Enforced Disappearances And An Unjust Republic

September 3, 2012 

By Basil Fernando -

Basil Fernando

Forced disappearances have left quite an impression on the psyche of the Sri Lankan people living in all parts of the country. Since 1971, there has been continuous use of enforced disappearances as a tool by the state, for what they referred to as the maintenance of “law and order”. The result is a negative mindset, arising from what the people have seen and heard over several decades, due to so many incidents and stories about enforced disappearances. The shocking news has obviously been borne deep into the psyche of the people of all the people, living in all parts of the country.

Such deep impressions alter the views of people on many issues. One of the great changes in the minds of people, due to the impressions that are left in their minds of enforced disappearances, is to change their ideas about all those in authority; about the police, the military, the intelligence services and also the political leaders. The people now in their inner minds have different ideas as to what these things meant in the past before these large scale enforced disappearances happened.

Today, the police and the military are often seen by the people as abductors who may come in any guise, at any time. What the people expect from the police, the military or anyone else who represents a lawful authority and exercises such things as arrests has undergone a fundamentally deep change. The expectation of what might happen in the event of abduction or arrest is now very different. People have lost the legitimate expectation that they might have in the event of dealing with their law enforcement agencies; the expectation that whatever happens will be within the limits of the law and rationality no longer exists. Now the expectation is that the law will be flouted, that anything might happen, and that if anyone were to come out of the situation safe and sound it would his or her great luck.

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Stop Training Lankan Army Personnel: CPI to Govt 
 SEP 03, 2012 
CPI today asked the government to stop training Sri Lankan Army personnel anywhere in India and respect the sentiments of the people of Tamil Nadu, who are opposed to any such measure.

CPI National Secretary D Raja dashed off a letter to Defence Minister A K Antony explaining the opposition to the training programme to Sri Lankan Army personnel in the state.

He dubbed as “highly deplorable” Minister of State for Defence M M Pallam Raju’s statement that the training would continue.

“Instead of taking note of the strong feelings that prevail in Tamil Nadu over the issue of giving training to Sri Lankan Army, which carried out genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka and committed war crimes, the government has reiterated its commitment to continue the training programme,” Raja rued.

“The recent statement by Raju has further infuriated the already hurt feelings of Tamil people,” the CPI MP said.

Raja told Antony that the government should immediately stop training Sri Lankan Army and make a categorical assurance to the people of Tamil Nadu in this regard.

The training to Sri Lankan Army was shifted from Chennai after a row erupted in July but parties in Tamil Nadu oppose training to the personnel from the neighbouring country anywhere in India.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa and DMK chief M Karunanidhi have been demanding that the training programme be scrapped immediately.

Stalin to leave for New York, to meet Ban

• September 3, 2012 -By K.S. JAYASEELAN 

• In an attempt to pressurise the United Nations into acting against Sri Lanka, DMK’s heir-apparent and former deputy chief minister M.K. Stalin is all set to leave for New York on September 20 to meet UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon and personally handover the resolutions adopted at the Tamil Eelam Supporters’ Organisation (TESO) conference that was held recently in Chennai. On his way back, he is also scheduled to stop at Geneva to hand over the same resolutions to the United Nations high commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Senior leader T.R. Baalu will be accompanying him. Dravida Kazhagam leader Veeramani and Sugaveera Pandian — both members of the TESO executive committee — may join the duo.
  According to sources, the process of securing an appointment with Ban Ki-moon is on and in all probability, the meeting would take place on either September 21 or 22. Sources also said that Mr T.R. Baalu and Mr Stalin would inform the speakers of their respective houses namely Ms Meira Kumar and D. Jayakumar about their impending visit keeping in mind the norm.
  Among the demands put forward by TESO that Sri Lanka would find very difficult to accept are conducting a political referendum in the Tamil-dominated areas of north and east of the island-nation to allow the Tamil people to decide their own political future, formation of a United Nations monitoring committee to supervise the rehabilitation work being carried out there and conduct of an enquiry by UN into alleged war crimes committed by the Sri Lankan Army during the closing days of the war against the Tamil tigers, rejecting the recommendations of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC).

David Hemler: 28 years on the run

By Robin Banerji

David Hemler deserted from the US Air Force and was on its most-wanted list for 28 years. He assumed a false identity, got married and had a family in Sweden. But in the end, the truth came out.

It was 1984, the height of the Cold War, and President Ronald Reagan was deploying Pershing II missiles in West Germany. At the time David Hemler was a 21-year-old linguist working for the US Air Force in Augsburg, Bavaria. But he was not happy.

He approached his superiors and asked for a discharge on the grounds that he had become a pacifist.

Their response was to send him to see a psychiatrist.

“I did not think being a pacifist meant I was mentally ill. But I had been feeling bad,” says Hemler. “At night I stayed up thinking and I could not sleep. I had difficulties eating also. I had passed out a few times.”

The air force did not let him leave. Instead he was stripped of his top secret job and given work as a cleaner.

After a year cleaning floors, Hemler realised that the air force was not going to release him easily.

Just deserts?

• Pte Thomas Highgate was first UK soldier executed for desertion during WWI
• 306 executions by UK/ Commonwealth military
• US Pte Eddie Slovik was shot by a firing squad on 31 January 1945, the only American to be executed for desertion during WWII
• About 20,000 executed by Nazis for desertion or treason during WWII
• Both Nazis and Soviets used punishment battalions to prevent desertion
• US soldier Jeremy Hinzman (above) deserted and fled to Canada in 2004 to avoid fighting in Iraq
• US soldier Victor Agosto court martialled in 2009 for refusing to serve in Afghanistan

Continue reading the main story

David Hemler spoke to Outlook on the BBC World Service

Full Story»>

Missing And Forgotten

Sunday, September 02, 2012

Women holding up pictures of their missing family members and A wailing mother holds a picture of her missing son.

Kumarasamy Pathmanathan has a question. “If the war is over and if there is no problem in the country, why are they arresting people?”
Pathmanathan is one of the 300 people who showed up in the city of Vavuniya on Thursday, August 30, holding up pictures of a loved one who has gone missing. In his case, it’s his daughter, 31-year old Vasanthamala.
The crowd gathered to commemorate their missing on the International Day of the Disappeared, and to call on the government to take steps to find out whether they are alive – or what had happened to them.
They started with a peaceful demonstration in the heart of Vavuniya city, and then proceeded to the temple by foot, with plans of then going to the church, Kovil and the mosque. At the temple, one woman holds up a large picture of her son and starts calling out to a God different from her own. What starts soft turns louder and she soon starts wailing about her son who has gone missing, withheld tears finally pouring down from her eyes. Her cries – and tears – evokes the emotions that others have so far hid. In a matter of minutes, the crowd splits into two distinctive groups.

Basil Rajapaksa’s men threaten Tamil-speaking voters: Sampanthan, Hakeem

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 September 2012, 15:31 GMT] 
More than one thousand men sent under the instruction of SL Presidential sibling and Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapakse have been engaged in intimidating Tamils and Muslims in the three districts of the eastern province namely Ampaarai, Batticaloa and Trincomalee that they would face serious consequences if they fail to vote for the ruling United Peoples Freedom Party in the forthcoming election to the Eastern Provincial Council that is scheduled to be held on Saturday, September 8 , according to complaints lodged with the Commissioner General of Elections by the parliamentary group leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) R.Sampanthan and Rauff Hakeem, the leader of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, who is also the Justice Minister in Mahinda Rajapaksa’s cabinet. Basil Rajapakse is also a minister in same cabinet. 

Gangs of persons dispatched by Minister Basil Rajapakse are said to be Samurdhi officers known as ‘social service officers’ of the occupying Sri Lanka government. 

They are reportedly roaming in villages in the three district wearing blue color shirts, visiting every household along with local candidates of the ruling UPFA warning the voters belong to two communities Tamil and Muslim that if they fail to vote that they have to repent after the poll. 

Mr Sampanthan and Mr Hakeem have also requested the Commissioner General of Elections to take immediate steps by stopping unruly elements creating terror and to ensure peaceful free and fair election in the eastern province.

Tony Blair should face trial over Iraq war, says Desmond Tutu-                                                                                                 

Anti-apartheid hero attacks former prime minister over ‘double standards -on war crimes’
Toby Helm, political editor
The Observer, Sunday 2 September 2012

Tony Blair has strongly contested Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s views. Photograph: Stefan Wermuth/Reuters

Archbishop Desmond Tutu has called for Tony Blair and George Bush to be hauled before the international criminal court in The Hague and delivered a damning critique of the physical and moral devastation caused by the Iraq war.

Tutu, a Nobel peace prize winner and hero of the anti-apartheid movement, accuses the former British and US leaders of lying about weapons of mass destruction and says the invasion left the world more destabilised and divided “than any other conflict in history”.

Writing in the Observer, Tutu also suggests the controversial US and UK-led action to oust Saddam Hussein in 2003 created the backdrop for the civil war in Syria and a possible wider Middle East conflict involving Iran.

“The then leaders of the United States and Great Britain,” Tutu argues, “fabricated the grounds to behave like playground bullies and drive us further apart. They have driven us to the edge of a precipice where we now stand – with the spectre of Syria and Iran before us.”

But it is Tutu’s call for Blair and Bush to face justice in The Hague that is most startling. Claiming that different standards appear to be set for prosecuting African leaders and western ones, he says the death toll during and after the Iraq conflict is sufficient on its own for Blair and Bush to be tried at the ICC.

“On these grounds, alone, in a consistent world, those responsible for this suffering and loss of life should be treading the same path as some of their African and Asian peers who have been made to answer for their actions in The Hague,” he says.

The court hears cases on genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. To date, 16 cases have been brought before the court but only one, that of Thomas Lubanga, a rebel leader from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), has been completed. He was sentenced earlier this year to 14 years’ imprisonment for his part in war crimes in his home country.

Tutu’s broadside is evidence of the shadow still cast by Iraq over Blair’s post-prime ministerial career, as he attempts to rehabilitate himself in British public life. A longtime critic of the Iraq war, the archbishop pulled out of a South African conference on leadership last week because Blair, who was paid 2m rand (£150,000) for his time, was attending. It is understood that Tutu had agreed to speak without a fee.

In his article, the archbishop argues that as well as the death toll, there has been a heavy moral cost to civilisation, with no gain. “Even greater costs have been exacted beyond the killing fields, in the hardened hearts and minds of members of the human family across the world.

“Has the potential for terrorist attacks decreased? To what extent have we succeeded in bringing the so-called Muslim and Judeo-Christian worlds closer together, in sowing the seeds of understanding and hope?” Blair and Bush, he says, set an appalling example. “If leaders may lie, then who should tell the truth?” he asks.

“If it is acceptable for leaders to take drastic action on the basis of a lie, without an acknowledgement or an apology when they are found out, what should we teach our children?”

In a statement, Blair strongly contested Tutu’s views and said Iraq was now a more prosperous country than it had been under Saddam Hussein. “I have a great respect for Archbishop Tutu’s fight against apartheid – where we were on the same side of the argument – but to repeat the old canard that we lied about the intelligence is completely wrong as every single independent analysis of the evidence has shown.

“And to say that the fact that Saddam massacred hundreds of thousands of his citizens is irrelevant to the morality of removing him is bizarre. We have just had the memorials both of the Halabja massacre, where thousands of people were murdered in one day by Saddam’s use of chemical weapons, and that of the Iran-Iraq war where casualties numbered up to a million including many killed by chemical weapons.

“In addition, his slaughter of his political opponents, the treatment of the Marsh Arabs and the systematic torture of his people make the case for removing him morally strong. But the basis of action was as stated at the time.

“In short, this is the same argument we have had many times with nothing new to say. But surely in a healthy democracy people can agree to disagree.

“I would also point out that despite the problems, Iraq today has an economy three times or more in size, with the child mortality rate cut by a third of what it was. And with investment hugely increased in places like Basra.”

• This article was amended on 2 September 2012 to remove an incorrect paragraph concerning ongoing criminal proceedings at The Hague

Agony Without Ecstasy On The Long-Distance Buses

 Sunday, September 02, 2012

Nearly all the buses appear to be operated with a passenger unfriendly ‘Fleece them’ motive

 Colombo-Jaffna Express Buses Are Veritable Death Traps
Plying between Colombo and Jaffna every night each way are about 50 buses and many more during the weekends. Nearly all of them, it appears, are operated with a passenger unfriendly ‘Fleece them’ motive. There have been some horrendous accidents already, yet the public have not reacted. This is no que sera sera business; it is a matter of life and death.
Some buses, but too few to canvas favourable consideration, have plus points The bus operators call them AC Luxury, Non-AC Semi-luxury and Ordinary. And none have toilets on board and neither are there any along the way except for a badly maintained one at the temple stop at Murugandy.  You pay Rs. 10 for its use; a few weeks ago it was Rs. 5 and the chaps working there can be quite insulting.

Everything inferior in SL ! - Earlier fuel ; Now drugs imported by Maithri-bala (inferior Health Minister)

Everything inferior in SL ! - Earlier fuel ; Now drugs imported by Maithri-bala (inferior Health Minister)

(Lanka-e-News -02.Sep.2012, 6.00PM) It is a widely known fact that the Health Minister Maithribala Sirisena made loud and proud announcements that during his tenure of office , no inferior quality drugs had been imported. But , now it has been proved without any doubt that 67 varieties of drugs of low quality had been got down during this year alone under his Ministry. Therefore the Minister is a blatant and shameless liar, as revealed by Jayantha Bandara , the Secretary of the Senaka Bibile memorial Organization .

Bandara stated that , according to the drug analysis reports , already this year alone , 67 sub standard drugs had been imported , and they have been dispensed through the Hospitals to the patients, whereby the patients are facing inevitable grave life risks . While this vacuous Minister Maithri bala is waxing eloquent about his efficiency , the whole country has come to know of his true deficiencies , and the substandard drugs (bala drugs) that were imported during this year until July 2012 for which he is fully responsible . The list of substandard drugs imported are given hereunder :

3 varieties in January
13 varieties in February
9 varieties in March
4 varieties in April
7 varieties in May
16 varieties in June
15 varieties in July.

There are also details of the substandard drugs imported during the other months , but we furnish below only 15 varieties of substandard drugs got down by loud mouthed substandard Minister Maithri bala in July alone:

Quality Defects in Pharmaceuticals Reported During the month of July 2012
———————————————————————————————————————————
01. Cefuroxime for Injection 750mg - Swiss Parenterals Pvt. Ltd, India. - Presence of a piece of glass inside a reconstituted vial
02. Calcium gluconate Injection 10% - Star Drugs & Research Labs Ltd, - India. - Presence of visible particles in intact ampoules
03. Cephalexin Oral Suspension - Kaushik Therapeutics, India - Contents do not dissolve properly
04. Chlorpheniramine Tablets - Nestor Pharmaceuticals Ltd, - India. - Failure in the tests for related substances & friability
05. Cloxacillin Injection 250mg - Makcur Laboratories, India. - Failure in the test for water; sealing defects, presence of foreign objects in reconstituted vials
06. Coamoxyclav for Injection 1.2G - AMN Life Sciences, India. - Failure in the test for water
07. Coamoxyclav for Injection 1.2G Ranbaxy Laboratories, India. - Failure in the tests for assay & water
08. Domperidone Oral Suspension 5mg/5ml, 100ml - Unijules Life Sciences Ltd, India. - Failure in the tests for microbial contamination
09. Glucose Injection 50%, 50ml - Nirma Ltd, India. - Presence of visible particles
10. Glyceryl trinitrate Tablets 500mcg Actavis, United Kingdom - Failure in the test for disintegration
11. Isopropyl Alcohol - Safe House, Kalutara, Sri Lanka. - Failure in the test for identification
12. Metformin Tablets 500mg - Venus International, India. - Deviation from definition (uncoated tablets)
13. Phenoxymethylpenicillin Tablets 250mg - Arvind Remedies Ltd, India. - Failure in the test for friability; tablet defects
14. Povidone-Iodine Solution 10% - Central Drugs & Pharmaceuticals, India. - Failure in the test for assay
15. Vincristine sulfate Injection 1mg - Naprod Lifesciences, India. - Shrinkage of lyophilized mass; almost empty vials
It is specially noteworthy that all these inferior drugs had been imported from India. Many of these drugs meant for Diabetes, High blood pressure , respiratory ailments, cancer, Asthma, mental ailments , emergency medications, essential antibiotics and several others had already been dispensed .

In addition , syringes, Catheter, Cotton, Gauze, and other pharmaceutical equipments including medical stitching requirements , which are all substandard had been distributed and used on patients. The patients’ recovery notwithstanding , their lives are definitely at stake. Moreover , the patients are going to lose financially too.
Because of these substandard antibiotics, the patients are facing long term risks by their use, as they are being exposed to other multiple bacterial infections , which can eventually make this country most infection ridden, and disease abounding .

The Secretary of the Senaka Bibile memorial Organization , therefore said , it is very evident that there is a huge illicit Commission motive sacrificing national health and interests of the patients behind these substandard drug import , for the Health Minister Maithribala had so far not taken any action against any of the pharmaceutical Companies that are involved in these rackets. 

A Variety Of Comments On A Variety Of Issues

By Emil van der Poorten -September 2, 2012 

Emil van der Poorten

The Federation of University Teachers’ Association held what was, by all accounts, a very successful rally which not only attracted a very large crowd but also brought about a demonstrated commitment to joint protest and action from a broad spectrum of organized labour which was without recent precedent.  Typically, the police (I am sure, NOT on the direction of our democracy-practicing government!) placed several physical and prohibitionary barriers before those seeking to march in solidarity and gather at Hyde Park, inclusive of a ban on the use of loudspeakers after 6 p.m., to little effect by the sounds of it.

While the daily reporting of horrendous crimes continues apace, we have our minister of national safety, or whatever designation he now has added to his other titles, claiming that Sri Lanka is one of the safest places in the world in which to live.  One has no excuse for misunderstanding such an opinion when it emanates from behind a heavily armed security contingent which gets mobile every time their boss climbs into his bullet-proof car and whizzes off to theColombo Stock Exchange or similar places of upper class activity.

I was witness to a truly remarkable display of good sportsmanship and just plain decency on Saturday the 25^th at the Kandy Sports Club vs Upcountry Lions rugby match at Nawalapitiya.  Completely unrehearsed, members of both teams shook hands and, in some instances, embraced each other at the conclusion of the game.  A far cry from rugby games featuring our allegedly highly-disciplined services XVs when assault rifles are, literally, brought into play and spectators by the dozen hospitalized for having the temerity to support the “wrong” (civilian) team!  Maybe the fact that neither of these up-country teams contains Royalty has something to do with this!  However, all of the above has nothing to do with my prediction gone wrong that the Up-Country Lions would “throw” their game against the Navy the week before.  That didn’t happen not because the attempt was not made but because it did not succeed!

After the headline in The Sunday Leader that the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission was forced out of office by no less a person than the President of this country, one need hardly join the (now redundant) dots in the matter of the monumental financial scandals that beset this country.  Apropos of the acceleration of the financial rape and plunder that blankets Sri Lanka, it seems that not only are the rats preparing to abandon the sinking ship but they are laying-by enough to meet the exigencies of any rainy years that the fates might hold in store for them!  The downside of this, of course, is the fact that the rest of us are going to be left on something that will more closely resemble a sieve than a sea-worthy vessel, making navigation through the stormy seas ahead an even greater challenge!  Also, it seems that, for whatever reason, the connections between the various players are becoming more visible by the day with no Sherlock Holmes’ skills being required to identify who they are or where they fit into the scheme of things.  Of course, web comments provide some interesting sidelines to all of this, inclusive of an obviously well-orchestrated attempt to beatify a gentleman called Dilith Jayaweera who, I am told is a sophisticated and suave “nice guy.”  All of this will, ultimately, come out in the wash I suppose, one a little different to the laundering that provoked the brouhaha in the first place.

And then there was a newspaper headline that proclaimed that a “Five-Star Brothel” had been raided.  This brought to mind the obvious question: who makes these judgements and on what basis are “stars” apportioned in such circumstances?  Are they done, as in the hotel trade where star-apportionment, like kissing, goes by favour leading to some hotels rated as 5-Star getting hugely adverse comments on various web-sites such as Travel Advisor or are there some other criteria that are applied?  Do we have senior politicians (who make judgements on everything these days) cast ballots based on their own expert knowledge of the subject and, if so, are they allowed to print their own ballot papers as they are wont to do at the more common “democratic” elections held in this country?  Is the elections Commissioner (EC) required to issue his self-righteous edicts which amount to nothing before the ballots are cast and then bewail his fate once ballot papers are found in locations other than ballot boxes once the election is over?  Are the results conveyed to a VVIP first who then sends down selected tidbits to the EC as the mood takes him?  Is it necessary to conduct Customer Satisfaction Surveys in a matter of this nature, particularly if we are soliciting the opinions of the afore-mentioned senior politicians?  I really need some Presidential Commission or Government-appointed “expert” to satisfy my curiosity in these matters.

And then there has been the continuing soap opera (tele-drama in Sri Lankan terminology) with regard to several fuel-contamination scandals, with even the largest shark in Sri Lankan business waters claiming to have been duped and treated as a “puppet!”  What things some people say under what they see as adverse circumstances is the commonest response I have heard from the “great unwashed public!”  Given the fact that he was not the favourite human of the “Big Man,” the choice of this businessman to head up a Petroleum Corporation in crisis was always a matter for conjecture.  However, when one views this hiring and firing in the context of the massive confusion that has been created, there is more than a minimal element of planning to it.   In fact, there is a certain a logic to it.  Isn’t it yet another instance of circling the wagons and firing wildly in every direction, maximizing everyone’s disorientation in the hope that it will create a situation in which the facts will be obscured and the thieves more easily make their escape?

I once asked the question, not entirely rhetorically, as to what one does with those whom the gods have driven mad pending their ultimate destruction..  The answer might be emerging right now: be entertained until all of us go down in one flaming fireball in the ultimate bad joke!