JDS

Thursday, September 09, 2010

'No complaint against military during final war' : SL Army Chief

Posted by JDS

Colombo Today
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Army chief Lt. Gen. Jagath Jayasuriya has said that the armed forces were not accused of any crime during the final battle against the LTTE.

At no time of the final operation, the ICRC which was present in the north, made any complaint against the military, he has said.

The Army commander was testifying before the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission yesterday (Sept. 08).

The considerable military presence in the North will gradually be reduced and police will take over the maintenance of law and order, he added.

Commanders of the Navy and the Air Force and the Army's field commanders also gave evidence before the commission yesterday.

© Colombo Today

Thursday, September 09, 2010

Sri Lanka president handed sweeping new powers

Posted by JDS

Agence France-Presse
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Sri Lankan ministers denied that the president now enjoys dictatorial powers under a post-war constitutional revamp, but observers are worried about the chilling effect on democracy.

The national parliament voted late Wednesday in favour of the 18th amendment to the 1978 constitution, scrapping a two-term limit on the presidency and handing sweeping new powers to President Mahinda Rajapakse.

The law grants the head of state the ability to appoint officials to key posts in previously quasi-independent institutions such as the judiciary, police and election commission.

"The constitution was used to consolidate power, without rebuilding governance structures," commented Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, executive director of the local think-tank the Centre for Policy Alternatives.

"It's a setback for democracy. Parliament is now a rubber-stamp institution, It's a dark period for us," he added.

The reforms were debated on Wednesday and passed with 161 in favour and 17 against in the 225-member parliament. The main opposition United National Party (UNP) boycotted the debate, saying it did not want to be "contaminated."

Government ministers argued throughout the parliamentary session that the changes were needed to ensure stability in the country after the end of its 37-year ethnic conflict in May last year.

Rajapakse ordered a huge military offensive against the Tamil Tiger rebels during his first term, which wiped out the decades-old insurgency but has since been dogged by allegations of war crimes.

"The changes will bring economic prosperity to our motherland and strengthen the president's hand to speed up vital economic development after the war ended," Energy Minister Champika Ranawaka said Wednesday.

His colleague Wimal Weerawansa, housing minister, added: "We are not going in for a dictatorship. If the president wanted to be a dictator, he has enough powers without amending the current constitution to do so.

"The dictatorship story is a myth planted by the opposition in the minds of the people."

The head of rights group Transparency International in Sri Lanka, J.C. Weliamuna, disagreed, saying the hawkish Rajapakse had systematically weakened civil society, the opposition and the media over the past three years.

"He has unlimited powers now. That's dangerous," Weliamuna said.

Rajapakse's reputation was built on the military victory that ended the island nation's conflict, which endeared him to his core supporters in the majority Sinhalese ethnic group.

He has also overseen a period of sharp post-war economic growth and has promised to heal and unite the bitterly divided Sinhalese and Tamil ethnic groups which were on opposing sides of the conflict.

"He has the political power to do so, the question is whether he has the political will to do so," said Harim Peiris, a lawyer and a former presidential spokesman.

© AFP

Thursday, September 09, 2010

New powers for Sri Lanka President

Posted by JDS

By Channel 4 News
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As Sri Lanka's president Mahinda Rajapakse is given sweeping new powers, the man behind critical posters which have compared him to Hitler has been arrested.

Sri Lanka's parliament has today approved constitutional reforms which will enable President Mahinda Rajapakse to seek a third term and will give him sweeping powers over formerly independent institutions.

The constitutional amendment will enable him to appoint key officials to the judiciary, the police, the electoral commssion and the central bank.

The 225-member parliament voted 161-17 in support of the 18th amendment.

While the president's party and its allies do not themselves command the parliamentary majority necessary to automatically pass the bill into law, it has been widely alleged in Sri Lanka that parliamentarians were either bribed or intimidated into pushing the bill through.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court ruled that the constitutional changes did not require approval by referendum.

In presenting the 18th Amendment to parliament today, Prime Minister Dissanayake Jayaratne said there was nothing undemocratic with the proposals.

Those opposed to the amendment say key democratic insitutions are being turned from servants of the people into instruments of state.

"Anyone with an interest in constitutional democracy in Sri Lanka will be very, very worried by this," says Asanga Welikala, a constitutional lawyer with the Center for Policy Alternatives in Sri Lanka.

"Six year presidential terms – now carrying on forever – the removal of checks and balances, blanket immunity… this consolidation of presidential power is a very disturbing development."

Alan Keenan of the International Crisis Group said: "Today is a black day for Sri Lankan democracy."

"The Amendment further entrenches the already near-total powers of president.

"These changes will deepen the cancer of impunity and the politicisation of all government institutions."

Country faces "danger"
Despite the stifling of the political opposition and the intimidation of journalists and critics of the government, there have been howls of protest in Sri Lanka itself over what is perceived – in some circles – as an assault on democracy and good governance.

The Ceylon Federation of Labour, an independent trades union, warned starkly: "It is time that all democratic forces wake up to the danger the country faces."

A Tamil MP talked of "the death of democracy" during today’s parliamentary debate.

Many oppostion MPs walked out in protest. Demonstrators belonging to the opposition United National Party burned an effigy of the president.

The owner of a Colombo press which printed two posters of the president – one of which portrays him as Hitler, with the strapline "He is a dictator" in Sinhala, has been arrested.

Mr Jayampathy Bulathsinhala was arrested on Tuesday night along with his wife and two brothers and eight other workers at his plant.

The other members of his family and employees were released after interrogation at Colombo's Mirihana police station but Mr Bulathsinhala continues to be held under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, which provides for 14 days' detention without charge.

The 64-year-old President was re-elected in January and his Sri Lanka Freedom Party and its allies secured a large majority in parliament not long afterwards. (The next presidential election won’t be until 2016).

Like Sinhala kings of old, the President has established a Rajapakse dynasty. He appointed himself minister of finance, minister of planning, minister of highways, ports and aviation and minister of defence.

He also appointed his unelected brother Gotabaya defence secretary and put him in charge of all three arms of the military, the coast guard, the police and foreign and domestic intelligence.

Gotabaya Rajapakse was the architect of the final assault on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

Mahinda's elder brother Basil is special adviser to the president, economic dvelopment minister and the head of the investment promotion board.

Both Basil and Mahinda Rajapakse's son, Namal, won parliamentary seats in April.

Mahinda's oldest brother Chamal, formerly a cabinet minister, is speaker of Parliament, while his son, Shashindra is chief minister of Uva Province.

It will now be harder than ever to unseat him. "It doesn’t bode well," a spokesperson from Amnesty International told me.

"But what worries us most from a human rights point of view, is how the amendment removes the safeguards on executive authoritiy."

In a stroke, 18-A –as it's known – nullifies and supercedes previous amendments, thus abolishing virtually all checks and balances on the presidency.

It gives the president the power to appoint the Chief Justice and judges in the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal.

He can appoint the Attorney General and the Auditor General.

He will have the power to appoint chairmen and members of formerly independent commissions, among them, the Election Commission, the National Police Commission, the Human Rights Commission and the Permanent Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery and Corruption.

The president will have the power to remove anyone on these commissions who exhibits any tendencies that are not those expected of a Rajapakse loyalist.

President Mahinda Rajapakse has broken promises made to his people on the conclusion of the war last year; promises to share and devolve power and to unite his nation.

He has also broken his election promises. Just five years ago he explicitly and unequivocally committed himself to abolishing Sri Lanka's executive presidency.

Today, his power is absolute.

© Channel 4