The Genocidal Situation in Sri Lanka
by International Educational Development & Association of Humanitarian Lawyers,
KAREN PARKER - A TAMIL LOBBYIST IN USA: September 17, 2008
Tamil civilians will have no access to food, water, shelter, medicine and survival needs. As we have pointed out many times, this is an element of the crime of extermination under the International Criminal Court. The Sinhala authorities apparently want no witnesses to the genocide they plan against the Tamils. Anyone, including UN Secretary-General BAN Ki-moon, is accused of aiding the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam because he or she expresses concern for the Tamil civilian population...
In particular, we urge the Council to hold a special session on Sri Lanka as soon as possible as a matter of the utmost urgency due to the impending annihilation of the Tamil people.
GENERAL ASSEMBLY HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL
Agenda item 4
September 17, 2008
The genocidal situation in Sri Lanka
International Educational Development and the Association of Humanitarian Lawyers have addressed the armed conflict in Sri Lanka since it began in 1983. We invite you to consult our written statement (A/HRC/9/NGO/40) on the current crisis situation in Sri Lanka in which we again present our view that the numerous violations of humanitarian law targeting the Tamil civilian population invokes international law relating to genocide. We set out clearly genocidal statements by former and current government officials. As an example of a recent statement, in July 2008 Lt Gen Sarath Fonseca stated: “This country will be ruled by the Sinhalese community which is the majority, representing 74% of the population.” We ask the Sinhala authorities what they propose for the Tamils?
We submitted our written statement only a few weeks ago, and we also addressed the High Commissioner and the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide and Mass Atrocities. But the situation has since deteriorated even further, and the Tamil civilians in the north of the island face complete annihilation. The Sri Lanka authorities are seeking the removal of all international humanitarian organizations, including UN authorities, and the International Committee of the Red Cross. Tamil civilians will have no access to food, water, shelter, medicine and survival needs. As we have pointed out many times, this is an element of the crime of extermination under the International Criminal Court. The Sinhala authorities apparently want no witnesses to the genocide they plan against the Tamils. Anyone, including UN Secretary-General BAN Ki-moon, is accused of aiding the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam because he or she expresses concern for the Tamil civilian population.
In fact, the Sri Lankan authorities circulate the globe spewing anti-Tamil rhetoric at every opportunity. Never in our 30+ years at the UN have we seen such racist rhetoric. No other government would dare to malign an ethnic group the way the Sinhala government in Sri Lanka has the Tamil people. Why the Sri Lankan government continues to do so, continues to excoriate anyone or any government that expresses concerns, and faces no consequences is simply beyond belief.
While many of the Council’s mandate-holders have raised serious concerns in this area for many years, we must question why the Council as a whole has not acted. To maintain any credibility of impartiality and transparency, the Council must act as we suggest in our written statement. In particular, we urge the Council to hold a special session on Sri Lanka as soon as possible as a matter of the utmost urgency due to the impending annihilation of the Tamil people. How will you answer to another Rwanda? END;
Tamils For Justice will say it with full certainity that there will never be another July 1983, leave alone another Ruanda in Sri Lanka.
That is simply nonsense.
Tamils after a quarter of a century since July 1983, will never be like the Jews walking passively into the gas chambers. There is the Freedom Fighters who will defend them against such pogroms.
Tamils should stop crying wolf, and take aggressive action such as boycott of goods and services and calling for sanctions against Sri Lanka.
Otherwise the only beneficiaries are lobbyist, sleazy attorneys, and the Sinhalese.
Speeches, articles, are just bare words, which butters no parsnips.
We have seen that enough and more for quarter of a century.
Tamils for Justice:
Monday, September 22, 2008
Sri Lanka tourist arrivals down by 31.4% in August 2008
Sri Lanka tourist arrivals down by 31.4% in August 2008
Monday, September 22, 2008, 11:52 GMT, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
Sept 22, Colombo: Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority Chairman Renton de Alwis today reported that tourist arrivals for the month of August 2008 has decreased by 31.4% compared to last year.
According to the Chairman August arrivals have gone down to 30,672. “During the first 8 months of this year we have only received 288,017 foreign tourists which also a decline of 8.2% compared to last year,” he revealed.
However, with the winter season just around the corner, Sri Lanka expects an increase in foreign tourist arrivals. -end:
The new Minister of Tourism the UNP Pole Vaulter Milinda Moragoda is exasperated as all his efforts to promote tourism has failed miserably. The latest gimmick of the Minister is to send the new Chief Minister for the Easten Province Podiyan Pillaiyan"
to Tokyo on a tourist promotion trip. Critics and cynics laugh (lol), at the Minister and Chief Minister who is trying to promote worldwide tourism to the the East with NO hotels available in Batticaloa or Amparai district which has been destroyed by the 25 year war, and 2004 Tsunami. Even some hotels on the beach front in Trincomalee has been destroyed by the Tsunami and remains unbuilt.
There is no air transportation to the 3 major domestic airports in the Eastern Province since the civil war, and the air force turning the airports into military installations including the 2 airports in Pallaly and Vavuniya. The road transport is either impossible or too dangerous given the Tamil Para Military groups operating with the assistance and cooperation of the military, STF and the Police. This is another demonstration the Sinhala fools putting the cart before the horse. (Gonnas)or
Booruahs. Morons could be too harsh a word to be used yet.
Above all they need to understand without suing for peace with the liberation organization the LTTE which is neither proscribed nor banned in Sri Lanka since 2002, there cannot be a semblance of prosperity.
The sooner the Goonas realize it the better for the country and everybody that inhabits the Island. The majority's will cannot be unilaterally imposed on the Tamil minority or even the Muslims and the burgers, majority of them have fled beginning from 1956. The Sinhala only policy made many minorities to flee to foreign countries from 1956, as well as the May 27th race riots when the Sinhala hoodlums and thugs, burnt and destroyed buildings, homes, and vehicles. They also raped, killed, burnt innocent Tamil civilians. in an inhuman manner. -Tamils For Justice:
Monday, September 22, 2008, 11:52 GMT, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
Sept 22, Colombo: Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority Chairman Renton de Alwis today reported that tourist arrivals for the month of August 2008 has decreased by 31.4% compared to last year.
According to the Chairman August arrivals have gone down to 30,672. “During the first 8 months of this year we have only received 288,017 foreign tourists which also a decline of 8.2% compared to last year,” he revealed.
However, with the winter season just around the corner, Sri Lanka expects an increase in foreign tourist arrivals. -end:
The new Minister of Tourism the UNP Pole Vaulter Milinda Moragoda is exasperated as all his efforts to promote tourism has failed miserably. The latest gimmick of the Minister is to send the new Chief Minister for the Easten Province Podiyan Pillaiyan"
to Tokyo on a tourist promotion trip. Critics and cynics laugh (lol), at the Minister and Chief Minister who is trying to promote worldwide tourism to the the East with NO hotels available in Batticaloa or Amparai district which has been destroyed by the 25 year war, and 2004 Tsunami. Even some hotels on the beach front in Trincomalee has been destroyed by the Tsunami and remains unbuilt.
There is no air transportation to the 3 major domestic airports in the Eastern Province since the civil war, and the air force turning the airports into military installations including the 2 airports in Pallaly and Vavuniya. The road transport is either impossible or too dangerous given the Tamil Para Military groups operating with the assistance and cooperation of the military, STF and the Police. This is another demonstration the Sinhala fools putting the cart before the horse. (Gonnas)or
Booruahs. Morons could be too harsh a word to be used yet.
Above all they need to understand without suing for peace with the liberation organization the LTTE which is neither proscribed nor banned in Sri Lanka since 2002, there cannot be a semblance of prosperity.
The sooner the Goonas realize it the better for the country and everybody that inhabits the Island. The majority's will cannot be unilaterally imposed on the Tamil minority or even the Muslims and the burgers, majority of them have fled beginning from 1956. The Sinhala only policy made many minorities to flee to foreign countries from 1956, as well as the May 27th race riots when the Sinhala hoodlums and thugs, burnt and destroyed buildings, homes, and vehicles. They also raped, killed, burnt innocent Tamil civilians. in an inhuman manner. -Tamils For Justice:
Sri Lanka Supreme Court condemns overacting of Police taking Tamil census in Colombo:
Sri Lanka Supreme Court condemns overacting of Police Media Spokesman
Monday, September 22, 2008, 17:02 GMT, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
Sept 22, Colombo: Supreme Court of Sri Lanka today hearing a fundamental rights petition filed by the Ceylon Workers Congress on recently conducted census on Tamil migrants to Colombo, ruled that Police Media Spokesman, SSP Ranjith Gunasekara has ventured out of his jurisdiction.
Chief Justice, Sarath N. Silva addressing the Courts has said that Police Media Spokesman, SSP Ranjith Gunasekara got involved in an ‘unwanted programme’ which has created unrest among the citizens.
“Such census should be conducted after receiving the approval from the Attorney General’s Department and would require the Supreme Court’s decision to dispatch Tamil migrants back to North and Eastern parts of Sri Lanka,” Justice Silva has stated.
Monday, September 22, 2008, 17:02 GMT, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
Sept 22, Colombo: Supreme Court of Sri Lanka today hearing a fundamental rights petition filed by the Ceylon Workers Congress on recently conducted census on Tamil migrants to Colombo, ruled that Police Media Spokesman, SSP Ranjith Gunasekara has ventured out of his jurisdiction.
Chief Justice, Sarath N. Silva addressing the Courts has said that Police Media Spokesman, SSP Ranjith Gunasekara got involved in an ‘unwanted programme’ which has created unrest among the citizens.
“Such census should be conducted after receiving the approval from the Attorney General’s Department and would require the Supreme Court’s decision to dispatch Tamil migrants back to North and Eastern parts of Sri Lanka,” Justice Silva has stated.
Attorney General (AG), assures the SupremeCourt that police will not take any action against those who did not take part in a census.
Notice issued to defence secretary
Defence Secretary, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa
New ER have offered sweeping powers to defence secretary
The Supreme Court (SC) in Sri Lanka has issued notice against senior government leaders for extending powers under Emergency Regulations (ER).
Serving notice to the defence secretary, secretary to the president and to Attorney General, the Chief Justice said it is the duty of the court to determine whether the new regulations are constitutional.
Chief Justice Sarath Nanda Silva made the remarks granting leave to proceed to a Fundamental Rights petition filed by the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA).
In a special gazette notification issued in August, the government has authorised the defence secretary to keep detainees, without charging, for more than six months under ER.
CJ Sarath Silva
CJ says it is the duty of the judiciary to determine whether new ER are constitutional
The new regulations, argued the CPA, has transferred magistrate's power to grant bail to the defence secretary.
The state counsel argued that the new regulations were necessary to defeat terrorism.
Terrorism is experienced not only in Sri Lanka but all over the world, the CJ responded, hence it is necessary for the judiciary to determine the legality of the new regulations.
Tamil registration
The Attorney General (AG), meanwhile informed the court that police will not take any action against those who did not take part in a census.
Sri Lanka's police have started registering thousands of people on Sunday, nearly all ethnic Tamils, who have fled the war-torn north for the capital Colombo.
Police started registering thousands of people on Sunday
Insisting that the measure was not a registration of Tamils, the AG said that the police was only carrying out a census of those arrived from the north in Colombo and the suburbs.
The AG also insisted that the government has no plans to send the Tamils arrived in Colombo back to north.
He made these statement as courts was hearing a petition by Ceylon Workers (CWC) against the registration of Tamils.
Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC), a constituent member in the ruling coalition led by President Mahinda Rajapaksa, has strongly opposed the move saying that the latest police move was in violation of a court order on registering people.
In a petition to the SC, the CPA alleged that police were planning to send 15 Tamil families arrested in Dematagoda to north within 24 hours of the arrest.
AG's representative said the government has not issues any such instruction to the police.
Defence Secretary, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa
New ER have offered sweeping powers to defence secretary
The Supreme Court (SC) in Sri Lanka has issued notice against senior government leaders for extending powers under Emergency Regulations (ER).
Serving notice to the defence secretary, secretary to the president and to Attorney General, the Chief Justice said it is the duty of the court to determine whether the new regulations are constitutional.
Chief Justice Sarath Nanda Silva made the remarks granting leave to proceed to a Fundamental Rights petition filed by the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA).
In a special gazette notification issued in August, the government has authorised the defence secretary to keep detainees, without charging, for more than six months under ER.
CJ Sarath Silva
CJ says it is the duty of the judiciary to determine whether new ER are constitutional
The new regulations, argued the CPA, has transferred magistrate's power to grant bail to the defence secretary.
The state counsel argued that the new regulations were necessary to defeat terrorism.
Terrorism is experienced not only in Sri Lanka but all over the world, the CJ responded, hence it is necessary for the judiciary to determine the legality of the new regulations.
Tamil registration
The Attorney General (AG), meanwhile informed the court that police will not take any action against those who did not take part in a census.
Sri Lanka's police have started registering thousands of people on Sunday, nearly all ethnic Tamils, who have fled the war-torn north for the capital Colombo.
Police started registering thousands of people on Sunday
Insisting that the measure was not a registration of Tamils, the AG said that the police was only carrying out a census of those arrived from the north in Colombo and the suburbs.
The AG also insisted that the government has no plans to send the Tamils arrived in Colombo back to north.
He made these statement as courts was hearing a petition by Ceylon Workers (CWC) against the registration of Tamils.
Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC), a constituent member in the ruling coalition led by President Mahinda Rajapaksa, has strongly opposed the move saying that the latest police move was in violation of a court order on registering people.
In a petition to the SC, the CPA alleged that police were planning to send 15 Tamil families arrested in Dematagoda to north within 24 hours of the arrest.
AG's representative said the government has not issues any such instruction to the police.
Inside Sri Lanka: 'There is no freedom' in Jaffna - Stewart Bell, National Post -City an open prison where fear, bloodshed reign
Inside Sri Lanka: 'There is no freedom' in Jaffna
City an open prison where fear, bloodshed reign
Stewart Bell, National Post Published: Monday, September 22, 2008
More On This Story
Sri Lanka: An 'island of blood'
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Podcast: Stewart Bell on Sri Lanka's endless war
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Graphic: Sri Lanka in conflict
*
Gallery: One reporter's Sri Lanka
*
Follow Stewart Bell's Sri Lanka series on our interactive map
Human Rights Policy
*
Political Policy
*
Amnesty International
"It's like an open prison," says Gajen Ponnambalam, the Member of Parliament for Jaffina, regarding the way officials treat the city's Tamil population.Stewart Bell/National Post"It's like an open prison," says Gajen Ponnambalam, the Member of Parliament for Jaffina, regarding the way officials treat the city's Tamil population.
Hundreds of thousands have fled Sri Lanka's civil war, many of them to Canada. While the war zone has been off limits to journalists, the National Post's Stewart Bell recently toured the front lines just as the conflict appears headed for a decisive showdown. This is the second of a six-part series.
The streets around Jaffna City's downtown bazaar are filled with bicycles, trishaws and sari-clad women carrying umbrellas to shade themselves from the harsh tropical sun.
There are also a lot of soldiers. They patrol the streets with automatic rifles and stop buses to check the identity cards of passengers.
In this northern city, the population is almost entirely Tamil -- which to the soldiers means that any of the people on these streets might be Tamil Tigers guerrillas.
Jaffna City was once the second-largest centre in Sri Lanka, after the capital, Colombo, but the rows of empty, bullet-pocked houses on the outskirts of town are a reminder that the civil war has hit hard here.
The Tamil Tigers controlled Jaffna until the Sri Lankan forces retook it in 1995, but more than a dozen years later, daily life could hardly be described as normal.
Troops are everywhere; a curfew remains in effect; nobody dares step outdoors without their National Identity Card; and residents cannot leave without the army's permission.
Locals say the military routinely cordons off neighbourhoods, takes everyone to a school or a playground and holds them overnight for questioning.
Getting out of Jaffna means a two-week wait for military permission and a 24-hour boat trip.
That's because the region is cut off from the rest of the country by the war zone.
"It's like an open prison," says Gajen Ponnambalam, the Member of Parliament for Jaffna and a member of the country's main Tamil opposition party, the Tamil National Alliance.
Even though he is an elected representative for the region, Mr. Ponnambalam lives 400 kilometres away in Colombo. Jaffna is too dangerous. Two TNA MPs were assassinated in 2005 and 2006.
"There is absolutely no security. All the TNA members of parliament from Jaffna have been threatened … the government uses paramilitary groups to carry out these threats."
He says his phone calls to Jaffna are monitored, and when the discussions turn to topics considered sensitive by the government, the line gets cut. "It's a police state, so everything is being monitored."
Journalists considered sympathetic to the Tamil cause live in constant fear. Bullet holes mark the walls inside the Jaffna office of the Uthayan newspaper. A stack of computers sits idle, their screens blasted by gunshots.
Editor M. V. Kaanamylnathan thumbs through a book filled with photos of his reporters and staff, all killed in recent attacks. The newspaper continues to publish regardless.
"We have decided that despite what happens, we have a duty to our readers," he says. "We are just speaking for the rights of the people. This is a newspaper's function."
The civil war that has torn apart Sri Lanka and driven tens of thousands of refugees to Canada has been notable for its horrors. Both sides have been accused of abuses.
The list is long: Suicide bombings, abductions, recruitment of children, torture, ethnic cleansing, political assassinations, unlawful killings and arbitrary arrests and detentions.
Ethnic Tamils can be arrested for "suspicion," which requires no more than a belief they are linked to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) guerrillas waging a separatist war against the government. Some are released. Some are never seen again.
"Outside of the war zones, Tamils are very vulnerable to human rights violations, which come in the form of their houses being raided in the night or being searched in the night," says Jehan Perera, executive director of the National Peace Council of Sri Lanka. "They have to prove their innocence, that they are not LTTE."
Disappearances and killings have occurred in Colombo, but they are said to be worst in Jaffna, he says, although he adds that there are no reliable statistics. Adding to the concerns is the sense that nobody is ever brought to account for the abuses, he says.
"There is a problem of terrorism, people need to be arrested, but this can't be done arbitrarily," he says. "It is happening enough that all Tamils are frightened."
Since the collapse of Sri Lanka's ceasefire in January, international human rights groups have become increasingly alarmed as government forces drive north in an attempt to defeat the Tamil Tigers, and the guerrillas resume their random terrorist attacks.
Deaths of civilians have reached "appalling levels," according to a February report by the International Committee of the Red Cross, which says almost 200 civilians died in the first six weeks of 2008.
A Human Rights Watch report released in March blamed pro-government forces for abductions and disappearances of suspected rebels as well as clergy, aid workers and journalists.
In April, Amnesty International accused both the government and the guerrillas of intentionally targeting civilians and conducting indiscriminate attacks. "Since 2006, the conflict in Sri Lanka between government forces, the LTTE and other armed groups has escalated and has continued to be marked by widespread human rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian law," Amnesty wrote.
A young Tamil man, too afraid to allow his name to be published, spoke nervously about the August night his life was turned upside down.
It was after dark and he was with a friend. They went to meet another friend. All were Tamils. Someone saw them together and told the police.
"I didn't expect they were going to put me in jail," he says, but the next thing he knew, he was taken to a cell. "They took us to a bad ward. There were 250 people staying in a single hole."
The cell was full of hard-looking men, some of whom were smoking ganja. Until that night, he had never even seen the inside of a police station. He was held for a week before being released without any charges.
Now he is uneasy. He believes the police will be watching him. He says if police pick him up again, he will never get out. He says he will no longer venture outside after 8 p. m. "Earlier, I never thought about these things. But now I am afraid."
The Sri Lankan government does not deny that abuses occur, but says they are not state policy and that those found responsible are held accountable.
Attorney-General C. R. De Silva told the United Nations that a Presidential Commission of Inquiry was looking into disappearances, and that police had formed a Disappearances Investigation Unit.
In the past year, 61 police officers have been charged with torture, he says, while in the past decade, 599 members of the security forces and police have been charged in connection with abductions and extra-judicial killings.
Mr. Ponnambalam, the Tamil MP, says that in the past, international pressure could be wielded to curb government excesses. But unlike past Sri Lankan governments, the current administration lacks strong links to Western countries that have typically pushed for negotiations to end the conflict. "President [Mahinda] Rajapaksa is someone of a totally different mindset. He has no such hang-ups basically."
Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, the Defence Secretary and the President's brother, says some people reported as disappeared have actually joined the guerrillas. He cites the case of a man reported missing by his mother. It turned out the man had died while committing a suicide attack near the Colombo Hilton Hotel.
Searches, arrests and detentions are all necessary to prevent terrorist attacks, he says.
"Now we know that each and every Tamil person is not a terrorist, but unfortunately 98% of the terrorists are Tamil because this started as a freedom movement, it started from the Tamils," he says.
"So when you adopt certain control measures, of course the Tamil population will be targeted. You go and search where there are more Tamil people, then you question with a doubt when you see people coming from the north and east. So for these things we get a lot of criticism, but at the end, you save a lot of lives."
The National Post hitched a ride to Jaffna on an Air Force transport and travelled through the high-security zone to the city in a Unicorn armoured vehicle before leaving the company of the military to explore.
Jaffna's roughly 600,000 residents had a brief respite from the war during the ceasefire that began in 2002. The A-9 highway that links the region to the south was reopened for the first time in decades, but the ceasefire soon collapsed and the road was closed once again.
The guerrillas and the army face each other on the eastern edge of Jaffna, where 100 metres of no-man's land separates the forward line of the Sri Lankan Army from the Tamil Tigers. Both lob mortars at each other on a daily basis.
"A lot of skirmishes are going on -- last night there were 12 attacks," says Major General Gammampila Chandrasiri, Area Commander for Jaffna. But he insists life in Jaffna is "coming back to normal."
One prominent Tamil man scoffs at the positive image painted by the General. He says the Tamils of Jaffna are treated like second-class citizens and live in constant fear of the security forces.
"It has gone to the depths, there is no freedom," he says. "Whether you are three or 65 years, they will stop and check your ID card. Now they are suspecting every citizen.
"How can you say that we are living peacefully, how can you say that there is no problem?" he says, afraid to have his name published.
"It is 100% occupation."
TOMORROW
Stewart Bell visits the eastern city of Trincomalee, where he meets a former child guerrilla who left the Tamil Tigers and now serves in the government.
City an open prison where fear, bloodshed reign
Stewart Bell, National Post Published: Monday, September 22, 2008
Sri Lanka: An 'island of blood'
*
Podcast: Stewart Bell on Sri Lanka's endless war
*
Graphic: Sri Lanka in conflict
*
Gallery: One reporter's Sri Lanka
*
Follow Stewart Bell's Sri Lanka series on our interactive map
Human Rights Policy
*
Political Policy
*
Amnesty International
"It's like an open prison," says Gajen Ponnambalam, the Member of Parliament for Jaffina, regarding the way officials treat the city's Tamil population.Stewart Bell/National Post"It's like an open prison," says Gajen Ponnambalam, the Member of Parliament for Jaffina, regarding the way officials treat the city's Tamil population.
Hundreds of thousands have fled Sri Lanka's civil war, many of them to Canada. While the war zone has been off limits to journalists, the National Post's Stewart Bell recently toured the front lines just as the conflict appears headed for a decisive showdown. This is the second of a six-part series.
The streets around Jaffna City's downtown bazaar are filled with bicycles, trishaws and sari-clad women carrying umbrellas to shade themselves from the harsh tropical sun.
There are also a lot of soldiers. They patrol the streets with automatic rifles and stop buses to check the identity cards of passengers.
In this northern city, the population is almost entirely Tamil -- which to the soldiers means that any of the people on these streets might be Tamil Tigers guerrillas.
Jaffna City was once the second-largest centre in Sri Lanka, after the capital, Colombo, but the rows of empty, bullet-pocked houses on the outskirts of town are a reminder that the civil war has hit hard here.
The Tamil Tigers controlled Jaffna until the Sri Lankan forces retook it in 1995, but more than a dozen years later, daily life could hardly be described as normal.
Troops are everywhere; a curfew remains in effect; nobody dares step outdoors without their National Identity Card; and residents cannot leave without the army's permission.
Locals say the military routinely cordons off neighbourhoods, takes everyone to a school or a playground and holds them overnight for questioning.
Getting out of Jaffna means a two-week wait for military permission and a 24-hour boat trip.
That's because the region is cut off from the rest of the country by the war zone.
"It's like an open prison," says Gajen Ponnambalam, the Member of Parliament for Jaffna and a member of the country's main Tamil opposition party, the Tamil National Alliance.
Even though he is an elected representative for the region, Mr. Ponnambalam lives 400 kilometres away in Colombo. Jaffna is too dangerous. Two TNA MPs were assassinated in 2005 and 2006.
"There is absolutely no security. All the TNA members of parliament from Jaffna have been threatened … the government uses paramilitary groups to carry out these threats."
He says his phone calls to Jaffna are monitored, and when the discussions turn to topics considered sensitive by the government, the line gets cut. "It's a police state, so everything is being monitored."
Journalists considered sympathetic to the Tamil cause live in constant fear. Bullet holes mark the walls inside the Jaffna office of the Uthayan newspaper. A stack of computers sits idle, their screens blasted by gunshots.
Editor M. V. Kaanamylnathan thumbs through a book filled with photos of his reporters and staff, all killed in recent attacks. The newspaper continues to publish regardless.
"We have decided that despite what happens, we have a duty to our readers," he says. "We are just speaking for the rights of the people. This is a newspaper's function."
The civil war that has torn apart Sri Lanka and driven tens of thousands of refugees to Canada has been notable for its horrors. Both sides have been accused of abuses.
The list is long: Suicide bombings, abductions, recruitment of children, torture, ethnic cleansing, political assassinations, unlawful killings and arbitrary arrests and detentions.
Ethnic Tamils can be arrested for "suspicion," which requires no more than a belief they are linked to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) guerrillas waging a separatist war against the government. Some are released. Some are never seen again.
"Outside of the war zones, Tamils are very vulnerable to human rights violations, which come in the form of their houses being raided in the night or being searched in the night," says Jehan Perera, executive director of the National Peace Council of Sri Lanka. "They have to prove their innocence, that they are not LTTE."
Disappearances and killings have occurred in Colombo, but they are said to be worst in Jaffna, he says, although he adds that there are no reliable statistics. Adding to the concerns is the sense that nobody is ever brought to account for the abuses, he says.
"There is a problem of terrorism, people need to be arrested, but this can't be done arbitrarily," he says. "It is happening enough that all Tamils are frightened."
Since the collapse of Sri Lanka's ceasefire in January, international human rights groups have become increasingly alarmed as government forces drive north in an attempt to defeat the Tamil Tigers, and the guerrillas resume their random terrorist attacks.
Deaths of civilians have reached "appalling levels," according to a February report by the International Committee of the Red Cross, which says almost 200 civilians died in the first six weeks of 2008.
A Human Rights Watch report released in March blamed pro-government forces for abductions and disappearances of suspected rebels as well as clergy, aid workers and journalists.
In April, Amnesty International accused both the government and the guerrillas of intentionally targeting civilians and conducting indiscriminate attacks. "Since 2006, the conflict in Sri Lanka between government forces, the LTTE and other armed groups has escalated and has continued to be marked by widespread human rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian law," Amnesty wrote.
A young Tamil man, too afraid to allow his name to be published, spoke nervously about the August night his life was turned upside down.
It was after dark and he was with a friend. They went to meet another friend. All were Tamils. Someone saw them together and told the police.
"I didn't expect they were going to put me in jail," he says, but the next thing he knew, he was taken to a cell. "They took us to a bad ward. There were 250 people staying in a single hole."
The cell was full of hard-looking men, some of whom were smoking ganja. Until that night, he had never even seen the inside of a police station. He was held for a week before being released without any charges.
Now he is uneasy. He believes the police will be watching him. He says if police pick him up again, he will never get out. He says he will no longer venture outside after 8 p. m. "Earlier, I never thought about these things. But now I am afraid."
The Sri Lankan government does not deny that abuses occur, but says they are not state policy and that those found responsible are held accountable.
Attorney-General C. R. De Silva told the United Nations that a Presidential Commission of Inquiry was looking into disappearances, and that police had formed a Disappearances Investigation Unit.
In the past year, 61 police officers have been charged with torture, he says, while in the past decade, 599 members of the security forces and police have been charged in connection with abductions and extra-judicial killings.
Mr. Ponnambalam, the Tamil MP, says that in the past, international pressure could be wielded to curb government excesses. But unlike past Sri Lankan governments, the current administration lacks strong links to Western countries that have typically pushed for negotiations to end the conflict. "President [Mahinda] Rajapaksa is someone of a totally different mindset. He has no such hang-ups basically."
Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, the Defence Secretary and the President's brother, says some people reported as disappeared have actually joined the guerrillas. He cites the case of a man reported missing by his mother. It turned out the man had died while committing a suicide attack near the Colombo Hilton Hotel.
Searches, arrests and detentions are all necessary to prevent terrorist attacks, he says.
"Now we know that each and every Tamil person is not a terrorist, but unfortunately 98% of the terrorists are Tamil because this started as a freedom movement, it started from the Tamils," he says.
"So when you adopt certain control measures, of course the Tamil population will be targeted. You go and search where there are more Tamil people, then you question with a doubt when you see people coming from the north and east. So for these things we get a lot of criticism, but at the end, you save a lot of lives."
The National Post hitched a ride to Jaffna on an Air Force transport and travelled through the high-security zone to the city in a Unicorn armoured vehicle before leaving the company of the military to explore.
Jaffna's roughly 600,000 residents had a brief respite from the war during the ceasefire that began in 2002. The A-9 highway that links the region to the south was reopened for the first time in decades, but the ceasefire soon collapsed and the road was closed once again.
The guerrillas and the army face each other on the eastern edge of Jaffna, where 100 metres of no-man's land separates the forward line of the Sri Lankan Army from the Tamil Tigers. Both lob mortars at each other on a daily basis.
"A lot of skirmishes are going on -- last night there were 12 attacks," says Major General Gammampila Chandrasiri, Area Commander for Jaffna. But he insists life in Jaffna is "coming back to normal."
One prominent Tamil man scoffs at the positive image painted by the General. He says the Tamils of Jaffna are treated like second-class citizens and live in constant fear of the security forces.
"It has gone to the depths, there is no freedom," he says. "Whether you are three or 65 years, they will stop and check your ID card. Now they are suspecting every citizen.
"How can you say that we are living peacefully, how can you say that there is no problem?" he says, afraid to have his name published.
"It is 100% occupation."
TOMORROW
Stewart Bell visits the eastern city of Trincomalee, where he meets a former child guerrilla who left the Tamil Tigers and now serves in the government.
Foreign Minister Boggolagama's frolics and worldwide expenditure :
A curse of people in Sri Lanka
No Foreign Minister ever had it so good:Rs. 5 million spent on last trip ; family too in current UN assembly tour
(September 22, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The recent official tour of Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Bogollagama to Brazil which included a frolicsome beach vacation in Rio de Janeiro cost an estimated Rs. five million of people’s funds. Now, he is to join in the delegation to the UN General assembly beginning on Tuesday (23Sep).
Though Bogollagama’s daughter and son in law are not in the official delegation, they too are occupying rooms at the Ritz Carlton Hotel which has a room charge of over US$ 400.00 per day.
The Minister’s public relations officer and his private secretary who were to have separate rooms have been made to give up one room to accommodate Minister’s kith and kin which in Minister’s conception of duty takes precedence over official arrangements and tasks. - Sri Lanka Guardian
Another from the Democratic Socialist Republic of Silly Lanka!
-------------------------
'As enterprise development minister, Bogollagama took a delegation to London for a meeting of the Commonwealth Business Council. He also took his wife Deepthi, son Lakshitha and daughter Dilshani. Their names were
included as members of the delegation. Expenses were borne by the government.'
by Namini Wijedasa
(August 25, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Month after month, Rohitha Bogollagama continues to astound the country with his free-wheeling attitude towards public finance and his blatant abuse of the foreign ministry portfolio for the good of his own.
Since the ministry of foreign affairs fell onto his lap on 28 January 2007, very much like manna from heaven, Bogollagama has been engaged in antics that have made Bozo the Clown look normal in diplomatic circles.
Here we document some of the humorous - and not so humorous escapades of the high-spending minister (not in chronological order). Some of them are from his ministry of enterprise development days. Apologies for the many omissions as we have only so much space.
Bogollagama makes no excuses for brazen nepotism. In fact, he makes a hobby of it. As recently as June, his sister-in-law Jayathri Ranjani Samarakone was named as Sri Lanka's High Commissioner to Singapore.
His brother-in-law, Palitha Ganegoda, was posted to New Delhi and recently promoted to the post of deputy high commissioner. That's not all - Bogollagama's daughter is now reportedly attending medical college in New Delhi while staying for free at the official residence of the deputy high commissioner. Coincidence?
Bogollagama's intended son-in-law, the twentysomething Aminda Rodrigo, was posted as second secretary to Washington last year.
Perhaps to make it much easier for him to spend official money on her travel, Bogollagama made his wife, Deepthi, his private secretary.
When President Rajapaksa went on a state visit to Japan, Bogollagama reportedly insisted on taking his 'personal assistants' - wife and son.
Bogollagama repeatedly shepherds his elder son, Lakshitha, into official meetings that the mere offspring of ministers have no business attending.
He has continued to do this throughout his tenure as foreign minister.
Lakshitha is often seen in the corridors of the foreign ministry, in parliament and by his father's side on international travel.
During a 2007 visit to New Delhi, where his father attended the SAARC Council of Ministers, Lakshitha even issued a press release on behalf of the foreign ministry. It was an unprecedented act.
More recently, daughter Dilshani is also being herded into official discussions. Bogollagama took her to a special meeting of SAARC foreign ministers in Colombo on 31 July 2008. The meeting had been out of bounds
even for ambassadors and high commissioners of the region. Dilshani and Lakshitha were listed as delegates of Sri Lanka.
In response to a query by LAKBIMAnEWS, the foreign ministry revealed in December last year that Bogollagama had far exceeded his 2007 travel budget by more than Rs 10 million. The estimate for 2007 was Rs 31,200,000 but Rs 41,568,000 had been spent by November 30. He had been foreign minister for just eight months. Bogollagama's travel budget for 2008 has been increased
to more than Rs 41 million.
Attempts to get details of Bogollagama's latest travel - and other - expenditure proved futile as these are supposedly 'confidential' files.
However, the costs of supporting the minister are said to be 'astronomical'.
Bogollagama is commonly known to draw lavishly from the budgets of Sri Lanka's overseas missions for his expenses while on international travel.
After he leaves those countries, the missions tie themselves in knots trying to get these enormous expenses reimbursed by the foreign ministry.
Since he became foreign ministry, Bogollagama has made it his business to fly to every little corner of the world - whether or not it serves a national purpose. More often than not, he lands in Sri Lanka during the morning and catches another flight out at night. He is deemed by many in diplomatic circles to be on a 'wata wandanawa'.
Last week, Bogollagama was curiously in Iceland (accompanied by his wife).
He stopped in Frankfurt on the way back, which makes it three times that the man has been to Germany. He has also been to Italy twice, France, Canada, Belgium, the UK more than five times, Kuwait, Jordan, Iran,
Morocco, Libya, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Uganda, Malaysia, Singapore (many times), Philippines, Japan, China (twice), South Korea, Thailand, Myanmar,
India (many times), twice to Pakistan, three times to Maldives, twice to Bangladesh, several times to the US, Nepal, Afghanistan, Bhutan and other countries that we can't immediately name.
During a visit to Washington DC, Bogollagama's hotel bill came to nearly US$60,000. 'He stayed at the Ritz Carlton,' a source said by telephone.
'Some of his family members were there, too, and the bill was paid by our embassy in Washington.'
When they were at the Ritz Carlton in New York two years ago, Bogollagama and his wife had a loud argument in the dead of night in the corridors of the hotel. He was on the same floor as Mahinda Rajapaksa, who was in New
York to address the UN General Assembly.
Bogollagama accompanied President Rajapaksa to London for a two-day mini summit of the Commonwealth heads of government. He soon became an object of
gossip when he tried to jump into a photograph that Rajapaksa and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown were posing for following a bilateral discussion at Number 10, Downing Street. At a dinner in London, a tale bearer told Rajapaksa: 'Sir, the Sri Lanka high commissiner's official vehicle is a Jaguar but it's not being used by her. It's being used by the foreign minister's daughter who lives in London.'
At the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Kampala, Uganda, last year Sri Lanka exposed an embarrassing lack of coordination and political
cohesion in the international arena when Bogollagama supported the suspension of Pakistan from the Commonwealth - only to be publicly contradicted by President Rajapaksa the next day.
At one cabinet meeting, the question of where the Lakshman Kadirgamar memorial statue should be installed arose. The foreign ministry has been
given the task of finding a suitable permanent address for the statue. Bogollagama was absent. President Rajapaksa asked Deputy Minister Hussein
Bhaila where the statue would eventually be erected. Bhaila said he could not tell as Bogollagama was not in Sri Lanka. 'It will take another ten years for him to get back,' Rajapaksa had reportedly said, angrily. 'As
acting minister, you must make a decision. If you can't take decisions in such a manner, I will have to appoint somebody else to your place.'
During a recent breakfast meeting with President Rajapaksa, a senior retired diplomat asked him a question that haunts many 'Why are you tolerating Minister Bogallagama?' 'Aiyo, ey miniha pissek ney!' came the answer.
Canvassing for Sri Lanka's re-election to the UN Human Rights Council, Bogollagama went hunting for votes at the UN in New York. He met the Palestinian representative and requested that he votes for Sri Lanka.
Bogollagama goofed - because Palestine is only an observer and not a full fledged member state.
Just before he visited the US State Department in Washington DC, Bogollagama claimed he was 'very familiar' with the State Department because he had once worked there. 'Some of us thought that maybe he was a
one time CIA agent!' joked a Sri Lankan Washington. The real story is that the US Embassy had hired on a short term contract to provide legal advice to the embassy when it signed some sort of contract with the Sri
Lanka Government. Consequently, Bogollagama had a short stint with the US Information Services which has an office in the State Department. He was based in Washington DC briefly. So much for being 'very familiar' with the US State Department!
After the recent SAARC summit in Colombo, Bogollagama delivered a glowing speech in Parliament thanking all and sundry for the success of the event.
(No surprise that it was a success, considering that his ministry had extracted Rs 2.8 billion from national coffers to meet expenditure related to the summit). That evening, he returned to the foreign ministry where an
officer showed him a statement of thanks issued by President Mahinda Rajapaksa. The statement did not contain a word about the foreign ministry
and, horror of horrors, did not even mention Bogollagama! Visibly upset, he immediately telephoned Gamini Senarath, the president's coordinating
secretary, and had a word. Not long after, a letter came from the president's office. In two or three lines, it thanked the foreign minister and his officers for a job well done.
While President Rajapaksa hosted an official SAARC dinner at Rs 4,000 per head, Bogollagama went the whole hog and ordered lobster, tangy truffle remoulade and caramalized aubergine cream for Rs 10,000 per head for his official SAARC dinner.
Last year, an irritated President Rajapaksa overruled a posting made by Bogollagama and decided to retain K J Weerasinghe, Sri Lanka's ambassador to Brussels, till the end of his term. Chitranganee Wagiswara, a senior
career service diplomat who is Sri Lanka's ambassador to Paris, was also abruptly summoned back to Colombo by Bogollagama. It is learnt that she annoyed the petulant Bogollagama by querying some of the hefty bills he had
left behind after a visit to Paris. Her return, too, was stalled on Rajapaksa's instructions. Wagiswara had led Sri Lanka's successful campaign for re-election to the Executive Board of UNESCO.
Bogollagama reportedly made it impossible for senior retired diplomat C D Casie Chetty to function as executive director of the Kadirgamar Institute
for International Relations and Strategic Studies. He left in disgust.
It is reported that Bogollagama uses the premises of the Kadirgamar Institute in Horton Place as he would his own home (when in Sri Lanka, that is). A newspaper once reported that his security guards close down the
institute and chase away people when Bogollagama arrives at the scene. One morning, members of the government's advisory board of the Sethu Samudram
project - including two secretaries of ministries - arrived at the Institute for a meeting but were shut out by Bogollagama's guards as he was breakfasting there. Some left in disgut while the others parked at a
distance and waited till the minister left around 11 am - followed by the catering truck of a five-star hotel.
As enterprise development minister, Bogollagama took a delegation to London for a meeting of the Commonwealth Business Council. He also took his wife Deepthi, son Lakshitha and daughter Dilshani. Their names were included as members of the delegation. Expenses were borne by the government.
Also as enterprise development minister, Bogollagama took his wife and children to Geneva (for peace talks with the LTTE) even after President Mahinda Rajapaksa instructed the delegation that family members must stay
behind. The Bogollagama family stayed at the Geneva Hilton when everyone else was put up at the Chateau de Bossey where talks were being held. Once again, questions were raised over his expenditure but no action was taken.
When Bogollagama's son met with a nasty accident in the US some years ago (when he was still in the UNP), he sought the assistance of the Sri Lanka embassy in Washington DC which helped him to get money from the President's Fund to pay the son's massive medical bill.
(Courtesy: Lakbima News, weekly news paper based in Colombo)
- Sri Lanka Guardian
Rajah Abeyasinghe JP
80/6, Templer's Road
Mt Lavinia
Sri Lanka
Office - 0094 11 2671338/9
Home - 0094 11 2737800
Mobile - 0094 722 256479
Email - rajah@ate.com.lk
No Foreign Minister ever had it so good:Rs. 5 million spent on last trip ; family too in current UN assembly tour
(September 22, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The recent official tour of Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Bogollagama to Brazil which included a frolicsome beach vacation in Rio de Janeiro cost an estimated Rs. five million of people’s funds. Now, he is to join in the delegation to the UN General assembly beginning on Tuesday (23Sep).
Though Bogollagama’s daughter and son in law are not in the official delegation, they too are occupying rooms at the Ritz Carlton Hotel which has a room charge of over US$ 400.00 per day.
The Minister’s public relations officer and his private secretary who were to have separate rooms have been made to give up one room to accommodate Minister’s kith and kin which in Minister’s conception of duty takes precedence over official arrangements and tasks. - Sri Lanka Guardian
Another from the Democratic Socialist Republic of Silly Lanka!
-------------------------
'As enterprise development minister, Bogollagama took a delegation to London for a meeting of the Commonwealth Business Council. He also took his wife Deepthi, son Lakshitha and daughter Dilshani. Their names were
included as members of the delegation. Expenses were borne by the government.'
by Namini Wijedasa
(August 25, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Month after month, Rohitha Bogollagama continues to astound the country with his free-wheeling attitude towards public finance and his blatant abuse of the foreign ministry portfolio for the good of his own.
Since the ministry of foreign affairs fell onto his lap on 28 January 2007, very much like manna from heaven, Bogollagama has been engaged in antics that have made Bozo the Clown look normal in diplomatic circles.
Here we document some of the humorous - and not so humorous escapades of the high-spending minister (not in chronological order). Some of them are from his ministry of enterprise development days. Apologies for the many omissions as we have only so much space.
Bogollagama makes no excuses for brazen nepotism. In fact, he makes a hobby of it. As recently as June, his sister-in-law Jayathri Ranjani Samarakone was named as Sri Lanka's High Commissioner to Singapore.
His brother-in-law, Palitha Ganegoda, was posted to New Delhi and recently promoted to the post of deputy high commissioner. That's not all - Bogollagama's daughter is now reportedly attending medical college in New Delhi while staying for free at the official residence of the deputy high commissioner. Coincidence?
Bogollagama's intended son-in-law, the twentysomething Aminda Rodrigo, was posted as second secretary to Washington last year.
Perhaps to make it much easier for him to spend official money on her travel, Bogollagama made his wife, Deepthi, his private secretary.
When President Rajapaksa went on a state visit to Japan, Bogollagama reportedly insisted on taking his 'personal assistants' - wife and son.
Bogollagama repeatedly shepherds his elder son, Lakshitha, into official meetings that the mere offspring of ministers have no business attending.
He has continued to do this throughout his tenure as foreign minister.
Lakshitha is often seen in the corridors of the foreign ministry, in parliament and by his father's side on international travel.
During a 2007 visit to New Delhi, where his father attended the SAARC Council of Ministers, Lakshitha even issued a press release on behalf of the foreign ministry. It was an unprecedented act.
More recently, daughter Dilshani is also being herded into official discussions. Bogollagama took her to a special meeting of SAARC foreign ministers in Colombo on 31 July 2008. The meeting had been out of bounds
even for ambassadors and high commissioners of the region. Dilshani and Lakshitha were listed as delegates of Sri Lanka.
In response to a query by LAKBIMAnEWS, the foreign ministry revealed in December last year that Bogollagama had far exceeded his 2007 travel budget by more than Rs 10 million. The estimate for 2007 was Rs 31,200,000 but Rs 41,568,000 had been spent by November 30. He had been foreign minister for just eight months. Bogollagama's travel budget for 2008 has been increased
to more than Rs 41 million.
Attempts to get details of Bogollagama's latest travel - and other - expenditure proved futile as these are supposedly 'confidential' files.
However, the costs of supporting the minister are said to be 'astronomical'.
Bogollagama is commonly known to draw lavishly from the budgets of Sri Lanka's overseas missions for his expenses while on international travel.
After he leaves those countries, the missions tie themselves in knots trying to get these enormous expenses reimbursed by the foreign ministry.
Since he became foreign ministry, Bogollagama has made it his business to fly to every little corner of the world - whether or not it serves a national purpose. More often than not, he lands in Sri Lanka during the morning and catches another flight out at night. He is deemed by many in diplomatic circles to be on a 'wata wandanawa'.
Last week, Bogollagama was curiously in Iceland (accompanied by his wife).
He stopped in Frankfurt on the way back, which makes it three times that the man has been to Germany. He has also been to Italy twice, France, Canada, Belgium, the UK more than five times, Kuwait, Jordan, Iran,
Morocco, Libya, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Uganda, Malaysia, Singapore (many times), Philippines, Japan, China (twice), South Korea, Thailand, Myanmar,
India (many times), twice to Pakistan, three times to Maldives, twice to Bangladesh, several times to the US, Nepal, Afghanistan, Bhutan and other countries that we can't immediately name.
During a visit to Washington DC, Bogollagama's hotel bill came to nearly US$60,000. 'He stayed at the Ritz Carlton,' a source said by telephone.
'Some of his family members were there, too, and the bill was paid by our embassy in Washington.'
When they were at the Ritz Carlton in New York two years ago, Bogollagama and his wife had a loud argument in the dead of night in the corridors of the hotel. He was on the same floor as Mahinda Rajapaksa, who was in New
York to address the UN General Assembly.
Bogollagama accompanied President Rajapaksa to London for a two-day mini summit of the Commonwealth heads of government. He soon became an object of
gossip when he tried to jump into a photograph that Rajapaksa and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown were posing for following a bilateral discussion at Number 10, Downing Street. At a dinner in London, a tale bearer told Rajapaksa: 'Sir, the Sri Lanka high commissiner's official vehicle is a Jaguar but it's not being used by her. It's being used by the foreign minister's daughter who lives in London.'
At the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Kampala, Uganda, last year Sri Lanka exposed an embarrassing lack of coordination and political
cohesion in the international arena when Bogollagama supported the suspension of Pakistan from the Commonwealth - only to be publicly contradicted by President Rajapaksa the next day.
At one cabinet meeting, the question of where the Lakshman Kadirgamar memorial statue should be installed arose. The foreign ministry has been
given the task of finding a suitable permanent address for the statue. Bogollagama was absent. President Rajapaksa asked Deputy Minister Hussein
Bhaila where the statue would eventually be erected. Bhaila said he could not tell as Bogollagama was not in Sri Lanka. 'It will take another ten years for him to get back,' Rajapaksa had reportedly said, angrily. 'As
acting minister, you must make a decision. If you can't take decisions in such a manner, I will have to appoint somebody else to your place.'
During a recent breakfast meeting with President Rajapaksa, a senior retired diplomat asked him a question that haunts many 'Why are you tolerating Minister Bogallagama?' 'Aiyo, ey miniha pissek ney!' came the answer.
Canvassing for Sri Lanka's re-election to the UN Human Rights Council, Bogollagama went hunting for votes at the UN in New York. He met the Palestinian representative and requested that he votes for Sri Lanka.
Bogollagama goofed - because Palestine is only an observer and not a full fledged member state.
Just before he visited the US State Department in Washington DC, Bogollagama claimed he was 'very familiar' with the State Department because he had once worked there. 'Some of us thought that maybe he was a
one time CIA agent!' joked a Sri Lankan Washington. The real story is that the US Embassy had hired on a short term contract to provide legal advice to the embassy when it signed some sort of contract with the Sri
Lanka Government. Consequently, Bogollagama had a short stint with the US Information Services which has an office in the State Department. He was based in Washington DC briefly. So much for being 'very familiar' with the US State Department!
After the recent SAARC summit in Colombo, Bogollagama delivered a glowing speech in Parliament thanking all and sundry for the success of the event.
(No surprise that it was a success, considering that his ministry had extracted Rs 2.8 billion from national coffers to meet expenditure related to the summit). That evening, he returned to the foreign ministry where an
officer showed him a statement of thanks issued by President Mahinda Rajapaksa. The statement did not contain a word about the foreign ministry
and, horror of horrors, did not even mention Bogollagama! Visibly upset, he immediately telephoned Gamini Senarath, the president's coordinating
secretary, and had a word. Not long after, a letter came from the president's office. In two or three lines, it thanked the foreign minister and his officers for a job well done.
While President Rajapaksa hosted an official SAARC dinner at Rs 4,000 per head, Bogollagama went the whole hog and ordered lobster, tangy truffle remoulade and caramalized aubergine cream for Rs 10,000 per head for his official SAARC dinner.
Last year, an irritated President Rajapaksa overruled a posting made by Bogollagama and decided to retain K J Weerasinghe, Sri Lanka's ambassador to Brussels, till the end of his term. Chitranganee Wagiswara, a senior
career service diplomat who is Sri Lanka's ambassador to Paris, was also abruptly summoned back to Colombo by Bogollagama. It is learnt that she annoyed the petulant Bogollagama by querying some of the hefty bills he had
left behind after a visit to Paris. Her return, too, was stalled on Rajapaksa's instructions. Wagiswara had led Sri Lanka's successful campaign for re-election to the Executive Board of UNESCO.
Bogollagama reportedly made it impossible for senior retired diplomat C D Casie Chetty to function as executive director of the Kadirgamar Institute
for International Relations and Strategic Studies. He left in disgust.
It is reported that Bogollagama uses the premises of the Kadirgamar Institute in Horton Place as he would his own home (when in Sri Lanka, that is). A newspaper once reported that his security guards close down the
institute and chase away people when Bogollagama arrives at the scene. One morning, members of the government's advisory board of the Sethu Samudram
project - including two secretaries of ministries - arrived at the Institute for a meeting but were shut out by Bogollagama's guards as he was breakfasting there. Some left in disgut while the others parked at a
distance and waited till the minister left around 11 am - followed by the catering truck of a five-star hotel.
As enterprise development minister, Bogollagama took a delegation to London for a meeting of the Commonwealth Business Council. He also took his wife Deepthi, son Lakshitha and daughter Dilshani. Their names were included as members of the delegation. Expenses were borne by the government.
Also as enterprise development minister, Bogollagama took his wife and children to Geneva (for peace talks with the LTTE) even after President Mahinda Rajapaksa instructed the delegation that family members must stay
behind. The Bogollagama family stayed at the Geneva Hilton when everyone else was put up at the Chateau de Bossey where talks were being held. Once again, questions were raised over his expenditure but no action was taken.
When Bogollagama's son met with a nasty accident in the US some years ago (when he was still in the UNP), he sought the assistance of the Sri Lanka embassy in Washington DC which helped him to get money from the President's Fund to pay the son's massive medical bill.
(Courtesy: Lakbima News, weekly news paper based in Colombo)
- Sri Lanka Guardian
Rajah Abeyasinghe JP
80/6, Templer's Road
Mt Lavinia
Sri Lanka
Office - 0094 11 2671338/9
Home - 0094 11 2737800
Mobile - 0094 722 256479
Email - rajah@ate.com.lk
Bruce Fein openly declares in his book that he "frowns on government regulation … to manipulate or distort free market choices."
Bruce Fein's new book "Constitutional Peril: The Life and Death Struggle for Our Constitution and Democracy," is written by someone who admits he voted for Bush and Cheney twice, supported the appointments of John Roberts and Samuel Alito with no apparent regrets, proposes Robert Bork as a model justice, admires Rehnquist and Scalia, supported the impeachment of Bill Clinton and wanted him convicted, served as associate deputy attorney general to Ronald Reagan and general counsel of the Federal Communications Commission under Reagan (who -- you'll recall -- eliminated the Fairness Doctrine), worked as research director for Congressman Dick Cheney when they blocked investigation of Reagan's Iran-Contra crimes and prevented his impeachment, has been a visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation, opposes Roe v. Wade and affirmative action and any minimum wage, supports discrimination against homosexuals, and -- in an unfortunate bit of timing -- openly declares on page 20 that he "frowns on government regulation … to manipulate or distort free market choices."
Yet, if you set aside pages 19 through 21, I agree with pretty much all the main points in this book. That they come from someone on the right has had no impact on them that I can discern. That they come from Bruce Fein has given them a unique foundation in historical and legal facts, benefitting from Fein's understanding of history, both distant and Nixonian. Fein did not support Nixon's crimes any more than Bush's and Cheney's, but he does recognize the greater gravity of the latter.
Fein's political perspective may have had some impact -- I don't know for sure -- on his choice of which crimes to focus on. His book is particularly worth reading if you want the low down on illegal spying, illegal secrecy, and illegal rendition. Fein goes very light on the war and many other crimes and abuses. On page 2 he rather obscenely refers to the "hundreds [sic] of civilians who have been killed by the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan." Two serious studies have been done of the Iraqi death count resulting from the invasion and occupation, both placing the count well over a million. One is Just Foreign Policy's updated figure based on an initial but now outdated report by Johns Hopkins / Lancet. The other is an August 2007 study by the British polling company Opinion Research Business, then estimating 1.2 million, now also out of date. See: http://justforeignpolicy.org/iraq/iraqdeaths.html I think you'd be hard pressed to find any neocons in Washington who would claim the total was under 10,000, except apparently for Fein.
I also object to Fein's claim on page 41 that the American people have not "flooded Pelosi's office with protesting Emails or phone calls," over her refusal to impeach. Where did Fein get such an absurd idea? From Pelosi? And he believed her? Or did he just pull it out of thin air based on the Washington Post's and the Washington Times' failure to report on the fact that we've shut Pelosi's office down with floods of Emails, faxes, and phone calls over a period of well over a year, that we've sat in her office, delivered petitions to her office, camped out endlessly in her front yard in San Francisco (which has made lots of media and generated her complaint that she can't have us arrested the way she would if we were poor people unprotected by the First Amendment), disrupted her speaking events, marched from Boston to her DC office, saturated the internet and progressive radio with complaints against her, and run Cindy Sheehan against her as an impeachment candidate for Congress.
I also disagree somewhat with some of Fein's points on pages 44-45. Fein thinks that Americans are slow to grow outraged over abuses of civil rights because most of those abused are non-Americans with foreign-sounding names. I think there is a lot of truth in that, and yet there are numerous American victims, including political prisoners like the former governor of Alabama. Americans have been spied on. American whistleblowers, including in the Justice Department -- such as Jesslyn Radack -- have had their careers destroyed as retribution for speaking out, and for speaking out against abuses of other Americans. Americans have been deceived by illegal propaganda. Americans (like Cindy Sheehan's son) have been sent to their deaths for a pile of lies. Americans live on the globe the accelerated warming of which Fein does not touch on. In short, there are specific American victims, and we are all victims of outrageous criminal acts and criminal negligence. And when Fein proposes that candidates for president should promise not to "detain without trial any American citizen," I think he is playing to the same xenophobia he diagnoses. We should not tolerate the detention without trial of anyone.
But these are minor points I'm picking out of a 204-page book that is absolutely devastating in its demand for the immediate impeachment of Bush and Cheney. And this is obviously a book that can be given to your right-wing uncle with the most likely chance of him not dismissing it quickly. Fein's analysis of the peril in which we find ourselves is devastating -- and depressing. Sadly, he offers no advice for what we can do about it, other than demanding impeachment. He organizes nothing, and he openly predicts failure, which is just not an effective way to encourage action. And yet it seems pure and honest, and Fein offers these dead-on accurate and ethical words of advice:
"It might be asked, if the overwhelming majority of Americans are vastly more thrilled by sporting events and creature comforts than they are by the moral challenges and burdens of self-government, then why struggle against this inexorable tide? The answer is two-fold. Anything else would be dishonorable. And you might leave footprints in the sands of time to inspire someone yet to be born to champion freedom in more propitious circumstances."
Take action -- click here to contact your local newspaper or congress people:
IMPEACH
Click here to see the most recent messages sent to congressional reps and local newspapers
http://www.davidswanson.org
DAVID SWANSON is a co-founder of After Downing Street, a writer and activist, and the Washington Director of Democrats.com. He is a board member of Progressive Democrats of America, and serves on the Executive Council of the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild, TNG-CWA. He has worked as a newspaper reporter and as a communications director, with jobs including Press Secretary for Dennis Kucinich's 2004 presidential campaign, Media Coordinator for the International Labor Communications Association, and three years as Communications Coordinator for ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. Swanson obtained a Master's degree in philosophy from the University of Virginia in 1997.
Yet, if you set aside pages 19 through 21, I agree with pretty much all the main points in this book. That they come from someone on the right has had no impact on them that I can discern. That they come from Bruce Fein has given them a unique foundation in historical and legal facts, benefitting from Fein's understanding of history, both distant and Nixonian. Fein did not support Nixon's crimes any more than Bush's and Cheney's, but he does recognize the greater gravity of the latter.
Fein's political perspective may have had some impact -- I don't know for sure -- on his choice of which crimes to focus on. His book is particularly worth reading if you want the low down on illegal spying, illegal secrecy, and illegal rendition. Fein goes very light on the war and many other crimes and abuses. On page 2 he rather obscenely refers to the "hundreds [sic] of civilians who have been killed by the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan." Two serious studies have been done of the Iraqi death count resulting from the invasion and occupation, both placing the count well over a million. One is Just Foreign Policy's updated figure based on an initial but now outdated report by Johns Hopkins / Lancet. The other is an August 2007 study by the British polling company Opinion Research Business, then estimating 1.2 million, now also out of date. See: http://justforeignpolicy.org/iraq/iraqdeaths.html I think you'd be hard pressed to find any neocons in Washington who would claim the total was under 10,000, except apparently for Fein.
I also object to Fein's claim on page 41 that the American people have not "flooded Pelosi's office with protesting Emails or phone calls," over her refusal to impeach. Where did Fein get such an absurd idea? From Pelosi? And he believed her? Or did he just pull it out of thin air based on the Washington Post's and the Washington Times' failure to report on the fact that we've shut Pelosi's office down with floods of Emails, faxes, and phone calls over a period of well over a year, that we've sat in her office, delivered petitions to her office, camped out endlessly in her front yard in San Francisco (which has made lots of media and generated her complaint that she can't have us arrested the way she would if we were poor people unprotected by the First Amendment), disrupted her speaking events, marched from Boston to her DC office, saturated the internet and progressive radio with complaints against her, and run Cindy Sheehan against her as an impeachment candidate for Congress.
I also disagree somewhat with some of Fein's points on pages 44-45. Fein thinks that Americans are slow to grow outraged over abuses of civil rights because most of those abused are non-Americans with foreign-sounding names. I think there is a lot of truth in that, and yet there are numerous American victims, including political prisoners like the former governor of Alabama. Americans have been spied on. American whistleblowers, including in the Justice Department -- such as Jesslyn Radack -- have had their careers destroyed as retribution for speaking out, and for speaking out against abuses of other Americans. Americans have been deceived by illegal propaganda. Americans (like Cindy Sheehan's son) have been sent to their deaths for a pile of lies. Americans live on the globe the accelerated warming of which Fein does not touch on. In short, there are specific American victims, and we are all victims of outrageous criminal acts and criminal negligence. And when Fein proposes that candidates for president should promise not to "detain without trial any American citizen," I think he is playing to the same xenophobia he diagnoses. We should not tolerate the detention without trial of anyone.
But these are minor points I'm picking out of a 204-page book that is absolutely devastating in its demand for the immediate impeachment of Bush and Cheney. And this is obviously a book that can be given to your right-wing uncle with the most likely chance of him not dismissing it quickly. Fein's analysis of the peril in which we find ourselves is devastating -- and depressing. Sadly, he offers no advice for what we can do about it, other than demanding impeachment. He organizes nothing, and he openly predicts failure, which is just not an effective way to encourage action. And yet it seems pure and honest, and Fein offers these dead-on accurate and ethical words of advice:
"It might be asked, if the overwhelming majority of Americans are vastly more thrilled by sporting events and creature comforts than they are by the moral challenges and burdens of self-government, then why struggle against this inexorable tide? The answer is two-fold. Anything else would be dishonorable. And you might leave footprints in the sands of time to inspire someone yet to be born to champion freedom in more propitious circumstances."
Take action -- click here to contact your local newspaper or congress people:
IMPEACH
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http://www.davidswanson.org
DAVID SWANSON is a co-founder of After Downing Street, a writer and activist, and the Washington Director of Democrats.com. He is a board member of Progressive Democrats of America, and serves on the Executive Council of the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild, TNG-CWA. He has worked as a newspaper reporter and as a communications director, with jobs including Press Secretary for Dennis Kucinich's 2004 presidential campaign, Media Coordinator for the International Labor Communications Association, and three years as Communications Coordinator for ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. Swanson obtained a Master's degree in philosophy from the University of Virginia in 1997.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
CSC's Container ship Lanka Mahapola sustains massive damage in Dubai:
Lanka Mahapola sustains massive damage
By Aisha Edris
The cost of repairing the massive damage caused to Ceylon Shipping Corporation (CSC) vessel Lanka Mahapola due to an explosion last week, has been tentatively estimated at Rs. 40 million.
A 20-foot container aboard the vessel containing liquid gas exploded while a consignment was being shipped from Dubai to Doha.
According to a CSC official, the actual cost of the damage was still to be determined by the Corporation. The vessel was moved to Abu Dhabi for inspection and repairs. It would take at least 10 days to complete the repairs.
Officials added that CSC was hoping to take legal action against the Singapore based company which had chartered the ship.
****
By Aisha Edris
The cost of repairing the massive damage caused to Ceylon Shipping Corporation (CSC) vessel Lanka Mahapola due to an explosion last week, has been tentatively estimated at Rs. 40 million.
A 20-foot container aboard the vessel containing liquid gas exploded while a consignment was being shipped from Dubai to Doha.
According to a CSC official, the actual cost of the damage was still to be determined by the Corporation. The vessel was moved to Abu Dhabi for inspection and repairs. It would take at least 10 days to complete the repairs.
Officials added that CSC was hoping to take legal action against the Singapore based company which had chartered the ship.
****
Report on Sri Lanka's war crimes in the European Social Forum 2008 in Sweden :
Report on Sri Lanka's war crimes in the European Social Forum 2008 in Sweden:
The European Social Forum 2008 is presently taking place in Malmo, in Southern Sweden. The Tamil Centre for Human Rights – TCHR, which has its head office in France, is one of the registered participants. Nearly 20,000 people from various parts of Europe and other continents are taking part.
This forum is an important meeting place for social movements and progressive civil society in Europe. Its aims to create a better Europe and a better world.
The forum was inaugurated on Wednesday evening, 17th September, with speakers and performers from all over the world, from local to global. It will continue to take place until Sunday 21st with nearly two hundred seminars and workshops, and more cultural events, film, music, informal meetings, activism and demonstrations.
Representatives of TCHR are participating in many seminars and workshops along with many other Tamil Representatives from various diaspora organisations from Scandinavians countries and other parts of Europe. The reports distributed by TCHR in this Forum highlight the human rights violations and war crimes committed by the notorious Sri Lankan armed forces against innocent Tamil people in the North East.
It is to be noted that a few days ago TCHR officially and successfully participated in the NGO conference at UNESCO in Paris.
According to TCHR sources, the news items appearing in various pro-Sri Lankan government media, were all highly exaggerated and scribed to satisfy the writers’ masters that the money paid to them had been spent effectively.
Also, the news items about UNESCO revealed the competition among Sri Lankan government representatives in foreign countries. The Paris representatives jumped, in order to convince Mahinda Rajapaksa that they are the smartest amongst those working abroad.
However, TCHR representatives said that they would like to thank those who had created the exaggerated news stories about what happened at UNESCO, as these writings had fortuitously made the presence of TCHR in the conference, known to a great many individuals and delegations from around the world, rather than to only a few. [THE END]
The European Social Forum 2008 is presently taking place in Malmo, in Southern Sweden. The Tamil Centre for Human Rights – TCHR, which has its head office in France, is one of the registered participants. Nearly 20,000 people from various parts of Europe and other continents are taking part.
This forum is an important meeting place for social movements and progressive civil society in Europe. Its aims to create a better Europe and a better world.
The forum was inaugurated on Wednesday evening, 17th September, with speakers and performers from all over the world, from local to global. It will continue to take place until Sunday 21st with nearly two hundred seminars and workshops, and more cultural events, film, music, informal meetings, activism and demonstrations.
Representatives of TCHR are participating in many seminars and workshops along with many other Tamil Representatives from various diaspora organisations from Scandinavians countries and other parts of Europe. The reports distributed by TCHR in this Forum highlight the human rights violations and war crimes committed by the notorious Sri Lankan armed forces against innocent Tamil people in the North East.
It is to be noted that a few days ago TCHR officially and successfully participated in the NGO conference at UNESCO in Paris.
According to TCHR sources, the news items appearing in various pro-Sri Lankan government media, were all highly exaggerated and scribed to satisfy the writers’ masters that the money paid to them had been spent effectively.
Also, the news items about UNESCO revealed the competition among Sri Lankan government representatives in foreign countries. The Paris representatives jumped, in order to convince Mahinda Rajapaksa that they are the smartest amongst those working abroad.
However, TCHR representatives said that they would like to thank those who had created the exaggerated news stories about what happened at UNESCO, as these writings had fortuitously made the presence of TCHR in the conference, known to a great many individuals and delegations from around the world, rather than to only a few. [THE END]
Chief Priest of Koa'neasvaram Temple assassinated in Trincomalee
Chief Priest of Koa'neasvaram Temple assassinated in Trincomalee
Sunday, 21 September 2008, 14:33 GMT
Unidentified armed men shot and killed the Chief Priest of the historic Trincomalee Koa'neasvaram Temple, Sivashri Kugarajakurrukal, Sunday around 6:00 p.m. The killing took place along Viththiyalayam Road located in the heart of Trincomalee city. The deceased had been riding in his motorbike when he was shot by assassin who also came in a motor bicycle, police said. The priest had returned from India four days ago, temple sources said.
Two bullets struck on priest's head and he died instantly.
Koa'nesvaram Temple is located inside the Fort Frederick where the Trincomalee Government Agent's officie and the Gajaba Regiment of the Sri Lanka Army have been functioning.
Sivashri Kugarajakurrukal had been the chief priest of the Koa'nesvaram Temple for the last five years.
Grenade attack on UNP candidate's residence in Batticaloa
Sunday, 21 September 2008, 09:02 GMT.
Unidentified attackers lobbed a grenade into the house of a Tamil candidate of the United National Party (UNP) for the second time, Kalkudaa police said. The UNP member, Jehan Arumugam, 27, said he has been threatening telephone calls from the TMVP paramilitary from May, 2008, when Eastern provincial council elections were held. The attack on Saturday took place around 11:00 p.m. No body was injured.
Earlier, on 18 May, two grenades were lobbed on his house, which is located along Kalkudaa main road.
Mr. Jehan had complained, already during the election campaign, that he has been receiving threatening telephone calls from TMVP personnel.
Sunday, 21 September 2008, 14:33 GMT
Unidentified armed men shot and killed the Chief Priest of the historic Trincomalee Koa'neasvaram Temple, Sivashri Kugarajakurrukal, Sunday around 6:00 p.m. The killing took place along Viththiyalayam Road located in the heart of Trincomalee city. The deceased had been riding in his motorbike when he was shot by assassin who also came in a motor bicycle, police said. The priest had returned from India four days ago, temple sources said.
Two bullets struck on priest's head and he died instantly.
Koa'nesvaram Temple is located inside the Fort Frederick where the Trincomalee Government Agent's officie and the Gajaba Regiment of the Sri Lanka Army have been functioning.
Sivashri Kugarajakurrukal had been the chief priest of the Koa'nesvaram Temple for the last five years.
Grenade attack on UNP candidate's residence in Batticaloa
Sunday, 21 September 2008, 09:02 GMT.
Unidentified attackers lobbed a grenade into the house of a Tamil candidate of the United National Party (UNP) for the second time, Kalkudaa police said. The UNP member, Jehan Arumugam, 27, said he has been threatening telephone calls from the TMVP paramilitary from May, 2008, when Eastern provincial council elections were held. The attack on Saturday took place around 11:00 p.m. No body was injured.
Earlier, on 18 May, two grenades were lobbed on his house, which is located along Kalkudaa main road.
Mr. Jehan had complained, already during the election campaign, that he has been receiving threatening telephone calls from TMVP personnel.
‘Defence establishment linked to abductions’ ie: Gothabaya Rajapakse and General Fonseka implicated.
‘Defence establishment linked to abductions’
Convenor, Civil Monitoring
Commission (CMC), Mano Ganesan
By Dilrukshi Handunnetti
Western People’s Front (WPF) Leader and Convenor, Civil Monitoring Commission (CMC) Mano Ganesan calls for the commencement of peace talks and halting the war and insists that what applies to Darfur or to Iraq be applicable to Sri Lanka as well.
In a wide-ranging interview with The Sunday Leader, he said that the country’s abductions and extortions continue unabated, as there was a direct link to the government defence establishment and noted that the government was not serious about framing charges against Nishantha Gajanayake who was arrested in 2007 for allegedly masterminding an abduction for an extortion racket.
He added that the end to ethnic strife is possible only through power devolution and noted that the northeast should be merged on linguistic lines. Excerpts:
Q: The latest police records confirm that out of 1229 reported abductions and kidnappings, some 1195 incidents have been found to be true. What is the CMC’s take on this?
A: The CMC covers Colombo and suburbs mostly. All our statistics are based on complaints made to our office in Colombo. The credibility we hold is that family members of victims make these complaints.
There were some 350 complaints recorded since the latter part of 2005. But this is only the tip of the iceberg. Many incidents occur in the northeast. There are many incidents in the Northwestern Province, especially in Puttalam.
In the north, the east and in the Puttalam District, there are incidents of abductions and extra judicial killings reported almost on a daily basis. The government statistics you now quoted is an admission of the situation.
Q: Police also claim to have filed 227 cases while in 218 instances, the accused were unknown. How many complaints lodged by the CMC have been investigated?
A: The police have not made any serious effort to investigate any of the CMC initiated complaints. When we recorded complaints, we did it systematically with credibility intact.
We also handed over copies of the recorded complaints to the law enforcement authorities hoping for prompt action. I have handed over another list to the Prime Minister and the Controller of Immigration and Emigration as the government is of the view that some of the listed names belonged to those who have migrated. The verification about their immigrant status has not come from the government authorities.
I am yet to receive any response to the CMC’s list of complaints.
Q: To digress, are some of these listed people actually away from Sri Lanka?
A: People are leaving the country all the time. There is a brain drain. But those listed have not fled the country but were victimised here.
The government later said 90% of the people have come back home. Then they said the remaining 10% had gone overseas. This is ridiculous by any standards and should not be the response of a government that wishes to be taken seriously.
There are social disappearances. Children migrate leaving their original homes. People run away from homes. These are social disappearances.
My concern is about the systematic and enforced disappearances and abductions. The government is deliberately mixing these two up to create confusion and to downplay the enormity of the issue. This is also an attempt to show the international community that there is no grave concern here in this regard.
We have given names, photographs, addresses, and authentic details of the incident, description of the location, police complaint numbers as well as Human Rights Commission references. There is no denying these incidents.
We challenge the government to provide us with a list of names and addresses of those who have gone overseas (and dispute our records). Such a response is not forthcoming.
Q: Compared with early 2006 when the CMC commenced work, how do you view the present situation? Is there a decline in incidents?
A: Not that the perpetrators have become saints. Many abducted who went missing are still missing.
The government should honestly come up with an account of the disappeared. Secondly, it is happening with new vigour and there should be some explanation.
At times it is high and at times, low. This saga of enforced abductions and extra judicial killings continue. The majority of the victims are members of the Tamil community.
Q: One aspect in the entire scheme was the abductions for extortion purposes. Is there a decline in this?
A: This interview you are conducting with me was interrupted by a telephone call. That’s demonstrative of the prevailing situation. That call came from a businessman in Old Moor Street, Colombo’s hardware hub. He told me that he just received a telephone call from a person who identified himself as a "Kalidas, representing Karuna Amman and was calling from the Ganemulla camp."
The caller has provided a mobile telephone number for the businessman to call back. I will give you that phone number at the end of this interview. It is nothing but an extortion attempt done openly. I do not know whether the said caller truly represents Karuna Amman or someone else. But the fact of the matter is that such calls are made openly with no respect for law and order. They don’t fear arrests or prosecution. Who gave these extortionists the upper hand?
Q: Just last week alone, three persons were abducted and elsewhere seven were mysteriously killed. What is the information available to the CMC in this regard?
A: It had been a violent week. We have listed those incidents. This country has so many children with their fathers missing, wives with their husbands missing. There are unidentified bodies that are being recovered. Our society has become very violent.
I think people have adopted a violent attitude to deal with regular issues ranging from family disputes to land problems to political issues.
Q: With war intensifying, is there a ripple effect in Colombo with increased violence or do you treat it as a separate concern?
A: This is a situation that has continued for a long time. The violent incidents such as abductions, extra judicial killings, assaults and the renewed talk of sending people in busloads back to Jaffna is a reflection of the prevailing violence. They cannot be treated separately for they are two sides of the same coin.
Q: Some Tamil political parties such as the EPDP is against UN intervention to solve the humanitarian crisis. They feel this is a domestic issue and this is not Darfur?
A: In today’s context, nothing is local or exclusively domestic.
We live in a global village. No country can conduct business which in turn paves the way for the killings and abductions of one section of the same nation and call it local or domestic and demand the international community stay away.
What is applicable to Darfur is applicable to Sri Lanka. What is applicable to Zimbabwe, Afghanistan and Iraq applies to Sri Lanka. Nothing is local and domestic anymore as we are a part of a global community.
Q: How many of the CMC lodged complaints have the police investigated in 2007?
A: They have not drawn satisfactory results. We need to understand that there is a hidden hand. As far as I can see, it is not hidden but a visible hand at work. It is the hand of the government’s defence establishment. Many are the people gone missing in my district of Colombo and they have been taken away in white vans. They have strangely enough, often ended up in TID or CID cells.
How can the defence establishment deny any link or responsibility? The police are using white vans for criminal acts. We have so many recorded incidents where the modus operandi was the same. One man went missing in Matale but ended up in the TID. The police and the security forces have every right to arrest suspects and question them. I call upon the police to arrest suspects in an acceptable manner. Not treat them like cattle.
Q: Nishantha Gajanayake, a name strongly associated with the abduction for extortion saga was arrested in June 2007 and released in February 2008 due to lack of material evidence to prosecute him. Don’t you feel that you and the CMC have failed?
A: I do. I am sad and disappointed that we could not make any headway in this particular case but even when Gajanayake was kept in CID custody, I learned that he was a very happy man there. He had been afforded facilities and comforts denied to other suspects. I strongly believe that the government was never serious in framing charges against Gajanayake. While he was in custody, the government waxed eloquent about the abductions decreasing purely for international consumption.
The government was under serious pressure to bring the situation under control. Whenever the heat increased in New York, Geneva, UNHRC or the UNGC, Gajanayake’s arrest was used as an example of state intervention. It was however, a knee jerk response to international criticism. When the heat reduced, the suspect was freed.
The very fact that people have gone missing, extorted or killed mysteriously proves a culture of impunity. The government can’t deny their occurrence which is why they are included in the recently released police report.
That’s why the CMC calls upon the government to behave like a government and not like an extension of a mafia organisation.
Q: You were recently questioned by the TID for allegedly communicating with the LTTE on behalf of President Kumaratunga while she was in power. What made you the chosen emissary?
A: I was never a messenger or an agent of anybody and please don’t imply such. As the leader of the Western People’s Front (WPF) as a registered and respected political party, I was contacted. I have my political beliefs, an agenda and a publicly acknowledged stance on the national question.
I firmly believe that all political leaders should play their specific role to end ethnic strife. It has destroyed the unity of Sri Lankans. We can solve this only through power devolution.
As I represent that call for power sharing, I did what was asked of me because I felt that was the right thing to do. President Kumaratunga requested me to convey a message to LTTE Leader Pirapaharan and I did not hesitate a moment.
But I did it not as a Chandrika or Pirapaharan agent but as a Colombo politician elected by the people with a sense of responsibility.
At that time, Karuna Amman had broken away form the LTTE ranks. There was much talk that Karuna was to seek asylum from the GOSL. Therefore, President Kumaratunga wanted me to convey to the LTTE leadership the message that if Karuna were to request for asylum, she might consider it positively and not to treat her possible gesture negatively.
That also demonstrated that President Kumaratunga, though she disrupted the UNP administration, on the basis that the UNP negotiated peace with the LTTE, she herself wished to negotiate peace with the Tigers. She herself wished to continue with a dialogue process in a different way.
That’s what she wanted conveyed and I brought back a response. Now my intervention is given various interpretations and all I can say is I did it in good faith. President Kumaratunga when she returns next month will speak more on this.
Q: Why would President entrust the task to you? Are you close to the LTTE leadership?
A: Why don’t you think that I was close to President Kumaratunga?
Why she trusted me above other Tamil politicians, you will have to ask her. She had to select somebody. She herself cannot travel. She would not have wanted to send a Sinhala politician. She perhaps considered it better to send a Tamil politician with a neutral background. I don’t hail from the northeast so I have no involvement.
I am given the works for this little job of mine. I have a lot of steel within me. I have taken many risks and I do what I think is right. Right now the TID is behind me. But I consider it yet another episode in my life. I have fought for many a cause and despite criticism, there is no way to stop me.
Q: The government has militarily cleared the east and is intent on clearing the north with a view to establishing a Northern Provincial Council. Is this feasible and is it the answer to the problem?
A: No. It is not the answer to both the north and the east. The PC system sprang from the 13th Amendment that is an offshoot of the Indo-Lanka Peace Accord. Leaders of the present government including President Mahinda Rajapakse opposed it. Lots of demonstrations followed and this country was politically divided decisively then.
President Rajapakse now treats the 13th Amendment as a God given opportunity. It appears that the President has changed his stance from opposing the 13th Amendment to embracing it wholeheartedly.
It was the first devolution effort. While he is doing it, a good part of his alliance, the JHU, staunchly opposes land and police powers being devolved. The Jathika Nidahas Peramuna headed by Wimal Weerawansa also opposes the same. The JVP, though a part of the opposition opposes it too.
Chandrakanthan represents the east. He himself is clamouring for the same powers but the government is slow to respond.
This government cannot implement what is already law. Then, how can its agenda be acceptable to the northeast or to me, a Tamil representing the Western Province?
Q: Do you accept the 13th Amendment as a suitable basis for a future solution? Can its full implementation change the ground situation favorably?
A: The 13th Amendment or the provincial councils are not the answer to the aspirations of the Tamils of the northeast. It was vehemently rejected in 1989.
The government has taken 20 years to consider what was already rejected way back in 1989. The political process here is dead now. But the military aspect is going ahead with immense speed. While the military solution is being pushed, the political process is dead.
We call upon the government to stop the war, commence talks and place the proposals on the table. The hardliners in the government are holding the President a prisoner of war!
Q: Do you stand for a merged northeast?
A: I believe in a linguistic state in the areas we identify as the northeast at present.
When you take the northeast together, the Tamil speaking people are in the majority. We need to have a Tamil linguistic state in the northeastern region, very similar to the Indian states that are also demarcated on linguistic lines.
Tamil Nadu is Tamil speaking, Kerala is Malayalam speaking and Andhra is for Telungu speaking people. But it does not mean that only the dominant linguistic group lives in a particular state. In Tamil Nadu, you only find Tamilians. That’s why India is a shining example of unity and political prudence.
I call for a merged Tamil linguistic state in which the Sinhalese and Muslims can also live. The regional council too should reflect this ethnic mosaic. That will preclude a pan Tamil only regional council. That will also effectively keep any Tamil nationalist or extremist forces at bay and make it inclusive.
When we fail to create that linguistic state within which other communities also find a voice only do we face a problem. That’s the danger still to emerge. That’s why I call for a province based on linguistic requirements. Look at me. I am a Tamil politician living in a Sinhala majority province.
I propounded the same theory at a recent talk show. JVP Parliamentarian Anura Kumara Dissanayake said the devolution of power as per the 13th Amendment made Sri Lanka subservient to India and that it would make us puppets in Indian hands.
Dissanayake referred to Varatharajah Perumal as an Indian puppet. Perumal is a political joke and a comedian who makes us not laugh but weep. His tragic intervention has made a bad case worse and aggravated the situation.
He had the guts to hoist the Eelam flag but then ran away. He should have stuck to it. Instead, he has now become a naturalised Indian. He is not even living in Tamil Nadu but in Madhya Pradesh. His children have married Indians.
No right thinking Tamil will welcome him here. He has betrayed the Tamil political aspirations, played cruel jokes with it and run away. My political cause is not that of the northeastern Tamils. But I don’t play jokes with it.
It is sad that the JVP takes Perumal seriously and keeps looking for such pathetic examples to justify their reluctance to devolve power.
Q: You spoke of a linguistic state. Do you consider its absence to be among the key flaws in the Indo-Lanka Peace Accord?
A: It is a flaw but there are many flaws in the Accord.
It was indeed unwise to look at territory when the need is steeped in the linguistic identity.
Further, the agreement ignored the Muslim factor. The Accord should have paid due attention to this vital aspect. It denied and deprived another community their political rights and identity in the northeast.
We should not forget that they are also great stakeholders and have a role to play in northeastern politics. That should be so. I call upon all political leaders to recognise this fact. What is more, this blatant disregard for Muslim political aspirations will create further problems.
To end the conflict, the Tamil leadership should give Muslims in the northeast the same consideration they expect from the southern Sinhala community. There is no way out but this way.
Convenor, Civil Monitoring
Commission (CMC), Mano Ganesan
By Dilrukshi Handunnetti
Western People’s Front (WPF) Leader and Convenor, Civil Monitoring Commission (CMC) Mano Ganesan calls for the commencement of peace talks and halting the war and insists that what applies to Darfur or to Iraq be applicable to Sri Lanka as well.
In a wide-ranging interview with The Sunday Leader, he said that the country’s abductions and extortions continue unabated, as there was a direct link to the government defence establishment and noted that the government was not serious about framing charges against Nishantha Gajanayake who was arrested in 2007 for allegedly masterminding an abduction for an extortion racket.
He added that the end to ethnic strife is possible only through power devolution and noted that the northeast should be merged on linguistic lines. Excerpts:
Q: The latest police records confirm that out of 1229 reported abductions and kidnappings, some 1195 incidents have been found to be true. What is the CMC’s take on this?
A: The CMC covers Colombo and suburbs mostly. All our statistics are based on complaints made to our office in Colombo. The credibility we hold is that family members of victims make these complaints.
There were some 350 complaints recorded since the latter part of 2005. But this is only the tip of the iceberg. Many incidents occur in the northeast. There are many incidents in the Northwestern Province, especially in Puttalam.
In the north, the east and in the Puttalam District, there are incidents of abductions and extra judicial killings reported almost on a daily basis. The government statistics you now quoted is an admission of the situation.
Q: Police also claim to have filed 227 cases while in 218 instances, the accused were unknown. How many complaints lodged by the CMC have been investigated?
A: The police have not made any serious effort to investigate any of the CMC initiated complaints. When we recorded complaints, we did it systematically with credibility intact.
We also handed over copies of the recorded complaints to the law enforcement authorities hoping for prompt action. I have handed over another list to the Prime Minister and the Controller of Immigration and Emigration as the government is of the view that some of the listed names belonged to those who have migrated. The verification about their immigrant status has not come from the government authorities.
I am yet to receive any response to the CMC’s list of complaints.
Q: To digress, are some of these listed people actually away from Sri Lanka?
A: People are leaving the country all the time. There is a brain drain. But those listed have not fled the country but were victimised here.
The government later said 90% of the people have come back home. Then they said the remaining 10% had gone overseas. This is ridiculous by any standards and should not be the response of a government that wishes to be taken seriously.
There are social disappearances. Children migrate leaving their original homes. People run away from homes. These are social disappearances.
My concern is about the systematic and enforced disappearances and abductions. The government is deliberately mixing these two up to create confusion and to downplay the enormity of the issue. This is also an attempt to show the international community that there is no grave concern here in this regard.
We have given names, photographs, addresses, and authentic details of the incident, description of the location, police complaint numbers as well as Human Rights Commission references. There is no denying these incidents.
We challenge the government to provide us with a list of names and addresses of those who have gone overseas (and dispute our records). Such a response is not forthcoming.
Q: Compared with early 2006 when the CMC commenced work, how do you view the present situation? Is there a decline in incidents?
A: Not that the perpetrators have become saints. Many abducted who went missing are still missing.
The government should honestly come up with an account of the disappeared. Secondly, it is happening with new vigour and there should be some explanation.
At times it is high and at times, low. This saga of enforced abductions and extra judicial killings continue. The majority of the victims are members of the Tamil community.
Q: One aspect in the entire scheme was the abductions for extortion purposes. Is there a decline in this?
A: This interview you are conducting with me was interrupted by a telephone call. That’s demonstrative of the prevailing situation. That call came from a businessman in Old Moor Street, Colombo’s hardware hub. He told me that he just received a telephone call from a person who identified himself as a "Kalidas, representing Karuna Amman and was calling from the Ganemulla camp."
The caller has provided a mobile telephone number for the businessman to call back. I will give you that phone number at the end of this interview. It is nothing but an extortion attempt done openly. I do not know whether the said caller truly represents Karuna Amman or someone else. But the fact of the matter is that such calls are made openly with no respect for law and order. They don’t fear arrests or prosecution. Who gave these extortionists the upper hand?
Q: Just last week alone, three persons were abducted and elsewhere seven were mysteriously killed. What is the information available to the CMC in this regard?
A: It had been a violent week. We have listed those incidents. This country has so many children with their fathers missing, wives with their husbands missing. There are unidentified bodies that are being recovered. Our society has become very violent.
I think people have adopted a violent attitude to deal with regular issues ranging from family disputes to land problems to political issues.
Q: With war intensifying, is there a ripple effect in Colombo with increased violence or do you treat it as a separate concern?
A: This is a situation that has continued for a long time. The violent incidents such as abductions, extra judicial killings, assaults and the renewed talk of sending people in busloads back to Jaffna is a reflection of the prevailing violence. They cannot be treated separately for they are two sides of the same coin.
Q: Some Tamil political parties such as the EPDP is against UN intervention to solve the humanitarian crisis. They feel this is a domestic issue and this is not Darfur?
A: In today’s context, nothing is local or exclusively domestic.
We live in a global village. No country can conduct business which in turn paves the way for the killings and abductions of one section of the same nation and call it local or domestic and demand the international community stay away.
What is applicable to Darfur is applicable to Sri Lanka. What is applicable to Zimbabwe, Afghanistan and Iraq applies to Sri Lanka. Nothing is local and domestic anymore as we are a part of a global community.
Q: How many of the CMC lodged complaints have the police investigated in 2007?
A: They have not drawn satisfactory results. We need to understand that there is a hidden hand. As far as I can see, it is not hidden but a visible hand at work. It is the hand of the government’s defence establishment. Many are the people gone missing in my district of Colombo and they have been taken away in white vans. They have strangely enough, often ended up in TID or CID cells.
How can the defence establishment deny any link or responsibility? The police are using white vans for criminal acts. We have so many recorded incidents where the modus operandi was the same. One man went missing in Matale but ended up in the TID. The police and the security forces have every right to arrest suspects and question them. I call upon the police to arrest suspects in an acceptable manner. Not treat them like cattle.
Q: Nishantha Gajanayake, a name strongly associated with the abduction for extortion saga was arrested in June 2007 and released in February 2008 due to lack of material evidence to prosecute him. Don’t you feel that you and the CMC have failed?
A: I do. I am sad and disappointed that we could not make any headway in this particular case but even when Gajanayake was kept in CID custody, I learned that he was a very happy man there. He had been afforded facilities and comforts denied to other suspects. I strongly believe that the government was never serious in framing charges against Gajanayake. While he was in custody, the government waxed eloquent about the abductions decreasing purely for international consumption.
The government was under serious pressure to bring the situation under control. Whenever the heat increased in New York, Geneva, UNHRC or the UNGC, Gajanayake’s arrest was used as an example of state intervention. It was however, a knee jerk response to international criticism. When the heat reduced, the suspect was freed.
The very fact that people have gone missing, extorted or killed mysteriously proves a culture of impunity. The government can’t deny their occurrence which is why they are included in the recently released police report.
That’s why the CMC calls upon the government to behave like a government and not like an extension of a mafia organisation.
Q: You were recently questioned by the TID for allegedly communicating with the LTTE on behalf of President Kumaratunga while she was in power. What made you the chosen emissary?
A: I was never a messenger or an agent of anybody and please don’t imply such. As the leader of the Western People’s Front (WPF) as a registered and respected political party, I was contacted. I have my political beliefs, an agenda and a publicly acknowledged stance on the national question.
I firmly believe that all political leaders should play their specific role to end ethnic strife. It has destroyed the unity of Sri Lankans. We can solve this only through power devolution.
As I represent that call for power sharing, I did what was asked of me because I felt that was the right thing to do. President Kumaratunga requested me to convey a message to LTTE Leader Pirapaharan and I did not hesitate a moment.
But I did it not as a Chandrika or Pirapaharan agent but as a Colombo politician elected by the people with a sense of responsibility.
At that time, Karuna Amman had broken away form the LTTE ranks. There was much talk that Karuna was to seek asylum from the GOSL. Therefore, President Kumaratunga wanted me to convey to the LTTE leadership the message that if Karuna were to request for asylum, she might consider it positively and not to treat her possible gesture negatively.
That also demonstrated that President Kumaratunga, though she disrupted the UNP administration, on the basis that the UNP negotiated peace with the LTTE, she herself wished to negotiate peace with the Tigers. She herself wished to continue with a dialogue process in a different way.
That’s what she wanted conveyed and I brought back a response. Now my intervention is given various interpretations and all I can say is I did it in good faith. President Kumaratunga when she returns next month will speak more on this.
Q: Why would President entrust the task to you? Are you close to the LTTE leadership?
A: Why don’t you think that I was close to President Kumaratunga?
Why she trusted me above other Tamil politicians, you will have to ask her. She had to select somebody. She herself cannot travel. She would not have wanted to send a Sinhala politician. She perhaps considered it better to send a Tamil politician with a neutral background. I don’t hail from the northeast so I have no involvement.
I am given the works for this little job of mine. I have a lot of steel within me. I have taken many risks and I do what I think is right. Right now the TID is behind me. But I consider it yet another episode in my life. I have fought for many a cause and despite criticism, there is no way to stop me.
Q: The government has militarily cleared the east and is intent on clearing the north with a view to establishing a Northern Provincial Council. Is this feasible and is it the answer to the problem?
A: No. It is not the answer to both the north and the east. The PC system sprang from the 13th Amendment that is an offshoot of the Indo-Lanka Peace Accord. Leaders of the present government including President Mahinda Rajapakse opposed it. Lots of demonstrations followed and this country was politically divided decisively then.
President Rajapakse now treats the 13th Amendment as a God given opportunity. It appears that the President has changed his stance from opposing the 13th Amendment to embracing it wholeheartedly.
It was the first devolution effort. While he is doing it, a good part of his alliance, the JHU, staunchly opposes land and police powers being devolved. The Jathika Nidahas Peramuna headed by Wimal Weerawansa also opposes the same. The JVP, though a part of the opposition opposes it too.
Chandrakanthan represents the east. He himself is clamouring for the same powers but the government is slow to respond.
This government cannot implement what is already law. Then, how can its agenda be acceptable to the northeast or to me, a Tamil representing the Western Province?
Q: Do you accept the 13th Amendment as a suitable basis for a future solution? Can its full implementation change the ground situation favorably?
A: The 13th Amendment or the provincial councils are not the answer to the aspirations of the Tamils of the northeast. It was vehemently rejected in 1989.
The government has taken 20 years to consider what was already rejected way back in 1989. The political process here is dead now. But the military aspect is going ahead with immense speed. While the military solution is being pushed, the political process is dead.
We call upon the government to stop the war, commence talks and place the proposals on the table. The hardliners in the government are holding the President a prisoner of war!
Q: Do you stand for a merged northeast?
A: I believe in a linguistic state in the areas we identify as the northeast at present.
When you take the northeast together, the Tamil speaking people are in the majority. We need to have a Tamil linguistic state in the northeastern region, very similar to the Indian states that are also demarcated on linguistic lines.
Tamil Nadu is Tamil speaking, Kerala is Malayalam speaking and Andhra is for Telungu speaking people. But it does not mean that only the dominant linguistic group lives in a particular state. In Tamil Nadu, you only find Tamilians. That’s why India is a shining example of unity and political prudence.
I call for a merged Tamil linguistic state in which the Sinhalese and Muslims can also live. The regional council too should reflect this ethnic mosaic. That will preclude a pan Tamil only regional council. That will also effectively keep any Tamil nationalist or extremist forces at bay and make it inclusive.
When we fail to create that linguistic state within which other communities also find a voice only do we face a problem. That’s the danger still to emerge. That’s why I call for a province based on linguistic requirements. Look at me. I am a Tamil politician living in a Sinhala majority province.
I propounded the same theory at a recent talk show. JVP Parliamentarian Anura Kumara Dissanayake said the devolution of power as per the 13th Amendment made Sri Lanka subservient to India and that it would make us puppets in Indian hands.
Dissanayake referred to Varatharajah Perumal as an Indian puppet. Perumal is a political joke and a comedian who makes us not laugh but weep. His tragic intervention has made a bad case worse and aggravated the situation.
He had the guts to hoist the Eelam flag but then ran away. He should have stuck to it. Instead, he has now become a naturalised Indian. He is not even living in Tamil Nadu but in Madhya Pradesh. His children have married Indians.
No right thinking Tamil will welcome him here. He has betrayed the Tamil political aspirations, played cruel jokes with it and run away. My political cause is not that of the northeastern Tamils. But I don’t play jokes with it.
It is sad that the JVP takes Perumal seriously and keeps looking for such pathetic examples to justify their reluctance to devolve power.
Q: You spoke of a linguistic state. Do you consider its absence to be among the key flaws in the Indo-Lanka Peace Accord?
A: It is a flaw but there are many flaws in the Accord.
It was indeed unwise to look at territory when the need is steeped in the linguistic identity.
Further, the agreement ignored the Muslim factor. The Accord should have paid due attention to this vital aspect. It denied and deprived another community their political rights and identity in the northeast.
We should not forget that they are also great stakeholders and have a role to play in northeastern politics. That should be so. I call upon all political leaders to recognise this fact. What is more, this blatant disregard for Muslim political aspirations will create further problems.
To end the conflict, the Tamil leadership should give Muslims in the northeast the same consideration they expect from the southern Sinhala community. There is no way out but this way.
A General on the loose: Caught Lying about Dying Tigers:
A General on the loose
Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka
By Ranjith Jayasundera - Sunday Leader:
It is with a great deal of apprehension that one is compelled to acknowledge today that the lives of the 162,000 soldiers serving in the Sri Lanka Army are being made the subject of a numbers game.
The Army Commander, Lt. General Sarath Fonseka was last week quoted in the Sunday Times telling his senior officers that 11,000 Tigers have been killed since July 2006 and that 4,000 remain. This claim flies in the face of every other claim made by him and other government agents since this business of announcing timelines for the LTTE’s annihilation came into fashion last year.
Lt. Gen. Fonseka last provided an LTTE casualty count two months ago when he was interviewed for the July 20 issue of the Sunday Observer. Therein he stated that the LTTE had "lost 9,000" cadres over the last two years. "These official figures were officially released at the last security council meeting," the Army Commander claimed.
Yet just two months later, the number of Tigers killed has spiked to 11,000. Even more frighteningly, the Army Commander attributed over 1,000 ‘kills’ to the air force, which has not to date released regular figures of LTTE cadres killed in its strikes. If this number was made up, it means that someone has lied to the National Security Council.
Fire from the sky
If it is accurate, the military hierarchy has killed over 1% of the adult population of two of Sri Lanka’s districts – Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu – by dropping dumb, largely unguided bombs from the sky.
How the Army Commander could not be shocked by this revelation is simple to explain: the inhabitants of those two districts are largely ethnic Tamils. The Army Commander, in the Sunday Observer, explained one of his most traumatic childhood experiences. When Gardihewa Sarath Chandralal Fonseka was but five years old, and had two fears while living in his "jungle village."
"I can still remember how the villagers used to run to a rocky cliff when Tamils attack our village. We spend two to three days there until the situation comes back to normal,’’ the Army Commander recalled to the Observer.
As for how these experiences have shaped the Army Commander’s views, he provided proof aplenty in another interview with the Daily News. "This country will be ruled by the Sinhalese community which is the majority representing 74 percent of the population," he declared.
The General has not considered what happens if a Sinhalese person marries a Tamil. Would that couple’s offspring be barred from leading the country?
Tamils ‘living it up’
"Sometimes" the Tamils "are living much better than the Sinhalese and Muslim community," he complained. Heaven forbid.
"I don’t think the people in the north and east are subjected to any injustice," he told the state run daily.
If this military officer does not think that having over 1,000 of your ‘kind’ blown to oblivion by airstrikes, being forced to live under a terrorist dictatorship and having essential supplies such as food and medicine regularly stifled for "security reasons" does not constitute an injustice, we need to know what he is fighting for, since it is clearly not to ‘liberate’ the poor, starving Tamils of the Northern Province.
And what was the Commander’s justification for the starving and hardship of the majority of the people of Sri Lanka? "Like any other country in the world where people have to fight wars to safeguard the territorial integrity of their countries they have to go through hardships. They have to spend a lot of money. They have to sacrifice. The Sinhala nation has to sacrifice if you want to protect the country and survive."
How Fonseka can expect any self respecting Tamil, Muslim, Burgher or other ‘breed’ to "go through hardships" or "spend a lot of money" to ensure the survival of a "Sinhala nation" is simply beyond belief.
‘Sacrificing’ with a Benz
He has also failed to explain why it is the civilians and innocent villagers who have to make all these ‘sacrifices’ whilst he sports a brand spanking new Rs. 44 million Mercedes Benz courtesy of the Sri Lanka Army. As we reported exclusively on April 13, the army paid an extra Rs 3 million rupees on the base price of the vehicle, for an extra 15 cm of leg room for the backseat passengers.
He also had an interesting take on the fate of those who dare to criticise ‘the army’ – in Fonseka’s language, criticism of his own behaviour and actions is equal to criticising the 162,000 member force that he commands.
Keith should live in fear?
Referring to the brutal attack on Nation Deputy-Editor Keith Noyahr, the Army Commander made it clear in no uncertain terms that Noyahr should have seen it coming. "He has never accused that the army had assaulted him. And I think perhaps he is guilty that he has done something wrong by writing against the military," Fonseka said.
"If he has not done anything wrong, he does not have to live in fear. If he has done some damage to our organisation or to a person, especially when he has done something which he is not supposed to do, then it is natural he must be living in fear."
It is this same Sarath Fonseka who claimed in May 2007 that the LTTE had 4,000 cadres remaining in their ranks and that "they are finished" after losing 2,000 cadres.
Seven months and 2,500 dead LTTE terrorists – by Defence Ministry figures – later on December 30, 2007, the same Army Commander claimed that "the LTTE has 3,000 cadres remaining" and that the "military plans to kill them within six months."
By February, the LTTE had "5,000 fighters" he said, despite the Defence Ministry propaganda machine claiming to have killed 891 between January 1 and February 10 when he made the statement.
Again in June, after our ‘Kill-O-meter’ had recorded 5,051 kills for the year 2008, the Army Commander claimed that there were (yet another) 4000 – 5000 LTTE cadres remaining.
Then, after having claimed to have killed 1,017 terrorists in July, another 922 in August and nearly 300 in the first week and a half of September, we were told last week that another 4,000 are remaining.
It is (reassuringly) most likely that Fonseka is simply lying, and talking through his hat. But if he is telling the truth, the government may have a phenomenal problem on hand with its military campaign.
If the LTTE truly is able to keep recruiting from the ranks of innocent Tamil civilians, whether they fight willingly or not, then this war is truly turning into a battle not between the government and the LTTE but one between ‘north and south,’ or Sinhalese versus Tamils.
Milking the war for politics
The Army Commander also clearly believes in politicising war for the benefit of the party and president in power. These are not our words, but his own. "The military is no doubt entitled to get political mileage especially after capturing areas like Vidattalthivu and Mannar. Most probably we will capture many more places before the elections," he told the Sunday Observer in the run up to the North Central and Sabaragamuwa Provincial Council elections.
"The President of the country being the Commander in Chief is entitled to get the credit for all these military victories. He is the one who takes decisions and responsibilities of launching these major offensives. Wars are launched by the governments and credit of its success will naturally go to the government."
There is a huge discrepancy between the number of soldiers claimed killed by the Defence Ministry on a daily basis, and the figure presented each month by the government during the emergency debate.
The Army Commander also put the Defence Ministry’s own daily casualty reports to shame in grand style. The Observer interview was published on Sunday, July 20. In it, he further states that "where we were able to kill more than 150 terrorists a week. Last week only 15 terrorists were killed."
Never mind the entire week before the interview. There was not even a single three day long period in the whole of July where the Defence Ministry didn’t claim that at least 50 (more often 100) LTTE cadres were killed.
So the Army Commander says 15 LTTE cadres were killed in a given week. The Defence Ministry’s news reports say more than 50 were killed. Who is the public to believe? Where this trend becomes all the more disgraceful is in the military’s regular reporting of its own casualties.
Desecrating the sacrifice of the over 800 soldiers who have been killed this year alone, and the 5,400 plus who have been wounded and maimed, the Defence Ministry regularly downplays the number of our own casualties, despite being caught in the act every month.
Playing with figures
Every day the Ministry or the Media Centre for National Security gives us reports that added up to between 80 – 100 soldiers being killed in action every month. Yet in parliament, either Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake or Leader of the House Nimal Siripala de Silva has presented monthly, ‘true’ figures for the number of soldiers killed in combat, which have, with the exception of March, always numbered well over 100.
155 soldiers were killed in battle last month alone. This practice of gently oozing out the numbers is how the government helps to numb the public to the human sacrifice being made every day to enable its own survival.
Their excuse for the discrepancy is the difficulty in getting accurate information about battles and casualties on the days they occur. In this case, how is it possible for the military to have such accurate estimates of the LTTE’s dead and wounded on the day of a battle, when it is clearly not in a position to be sure of its own for days after an encounter?
One and one is three - Thelma's column: Letter to the President who is in New York:
My dearest Ma-hinder,
Thellie, nicely oiled in the internal organs, by large doses of Scandinavian Aquavit and dollops of pink salmon, will not venture to speculate on what is up with that top brass Fonnie. But this does not stop me dearie from raising a recently threaded eyebrow as I learn that Sarath Fonnie’s latest figures put the death toll of the cyanides at 11,000 since July 2006.
This is a bit of a worry darling. I mean to say dear this numbering of dead by various websites on both sides of the divide is getting my goat. Speaking of goats dearie I don’t know if long ago in the days of your youth when I wore red bows at the end of my pigtails and you risked mob violence by frolicking about in the alleys of Medamulane in a little blue jungi, you had happened to have come across Herge’s account of Tintin the reporter who was making preparations with old Calculus and Captain Haddock to wing it off to the moon.
A slight verbal slip by Haddock accusing Calculus who was building the rocket of acting the goat had set the professor in such a mindless frenzy that those stirring images of the tiny professor expressing his frustration would stick with me for years to come. But I always thought the phrase was a pretty nifty one in the most trying circs.
Apart from the fact that this particular version of historical events as related by Belgian cartoonists had such a profound effect on Thellie that to a question in her third grade history paper, ‘Who were the first men on the moon?’ I was to write ‘Tintin, Calculus, Haddock and Thompson and Thomson.’ That phrase about the goat has haunted my memory. And darling as I now watch this numbers and military deadline game you chaps are playing I cannot help but feel that you fellows are acting the bally goat and who better to lead you to this state than ole Goatie himself eh?
Given that careful calculation of day to day claims of enemy dead in these past nine months alone tot up to a hefty number, Thellie is a little puzzled as to who or what is actually dead and/or counted as dead. I’m a tad concerned that perhaps our Fonnie has not been keeping your websites and the media centre informed. Abreast of things if you know what I mean.
Is it feasible one wonders that like the republican VP candidate Palin on a customary right wing moose and bear hunt, Fonnie is counting the heads of dead animals. Then again no. Lions may be fighting Tigers in ole Paradise but funnily enough no four legged varieties of the species roam the jungles scaring whole villages and carrying off new born babes left in makeshift hammocks in tiny mud huts.
Could it be perchance that certain chappies minding their own business, merely walking past the mayhem are suddenly found dead having unwisely caught a bullet in their left ventricle in a careless way or stopped a bomb with their bally head? There’s a word for these fellows — stupid? Did I hear you say? Hardly, I am compelled to reply. No the name is far more pedestrian, now let’s see — Cecilian, no zoarostrians...oh yes I remember now, civilians!
That’s what those hapless fellows strewn about in the street drains are called. One often forgets I suppose when the important things in life like tanks and UAVs are taking up all of one’s time.
But back to the numbers. It is entirely possible I suppose that some poor goof is sending out telegraphic messages to headquarters counting off all these hapless blokes also known as collateral damage victims as dead cyanides. This I can only tell you is akin to Republican candidate Sarah Palin pinning up on her foul hunting trophy wall, among the heads of moose, deer, bear and tiger, the head of a cockroach accidentally caught under her flapping, bally foot.
And with you assuring the martyred proletariat of a capture of all Tigers by Christmas, the Martyred Pee are entitled to expect the heads of the remaining 4000 cyanides for that is the number Fonnie says remain to be potted off by Paradisian sharp shooters — delivered in a box come Boxing Day. That’s if a political tsunami doesn’t hit Paradise before then. But let’s not be doomsday prophets, dear.
And having promised a motley crowd of foreign correspondents to hand over the cyanide chief to mother India all we gotta do now is get this numbering system in place. And Fonnie does seem a tad numerologically challenged if you get my drift. But not to worry dear, with Pee Bee Jay now out of a job, let’s stick a pencil behind his ear and send him on his way with note book and abacus in hand to keep the count. Begorra and Begob as Patrick Macdonald of the Macdonald and Mcnamara clan was to once tell me, one hopes PB will do a better job counting heads than he did counting pennies.
And even as I sit in my rocking chair feeling thoroughly confused by the conflicting numbers, I may as well tell you that it is only my breeding that does not prohibit me from bouncing something solid on Fonnie’s balding pate.
But debarred as I am from physical self expression by a careful upbringing, I am resigned to sit and sip my chardonnay and relegate the antics of Fonnie, Goatie et al., as one of those great historic mysteries like the Man In The Iron Mask or the bloke in the President’s House.
Tara m’dear
Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka
By Ranjith Jayasundera - Sunday Leader:
It is with a great deal of apprehension that one is compelled to acknowledge today that the lives of the 162,000 soldiers serving in the Sri Lanka Army are being made the subject of a numbers game.
The Army Commander, Lt. General Sarath Fonseka was last week quoted in the Sunday Times telling his senior officers that 11,000 Tigers have been killed since July 2006 and that 4,000 remain. This claim flies in the face of every other claim made by him and other government agents since this business of announcing timelines for the LTTE’s annihilation came into fashion last year.
Lt. Gen. Fonseka last provided an LTTE casualty count two months ago when he was interviewed for the July 20 issue of the Sunday Observer. Therein he stated that the LTTE had "lost 9,000" cadres over the last two years. "These official figures were officially released at the last security council meeting," the Army Commander claimed.
Yet just two months later, the number of Tigers killed has spiked to 11,000. Even more frighteningly, the Army Commander attributed over 1,000 ‘kills’ to the air force, which has not to date released regular figures of LTTE cadres killed in its strikes. If this number was made up, it means that someone has lied to the National Security Council.
Fire from the sky
If it is accurate, the military hierarchy has killed over 1% of the adult population of two of Sri Lanka’s districts – Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu – by dropping dumb, largely unguided bombs from the sky.
How the Army Commander could not be shocked by this revelation is simple to explain: the inhabitants of those two districts are largely ethnic Tamils. The Army Commander, in the Sunday Observer, explained one of his most traumatic childhood experiences. When Gardihewa Sarath Chandralal Fonseka was but five years old, and had two fears while living in his "jungle village."
"I can still remember how the villagers used to run to a rocky cliff when Tamils attack our village. We spend two to three days there until the situation comes back to normal,’’ the Army Commander recalled to the Observer.
As for how these experiences have shaped the Army Commander’s views, he provided proof aplenty in another interview with the Daily News. "This country will be ruled by the Sinhalese community which is the majority representing 74 percent of the population," he declared.
The General has not considered what happens if a Sinhalese person marries a Tamil. Would that couple’s offspring be barred from leading the country?
Tamils ‘living it up’
"Sometimes" the Tamils "are living much better than the Sinhalese and Muslim community," he complained. Heaven forbid.
"I don’t think the people in the north and east are subjected to any injustice," he told the state run daily.
If this military officer does not think that having over 1,000 of your ‘kind’ blown to oblivion by airstrikes, being forced to live under a terrorist dictatorship and having essential supplies such as food and medicine regularly stifled for "security reasons" does not constitute an injustice, we need to know what he is fighting for, since it is clearly not to ‘liberate’ the poor, starving Tamils of the Northern Province.
And what was the Commander’s justification for the starving and hardship of the majority of the people of Sri Lanka? "Like any other country in the world where people have to fight wars to safeguard the territorial integrity of their countries they have to go through hardships. They have to spend a lot of money. They have to sacrifice. The Sinhala nation has to sacrifice if you want to protect the country and survive."
How Fonseka can expect any self respecting Tamil, Muslim, Burgher or other ‘breed’ to "go through hardships" or "spend a lot of money" to ensure the survival of a "Sinhala nation" is simply beyond belief.
‘Sacrificing’ with a Benz
He has also failed to explain why it is the civilians and innocent villagers who have to make all these ‘sacrifices’ whilst he sports a brand spanking new Rs. 44 million Mercedes Benz courtesy of the Sri Lanka Army. As we reported exclusively on April 13, the army paid an extra Rs 3 million rupees on the base price of the vehicle, for an extra 15 cm of leg room for the backseat passengers.
He also had an interesting take on the fate of those who dare to criticise ‘the army’ – in Fonseka’s language, criticism of his own behaviour and actions is equal to criticising the 162,000 member force that he commands.
Keith should live in fear?
Referring to the brutal attack on Nation Deputy-Editor Keith Noyahr, the Army Commander made it clear in no uncertain terms that Noyahr should have seen it coming. "He has never accused that the army had assaulted him. And I think perhaps he is guilty that he has done something wrong by writing against the military," Fonseka said.
"If he has not done anything wrong, he does not have to live in fear. If he has done some damage to our organisation or to a person, especially when he has done something which he is not supposed to do, then it is natural he must be living in fear."
It is this same Sarath Fonseka who claimed in May 2007 that the LTTE had 4,000 cadres remaining in their ranks and that "they are finished" after losing 2,000 cadres.
Seven months and 2,500 dead LTTE terrorists – by Defence Ministry figures – later on December 30, 2007, the same Army Commander claimed that "the LTTE has 3,000 cadres remaining" and that the "military plans to kill them within six months."
By February, the LTTE had "5,000 fighters" he said, despite the Defence Ministry propaganda machine claiming to have killed 891 between January 1 and February 10 when he made the statement.
Again in June, after our ‘Kill-O-meter’ had recorded 5,051 kills for the year 2008, the Army Commander claimed that there were (yet another) 4000 – 5000 LTTE cadres remaining.
Then, after having claimed to have killed 1,017 terrorists in July, another 922 in August and nearly 300 in the first week and a half of September, we were told last week that another 4,000 are remaining.
It is (reassuringly) most likely that Fonseka is simply lying, and talking through his hat. But if he is telling the truth, the government may have a phenomenal problem on hand with its military campaign.
If the LTTE truly is able to keep recruiting from the ranks of innocent Tamil civilians, whether they fight willingly or not, then this war is truly turning into a battle not between the government and the LTTE but one between ‘north and south,’ or Sinhalese versus Tamils.
Milking the war for politics
The Army Commander also clearly believes in politicising war for the benefit of the party and president in power. These are not our words, but his own. "The military is no doubt entitled to get political mileage especially after capturing areas like Vidattalthivu and Mannar. Most probably we will capture many more places before the elections," he told the Sunday Observer in the run up to the North Central and Sabaragamuwa Provincial Council elections.
"The President of the country being the Commander in Chief is entitled to get the credit for all these military victories. He is the one who takes decisions and responsibilities of launching these major offensives. Wars are launched by the governments and credit of its success will naturally go to the government."
There is a huge discrepancy between the number of soldiers claimed killed by the Defence Ministry on a daily basis, and the figure presented each month by the government during the emergency debate.
The Army Commander also put the Defence Ministry’s own daily casualty reports to shame in grand style. The Observer interview was published on Sunday, July 20. In it, he further states that "where we were able to kill more than 150 terrorists a week. Last week only 15 terrorists were killed."
Never mind the entire week before the interview. There was not even a single three day long period in the whole of July where the Defence Ministry didn’t claim that at least 50 (more often 100) LTTE cadres were killed.
So the Army Commander says 15 LTTE cadres were killed in a given week. The Defence Ministry’s news reports say more than 50 were killed. Who is the public to believe? Where this trend becomes all the more disgraceful is in the military’s regular reporting of its own casualties.
Desecrating the sacrifice of the over 800 soldiers who have been killed this year alone, and the 5,400 plus who have been wounded and maimed, the Defence Ministry regularly downplays the number of our own casualties, despite being caught in the act every month.
Playing with figures
Every day the Ministry or the Media Centre for National Security gives us reports that added up to between 80 – 100 soldiers being killed in action every month. Yet in parliament, either Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake or Leader of the House Nimal Siripala de Silva has presented monthly, ‘true’ figures for the number of soldiers killed in combat, which have, with the exception of March, always numbered well over 100.
155 soldiers were killed in battle last month alone. This practice of gently oozing out the numbers is how the government helps to numb the public to the human sacrifice being made every day to enable its own survival.
Their excuse for the discrepancy is the difficulty in getting accurate information about battles and casualties on the days they occur. In this case, how is it possible for the military to have such accurate estimates of the LTTE’s dead and wounded on the day of a battle, when it is clearly not in a position to be sure of its own for days after an encounter?
One and one is three - Thelma's column: Letter to the President who is in New York:
My dearest Ma-hinder,
Thellie, nicely oiled in the internal organs, by large doses of Scandinavian Aquavit and dollops of pink salmon, will not venture to speculate on what is up with that top brass Fonnie. But this does not stop me dearie from raising a recently threaded eyebrow as I learn that Sarath Fonnie’s latest figures put the death toll of the cyanides at 11,000 since July 2006.
This is a bit of a worry darling. I mean to say dear this numbering of dead by various websites on both sides of the divide is getting my goat. Speaking of goats dearie I don’t know if long ago in the days of your youth when I wore red bows at the end of my pigtails and you risked mob violence by frolicking about in the alleys of Medamulane in a little blue jungi, you had happened to have come across Herge’s account of Tintin the reporter who was making preparations with old Calculus and Captain Haddock to wing it off to the moon.
A slight verbal slip by Haddock accusing Calculus who was building the rocket of acting the goat had set the professor in such a mindless frenzy that those stirring images of the tiny professor expressing his frustration would stick with me for years to come. But I always thought the phrase was a pretty nifty one in the most trying circs.
Apart from the fact that this particular version of historical events as related by Belgian cartoonists had such a profound effect on Thellie that to a question in her third grade history paper, ‘Who were the first men on the moon?’ I was to write ‘Tintin, Calculus, Haddock and Thompson and Thomson.’ That phrase about the goat has haunted my memory. And darling as I now watch this numbers and military deadline game you chaps are playing I cannot help but feel that you fellows are acting the bally goat and who better to lead you to this state than ole Goatie himself eh?
Given that careful calculation of day to day claims of enemy dead in these past nine months alone tot up to a hefty number, Thellie is a little puzzled as to who or what is actually dead and/or counted as dead. I’m a tad concerned that perhaps our Fonnie has not been keeping your websites and the media centre informed. Abreast of things if you know what I mean.
Is it feasible one wonders that like the republican VP candidate Palin on a customary right wing moose and bear hunt, Fonnie is counting the heads of dead animals. Then again no. Lions may be fighting Tigers in ole Paradise but funnily enough no four legged varieties of the species roam the jungles scaring whole villages and carrying off new born babes left in makeshift hammocks in tiny mud huts.
Could it be perchance that certain chappies minding their own business, merely walking past the mayhem are suddenly found dead having unwisely caught a bullet in their left ventricle in a careless way or stopped a bomb with their bally head? There’s a word for these fellows — stupid? Did I hear you say? Hardly, I am compelled to reply. No the name is far more pedestrian, now let’s see — Cecilian, no zoarostrians...oh yes I remember now, civilians!
That’s what those hapless fellows strewn about in the street drains are called. One often forgets I suppose when the important things in life like tanks and UAVs are taking up all of one’s time.
But back to the numbers. It is entirely possible I suppose that some poor goof is sending out telegraphic messages to headquarters counting off all these hapless blokes also known as collateral damage victims as dead cyanides. This I can only tell you is akin to Republican candidate Sarah Palin pinning up on her foul hunting trophy wall, among the heads of moose, deer, bear and tiger, the head of a cockroach accidentally caught under her flapping, bally foot.
And with you assuring the martyred proletariat of a capture of all Tigers by Christmas, the Martyred Pee are entitled to expect the heads of the remaining 4000 cyanides for that is the number Fonnie says remain to be potted off by Paradisian sharp shooters — delivered in a box come Boxing Day. That’s if a political tsunami doesn’t hit Paradise before then. But let’s not be doomsday prophets, dear.
And having promised a motley crowd of foreign correspondents to hand over the cyanide chief to mother India all we gotta do now is get this numbering system in place. And Fonnie does seem a tad numerologically challenged if you get my drift. But not to worry dear, with Pee Bee Jay now out of a job, let’s stick a pencil behind his ear and send him on his way with note book and abacus in hand to keep the count. Begorra and Begob as Patrick Macdonald of the Macdonald and Mcnamara clan was to once tell me, one hopes PB will do a better job counting heads than he did counting pennies.
And even as I sit in my rocking chair feeling thoroughly confused by the conflicting numbers, I may as well tell you that it is only my breeding that does not prohibit me from bouncing something solid on Fonnie’s balding pate.
But debarred as I am from physical self expression by a careful upbringing, I am resigned to sit and sip my chardonnay and relegate the antics of Fonnie, Goatie et al., as one of those great historic mysteries like the Man In The Iron Mask or the bloke in the President’s House.
Tara m’dear
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Sri Lanka together with the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burma and some other failed states, on War Crimes list of countries.
Civilian targets
Already last Thursday Tamilnet reported that an Army Deep Penetration Unit (DPU) had triggered a claymore mine targeting a civilian bus on the A9 Road at Pottur while the bus was heading to Puliyankulam, killing at least three civilians, including the driver of the bus.
There is a pattern in such reports of civilian targets from the north which has in the past served as a justification by the LTTE to bomb civilian targets in the south and should be taken as intelligence by the government to tighten security in the south.
Nevertheless, during a community meeting attended by over one thousand British Tamils, UK Foreign Minister Lord Mark Malloch Brown, was to focus on the plight of civilians stating "UK Government believes that minorities in any country must have their right to practice the fullest and free to expression of self determination.
"We are extremely concerned about how this government behaves and treats the Tamil community, and we are using all the means available to us to press the government to do otherwise."
Malloch-Brown also said that the British Government's overriding position was that there was no military solution to this problem in Sri Lanka, and it should be resolved by finding a political solution. A message he said he had communicated to President Rajapakse and the Defence Secretary.
Convoys leave
Even as convoys of NGO workers were seen leaving the Wanni, an Australian NGO director on Australia's ABC radio warned of a humanitarian disaster in the absence of foreign aid workers. The extreme humanitarian situation of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), including thousands of children, who are already malnourished, would deteriorate dramatically as clean water is not available for all the IDPs and they have been deprived of medicine by the Sri Lankan government, said Executive Director, Paul O'Callaghan of the Australian Council for International Development. ACFID has 25 member organisations working in Sri Lanka over many decades.
The European Union also earlier called upon both the government and the LTTE to allow the safe passage for civilians to leave the northern conflict zone, and to allow the free flow of humanitarian aid.
And it is in this backdrop that President Rajapakse is due to leave for New York tomorrow to attend a special meeting of Commonwealth leaders preceding a UN meeting on September 25 on how to accelerate the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) aimed at reducing global poverty.
It is also in this backdrop of a human rights crisis that such a visit to the United States to attend a rather mundane meeting which is a follow up to another Commonwealth leaders' summit held in London this June, gains importance.
Lethal Act
Just last week the United States Government imposed a new law to crack down on military commanders who recruit child soldiers in conflict internationally, and then seek refuge in the US. "Child Soldiers Accountability Act of 2008," was passed by the House of Representatives unanimously on September 8 and was adopted by the Senate and cleared for the White House on September 15, and had the support of both Republicans and Democrats.
Obama signs
The Act makes recruitment of children under 15 a federal offence and allows the US government to file charges against both US citizens and non-citizens who are in the United States. Senator Richard Durbin authored the bipartisan bill, which he introduced together with Senators Tom Coburn, Christopher J. Dodd, Russell Feingold, Sam Brownback, John F Kerry, Blanche L. Lincoln, Tom Coburn, Patrick Leahy, J. Robert Menendez and interestingly enough Democratic Presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama who set his hand to the document on October 15, 2007 .
Deportation
The title of the Bill introduced by Durbin on October 3, 2007 stated "A bill to prohibit the recruitment or use of child soldiers, to designate persons who recruit or use child soldiers as inadmissible aliens, to allow the deportation of persons who recruit or use child soldiers, and for other purposes."
The legislation allows the United States Government to prosecute U.S. citizens and non-citizens living in the United States who knowingly recruit or use child soldiers for combat purposes. The law makes it a federal crime to knowingly recruit or use soldiers under the age of 15 and permits the United States to bring charges under the law against both US citizens and non-citizens who are in the United States. The law imposes penalties of up to 20 years, or up to life in prison if death results, and allows the United States to deport or deny entry to individuals who have knowingly recruited children as soldiers.
War crimes
The US State Department has a separate office of War Crimes Issues which advises the Secretary of State directly and formulates U.S. policy responses to atrocities committed in areas of conflict and elsewhere throughout the world.
The office works closely with other governments, international institutions, and non-government organisations, and with the courts themselves, to see that international and domestic war crimes tribunals succeed in their efforts to bring those responsible for such crimes to justice.
Sri Lanka watched
The Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues, Clint Williamson is a career federal prosecutor, and serves as the U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues, a post to which he was confirmed by the U. S. Senate on June 29, 2006. On the list as being watched closely by this office is Sri Lanka together with the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burma and some other failed states.
Jo Becker, children's rights advocate for Human Rights Watch speaking on the legal implications of the Act was to earlier say, "This law tells military commanders worldwide that they cannot recruit children into their forces and then seek safe haven in the United States." That this Act affects the LTTE there is no doubt. However what is significant is that the Act focuses very heavily on US citizens or non citizens who attempt to use the US as a safe haven.
Implication for Gota and Sarath
Perhaps it is significant that this Act due to the government's proximity to the TMVP and given the Tamil lobby in the United States have far reaching implications for US citizen Gotabaya Rajapakse and US Permanent Resident Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka through their nexus to the Karuna group.
The TMVP is nothing but a para military group temporarily garbed in political attire. Its coat and tie outer crust cannot hide the fact that the outfit has neither given up arms nor its right to recruit. UN reports have implicated some elements in the military of helping the Karuna Group recruit children. Only last week it was reported that TMVP leader Karuna — a man who used a forged passport and a false name committing immigration fraud to travel to the UK with the alleged collusion of the government was to meet Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapakse.
He reportedly told a daily newspaper he would meet Gotabaya Rajapakse and discuss military matters with him regularly. Certainly then that the US citizen and resident in Sri Lanka responsible for the military are as thick as thieves with Karuna is without doubt also.
And if Karuna is a bucket of dung then anyone coming into contact with Karuna and the TMVP will also be tainted as will be Ali Moulana, the man responsible for the break up of the Karuna faction during the UNP era and now posted to the Sri Lanka Embassy in Washington.
Far reaching
But the Act has far reaching consequences of a military nature as well. All military assistance including the radar system for Trincomalee by Raytheon is expected to be held up under the child soldier provision of the Appropriations Law.
What is more this piece of legislation will be impossible to enforce against the LTTE leadership. It is unlikely that Pirapaharan is secretly a citizen of the US or that he will attempt to smuggle himself in to Los Angeles any time soon.
Double edged sword
Top diplomatic sources in Washington told The Sunday Leader the Act was a double edged sword lethal for the likes of Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapakse and Army Commander Sarath Fonseka whose close proximity with a tainted para military group may bring them within the ambit of these provisions especially given the pressure mounted by Tamil lobby groups.
Diplomatic sources in the US told this newspaper UNICEF has a list of over 70 child soldiers already identified as being in the TMVP. However it is learnt that the Government of Sri Lanka is allegedly refusing to release this information. Analysts say that under command authority and responsibility the chain of military and civil command will be ultimately held legally and morally responsible.
Earlier, well known US Attorney Bruce Fein rightly or wrongly advocated the prosecution of US citizen Gotabaya Rajapakse and Sarath Fonseka for alleged war crimes in Sri Lanka to be extradited to the US for trial. There has been a large Tamil Lobby in the United States that has backed this move thus making the recent Act even more lethal in effect not so much to the LTTE — despite the fact that they do recruit child soldiers, but to the government and the powers that be.
International wrath
And while the government faces fresh anger from the international community over its continuing lack of concern for civilians and its failure to properly address humanitarian issues, there have also been recent rumblings again in India over helping the government in its military push.
India is due to hold elections either late this year or by March next year. The centre already walking on thin ice following the nuke agreement with the US will not want to rock the boat in Tamil Nadu due to domestic considerations.
Vaiko, the General Secretary of the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK), immediately following news of two Indian radar operators injured when the LTTE attacked the Wanni Military Head Quarters was to react with anger lashing out at the Indian government of betraying the Tamils by providing military personnel to Sri Lanka
A letter sent Thursday (11) to the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, said that the Indian Government was "caught red handed in its unpardonable betrayal" of involving Indian military personnel in Sri Lanka's "genocidal war" against the Tamils. He blamed the top level bureaucrats in India, particularly the national security adviser, for "clandestinely conspiring" with the Sri Lankan government.
Vaiko urged the Indian Prime Minister to immediately withdraw and call back the Indian technicians and military personnel from Sri Lanka. He charged that, according to the information he had, there was a large number of Indian technocrats and military personnel, up to 265 persons, fully engaged and assisting the Sri Lankan military.
The UPA government at the centre in India, immediately after its formation, more or less finalised a defence pact with Sri Lanka. However Vaiko's MDMK, which was in the UPA, opposed the move and influenced Manmohan Singh not to go ahead with the defence pact.
India has said it will not supply offensive material to the security forces. Tamil Nadu Congress President K.V. Thangabalu has denied the Centre was providing military assistance to Sri Lanka, The Statesman reported. "The charges against the UPA government in this regard are totally false. In fact, our defence minister has asked the Sri Lankan government to ensure the safety and security of Tamils," he told the media.
Meanwhile a special tribunal in India has asked the central government to justify its call for a renewal of the ban on the LTTE, the Economic Times of India also reported.
The tribunal, wanted fresh evidence last week to ascertain if the ban should be extended by another two years. The ban was first imposed in 1992 under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act of 1967, a year after the LTTE was accused of assassinating former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, and since then the ban continued to be extended every two years. LTTE counsel had argued that the group did not seek to disrupt the sovereignty and integrity of India.
Battle to the end
Though the government seeks to accelerate the war and battle it to the end with President Rajapakse himself stating he will not declare any ceasefires and talk is useless, the use of chemical weapons by the LTTE will no doubt slow down the process and tip the balance momentarily at least.
An army probe has reportedly found the LTTE to have recently directed 'CS gas' on some troops in the Wanni. The gas is used mostly in anti-hijack or hostage operations. At cabinet last Wednesday it was a matter that was to preoccupy the President's mind at an otherwise routine meeting.
And while the government prepares for a chemical attack on the military front with the soldiers equipped to meet the challenge with masks, President Rajapakse was to face more challenges from the Supreme Court which has taken up public interest issues much to the chagrin of the administration.
Already last Thursday Tamilnet reported that an Army Deep Penetration Unit (DPU) had triggered a claymore mine targeting a civilian bus on the A9 Road at Pottur while the bus was heading to Puliyankulam, killing at least three civilians, including the driver of the bus.
There is a pattern in such reports of civilian targets from the north which has in the past served as a justification by the LTTE to bomb civilian targets in the south and should be taken as intelligence by the government to tighten security in the south.
Nevertheless, during a community meeting attended by over one thousand British Tamils, UK Foreign Minister Lord Mark Malloch Brown, was to focus on the plight of civilians stating "UK Government believes that minorities in any country must have their right to practice the fullest and free to expression of self determination.
"We are extremely concerned about how this government behaves and treats the Tamil community, and we are using all the means available to us to press the government to do otherwise."
Malloch-Brown also said that the British Government's overriding position was that there was no military solution to this problem in Sri Lanka, and it should be resolved by finding a political solution. A message he said he had communicated to President Rajapakse and the Defence Secretary.
Convoys leave
Even as convoys of NGO workers were seen leaving the Wanni, an Australian NGO director on Australia's ABC radio warned of a humanitarian disaster in the absence of foreign aid workers. The extreme humanitarian situation of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), including thousands of children, who are already malnourished, would deteriorate dramatically as clean water is not available for all the IDPs and they have been deprived of medicine by the Sri Lankan government, said Executive Director, Paul O'Callaghan of the Australian Council for International Development. ACFID has 25 member organisations working in Sri Lanka over many decades.
The European Union also earlier called upon both the government and the LTTE to allow the safe passage for civilians to leave the northern conflict zone, and to allow the free flow of humanitarian aid.
And it is in this backdrop that President Rajapakse is due to leave for New York tomorrow to attend a special meeting of Commonwealth leaders preceding a UN meeting on September 25 on how to accelerate the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) aimed at reducing global poverty.
It is also in this backdrop of a human rights crisis that such a visit to the United States to attend a rather mundane meeting which is a follow up to another Commonwealth leaders' summit held in London this June, gains importance.
Lethal Act
Just last week the United States Government imposed a new law to crack down on military commanders who recruit child soldiers in conflict internationally, and then seek refuge in the US. "Child Soldiers Accountability Act of 2008," was passed by the House of Representatives unanimously on September 8 and was adopted by the Senate and cleared for the White House on September 15, and had the support of both Republicans and Democrats.
Obama signs
The Act makes recruitment of children under 15 a federal offence and allows the US government to file charges against both US citizens and non-citizens who are in the United States. Senator Richard Durbin authored the bipartisan bill, which he introduced together with Senators Tom Coburn, Christopher J. Dodd, Russell Feingold, Sam Brownback, John F Kerry, Blanche L. Lincoln, Tom Coburn, Patrick Leahy, J. Robert Menendez and interestingly enough Democratic Presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama who set his hand to the document on October 15, 2007 .
Deportation
The title of the Bill introduced by Durbin on October 3, 2007 stated "A bill to prohibit the recruitment or use of child soldiers, to designate persons who recruit or use child soldiers as inadmissible aliens, to allow the deportation of persons who recruit or use child soldiers, and for other purposes."
The legislation allows the United States Government to prosecute U.S. citizens and non-citizens living in the United States who knowingly recruit or use child soldiers for combat purposes. The law makes it a federal crime to knowingly recruit or use soldiers under the age of 15 and permits the United States to bring charges under the law against both US citizens and non-citizens who are in the United States. The law imposes penalties of up to 20 years, or up to life in prison if death results, and allows the United States to deport or deny entry to individuals who have knowingly recruited children as soldiers.
War crimes
The US State Department has a separate office of War Crimes Issues which advises the Secretary of State directly and formulates U.S. policy responses to atrocities committed in areas of conflict and elsewhere throughout the world.
The office works closely with other governments, international institutions, and non-government organisations, and with the courts themselves, to see that international and domestic war crimes tribunals succeed in their efforts to bring those responsible for such crimes to justice.
Sri Lanka watched
The Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues, Clint Williamson is a career federal prosecutor, and serves as the U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues, a post to which he was confirmed by the U. S. Senate on June 29, 2006. On the list as being watched closely by this office is Sri Lanka together with the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burma and some other failed states.
Jo Becker, children's rights advocate for Human Rights Watch speaking on the legal implications of the Act was to earlier say, "This law tells military commanders worldwide that they cannot recruit children into their forces and then seek safe haven in the United States." That this Act affects the LTTE there is no doubt. However what is significant is that the Act focuses very heavily on US citizens or non citizens who attempt to use the US as a safe haven.
Implication for Gota and Sarath
Perhaps it is significant that this Act due to the government's proximity to the TMVP and given the Tamil lobby in the United States have far reaching implications for US citizen Gotabaya Rajapakse and US Permanent Resident Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka through their nexus to the Karuna group.
The TMVP is nothing but a para military group temporarily garbed in political attire. Its coat and tie outer crust cannot hide the fact that the outfit has neither given up arms nor its right to recruit. UN reports have implicated some elements in the military of helping the Karuna Group recruit children. Only last week it was reported that TMVP leader Karuna — a man who used a forged passport and a false name committing immigration fraud to travel to the UK with the alleged collusion of the government was to meet Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapakse.
He reportedly told a daily newspaper he would meet Gotabaya Rajapakse and discuss military matters with him regularly. Certainly then that the US citizen and resident in Sri Lanka responsible for the military are as thick as thieves with Karuna is without doubt also.
And if Karuna is a bucket of dung then anyone coming into contact with Karuna and the TMVP will also be tainted as will be Ali Moulana, the man responsible for the break up of the Karuna faction during the UNP era and now posted to the Sri Lanka Embassy in Washington.
Far reaching
But the Act has far reaching consequences of a military nature as well. All military assistance including the radar system for Trincomalee by Raytheon is expected to be held up under the child soldier provision of the Appropriations Law.
What is more this piece of legislation will be impossible to enforce against the LTTE leadership. It is unlikely that Pirapaharan is secretly a citizen of the US or that he will attempt to smuggle himself in to Los Angeles any time soon.
Double edged sword
Top diplomatic sources in Washington told The Sunday Leader the Act was a double edged sword lethal for the likes of Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapakse and Army Commander Sarath Fonseka whose close proximity with a tainted para military group may bring them within the ambit of these provisions especially given the pressure mounted by Tamil lobby groups.
Diplomatic sources in the US told this newspaper UNICEF has a list of over 70 child soldiers already identified as being in the TMVP. However it is learnt that the Government of Sri Lanka is allegedly refusing to release this information. Analysts say that under command authority and responsibility the chain of military and civil command will be ultimately held legally and morally responsible.
Earlier, well known US Attorney Bruce Fein rightly or wrongly advocated the prosecution of US citizen Gotabaya Rajapakse and Sarath Fonseka for alleged war crimes in Sri Lanka to be extradited to the US for trial. There has been a large Tamil Lobby in the United States that has backed this move thus making the recent Act even more lethal in effect not so much to the LTTE — despite the fact that they do recruit child soldiers, but to the government and the powers that be.
International wrath
And while the government faces fresh anger from the international community over its continuing lack of concern for civilians and its failure to properly address humanitarian issues, there have also been recent rumblings again in India over helping the government in its military push.
India is due to hold elections either late this year or by March next year. The centre already walking on thin ice following the nuke agreement with the US will not want to rock the boat in Tamil Nadu due to domestic considerations.
Vaiko, the General Secretary of the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK), immediately following news of two Indian radar operators injured when the LTTE attacked the Wanni Military Head Quarters was to react with anger lashing out at the Indian government of betraying the Tamils by providing military personnel to Sri Lanka
A letter sent Thursday (11) to the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, said that the Indian Government was "caught red handed in its unpardonable betrayal" of involving Indian military personnel in Sri Lanka's "genocidal war" against the Tamils. He blamed the top level bureaucrats in India, particularly the national security adviser, for "clandestinely conspiring" with the Sri Lankan government.
Vaiko urged the Indian Prime Minister to immediately withdraw and call back the Indian technicians and military personnel from Sri Lanka. He charged that, according to the information he had, there was a large number of Indian technocrats and military personnel, up to 265 persons, fully engaged and assisting the Sri Lankan military.
The UPA government at the centre in India, immediately after its formation, more or less finalised a defence pact with Sri Lanka. However Vaiko's MDMK, which was in the UPA, opposed the move and influenced Manmohan Singh not to go ahead with the defence pact.
India has said it will not supply offensive material to the security forces. Tamil Nadu Congress President K.V. Thangabalu has denied the Centre was providing military assistance to Sri Lanka, The Statesman reported. "The charges against the UPA government in this regard are totally false. In fact, our defence minister has asked the Sri Lankan government to ensure the safety and security of Tamils," he told the media.
Meanwhile a special tribunal in India has asked the central government to justify its call for a renewal of the ban on the LTTE, the Economic Times of India also reported.
The tribunal, wanted fresh evidence last week to ascertain if the ban should be extended by another two years. The ban was first imposed in 1992 under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act of 1967, a year after the LTTE was accused of assassinating former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, and since then the ban continued to be extended every two years. LTTE counsel had argued that the group did not seek to disrupt the sovereignty and integrity of India.
Battle to the end
Though the government seeks to accelerate the war and battle it to the end with President Rajapakse himself stating he will not declare any ceasefires and talk is useless, the use of chemical weapons by the LTTE will no doubt slow down the process and tip the balance momentarily at least.
An army probe has reportedly found the LTTE to have recently directed 'CS gas' on some troops in the Wanni. The gas is used mostly in anti-hijack or hostage operations. At cabinet last Wednesday it was a matter that was to preoccupy the President's mind at an otherwise routine meeting.
And while the government prepares for a chemical attack on the military front with the soldiers equipped to meet the challenge with masks, President Rajapakse was to face more challenges from the Supreme Court which has taken up public interest issues much to the chagrin of the administration.
Another example of State Terror even on their own Sinhalese - BBC
Negombo Police blamed on murder
Sri Lanka police
A person in two cases - torture and bribery - agaist police was murdered on Saturday in Negombo.
Anton Sugath Nishantha Fernando was a complainant in a torture case before the Supreme Court against several police officers attached to the Negombo Police Station and a bribery case in high court.
He was shot dead at Dalupotha junction, Negombo while driving his van accompanied by his 11 year old son.
Nishantha Fernando had repeatedly complained to police and all relevant authorities about the constant death threats but to no avail, says his wife S.S.Padmi Pieris.
"Negombo police is responsible for my husband's murder", she said.
Independent inquiry urged
In an interview to Sandeshaya she said the she spoke to Inspector General of Police and requested for an independent inquiry and named a number of police officers whom she suspects.
The investigation into the case has now been transferred to the Palyagoda Police.
Headquarters inspector of the Negambo Police said Somasiri Liyanage dismissed allegations of police involvement in the murder.
When questioned why Nishantha Fernando was not given police protection Inspector liyanage said the diseased requested protection only on the day of the crime.
“He never requested protection prior to this “said Inspector Liyanage
Threats
On the 23rd of June 2008 four men, believed to be hired by the police, arrived at his house and told him to withdraw the fundamental rights complaint currently pending before the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka, stating that if within 24 hours he did not do so , he and his family would be assassinated, says The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC)
AHRC states that the initial complaint of Nishantha Fernando was against police inspector Mahagamage Dharmadasa for soliciting a bribe of 5,000 rupees (about 46 USD).
The Bribery Commission inquired into the matter and filed a prosecution before the High Court of Colombo,
"Following the arrest of policemen, about 12 police officers from Negombo attacked the whole family (wife and two children) and seriously injured them.
Inspectior Liyange said that there was never an attack on the family by the Police.
A case against twelve police officers of the Negombo Police regarding this assault is before the Supreme Court for its final hearing", states AHRC.
Sri Lanka police
A person in two cases - torture and bribery - agaist police was murdered on Saturday in Negombo.
Anton Sugath Nishantha Fernando was a complainant in a torture case before the Supreme Court against several police officers attached to the Negombo Police Station and a bribery case in high court.
He was shot dead at Dalupotha junction, Negombo while driving his van accompanied by his 11 year old son.
Nishantha Fernando had repeatedly complained to police and all relevant authorities about the constant death threats but to no avail, says his wife S.S.Padmi Pieris.
"Negombo police is responsible for my husband's murder", she said.
Independent inquiry urged
In an interview to Sandeshaya she said the she spoke to Inspector General of Police and requested for an independent inquiry and named a number of police officers whom she suspects.
The investigation into the case has now been transferred to the Palyagoda Police.
Headquarters inspector of the Negambo Police said Somasiri Liyanage dismissed allegations of police involvement in the murder.
When questioned why Nishantha Fernando was not given police protection Inspector liyanage said the diseased requested protection only on the day of the crime.
“He never requested protection prior to this “said Inspector Liyanage
Threats
On the 23rd of June 2008 four men, believed to be hired by the police, arrived at his house and told him to withdraw the fundamental rights complaint currently pending before the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka, stating that if within 24 hours he did not do so , he and his family would be assassinated, says The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC)
AHRC states that the initial complaint of Nishantha Fernando was against police inspector Mahagamage Dharmadasa for soliciting a bribe of 5,000 rupees (about 46 USD).
The Bribery Commission inquired into the matter and filed a prosecution before the High Court of Colombo,
"Following the arrest of policemen, about 12 police officers from Negombo attacked the whole family (wife and two children) and seriously injured them.
Inspectior Liyange said that there was never an attack on the family by the Police.
A case against twelve police officers of the Negombo Police regarding this assault is before the Supreme Court for its final hearing", states AHRC.
Raj Rajaratnam a Sri Lankan Tamil from the North among 400 richest Americans
Raj Rajaratnam among 400 richest Americans
Mr. Raj Rajaratnam, who together with his Galleon Fund is one of the biggest shareholders of John Keells Holdings (JKH), has been ranked No.262 in the Forbes Magazine’s list of 400 Richest Americans.
Rajaratnam, a self-made billionaire, has a net worth of US$ 1.8 billion according to the respected Forbes publication.
Now 51 years old, he is married with three children, and has substantial investments in some well known companies other than JKH listed on the Colombo bourse.
He took a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Sussex in the UK before taking a MBA from Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
His father who was a senior Singer executive here later ran the Asian operation for the multinational from New York.
Rajaratnam had an early career as an investment banker in Needham & Company of which he became President in 1991, the Forbes Rich List said.
Six years later he founded the hedge fund Galleon group, "making big bets on healthcare and technology companies" and today manages US$ 7.5 billion across six funds.
According to the Forbes report the annual return on funds managed by the Galleon group had been 21% net of fees since 1997 and last year Galleon’s flagship fund returned 30% before fees.
Raj Rajaratnam: A Man With Common Humanity
Raj Rajaratnam said: "I pledged US $ 5 million as initial donation to build houses for those affected in the North, East and South. We have already arranged with leading Sri Lankan companies – John Keels, Singer Sri Lanka and Hemas Group for the building of the houses and they are drawing the plans and would be finalized soon."
Raj Rajaratnam, the Sri Lankan born investor based in New York in the United States, is living up to the motto ‘esto perpetua’ or ‘be thou forever’ of his alma mater S. Thomas College, Mount Lavinia in Sri Lanka. His inner quality of common humanity is well manifested in the open when he sees human suffering. He has shown many a time that in such situations he moves forward to alleviate the sufferings of disadvantaged and under-privileged like the Galleon, the Spanish Armada that carried the gold while navigating the rough waters three centuries ago.
He undoubtedly went through rough water, with determination, to build a very successful and leading hedge fund company called ‘Galleon Fund’, whose assets now worth over US $ 5 billion, and has shown that he could break barriers to give a helping hand to eliminate or alleviate misery.
Part of his life story has built the character of Raj Rajaratnam. A book written and published in the United States, The New Investment Superstars: 13 Great Investors and Their Strategies for Superior Returns, in one of its paragraphs describes who Raj Rajaratnam is in this manner:
“Rajaratnam, unlike most of the other superstar managers, is not U.S born. He was born in Sri Lanka and educated in England, and came to the United States to attend the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce. He came as a student and stayed. He feels his background has had an influence on him. Because he didn’t have a support system in the United States, he has never been complacent and has a strong work ethics. Nothing is taken for granted and he doesn’t think life owes him anything. Rajaratnam compares this business to getting a report card every say. ‘I am very focused and disciplined. You need toughness. You need to take it personally, yet if you take it too personally, it could wear you down. It requires a lot of stamina. You could have the right analysis but be wrong on the market.’
In the US hedge fund industry Raj is well known since he manages a US $ 5 billion plus Hedge fund called Galleon Group. The thirteen managers, including Raj Rajaratnam, featured in the book were selected on the basis of a few basic criteria. Each manages at least US $ 1 billion in assets and each has matched or outperformed the Standard and Poor for at least seven years.
When Rajaratnam was on a visit to the Kilinochchi District in northern Sri Lanka in late 2003, he witnessed the most gruesome sight of a youth who had lost both legs to a landmine, and this particular image struck him most to donate to a fund launched by the Sri Lanka Embassy in the United States to purchase six mine detecting dogs. At a Sri Lanka Embassy ceremony on January 14, 2004, the Special Representative of the President of the United States and Secretary of State for Mine Action Lincoln P. Bloomfield, along with Sri Lanka Ambassador Devinda Subasinghe, commended Rajaratnam and five others for rising to the occasion to eliminate the landmine menace in northern and eastern Sri Lanka caused by the separatist war between the Sri Lanka Government and Tiger rebels.
The benevolence of Raj Rajaratnam was again seen when he made a firm commitment of US $ 5 million (Rs. 520 million) from his personal funds to reconstruct houses in the worst affected areas in the coastal belt of Sri Lanka due to the last December 26 tsunami onslaught.
Rajaratnam and his family were vacationing in Sri Lanka when the Tsunami ravaged the island and he saw for himself the damage caused to his motherland and its people.
He told “Asian Tribune” that, “I was in Sri Lanka with my family for holidays in December and I have seen personally what had happened on 26 December. I was shocked and grieved over the calamity that shook the country.”
“I pledged US $ 5 million as initial donation to build houses for those affected in the North, East and South. We have already arranged with leading Sri Lankan companies – John Keels, Singer Sri Lanka and Hemas Group for the building of the houses and they are drawing the plans and would be finalized soon.” < br>
Such was the common humanity imbibed in his character.
Born on June 15, 1957 in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Raj Rajaratnam had his early education at S. Thomas’ College Mount Lavinia in Sri Lanka, and thereafter at the University of Sussex in the Britain. He initially studied engineering, and then received an MBA in Finance at Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania in the United States. After a very successful academic career, he joined the American investment bank Needham & Company that specialized in emerging growth companies where he worked for more than 11 years. Rajaratnam started as an analyst of electronic stocks and rose to become managing director of investment analysis for technology, healthcare and specialty retailing. He subsequently became President of Needham in 1991.
Rajaratnam set up the Galleon Group in January 1997, after leaving Needham, and Galleon Fund currently has assets worth over US $ 5 billion.
In the past couple of years, he has been one of the heaviest investors in the Colombo Stock Exchange. Rajaratnam built up sizeable stakes in several blue chips during a vacation in Sri Lanka, and in subsequent acquisitions. Asian Tribune understands that he owns about seven percent each of the Hayleys and John Keells Holdings conglomerates and over five percent of Commercial Bank, one of the most profitable banks in Sri Lanka in addition to stakes in Colombo Dockyard and Tokyo Cement.
His father J.M. Rajaratnam (senior) was born in Alvai South, Vadamaradchy, an old boy of Hartley College, Point Pedro and the college mate of K.B.Ratnayake, an SLFP stalwart and was the Speaker of the Parliament of Sri Lanka.
J.M. Rajaratnam, was the chairman of Singer (Sri Lanka) in the 1970s before being promoted to head the multinational’s South East Asia operation based in Bangkok, according to S.K. Wickremasinghe, former chairman of Airlanka, the Sri Lankan airline and one-time colleague of Rajaratnam senior. He later went to New York as Vice President of Singer Exports.
Raj Rajaratnam is married, with three children, describes his hobbies as travel, world affairs and sports.
- Asian Tribune -
Mr. Raj Rajaratnam, who together with his Galleon Fund is one of the biggest shareholders of John Keells Holdings (JKH), has been ranked No.262 in the Forbes Magazine’s list of 400 Richest Americans.
Rajaratnam, a self-made billionaire, has a net worth of US$ 1.8 billion according to the respected Forbes publication.
Now 51 years old, he is married with three children, and has substantial investments in some well known companies other than JKH listed on the Colombo bourse.
He took a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Sussex in the UK before taking a MBA from Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
His father who was a senior Singer executive here later ran the Asian operation for the multinational from New York.
Rajaratnam had an early career as an investment banker in Needham & Company of which he became President in 1991, the Forbes Rich List said.
Six years later he founded the hedge fund Galleon group, "making big bets on healthcare and technology companies" and today manages US$ 7.5 billion across six funds.
According to the Forbes report the annual return on funds managed by the Galleon group had been 21% net of fees since 1997 and last year Galleon’s flagship fund returned 30% before fees.
Raj Rajaratnam: A Man With Common Humanity
Raj Rajaratnam said: "I pledged US $ 5 million as initial donation to build houses for those affected in the North, East and South. We have already arranged with leading Sri Lankan companies – John Keels, Singer Sri Lanka and Hemas Group for the building of the houses and they are drawing the plans and would be finalized soon."
Raj Rajaratnam, the Sri Lankan born investor based in New York in the United States, is living up to the motto ‘esto perpetua’ or ‘be thou forever’ of his alma mater S. Thomas College, Mount Lavinia in Sri Lanka. His inner quality of common humanity is well manifested in the open when he sees human suffering. He has shown many a time that in such situations he moves forward to alleviate the sufferings of disadvantaged and under-privileged like the Galleon, the Spanish Armada that carried the gold while navigating the rough waters three centuries ago.
He undoubtedly went through rough water, with determination, to build a very successful and leading hedge fund company called ‘Galleon Fund’, whose assets now worth over US $ 5 billion, and has shown that he could break barriers to give a helping hand to eliminate or alleviate misery.
Part of his life story has built the character of Raj Rajaratnam. A book written and published in the United States, The New Investment Superstars: 13 Great Investors and Their Strategies for Superior Returns, in one of its paragraphs describes who Raj Rajaratnam is in this manner:
“Rajaratnam, unlike most of the other superstar managers, is not U.S born. He was born in Sri Lanka and educated in England, and came to the United States to attend the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce. He came as a student and stayed. He feels his background has had an influence on him. Because he didn’t have a support system in the United States, he has never been complacent and has a strong work ethics. Nothing is taken for granted and he doesn’t think life owes him anything. Rajaratnam compares this business to getting a report card every say. ‘I am very focused and disciplined. You need toughness. You need to take it personally, yet if you take it too personally, it could wear you down. It requires a lot of stamina. You could have the right analysis but be wrong on the market.’
In the US hedge fund industry Raj is well known since he manages a US $ 5 billion plus Hedge fund called Galleon Group. The thirteen managers, including Raj Rajaratnam, featured in the book were selected on the basis of a few basic criteria. Each manages at least US $ 1 billion in assets and each has matched or outperformed the Standard and Poor for at least seven years.
When Rajaratnam was on a visit to the Kilinochchi District in northern Sri Lanka in late 2003, he witnessed the most gruesome sight of a youth who had lost both legs to a landmine, and this particular image struck him most to donate to a fund launched by the Sri Lanka Embassy in the United States to purchase six mine detecting dogs. At a Sri Lanka Embassy ceremony on January 14, 2004, the Special Representative of the President of the United States and Secretary of State for Mine Action Lincoln P. Bloomfield, along with Sri Lanka Ambassador Devinda Subasinghe, commended Rajaratnam and five others for rising to the occasion to eliminate the landmine menace in northern and eastern Sri Lanka caused by the separatist war between the Sri Lanka Government and Tiger rebels.
The benevolence of Raj Rajaratnam was again seen when he made a firm commitment of US $ 5 million (Rs. 520 million) from his personal funds to reconstruct houses in the worst affected areas in the coastal belt of Sri Lanka due to the last December 26 tsunami onslaught.
Rajaratnam and his family were vacationing in Sri Lanka when the Tsunami ravaged the island and he saw for himself the damage caused to his motherland and its people.
He told “Asian Tribune” that, “I was in Sri Lanka with my family for holidays in December and I have seen personally what had happened on 26 December. I was shocked and grieved over the calamity that shook the country.”
“I pledged US $ 5 million as initial donation to build houses for those affected in the North, East and South. We have already arranged with leading Sri Lankan companies – John Keels, Singer Sri Lanka and Hemas Group for the building of the houses and they are drawing the plans and would be finalized soon.” < br>
Such was the common humanity imbibed in his character.
Born on June 15, 1957 in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Raj Rajaratnam had his early education at S. Thomas’ College Mount Lavinia in Sri Lanka, and thereafter at the University of Sussex in the Britain. He initially studied engineering, and then received an MBA in Finance at Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania in the United States. After a very successful academic career, he joined the American investment bank Needham & Company that specialized in emerging growth companies where he worked for more than 11 years. Rajaratnam started as an analyst of electronic stocks and rose to become managing director of investment analysis for technology, healthcare and specialty retailing. He subsequently became President of Needham in 1991.
Rajaratnam set up the Galleon Group in January 1997, after leaving Needham, and Galleon Fund currently has assets worth over US $ 5 billion.
In the past couple of years, he has been one of the heaviest investors in the Colombo Stock Exchange. Rajaratnam built up sizeable stakes in several blue chips during a vacation in Sri Lanka, and in subsequent acquisitions. Asian Tribune understands that he owns about seven percent each of the Hayleys and John Keells Holdings conglomerates and over five percent of Commercial Bank, one of the most profitable banks in Sri Lanka in addition to stakes in Colombo Dockyard and Tokyo Cement.
His father J.M. Rajaratnam (senior) was born in Alvai South, Vadamaradchy, an old boy of Hartley College, Point Pedro and the college mate of K.B.Ratnayake, an SLFP stalwart and was the Speaker of the Parliament of Sri Lanka.
J.M. Rajaratnam, was the chairman of Singer (Sri Lanka) in the 1970s before being promoted to head the multinational’s South East Asia operation based in Bangkok, according to S.K. Wickremasinghe, former chairman of Airlanka, the Sri Lankan airline and one-time colleague of Rajaratnam senior. He later went to New York as Vice President of Singer Exports.
Raj Rajaratnam is married, with three children, describes his hobbies as travel, world affairs and sports.
- Asian Tribune -
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