US - Sri Lanka co-host Pacific Airlift Rally 2011

Photo courtesy: Sri Lanka Air Force

13th Air Force Public Affairs| Pacific Air Forces
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Pacific Airlift Rally 2011, co-hosted by the U.S. and the Sri Lanka Air Forces will take place at Ratmalana Airport in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Pacific Airlift Rally (PAR) is a biennial, military airlift symposium sponsored by U.S. Pacific Air Forces (PACAF) for states in the Asia-Pacific region. This year marks the eighth iteration of the PAR exercise series which began in 1997. PAR 11 will focus on enhancing airlift interoperability among 21 regional militaries in support of multilateral humanitarian assistance/disaster relief (HA/DR) operations. Exercise-related events include informational seminars and expert briefings, a command post exercise that addresses military airlift support required during natural disasters, and a field training exercise that builds upon the command post exercise.

Tabletop exercise participants include: Australia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Canada, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Maldives, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Tonga, United States and Vietnam. (Brunei's participation has not been confirmed.)

Field training exercise participation will include three United States Air Force C-130 Hercules aircraft from the 374th Airlift Wing at Yokota Airlift Wing, Japan; and one C-130 each from the Royal Malaysian Air Force, Royal Australian Air Force and the Sri Lanka Air Force.

Seventy-eight members from the 36th Airlift Squadron at Yokota will test their humanitarian-assistance and disaster-relief abilities in the Airlift Rally which is held every two years and is sponsored by Pacific Air Forces.

"This exercise will help enable the nations involved to deepen their relationships with one another, build trust and strengthen their desire to mutually support one another," said Capt. Anthony Felix, 36th AS assistant pilot flight commander. "Our involvement with the exercise will inspire trust with all nations that are located in the Pacific region."

"The Airmen from Yokota that are participating have a lot of experience going in," said Capt. Bryan Huffman, 36 AS Pacific Airlift Rally mission commander for Yokota. "This training exercise will help improve Yokota's readiness by having us fly airdrop and airlift missions in different scenarios."

The first component of the air rally involves flying exercises, testing the abilities of pilots and crews to perform tasks normally executed in humanitarian relief efforts.

The second part of the rally involves command post operations in which operators and logisticians from several participating countries train on performing the correct actions in the event of a ground-based scenario.

For Captain Huffman, preparing Yokota to respond to mother nature's mood swings is what the Pacific Airlift Rally is all about.

"It's a great opportunity to have a hand in improving Yokota's readiness and ability to provide humanitarian assistance or disaster relief if needed," he said.

© Pacific Air Forces

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Tamil anger at army's influence in Sri Lanka

Al Jazeera
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Two years after the end of Sri Lanka's civil war, many minority Tamils in the north say the military retains too strong a hold over their daily lives.

Al Jazeera was granted special permission by the government to travel and see how the path to peace is progressing.

Steve Chao reports from Jaffna, the capital of Northern Province.

© Al Jazeera

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60,000 acres of forest land goes to US multinational

The Island
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Environmentalists accuse the government of encouraging big time businessmen to destroy forests. A group of environmental activists, disclosed, at a press briefing held at the Library Services and Documentation Board in Colombo on Thursday (18), that over 60,000 acres of virgin forest land in various parts of the country would be given to Dole Food Company, a US based multi-national company.

Armed with photographs including aerial pictures and documentary evidence, EF Convener Ravindra Kariyawasam pointed out the areas that had come under Dole’s banana cultivation project included 15,000 acres from Chunnakkadu Reserve in Kantale, 11,600 acres in Kandakaduwa in Somawathiya National Park, 3,000 acres in Uva-Kudaoya in Lunugamwehera and 500 acres in Wekandawewa in Buttala. "In most of these areas forests have been cleared and cultivation has commenced. In Wekandawewa, an ancient tank has been encroached on thus cutting off its access to the villagers," Kariyawasam said claiming that Galle, Puttalam, Dambulla and Hingurakgoda were likely to lose forest land to Dole banana project in future. Citing an FAO report, Kariyawasam claimed that Sri Lanka had been ranked the 4th worst country in the world in terms of deforestation for the period 2000-05.

Sajeewa Chamikara of the Sri Lanka Nature Forum said that the sections 5 and 6 of the Amended Fauna and Flora Protection Ordinance No. 22 of 2009 had been blatantly violated through the project and his organisation was seeking legal advice. Clearing the Somawathiya National Park in the Kandakaduwa area would further aggravate the human-elephant conflict, warned Chamikara. He said that in some areas land under the purview of the Wildlife Department was now being managed by the Ministry of Defence.

Kaudulle Jayatissa of the Progressive Peasants’ Association spoke of hardships faced by the rural farmers owing to the ‘mono-culture’ agricultural projects. Soil erosion, loss of soil fertility, depletion of the water table, loss of biodiversity and excessive use of agro-chemicals were identified as some of the adverse side effects associated with large scale commercial agricultural enterprises. Referring to the Rajarata Kidney Disease prevalent in the North Central Province, Jayatissa warned that the proposed banana cultivation projects was fraught with the danger of creating similar problems.

© The Island

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Fr. Jim Brown and Mr. Vimalathas: Five years after disappearance

By Ruki | Groundviews
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Fr. Jim Brown, a Catholic Priest from diocese of Jaffna in Northern Sri Lanka and his associate, Mr. Vimalathas, a father of five, seem to be just two names and statistics in the long list of disappeared in Sri Lanka, particularly after the escalation of violence and war in the North since 2006.

I didn’t know either before they disappeared, but had got to know about them and the families after they disappeared. I remember the empty and distraught looks on the children of Vimalathas in their small house, who had not realized they will not see and hear from their father again for so long. I remember the hope the parents of Fr. Jim Brown always shares whenever I meet them that their beloved son will return.

Background to the disappearance:

Fr Jim Brown and Vimalathas went missing on 20 August 2006 amid escalated warfare between the security forces and separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). They were last seen on a motorcycle at a checkpoint in Allaipiddy, an area tightly controlled by the security forces.

Fr. Jim Brown was a young priest who had loved and served the people of the Allaipiddy parish selflessly. In the face of intense shelling on the night of 12th August 2006, he had offered the church as a place of refuge to people. However, breaking international humanitarian norms, the church had also been shelled in the early hours of 13th August, and more than 20 were reported as killed that night and many more injured. Having miraculously escaped death and injury himself, Fr. Jim Brown was at the forefront in trying to lead the people, particularly the injured, to safety. He pleaded with the Navy to let the people leave. According to Catholics priests in Jaffna, Fr. Jim Brown had been threatened by the Navy officers of the area as being LTTE supporter, due to his relentless efforts to protect and support the civilians of his parish. Based on all accounts I had heard from people of Allaipiddy and priests in Jaffna in the last 5 years, Fr. Jim Brown’s disappearance is linked to his efforts to intervene with the Navy to safeguard and assist people affected by the shelling in the area.

Memories of Fr. Jim Brown:

All the people of Allaipiddy were displaced in this incident and when I met some of them in Jaffna some months after the displacement, I remember what one elderly gentleman told me “If not for Fr. Jim Brown, many more of us would have been killed, he sacrificed himself to save us”.

Later, when the first group of displaced people was allowed to return to Allaipiddy, I went to visit them. Access was highly restricted to outsiders, but thanks to pleas of the priest who took me and goodwill of an officer at the check point, we were given a “one hour visa” by the officers at the same check point that Fr. Jim Brown was last seen. The priest taking me had warned me not to say the word “Fr. Jim Brown”. We proceeded to the church that was destroyed and abandoned. We were apprehensive, noting that we were followed by officers from the checkpoint, and remembering that Fr. Jim Brown and Vimalathas were probably also followed from the check point. But despite military presence, the few people who were staying in broken houses and tents flocked to the destroyed church as we entered. Although me and the priest deliberately didn’t say or ask anything about Fr. Jim Brown, the people had a lot to say about him. The lasting memory of that one hour in Allaipiddy was the testimony of several people that some of them would not be alive if not for Fr. Jim Brown’s willingness to provide them with shelter and pleading with the Navy.

The search for Fr. Jim Brown and investigations:

Appeals by church leaders and local and international human rights groups have also not yielded any response. The Commission of Inquiry established by the President in November 2006 listed this case as one of the 16 cases. During the 1st year commemoration of Fr. Jim Brown’s disappearance in Colombo, and in front of his family and the Catholic Bishop of Jaffna, one of the Commissioners mentioned that the case not yet been taken up for inquiry.

Fr. Jim Brown is not the only Catholic Priest who disappeared. Now, it is more than two years, since the disappearance of another Tamil Catholic Priest from the North, Fr. Franis Joseph, who had tried to negotiate the safe surrender of several LTTE leaders in the last days of the war. Several eye witnesses had seen him with the Army just before he disappeared.

Both these cases have also been raised at the hearings in Colombo and North, of the latest Commission appointed by the President – the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC). After one priest in North raised this at a LLRC hearing, he got a threatening call the next day, asking him whether he knew Fr. Jim Brown and whether he would like the same thing to happen to him.

Priests are amongst the 25 persons in humanitarian service that have been reported as disappeared between 2006-2009 in Sri Lanka. Thousands of civilians have also disappeared. It is not known how many have been found, and whether justice has been done for even one case.

Fr. Jim Brown’s family is also amongst the families of disappeared who faced threats, intimidation and harassments.

Amongst the principles lesson I learnt (or re-learnt) from LLRC hearings is that it is very easy to make people disappear in Sri Lanka, and that it is also equally easy to make investigations and justice disappear! And related lesson is that those who look for those disappeared and justice, will be threatened and also face risk of disappearing!

Do we need to remember the disappeared?

I remember Fr. Jim Brown’s parents question to the Catholic Bishop of Jaffna, “We entrusted our son to your care to serve the Lord and his peoples, what has happened to him?” Sinhalese Catholics – laity, youth, women, priests, sisters, Bishops – who often claim that they can play a important role in reconciliation by building better relations with Tamil Catholics, appear to have forgotten about Fr. Jim Brown, Vimalathas and others, or perhaps they don’t care.

Every year, a few friends together with parents, brother and sister of Fr. Jim Brown, have tried to faithfully remember Fr. Jim Brown. From the hundreds that attended the first commemoration we organized, we had seen over the years that interest had declined. Perhaps there are so many disappeared to be commemorated. But can we afford to forget them?

Will we ever know what happened to Fr. Jim Brown and Vimalathas and thousands of others who have disappeared? And will those responsible be ever identified and brought to justice?

Can we really have reconciliation without acknowledging what has happened to Fr. Jim Brown and Vimalathas and the thousands like them? Could we even have reconciliation within the Catholic Church? What does reconciliation mean to their families and friends of Fr. Jim Brown and Vimalathas and countless other families of disappeared people?

© Groundviews

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Sri Lanka: FTZ workers complain about harassment by CID officers

Photo courtesy: vikalpa.org

Colombo Page
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Trade unions affiliated to the free trade zones (FTZs) in Sri Lanka have written to the Inspector General of Police (IGP) condemning the conduct of CID officers with regard to the FTZ employees and unions that protested against the government's proposed private sector pension bill.

Trade unionists charge that union members who were involved in the protest campaign are being intimidated and harassed.

The Free Trade Zones and General Services Employees Union (FTZ and GSEU) has informed the IGP that the CID officers were acting in violation of the International Labour Organization (ILO) Conventions.

Secretary of the FTZ and GSEU, Anton Marcus has said the matter was also brought up at the last meeting of the National Labour Advisory Council (NLAC) held on August 5 under the patronage of Labour Minister Gamini Lokuge.

Marcus has said that CID officers had intruded trade union offices in Katunayake on July 29th and had searched, rummaged files and documents and questioned the officials present.

The FTZ and GSEU has also sent copies of the letter to the IGP to President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Defence Secretary, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa, all trade union members of the National Labour Advisory Council and all trade unions in the Joint Trade Union Alliance (JTUA).

© Colombo Page

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Sri Lanka shares down; still Asia's best amid recession fears

Reuters
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Sri Lanka's shares fell more than 1 percent on Friday, following the global trend, but became Asia's top performer as other regional markets nosedived on looming fears of another recession with deepening debt crisis in the U.S. and Europe.

Globally stocks plummeted on Friday due to mounting concerns over the U.S. economy heading into another recession while some European lenders facing a short-term funding crunch, highlighting the risk of a banking crisis.

The island nation's main share index fell 1.13 percent or 79.21 points to 6,951.64. But it became Asia's best performer with a return of 4.76 percent on the year as top markets like Indonesia and Thailand suffered heavy losses on Friday.

"Selling pressure stemming from profit taking continued to drag the indices lower with heavy retail participation on speculative counters," JK Stockbrokers said in an investor note.

After the war, Sri Lanka's bourse turned Asia's best performer in 2009 and 2010, gaining 124 percent and 96 percent, respectively, but has touched negative territory this year.

Brokers said large investors sold blue chips as speculation overwhelmed market fundamentals despite retail investors snapping up select shares after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Tuesday relaxed the ban on margin trading by retail investors.

The bourse jumped over 3 percent on Tuesday after the regulator's move, which was in response to brokers' complains.

The bourse witnessed a foreign fund outflow of 218.7 million Sri Lanka rupees ($2 million) on Friday, taking the net outflow to 2.8 billion rupees in 19 straight sessions.

Thus far in 2011, foreign funds have sold 10.45 billion, and in 2010 a record 26.4 billion.

Traders said retail investors dumped healthcare share Lanka Hospitals after several days of speculative buying. The share plummeted 24 percent on Friday.

The day's turnover was 3.18 billion rupees, well above last year's average of 2.4 billion and this year's 2.7 billion.

Friday's total volume was 138.7 million, against a five-day average of 145.4 million. The 30-day and 90-day average trading volumes were 101.2 million and 115.6 million. Last year's daily average was 67.9 million.

The rupee ended weaker at 109.98/110.00 a dollar from Thursday's close of 109.94/95 on importer dollar demand, dealers said.

© Reuters

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Inside Sri Lanka: Weakening the Tamils economically

By A Correspondent | The Weekend Leader
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Read Part I & Part II

In a bid to prevent the Tamils from prospering in future, the Sri Lankan State is systematically destroying the self reliant local economic structures built over the years. As the local economy is being systematically dismantled, the hold of the Sinhalese businessmen is increasing in the region.

Trying to rebuild their lives from the ruins of a bloody civil war, Tamils have been pushed to do all kinds of odd jobs to survive. Forced by circumstances, even women have taken up jobs in the de-mining work currently going on in the region.

It was pathetic to see young Tamil women approaching the giant tank on Cheddikulam – Mannar road for fishing, as early as 4 in the morning. Many of them, we learned, were young widows who had taken to fishing to support their families.

Sinhalese shops have sprouted in Tamil areas. In Jaffna, the trend is more visible, where an estimated 5000 Sinhalese visit the town daily.

Rehabilitation remains a pipedream to the displaced Tamils, who are doled out a meager 25,000 LKR (Lankan Rupees), 6 bamboo poles, and 6 tin roofs to build their houses. With this assistance, the Tamils are able to build only temporary sheds. On the contrary, the Sinhala re-settlers are allowed to build permanent houses.

Adding to their cup of woes is the presence of high security zones in paddy fields and fishing areas where the Tamils cannot return.

The long years of leaving the land uncultivated has made it barren. The planting of landmines and shelling over the land have had a heavy toll on the fertility of the soil.

The never ending security restrictions continue to haunt the Tamils, as two years after the end of the war they are still unable to get on with a semblance of normal life. Tamil fishermen need to obtain work permit to enter the sea. The application form for individual permit requires 12 signatures - 5 signatures of local village officers, local administration and fisheries department officials and 7 signatures of military and navy personnel, including intelligence officials.

The process takes 1-2 months and the fishermen have to spend anywhere between 15-20 thousand LKR (Lankan Rupees) to get a permit. The same process needs to be done for the fishing vessels too. Even after such an effort, the Tamil fishermen can fish only in a designated, narrow region in the sea; and cannot venture into deeper waters. Breaking rules would mean cancellation of permits.

In places like Mullaithivu, the Sinhala fishermen are allowed to fish but not the Tamils.

The Murunkan – Nanattan belt was once famous for banana cultivation and export. The war has left the land barren to such an extent that the locals are forced to buy imported bananas that come via Colombo through Sinhalese traders.

The loot of the jungles in the interior areas of the Tamil heartland continues unabated in connivance with the local military officials who allow the Sinhalese from the south to log timber.

The once bustling economy around the humble Palmyra tree has been affected most. The Palmyra is called karpaha (celestial tree), since all its parts can be used. When the fruit is tender, the kernel inside the hard shell is an edible jelly that is refreshing and rich in minerals.

Its other byproducts include toddy, sugar and jiggery. The Palmyra fronds are used to build thatched houses, fences, mats, baskets, hand fans, and umbrellas.

An estimated four million Palmyra trees had been destroyed in the two-decade civil war. All those families which depended on the trees for their livelihood have been left to fend for themselves.

Even if Palmyra saplings are planted now, it will take 60 years for the trees to grow and start yielding.

© The Weekend Leader

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