Police in teargas attack against student Bhikkus!

Thursday, 30 April 2015

Police fired teargas and water at members of the Inter University Bhikku Bala Mandalaya who had been marching to the University Grants Commission to protest the curtailment of the number of Buddhist monks enrolled

to universities this year. The attack left eight Bhikkus hospitalized, said the organization.

After a protest in front of the Colombo Fort railway station, they had marched to the UGC to handover their demands. Inter University Students Federation convener Najith Indika said they condemned the attack, and that they would inform the media today (30) about their future course  of action.

Some Independent Commissions not answerable to Parliament

By Shamindra Ferdinando-April 29, 2015

The government yesterday declared that the proposed independent Election Commission (EC) and Judicial Service Commission (JSC) wouldn’t be answerable even to parliament, though the President was now accountable to the legislature in accordance with the 19 Amendment to the Constitution.

Government spokesperson and Health Minister Dr. Rajitha Senaratne said that the 19 Amendment to the Constitution had given special status to EC and the JSC. The EC and JSC would be among 10 Independent Commissions to be set up under the 19 Amendment, the minister said.

Senaratne and Media Secretary Karunaratne Paranavithana, addressed the media at the Information Department.

The House on Tuesday night ratified the 19 Amendment to the Constitution with a majority of 212 votes.

Minister Senaratne said: "Setting up of a 10-member Constitutional Council will be a top priority. Once the CC is in place, it’ll go ahead with appointing members to independent commissions."

Admitting that the composition of the CC had to be changed due to the intervention by the Opposition, Minister Senaratne said that in accordance with the original plan the body was to comprise three politicians and seven outsiders. However, the government had finally accepted the Opposition proposal on the composition, the minister said. "Now, CC will consist of seven politicians and three outsiders. It will not cause trouble."

Having enacted the 19 Amendment to the Constitution, the government would now go flat out to reach consensus on electoral reforms to enable the passage of the 20 Amendment ahead of the next parliamentary election, Dr Senaratne said. The government spokesperson was responding to a query from The Island. The minister emphasized that political parties hadn’t reached an agreement on electoral reforms, though there was an understanding among them as regards the required changes. The minister revealed that political parties represented in parliament were in the process of examining two formulas which could facilitate the on-going process to reach agreement on electoral reforms.

Dr. Senaratne urged the media not to misinterpret his statement on sensitive political matters. Alleging that recent coverage on the electoral reforms had caused problems, Dr Senaratne told media to be mindful in reporting on going deliberations.

He emphasized that the electoral system would be changed prior to the dissolution of present parliament. The minister asserted that the finalization of 20 Amendment could take place in a couple of months regardless of the difficulties in re-drawing electorates. The government was also aware of the need to ensure that interests of minorities weren’t undermined; therefore those involved in the process had to move forward with extreme caution.

Minister Senaratne said that when the Supreme Court ruled that two clauses of the Bill titled 19th Amendment to the Constitution needed the approval of the people at a referendum; the government dropped them to ensure the passage of the Amendment. The minister asserted that referendum wouldn’t have been feasible during President Maithripala Sirisena’s 100-day project.

Dr Senaratne said that there would be further dilution of executive powers at the conclusion of incumbent president’s term in office.

My int’l achievements ignored: President

2015-04-29
President Maithripala Sirisena said today that during his tenure as Health Minister, he received two awards -- one from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the other from the University of Harvard – but they were not acknowledged by the previous regime.

“About a month ago, the Excise Department of Excise sent me a report stating that 326 outlets selling tobacco and alcohol without confirming to the necessary guidelines. I submitted a motion recommending that these outlets be closed. In the wake of my recommendation, the Treasury informed me of the difficulty to meet budgetary targets if these outlets were closed down. As far as I can remember, the Treasury earns more than Rs.60 billion as revenue from the sale tobacco and another Rs.55 billion from the sale of alcohol. So this is the current situation,” the President said.

He made these observations at the inauguration of the National Summit on Tobacco titled, Towards a Tobacco-Free Sri Lanka. It was organised by NATA and WHO with the assistance of the Health Ministry and ADIC. Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne and Opposition Leader Nimal Siripala De Silva were also present at the ceremony.

The President said that though he had done his best to maximize the control of tobacco and alcohol use during the past five years, he had received little or no support from the leaders of the previous regime.

“We need to make schoolchildren and the people aware of the dangers of tobacco and alcohol use so that they could be rescued from the clutches of these vices,” he said. (Kamanthi Wickramasinghe)
- See more at: http://www.dailymirror.lk/70813/my-int-l-achievements-ignored-president#sthash.WbC8otUn.dpuf

Basil-Rathana Thera in 5 hour discussion

Thursday, 30 April 2015
Former economic development minister Basil Rohana Rajapaksa, who is in remand custody but spending a super holiday at the Colombo National Hospital’s merchant ward, and Ven. Athuraliye Rathana Thera,

dubbed ‘modern Kudapola Thera’ by president Maithripala Sirisena, had a closed door meeting for more than five hours on April 27, say CNH sources.

Getting himself admitted to the CNH’s merchant ward from Welikada prison by claiming to have a serious heart condition, Basil is thus discussing his political future and the accusations against him with the many politicians of various stature for hours who visit him, say the sources. On one hand, JHU leaders are demanding that the Rajapaksas be sent to the gallows, but on the other, they are deceiving the general public and having discussions with one of them. This is a clear indication of the double standards of the JHU leadership, said the person who revealed this to us.

When contacted, a senior JHU leader said Rathana Thera represents ‘Pivithuru Hetak’ and that the party has no responsibility over his political actions.

Ethnicity, multipolarity and global ‘disorder’

ISIS extremists have been persecuting ancient Christian communities in Mosul, Iraq

April 29, 2015, 12:00 pm 

However, during the Cold War decades, between 1945 and 1990, discord and international ‘disorder’ driven by ethnicity and narrowly conceived nationalism were at a minimum. This was mainly because the bipolar world political order ushered by the Cold War, was dominated mainly by the ideological battle between the super powers and the accompanying Cold War proxy conflicts, which ensured that ethnicity and its ‘appeals’ were on the fringes or outside global political discourse or debate. However, considering their intellectually stifling nature, Cold War times could in no way be endorsed by progressives.

As some of the excesses and atrocities of the World Wars are commemorated globally currently, with remorse and pain by the conscience-stricken, French President Francois Hollande articulated one of the most thought-provoking of observations with regard to these recollections:’The worst could yet return.’

Hollande was referring in particular to the horrors of anti-semitism and racism, evoked by the Nazi death camps in Europe. These atrocities could indeed ‘return’, provided the civilized sections of the world guard against them and take the necessary precautions to ensure that they do not recur. One may even argue that they have ‘returned’, to a degree, if the IS-initiated violence in the Middle East is anything to go by, not to speak of the reemergence of Far Right political parties in the West and their growing intolerance of racial and religious minorities.

In a way, international politics today is evocative of those early decades of the 20th century when we had in place a multipolar global political order, accompanied by the rise of nationalist sentiment in parts of Europe and outside. In those times, essentially, an alliance system dominated international politics, which was West-centred. The First World War, for example, featured an alliance comprising, mainly, Britain, France, Russia, Italy and the US, and another featuring Germany, Austria-Hungary and Turkey, as the main actors. Needless to say, the same alliances, with some mutations and changes, featured in the Second World War as well.

However, Serbian nationalism was a trigger factor in World War One, while German nationalism, compounded by Natzism, was a dominant characteristic of the Second World War. Needless to say, Natzism accounted for the anti-semitic horrors of the latter war. These tragic developments should serve as a reminder that any sort of nationalism, if not handled perceptively by its proponents, could degenerate into destructive communalism and xenophobia of the most heinous kind.

It could be said that in Sri Lanka, in more recent times, communalism was allowed to enjoy a new lease of life. The proof of this were the anti-Muslim riots in parts of Southern Sri Lanka some two years ago. The then authorities seemed to be tolerating this outburst of communalism and religion-based violence by looking the other way. In this country too, ‘the worst could yet return’, provided communalism is stamped out by the government. This challenge demands of the local authorities an unflinching and frank ideological confrontation with the forces of communalism and many a seemingly ‘unpopular’ measure may have to be initiated by them to stem the rot; but this is what governance, correctly understood, is all about.

Getting back to the broader canvas of world politics, the point could be made that until the emergence of the superpowers after the Second World War, we had, broadly speaking, a multipolar world political order, on account of the fact that several power centres dominated international politics at that time. However, some of these powers happened to be grouped into alliances which tried to balance the power wielded by each other, even if it meant going to war. This was the situation in the West in the early decades of the century past.

Therefore, world politics in those years, contained in it factors of instability, which propelled the world in the direction of ‘disorder’ and upheaval. Narrowly conceive nationalism and communalism, or ethnicity, compounded these destabilizing trends and contributed to war-time excesses and atrocities, which, to this day, are regretted by civilzed sections.

Today, as the developing world commemorates the epochal Bandung Conference of 1955, it would be relevant to recall that it was broadly conceived and enlightened nationalism that motivated the Third World at the time. Besides being expressive of self-governance, nationalism was seen as a unifying and inclusive ideal which brought on to the stage of governance all ethnic and cultural groups within a country. This is nationalism as conceived by India’s Mahatma Gandhi, for instance. Nationalism, in Bandung times, did not mean governance of a country by only a dominant community. The latter phenomenon is referred to as ‘sectional nationalism’, which is basically divisive in nature.

However, during the Cold War decades, between 1945 and 1990, discord and international ‘disorder’ driven by ethnicity and narrowly conceived nationalism were at a minimum. This was mainly because the bipolar world political order ushered by the Cold War, was dominated mainly by the ideological battle between the super powers and the accompanying Cold War proxy conflicts, which ensured that ethnicity and its ‘appeals’ were on the fringes or outside global political discourse or debate. However, considering their intellectually stifling nature, Cold War times could in no way be endorsed by progressives.

With the Cold War crumbling in the 1990s, multipolarity could be said to have made a comeback to international politics. Needless to say, although US political, military and economic hegemony continues, US power is being challenged currently by multiple other powers, including China, Russia and to some extent, Iran. Accordingly, multipolarity has displaced bipolarity and its ‘certainties’.

However, even more thought-provoking is the seeming re-emergence of ethnicity-driven conflicts in mainly the Asian and African theatres. While Al-qaeda and IS-linked violence is being confronted by the West and Saudi Arabia-inspired military coalitions, the world is being rendered an increasingly ‘dangerous place’ to live in as a result of these escalating conflicts. A poser for the West is whether its military approach to meeting these challenges is helping in any way to blunt them. Ethnic and religion-based violence in the Middle East and outside is not only aggravating, but identity-linked hatreds are intensifying almost globally. Proof of the latter is the targeting of religious minorities by extremist political forces in the Middle East and in South Asia.

Therefore, the world seems to have ‘reverted’ to the ‘disorder’ of the early decades of the twentieth century. The need is urgent to inculcate in the world’s publics respect for the numerous identities cherished by peoples, which define who they are. This is a task for no less the UN than for those states which claim to be democratic. Democracy and inclusive development need to go hand-in-hand. Progress towards these twin aims could help considerably in making the world a better and safer place.

Sentencing ousted Egyptian President Morsi to 20 year prison

Declaration of war on Egyptian dream for  democracy and freedom

By Latheef Farook-25 April 2015

Ousted Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, elected on 30 June 2012 in the first ever free and fair elections in 61 years, was sentenced to 20 years in prison by a court of the illegitimate military regime of coup leader Abdel Fattah Al Sisi who was installed as president by outside forces.

Sentencing Ousted Egyptian President Morsi to 20 Year Prison by Thavam Ratna

Boy rescued in Kathmandu rubble, aid reaches some remote areas

KATHMANDU | BY GOPAL SHARMA AND RUPAM JAIN NAIR-Thu Apr 30, 2015

(Reuters) - Hundreds of onlookers cheered as rescuers toiling amid the rubble left by Nepal's earthquake pulled a boy to safety on Thursday after he had been trapped for five days, a rare moment of joy for a country struggling to cope with the disaster.

Officials said the chances of finding more survivors were fading as the death toll reached 5,858. But Nepal's Armed Police Force managed to save 15-year-old Pema Lama from the collapsed ruins of Kathmandu's Hilton Hotel.

"I saw the police drilling for four hours to remove mounds of debris before they could pull him out," said Ambar Giri, a medical worker who was at the scene.

Away from the capital, aid was finally reaching some of Nepal's far-flung towns and villages nestled among mountains and foothills, where the extent of the damage and loss of life has yet to be properly assessed.

From an army helicopter flying from Chautara, northeast of Kathmandu, towards the Tibet border, a Reuters witness estimated 70 to 80 percent of buildings had been severely damaged.

In a remote village, an army medical team treated injured locals and soldiers supervised the unloading of goods on a muddy expanse of ground next to a school that served as a helipad.

In Chautara itself, a few people cleared away ruined masonry from the upper floors of their houses and mixed cement by the roadside, as the long rebuilding process began.

Many Nepalis have been sleeping in the open since Saturday's quake. According to the United Nations, 600,000 houses have been destroyed or damaged.

It said eight million people have been affected, with at least two million in need of tents, water, food and medicines over the next three months.

An official from Nepal's home ministry said the number of confirmed deaths from the 7.8 magnitude earthquake had risen to 5,858 by Thursday afternoon, and almost 13,800 were injured.

Anger over the pace of the rescue has flared up in some areas, with Nepalis accusing the government of being too slow to distribute international aid that flooded into the country.

It has yet to reach many in need, particularly in areas hard to access given the quake damage and 

poor weather.

Tensions between foreigners and Nepalis desperate to be evacuated have also surfaced. In Langtang valley, where 150 people are feared trapped, a helicopter pilot was taken hostage by locals demanding to be evacuated first, one report said.

"ON OUR OWN"

In Ashrang village in Gorkha, one of the worst-hit districts about four hours by road west of Kathmandu, hundreds of Nepali villagers were living outdoors with little food and water despite boxes of biscuits, juices and sacks of rice and wheat being stored in a nearby government office.

Police commandos shut the high iron gates of the building, refusing people access while they counted the relief supplies.

"We told them we can manage without their help," said Mohammad Ishaq, a school teacher, who had been offered four plastic sheets. "It is as if we are doing everything on our own, feeding our people, tending to the sick."

But district facilitator Dipendra Shrestha said the local administration was doing what it could to get aid to victims and help foreign teams offering rescue and medical support.

"Owners are refusing to rent out vehicles," he said. "We only have 20 at the moment. We need many more."

A German search and rescue team in the area was shifting focus to medical work, because villagers had managed to dig bodies and survivors from the remains of mud and brick homes themselves.

In the capital, a 28-year-old man pulled from a collapsed apartment block on Tuesday after spending around 80 hours trapped with three dead bodies said his rescue was a mixed blessing.

"I don't even have the money to buy a wheelchair now," Rishi Khanal told Reuters on Thursday, a day after he had one of his legs amputated. "How will I spend the rest of my life and support my family?"

In another tale of escape, a young girl worshipped by many as a living goddess survived Saturday's earthquake near one of the royal palaces in Kathmandu where most other buildings were flattened.

"Her temple stands intact because of her divine powers," Pratap Man Shakya, the girl's father, told Reuters.

APPEAL FOR HELICOPTERS

Nepal is appealing to foreign governments for more helicopters. There are currently about 20 Nepali army, private and Indian army helicopters involved in rescue operations, according to Laxmi Prasad Dhakal, a home ministry official.

China is expected to send helicopters on Thursday, he said.

Prime Minister Sushil Koirala told Reuters earlier this week the death toll from the quake could reach 10,000, with information on casualties and damage in some rural areas yet to come in.

That would surpass the 8,500 who died in a 1934 earthquake, the last disaster on this scale to hit the nation of 28 million people sandwiched between India and China.

In Kathmandu and other cities, hospitals quickly overflowed with injured soon after the quake, with many being treated out in the open or not at all.

"The new waves of patients are those who survived the quake, but are sick because they were living in the open and drinking contaminated water," said Binay Pandey, a doctor at the government-run Bir Hospital in the capital.Pandey said at least 1,200 patients suffering from water-borne illnesses had been admitted in the hospital since Wednesday morning.

Sporadic rains made it difficult for students and volunteers to clean the streets and dispose of garbage.

In the Himalayas, climbing is set to reopen on Mount Everest next week after damage caused by avalanches triggered by the quake is repaired.

A massive avalanche wiped out a swath of Everest base camp, killing 18 climbers and sherpa mountain guides on Saturday. Many climbers have abandoned their ascent of Everest, the world's tallest peak.

(Additional reporting by Sanjeev Miglani, Ross Adkin, Frank Jack Daniel, Andrew Marshall, Adnan Abidi and Christophe Van Der Perre in Nepal, Aman Shah and Clara Ferreira-Marques in Mumbai and Aditya Kalra and Douglas Busvine in New Delhi; Writing by Andrew MacAskill; Editing by Mike Collett-White)

Ten jailed for Pakistan Taliban attack on Malala Yousafzai

Ten men are jailed for 25 years each for their role in 2012 Pakistan Taliban shooting attack on education rights campaigner Malala Yousafzai.

THURSDAY 30 APRIL 2015

They are the first convictions for the attack on Malala, who has since become a symbol of defiance and been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

She was travelling home from school when Taliban militants boarded her bus and shot her in the head. She survived after being airlifted to the UK for treatment.

None of the four or five men accused of carrying out the shooting was among the men convicted on Thursday, an anonymous police source said. However, they all "had a role in the planning and execution of the assassination attempt."

Above: Malala following the 2012 attack by Taliban militants

Atta Ullah Khan has been named as the gunman and it is believed he escaped into Afghanistan. Mullah Fazullah, a cleric in the Swat district of Pakistan where the attack took place, is believed to have ordered the execution and is also wanted by police.

The Pakistan Taliban has no qualms about murdering children, and at the end of last year carried out Pakistan's deadliest ever terrorist attack, killing 145 people including 132 school children at the Army Public School in Peshawar.

Terrorist violence in Pakistan has been responsible for the deaths of more than 8,000 civilians and more than 2,000 security personnel since the start of 2012.

Controversial MEK Leader, Asked to Talk Islamic State, Instead Talks Iran

BY DAVID FRANCIS-APRIL 29, 2015

The controversial leader of an Iranian dissidents group was called to Capitol Hill to lend her expertise about the Islamic State lawmakers. Her testimony Wednesday showed she was only interested in talking about Iran.

Maryam Rajavi, leader of the Iranian dissidents organization Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK), a group that until 2012 was list on the State Department’s terror list, insisted Tehran was the root of the Islamic State’s power. In preparedtestimony, she mentioned Iran 135 times. By comparison, the Islamic State, or ISIS, got 19 mentions; Iraq was mentioned 48 times. Nuclear, as in Iran’s nuclear program, got 31 mentions.

But lawmakers tolerated Rajavi’s notion that “terrorism and fundamentalism came from the mullahs’ regime in Iran. When that is overthrown [the Islamic State] will be destroyed.”

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.), who previously defended to FP his decision to invite Rajavi to testify, used his opening statement to admit she wasn’t an expert on the Islamic State — but could provide insight into the group because of her knowledge on Iran.

Other lawmakers praised Rajavi, who testified via videoconference from Paris, where the headquarters of MEK’s umbrella organization — the National Council of Resistance of Iran — is located. Three House members who are not on the subcommittee were granted permission by chairman Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas) to praise Rajavi and ask her questions. But her answers were often jumbled, hard to hear, and focused on regime change in Iran as opposed to problems in Iraq and Syria.

Two former senior State Department officials rejected Rajavi’s credentials so strongly that they refused to appear with her at the hearing. One — former State counterterrorism director Daniel Benjamin pulled out of the hearing all together to protest the MEK’s inclusion. The other, Mideast expert and former Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford, told reporters after the hearing that the only reason he didn’t join Benjamin was that American lives were on the line in the fight against the Islamic State.

In recent years, the MEK has become well connected with high profile allies in the government and among former U.S. officials like FBI Director Louis Freeh and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

Rajavi’s appearance distracted from substantive differences in how to confront the Islamic State. Ford insisted that that while there are ideologues in its ranks, most of its fighters are frustrated by political corruption and lack of economic opportunity in their homelands.

“For everyone one Osama bin Laden or Ayman al-Zawahiri, 50 people are joining the Islamic State driven by anger … not ideology,” Ford said.

Counterterror expert Walid Phares argued the opposite. “A jihadi doesn’t becomes a jihadi because he has no job,” said Phares, co-secretary general of the Transatlantic Parliamentary Group on Counterterrorism. “He becomes a jihadi simply because of indoctrination.”

Ragavi, however, suggested the roots of the Islamic State stretch back decades.

“Islamic fundamentalism and extremism emerged as a threat to regional and global peace and tranquility after a religious dictatorship came to power in Iran in 1979,” she said in prepared testimony.

She suggested one of the ways to defeat the group is to “recognize the Iranian people’s aspirations to overthrow the mullahs’ regime and end inaction vis-à-vis the flagrant abuses of human rights in Iran.”

Photo Credit: Miguel Medina/Getty Images

10 Shocking Facts About Baltimore

A quarter of the city’s inhabitants live in abject poverty.

by Bill Quigley

( April 30, 2015, Boston, Sri Lanka Guardian) Were you shocked at the disruption in Baltimore? What is more shocking is daily life in Baltimore, a city of 622,000 that is 63 percent African American. Here are 10 numbers that tell some of the story.

5: Blacks in Baltimore are more than 5.6 times more likely to be arrested for possession of marijuana than whites even though marijuana use among the races is similar. Baltimore county has the fifth highest arrest rate for marijuana possessions in the USA.

5.7: Over $5.7 million has been paid out by Baltimore since 2011 in over 100 police brutality lawsuits. Victims of severe police brutality were mostly people of color and included a pregnant woman, a 65-year-old church deacon and an 87-year-old grandmother.

6: White babies born in Baltimore have six more years of life expectancy than African American babies in the city.

8: African Americans in Baltimore are eight times more likely to die from complications of HIV/AIDS than whites and twice as likely to die from diabetes related causes as whites.

8.4: Unemployment is 8.4 percent city wide. Most estimates place the unemployment in the African American community at double that of the white community. The national rate of unemployment for whites is 4.7 percent, for blacks it is 10.1.

9: African American babies in Baltimore are nine times more likely to die before age one than white infants in the city.

20: There is a 20-year difference in life expectancy between those who live in the most affluent neighborhood in Baltimore versus those who live six miles away in the most impoverished.

23.8: 148,000 people, or 23.8 percent of the people in Baltimore, live below the official poverty level.

56: 56.4 percent of Baltimore students graduate from high school.  The national rate is about 80 percent.

92: 92 percent of marijuana possession arrests in Baltimore were of African Americans, one of the highest racial disparities in the US.

Bill Quigley is a human rights lawyer and professor at Loyola University New Orleans College of Law. He is also a member of the legal collective of School of Americas Watch, and can be reached at quigley77@gmail.com.