as to how and when it was to manifest itself. The fact that no measures were adopted to meet any challenges arising from the information gathered is because of the over emphasis given by the government to reconciliation and related issues, at the expense of security related matters. Consequently, the security establishment failed to get the attention of the political establishment to heed their concerns; a fact that caused them to adopt a no-care attitude.

BALANCING CIVIL LIBERTIES WITH VIGILENCE

A hard fact that cannot be denied is that security was down-played at the expense of reconciliation, human rights, and civil liberties. This attitude was starkly evident with the government co-sponsoring the UNHRC Resolution 30/1 where the focus was reconciliation along with all the commitments contained therein. During the last four plus years the security forces that gave their full measure of devotion to eradicate terrorism were collectively held accountable for alleged violations without any credible evidence by a government that had ridiculed them during the conflict. They see the actions of this government as the work of an ungrateful nation for the sacrifices they made. These measures have bruised and shattered their morale thereby compromising the security of the nation. This government must be held accountable for adopting measures that has brought the Sri Lankan State to its current level of vulnerability.

Even the need to ban the full body cover for reasons of security is being opposed by sections of the government itself on grounds that it targets only the Muslim community, and therefore the need to keep them “informed”. On the other hand, it would have been a measure of solidarity if the Muslim leadership voluntarily appealed to their community to desist from wearing the full body cover for reasons of security. Even if the community responded positively to such an appeal, the fact is that those who wear the full body cover are members of radicalized groups that reject practices adopted by the rest of the community. Therefore, in this particular instance, security should override civil liberties and beliefs for the sanctity of the right to life of others. Hence, there is an imperative need to legislate banning the full body cover for reasons of security of the community as a whole.

At the end of the day there has to be a balance between security and civil liberties without which vigilance is compromised. For instance, freedom of speech and expression is a valued freedom. However, not all exercise such freedoms with responsibility. The result is hate speech. Although there are laws to prevent hate speech under provisions of ICCPR ACT No. 56 of 2007 of Sri Lanka, the question is whether there are laws to gather the evidence needed to prosecute anyone engaging in speech that violates the provisions in the Act cited above. If such laws are not in operation, the opportunity to deter hate speech is lost and without hate speech it would not be possible to radicalize young people to commit hate crimes, in the name of their warped intolerant beliefs.

INTELLIGENCE and VIGILANCE

One aspect of Intelligence is to know what is going on in a country. However, intelligence gathered has no meaning if there are no laws to act on the information gathered. Such laws could either prevent and contain unlawful activities or be of a nature that punishes anyone who commits an unlawful act. Since prevention of terrorists’ acts save lives, the strategy should be to prevent and deter terrorism rather than punishing those who resort to terrorist acts after the act is committed and hundreds die.

Those who resort to terrorism need to engage in the following activities:

Prospective suicide bombers and those who carry out terrorist acts have to be motivated by radicalizing them.

This requires radicalized leaders to engage in hate speech.

The collection and storing of material are needed to carry out terrorist acts.

Funding is needed to acquire such material.

Unrestricted travel both within and outside the country facilitates engaging in each or all of the four activities listed above.

Recognizing that each and all the activities listed above are needed prior to engaging in a terrorist act, the need of the hour is to revisit existing laws to ascertain whether they are effective enough to prosecute anyone engaging in any of the activities listed above instead of depending on laws that come into play only during an emergency. For instance, acts such as storing of offensive weapons and mutilating and defacing religious objects are offences under provisions of the Prevention of Terrorism Act. If so, the burning question the public is asking is: “Why did the authorities not take timely action to arrest and prosecute those responsible for such actions”? Had they done so and rule of law prevailed as it should, the government could have prevented the terrorists from executing their missions.

In this regard, since UN Security Council Resolution 1373 addresses most if not all the measures listed above, it is imperative that the government directs the law enforcement agencies to update existing laws to reflect the recommendations in the UN Resolution cited above.

Presented below is a section form the above Resolution calling on States to implement domestic laws in order to prevent and contain terrorism.

1. Decides that all States shall:

(a)Prevent and suppress the financing of terrorist acts;

(b)Criminalize the willful provision or collection, by any means, directly or indirectly, of funds by their nationals or in their territories with the intention that the funds should be used, or in the knowledge that they are to be used, in order to carryout terrorist acts;

(c)Freeze without delay funds and other financial assets or economic resources of persons who commit, or attempt to commit, terrorist acts or participate in or facilitate the commission of terrorist acts; of entities owned or controlled directly or indirectly by such persons; and of persons and entities acting on behalf of, or at the direction of such persons and entities, including funds derived or generated from property owned or controlled directly or indirectly by such persons and associated persons and entities;

(d)Prohibit their nationals or any persons and entities within their territories from making any funds, financial assets or economic resources or financial or other related services available, directly or indirectly, for the benefit of persons who commit or attempt to commit or facilitate or participate in the commission of terrorist acts, of entities owned or controlled, directly or indirectly, by such persons and of persons and entities acting on behalf of or at the direction of such persons;

2.Decides also that all States shall:

(a)Refrain from providing any form of support, active or passive, to entities or persons involved in terrorist acts, including by suppressing recruitment of members of terrorist groups and eliminating the supply of weapons to terrorists;

(b)Take the necessary steps to prevent the commission of terrorist acts, including by provision of early warning to other States by exchange of information;

(c)Deny safe haven to those who finance, plan, support, or commit terrorist acts, or provide safe havens;

(d)Prevent those who finance, plan, facilitate or commit terrorist acts from using their respective territories for those purposes against other States or their citizens;

(e)Ensure that any person who participates in the financing, planning, preparation or perpetration of terrorist acts or in supporting terrorist acts is brought to justice and ensure that, in addition to any other measures against them, such terrorist acts are established as serious criminal offences in domestic laws and regulations and that the punishment duly reflects the seriousness of such terrorist acts;

(f)Afford one another the greatest measure of assistance in connection with criminal investigations or criminal proceedings relating to the financing or support of terrorist acts, including assistance in obtaining evidence in their possession necessary for the proceedings;

(g)Prevent the movement of terrorists or terrorist groups by effective border controls and controls on issuance of identity papers and travel documents, and through measures for preventing counterfeiting, forgery or fraudulent use of identity papers and travel documents.

These recommendations have been in existence since 2001. Had successive governments upgraded domestic laws in keeping with Resolution 1373 many lives would have been saved. In particular, it would have been a serious impediment to those who funded and provided material support to those resorting to terrorism, without which the whole project would have failed. Such support continues to be received by the Tamil and Muslim communities. Therefore, it is a combination of effective intelligence backed up by effective laws that make a nation sufficiently vigilant for it to be safe and free of threats to its security.

CONCLUSIONS

Although strategies exist to improve the security situation in the country by preventing and containing terrorism, the mood in the country is that this government is not going to adopt the needed measures to make the country safe for its citizens as it had been over the last decade. Whether the reason for such a mood is because of the apathy of the government or because the government is allowing the security situation to deteriorate intentionally for reasons of internal harmony, means the government has lost its right to govern because security that protects the right to life has to prevail over all other considerations. There is also speculation that security is being deliberately sacrificed as part of a greater geostrategic plan to justify intervention in the event security spirals out of the control of the government. The fact that the government has not prosecuted anyone guilty of storing weapons, supports such apprehensions.

There is no denying that the government as a policy has relaxed measures relating to the rule of law. This has resulted in lifting restrictions on travel. Another activity relates to uncontrolled flow of funding to entities, without question as to sources of origin and purpose. Both measures are exploited by terrorists. While a free and open society is what all aspire to, it must be acknowledged that such benefits come at a price, and that price is that all have to trim some of our liberties because a few abuse the freedoms under which they live. Therefore, there has to be a judicious balance between security and civil liberties and if one has to make a choice, security should override civil liberties. The exercise of such balance requires societies to adopt measures that promote vigilance, without which there cannot be the freedoms we cherish.

An article written in July 2013

The Minister of Education announced recently that the Ministry would do away with ethnic-based schools given its own principled” stand we would next like to know how using the same logic of not allowing ethnic” based learning, the education authorities have signed an MOU to establish the Malik Abdulla University College in Kattankudy, in Eastern Province.

When the announcement was given by the Ministry of Education that they would remove ethnic-based” schools the first thoughts of everyone was whether leading schools that have been in existence for years, Government or Semi-Government would agree to changing their names. Ministers have a way of drawing public attention by announcements that provide no logic just as absurd as some came out with the need to change the national anthem and the national flag and now it appears someone has landed a lucrative deal to change the national ID card to include Tamil as well.

Obviously, objections would have been made with former schools, children, parents or past-pupils NOT wanting to change the name of their alma-mater that the Ministry quickly reversed its stand and declared No NEW schools would be ethnic-based”. What do authorities propose to do about the rising number of Muslim Only and Tamil Only international schools, day care centers springing up in every corner while there are no Sinhala Only universities? Does this fall within the oft quoted multi” label?

So if the Ministry has decided to not allow no NEW ethnic-based schools what explanation can be given to allowing a MUSLIM ONLY university college?

The University College is to be funded by Saudi Arabia which is known for funding institutes that radicalize youth and draws them towards Saudi brand of Islam and Sharia law.

The newspaper announcements claim that the University was requested by Deputy Minister Hisbullah and is established as part of the Mahinda Chintanaya which clearly goes to show how authorities have a way of manipulating the system because no where in the Chintanaya does it say to create ETHNIC-based private colleges unless another Chintanaya is being practiced. But the college itself is earmarked to be inaugurated by the President himself. The announcements last line that it would cater to the needs of all three communities” is obviously a whitewash.

The argument against the establishment of an ethnic-based university has nothing to do with being against learning but everything to do with the principle that if authorities are attempting to integrate the youth and not segregate them why are they establishing places of learning that is imparting a brand of education that distances them from other communities?

Students coming out of such universities end up mentally and physically alienating themselves out of choice (in view of their new Arabic attire and thinking) and disassociating themselves from those in their age group – this affects the team spirit, the ability to work as teams even when they join employment. Is this a healthy environment we wish to create?

Moreover, we cannot ignore the rise in Saudi-funded Islamic radicalism to be naïve that while this may exist elsewhere it is unlikely to create similar catastrophe’s here in Sri Lanka too.

Recently wikileaks released US Embassy in Colombo cable identifying 4 such groups based in Sri Lanka – Jamthi Islam, Thauhid Jamath, Thableeq Jamath, and Jamathi Muslim. The cable was written by Ambassador Lunstead on 9 June, 2004. The cable also details training camps, while other youth are sent to Saudi and says that a Saudi-based NGO World Assembly of Muslim Youth fund these activities. The Ambassador cites that the Muslim youth initially started training to defend themselves against the LTTE. The cable also mentions the Muslim Congress being supported by the Islamic Unity Foundation which has military, intelligence, religious and political wings as well as weapons. Other groups mentioned in the cable include Knox group, Ossama group, Jetty group, Mujahadeen, Banda group all with Muslim Congress backing. Links to the underworld is also mentioned. Ambassador Lunstead also notes very little insight into the veiled world of Muslim militancy in eastern Sri Lanka and the information provided is just one part of a vast puzzle that makes up the cultural/political/religious melting pot of Sri Lanka.” This clearly shows that we need to be alert to all Saudi-funded seats of learning because the outcome of these in other parts of the world have resulted in fatal consequences and have torn entire nations apart. The question is – do we want to invite the same in Sri Lanka when we have just come out of a 30 year chaos?

The argument is further strengthened by the fact that ALREADY there are 5 types of institutes offering Arabic in Sri Lanka – the GOSL conducts 2 types of examinations, there are the Madrasas (religious based schools) which offer 8 years Sharia courses, then 4 Government universities which offer degree level courses and the Jamia Naleemia in Beruwela which is also a private university. There is a rising number of children as young as 7 attending these madrasas instead of schools which raises the question of Sri Lanka’s international commitment that ALL Children must attend schools – not religious based schools.

However, Arabic language courses selected by undergraduate students raises more questions than answers – normally in marketing the demand creates the supply – from what is happening is that the supply is been geared to create the demand.

For the 1.8million Muslims of Sri Lanka the number of already existing religious and educational establishments suffices to say the least. Authorities now need to work out a moratorium so that the demography of the country is kept intact and the peace dividends that 27,000 soldiers sacrificed their lives for is not eliminated by the shortsighted decisions taken by officials and public servants.

Shenali D Waduge

By Shamindra Ferdinando Courtesy The Island

Recent revelation that those responsible for the Easter Sunday carnage (April 21) had killed two police constables in the early hours of Nov 30, 2018 at Vavnativu in the East has exposed a serious intelligence lapses.

Authoritative sources told The Island that law enforcement authorities and the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI) seemed to have been clueless as regards the alleged involvement of Muslim extremists in the Vavnativu killings, which they believed was an act of a group of resurgent Tigers.

Then IGP Pujith Jayasundera directed the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to probe the double killings.

The killing of a Sinhala police constable from the South and a Tamil from the East were conveniently blamed on former members of the LTTE, sources pointed out. Several ex-LTTE cadres were detained in connection with the Vavnativu killings under the Prevention of Terrorist Act (PTA).The police attributed the killings to the police thwarting ex-LTTE cadres’ efforts to mark their heroes’ week.

The lapse on the part of the government intelligence apparatus came to light on April 28-exactly a week after massive coordinated suicide attacks killed over 250 civilians and injured more than 500 others when police headquarters revealed Muslims extremists’ involvement in Vavnativu killings. Police headquarters statement followed the interrogation of Mohamed Sharif Adam Lebbe alias Gaffoor (53), a close associate of the Easter Sunday bombing mastermind. Gaffoor led the police to side arms issued to the slain police constables buried at Wanathavilluwa widely believed to be the main base of their operations.

Senior law enforcement sources said that those ex-LTTE cadres detained under PTA over the twin cop slayings had to be released in the wake of Gaffoor’s statement and recovery of personal weapons issued to the two victim policemen from the Muslim extremists responsible for the Easter Sunday carnage.

The DMI made no reference to Muslim extremists’ involvement in Vavnativu killings when the outfit briefed the media on April 26 at the President’s House on the instructions of President Maithripala Sirisena. The same briefing had been made to several parties, including the National Security Council (NSC) since the April 21 bombings.

President Sirisena proscribed the National Thowheed Jamat (NTJ) and Jamathei Millathu Ibrahim (JMI) on April 29 in terms of the Emergency Regulations.

Other sources pointed out that though the DMI and the Office of the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) shouldn’t have been deprived of Indian warning, the former couldn’t under any circumstances absolve itself of the culpability for its failure to thwart the attack. Sources said that the entire intelligence apparatus owed an explanation as to why Vavnativu killings didn’t receive proper attention it deserved.

Well informed sources asserted that Zahran Hashim widely described as the mastermind of the Easter Sunday bombings had been a front. Two persons above him in the grouping had been taken into custody in terms of the PTA and were being interrogated, sources said, emphasizing Hashim was the face of NTJ whereas the actual leadership was in the hands of the two persons taken in. There could be others, sources said, adding Zahran’s leading role in the operation shouldn’t be misconstrued as he was the leader of the terror group.

Sources revealed that security authorities had been alerted to the impending attack by reliable sources even before the Indians warned. The abortive attempt to kill Mohammed Naslim, Co-ordinating Secretary to UNP Chairman and Minister Kabir Hashim on March 09 at Danagama in Mawanella, too, didn’t prompt required action, sources said, adding that the situation remained the same even after authorities established extremists blasting a scooty in a vacant land at Kattankudy belonging to Eastern Province Governor M.L.A.M. Hisbullah. This blast took place a week before the Easter Sunday massacre. President Maithripala Sirisena promoted National List MP Hisbullah from Parliament to the Office of EP Governor in early January this year to pave the way for Shantha Bandara to enter parliament. Hisbullah succeeded Rohitha Bogollagama, a former Foreign Minister.

Perhaps, the Parliamentary Sectoral Committee on national defence, too, should inquire into the intelligence failure, sources said. They said that it would be prudent to examine whether terrorists sought to exploit political crisis in the wake of Oct 2018 ‘constitutional coup’ by killing policemen in the East. Sources said that comprehensive investigation into Vavnativu killings would have exposed the group before the Easter Sunday massacre.

In spite of having a plethora of reports pertaining to the group’s activity those responsible seemed to have hesitated to go the whole hog, they said.

Brahma Chellaney Courtesy Livemint.com

The defeat of Islamic State in Syria and Iraq has only intensified the terrorism challenge .

The Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka rank among the deadliest terrorist attacks in modern history, and underscore the metastasizing scourge of Islamist violence in Asia. Radical Islamic groups have been quietly gaining influence in an arc of countries extending from the Maldivian to the Philippine archipelagos, and the threat they pose can no longer be ignored.

In fact, the grisly Sri Lankan bombings are a reminder that Asia—not West Asia—is the region most afflicted by terrorist violence. Home to the vast majority of the world’s Muslims, it is also host to multiple terrorist safe havens,” owing to the rise of grassroots radical movements and years of complacency on the part of policymakers.

With a total of 359 people dead, the Sri Lanka bombings were seven times deadlier than the 15 March massacre by a white supremacist at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. The death toll is also more than double that of the 2008 Mumbai attacks, which involved 10 Pakistan-based militants in one of the modern world’s longest-ever terrorist sieges.

By targeting international hotels and iconic churches, the Islamists behind the Sri Lankan blasts clearly intended to strike a blow against Sri Lanka’s fast-growing tourism industry, a mainstay of the country’s debt-ridden economy. The attacks also mark the dawn of Islamist terrorism in Sri Lanka. Though suicide bombings were not uncommon during the country’s 26-year civil war, Sri Lanka has not previously experienced coordinated violence on this scale or a major attack by Islamist militants.

The civil war ended in 2009, when the Sri Lanka Army brutally crushed the last of the Tamil separatist rebels. But that outcome sowed the seeds of religious conflict between the country’s mainly Buddhist Sinhalese and a Muslim minority that constitutes one-tenth of the population.

Sri Lanka’s Muslim population is largely concentrated in the Eastern Province, where Saudi and other Gulf funding has fuelled the rise of jihadist groups seeking to enforce sharia (Islamic law). The group suspected of carrying out the Easter bombings, the National Thowheed Jamath, thrived in this setting. Like the similarly named outfit Sri Lanka Thawheed Jama’ath and the rapidly growing Tamil Nadu Thoweed Jamath in southernmost India, its primary goal is to foment militant Islamic fundamentalism.

Though its extremist enclave in Syria and Iraq has crumbled and its leaders are on the run, the Islamic State (IS) has claimed responsibility for the bombings. Like Al Qaeda before it, IS wants to demonstrate its continued relevance by taking credit for attacks in areas where it has no presence. Most likely, the Sri Lanka attacks were not the direct work of IS. And yet they were inspired by the same toxic ideology espoused by IS: Wahhabi fanaticism.

Wahhabism, the austere, rigid version of Islam bankrolled by Saudi Arabia and other Gulf sheikhdoms, remains the driving force behind Islamist terrorism today. Its offspring include not just Al Qaeda and IS, but also the Taliban in Afghanistan, Lashkar-e-Taiba in Pakistan, Boko Haram in Nigeria, and al-Shabaab in Somalia. All of these groups are driven by a nihilistic rage born of hostility toward non-Sunnis and a rejection of modernity.

Unfortunately, as the Sri Lanka bombings and other attacks in Asia show, the defeat of IS in Syria and Iraq has only intensified the terrorism challenge, because battle-hardened fighters with the operational training to stage savage attacks are now returning home. The presence of such returnees in Sri Lanka explains how an obscure local group was able to carry out sophisticated, near-simultaneous strikes on three churches and three hotels, using military-grade explosives.

Returnees are present in many other Asian countries as well, from the Philippines and Indonesia to the Maldives and Uzbekistan. Like Osama bin Laden and other Al Qaeda leaders who cut their teeth in the US-backed war against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, this new generation of jihadist veterans could haunt the security of Asia, West Asia and the West for years to come.

To be sure, official discrimination against Muslims has contributed to Islamists’ growing influence, particularly in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, Thailand’s four southernmost provinces, and the southern Philippine island of Mindanao. But so have Saudi-funded madrasas (religious seminaries) and social-media platforms, which facilitate fundraising, recruitment, and dissemination of jihadist propaganda. Hence, jihadist violence has also come to threaten predominantly Muslim countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangladesh, and Kazakhstan. And in some cases—namely Pakistan—the state itself is abetting violent extremists.

If left unaddressed, this scourge could become the defining crisis of the century for Asian countries. To prevent that outcome, the fount of jihadist extremism—Wahhabi fanaticism—must be cut off. As the late Singaporean leader Lee Kuan Yew said, preventing terrorist attacks requires that we eliminate the queen bees” (the preachers of hatred and violence) who are inspiring the worker bees” (suicide bombers) to become martyrs. The global war on terror, launched by the United States after the attacks of 11 September 2001 is losing steam. Unless it is invigorated and prosecuted to the end, many more innocent lives will be lost.©2019/project syndicate

Brahma Chellaney is a professor of strategic studies at the New Delhi-based Centre for Policy Research

Yashu Gola Courtesy CCN.com

By CCN.com: Bitcoin played a role in staging the Easter Sunday suicide bombing in Sri Lanka that killed 253 civilians, according to Israeli blockchain intelligence firm Whitestream.

The agency revealed that the ISIS used Canada-based payment gateway CoinPayments to convert bitcoins to fiat money. The firm identified large scale transactions between the wallets that ISIS used to raise contributions and the bitcoin accounts held by CoinPayments.

Whitestream found that the balances in the payment company’s wallets surged from $500,000 to $4.5 million just one day before the Easter attacks. The firm added that the CoinPayments’ balances dropped back to $500,000 right after the deadly attacks took place. The payment company in question admitted that they had processed high-volume transactions. However, it denied having any knowledge about the money’s links with terrorist groups.

CoinPayments admits that their wallet was involved but denied that it is connected to ISIS,” Whitestream told Globes. It’s possible that the company is not aware of the usage of their wallets, perhaps because ISIS uses straw companies [to] transfer the money.”

THE ISIS-BITCOIN CONNECTION

Whitestream, founded by Itsik Levy and Uri Bornstein, confirmed that it was monitoring ISIS-linked bitcoin wallets from the past two years. The firm eventually maximized its focus on one bitcoin wallet that was receiving donations actively over different periods. It succeeded in verifying two transactions originated from the bitcoin wallet address listed on the ISIS fundraising website.

Levy said they were able to trace the transactions back to CoinPayments, indicating that the payment processing company knowingly/unknowingly was facilitating the ISIS funding campaign.

Our assumption is that the terrorist organization probably possesses many bitcoin addresses through CoinPayments, with every donation sent to a different address,” Levy told Globes. On the day before the Sri Lanka terror attacks, we identified two relatively big transactions at this address with bitcoins worth about $9,800.”

Whitestream in February had named CoinPayments for facilitating bitcoin-enabled donation campaigns for Hamas, a Palestine-based Sunni-Islamist fundamentalist group. Meanwhile, the firm believed that cryptocurrency-based payment and exchange companies were working in a largely unregulated environment. It was making it easier for terrorist organizations to exploit them for financing their attacks around the globe.

Courtesy ITV News

The terror threat still looms large in Sri Lanka and an attack on a church could take place this week, the country’s Catholic cardinal has warned.

Malcolm Ranjith has raised his concerns in a letter, sent to church officials, in which he claims to have received ”foreign information” that another strike is imminent.

The archbishop of Colombo has been an outspoken critic of the Sri Lankan government’s apparent failure to act on Indian government intelligence ahead of the Easter attack.

In his missive, which has been posted on social media, he states a church or another church institution is likely to be targeted.

He states that he has therefore made the decision for churches and Catholic schools throughout Sri Lanka to be closed and public congregations for Mass will be cancelled “until further notice”.

“For your own good, we have decided to close down those institutions,” he wrote.

More than 250 people were killed, including eight Britons and a further 300 injured during the Easter Sunday bloodshed in the country’s capital Colombo.

The terror bombings targeted three churches, packed with worshippers, and three upmarket hotels.

• Sri Lanka bans face coverings after bomb attacks and warns of terror threat from jihadis
• Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi appears in video for first time in five years
• Threat of ISIS has not disappeared, it has grown

Church spokesman Rev. Edmund Thilakaratne confirmed the authenticity of the letter to The Associated Press but declined to disclose further details, including the source of the foreign information.

An Islamic State-linked group of Sri Lankan nationals is believed to have carried out the co-ordinated suicide bombings.

With suspects still at large the Sri Lankan government introduced a ban on face veils this week designed, it was stated, to help police in their hunt.

A warning was also issued of jihadis in military uniform.

Last week, Muslims were told to stay home for Friday prayers and all of Sri Lanka’s Catholic churches were closed.

Instead of the usual Sunday Mass, Ranjith delivered a homily before clergy and national leaders at his residence that was broadcast on television.

Sri Lanka’s Muslim leaders, however, were encouraging Muslims to return to mosques for Friday prayers, according to N.M. Ameen, president of the Muslim Council of Sri Lanka.

Ameen said the security situation seemed to have improved, though the group had asked the government for additional protection.

Officials have warned that suspects linked to the bombings are still at large.

Intelligence warnings have indicated Sri Lankan government ministers could be targeted by the same group, which pledged its loyalty to Islamic State militants.

Sri Lankan police have released the names and photographs of nine alleged suicide bombers who carried out the Easter attacks, all belonging to an offshoot of a local group called National Towheed Jamaat.

They included extremist preacher Mohamed Zahran, also known as Zahran Hashim, who was described as the attack leader, and the wife of another suicide bomber, who blew herself up, along with her children and three police officers, at a villa belonging to her father-in-law, who is a prominent spice trader.

The bodies of 10 suspected militants killed in a gun battle with security forces and subsequent explosion at a safe house in Sri Lanka’s Eastern province last week were buried without any religious rites.

Police suspect that Zahran’s father and two brothers, Rilwan and Sheini, were among the 16 killed at the safe house, according to spokesman Ruwan Gunasekara.

Zahran’s wife and daughter sustained injuries from the blast, but their medical condition was not immediately clear.Last updated Thu 2 May 2019

news 1st

ada derana 

Adad Derana

Courtesy Adaderana

Three persons have been arrested at the Central Mail Exchange with 600 letters defamatory of the President and inciting enmity among races, the Police Spokesman SP Ruwan Gunasekara said.

The letters were reportedly addressed to various Buddhist temples across the country.

However, due to a suspicion with regard to the letters, the officials at the central mail exchange had taken steps to notify the police.

After being notified regarding the letters, the suspects were arrested by police at the Central Mail Exchange in Colombo, the spokesman said. 

The content of the letters in question are defamatory of President Maithripala Sirisena and also incite enmity among the population on the grounds of race and religion, police said.

Ada Derana reliably learns that the three arrested suspects are staff members of a powerful UNP Minister.

Courtesy Adaderana

Over 800 artillery shells have been discovered at a private factory manufacturing steel wires at Ekala, Ja-Ela.

The discovery was made during a search operation carried out based on information received by officers of the Negombo Division Crimes Unit.

Police officers also found over 100 empty shells of bullets used for T-56 assault rifles at the location.

Police are conducting further investigations.

Courtesy Adaderana

A report compiled by several former Sri Lankan security forces commanders, regarding the terrorist attacks of Easter Sunday and the current security situation of the country, has been presented to Opposition Leader Mahinda Rajapaksa.

The committee report was officially handed over to Rajapaksa at the Opposition Leader’s official residence today (02).

Rajapaksa expressed his immense gratitude to the former military commanders for volunteering to come forward at this time of need to fulfill this task for the people of the country, even though they have retired from the service.

Former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, MPs Dinesh Gunawardena, Wimal Weerawansa, Kumara Welgama, Rohitha Abeygunawardena and Dullas Alahapperuma were also present on the occasion.

Courtesy Adaderana

A foreign journalist, who was arrested for allegedly trying to forcibly enter a school in Katana, has been remanded until May 15 by the Negombo Magistrate’s Court.

Iraqi-born Siddiqui Ahamed Danish, a Reuters photographer based in India, was reportedly arrested at around 12.30 p.m. today (02), based on a complaint received by the 119 emergency hotline, when he allegedly forcibly entered the school.

He had reportedly arrived in the country from India in order to cover the aftermath of the Eastern Sunday suicide bombings in Sri Lanka.

The foreign journalist had arrived at the school in order to obtain information regarding one of its students, who was killed in the bombing at the St. Sebastian’s Church in Katuwapitiya on April 21, when several parents at the school had grown suspicious and called 911.

Acting on the information, Katana Police officers arrived at the school and arrested the journalist.

He was produced before the Negombo Magistrate’s Court today and ordered remanded until May 15.

Courtesy Adaderana

One of the individuals killed in the suicide bombings at a house in Sainthamaruthu has been identified as a bother of Zahran Hashim while the other two men appearing with him in a video have been identified as Mohamed Rilwan and Mohamd Seyni.

Police have recovered 4 suicide vests, 2 mobile phones, 2 ATM cards and several bank books from the Kattankudy residence of the persons identified as Rilwan.

Meanwhile four photographs of Rilwan’s children, national identity cards (NICs) and other items were discovered today during a joint operation by the Special Task Force (STF) and Police. 

Kattankudy Police OIC stated that Rilwan’s mother-in-law and father-in-law have also been taken into custody.

Mohamed Rilwan and his wife were both killed in the suicide blasts at a house used by terrorists in Sainthamaruthu, Ampara District. 

Meanwhile police have also arrested a woman who is said to be the sister of Zahran Hashim, the leader of the terror outfit National Thowheeth Jamath (NTJ).

The 25-year-old was taken into custody by Batticaloa HQ Police last evening at her residence on Alim Road, Kattankudy.

Police said that Rs 2 million in cash was found inside her home and that Batticaloa HQ Police and the Criminal Investigations Unit are conducting further investigations.

The other family members of Zahran are believed to have been killed in the blasts at Sainthamaruthu.

Courtesy Adaderana

There is no government-approved Sharia University or educational institute in Batticaloa district, stated UNP MP Prof. Ashu Marasinghe speaking at a press conference held yesterday (01).

On 3rd July in 2015, then Minister of Higher Education Sarath Amunugama had received a letter requesting permission to establish a higher education institute.

However, the permission hasn’t been granted for this particular institute as of yet, and that there are many issues regarding this, Marasinghe stated.

On 29th February 2016, the proposed institute had changed its name and they had presented Rs 3600 million worth foreign funds granted to establish this institute.

Claims that this has received approval of the University Grants Commission (UGC) and that it conducts educational courses are false, he further said.

Therefore there is no such thing as a Sharia University, he added.

Courtesy Adaderana

Nittambuwa Police had launched a search operation upon a tip-off received by the State Intelligence Service.

During the search operation, a person named Mohamed Imbran has been arrested in the Kahatowita area in Attanagalla.

The police had seized a drone camera, a remote controller, camera equipment, a laptop, and hard disks on the arrested.

The disks had contained videos of Zahran Hashim’s extremist lectures and several photos of terrorists, stated Ada Derana reporter.

Courtesy Adaderana

Two suspects were arrested along with 36 sets of white female clothes stuffed in a fertilizer sack and hidden inside a van.

It was reported that the van in question had set off to Anuradhapura from Thihariya.

The arrestees were two Muslims, aged 41 and 47 years, according to the reports.

Police investigations are being conducted to uncover if these sets of clothes bear similarities of any kind to the white female clothes recovered from Sainthamaruthu area.

Anuradhapura Police is probing the incident further.

Meanwhile, in a separate search operation, 14 walkie-talkies were and 8 CDs were recovered from a beauty parlour, while two suspects were also arrested in the raid.

The seizure was made by the Police Special Task Force last night (01).

The said beauty parlour is located on Borupana Road, Ratmalana.

 Author: Peter Koenig Courtesy  NEO  New Eastern Outlook

Sri Lanka, Easter Sunday, 21 April 2019: More than half a dozen bomb blasts shook the country killing from 250 to more than 350 people. Depending on who counts, the death toll varies. The devastation took place in in several catholic churches and luxury hotels. Other explosions, including from – what they say – are suicide bombers, have since killed another several dozens of people. Many are children, women – christen worshippers. Why the luxury hotels? Western (Christian) tourists?

Today, another explosion ripped through a suspicious building, killing 18, including children and women. Again, they, the ‘authorities’, say suicide bombers, who didn’t want their ‘cache’ to be discovered. Conveniently they are all dead – the suicide bombers”. Nobody can ask them any questions.

There was a lot of confusion, and still is, all through Sri Lanka. Nobody claimed credit for the massacres. There were rumors that Sri Lanka’s President received warnings ahead of the attacks from foreign intelligence, but ignored them. The President denies these allegations. And the explosions continue.

Finally, the verdict is in. The culprits are an Islamic terrorist group, associated with ISIS. What else is new.

Sri Lanka’s population is composed of about 70% Buddhists, 13% Hindus, almost 10% Muslims, mainly Sunni, the Salafi version, and about 7% Christians. The New York times reports that the accused mastermind of the terror attacks was strongly influenced by Wahhabism, the same extreme hardliners that control most of Saudi Arabia.

Hatred between religions seems on the rise. In New Zealand a few weeks ago a white supremacist assaulted a mosque, killing 50. This past weekend, a shooting in a Synagogue near San Diego, California killed a woman. The murderer said he was inspired by the New Zealand massacre. Are these spontaneous, interreligious mini-wars part of a foreign directed ‘divide to conquer’ effort, a strategy that has been used by empires for centuries, but seems to be alive and well with the current Washington based empire?

MintPress News reports that Sri Lanka Easter attacks are the handiwork of terrorists returning from fighting in Syria, practicing the Saudi-backed Wahhabi Salafist ideology,” adding, though not confirmed yet, they, [the attacks], are in keeping with the modus operandi of Saudi-sponsored Wahhabi terrorism worldwide. [The] Saudi sponsorship of Salafi Wahhabi dogma [is found] across the globe. From Boko Haram to ISIS, and from the Taliban to Al Qaeda, a common ideological thread runs through these terror groups. This is the Saudi-sponsored Wahhabi Salafi ideology whose South Asian counterpart is Deobandi.  For abbreviation purposes, it is becoming increasingly common to term this interconnected ideology as WSD (Wahhabi Salafi Deobandi).”

May we expect a wave of Saudi-sponsored WSD terrorism in the east too? – Is the horror Saudi government protected by the US, because it does its bidding? And this bidding leads to making gradually Islam extremism the justification for NATO bases around the globe? – Perhaps in Sri Lanka, tomorrow? So far Sri Lanka is clean from NATO. Sri Lanka has not even an association agreement with NATO.

Just look at the world-geostrategic location of Sri Lanka, linking the Arabian Sea with the Indian Ocean. Sri Lanka may also have a direct, open-sea connection with the small British island of Diego Garcia, in the Chagos Archipelago, north-east of Madagascar. Diego Garcia hosts the US’s largest Navy base outside the American Continent. Many of the drone killings in Yemen, Syria and other places in the Middle East originate from Diego Garcia. The civil war” in Syria was (and still is) largely directed from Diego Garcia, as well as from Djibouti.

Wouldn’t it be logical for NATO to set up base in Sri Lanka to control South East Asia? Saudi guided WSD attacks would create the necessary chaos justifying all the AngloZionist secret services – plus NATO – to descend on Colombo, to create further protests and anarchy – a never-ending internal strife, giving the war industry a new never-ending flow of profit, hence, further justifying the never-ending war on terror – and, thereby, moving yet an inch closer to Full Spectrum Dominance over Mother Earth and her hapless spectators, what western humanity has become – a bunch of complacent consumers, drenched in turbo-capitalist market ideology, too comfortable to go on the barricades.

The key and engine to all of this is NATO, whose modus operandi is killing for a living, for dominance and for profit. If there is ever to be Peace – and that’s what the vast majority of the inhabitants of this globe wants – I’m not exaggerating pretending that 99.99% of world population wants to live in peace – then NATO must go, NATO must be dismantled.

So, Europe which has the largest membership in NATO (27 out of 29 nations) has to put the money where her mouth is: Europe calls for Peace, Europe claims to be Peace-loving – really? Then put your money into creating Peace – pulling out of NATO, refusing at once to fund this killing machine under the pretext of protecting Europe”. Protecting Europe from what? From whom? – Not from Russia – despite all the highly propagandized and highly corporate-funded Russiagate / Russia phobia, exacerbated by a new artificially implanted fear – China. These countries have no history of expansion, like the west.

They only seek friendly relations of trade, of transport, cultural and research interconnectivity within the supercontinent, Eurasia, and ultimately, they promote a multi-polar world. The best example is the Chinese President Xi’s ingenuity – the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) that just finished its highly successful forum in Beijing – where more than 120 nations signed memoranda of understanding (MOU) and cooperation agreements with China for tens of billions of dollars equivalent. – What a way of cooperating, instead of sowing western-style belligerence.

Europe and the rest of the world is not in danger, except in danger of itself for being a vassal of the US and for hosting 30-plus NATO bases which would be first in the line of fire, if the east is forced to defend itself from that permanent Pentagon-NATO driven aggression.

Europe withhold your funding for NATO, get out of NATO, dismantle NATO, – NOW, before NATO sets up yet another base in Asia, before NATO spreads more death around the globe.

Peter Koenig is an economist and geopolitical analyst. After working for over 30 years with the World Bank he penned Implosion, an economic thriller, based on his first-hand experience. Exclusively for the online magazine New Eastern Outlook.”
https://journal-neo.org/2019/04/30/sri-lanka-candidate-for-a-new-nato-base/

Sarath Bulathsinghala

Those who forget the past are condemned to relive it” – Santayana

Sri Lankan nation is horror struck and deeply saddened by the Easter Sunday carnage. Hundreds of innocent people mostly Christians and others foreigners, were murdered in the most gruesome of ways – by bombings. In the other modes of killings there is even a body to take home and mourn over. Some bodies had to be identified by only a little ring finger, others by a tattoo!  These horrendous crimes took place at churches and hotels around Sri Lanka.

Sad to say this nation was already condemned by the gods for what was waiting to happen. A nation full of ungrateful citizens richly deserved the outcome for they so quickly forgot the past. They allowed the deterioration of sanity to its lowest with hardly a look backwards. This time they allowed the seeds of Islamic Terrorism to take root and giving precedence to Middle East and Tamil Diaspora money and their own self-interest. They sowed the wind and reaped the whirlwind!  Meanwhile events around the Islamic World were rapidly changing.

If by chance these atrocities happened against the majority Sinhala Buddhist Community, the world would now be having a different narrative, it would have been no big deal! However, this was not going to stop BBC and Al Jazeera trying hard to fish in troubled waters and find a Sinhala Buddhist connection to the Easter Sunday atrocities albeit with little success.  Now that it has happened against the Christian Community the tallest building in Dubai gets painted with the Sri Lankan flag, and similar sentiments expressed from around the world. For the moment, there is a semblance of heartfelt sympathy and solidarity with those who suffered and for the nation of Sri Lanka. Fortunately, Sri Lanka has a window of opportunity to do and correct many a thing in their security lapses with international understanding, but that only time will tell!

In 2015,  exactly 200 years after a similar cataclysmic event in the history of Sri Lanka – where a similarly vilified ruler of Sri Lanka was replaced by the British –  people of Sri Lanka went for a CHANGE and they got a change that was well funded by the so called International Community led by the US, who alone spent US$ 550 Million for regime changes in Nigeria, Myanmar and Sri Lanka. As can be seen from around the world their agenda has little to do with the welfare of smaller nations. Iraq, Libya, Syria, Serbia n now Yemen n Venezuela are prime examples who were and are at the end of this International Community benevolence! 

Today, Sri Lanka is in a conundrum unable to get rid of the President, the Prime Minister and their jocular and grossly unsuccessful administration.  They have together demonstrated beyond any doubt their inability to lead, their dereliction of duty and their criminal negligence in the administration of  Sri Lanka!

These are the wages of an ungrateful nation who forgot the past and now have to relive it. Within the span of ten years the Sri Lankan nation forgot how it was before the end of the Terrorist War in May 2009. This terrorist war spanned over 30 years, caused by over 70 years of unrelenting minority bickering for an mono-ethnic fiefdom with no relevance in history or real ethnic demography. It was a time of bombs going on all over the island willy nilly at the whims of a multitude of Tamil terror groups. These terror groups made carnage all over Sri Lanka while fighting each other for dominance and finally coalesced into one powerful terrorist organization the LTTE led by the terrorist warlord – Prabhakaran. The LTTE carnage was targeted at politicians, ordinary people, places of religious worship – mainly Buddhist and sometimes Muslim.

Ordinary people who were going about their ordinary day to day business of getting to work in trains and busses were targeted. Ordinary people at their day to day shopping were targeted. Ordinary people taking their children to school were targeted. Ordinary people at their places of worship were targeted and brutally murdered. All this found a simple explanation that Sinhalese Buddhists are discriminating against the Hindu Tamils and hence Tamil Freedom Fighters are fighting for their freedoms and for a land of their own. That was good enough for the so called International Community and India to fund, resource and train the LTTE Terrorists against Sri Lanka.

Most parents using public modes of transport did not go to work in one vehicle. Father and Mother chose with heavy hearts not to travel together, in case a bomb went off and one died at least one parent will be there to look after the children. Mothers congregated in front of schools and school closing times to take their children home in safety. Do I need to elaborate on the actual bombings – these are well documented and public knowledge. Do I need to elaborate the types of insecurity and hardship that went through the minds of ordinary people due to terrorism over a period of well over 30 years?

Politicians of all hues including those who fathered the terrorists were brutally murdered. National leaders such as the former Prime Minister of India Rajiv Ghandi and President Premadasa, Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadiragamar  were assassinated and among the rest a myriad of  politicians such as Gamini Dissanayake, Lalith Athulathmudali and Ranjan Wijeratne were bombed to oblivion.

Security Forces sacrificed over 30,000 dead and a similar number with lifelong injuries. Over a hundred thousand civilians too died at their little villagers, farming fields and in the crowded cities around the island. All this was forgotten fast with no remorse or even a semblance of gratitude to those who made peace possible in Sri Lanka. Leave aside the politicians, the war heroes able and the disabled and their still suffering families were quickly forgotten and what’s more vilified. The cream of the Sri Lanka’s Intelligence Community is behind bars on trumped up charges. The Foreign Minister went to Geneva without even a Cabinet Approval to make a major change in national policy and to accept a proposal put forward by those who are intent on prosecuting Sri Lanka for winning the war on LTTE Terrorism. This proposal included weakening the Tri Forces, weakening the Intelligence Apparatus, levelling trumped up charges against security forces and bringing them before dubiously powered courts of Law and a myriad of other measures to bring in ‘reconciliation, human rights and democracy’ to Sri Lanka!

Following the end of hostilities and the subsequent destruction of the LTTE as a fighting force within Sri Lanka for ten years almost to a month there was peace in the island. People were free to enjoy the fruits of freedom that was there for all to enjoy including those who took up arms against the nation. It was a heady admixture of carefree bohemian life and dog eat dog mentality where the rat race took precedence over simple ethics of live and let live. The rich and the privileged wined, dined and played ‘golf’ literally and otherwise and took luxury holidays with nary a thought to those who were instrumental in bringing peace to the land.

What became important was democracy, human rights and reconciliation – the catch words used by the powerful to subjugate less fortunate nations. There was freedom of speech, all manners of freedom of expression, ‘right to this and right to that’ and promotion of other ways of alternative living not conducive to the simple Sri Lankan culture. These became more important than even the minimum basic needs ordinary living – national security, food security shelter etc. An agenda proposed and recommended by the so called Internation Community led by the US and Human Right bodies in the UN – now described as a cesspit of corruption became the working document for their local agents in Sri Lanka. This is how the cry for a Just Society – Saadharana Samajayak, Good Governance – Yahapalanaya and other similar euphemism were made common parlance among the population. A vain Buddhist Priest in the person of Maduluwawe Sobhitha who was waiting for a platform to find prominence was tapped on his shoulders and made to carry their flag. Country’s rich and the powerful visited his temple and words were put in his ears that he could even be a possible contender for the Presidency. This is how the now infamous Regime Change on 8 Jan 2015 was brought about. 

A lack lustre disgruntled politician in the person of Maithripala Sirisena was brought into contest the war winning President Mahinda Rajapakse. Sirisena won the Presidency with a margin of 500,000 votes. There was hardly a vote for Sirisena per se for all those votes that brought him to power were from the supporters of the UNP,  the Anti Rajapakse voters who resented his style of governance since winning the 2010 Presidential Election and other block votes from Christians, Muslims and Tamils. Even a great majority did not know well who he was.  Sinhalese are divided between two traitorous political parties the UNP and the SLFP and the die was cast for the end of Mahinda Rajapakse presidency.

After winning the Jan 2015 elections it did not take long to understand the rudiments of what was in store for Sri Lanka. The following events and measures were put in place in rapid succession.

1. The Central Bank Bond Scam through which the whole nation was robbed of billions – this happened on 26 Feb 2015 following the appointment of Ranil W as the PM, taking over Central Bank, appointment of Arjun Mahendran as the Central Bank Governor and then the Scam itself. This money went on to finance the August 2015 election for monetary inducements, as everyone knows by now, plays a crucial part in Sri Lankan politics. As a result of this scam interest rates went up and so too the taxes, thus affecting the whole nation. They are still paying for it while the main culprit is still out in the open.
2. Measures to weaken the Security Apparatus of the nation – The Tri Forces. Eviction of security forces from their camps and reduction of all manners of surveillance.
3. Measures to demoralise the Intelligence Community and arrest some of its members on trumped up petit charges.
4. Measures to demoralise, to vilify and to make the Buddhist Establishment ineffective.
5. Introduction of FCID mainly to cow down the opposition as well as the Administrative Apparatus making the decision making a mere political process.
6. Making the real opposition in the parliament a nonentity and ineffective.
7. Measures to disturb the food security of the island.
8. Pauperizing small and medium scale farmer, entrepreneur and investor and the list goes on.
9. The 19 May was to be Ranaviru Day in Sri Lanka. This was the day the Sri Lankan nation found emancipation from Tamil Racist Terrorism. All ordinary peace-loving people, be they Sinhala, Tamil, Muslim or other profited from it for they had above everything – Peace. There were measures to stop any celebrations of the great event of victory over terrorism in Sri Lanka on this day. This is in the backdrop of other nations who still celebrate their war victories even100 years after WW1 and 74 years after WW2 and even their monumental debacles such as Gallipoli with the ANZAC day remembrances by the Australians and New Zealanders.

These and a myriad of other measures have brought the Sri Lankan nation to what it is today. The President and the Prime Minister have failed utterly in their duty. President went on pilgrimage to a Hindu Kovil in India and a luxury holiday in Singapore without leaving a clear line of command or authority in his absence.  The Prime Minister who has failed to attend the Security Council meetings for months denied any knowledge of the Islamic threat.

The behaviour of a government minister who was warned by his father not to attend church on Easter Sunday has left more questions than his pitiful answers. The other more powerful and usually vociferous ministers of the Government are yet to open their mouths! Another Government Minister a Muslim says in front of the nation that he did not think the bombs would be this powerful! A Muslim Mosque leader when asked about hundreds of brand new swords found in mosques around the country says they are for cutting grass in their cemeteries – a colourful demonstration of Islamic Taquiyya or Deception!

An ordinary person affected by the church bombing in Negombo, tears flowing down his cheeks, he and his Christian Community, who voted this government into power are asking their UNP political leaders as to why they let this happen; why they did not give even a simple warning? The President and the Prime Minister denied responsibility; having failed the nation and mostly their own supporters, they still rule this hapless nation! Even in close by India, a simple train accident leads to the resignation of the minister responsible. People are asking why two leaders who have failed the nation miserably are not resigning. Perhaps the answer is in the following:

The then President Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines was asked why he is not resigning when confronted with large scale countrywide demonstrations asking for his resignation. He simply told I will resign when Americans ask me to do so”. We wonder loudly if this is the case in Sri Lanka too?

Today once again the so much vilified Security Forces are back on the streets trying to provide security to the ordinary people of Sri Lanka, not to mention the all-powerful politicians and their minions. The ground reality is that even the Tamil Politicians who only a few weeks ago with blood in their throats were asking for the security forces to leave their areas are now asking the Security Forces not to leave them and give them protection!

This ungrateful nation has come a full circle, back to where it was 30 years ago because of politics and selfishness. This ungrateful nation forgot the past and are now re-living it once over. Only the future will tell what they will do in the future!

How long does Sri Lanka have to suffer this ignominy?

By M D P DISSANAYAKE

TNA Sambandan, Sumathiran, LTTE Diaspora are rejoicing the events of Good Friday.  Whilst Tamil Tigers aim to destroy Buddhism, its counter-part Muslims are aiming to destroy Christianity.  Though these two groups are in two diversely different camps, their ultimate objective would be to cripple Sri Lanka so that the small island could easily become fertile ground like Afganistan.  

TNA and LTTE Diaspora are so silent since Good Friday events, raise the suspicion that they too might be providing vital intelligence with years of experience.  North of Sri Lanka must also be searched, from house to house.  So far authorities have not searched the houses of Sumanthiran, Rauf Hakeem, Hisbulla, Sally.   By now these crooks had sufficient time to find hide outs to put away their weapons, if any.

It is a shame that we still have to call Maithreepala Sirisena as President and Ranil as Prime Minister of Sri Lanka.  No one believe that these two did not have prior knowledge of the planned attack.  Ranil will never initiate any action against Tamil and Muslim politicians, for their possible involvements. Ranil never considered Internal Security as vital for our nation. Ranil held the role for just few months in 2015 and then passed on to Sagala Ratnayake  and then to Ranjith Madduma Bandara. Now our Law and Order Minister is  Pallewatte Gamaralalage Maithripala Yapa Sirisena.

Impressd by a  pre-prepared somewhat emotional speech of convicted criminal Sarath Fonseka few days ago in the Parliament, Ranil is now trying to sneak SF to the role.

Schools remain closed which will disrupt teaching and examination schedule.  Even if schools are opened, most parents may not send their children to schools for some time.

At this moment we cannot allow these incidents to pass through without severe punishment to those who took over the country.   Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith has provided effective leadership at this hour, compared to our Malwatte Chapter.

This is not a suitable time for 20^th Amendment, Anura Kumara need to see a doctor in Angoda Mental Hospital.  This is not a time to make trial and error appointments to Cabinet and appoint  a disgraced politician with hidden agenda.  This is also not a time to give any more time to our current failed Leaders, viz. Ranil and Maithree.

This is the time to call for General and Presidential Elections.  Considering unstable security situation, electronic media could be used effectively for political propaganda activities.

Ranil and Maithree, please step down.

sunil vijaya

The proliferation of swords and other weapons clearly tell a story which shows the characteristics of primitive warfare.  why don’t the security forces analyse further this threat!

why use swords unless they want to chop people in mass numbers going into crowded places in battalions.   

This development is as dangerous as suicide bombers. why on earth swords!!! unless an island-wide attack in temples, homes, schools with an army of wordsmen and women on a specific day? probably a poya.

Maybe we avoided a war using conventional weapons!

Maybe they wanted to burn everything down and install one of their wahaabi minsters as leader of the country With the help of Saudi Arabia and in turn their American friends?

Isn’t this a new development?  Was there a planned attack by explosives and swords by both wahaabi men and women In one go?

Why is Pottuvila aka pottuvil not showing any signs of aggression, especially Muhudu maha vihara precincts?

Ada Derana

https://www.facebook.com/mrmecon/videos/10219220630768007/

Sri Lanka News

මධ්‍යම පළාත් ආණ්ඩුකාර මෛත්‍රී ගුණරත්න මහතා අද (30) බොදු බල සේනා මහ ලේකම් රාජකීය පණ්ඩිත ගලගොඩඅත්තේ ඥානසාර හිමි බැහැ දැකීම සඳහා වැලිකඩ බන්ධනාගාරය වෙත පැමිණෙන ලදි. එහිදී මාධ්‍ය අමතමින් ඔහු දැක්වූ අදහස්….

ඥානසාර ස්වාමින් වහන්සේටත් මාව හම්බෙන්න ඕනි වෙලා තිබුනා. මටත් ඕනා වෙලා තිබ්බා ස්වාමින් වහන්සේ මුණගැහෙන්න. ඒකයි ස්වාමින්වහන්සේ බැහැ දකින්න පැමිණියේ.

 ඥානසාර ස්වාමීන් වහන්සේ, රටේ ආරක්ෂක තත්වය ගැන සෑහෙන අවධානයෙන් ඉන්නවා. ඒ වගේම මේක ගැන සුළුවෙන් තකන්න එපා මේක බැරෑරුම්ම වැඩසටහනක්. මේක ජනාධිපතිතුමත් එක්ක කතා කරන්න. මේක ඔලුවෙන් කරන්න ඕන වැඩක්, කියන එක තමයි කියන්නේ. උන්වහන්සේ සෑම අවස්ථාවකදීම සඳහන් කරන්නේ අහිංසක මුස්ලිම් මිනිස්සු මේකට පලි නෑ. ඉතින් මුස්ලිම් මිනිස්සු තලා පෙලන්නේ නැතුව මේ වැඩේ ඉතාම සියුම්ව ප්‍රවේශමෙන් කරන්න ඕනේ.. කියන එක ගැන ඉතාමත් දැඩි ලෙස අවධානය යොමු කරන්න කියලා ස්වාමීන් වහන්සේ කිව්වා.

උන්වහන්සේ කිව්වේ පන්සල් විතරක් නෙමෙයි අපි නොහිතන සිද්ධස්ථාන වෙන්න පුළුවන්.. වෙන ඕනෙම තැනක් වෙන්න පුළුවන්.. අපි නොහිතන ප්‍රහාර එල්ල වෙන්න පුළුවන් කියන එක තමයි උන්වහන්සේගේ මතය.

අධිකරණයෙන් උන්වහන්සේව වැරදිකාරයා කරලා ඇතුලට දැම්මත් උන්වහන්සේ කරපු සටන අද ඇත්ත කියන එක බොහෝ දුරට අද රටේ ජනතාව පිළිගන්නවා. උන්වහන්සේ දන්නා තොරතුරු සහ දැනුම පාවිච්චි කරලා මේ රට ගිනි ජාලාවක් බවට පත් නොකර, මේ රටේ සියලූ ජන කොටස් ආරක්ෂා කරන විදියට වැඩ පිළිවෙළක් කරන්න අවශ්‍යයි.

මම හිතන හැටියට අද තියෙන මේ සංකීර්ණ තත්ත්වය ගැන උන්වහන්සේ ගේ දැනුම ආරක්ෂක සහ පක්ෂවලට පාවිච්චි කිරීමට හැකියාව තියෙනවා. මේ ප්‍රශ්නේ සමනය කිරීමට එය  උදව් වෙයි කියන එක මට විශ්වාසයි.

ඥානසාර ස්වාමීන් වහන්සේ ප්‍රකාශ කරපු මතවාදයට අපි කවුරුත් කවුරුත් ලොකු තැනක් දුන්නේ නැහැ. ඒ මතවාදය ඔක්කොමලා  දැනගත්තා දන්නවා. කවුරුත් හිතුවේ නෑ. ලංකාවේ මේ ප්‍රශ්නේ මෙහෙම වෙයි කියලා. ඒකයි සිද්ධ වෙලා තිබ්බේ. ඒකත් එක්ක ඥානසාර ස්වාමීන් වහන්සේ කියපු මතවාදයට දැන් දැන් වටිනාකමක් ලැබිලා තිබෙනවා.

Good Catholic

In one simple quote, Sister Joan Chittister, O.S.B. sums up the hypocrisy of many in the ‘pro-life’ movement:

“I do not believe that just because you’re opposed to abortion, that that makes you pro-life. In fact, I think in many cases, your morality is deeply lacking if all you want is a child born but not a child fed, not a child educated, not a child housed. And why would I think that you don’t? Because you don’t want any tax money to go there. That’s not pro-life. That’s pro-birth. We need a much broader conversation on what the morality of pro-life is.”

This quote applies well to many Republican lawmakers who continue to introduce/pass restrictive misogynist laws against woman’s reproductive rights. At the same time, the GOP works to shut down women’s health clinics, with a special vengeance towards Planned Parenthood (#StandWithPP). You don’t see these Right Wing anti-choice extremists adopting children from unplanned pregnancies or putting funds into sex education.

But you do see Republican lawmakers cut access to birth control, which prevents abortions. You do see the GOP’s 54 attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act and their $24 billion Government Shutdown, both to destroy universal health reform which protects the needs of millions of American children. And you do see Republican lawmakers cut government programs like school lunches for children and block government financial aid to families who are homeless and/or in need.

The goals of these so-called anti-choice/’pro-life’ hypocrites are not about fetuses or children once born, their agenda is about controlling women’s bodies and women’s futures. How great to hear Sister Joan Chittister, a Benedictine nun, define the pro-life/anti-choice GOP double talk so well. An outspoken advocate for women, Sister Joan Chittister is a lecturer and author of 50 books. Holding a Ph.D. from Penn State University, she is also a research associate in a division of Cambridge University. Other subjects of her writing include women in the church and society, human rights, peace and justice, religious life and spirituality. She has appeared in the media on numerous shows including Meet the Press, 60 Minutes, Bill Moyers, BBC, NPR, and Oprah Winfrey.You can visit Joan Chittister’s website at Joan Chittister.org.

By Rathindra Kuruwita and Cyril Wimalasurendre Courtesy The Island

More than 60 persons were arrested yesterday along with a large number of weapons, the National Thowheed Jamath (NTJ) propaganda material and clothes similar to military uniform during search operations carried out by Police, STF and the tri-forces in several parts of the country, according to the Army and the Police.

The Kuliyapitiya Police detected a large volume of fabrics similar to saffron robes worn by Buddhist monks and several garments that resemble military uniform, yesterday, at an unauthorised mosque and a house in Yayawatta, Kuliyapitiya. The Police carried out the raid with the assistance of the Army. Police arrested the head of the mosque and a female suspect.

Police also arrested 14 suspects including the chairman of the Wellawa branch of National Thowheed Jamath during a search operation at Hadirawalana, Wellawa. Over 200 security force personnel took part in the raid and they took into custody six swords, four daggers, 15 DVDs containing NTJ propaganda and 20 NTJ banners.

The Horowpathana Police have taken into custody a number of suspicious items from an Arabic School run by a suspect who was arrested in the same police area, on Monday.

The suspect is believed to have been a close associate of extremist Zahran Hashmi, the mastermind of Easter Sunday suicide bombers. Following interrogation, Horowpathana Police, along with the personnel from the Kebithigollewa STF camp and army intelligence, raided an Arabic school, where the suspect was a Director. Among the items confiscated are letters that he has exchanged with the National Thowheed Jamath (NTJ).

The Kalpitiya Police arrested 31 suspects who were unable to reveal their identities and several suspicious vehicles yesterday morning in Mandalkuda, Kalpitiya. They were apprehended during a combined raid carried out by Police, Navy and the Air Force.

Out of those arrested ten are from Mannar. The vehicles taken into custody are registered in Western and Eastern Provinces.

The Pindeniya Police arrested three suspects who were in possession of hi-tech equipment at Kotiyakumbura. The arrests were made in a building owned by a businessman. Police also detected a high grade GPS receiver, mobile phones, cameras, petrol bombs, swords, knives, barbed wire, walkie -talkies and a number of passports. They were to be produced in courts and remanded.

Five persons were arrested at Kebethigollewa, on Tuesday, for possessing video recordings of the Easter Sunday bombings, photographs of Zahran Hashmi and photos and videos of the Wanathavilluwa jihadist training camp. They were arrested during a combined search operation conducted by the Police and the army. The five men are residents of Vavuniya, KKS and Kinniya, who were working in Kebethigollewa. Among those arrested are two men who were taking video footage of a security post in Hijragama along the Horowpathana road. The five men were to be produced before the Kebethigollewa Magistrate’s court, yesterday.

Soldiers attached to the army’s 11 division arrested 12 persons in Akurana along with swords and other military equipment. Three swords, parts of firearms, clothing that resemble military uniforms, posters, banners and CDs that contain NTJ propaganda, forged passports, NICs and birth certificates were taken into custody. The operation lasted for more than three hours.