JDS

Friday, August 06, 2010

Galle Dialogue 2010 : Sri Lanka Navy hosts int'l maritime security symposium

Posted by JDS

Ministry of Defence | Daily News
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The Ministry of Defence in a combined effort with Sri Lanka Navy is to host the 'Galle Dialogue-2010' maritime symposium with 10 major participant nations at The Light House -Hotel in Galle. The event themed ' Charting the course for sustainable maritime cooperation' will make stage for greater insights and lessons on related maritime security issues including sea-piracy, arms/drugs trafficking and human smuggling.

Senior Research Fellow for South Asia, National Defence University, USA and former Deputy Assistance Secretary of Defence for Asia Pacific Security Affairs 2007-2009 Professor James Clad will deliver the Keynote address. Twenty-two delegates specialized in naval and maritime affairs from Australia, Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Oman, Pakistan, Republic of Korea, Singapore, South Africa and USA will attend the conference.

"This is a significant platform where we could learn from each other", says Secretary Defence Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who also views the necessity as paramount in the wake of rapid development of Sri Lanka as a regional and international maritime hub. This is a great opportune for both strategists and tacticians with an abundance of experiences in maritime affairs to map-out more cohesive measures facilitating both security and international trade, he further said.

The event participants include officials from Australia, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, South Africa, Singapore, Sri Lanka, South-Korea, United-States and Oman.

Speaking on the event Conference Coordinator (SLN) Commodore NBJ Rosayro said, the two day conference which is scheduled to commence from Friday (o6th August) to be the first of its kind hosted in the island since the defeat of the LTTE terrorist outfit. We are also optimistic of continuing the event annually, adding much significance in the international/ regional security calendar, he said.

According to naval sources, research papers from professionals in the fields of security, international relations and maritime affairs are to be presented at the conference. Meanwhile, the official web site of the event www.galledialogue.com with exclusive live web-footage is to be launched Friday (06th August), by Secretary Defence Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa at the inauguration ceremony.

The Jet-wing Hotels and Sri Lankan Air lines are facilitating the event with complementary partnerships.

© Defence.lk | Daily News

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Friday, August 06, 2010

SRI LANKA: Amnesty says emergency rule must end

Posted by JDS

Integrated Regional Information Networks
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The decades-long civil war in Sri Lanka ended more than a year ago, but emergency powers are still in place, sending the wrong message, Amnesty International says.

"With the Sri Lankan military's defeat of the LTTE [Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam] as a military force there were high hopes and every reason to expect a loosening of some of the highly restrictive laws and abusive practices that had characterized life in Sri Lanka for the past years," Sam Zarifi, Asia-Pacific director for Amnesty International, told IRIN by email from London. "Unfortunately that has yet to materialize.

"Continued reliance [on emergency regulations] when there is no longer evidence of an emergency... sends a message to Sri Lankan citizens that the state does not respect the rule of law," Zarifi said.

However, Rajiva Wijesinha, a member of parliament, defended the state of emergency, saying the government had maintained such measures since its defeat of the Tigers in May 2009 because of the concern that former cadres might "reactivate" with support from abroad.

Wijesinha said that while Amnesty's accusations were unwarranted, he recognized room for improvement. "We are aware that torture and other violations do occur, which is why we are trying to improve training for the police, as was done consistently with the army."

Expectations for reconciliation and rehabilitation are strong since fighting ended.

The Sri Lankan government has set up a truth and reconciliation commission to investigate events in the final years of the civil war, from February 2002 to May 2009. Tens of thousands of people are estimated to have died since the conflict began in 1983, according to government figures. Both sides are accused of human rights abuses.

A three-member panel set up by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to look into human rights accountability issues during the final stages of the civil war should begin work in August, amid criticism from the government.

© IRIN

Friday, August 06, 2010

Govt. Development officers stage mass protest demanding apology from minister

Posted by JDS

Photo courtesy: Indi Samarajeewa

By Dasun Edirisinghe | The Island
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Samurdhi Development officers on Thursday conducted a major protest campaign in many parts of the country, including the East, demanding a public apology from Deputy Minister Mervyn Silva, who tied a Samurdhi officer to a tree for his failure to attend a dengue prevention programme.

General Secretary of the Samurdhi Development Officers’ Union Chamara Maddumakaluge said all unions representing several political parties threw their weight behind the protest.

The irate trade union leader said that Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa, who is in charge of the Samurdhi programme, should be ashamed to allow the likes of Deputy Minister Silva to target Samurdhi workers. He accused Minister Rajapaksa of conveniently turning a blind eye to Deputy Minister Silva’s antics.

Large crowds gathered in Colombo, Kalutara, Gampaha, Matara, Polonnaruwa, Anuradhapura, Chilaw, Batticaloa, Ratnapura, Trincomallee and Badulla to pressure the government to take punitive action against the unruly politician.

UPFA Uva Provincial Council members Chamara Sampath Dassanayake and Nimal Ratnayake and several Pradeshiya Sabha members participated in the protest held at the Hali Ela junction in Badulla.

© The Island

Friday, August 06, 2010

US, Canada monitor ship said full of Sri Lankan refugees

Posted by JDS

Agence France-Presse
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The United States and Canada said Wednesday they are monitoring a ship said to be packed with Tamil refugees bound for Canada as they flee post-war persecution in Sri Lanka.

David Poopalapillai, a spokesman for Canadian Tamils, dismissed what he called mere allegations that the asylum seekers included members of the separatist Tamil Tigers, outlawed as terrorists by both Ottawa and Washington.

Interviewed by AFP, Poopalapillai expressed concern for the health and safety of the Sri Lankan passengers, most of them Tamils, who are packed into what he said is a "very small ship" that is not built for ocean voyages.

Matthew Chandler, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), told AFP: "We are aware of the vessel, and are monitoring its progress. Should an emergency arise, the United States will respond appropriately."

But he added: "We do not know definitively how many passengers are currently aboard, nor can we confirm the nationality of the passengers."

A DHS official told AFP on the condition of anonymity that the "ship is expected to land in Vancouver, Canada in mid-August."

He also said he could not confirm media reports that some of the ship's passengers were members of the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam, who were finally defeated last year by government troops in a 40-year civil war.

A Canadian Foreign Ministry official said Canada "is aware of reports published in the media suggesting that a ship coming from southeast Asia could be headed to Canada," but declined to comment on "operational" matters.

Poopalapillai, the spokesman for the Canadian Tamil Congress, said the "information that we have from the Canadian government officials, from the other media sources is, clearly they think the ship is very close to Canada."

He said: "We were told that they are men, women and children on board and they are all from Sri Lanka, mostly Tamils."

He accused the Sri Lankan government of regularly spreading allegations that refugees aboard ships fleeing Sri Lanka belong to the Tamil Tigers.

None of the 76 Tamils who arrived in Canada last year was proven to be a member of the outlawed group, he said.

"They were detained based on these allegations. Our government officials went through case by case and they are free now," he said, adding they were now being considered for refugee status in Canada.

He complained the media focused on "criminality," including trafficking in persons, when it should focus on the human reasons for people fleeing Sri Lanka.

"Why are these people fleeing? Look at the root cause," he said. "It's is very terrible things, extremely hostile conditions in their home country."

D. M. Jayaratne, Sri Lanka's prime minister, has urged Western nations to crack down on Tamils living abroad who he said hope to revive the armed struggle that cost the lives of up to 100,000 people between 1972 and May last year.

© AFP

Friday, August 06, 2010

SRI LANKA: The state of denial and the descent to silliness

Posted by JDS

Asian Human Rights Commission
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For several decades now the Sri Lankan people have been exposed to extraordinary acts of separation, large scale forced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, torture, illegal arrest and detention. This and large scale displacement of people from their homes by way of internal displacement or by leaving the country altogether and the disappearance of even elementary forms of protection available to people within the legal and social sphere are among the many issues that have caused massive forms of trauma in the population as a whole.

The response of the state to such problems has been one of denial. It denies that there were large scale disappearances; it denies the attacks on the civil and political rights of people at every possible level.

It denies the large scale dislocations which have displaced people from their places where they have been living all their lives and many other forms of suffering that has caused trauma to the people. GOSL denies the need for investigations into any of these problems and any need to find the truth about what has taken place. In essence it denies the need to grieve and mourn over the losses that have been caused to the people. In doing so the GOSL denies that the people live in a state of trauma and psychological distress.

To carry out this denial process massive propaganda machinery has been put in place. This propaganda machinery constantly constructs various activities in order to create an appearance of normalcy and even triumphalism. To people suffering from trauma the GOSL offers a message of triumphalism and wants them to believe that they are not a traumatised people but a victorious people. This massive contrast from the reality and the false situation that is being constructed by propaganda is crisis in which the people are caught up all the time.

Decent to Silliness

The GoSL's denial of the people's trauma and the prevention of opportunities of grief have created conditions in which society produces many acts of blatant silliness. Unable to recover their rational process, unable to deal with its own emotional distress society has been led into a descent into silliness. The following are examples of silliness within the society:

A Minister ties a civil servant to a tree

A minister publically and in front of the media, tied a civil servant to a tree as punishment for being absent at a meeting. The minister, with rope in hand, standing in front of a crowd and talking to this man before tying him to the tree has all been photographed by a number of media persons. The bystanders stood by passively behind the minister, watching this scene unfold. Only one person, a woman, came forward to protest this action and she was reprimanded by the minister who threatened her with the same punishment.

This incident was extensively covered by the media and a senior minister of the government, the Minister for Health was questioned by the media as to what action the government would take against the blatant misconduct of the minister. His reply was that no complaint had been received and GOSL would only look into the matter when this happened. That the lack of a complaint is the cause for the lack of an investigation has become a familiar excuse by the government for not conducting inquiries into serious acts of violence. The people do not make complaints due to their fear of possible repercussions and this is used as the excuse for the failure to conduct investigations. That is the type of silliness that the entire establishment has descended to and the people see spectacles of such silliness every day.

The Comic 'satyagraha'

A few weeks earlier another minister staged a 'satyagraha', a hunger-strike-unto-death, in an effort to force the Secretary General of the United Nations to withdraw the panel that he had appointed to advise him on the course of action he should take relating to the alleged acts of violence by the military that took place in Sri Lanka in the latter part of the conflict with the LTTE that ended in May 2009. This minister staged the satyagraha in front of the United Nations headquarters in Colombo and this was done with the blessings of the government. The UN acted promptly and closed down the premises and called its senior staff member for consultations in New York with the Secretary General. The incident caused serious diplomatic problems. At that stage the president of Sri Lanka intervened, gave the minister a glass of water and asked him to stop his hunger strike.

This entire drama was telecast and huge media coverage lasted for several days. Then, for several days after this small groups gathered outside the UN headquarters in Geneva to continue the action. The whole episode ended tragic-comically and it was yet another example of the descent into silliness that is taking place in the country.

Bar Council's Resolution

Again, this week the Bar Council of Sri Lanka passed a resolution which condemned the action of the UN Secretary General in the strongest possible terms virtually demonstrating that a group of persons acting under the influence of the existing regime is manipulating the proceedings within the Bar Association itself. For a long time now the legal system, the rule of law system and the very place of the lawyers has been lost in the country but there have been no protests by the Bar Association on any of these matters. When a member wrote to the President of the Bar Association reminding him of a draft law submitted by the association on the contempt of court law, the president's reply was that he could not recall submitting such a draft but would take some action to find out about it.

On two occasions the Supreme Court has punished persons under the contempt of court legislation and such actions have been declared by the United Nations Human Rights Committee as violations of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to which Sri Lanka is a state party.

In one of these cases a man was sentenced to one year of rigorous imprisonment for talking loudly in court. None of these actions brought any kind of official protest from within the Bar Association. When the legal system is dismantled and the very survival of the legal profession in the country is threatened the Bar Association remains silent. The Bar Association also remained silent on the issue of a judge being accused of rape and sexual molestation of a girl who has not been subjected to arrest and criminal investigation. However, on a politically charged issue it makes statements. The descent of the professional bodies to such an extent of silliness is itself a demonstration of what is taking place in Sri Lanka.

The Flight of domestic workers abroad

Women working as domestic workers are having a tough time. Women stranded at Riyadh, Saudi Arabia are an example. A Few hundred women who have fled from the harassment of employers to a camp provided by the Sri Lankan consulate tell a woeful tale of troubles. Many in the camp have nothing except the clothes they were wearing at the time of fleeing. Though they make complains to authorities at the consulate hardly any action is taken, not even as to getting their salaries. Women complain of been taken away against their will. According to one woman who spoke from the camp to the BBC Sinhala Service, about five dead women had been returned to the camp premises recently. Such sufferings are ignored by the authorities. The government needs foreign exchange for payment of debts and this mostly come from Sri Lankan women working abroad as domestic slaves. The complaints of these women are not of much concern to the government.

© AHRC

Friday, August 06, 2010

British PR firm whitewashing Sri Lanka’s reputation - report

Posted by JDS

Tamil Net
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British public relations firm Bell Pottinger Sans Frontiers is working for the Sri Lankan government to improve Colombo’s international image, in the wake of its mass killings of Tamil civilians last year and ongoing rights abuses, The Guardian newspaper said this week in an investigative report into UK firms’ role in ‘reputation laundering’ for unsavoury regimes and leaders. "An investigation by the Guardian has revealed that [London’s] public relations firms are earning millions of pounds a year promoting foreign regimes with some of the world's worst human rights records, including Saudi Arabia, Rwanda, Kazakhstan and Sri Lanka," the paper said.

“The doyen of this business is Lord Bell, the chairman of Chime Group, which runs Bell Pottinger.”

Chime plc, headed by Lord Bell, Margaret Thatcher's former adviser, earned almost half of its £67m income last year from foreign contracts, up from 37% in 2008, the paper said.

"Autocratic governments are realising they need to be more sophisticated in the way they act rather than just telling people how it is," Francis Ingham, chief executive of the PRCA (Public Relations Consultants Association), told The Guardian.

Apart from Sri Lanka, Chime has also represented the Zambian government, which in May was accused by human rights organisations of harbouring Rwandan genocide suspects, the paper said.

"More and more PR firms are moving from representing companies to representing countries, whatever their records," said Paul Farrelly MP, a member of UK Parliament’s culture, media and sport select committee.

"Any self-respecting professional should ask themselves [when taking on a client] if this is a regime they should be representing."

The British PR industry's voluntary code of conduct, drawn up by the PRCA, requires that "political consultants must advise clients where their activities may be illegal, unethical or contrary to professional practice, and to refuse to act for a client in pursuance of any such activity".

But some of the lucrative deals may breach the industry's voluntary code of conduct, drawn up by the PRCA, the paper said, in an extensive report.

In Bell Pottinger’s case, the question doesn’t arise: the firm has simply not signed up to the industry code.

The paper said Lord Bell's position on the ethics of which contracts to take is simple: "I wouldn't do anything I would do a bad job on."

Which is probably why Bell Pottinger declined when Omar Bashir, the president of Sudan, already wanted by the international criminal court on suspicion of crimes against humanity relating to the Darfur genocide, approached it and another firm, via representatives, asking for their help in managing his image.

"I am not an international ethics body," Lord Bell added. “We do communications work.”

© Tamil Net