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."
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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.
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