Sri Lanka: Burnt body of male recovered in Mannaar

Photo courtesy: Tamil Net

Tamil Net
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Mannaar police recovered the burnt body of a male from the coast of Kaadduppa'l'li along Moor Road in Mannaar Friday informed by residents of the area. The victim, estimated to be around 45 years old, had been beaten to death and set fire to later, police sources said.

Mannaar magistrate conducted the inquest into the death Friday around 1:20 p.m at the place where the body was found.

Directed by the magistrate police handed over the body to Mannaar General Hospital mortuary for post mortem examination and identification.

© Tamil Net

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SL President secure two - thirds majority to change the constitution

By Shihar Aneez and Ranga Sirilal | Reuters
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Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Friday secured the two-thirds parliamentary majority he needs to change the constitution after an opposition party with eight legislators pledged its support.

"We will not join the government, but we will support the proposed constitutional amendments," Basheer Segu Dawood, the chairman of the ethnic minority party Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, told Reuters.

The president's United Peoples Freedom Alliance won a sweeping majority in an April parliamentary poll after Rajapaksa's re-election to the presidency three months earlier.

Rajapaksa has already struck a tentative deal to return Sri Lanka to rule by an executive prime minister. That would allow him to by-pass the existing two-term limit as head of state and run the country as prime minister.

With the latest support, Rajapaksa's ruling United People Freedom Alliance (UPFA) can command 154 votes in the 225-seat parliament, giving the president more than the two-thirds majority required for a constitutional change.

The crossovers come as the government and the main opposition United National Party are in discussions to change the constitution and reduce the president's executive powers.

Critics blame the president's strong executive powers under the present constitution for political interference in the judiciary, public service and police, allowing the head of state to manipulate the system as he or she wishes.

© Reuters

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Operation Pacific Angel-Sri Lanka concludes

Photo courtesy: Master Sgt. Mike Hammond | U.S. Air Force photo

By Master Sgt. Mike Hammond | US Air Force
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Representatives from the U.S., Sri Lanka, the Maldives and Mongolia concluded Operation Pacific Angel-Sri Lanka Aug. 14 through 22 here after providing humanitarian civil engineering and medical aid to people living in the Anuradhapura and Puttalam communities.

Pacific Angel-Sri Lanka medical teams provided primary, dental and optometry care to 4,647 patients in three locations and dispensed 4,462 prescriptions. Included in that total are 1,662 optometry patients and 562 dental patients who recieved medical care. The Pacific Angel optometrists provided 1,448 pairs of eyeglasses, and the dentists performed 78 extractions.

"Together, we were able to provide medical care to more than 4,400 Sri Lankans as well as conduct capacity building seminars in pediatrics and mental health," said Col. (Dr.) David O'Brien, the 13th Air Force surgeon general. "These activities have had an enormous and positive impact on several communities in Sri Lanka. This is an extraordinary accomplishment for all the participants of the Pacific Angel-Sri Lanka mission.

"A great deal of thanks to our Sri Lankan counterparts for their support during this Pacific Angel mission -- we couldn't possibly have been as effective without their support," he said.

Two medical educational programs were also offered, which provided U.S. and Sri Lankan professionals the opportunity to exchange information and practice advanced skills related to mental health and pediatric emergencies.

Following the completion of medical treatment at each site, Pacific Angel members donated the remaining medical supplies to the Cheddikulam Hospital and Puttalam Township.

In addition to the medical care provided during Pacific Angel-Sri Lanka, the Pacific Angel civil engineering teams repaired and refurbished two primary schools, which improved the educational environment for nearly 200 students. The U.S. forces also partnered with the mayor of Puttalam to provide a power generator, lighting and three new computers to the Semandalawa Kanista Vidyalaya school in Puttalam Township.

Pacific Angel is a humanitarian and civic assistance program aimed at improving military and civic cooperation between the U.S. and countries throughout the Asia-Pacific region.

This is the fourth and final iteration of Operation Pacific Angel 2010. Operations were previously conducted in the Philippines in February, Vietnam in May, and Bangladesh in June.

© US Air Force

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IMF urges Sri Lanka to broaden tax base

By Mary Swire | Tax-News
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The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has held discussions with Sri Lanka as part of an Article IV consultation and on the fourth review of the Stand-By Arrangement, approved on July 24, 2009.

The IMF mission said that overall economic conditions were improving, and the economy was likely to show strong growth this year. End-June performance criteria on domestic budget borrowing, reserve money, and net reserves had been met. With budget revenues increasing and expenditure restraint continuing, fiscal performance so far remained consistent with achieving the government’s full-year deficit target of 8% of GDP. Financial sector reforms continued to go forward in line with the program.

However the IMF thought that significant near- and medium-term macroeconomic challenges would need to be addressed, if Sri Lanka was to take full advantage of the current favorable environment. The IMF said:

“First, a fundamental tax reform is needed, and planned, to simplify the existing system, broaden the tax base (including by restricting concessions), spread the tax burden more equitably, and support economic growth, all while boosting the revenue-to-GDP ratio."

"The resulting fiscal space could allow increased public capital spending on reconstruction and infrastructure as well as social spending to support the vulnerable, but it is clear that the country’s large investment needs cannot be met through the government budget alone."

"Private-sector investment will need to play a critical role. To foster this investment, policies will need to be geared toward preserving macroeconomic stability, ensuring external competitiveness, facilitating capital market development, and improving the investment climate, all of which would lay the basis for higher sustainable growth in a post-war environment."

© Tax-News

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India wants new defence ties with Lanka

Daily Mirror
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Indian Defence Secretary Pradeep Kumar is to visit Colombo soon to get to know the issues to be taken up at the first annual defence dialogue between the two countries, The Hindu Newspaper reported quoting an Indian Defence Ministry source.

This was after talks in New Delhi between a Sri Lankan delegation led by Minister Basil Rajapaksa and a high powered Indian delegation comprising National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon, Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao and Defence Secretary Pradeep Kumar.

The Sri Lankan delegation included Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Presidential Secretary Lalith Weeratunga.

The institutional mechanism of an annual defence dialogue was decided by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa during a meeting in June.

“It is time to look at greater comprehensive cooperation. In this context, we broadly discussed the areas which would be important to focus on in the annual defence dialogue. An earlier visit by the Indian Defence Secretary will help to understand the issues. In the aftermath of the conflict, there is a need for a different defence relationship,” the source said after the high-level India-Sri Lanka talks on Thursday.

He denied that Sri Lanka had approached India for assistance in building the second phase of the Hambantota port. China had undertaken the expansion and modernisation work in the first phase and was understood to have tied up with Sri Lanka for the second phase as well.

India was cautious in its defence ties with Sri Lanka during the conflict and had restricted military assistance to non-lethal aspects such as enhancing the Armed forces' maritime and aerial domain awareness. When Sri Lanka sought arms from other countries including Pakistan, New Delhi enabled Colombo to seal a $300 million armaments deal with its old ally Moscow.

The source said defence was one of the several issues at the table, most of which were a follow-up of decisions taken during Mr. Rajapaksa's recent visit. Both sides also discussed the problems facing fishermen, with India pointing out that killings were unacceptable and that a way had to be found to eliminate this altogether. It was agreed to open channels of communication between fishermen from both countries to understand issues that have sparked violence on the high seas.

Having embarked on building railway infrastructure in Sri Lanka, India has signed most of the contracts and an Export and Import Bank team will shortly complete the arrangements for the $800 million credit for the purpose.

India has completed the hydrological survey of the Kankesanthurai port and will be sending a team to finalise the detailed project report. It is also finalising the tender documents for the modernisation of the Palaly airport.

Sri Lanka said it appreciated the ground covered by India in three months to construct 50,000 houses for the internally displaced people with the pilot project for 1,000 houses set to take off soon.

© Daily Mirror

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Sri Lanka: The last debate on the constitution

By Basil Fernando | Asian Human Rights Commission
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Sri Lanka has turned out to be a land of many quarrels but no debates. Often quarrels turns into violence, sometimes murder and even worst. And the violence itself leads to new quarrels and the circle goes on. Sadly however, hardly anything ever turns into a debate. Debate has become a lost art and no one even seems to remember what it is.

Take for example the question of the constitution. Among the debates of any nation, those on the constitutions would receive the highest place. Not so in Sri Lanka. No one any longer debates the constitution.

The last debate on the constitution was on the 17 amendment. There were many who argued for it and they did so long a long time. Interestingly, no one argued against it. The government’s argument was that it was good piece of legislation but that there were some defects in it. To cure the defect, the government killed the amendment itself; very much like cutting off the arm to save a finger.

In fact, in that last debate on the constitution, the government preferred to bluff rather than to debate. The real problem of the 17th Amendment was that it tried to impose limitations on the power of executive president. The limitations were on his powers to appoint whomever he wished to important positions in the civil service. The government did not agree with having any such limitations and did not wish to debate it. The government made the decision unilaterally and merely created some pretexts for doing do so.

The problem for the government was that it decided that it was not possible to debate on the need to have checks and balances. It was not possible to say that this was a wrong principle. In fact, the government position was that was a wrong principle as far as the government was concerned. The government believes that having no limits to its power is a better principle for governance and that it is impossible to govern Sri Lanka with while trying to abide by the checks and balances principle. Thus, the government believed that this principle was wrong, at least, for Sri Lanka. It had to be abandoned.

However, this was not something that could be said openly as there is almost a universal belief that the principle of having 'checks and balances' is right. To say otherwise, would be tantamount to saying that the law of gravity is incorrect. To debate over the issue of the 17th Amendment was counterproductive. Thus, the only way out was bluff. And that was what the government did.

This example explains the reason as to why there are no longer any debates about the constitution in Sri Lanka. Debates involve principles and there cannot be a debate to reject all the principles on which constitutionalism is based. If one wants to rule in a way that rejects all these principles, then there is no point in debating. Besides, it would be counterproductive to say that our government believes that all principles relating to constitutional law is wrong.

The way out is to create a smokescreen. To have lots of quarrels going on and when you have the monopoly of the media it is easy to do that. The very style of the media in recent years has changed in order to trivialize everything. Trivialization is an essential component of creating quarrels and quarrels are quite an easy way of trivializing any issue.

To have 'no principles' is the very meaning of trivialization. From having shouting matches to some 'jokes' to tickle the audience is what the public get as their daily diet now. There are experts in the job now to keep the show going on.

Soon there will be some major changes in the constitution. However, such changes will not be preceded by any debates. As the proposed amendment is for displacement of limits relating to the president's power a debate will only create problems for the achievement of the government's plans. Indeed the proposed plan cannot be justified on the basis of principles relating to constitutional law. This change will also take place in the midst of some quarrels instead.

This constitutional change will also be introduced as a triviality, though its implications to the country are momentous.

What will this debate-shy society leave as a heritage for future generations?

© AHRC

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Sri Lanka: "Govt may have deliberately shelled civilians and hospitals" says UN Humanitarian Coordinator

By Matthew Russell Lee | Inner City Press
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Asked about Sri Lanka on his final day as UN Humanitarian Coordinator, John Holmes offered a defense of his department's funding of the government's internment camps while admitting the government may have “deliberately shelled” civilians and hospitals.

Inner City Press asked Holmes about criticism of his and the UN's actions in Sri Lanka, for example pulling out of Kilinochchi, funding the internment camps and failing even now to get to the bottom of the murder of the Action Contre La Faim humanitarian workers.

Holmes called this the “ACF massacre,” and said it has still not been explained or even investigated. He did not explain the Kilinochchi pull out, which has been criticized including the International Crisis Group.

He said there's a need to know how many civilians were killed, when it was his OCHA unit which stopped reporting on civilians casualties when one of their reports was leaked to and published by Inner City Press.

Holmes began his answer by referring to the “heavy propaganda claims on both sides.” It was not clear if, beyond side of the the government and “Sinhalese extremists” -- to use Singapore's Lee Kwan Yew's description of Mahinda Rajapaksa -- Holmes meant the LTTE Tamil Tigers, or the Tamil diaspora.

As Inner City Press reported at the time, during Ban Ki-moon's trip to Sri Lanka in May 2009, Holmes during an on the record briefing on the UN plane said that he got lots of email from the Tamil diaspora alleging for example bias by Ban's chief of staff Vijay Nambiar. I just delete it, Holmes said of the e-mail.

Later after complaints, Inner City Press tried to soften the story. But that is what he said. And since he said it, information has emerged about Nambair's still unexplained role in telling LTTE leaders who wanted to surrender to come out with white flags. They were killed, and the leader of the unit which did the killing is now reportedly coming to the UN as Sri Lanka's Deputy Permanent Representative.

Holmes is headed to a think tank of sorts, Ditchley Hall. Perhaps he will write a book -- and perhaps it will address these issues.

© Inner City Press

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• John Holmes praises UN panel and govt. commission (Colombo Today)
• As Sri Lankan Army Toured UN's Holmes, Questions Left Unanswered (Inner City Press)
• Sir John Holmes is a terrorist, says Minister Jeyaraj (Lankaenews)

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