Sri Lanka’s unending conflict

By Nirmala Kannangara

Sagara Senaratne who was abducted in Kotte last Monday evening near Naga Viharaya Kotte believes that he was released within a few hours because of his brother-in-law Minister Jeewan Kumaratunge’s timely intervention.
Postal Services Minister Jeewan Kumaratunge was at a dinner with a Chinese delegation along with Mr. Mahesh, an Additional Secretary to the President at his residence when Senaratne’s driver informed him of the abduction.
“I was told that Minister Kumaratunge had immediately informed the President and the IGP about the abduction. I assume this alert would have helped my release,” Senaratne told The Sunday Leader.

Read More »

“They Were Very Professional” Says Minister’s Abducted Brother-In-Law

Army bigwigs deny charges

Alleged abduction of ‘Jana aragala viyapara’ members Jaffna Chief Magistrate to conduct inquiry By Telles Anandappa The Bench of the Court of Appeal comprising Justices W.L. Ranjith Silva and H.N.G. Perera directed the Chief Magistrate of Jaffna to conduct a magisterial inquiry with regard to the allegedly abducted persons Lalith Kumara and Kitnam Muruganandan (Kugan) in Jaffna in December 2011, after Senior State Counsel informed Court that the 1st and 2nd respondents cited denied the allegation of abduction and detention. The petition filed by Muruganandan Janatha, wife of Kugan and Arumugam Weerarajah father of Lalith Kumara cited Jaffna Army Commander Maj. Gen. Mahinda Hathurusinghe, Army Commander Lt. Gen Jagath Jayasuriya, OIC Athchuvely Police Station, IGP N. K. Illangakoon and the Attorney General as respondents. Attorney J.C. Weliamuna informed Court that the two persons abducted were members of an organization called “Jana aragala viyaparaya” – a movement calling for peace and harmony among all citizens of Sri Lanka. They were on there way to Jaffna on December 12, 2011 to organize a meeting of the group. The petitioners said that since the two had not returned they informed the police. Subsequently, the motor cycle that the two were travelling on was found abandoned by the wayside. The petitioners stated that on a previous occasion Kugan’s mother had received an anonymous phone call threatening her and saying ‘if you don’t take your son away we will do it for you.’ Senior State Counsel Shaminda Wickrama informed Court that the 1st respondent Hathurusinghe and the 2nd respondent Jayasuriya were filing their submissions on Friday. When Justice Ranjith Silva inquired about the status of their response regarding the allegation Counsel informed Court that they totally deny any of the said allegations. He also said that the 3rd and 4th respondents had not submitted theirwritten submissions as yet. Justice Silva said that as a matter of courtesy he was giving time for the 3rd and 4th respondents to submit their submissions till April 27. Justice Ranjith Silva then stated that as the 1st and 2nd respondents are denying the allegations he directed the Chief Magistrate Jaffna to conduct a magisterial inquiry regarding the missing persons and a full report be submitted to the Appeal Court. He also directed the Registrar to inform the Jaffna Court of the order made.The case will be heard again on April 27.

UNHRC RESOLUTION A View From The Tamil Diaspora

By S. Gary Anandasangaree

President Mahinda Rajapaksa reading the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission report

The writer is a Barrister and Solicitor, and is the Sri Lankan Monitor for Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada. He attended the Nineteenth Session of the Human Rights Council Session held in Geneva from Febrary 27th to March 23, 2012. Gary is also one of the senior members with Canadian Tamil Congress and function as CTC legal counsel as well.

The armed conflict maybe over in Sri Lanka but peace has not been won since the brutal end to the 27-year-old war three years ago. Credible allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity have been levelled against both parties to the conflict. The underlying grievances of the Tamil minority remain outstanding with no clear proposal for long term peace in sight. It is in this backdrop that the United Nations Human Rights Council adopted a resolution on Sri Lanka seeking a roadmap to attaining peace, reconciliation and accountability.

The resolution was proposed by the United States, and had 40 co-sponsors, including Canada.

Read More »

MaRa regime the deadly parasite on people devours further - steep tax hikes on Cars, Vans, trishaws, Motor bikes, cigarettes, liquor etc.

(Lanka-e-News-31.March.2012, 11.55PM) The MaRa regime in its utter desperation to bail itself following the acute economic problems it has plunged the country into due to its egregious economic bungling resulting from its monumental corruption and plundering of public funds , has with immediate effect from today raised the vehicle import taxes. Taxes on cars, Vans, Three wheelers and motor cycles have been increased. The Finance Ministry however says , these increases are not due to Govt.’s inadequacy of funds , but it is to curtail the import of vehicles to ease the vehicular traffic . It is to be noted that though there are enough rules and regulations to ease the traffic congestion in this country without raising taxes and burdening the people , those measures have not been resorted to.

Following these hikes , the poor man’s vehicles , Motor cycle and Trishaw prices will shoot up by 50% while small vans and small cars will shoot up by 100%.

The production tax of trishaws had been increased ruthlessly from 8 to 40% . while that of motor cycles has been raised from 24 to 51%. In other words the common man has been deliberately hit below the belt.

With the raising of the production tax ,the taxes on vehicles below 2000 c c capacity had shot up from 51% to 60% . The taxes on vehicles above 2000 c c capacity had increased from 75to 100 % ; the taxes on those with 3000 c c capacity and over have risen from 100 % to 125 %.

In addition , the production tax petrol cars with capacity below 1000 c c have been raised to 85 % , whereby the total taxes levied on a petrol car is as huge as 200%

On top of all these , the taxes on cigarettes and liquor have also been raised with immediate effect. Accordingly , the increased excise duty now is Rs. 50/- on a liter of imported beer , that of a liter of local beer is Rs.5/-, and that of a liter of strong liquor is Rs.60/-

In like manner the price of every variety of cigarette ahs been raised by one rupee ,and the production tax on them had also been increased. The Ministry of finance and policy formulation expects to increase its revenue by Rs. 3 billion following these hikes.

The increased vehicle levies are given hereunder….

They Own The Roads

Saturday, March 31, 2012

One morning a friend and I were driving past the turn off to the Presidents house in Colombo Fort when a policeman on duty abruptly halted our line of cars to enable a single vehicle coming out of that road to drive through. It was a non-descript Japanese car yet for that policeman a car coming out of the direction of the Presidents’ house was important enough to disrupt the flow of traffic. Down that road, apart from the residency of the President, there are several other offices. The car could have belonged to any one of them.
Read More »

Post-Geneva Delusions: The Next Steps in Sri Lanka

international policy digest March 31, 2012

EU Delegate adressing the Human Rights Council (HRC). Photo by Jess Hoffman/UN Photo

Sri Lanka’s Minister of External Affairs, G.L. Peiris, has recently given one additional reason for the passage of a resolution on Sri Lanka at the UN’s Human Rights Council (HRC) in Geneva: “collective commitments.”

Evidently, Mr. Peiris had been informed by one of his European counterparts that certain members of the European Union (EU) were unsupportive of the resolution, but were compelled to vote in favor of it, since a group decision had been taken by the EU.

Full Story>>>

Publish positive news urges President

30 March, 2012

'Whenever we talk about this with foreign dignitaries they keep saying that they did not know about those intiatives'

The President of Sri Lanka has urged journalists in the island to focus on what he called as positive news rather than only focusing on negative aspects.

The duty of the “responsible journalist” is not only to report “rapes, murders and that one can survive a month with Rs 2500,” said President Mahinda Rajapaksa, but also to inform the public of the development initiatives launched by the government.

The president Mahinda Rajapaksa made the appeal as he declared open a new Media Development Centre at the Information Department in Colombo.

“It is not an exaggeration if I say that a rapid development is taking place in this country in a speed than we speak and write,” he said.

“And it is not limited only to Colombo or Hambantota.”

'Provoking racism'

President Rajapaksa questioned why the media do not focus on such developments.

It is not an exaggeration if I say that a rapid development is taking place in this country in a speed than we speak and write President Mahinda Rajapaksa

“We have released nearly 14,000 LTTE suspects after rehabilitation. Whenever we talk about this with foreign dignitaries and foreign embassy officials they keep saying that they did not know about those intiatives,” he added.

Speaking in Tamil, Mr Rajapaksa appealed to country’s Tamil media outlets to inform people on development projects while pointing out wrongdoings and mistakes.

He also urged Tamil journalists not to carry out propaganda that provokes racism in the island that suffered for decades due to armed conflicts.

The Acting Media Minister, Lakshman Yapa Abeywardene said everybody, including politicians and journalists “need to have a self-censorship.”

Geneva debacle: The realities behind the diplomatic rhetoric

Shocking statements by ministers make matters worse for President

By Our Political Editor

If the debacle at Geneva last week was bad enough for President Mahinda Rajapaksa, some of the things some of his Ministers are saying in public are making matters worse for him. Public Relations Minister Mervyn Silva had already dropped a bombshell by making a public confession that he was responsible for breaking the legs of a media activist who had to leave the country thereafter. The Police said they would inquire. The problem being that these inquiries never end. President Rajapaksa was fuming at the Minister's utterance. What he told some friends this week that he would do to Mervyn Silva is unprintable. Then, Education Minister Bandula Gunawardene had his own version of new maths calculating how a family of three could easily live on Rs. 7,500 a month. He was basing his arithmetic on a hostel where students spent only Rs. 2,500 a month on their food. The political cartoonists had a field day lampooning the minister, one of them even indicating from where he was talking. President Rajapaksa had asked him how he came to these figures. The Minister had said this was what he found out from those students, and that he was only referring to their food bill for the month; to which the President asked the most obvious questions; "who paid for the upkeep of the hostel?" and "who pays for the "gas", to which the Minister had said "the government". His Livestock Development Minister Arumugam Thondaman had sent President's Secretary Lalith Weeratunga a text message saying that he "wants to resign" because the government had reinstated the MILCO Marketing Manager who was facing charges of corruption. The Marketing Manager is reported to have approached MP Sajin Vaas Gunawardene among others to get reinstated. The President had not wanted Weeratunga or anyone in government to react to Thondaman's latest threat to quit. The only comment came from the President's Press Secretary Bandula Jayasekera who said sarcastically "this is not the first time he has resigned". In fact, officials at the President's office recalled how on a previous occasion Thondaman had arrived none the worse for liquor at the Bandaranaike International Airport and threatened to quit the government because officials at the airport had ignored him. As expected Thondaman met President Rajapaksa, remains well entrenched in the cabinet and flew to his home away from home, India the next day. President Mahinda Rajapaksa feeling the heat at Expo 2012 held at the BMICH. Pic by Susantha Liyanawatte Full Story>>>

Sri Lanka on notice: Where do we go from here?

Published On Sat Mar 31 2012 Vani Selvarajah

About 1,000 people protest outside the UN's European headquarters in Geneva to demand an international investigation of alleged war crimes in Sri Lanka. (Feb. 27, 2012)

State sovereignty continues to be a shield throughout much of the world where there is a need to circumvent international law and human rights obligations. Sri Lanka is one such state and is a well-known violator of human rights. As a historic first, the United Nations Human Rights Council has taken a strong stance against the Sri Lankan state’s human rights record through a U.S.-initiated, Canada-sponsored resolution that questions the actions of the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam during the last phases of the civil war.

The resolution specifically calls for investigations into violations of international law, extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances. While it does not go as far as a much needed independent international investigation, it is definitely a step in the right direction.

Full Story>>