ALondon based Tamil journalist has been arrested on Wednesday (17) at the Colombo Airport, while he was on his way to visit his family. A British passport holder, Karthigesu Thirulogasundar (37), was arrested by the officers attached to Sri Lankan state intelligence agency and currently being held in an undisclosed location. Thirulogasundar was previously attached to London based popular TV channels Deepam TV and GTV. He is currently working as a full time journalist for London based radio station, IBC. He visited the island, hoping to visit his aging mother who is seriously ill.
Name: Karthigesu Thirulogasundar Date of Birth : 23 March 1973 Media involvement: Deepam TV, GTV & IBC Radio Date of arrest: 17 November 2010
The Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka appeals to all concerned groups and individuals to take necessary action to demand for immediate release of journalist Karthigesu Thirulogasundar.
Please act make phone calls and send emails to:
The President of Sri Lanka – + 94 112447400/ email -president@presidentsoffice.lk
Secretary to the President – +94 112 2326309 / email – prsec@presidentsoffice.lk
Inspector General of Police Mahinda Balasuriya – +94 112 421750 / +94 773088400 email – igp@police.lk
Executive Committee Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka
By Steve Chao | Al Jazeera .............................................................................................................................................................................................
The first time Mahinda Rajapaksa assumed the seat of president in Sri Lanka, it was to limited fanfare. The year was 2005. He had just survived a fierce battle with his party for leadership, and the civil war with the rebel Tamil Tigers was still simmering. There wasn't much to celebrate.
This time around, the pomp and circumstance surrounding his second inauguration is staggering. Posters adorned with his photo have been erected on virtually every street in the country, every few feet.
The government decreed a week of celebrations, starting with the planting of three million trees and the presentation of the world's largest milk rice cake for the leader's birthday; which just happens to coincide with his second oath to office.
"The milk rice is our traditional form of celebration," said one of the five hundred chefs enlisted to fashion the gourmet monstrosity that weighs some 7000 kgs.
"It is seen as a blessing from the Gods; to the people and to the president."
With nightly fireworks, marching bands, and ceremonial Sri Lankan dancers at various events held in honour of him, the resemblance of Rajapaksa's swearing-in to a royal ordination is not lost on the greater populace. And is on the whole welcomed.
Age of peace
The 65 year-old former lawyer is revered as the man who ushered in a new, and unexpected, age of peace; though some would say it was brought about through a ruthless campaign against the Tamil Tigers, that even until now is shrouded by international concerns of human rights abuses.
Still it is a ruthlessness many on this island are willing to overlook, as after 30 years of devastating civil war the economy is predicted to mark a record growth of eight per cent in 2010.
"Rajapaksa achieved what no one in the international community thought possible. There was a myth that terrorism could never be defeated but he did so, and he did it in our own Sri Lankan way," Keheliya Rambukwewla, a government spokesperson, said.
That the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam, or LTTE, was in fact a terrorist group, is the view of the victors. Some in the country's Tamil minority continue to see it differently.
But with the ethnic group making up 13 per cent of the population Rajapaksa knows one of his main challenges in his second term in office is to prove he can forge reconciliation between Tamils and the majority Sinhalese population.
He has promised that all ethnic groups will share equally in the future prosperity of the country. There is a lot of rebuilding to be done.
Almost every minister in government will tell you that not long ago Sri Lanka was considered a failed state. The Tamil communities of the north, where much of the fighting occured, remains in utter ruins.
Dictator-in-the-making
However, beyond economics, perhaps of even more concern, is a litany of government moves that have critics fearing a dictator-in-the-making.
Shortly after Rajapaksa's re-election was the highly publicised arrest of Sarath Fonseka, his challenger and former army general. The war hero now spends his days shuttling between the courts and jail on various charges.
He has already been convicted of corruption and for using his military position for politicking; crimes that will have him serve a jail term of several years.
Fonseka's soft-spoken and dutiful wife, Anoma, has faithfully defended his innocence and speaks of harassment and a climate of fear created by the country's leaders against those who oppose them.
"Actually we don't have democracy, one can … understand that day by day we are going to the lower level," she said.
What has baffled this one-time close friend of the Rajapaksa family, is the president's personal history.
She says that in his days as a lawyer he championed human rights and the need for limits on the government's power, especially in the executive branch.
But just months after securing his presidency Rajapaksa amended the constitution, giving him overall authority in appointing civil servants, the police and judges.
He also removed the two-term limit for a president, allowing him to technically be in charge indefinitely.
The fact he has given himself and his brothers almost all the key portfolios in cabinet from finance to defence, has led to talk and criticism from international rights groups that he is running a family dynasty rather than a democracy.
New found confidence
But Rambukwewla says the world has nothing to fear, that at the end of the day the president will still need to run for re-election every six years.
"Whether he is having ten departments or a hundred departments, if the people are happy and the people are being given what was promised, or more than what was promised, why should the outside world be concerned about it?"
Where once Sri Lanka cared for what the world thought of it, Rambukwewla says there is a newfound confidence in the island nation's own abilities.
Rather than simply embracing the West and it's "ideals", he talks of expanding trade with nations like Iran and China.
Rajapaksa himself speaks of turning his country into the next economic "miracle of Asia". And the greater majority appear willing to let him try.
When asked about whether the president has too much power, most on the streets respond with shrugs and the typical response: "this is the way things are done here. It is the Sri Lankan way".
Immigration and Emigration authorities have decided to deport Lebanese Democratic Youth Union Leader Mohamed Hottait and his wife following CID reports that the couple participated in anti government activities.
Immigration and Emigration Controller Chulananda Perera told Daily Mirror that the couple will be sent back to his country on Qatar airway tonight.
“I received a CID report Mohamed Hottait and his wife were engaged in activities inimical to the state while being here on a tourist visa. I cannot allow such persons to stay here. Therefore, I decided to deport them,” Chulananda Perera said.
By Sanjana Hattotuwa | Grounviews .............................................................................................................................................................................................
Most performances of Dhananjaya Karunarathne’s brilliant script Last Bus Eke Kathawa (The Story of the Last Bus) are memorable not just because of the acting, but also because the audience becomes, without at first knowing it, part of the theatre. Chewing gum or boiled sweets are distributed to the audience before a performance begins. Most take one. Some take a lot. Everyone takes a bite. It is only at the dénouement of the play that the deeply troubling story behind the sweets is revealed.
Much like Karunarathne’s script, those who take one bite, or many from the world’s biggest rice cake (kiri bath) in Colombo today may come to realise that what they have eaten into is actually an outrageous obscenity.
Let get the facts. The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP), as of September 2010, was feeding,
* 25,000 IDPs in camps * 50,000 IDPs in host families * 110,000 people on 6‐month return packages immediately following resettlement * 120,000 people on extended rations after the 6‐month return packages * 300,000 children under the school meals programme in the Northern and Eastern Provinces * 200,000 pregnant/nursing mothers and children under five years in the Northern and Eastern Provinces * 35,000 people under regular Food‐for‐Work and Food‐for‐Training programmes * 30,000 people under soft Food‐for‐Work programmes
Furthermore, the WFP is the sole source of rice for 96% of hosted IDPs in the Jaffna district. To reiterate, it is the United Nations through foreign aid and NOT the Government of Sri Lanka that is feeding hundreds of thousands of citizens in our country, even post-war.
Though exact figures are hard to come by, the WFP has noted that it provides about 400 grams of basic food needs per person per day for most IDPs, consisting of 200 grams of rice and 200 of wheat flour. So for a week, an IDP would consume 1.4kg of rice.
In comparison, the President’s record-breaking rice cake is 12,000kg. We can break that figure down in a number of ways. For the same quantity of rice,
* A single IDP could be fed nearly 165 years. * An IDP family of 3 adults and 2 children could be fed for 41 years. * As of 8 October 2010, even if half the remaining 25,000 IDPs in Menik Farm are adults, they would require 17,500kg of rice per week. Over just a single day, the President’s rice cake takes up nearly 69% of that requirement.
This obnoxious rice cake in Colombo will feed just a fraction of the children, women and men still displaced in Sri Lanka without proper food, and worse, many who don’t need to eat rice cake for their primary sustenance. Even if the President wanted to have his cake, could it not have been distributed amongst those far more deserving, and genuinely hungry? Leave aside the IDPs – often out of sight and out of mind for most of us. There are thousands in and around Colombo who, after recent floods, could have used rice rations.
Satiated somnambulism, particularly in the South, appears to be a good recipe for the President’s second term. Life does have an ironic way of imitating art.
The Economist .............................................................................................................................................................................................
What to give a president who wants for nothing? Sri Lanka’s mustachioed ruler, Mahinda Rajapaksa, who turned 65 on November 18th, has a thriving personality cult, helped by propaganda that gives him sole credit for the crushing of Tamil rebels last year, after nearly three decades of civil war. He won a second presidential term in January. His party romped home in parliamentary polls. And he has since had the constitution rejigged to scrap term limits and make his office mightier.
Though it is almost a year since his re-election, Mr Rajapaksa’s followers this week prepared for his swearing-in party in Colombo, the capital, on November 19th. Artillery pieces were hauled to the quayside to ensure things went off with a bang. Some 8,000 drummer boys and a huge honour guard will also attend. Mr Rajapaksa himself went off to his southern hometown of Hambantota, visiting a big, Chinese-built port about to receive its first ship, to be blessed by a boatload of monks.
Mr Rajapaksa has a surfeit of recent gifts. The opposition has handed itself up on a plate. Several MPs defected when ministerial posts (none powerful) were dangled. The opposition leader, Ranil Wickremesinghe, seems content to play a languid role. Meanwhile, the president’s most serious rival remains Sarath Fonseka. The former army chief oversaw the bloody end of the war and then dared to mount a presidential challenge. He has since been locked up over his supposed army conduct and will probably be behind bars for at least the next three years.
A once vibrant press has fallen mostly silent about the country’s ever more undemocratic ways, cowed by unexplained attacks on journalists. This week most editors complied with a government “request” to publish a big birthday photograph “of His Excellency on the top left hand side of the first page of your newspaper”. From billboards across Colombo the president beams like the Cheshire Cat.
Like the cat’s smile, Mr Rajapaksa will hang around a long time yet. Drive 400 kilometres (250 miles) up a bone-shaking road to the northern, Tamil-dominated town of Jaffna, and it is obvious that many Sri Lankans fiercely dislike their president, but are resigned to him. Since the Tamil rebels—widely despised for their brutal methods—were crushed, the country’s Sinhalese majority is in no mood to seek an accommodation with the minority Tamils.
Quite the reverse. Earlier plans for more regional power have been scrapped and the government seems to be using the army to help shift more Sinhalese people into Tamil-dominated regions. Tamils are too fearful to resist. Neither they nor outsiders such as the United Nations are able to force a proper inquiry into growing evidence that in the last days of the war the army killed perhaps tens of thousands of Tamil soldiers and civilians. This week the government dismissed video footage of massacres, broadcast by Al Jazeera, as fake.
The president’s urbane brother, Basil Rajapaksa, is unabashed in claiming that in Sri Lanka an era of “ruler kings” has begun. Western ideas of transparency, he claims, along with limits on presidential power and accountability, are not relevant to “Asian culture”. Sri Lanka will keep its long-running state of emergency, and reforms to the voting system will make it harder for smaller parties.
As a thunderstorm unleashes an early monsoon downpour, the brother suggests that a ruler’s worth should be judged by a traditional standard. “When the king is good,” he says, “in time the rains come.”Among his many presents, the president should really have received a crown.
By Shamindra Ferdinando | The Island .............................................................................................................................................................................................
Sri Lanka’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Maj. Gen. Shavendra Silva on Thursday (Nov. 18) said that the Army had had absolutely no reason to target civilians during the last phase of the Eelam War IV on the Vanni east front.
Testifying before the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) at the Kadirgamar Centre, the former General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the Task Force I/58 Division said that there couldn’t have been any reason for indiscriminate action at a time the LTTE was clearly on the verge of collapse.
Responding to a query by the LLRC, Maj. Gen. Silva said that the government had set up a No Fire Zone (NFZ) and then shifted it gradually eastwards as the army advanced into the last enemy strongholds. Had the government failed to declare specific areas for civilians in the Vanni, there would have been large scale loss of life, he said.
The soldier turned diplomat alleged that the LTTE rump and a section of the media had been busy accusing Sri Lanka of war crimes. In an obvious reference to recent Aljazeera coverage of the last phase of the Sri Lankan offensive directed at the LTTE, Maj. Gen. Silva said that a section of the media had been engaged in a propaganda campaign against the country.
Maj. Gen. Silva cited a failed attempt by the LTTE and its allies in the media to blame his Division for having destroyed a hospital close to the frontline. The LTTE had dragged those who couldn’t walk out of the hospital and placed them on the ground, while a section of the media accused the Army of indiscriminate action. "But I was able to counter that campaign by taking a group of Colombo-based Indian journalists to the hospital within 24 hours. At the time of the initial accusation, three Indian journalists were with the 58 Division," the officer said.
The LTTE had gone to the extent of firing at Tamil civilians taking refuge in NFZ to blame the army of atrocities.
Currently New York based Maj. Gen. Silva said that the LTTE fighting cadre, including its top leaders had fought in civilian attire. According to him even the likes of LTTE Jaffna Commander Theepan and Prabhakaran’s son, Charles Anthony had fought in civilian clothes. "I personally identified the body of Theepan following a major battle at Puthukudirippu. He was in civilian attire," Maj. Gen. Siva said. According to him the Puthukudirippu battle in April had effectively destroyed the LTTE command and control structure. The enemy had been encircled and decimated in a battle, which caused the loss of over 600 LTTE cadres, including their senior ground commanders, he said. Those, who faced the advancing troops subsequently in a series of battles, lacked the experience to have a tight grip on the combatants.
Commenting on the wives and relatives of LTTE cadres who had testified before the LLRC in the North recently, Maj. Gen. Silva said that claims were being in some quarter that those killed in battles with the army were civilians. The war veteran recalled how the LTTE had trained a civilian militia to fight alongside its regular units. He went on to explain the circumstances under which the Army had transferred bodies of LTTE cadres in civilian attire through the ICRC on many occasions. Although the dead hadn’t been in uniform, the LTTE always accepted their bodies as it knew they were fallen cadres, Maj. Gen. Silva said.
Responding to a query by the LLRC, Maj. Gen. Silva said that the LTTE had carried out a massive suicide bomb attack on May 17 evening as it gradually lost control of the last stretch of land on the Vanni front. He said a fire triggered by the explosion had destroyed a large number of vehicles belonging to civilians and the LTTE.
By Charles Haviland | BBC News .............................................................................................................................................................................................
Some 12,000kg of white rice, 1,500 coconuts and 300kg of cashew nuts are some of the ingredients for a very special Sri Lankan recipe.
It's the world's biggest ever kiribath, or milk rice cake, a dish being cooked up by a top chef for the public.
Other revelries are under way at a special exhibition in the capital.
The city is lit up and pasted with posters of the man at the centre of it all, Mahinda Rajapaksa, who is being re-inaugurated as president on Friday.
As part of celebrations, dancers from the ancient hill capital, Kandy, have shown off their skills, while crack troops mounted a pageant.
The opposition and the government's critics are boycotting this week's ceremonies, calling them a waste of public funds.
'Sun and Moon'
On Thursday, the president's 65th birthday, he oversaw the first Sri Lankan vessels entering the huge new port of Hambantota in his home district, the showpiece among a series of big development projects.
Pro-Rajapaksa rhetoric is flowing.
"You are the Sun and the Moon, who dispelled fear and will preside over a glorious tomorrow," says the main, ubiquitous poster, mostly in the majority Sinhala language, although there are some in Tamil.
Sri Lankan Prime Minister DM Jayaratne has poured out the tributes in his own message.
Mr Rajapaksa is, he says, a great man and a blessing to the whole nation.
He is the "father of principle", the "giant tree that would give shade to the whole nation for an eternal period", said the prime minister.
Another message in the papers, from a Sri Lankan-Chinese environmental group, says the "miraculous" new port will help in the "crusade of making Sri Lanka the Miracle of Asia".
Monks of the Buddhist faith - that of most Sinhalese - have been bestowing their blessings, including 250 who sailed around the southern coast in one of the boats entering Hambantota.
The inauguration seems anomalous. President Rajapaksa was re-elected 10 months ago. But, because he went to the polls earlier than he had to, the Supreme Court then ruled that his six-year term would only start now.
A recent constitutional change means that he can later stand for a third and further terms if he wishes.
So does Sri Lanka need these celebrations?
Yes, says the government.
Media and communications minister Keheliya Rambukwella dismisses complaints that the Rajapaksa family is too powerful.
Some commentators suggest the president and two of his brothers - the economic development minister, Basil, and the defence secretary, Gotabhaya - control 70% of the country's budget.
But Mr Rambukwella says it is "a blessing for the country" to have politicians who can "deliver finally to the people".
'Personality cult'
Mr Rajapaksa enjoys great popularity because of last year's victory over the Tamil Tigers.
But critical writers say the island's government is promoting a personality cult and treating the inauguration like a royal coronation.
They say the government is destroying democracy, having pushed the recent constitutional change through parliament by securing opposition crossovers through shadowy means.
"They are systematically undermining all these state institutions we have taken for granted for years," says the main opposition party spokesman, Mangala Samaraweera.
"The police, the judiciary, the independent election commission, the independent public service commission, have all more or less become like a private serfdom of the presidency."
Mr Rajapaksa's critics also say he has done little to address the Tamil minority's grievances - or tackle human rights problems such as people missing and intolerance of dissent.
But the opposition is decimated and one of its figureheads - the ex-army chief and former presidential candidate, Sarath Fonseka - is in prison.
Sri Lankans may disagree in their assessment of Mahinda Rajapaksa but he enjoys huge power.
On Friday all schoolchildren will be expected to tune into his re-inauguration speech.
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa was sworn in Friday for a second six-year term, but political opponents who accuse him of manipulating the vote to ensure his re-election boycotted the ceremony.
The colorful ceremony, with a military parade and traditional dancing, was held outside the president's office overlooking the Indian Ocean and was televised nationally.
Rajapaksa was re-elected in January in a landslide victory, defeating ex-army chief Sarath Fonseka, who was arrested and imprisoned following the vote.
Sri Lanka's main opposition parties boycotted the ceremony. Opposition United National Party's secretary Tissa Attanayake said the ceremony was "an utter waste of public funds.
"Instead of having this kind of extravaganza, the government should have taken more meaningful steps to bring down the cost of living and give relief to the people," Attanayake said.
The Marxist People's Liberation Front, which backed Fonseka's election, boycotted the ceremony, saying the election results were unacceptable.
"This presidential election was corrupt, and we don't accept its results," said party spokesman Vijitha Herath.
Once allies, Rajapaksa and Fonseka were both considered heroes by the Sinhalese majority for crushing the Tamil rebels last year, ending a quarter-century civil war that killed 80,000 to 100,000 people.
But they fell out months after the war ended and the general quit the army after accusing Rajapaksa of sidelining him, suspecting a military coup. Their relationship further deteriorated after Fonseka challenged Rajapaksa in the presidential election.
Weeks after losing the election, Fonseka was arrested and convicted of fraud. He was sentenced to 30 months imprisonment at hard labour. Another court had stripped him of his rank and military honours for planning a political career while in uniform.
Fonseka has described the cases against him as a political vendetta, and said they were launched to persecute him for daring to challenge Rajapaksa in the presidential election.
Despite opposition protest, Rajapaksa is still very popular among the country's Sinhalese majority for ending the 25-year civil war. But critics say he has exploited that goodwill to consolidate power with the aim of setting up a family dynasty. One brother is the speaker of parliament; one is a senior minister, and another is defence secretary. His son is a lawmaker.
In September, Rajapaksa's ruling coalition passed an amendment to the constitution to eliminate term limits for the presidency. Critics said the move could lead to a dictatorship.
The amendment also tightened Rajapaksa's hold on power by giving him total control over the judiciary, police, public service and the elections office.
Rajapaksa, in his address to the nation, said he has fulfilled his responsibilities by crushing terrorism and uniting the country. He vowed not to let another bloodbath to occur and pledged to revive an economy battered by the conflict.
The ceremony was attended by some regional leaders and special envoys, including Maldivian President Mohammed Nasheed, Bhutan Prime Minister Lyonchhen Jigmi Thinley and special Chinese envoy Sang Giuowei.
By Nabeela Hussain | Daily Mirror .............................................................................................................................................................................................
Several trade unions warned yesterday they would be compelled to take tough action if the government did not give both the public and private sector workers a salary increment.
The National Trade Union Centre (NTUC) and the Trade Union Confederation (TUC) said they would resort to strike action while the United National Party (UNP) -- affiliated Jathika Sevaka Sangamaya also said it would follow suit.
“The salary increment of Rs.2,500 is not what we asked for but something the government promised,” TUC President Saman Rathnapriya said. He said the promise of Rs.2,500 was insufficient but would be the first step towards providing a much needed bigger salary increment.
The NTUC said a salary increment of Rs.9,000 was expected from the government. “We have asked the government to give us a salary increment and we will strike if we do not receive it,” NTUC General Secretary Samantha Koralearachchi said.
He said they had the support of trade unions that came under its NTUC umbrella with another 20 unions in various sectors were supporting it.
“The government is speaking about a development budget, but how can there be development when the people have to strain under the cost of living?” he questioned.
Mr. Koralearachchi said the NTUC had carried out awareness programmes and protest campaigns at grassroots level. “We are ready to take the next big step,” he said.
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