Liam Fox's role in the politics of Sri Lanka

By Randeep Ramesh | The Guardian
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Liam Fox is a well-known figure in the corridors of power in Sri Lanka. For decades, a vicious civil war between the two main ethnic groups – Tamils and the Sinhalese majority – had meant daily life in the small island nation was punctuated by spasms of destruction.

The fight was about territory: pitting the north and east against the south. It was also religious: Hindu Tamils against Buddhist Sinhalese. And by the time the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were routed in 2009, it had claimed almost 100,000 lives.

Fox had first arrived in 1995, landing at the palm-fringed airport as a junior Foreign Office minister. A little more than a year later, such was his influence with the Sinhalese elite, who essentially run the country, that he had persuaded the rival parties not to attempt to outflank each other while negotiating peace or ceasefires with the brutal rebel separatists of the LTTE. The "Fox agreement" was a landmark, the first time an outsider had managed to broker such a consensus in a notoriously violent political setup.

Fast forward more than a decade. The old Sinhalese powerbrokers had been ousted in favour of a more militaristic clique, led by the president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, and his brothers Gotabhaya, the defence secretary, and Basil, a political fixer. During a chance meeting in Singapore in 2007, Fox – by then shadow secretary of state for defence – fell in with one of Rajapaksa's lieutenants, the foreign minister Rohitha Bogollagama. He was back in the game.

The Labour government, along with the United States, had viewed the new president as a dangerous populist whose military buildup and wooing of China needed to be restrained. Concerned that the Sri Lankan army was indiscriminately bombing and killing Tamil civilians, the west ratcheted up pressure on the regime. Fox, a neocon in outlook, took a rather different view. And his new friends turned to him for help.

In the last few months of the war Fox, who was seen in the capital Colombo as a possible future Tory leader, became an influential messenger boy – carrying back rebuttals to western capitals from Sri Lanka. At the beginning of 2009, the then prime minister, Gordon Brown, attempted to send a special envoy to the island and the US offered to evacuate the 100,000 civilians trapped in the last 20 square miles of territory under LTTE control. The foreign minister told Fox, who happened to be on a visit to Colombo at the time, that the government was declining "offers of assistance" until it had "cleared the north from the clutches of the terrorists".

However, since the LTTE was crushed, the clamour for a war-crimes investigation has grown. While Rajapaksa remains apparently invincible at home, the net is tightening abroad. Channel 4's documentary Sri Lanka's Killing Fields appeared to show the shelling of areas where civilians sheltered, executions of captured LTTE combatants, and dead female Tamil fighters being loaded on to a truck. A United Nations panel found "credible allegations" that the ghttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifovernment had committed war crimes and offences against humanity. There were calls for an independent international inquiry, and reports that "tens of thousands" of civilians had lost their lives and that most casualties in the final phases of the war were caused by government shelling.

The UK supplied arms to Sri Lanka throughout its bitter civil war – comfort for arms manufacturers but none for Sri Lankan taxpayers. Colombo has increased the defence budget by 6%.

© The Guardian

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Lasantha Murder Investigation: No sign of progress in sight

By Mandana Ismail Abeywickrema | The Sunday Leader
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To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history,” US President Barrack Obama during his inauguration speech in 2009.

Over two and a half years later, the murder investigation on The Sunday Leader Founding Editor Lasantha Wickrematunge has not made any progress. Despite many claims made by no lesser person than President Mahinda Rajapaksa that he would announce “very important details” about the murder in February 2009, the investigation seems to be at a standstill.

Rajapaksa in usual form called on the IGP to expedite the investigation and to bring the culprits to book. However, whenever journalists pose questions about Wickrematunge’s murder investigation to the President, the only response now is that the police are still inquiring into the matter.

The prolonged investigation has been handed to the Terrorist Investigation Department (TID) from the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) giving the impression that the inquiry is being carried out in full swing. The police are yet to make any leads in the case except for a garage owner named Jesudason from Nuwara Eliya who remains in custody since the mobile phone SIM cards used by the alleged assassins were purchased under his name. A person known to Jesudason and a former army intelligence officer Kandegedera Piyawansa, who was also arrested by the police, was released a few months back due to the lack of evidence against him.

When contacted by The Sunday Leader, Police Spokesperson SSP Maxi Proctor said he was unable to comment on the investigation as it is being carried out by the TID. TID OIC Prasanna de Alwis when contacted said he was handling the investigation, but refused to speak about it.

De Alwis also refused to comment on whether the police have made any breakthrough in the investigation.

However, when the case was taken up for hearing at the Mount Lavinia Magistrate Court on September 28th, the TID informed court that investigations were still being carried out to apprehend the main suspect in the murder.

Be that as it may, there were several interesting twists to the murder investigation.
In February last year, when the TID arrested 12 army soldiers attached to the Army Military Intelligence Unit and also identified as having worked closely with former Army Commander Sarath Fonseka, investigators looked into the possible involvement of Fonseka in Wickrematunge’s murder.

The TID investigators then took into custody five mobile telephones that had operated on the same route as Wickrematunge on the day he was murdered. Of the 17 soldiers who were arrested, the detectives narrowed the number down to seven prime suspects. After detaining them for a brief period, the army personnel were released. It was speculated at the time that the soldiers had been released following comments made by them incriminating some senior members of the government.

Another Fonseka aide, Brigadier Duminda Keppetiwala was also detained and statements by him were recorded about Wickrematunge’s murder. However, he too was released after a brief detention.

Meanwhile, the former army intelligence officer Piyawansa who has now been released on bail, made a statement in open court during a previous hearing of the case on May 12, stating that one OIC Prasanna de Alwis of the TID had tried to influence him into making a statement implicating a senior military officer in Wickrematunge’s assassination, with the promise of being made a state witness and given overseas employment. However, TID Sub Inspector A. E. Adhikari rejected the statement made by Piyawansa and informed court on Thursday that the investigating officer concerned would appear in court on the next hearing date on June 9.

The Magistrate had later recorded a statement from Piyawansa in chambers, a process which lasted over three hours. Piyawansa’s lawyer, Upul Anuradha Wickremaratne said that the courts had provision to take appropriate action if there is an inducement or threat made by an investigating officer to a suspect in violation of the Criminal Procedure Code. In such an event, the Magistrate can record a statement from the suspect and hold an inquiry.

Amidst these interesting twists, Wickrematunge’s case remains unsolved and investigators are still unable to even identify the murder weapon. Wickrematunge was killed on January 8, 2009, 8 hours after the arson attack on the MTV/MBC station in Depanama.

© The Sunday Leader

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Sri Lanka: The regime’s politics of violence implodes

Asian Human Rights Commission
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On the last day of the 3rd stage of the Local Government Election, two prominent politicians from United People Freedom Alliance (UPFA) fought with each other at Mulleriyawa in Kolonnawa in Colombo District, according to reports. Former Member of Parliament and a presidential advisor on trade unions, Bharatha Lakshman Pramachandra, and three of his body guards, were shot dead on the orders of Duminda Silva, a Member of Parliament and advisor to the Ministry of Defence. Duminda Silva has survived after an emergency surgery by a team of doctors. He is now said to be being treated at an Intensive Care Unit (ICU).

No one has yet been arrested for the three murders and the injuring of several others who are undergoing treatment at hospitals. There is no report as yet as to whether a case has been filed before the Magistrate’s court on the triple murder and the other incidents. Under the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code police should file a report before the nearest Magistrate’s court as soon as possible when a serious crime has taken place in its vicinity. There is no report of any warrant issued for the arrest of Duminda Silva or any others regarding the triple murder.

This violent conflict between two prominent members of the ruling regime points to the type of politics prevailing in the country. Duminda Silva was before accused of a rape; however, the case was discontinued due to his political allegiance to Rajapaksha Regime. He is a rich businessman who is widely believed to be engaged in the illicit trafficking of drugs.

The emergence of such persons as prominent politicians on whom the regime depends on for their political campaigning indicates the extent of coercion and violence used during election campaigns and during elections. The government has refused to create an independent commission for the conduct of elections and in fact virtually abolished the provisions of 17th amendment to the Constitution. As a result, Sri Lanka does not have legal institutions which are capable of guaranteeing free and fair elections.

The regime believes in the use of extensive violence for all purposes including in conducting elections. The police are coopted to support this violence. The police lack the power and the capacity to resist the political influence. The police in Sri Lanka are no longer in an independence institution capable of enforcing law and order.

The present implosions like this among the hardcore elements supporting the regime are merely indications of the descent into the politics of coercion and violence. At the moment the Sri Lankan judiciary lacks the capacity to intervene against the regime’s politics of violence.

It is only the people’s own interventions against such violence that could restore rule of law and democracy in Sri Lanka. If, however, the present violence continues it is hardly possible to imagine the depths to which the country may descend.

© AHRC

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Four dead in Colombo election violence

Sky News
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Four people, including a Sri Lankan presidential advisor, have been killed and 12 injured in election-related violence just outside of Colombo.

The clash - in which Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra, the presidential advisor on trade union affairs, was among those killed - occurred in Kolonnawua, 14 kms southeast of the capital, as polling closed late Saturday.

Parliamentarian Duminda Silva was in a critical condition after receiving three bullets to the head, hospital sources said.

A curfew was imposed in the area where the incident took place, after mobs set fire to a police vehicle soon after the shootout between supporters of Premachandra and Silva, who are both from the ruling party.

Some 1.5 million voters were registered for the polls in 23 local councils. The turnout was around 60 per cent.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa's United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) party won more than two-thirds of the 300 local councils in elections held in the first phases in March and July.

The ruling party's popularity has been high since the defeat of the separatist Tamil rebels in May 2009, ending a 26-year war.

But the party failed to win a majority of local councils in the Tamil-dominated northern region that experienced the brunt of the ethnic conflict.

© Sky News

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Sri Lanka's ruling coalition sweeps local elections

PTI | The Hindu
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Sri Lanka’s ruling UPFA won a landslide securing 21 of 23 seats in local elections marred by violence that killed at least four people, including an adviser to President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

The United People’s Freedom Alliance headed by Mr. Rajapaksa won control of 21 of the 23 councils which went to polls on Saturday, official results announced today showed.

The main opposition United National Party (UNP) managed only to retain the Colombo Municipal Council, considered the most prestigious, while losing their seat in the central town of Kandy which they had held for nearly 60 years.

The main Muslim party, Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), a partner of the ruling coalition secured the eastern province’s Kalmunai municipality in the polls, seen by many as a mid-term test for Mr. Rajapaksa.

This was the last phase of the staggered local elections which began in March.

The ruling coalition swept the board in earlier rounds as well.

Commenting on the ruling party’s victory, Senior Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva said it was a further endorsement of President Rajapakhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifsa’s leadership.

However, yesterday’s polls were marred by violence that claimed at least four lives and left several people injured.

© The Hindu

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Sri Lanka: Advisor to President shot dead

Sunday Times Online
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Former MP and advisor to President Mahinda Rajapaksa Baharatha Lakshman Premachandra was shot dead a short while ago following a gun battle with supporters of UPFA MP Duminda Sila at Kolonnawa, police and hospital officials said.

MP Duminda Silva who sustained serious gun shot injuries to his head is currently undergoing treatment at the Sri Jayewardenepura Hospital, they said.

At least a half a dozen others who sustained gun shot injuries in melee are also undergoing treatment at the same hospital.

Police investigators believe that today’s incident was the fall out in the killing of a man at Kolonnawa on Friday night, described as a supporter of Mr. Premachandra.

The two politicians are known to have nurtured a rift between them for a considerable period of time, police said.　

© Sunday Times Online

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Voting underway in Sri Lanka's mid-term test

AFP
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Voters in Sri Lanka's capital went to the polls on Saturday to elect a local municipal council, in a contest widely seen as a mid-term test for President Mahinda Rajapakse.

Rajapaksa's ruling coalition, the United People's Freedom Alliance, is fielding candidates for the prestigious Colombo municipality as well as 22 others, marking the final phase of local elections which began in March.

Since government troops claimed victory in their near 30-year war against Tamil Tiger rebels, Rajapakse has tightened his grip on power by securing a second presidential term and winning parliamentary polls last year.

His party has expressed confidence of securing victory in all the councils while the fractured opposition has promised a comeback after a string of humiliating defeats.

Voters are set to elect 420 members from among 6,488 candidates, with results are due by Sunday. The councils are responsible for maintaining utilities, but have no legislative powers.

However, political parties consider it important to secure the local bodies as a stepping stone for bigger national elections which are due by 2016.

Local elections began in March with smaller village councils going to the polls initially while the bigger councils saw voting put off until the completion of the cricket World Cup the island co-hosted in March and April.

© AFP

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Liam Fox, Sri Lanka, and a friend called Werritty

Channel 4
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As Defence Secretary Liam Fox orders an internal investigation over his relationship with self-styled adviser Adam Werritty, Channel 4 News looks at the questions surrounding the 14-year friendship.

Dr Fox has been accused of breaking ministerial code by allowing Adam Werritty, a close friend who was the minister's best man, to accompany him on an official visit to Sri Lanka.

The defence secretary told parliament last month that Werritty, who has distributed business cards describing himself as Dr Fox's personal adviser, had met him 14 times in 16 months but had not travelled with him on any official overseas visits.

The MoD has since admitted Werritty met Fox during the visit, but said it was in a personal capacity.

A photograph of Fox arriving to give the address on 9 July shows Werritty in the background, following closely behind Sri Lankan government ministers and the British high commissioner, John Rankin.

Dr Fox's permanent secretary at the Ministry of Defence, Ursula Brennan, has been asked by Dr Fox to investigate the allegation that the meeting in Sri Lanka - and another in Dubai on August 19 - had compromised national security.

But The Guardian newspaper claims that Ms Brennan had previously raised concerns about whether the friendship had strayed into official government business.

Werritty's businesses

Mr Werritty, 34, has been a close friend of Mr Fox, 50, for the last 14 years.

They lived together in a flat near Tower Bridge before the defence secretary married Jesme Baird in 2005.

Whilst Mr Fox was shadow health secretary between 1999 and 2003, Mr Werritty was appointed director of UK Health Ltd, heading the company for the next two years.

In November 2006 Mr Werritty was appointed director of Security Futures Ltd, a year after Mr Fox became shadow defence secretary.

Channel 4 News has learned from abbreviated accounts that the company made a loss of just over £4000 in 2007, a profit of just under £6000 in 2008, with the company's estimated total losses in 2008 standing at just over £93,000.

In the same year, 2008, the company gave £10 000 in a charitable donation to The Atlantic Bridge, an Atlanticist former charity set up by Dr Liam Fox.

Fox installed Werritty as the executive director and sole employee of the charity in 1997.

© Channel 4

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Sri Lanka unveils 'action plan' to improve human rights

AFP | The Straits Times
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Sri Lanka on Thursday announced a new move to address human rights issues in the face of international pressure over war crimes allegations arising from the end of the island's civil war.

The government said it hoped to strengthen civil liberties and ensure better human rights compliance through the implementation of what it called a 'National Action Plan', which was approved by the cabinet on Wednesday.

Details of the plan were not disclosed, but a government statement said it would largely involve setting up committees to monitor implementation of existing laws and to ensure better understanding and respect for civil rights.

Sri Lanka narrowly avoided censure at last month's United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council in Geneva, despite a UN expert report highlighting 'credible' allegations of abuses by government troops in their final victory over Tamil rebels.

© AFP

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Sri Lanka: Journalist challenges Defence Secretary's politics

Sri Lanka Mirror
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Ravaya journalist and media activist Lasantha Ruhunage has complained to the elections commissioner on campaigning activities of Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

The journalist has told BBC Sandeshaya that he informed the polls chief against Mr. Rajapaksa who visited Slave Island to support UPFA mayoral candidate Milinda Moragoda on 3rd October.

“Defence Secretary requested the people to assure the victory of Milinda Moragoda and later he addressed a campaign rally that supports UPFA candidates,” Mr. Ruhunage added.

Ruhunage who is the general secretary of the Sri Lanka working journalists association has argued that senior government officers do not have political rights.

He has claimed that Defence Secretary’s involvement in the municipal election campaign is a grave violation of the establishment code and a misuse of government assets.

The election meeting was reported by the local media including Sirasa TV.

“As a citizen I asked the Election Commissioner to investigate this matter and take necessary actions,” Mr. Ruhunage added, demanding the immediate attention of the elections commissioner to the matter.

© Sri Lanka Mirror

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