Rajapaksas out in force for Sri Lanka election

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa hopes his governing coalition will score a clear victory in Thursday's legislative elections. He also hopes two of his brothers, his cousin and his eldest son, Namal, will win or regain places in parliament. The BBC's Charles Haviland reports from the Rajapaksa heartland in Southern Province.

By a huge banyan tree in the town of Tangalle, Namal Rajapaksa is meeting the people outside the family home.

A crowd clusters around the 23-year-old candidate and presidential son. Each person seems anxious to tell him their problem. They clutch school admission certificates and town council documents.

Namal is young but is already being groomed for great political things.

"I've come to Namal for help in rebuilding our temple which was ruined by the tsunami," says an orange-robed Buddhist monk. "Namal seems to do a lot for the people."

A woman holds her young disabled boy in her arms. She needs funds to treat him.

"He can't speak or walk. I felt Namal would help us because he loves kids. I'm confident he will help me."

One armed soldier is on the parapet just above. Namal, however, listens to the people, promises action - and nuzzles the babies' cheeks.

The Rajapaksas are Sri Lanka's first family. There have been other political families in this subcontinent, and this country - including the Bandaranaikes, who supplied two prime ministers and a president.

But the Rajapaksas' involvement in politics is especially broad. The President, Mahinda, has three of his brothers in top positions.

Among the Sinhalese majority, Mahinda and the defence secretary, Gotabhaya, are highly popular for last year's military victory over the Tamil Tiger separatists.

That popularity has been only slightly dented by the government locking up the former army chief and losing presidential candidate, Sarath Fonseka.

Just outside Tangalle, near a wild and beautiful beach, I meet Kumarini Wickramasuriya.

Her charity for disabled people is in the same building where the president first had an office as a 24-year-old MP. She has known the Rajapaksas for years.

"They are very stable, very people-friendly and approachable and work at grassroot level," she says. "I think Namal also has those qualities in him. And we hope that he will be able to mingle with the people. We see that happening."

Driving in the rain through this lush countryside, almost entirely Sinhalese-inhabited, I see Rajapaksa posters everywhere. There are huge images of Namal. There are also his genially smiling uncle, Chamal, and a cousin, Nirupama - both also candidates here.

There are cardboard cut-outs of the president, 10 metres tall, pointing towards pictures of his son as if to say "this is the man of the future".

'Dictator'

In a glade we meet politicians from the main opposition United National Party. They are hard to find, their posters few.

One, Dilip Wedaarachchi, says they have had difficulty campaigning and that the police have sided entirely with the president's family. He calls Mr Rajapaksa a "dictator".

"The family is trying to rule this [part of southern Sri Lanka] - his wife, brother, sons, aunties, everyone is trying to rule this place," he said.

"They're not leaving room for others to come forward and rule the country."

Another is Sajith Premadasa whose father, Ranasinghe, was Sri Lanka's president and was assassinated by the Tamil Tigers.

He is measured in his remarks, stressing that most of the Rajapaksas are popularly elected.

"Of course there is a monopolisation and a concentration of power in the hands of a few at this present juncture," he says.

"People should realise that and recognise that."

Recently, state television showed a huge music and dance extravaganza in Colombo, with the Rajapaksa brothers and their families in the front row for an event laid on entirely to heap praise on Mahinda and Gotabhaya.

A famous woman singer performed a song billed as a lullaby which a century from now would be sung by mothers to their babies, explaining how "King Mihindu" (a nickname) saved their country from terrorists.

"Long live our king who overcame all the challenges from within and abroad," ran another song as incense wafted around.

This kind of trend prompts sharply differing reactions.

One man said the president wanted to "be the king in the country for the rest of his life. By doing that he has let down everybody else in the country".

Another described the Rajapaksa family as "heroes" for bringing peace.

"I don't agree with the fact that our people treat them like kings, but it's just the nature of Sri Lankans to put them on a pedestal."

Back in Tangalle, Namal Rajapaksa finishes his street meetings and warmly invites us into his home. There are no security checks on us and we sit in the hallway for a chat. He denies being part of yet another typical South Asian political dynasty.

"This is the 21st Century," he says. "People are more educated now. I don't think family politics will play a role. As long as you work, you be with the people… you love the country, you will be elected.

"It's a matter of who you are, not what you are."

We are ushered in for an audience with the president himself, who is sitting in a small study. He is completely informal. We chat, though largely off-the-record. He does not look at his watch.

Namal Rajapaksa tells us he is still referred to as Mahinda Rajapaksa's son. But he hopes Mahinda will one day be known as Namal Rajapaksa's father.

The 23-year-old politician with the common touch clearly wants to go far.

© BBC News

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Converting To and From Islam: Rifqa Barry of Sri Lanka/USA and Malini Perera of Sri Lanka/Bahrain

By Chakravarthy - Fathima Rifqa Bary who is 17 years was born on 10th of August 1993 to Ayesha Rizana and Mohamed Barry of Galle, Sri Lanka. The family is traditionally gem and jewelry merchants with respect in the Southern Province and Colombo.

As a kid she injured her right eye with the toy she was playing with. Since a major surgery was required, the couple opted to do it in the United States. So they came to the US in 2000.

Rifqa was under good medical care in the States and gained vision to some extend wearing spectacle which she no more wears now but apparently there is a significant difference between the left and the right eyes which she tactfully covers with her long hair. That way she is not innocent, but good at to cover that should be covered.

A thin, timid, shy girl she was, and always seen with a book in her hand as a book worm. Even now at 17 years she looks like a 12 year old Asian girl, leaving alone the American size. Ten years study in the US has made her fluent in English with perfect American accent like a local kid.

Initially the family lived in Queens, New York. Their life in the US was not on a bed of roses. Her father’s jewelery business, Bary Gems, that remained under license in the State of New York and imported gems from Sri Lanka, had ups and downs.

Further 9/11 attack also restricted his movement within the States. He uses a second hand hacked car where as his suppliers in Sri Lanka run in vehicles costing six or seven figures in US money.

Bary made an unsubstantiated claim that he was once stopped and searched while boarding a flight and the result was a loss of US$ 400,000 worth of gems and jewellery. From Queens they moved to New Albany in Ohio where all these complications took place.

Rifqa was seen spending lot of time on internet especially in the night. As usual the Asian mother was not happy and advised her daughter not to be awake in the night but she continued in sly.

It was said she was converted to Christianity in secret when she was 12 years old. Her posting of her new faith on her Facebook page, might have been seen by her friends from her family's mosque and reported to her father Mohamed Bary.

Ayesha started monitoring Rifqa’s movements and one day she found a Christian book in the house while her husband was out of town. She threatened to tell her father. The family was aghast and the trouble started at home.

As a result, Rifqa disappeared from home on July 19, 2009. Her cell phone was turned off and her Facebook account too was deactivated. Parents complained to the police. The girl's friends told detectives that it was possible she ran away because of conflicting religious beliefs in her home.

Investigators said Rifqa was affiliated with two central Ohio churches: one on Cleveland Avenue and the other near the Ohio State University campus. They also said she might have been seen near campus the night she disappeared.

A petition filed by Rifqa’s father in Franklin County Juvenile Court alleged that Brian Williams, a minister drove the girl to the Columbus Greyhound station where she received a bus ticket under a false name, bought by certain "Christian Associates" whom she had met on Facebook, to a "Planned Sanctuary" in Orlando, traveling 1100 miles.

Police used phone and computer records to track her to the Rev. Blake Lorenz, a Pastor of Global Revolution Church, a non-denominational Evangelical church based in Orlando, Florida.

"I am a Christian, and my parents are Muslims. They are extremely devout." . "They threatened to kill me. … You guys wouldn't understand. Islam is very different than you guys think. They have to kill me. My blood is now halal, which means that because I am now a Christian, I'm from a Muslim background, it's an honor. If they love God more than me, they have to do this. I'm fighting for my life. ..."

Rifqa said that in the 150 generations of her family, no one has ever known Jesus. "I am the first one," "Imagine the honor in killing me. "It is the reality” she screamed “it is the reality” to a TV in perfect American English with a sweet voice, and a silver cross tangling from her neck.

Bary denied the girl's claim. “Honestly,” said he, “we didn’t know why she left. She doesn’t know what she’s talking about, I want her to come back home. I love my daughter whether she’s a Christian or anything else. I want my daughter back.”

Aysha Bary who runs a business of sewing bridal veils in her home, filed papers with the Florida court declaring herself and her husband to be indigent. She made a statement to the court, crying "I have my two sons, but I need my daughter back!" Although her daughter professed her love for her parents in court, she refused to go with them.

A Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigation found no credible threats to the girl. Her use of Facebook was one issue that led to this situation.

Mohamed Bary is not a U.S. citizen or permanent resident but he said he is fighting for his residency. For Rifqa to continue her stay in the US she needs paper from her parents or else she should opt for nuptial with a national and regularize her stay. Her closeness in photo with Tayee Adrian of Xenos Cult is also puzzling.

Now Rifqa is under the custody of county children‘s service in Ohio. The family is saddled with never ending court cases from state to state that hit the news as a national story with both political undertones fanned by religious interest.

While the Muslim community supported Bary, his daughter got very favorable response from the Christian community throughout the USA and many associations came forward to help her. Rifqa Bary Support Group - on face book with 9,000 members is a notable power. Protests before the courts became common, saying it is one‘s civil right to chose her/his own religion.

It is true but there are lots of gray areas in Rifqa’s conversion. First of all, can a 12 year old understand the merits and demerits of a new religion or old religion without any inducement?

As Rifqa pronounces the word God God every minute like a Christian preacher, and enjoys the ‘celebrity status’ by giving interviews to media laughing and crying, I am sure the Bary’s who came to the US for eye care to their daughter who is now callous and not caring about the parents, will one day return to Sri Lanka sobbing and leaving their apple of the eye behind in America.

No doubt the notoriety Rifqa’s case jolted the first generation immigrant Muslims in the North America and Europe.

An American in a web wrote, ‘if Rifqa’s case happened to be a Mary becoming Mariyam, the Mosque she got associated would have been raided and the people who gave shelter got arrested as extremists or terrorists‘. Is not that too a reality Rifqa?

In the mean time in Sri Lanka, a convert from Buddhism to Islam, Panadura born Sarah Malani Perera’s “anti state” activity has surfaced in the media with mute response from Muslim community, unlike Rifqa’s from the Christians.

It was said the manager of the courier services was the cause for her arrest. Is not it a breach of ethic by the commercial organization to intercept any articles that are not declared as contraband by the state? Yes it is.

How could the courier man deem it as a blasphemy without reading it? Under what authority he acted? If I receive a love letter from my girl friend, does the postman have any right to report it to my father?

38 year old Sarah Malani went to Manama, Bahrain in 1985 to assist her elder sister Mariam, who owned a gifts and flowers shop called Madhuri in The Palace hotel, Adliya. Later she worked as a teacher at the Child Development Centre, Juffair.

Out of interest, like foreigners do in a host country, especially in Arab countries, she spent time on reading about Islam and the Arab culture before joining ’Discover Islam’.

Subsequently she embraced Islam in 1999 at the age of 27, unlike Rifqa to Christianity at 12. Her father Norbet Perera, mother Soma and sisters Padma, Rasa, and Padmani were also converted to Islam at different times.

Mariam said that police forcibly removed Malani’s headscarf and made a video, which was played on all Sri Lankan television channels. "They were so cruel to her“.

After 11 days of custody, police allowed Sarah to speak to her mother for five minutes.

“My mother has stopped eating since she spoke to Sarah and we are worried about her health as she is 82."

"My mother is very close to Sarah and is crying for her and praying for her immediate release," said Mariam. She revealed that the family had already paid Sri Lankan rupees 90,000 to lawyers.

On the other hand, family members do also fear that Sarah may face some obstacles in Sri Lanka to return to Bahrain since her residence permit expired on March 24.

"From Darkness to Light” is a common title every religious cross over uses to defend his/her choice. Rifqa also tells the same.

As the initial charges against Malani looked insignificant, now the jaundiced eyed state says she is being investigated for possible links to Islamic extremists. When will Lanka stop telling unbelievable lies?

Which Islamic extremist organization is against Sri Lanka? None. Not even the Taliban that destroyed the Budhha statues of the Bamyan valley in 2001.

But under the emergency law, this is an escape route for a dictatorial state to justify its atrocity against anyone who irks its interest. Arrest first and charge later, is the Mantra here. That has been the position in Sarath Fonseka’s matter too. He is not tried for the charges made out to him.

In a country that is trying to ban religious conversion especially from the Buddhism, arresting Sarah Malani Perera, a Sinhalese with a head scarf in Islamic attire, must have been a God sent opportunity to affirm the government’s affinity as the guardian of Buddhist superiority in the island during the general election.

Well, from the biggest religion of the world - Christianity, today few turn to Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam. Under the colonial rule in Asia, Hindus and Buddhists, large number Sri Lankans, adopted to follow Jesus due to circumstance or to appease the masters. Even today many ardent Lankan Buddhists cherish to maintain their Christian names.

Apple Computer boss Steve Job [have you bought the iPad ?] says he is a vegetarian and Buddhist. But he denied paternity to a girl child for many years, saying he was sterile before accepting it finally. He forgot the fact that he was a child of two unwed University students.Is this Buddhism?

Golf champion Tiger Woods said his failure to follow Buddhist principles was the cause for his sex scandals. His mother was a Bangkok bar girl who his father befriended as a soldier in Vietnam War. Was her life based on Buddha’s teaching?

In the US, a documentary film, The Buddha by award winning David Grubin is to be released on April 7th. The intention is good but we do not know how the fanatics of Sri Lanka will react when it is released there. Interestingly the narration is done by a poet named W.S. Merwin and Holiness the Dalai Lama who the guardian of Buddhism Sri Lankan government, do not permit to visit in fear of China. Here politics overshadows religion.

When Malani’s case is concerned, Shaikh Essam Ishaq, Discover Islam’s Sharia adviser and director, said some of Bahrain's MPs were in talks with the Sri Lankan government trying to negotiate Sarah’s release. "They are optimistic something positive would happen and they would release her soon," he said.

A belief is she may be freed after 8th April with “no evidence”. But what is the cost for the agony she underwent? On the contrary, if it takes a different turn then the response from the Arab world will become hostile and the Friend of the Palestinian image alone would not pacify.

Finally, why did not any Muslim lawyer came forward to help Sarah while in the US there are so many for Rifqa?

© Transcurrents

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Fasting monks complain to SL Human Rights Commission

By Yohan Perera - Monks who were abducted while on a death fast in front of the Colombo Fort Railway Station calling for the release of General Sarath Fonseka earlier this week lodged a complaint at the Human Rights Commission yesterday against IGP Mahinda Balasuriya and several other officers at tached to Fort and Compannaveediya police stations

Ven Lunugamvehera Kalyanaransi Thera, the Convener of the people’s forum for redemption of General Fonseka, who was among the monks engaged in the death fast said a complaint was lodged with the commission as the police officers have used abusive language on them when they were arrested on Monday.

He said they were dragged by some group in civvies while the police looked on.

The Ven. Thera alleged that the Government had committed a grave sin by harassing Buddhist monks.

He said the monks together with other peace loving people will continue the struggle to get General (Fonseka) freed from detention. “We are prepared to lay down our lives to get this national hero freed,” he said.

The complaint which the monks lodged with the Human Rights Commission said they were forcibly abducted by a group in civvies and the police assisted them to do so.

The monks argued that the arrest should have been made under Section 13(1) of the Constitution. The reason for arrest should be explained to a suspect before he is arrested according to this law.

“This was violated as no explanation was given to us because they violently pulled us and pushed us into a bus,” the monks said
The monks therefore demanded compensation from the IGP and the other police officers who were involved in the case.

Four monks including Ven Kalyanaransi Thera, Ven Attanayake Vijitha Thera, Ven Dunagala Panyasara Thera and Ven Wakamulle Udiththa Thera were engaged in a death fast calling for the release of General Fonseka earlier this week.

© Daily Mirror

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Sri Lanka elections not free and fair: opposition

On the eve of Sri Lanka's parliamentary elections, the main opposition accused the ruling party Wednesday of campaign abuses and said it did not expect polling to be free and fair.

The opposition United National Party (UNP) said President Mahinda Rajapakse's administration had used state-owned vehicles and buildings for campaigning and turned the government-run media into a party mouthpiece.

"There was a suppression of private media. Journalists were attacked and abducted by those connected to the government," UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe told reporters in Colombo. "Editors were arrested and intimidated."

He said the state-run media had carried out biased reporting to favour Rajapakse's United People's Freedom Alliance.

"Some people feel that there is no point in voting Thursday because their votes will not make a difference due to rigging," Wickremesinghe said. "We appeal to the people to go and vote. Please. There is an opportunity to change the government."

He accused the police of failing to implement election laws and favouring ruling party candidates, a charge already denied by the authorities.

Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake has gone on record as saying the police and public servants had ignored some of his directives to ensure a fair poll.

Political observers expect the president's party to secure an easy majority on Thursday, following his resounding victory over the combined opposition candidate at the January 26 presidential polls.

The opposition is challenging Rajapakse's re-election in the Supreme Court.

District officials said most of the 100,000 public servants conducting the vote began fanning out to 11,000 polling booths across the country on Wednesday.

Military officials said nearly 20,000 troops had been called to reinforce police security on Thursday, which marks the first parliamentary polls since last year's defeat of Tamil Tiger rebels.

A total of 7,620 candidates from 36 political parties and 10 independent groups are in the running for the 225 seats up for grabs under a proportional representation system.

© AFP

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Sri Lanka polls to decide depth of Rajapaksa's power

Sri Lanka's legislative polls Thursday will decide the depth of President Mahinda Rajapaksa's already vast powers and should remove the last big uncertainty for investors keen to tap the country's post-war potential.

With his victory in one of Asia's longest-running wars not quite a year old, Rajapaksa and his ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) are expected to win a majority in the polls to elect the 225-member parliament.]

A total of 7,620 candidates representing 36 parties and 301 independent groups are competing.

Unaccustomed to losing since he was first elected president in 2005, Rajapaksa and his allies are aiming to win 150 seats, or the two-thirds majority he needs to change the constitution to his whim -- though he has not made public his intentions.

The opposition has vowed to stop him, saying he has too much power already with a normal legislative majority.

More than 14 million voters are registered to cast ballots, with nearly 80,000 police and soldiers standing watch. By Sri Lankan standards, the campaign has been relatively calm with at least 340 acts of violence and one death.

"This government has done the work to get a two-thirds majority. Development work, the economy, they have ended the 30-year-old war. This country has progressed by doing these things," trader H.M. Sudath told Reuters.

Popularity stemming from the defeat of the Tamil Tigers separatists in May last year helped propel Rajapaksa to a second six-year term in January, when he won a landslide 58 percent over retired General Sarath Fonseka in a bitter and personal contest.

"You have the government contesting with a great deal of confidence. The opposition seems to be divided and demoralized," University of Colombo constitutional affairs lecturer Rohan Edirisinghe told Reuters.

ECONOMIC UNCERTAINTY

Fonseka, who as army commander stood side-by-side with Rajapaksa in the war victory, is running for parliament despite being in military custody and facing two courts-martial, for politicking while in uniform and improper procurement.

He polled 40 percent on election day in January, the day after which he found himself surrounded in a luxury Colombo hotel by elite troops he had commanded a few months previously, with the government saying it was feared he was planning a coup.

The main opposition parties have rallied behind him, although they are not contesting as single alliance as they did in the presidential election.

Rajapaksa and his allies have also trumpeted about a resurgent post-war economy, propelled by a stock market that has gained more than 150 percent since 2009, accelerated development and foreign investment in government securities.

However, the end of the war did not bring immediate stability because Rajapaksa made clear he would call early elections, and Western countries and the United Nations have kept up pressure over possible war crimes and human rights violations.

"Foreign investors might get more interested in the stock market if there is political stability after the election. But otherwise, I do not see any changes," Amal Sandaratne, economist at Frontier Research, told Reuters.

With the rupee currency on the rise, bond dealers say they expect steady foreign demand for government securities of 18 months' tenure or less to pick up, especially after the vote.

One concern foreign investors have always had is the government's big public sector spending, which has often hampered growth. The central bank reported GDP growth of 3.5 percent last year, and forecast 6.5 percent this year.

"If the ruling party comes to power then there will be stability, but still it is not clear what economic ideologies they are going to implement," said Sirimal Abeyratne, an economics lecturer at the University of Colombo.

The government has pledged to curb its deficit under a $2.6 billion International Monetary Fund loan, but Monday said it would renegotiate the stringent targets after it missed the first year's goal with 9.8 percent deficit last year.

© Reuters

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Sri Lanka arrests Buddhist monks over General Fonseka protest

By Charles Haviland - Sri Lankan police have arrested 12 Buddhist monks who were demonstrating against the detention of the opposition politician, Gen Sarath Fonseka.

Late on Monday, a police spokesman told the BBC the monks would shortly be freed, but this could not be confirmed.

The arrests in the capital Colombo are another episode in the bitter fall-out of the so-called Fonseka affair.

The government incarcerated Gen Fonseka, the former army chief, after he lost the January presidential poll.

'Disgraceful'

He has now been two months in detention and a group of monks decided to vent their anger by demonstrating outside the city's main station.

Four had started a hunger strike on Sunday urging his release.

The police - including several in plain clothes - arrived to arrest the monks and, when they resisted, manhandled them to bundle them into vans.

The police spokesman said they had been obstructing people and that they were later taken to a magistrate while the hunger-strikers went to hospital.

The monks' lawyer, Nuwan Bopage, said the fundamental right to protest was being breached in a "disgraceful" way.

Tuesday will see the resumption of the court-martialling of Gen Fonseka on charges of unlawful political involvement while in uniform and of irregular procurement practices.

In spite of this, the retired general is standing in Thursday's parliamentary election.

Buddhist monks come from the Sinhalese ethnic majority and many are politicised.

A large number support the government, but those just detained are affiliated to a left-wing nationalist party which is now aligned to Gen Fonseka.

© BBC News

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Campaigning closes in Sri Lanka

B. Muralidhar Reddy - Curtains fell on the six-week campaign for the April 8 general election in Sri Lanka. Undoubtedly, it would go down as one of the dullest elections in the history of the nation.

The campaign has failed to generate much interest since the ruling United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) led by President Mahinda Rajapaksa is viewed as the victor.

Flush with victory in the January 26 presidential election, Mr. Rajapaksa was engaged in hectic campaigning across the nation.

Though there are 36 parties vying for 225 seats, the main fight is expected to be between the ruling combine led by Mr. Rajapaksa and the main opposition party the United National Party (UNP) led by Ranil Wickremsinghe.

The third alliance — Democratic National Alliance (DNA) — led by the former Army Chief and the defeated common consensus presidential candidate General Sarath Fonseka is also in the fray but with the retired General behind the bars, its prospects are not rated high.

While the 7,620 contestants from 36 recognised political parties and 301 independent groups vie for 196 seats in the 225-member Parliament, the remaining 29 slots are allocated through the National List based on the vote percentages political parties and independent groups obtain. Sri Lanka follows a proportional system of representation.

Meanwhile, in response to concerns expressed on General Fonseka's health condition the Army on Monday made arrangements for consultations from a senior chest physician, attached to the Chest Clinic, Colombo National Hospital, in the presence of medical officers at the Navy Headquarters where he is detained.

The Army said the move was initiated following allegations made by Mrs. Anoma Fonseka referring to an alleged “deterioration” in his health.

As per the Army, the chest specialist determined that the General had not been afflicted with any new condition as alleged, and he could still continue with his routine medication.

© The Hindu

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MBC/MTV Attack: How do you react when the office is stoned?

by Mandana Ismail Abeywickrema - A staff member at MTV/MBC retracts how he and collegues reacted when hail of stones hit them last week.

For Rodrigo, a news manager in the Sirasa news room, and everyone inside the Sirasa network building the attack left them shocked and unable to figure out what had happened until the lapse of a few minutes after the attack.

When Rodrigo’s day in office commenced at 9.30 a.m., as in other days, there was nothing unusual about it. He went about preparing for the evening news bulletin and attended the daily de-brief attended by the station heads around 3 p.m.

After sorting out the news details, Rodrigo was back at his seat when everyone had heard some noises from the direction of the head office, the Capital Maharajah building, around 3.30 p.m.

“Unable to understand exactly what was going on, some employees started to run towards the fire exits. However, everyone was asked to remain in their floors,” he said.

About six heads from the news room including Rodrigo had then walked towards the entrance to their building, which was next to the head office building.

“There was protest outside the headquarters building and suddenly everything turned violent with the protestors pelting stones at the car park and the head office windows,” Rodrigo recounted, adding that they had immediately started to make calls to the emergency numbers including the police.

“’We are under attack,’ we said. The protest continued and a group of protestors started to walk towards out office and we ran for shelter. We ran to our gate.”

By this time Rodrigo started to see some of his colleagues and a few more from the head office injured by the stones thrown by the angry mob.

“The head office was like a war zone with broken glass bottles and stones strewn around broken windows and damaged vehicles. The vehicles in our car park however were moved away as soon as the stones were thrown to our compound,” Rodrigo said.

With the protestors moving forward towards them armed with stones and poles, Rodrigo and his colleagues had to think quickly to defend themselves.

“We had to protect ourselves and we had no option but to retaliate. We took the stones, bottles and poles thrown towards us by the protestors and threw it back at them in self defence,” he said.
About five minutes into the attack, the police had arrived at the scene.

“The police arrested 16 persons before our eyes. Gradually the protestors started to back down.”

It was now time for Rodrigo and his colleagues to return to the news room to prepare the breaking news bulletin.

“We had to assess the damage to do the story. Even by then we were still trying to figure out what had happened. The attack was unexpected. Even the still cameras in our head office building were damaged in the attack. Till everything was sorted out we had to prepare the initial breaking news bulletin,” Rodrigo said.

While Rodrigo and a few others prepared the breaking news bulletin, the others started to make the necessary arrangements to face another possible attack.

“Every one was gearing for another attack. We did not know what had happened and we thought they would attack us again. We looked at a second attack as well. Even now we are geared to face another attack. The staff has been made aware of the steps to be taken in case of another attack,” Rodrigo said.

For Rodrigo, the Monday evening attack was not the first time he had faced a violent attack against his institution.

“The attack on Sirasa in 2008 was scarier than this. In 2008, our Pannipitiya station was literally converted to a battle field. While fires raged on one side, the bomb squad had to be called to defuse the live grenades that were thrown into the premises. While trying to help douse the fire and salvage what ever we could from the studio, we had to attend to our injured colleagues as well,” Rodrigo recounted.

However, regardless of what attack may come against the institution, Rodrigo and his colleagues seem resolute in their stance of fighting back.
“We will continue regardless of all these attacks. We are committed to what we do,” Rodrigo said.

© The Sunday Leader

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Sri Lanka's opposition vows to stop leader's poll plan

By Ranga Sirilal - Sri Lanka's opposition on Monday vowed to deny the ruling coalition a two-thirds majority at this week's parliamentary election, saying it would give an already powerful president too free a hand to rule.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa, fresh from a landslide re-election in January, has said he expects his United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) to get two-thirds of the 225-seat legislature at Thursday's polls.

That would give him the votes to change the constitution to his liking, a situation which produced the 1978 charter under former President J.R. Jayawardene that many view as flawed in terms of social equality and distribution of powers.

Rajapaksa's alliance looks assured of victory, riding high on momentum from his win in January, his defeat of the Tamil Tiger separatists in May last year and an economy resurgent since the end of the 25-year civil war.

On Monday, the central bank forecast 2010 economic growth of 6.5 percent, rebounding sharply from an eight-year low of 3.5 percent in 2009. Rajapaksa says economic revival is central to his plans for reconciling a country divided by ethnic strife and inequity.

Rajapaksa, like Jayawardene, has not said which changes he plans to enact, but the opposition warned he would show more of the autocratic streak they say he has displayed since he first came to power in 2005.

"It's not healthy for the country and will be a deadly attack on democracy to have the executive powers and two-thirds in parliament with one party. They will abuse the extensive powers," said Vijitha Herath, secretary for the Democratic National Alliance (DNA).

The DNA, the second largest opposition group, is led by the Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) party. It includes retired General Sarath Fonseka, who lost his presidential bid against Rajapaksa in January and is now in jail.

OPPOSITION BACKED GENERAL IN PRESIDENTIAL RACE

The opposition rallied behind Fonseka, who led the army to victory over the Tamil Tiger rebels in a 25-year war but quit his post to challenge Rajapaksa.

But Fonseka got 40 percent to Rajapaksa's 58, and the military then arrested him and charged him in a court-martial for politicking while in uniform. He is still running for parliament, despite being in military custody.

The United National Party (UNP), by far the largest opposition party, still supports Fonseka but is running its campaign separately. General Secretary Tissa Attanayake said his party would get enough votes to block Rajapaksa's coalition.

"If the government gets the same results as the presidential election, they cannot get two-thirds," he said.

"They're just saying that to keep election momentum going. They know they have not addressed the peoples' issues such as the cost of living and democracy."

The campaign has been subdued compared to the presidential one both in terms of violence and tone. But gunmen sprayed bullets at campaigners on Monday, killing a 24-year old man in the first fatality of the current contest, police said.

The opposition, Western governments and rights groups have accused Rajapaksa's government of violating human rights, intimidation and failing to prosecute attacks on journalists and political opponents.

The government denies wrongdoing and says the opposition is trying to curry favour in Western capitals.

© Reuters

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Sri Lanka: Archaeology sparks new conflict

Jeremy Page - Recent visitors to Kilinochchi, the former capital of the Tamil Tigers, had noticed something unusual — there was a single, new building standing among the bombed-out ruins of the abandoned city in northern Sri Lanka.

It was a whitewashed Buddhist shrine, strewn with flowers. “We thought it strange because there was no one there except soldiers — the civilians had all fled,” one of the visitors said.

Officers told them that the shrine had been damaged by the Tigers and renovated by the army — recruited largely from the Sinhalese Buddhist majority — after the rebels’ defeat a year ago next month. “It’s an ancient site,” Major-General Prasad Samarasinghe, the chief military spokesman, told The Times.

Many Tamil archaeologists, historians and politicians disagree. They say that the area had been populated for centuries by the ethnic Tamil minority, which is mostly Hindu. “There was nothing there at all,” Karthigesu Sivathamby, a retired professor of Tamil history and literature at the University of Jaffna, said.

The true origins of the site may never be known without independent analysis — which is impossible while the army restricts access to the area. Many Tamil community leaders fear that the shrine is part of a plan to “rediscover” Buddhist sites and settle thousands of Sinhalese across the north to undermine the Tamils’ claim to an ethnic homeland.

They also worry that such efforts will accelerate if the ruling coalition, led by President Rajapaksa, the country’s ethnic Sinhalese leader, wins a two-thirds majority in parliamentary elections due on Thursday.

“The Government is putting up new Buddhist shrines and building permanent housing for soldiers,” Suresh Premachandran, an MP from the Tamil National Alliance, said. “They are trying to colonise the area, to show it belongs to the Sinhalese.”

He said that the army was building housing for 40,000 soldiers and their families in the north, even before it has finished resettling 300,000 Tamils who were held in internment camps after the war.

The army says that it does have that many troops there but denies settling their families and says it is simply renovating old military camps — and occasionally renovating Buddhist and Hindu shrines.

“We’re just trying to protect the people and make sure the [Tigers] don’t come back,” General Samarasinghe said.

So begins a new chapter in a dispute that began with the birth of archaeology in Sri Lanka, under the British in the 19th century, and that grew into a civil war that lasted 26 years and killed 100,000 people.

When the British took control of the country in 1815, they were unsure of its ancient history but soon embraced the legend of the Mahavamsa — a text written by Buddhist monks in about AD500.

It suggests that the Sinhalese are descended from Prince Vijaya, an Aryan prince exiled from northern India in about 500BC, and that Tamils did not migrate from southern India until 200 years later.

That theory — still taught in schools — underpins the Sinhalese chauvinism that ultimately drove the Tigers to launch their armed struggle for an independent homeland in 1983.

In fact, archaeologists had discredited that after independence by excavating settlements in the north that dated from long before 500BC and showed similarities to sites in southern India — suggesting a much earlier migration.

When the conflict began, they were forced to suspend excavations and many Tamil archaeologists fled into exile overseas.

Since the end of the war, archaeology in the north has resumed — and with it the debate over the country’s ancient history.

“For three decades we haven’t been able to do anything in the north,” Senarath Dissanayake, the head of the Government’s Archaeology Department, said.

“Now we can find out about how ancient people lived here — their culture, economy, social background, living conditions and religion.”

He said that his department had identified 60 old sites in the north in the last year — and six completely new ones, dated between 300BC and AD1000.

Some Tamil academics question why the new sites are all from a period when Sinhalese Buddhist culture is thought to have flourished. Others want more Tamil archaeologists involved, as well as foreign experts or the UN, to ensure that the work is objective.

“The archaeological department is the handmaiden of the Government,” said one prominent Tamil scholar, who declined to be identified for fear of reprisals.

“The concern is that they’re going to identify these sites as Sinhalese, build lots of Buddhist shrines and tell Sinhalese people this is their lost land.”

The Government announced last month that 300,000 local and foreign tourists had visited the northern province since the war ended – and officials say that the vast majority were Sinhalese from the south.

Government archaeologists deny identifying sites on ethnic or religious grounds.

“The emphasis from the President is that there should be a balancing of Buddhist and non-Buddhist sites,” said Sudarshan Seneviratne, the head of the Central Cultural Fund, which finances archaeology. “He’s a smart politician. He knows how to cater to all communities.”

Mr Seneviratne accepted, nonetheless, that there were “parochial” forces who wanted to use archaeology for political purposes.

Principal among them on the Sinhalese side is the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), a Buddhist monks’ party that is part of the ruling coalition, and has a powerful influence on Mr Rajapaksa.

Its clout was illustrated last month when the Government refused a visa to Akon, a Senegalese-American R&B singer who had been due to perform in Colombo this month.

Activists had protested over the video for Sexy Bitch, a song that showed bikini-clad women dancing around a pool, with a Buddha statue in the background. The protesters said that the Sri Lankan Constitution obliges the state to “give Buddhism the foremost place” and “protect and foster” the religion.

The JHU invoked the same argument in December when it presented 29 demands to Mr Rajapaksa, including one for him to rebuild dozens of Buddhist sites in the north. His response has never been made public but the JHU — which is led by a passionate amateur archaeologist — claims that the President concurred.

“He agreed to take immediate steps to restore Buddhist sites in the north,” Udaya Gammanpila, a senior JHU member, said. “He said the army and the archaeological department were already working on it.”

Even if that is untrue, the JHU can directly influence archaeology because Champika Ranawaka, its chief ideologue, is Environment Minister and his approval is required to excavate and protect sites.

Foreign archaeologists familiar with Sri Lanka say that the country — which is approximately 70 per cent Sinhalese and 20 per cent Tamil — needs to move past the ethnic issue.

“That debate will never be answered by archaeology,” Robin Coningham, a professor of archaeology at Durham University, said.

Tamil scholars say that that may not be possible with the JHU in government and the army empowered to rebuild Buddhist shrines on contentious sites.

“Archaeology has always been political in Sri Lanka,” said one Tamil historian overseas, who also did not want to be identified for fear of endangering relatives in Sri Lanka. “It’s no different today.”

© Times Online

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