BBC Sinhala
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Trincomalee Government Agent, Maj Gen TTR de Silva, said the resettlement of internally displaced people (IDPs) from Sampur has become "an international issue."
"People can not go back nearer to the thermal power plant," he told journalists in Trincomalee on Sunday.
He made the remarks at a conference on media development which was also attended by the Director General of Information, Prof Ariyaratne Athugala.
Media has an important role to play "in building a bridge between people and development," said Prof Athugala.
'Land grab'
The journalists attended the seminar then pointed out that the government has not attempted to resolve many issues raised by the media, including the resettlement in Sampur.
"The Ceylon Electricity Board new buildings are also being constructed there and the area has been demarcated for new related industries,” was the response by the government agent.
Sampur was among the first major Tamil Tiger strongholds in the east that was re-captured by the security forces.
The government officials were also told that 1500 fishermen have lost livelihoods as a result of a new saltern is being built in Kuchchuveli.
Responding, Maj Gen de Silva said decisions regarding acquiring land have been taken from the higher echelons of the government including the president and cabinet of ministers.
“I think it is a shame that 60% of salt intake in Sri Lanka is imported,” he added.
The journalist also pointed out that farmers were banned to cultivate 700 paddy land in Kappalturai that has been cultivated for generations but Maj Gen de Silva said those decisions were taken by the government hierarchy.
The North - East Sinhala Organisation (NESO) earlier accused the government of land grab in eastern Sri Lanka.
But the provincial council authorities have denied the accusation.
© BBC
Tuesday, December 06, 2011
Trincomalee war displaced 'right to return' denied
Tuesday, December 06, 2011
Over 700 children reported missing since end of Sri Lanka's war
By Maryam Azwer | The Sunday Leader
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Of the total, 374 of the children are boys, and 333 are girls. Thus far, 116 of the children reported missing have been traced.
Thirty one of these children have been reunited with their families, while reunification is in process for another 22. Another 63 names have found matches, and are currently undergoing verification and tracing.
These statistics were obtained via UNICEF, which sourced the data to the Family Tracing Unit of the Department of Probation and Childcare Services in the Northern Province.
A UNICEF report released on July 12 this year recorded a total of 676 cases of missing children.
The report also stated that 30 percent of children reported missing following the end of the war were reportedly last seen in Government-controlled areas, while 64 percent of the cases were attributed to LTTE recruitment.
“Reports suggest 64 per cent of those who have disappeared were recruited by the Tamil Tigers. Another 30 per cent were, reportedly, last seen in government-controlled areas,” said the UNICEF report, titled Hope and Uncertainty: the Vital Search for Missing Children in Northern Sri Lanka.
According to the report, the age analysis for children showed that the majority of them were aged between 16 and 18 years.
The opening lines of UNICEF’s July report said that: “One of the key child protection issues following the displacement of thousands of people in northern Sri Lanka in 2009 was that of separated children. During the last phase of the Sri Lankan conflict, a large number of children among the internally displaced people were lost or separated from their families. As a result, many displaced families were also filing tracing requests and reporting missing children to a number of the authorities at the district as well as at the national level.”
As a result of all these requests, steps were finally taken at the end of 2009 to trace and reunite children who had been separated from their families.
“The Provincial Department of Probation and Child Care Services in the Northern Province in collaboration with the Government Agent (GA), Vavuniya, and supported by UNICEF, established the Family Tracing and Reunification Unit on December 22, 2009,” said UNICEF Sri Lanka Representative, Reza Hossaini, in a statement to The Sunday Leader last week.
UNICEF’s previous report also detailed the methods employed in collecting information on these missing children: “The Family Tracing (FTR) unit established a telephone help line and employed data collection staff, who underwent training on how to handle calls and deal with visiting parents/relatives and on data information/collection and management. Information posters/ banners promoting this new service were distributed in the camps and to partners and agencies across other districts. Furthermore, photographs of children reported missing were published in local newspapers, leading to a few successful family reunifications and additional information on the possible whereabouts of children.”
The report also stated that: “active search for data has been made in children’s homes and hospitals on children who are alive, while very limited information has been sought from surrendee and detention centres, and on children who died in hospitals.”
The identification of missing children had not been completed at the time, said UNICEF, because many families may not have had access to information pertaining to this family tracing initiative. “The total number of missing children is unknown as many families are not aware of the ongoing government efforts,” UNICEF said in its the report.
However, UNICEF’s Sri Lanka Representative last week stated that, “UNICEF is working in partnership with the Government in order to scale-up and extend the family tracing service, which traces missing children, in all five districts of the north. Communities and families in conflict-affected areas want to rebuild their lives and resolving cases of missing children is an important part of the reconciliation process.
“Currently, the Family Tracing Unit, is based in Vavuniya. Requests from those seeking missing children can be submitted either in person at their office, or over the phone. Based on these requests, the staff at the unit visit hospitals, children’s homes, rehabilitation centres and prisons to find matches for the requests made. Those in need of psychosocial support are referred to relevant service providers,” said Reza Hossaini.
© The Sunday Island
Saturday, December 03, 2011
Sri Lankan government gave orders to commit war crimes, new evidence shows
By The International
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The assertions of the first source, who held a very senior position in the armed forces during the final period of the war, are perhaps the most significant. Having access to the flow of orders and strategy and holding a high level security clearance, his testimony appears to corroborate many claims made by the United Nations, prominent human rights organizations and a series of reports made by Channel 4 news regarding abuses carried out by the army.
The source alleges that extra-judicial killings of surrendering or captured members of the rebel Tamil Tiger group were committed as "standard operating procedure" during the last months of the war.
Furthermore, the source told the lawyer taking his deposition, which was witnessed by a public official of the state of New York, that the killings had been ordered by from the Defence Secretary of Sri Lanka, Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa. The source claims that he was informed that the Defence Secretary had passed on "some instructions to a field commander to get rid of those LTTE cadres who are surrendering."
In a crucial exchange recorded in the source’s testimony, he was asked: "Who would have given the order…that this is the way to handle the hardcore LTTE cadres?" The source replied: "It should come from either the secretary of the defense [sic], with the knowledge of the president involved. He also has to be kept informed. The commanders could not undertake such decisions.”
Such a view appears to agree with statements made by American diplomat Patricia Butenis in a memo released by Wikileaks last year, in which she suggests that the responsibility for the alleged crimes rests with the country’s senior civilian leadership. In a cable dated 15 January 2010, she wrote: "responsibility for many of the alleged crimes [during the war] rests with the country’s senior civilian and military leadership, including President (Rajapaksa) and his brothers and opposition candidate General Fonseka."
In his testimony, the source also alleges that a former member of the LTTE who had been involved in extra-judicial killings was given "a freehand" to do so by the Sri Lankan military. This figure, known by the Nom de Guerre of Colonel Karuna, and also by the name of Vinayagamoorthi Muralitharan, now holds the position of "Minister for National Integration" in the Sri Lankan government. The Karuna group broke away from the LTTE after an internal dispute in 2004, and shortly afterwards started fighting their former comrades in co-operation with government forces.
A Wikileaks-released US State department memo, dated May 17th 2007, referring to the Karuna group, records what appears to be the opinion of a US diplomat that they helped the army "fight the LTTE, to kidnap suspected LTTE collaborators, and to give the GoSL a measure of deniability." She writes that similar reports had been made by a "number of trusted Embassy contacts, often at personal risk" who "have described in detail the extent of the GoSL’s involvement with paramilitary groups."
Such statements, again, corroborate the allegations made by the source.
In other statements, the source admitted to the existence of "white vans" that were allegedly used for kidnappings during the same period. These vehicles were mentioned by a UN report in April this year as one of the many "credible allegations" made against the Sri Lankan government. The "white vans," according to the source’s testimony, were used by what he describes as "hit squads" of a few elite assassins hand picked by the Defence Secretary. When asked by the lawyer if Mr. Rajapaksa’s "predecessor [had] a hit squad" the source replied "no, it’s a new thing" which began with the present minister’s appointment in 2005.
In another claim, the source alleges that the 12-year-old son of Villai Prabhakaran, the late leader of the Tamil Tigers, was interrogated and killed. The source states: "I got to know at the latter stages that they found out where Prabhakaran is, through his son… And subsequently, I got to know that [the boy] had been killed."
The military source also stated that he was aware of threats or actual killings of journalists who criticised the government, including that of Lasantha Wickremathunge, who predicted his own murder at the hands of the government in an editorial published in the Sunday Leader newspaper in January 2009. Mr. Wickremathunge wrote just before his death that "[w]hen finally I am killed, it will be the government that kills me" adding, in a direct address to the President, "we both know who will be behind my death, but dare not call his name. Not just my life, but yours too, depends on it."
The source believed that a prominent cabinet minister was responsible for the killing, but added that he believed that the President sanctioned it. He told the lawyer: "this type of thing is coming from the top itself…the president…he is ultimately responsible."
If either the Defence Secretary or the President were aware of or ordered any of the alleged acts that the source claims occurred during the war, or for any extra-judicial killings, then they could be subject to prosecution for crimes against humanity under the Geneva Conventions. The Sri Lankan government has consistently denied that any such practices occurred.
What is particularly significant about the allegations made by the source, beside the seniority of the source and the legally-binding nature of his testimony, is that they appear to corroborate many of the most serious claims levelled at the government of Sri Lanka.
The UN, in a report published in April this year, described allegations of extra-judicial killings and the "disappearances [of] numerous persons… perceived by the Government to critical of its approach or sympathetic to the LTTE".
In responding to alleged video footage of extra-judicial killings broadcast by Channel Four last year and also recently, Philip Alston, Special Rapporteur on extra-judicial, summary or arbitrary executions, stated that the documentation appeared to be "authentic." He added that the apparent killings should be investigated "as if they had occurred" and that it was essential to find out if the alleged execution in the film "was part of a widespread pattern."
The claims made by the military figure indicate that this is the case.
The testimony of the source that the order to kill surrendering LTTE fighters are also corroborated by other allegations made by members of the military, as recorded in a Channel Four news report in May this year. In the report, an anonymous soldier stated "Yes, our commander ordered us to kill everyone. We killed everyone", and another was quoted as saying: "Definitely, the order would have been to kill everybody and finish them off…It is clear that such orders were, in fact, received from the top."
In the second statement obtained by The International, a civilian witness also alleges that the Sri Lankan army committed war crimes. This source, who cannot be named for his own safety, has stated that the Sri Lankan army directed “several attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure” including the use of civilians as "human shields." He related that he "specifically [remembers] . . . the hospital bombing of Matalan in March 2009 after being treated in a ward there," and was "present when the UN food distribution point was hit by Government attacks in Sudandarpuram in
January 2009," resulting in the deaths of "a lot of children, pregnant women and mothers." He also said that he "witnessed the bombing of a church in Raddaivaaikaal in March 2009."
The civilian source claims that the most ferocious atrocities occurred near Nandikadal Lagoon, in the north east of Sri Lanka, the location where the body of Villai Prabhakaran (the former leader of the LTTE) was found shot dead.
Describing the area as being "full of people" the source alleges that the "Army was advancing and chasing people in front of them towards the Tamil Tiger (also known as the LTTE) frontlines" and used them “as shields in between them and the LTTE.” He also remarked that: "When the LTTE shelled [the army]…. the Army retaliated by shooting and shelling the people. People were dying in masses."
The source added that civilians with "white flags" were also used as human shields: "people were climbing up …in groups to run with white flags to the Army, but the Army often chased them back to the frontlines… to use them as their buffer." He described the attacks on civilians as "intentional" and "indiscriminate", stating that he estimated that he saw around three thousand dead bodies in the area affected.
The 26-year-long civil war between Sri Lanka’s armed forces and the separatist group known as the "Tamil Tigers" or Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), cost up to 100,000 lives between its beginning in July 1983 and its conclusion in May 2009, according to estimates by the United Nations. At present, there are two major inquiries investigating allegations of war crimes committed by the Sri Lankan government: a United Nations inquiry which is ongoing, and an internal inquiry within Sri Lanka, headed by a "Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Committee" which is made up of a body of eight senior civilian figures, many of whom have served in legal roles for the government prior to and during the Rajapaksa administration. It is headed by Mr Chitta Ranjan De Silva, who was attorney-general of Sri Lanka from 2007 to 2009.
No one has been prosecuted to date.
© The International
Saturday, December 03, 2011
Japan urges Sri Lanka to probe war crimes
Business Spectator | AAP
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Japan said it wanted "genuine reconciliation" in Sri Lanka after troops crushed Tamil Tiger rebels in May 2009 and declared an end to nearly four-decades of ethnic strife that claimed up to 100,000 lives.
Tokyo's special envoy to Sri Lanka, Yasushi Akashi, said there was a "perception of insecurity" despite the end of conflict.
"I emphasised the vital need to improve the human rights situation in this country," Akashi told reporters at the end of a four-day visit to the island for talks with President Mahinda Rajapakse and other leaders.
Akashi said many Sri Lankans still spoke of "disappearances" in Tamil areas, military occupation of private property and heavy presence of soldiers in the island's northeast.
"We have no means to verify if these statements are true but I must say that there is a certain degree of common thread running through these comments," Akashi said.
He said Sri Lanka must do more to address accountability issues, which have also been raised by international rights organisations.
However, Akashi stopped short of calling for an international probe and said Sri Lanka could have its own investigative mechanism.
"I reiterated the importance of national reconciliation in order to achieve a lasting peace," said Akashi, who had been a key figure in raising $US4.5 billion ($A4.50 billion) for peace-building in Sri Lanka in 2003.
He said Japan will await Sri Lanka's publication of its own findings into the final stages of the war.
The report of the government-appointed Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission was handed over to Rajapakse last week and he is expected to present it to parliament next month.
The UN has said that at least 7,000 civilians were killed in the first four months of fighting in 2009, but Sri Lanka has insisted that its troops did not kill a single civilian and has resisted calls for an international probe.
© AAP
Saturday, December 03, 2011
Sheraton group of US to invest on a luxury hotel project in Colombo
News.lk
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Accordingly, as per the proposal made by Mr Basil Rajapakse, Minister of Economic Development, Cabinet decided to lease out this block of land earlier allocated to M/s CATIC of China for a sum of US $ 73.5 million as indicated by the Chief Government Valuer. ITCL is a reputed hotel investment group in India, with investments and hotel in India. The government hopes that its presence in Sri Lanka will be a significant contribution towards promoting FDI and the tourism industry in the country.
The same premises opposite Galle Face green had earlier been given to CATIC/AVIC International Hotels Lanka ltd to undertake a mixed development project. Since they have withdrawn their proposal and the government will reimburse the sum of USD 54.4 million already paid by CATIC for the lease of the land.
The Government has embarked upon a project to convert Colombo as a Middle Income City in terms of the long term development framework of the Government; This includes housing for shanty dwellers presently living within the city; so as to ensure better, living conditions and to provide them opportunities for urban employment and livelihood activities.
This project, a nature of a reputed investment with US D 300 million FDI will be a boost for Sri Lankan tourism industry since it holds franchise of Sheraton Group of USA.
The Board of Investment of Sri Lanka will enter in to a MoU with ITCL enabling them to execute the project under tax concessionary terms with permitted exemptions granted in terms of BOI Act.
© News.lk
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Tamil prisoners on hunger strike
BBC Sinhala
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The prisoners have launched a protest after being assaulted by the prison officials on Sunday, former Jaffna district parliamentarian MK Sivajilingam told BBC Sandeshaya.
Most of the prisoners subjected to assault were disabled during the war, he added.
Mr Sivajilingam said jail guards have also destroyed a Hindu Temple built inside the prison with permission.
Superintendant of Police (SP) Tusita Uduwara has held discussions with the prisoners but the prisoners demand a guarantee of their by higher authorities that such attacks would not occur in the future.
Government response
The authorities have prevented a team of lawyers and representatives of We Are Sri Lankans (WASL) organisation from entering the prison, they said.
WASL's Udul Premaratne has told media that it was the first time the lawyers were prevented from visiting the prison to look into an incident.
Prison Affairs Minister Chandrasiri Gajadheera said the incident has occurred as the authorities conducted a search after receiving information that there were plans to commemorate annual Heroes Day inside the premises.
After the search, said the minister, 19 mobile telephones have been confiscated.
He rejected the accusation that the prisoners were ordered to strip naked and taken out while it was raining for the search.
© BBC Sinhala
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Rebellion, Repression and the Struggle for Justice in Sri Lanka: The Lionel Bopage story
By Professor Sisira Jayasuriya | Groundviews
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In many ways this is a deeply personal and richly detailed memoir, as Lionel looks back over the years and attempts to analyse how and why the party to which he committed himself, and under whose banner thousands of heroic youth fought and died, ended up in as the ardent supporter of a reactionary war against a national minority in alliance with the state machinery and its armed forces – the same armed forces who had butchered its own members and supporters only a few years earlier.
It is at the same time a historical and political analysis reflecting a serious and honest endeavour to objectively understand what happened and to draw the lessons of (often bitter) experience, not a project aimed at self glorification or demonization of his political or ideological opponents. But it is much more than a biographical narrative of a radicalised and idealistic young student, fired by vision of socialist revolution, who organised and led thousands of Sri Lankan youth in an abortive armed uprising against the Sri Lankan government and experienced in full the brutal repressive power of the state. It is, in an important sense, the story of the generation of youth who were drawn into mass struggles throughout the world during the 1960s, from the developing countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America to the advanced countries of Europe, United States and, indeed, Australia too.
For me, a member of that same generation and Lionel’s contemporary as an undergraduate in the same university in Sri Lanka, reading this book was at one level a trip back in memory lane evoking much nostalgia for lost youth and times past. Reading about Lionel’s personal experience of incarceration revived memories of compatriots who were imprisoned, tortured and in several cases, killed by the police and the military. The book was also a reminder that the way to pay homage to the memory of those who, often at enormous personal cost and sometimes paying with their lives, struggled for a better world is to bring their story and the lessons of both successes and failures of those struggles to the attention of the current generation. In that sense, this book could not be more timely. In Sri Lanka itself the book comes at a time when the JVP, already much diminished in power and influence from its heyday, has undergone a deep spilt that has raised again the many unresolved issues concerning its own history and experiences. Internationally, it comes at a moment when a new global economic crisis is radicalising and propelling into struggle an entire new generation of youth on a global scale. All the issues of theory, history and programme that were posed in the 1960s are posed anew, but in a sharper and much more acute form.
The book is very wide in its scope and requires a much longer review to do it full justice. Without in any way questioning Lionel’s integrity I will make a few critical remarks here about some interpretations and the analytical conclusions in the book – some of these hark back to views that I held as a member of a Trotskyist group that was politically opposed to the JVP while defending it against state repression.
In my view the issues raised in Lionel’s story – including the many debates over issues of programme and orientation – need to be placed not only in the Sri Lankan context but in an even wider global context. (I recognise that the book does not entirely ignore the global context.) The radicalisation of youth in Sri Lanka was an integral part of the 1960s’ international upsurge of militant, sometimes revolutionary, struggles which challenged not only ruling classes and regimes but also exposed the conservatism and reactionary nature of the traditional left leaders and posed the need to build new revolutionary leaderships. As it turned out, building new leaderships that could unite the global struggles and lead to victorious socialist revolutions proved to be too much of a political challenge for that generation, however heroic and self sacrificing many of them were. Even the triumphant achievements of various national revolutionary movements, such as in Vietnam, proved ultimately to be transitory. There became the prelude to re-establishment of capitalist rule and the opening up of national economies to foreign capital and deep integration with the global capitalist system as part of so-called ‘national economic development’. By the 1990s, the national socialist projects that replaced the programme of the Third (Communist) International had led not to the building of socialism in one (or even a number of) countries but to the elimination of even the vestiges of socialism in every country. In looking back at the history of the Sri Lankan left and the JVP, I believe that the impact this had on the intellectual orientation of the radical left needs no emphasis.
Intense debates, divisions and splits characterised and influenced the subsequent evolution of the radical youth movements which emerged during the 1960s. This book documents in considerable detail the nature of these debates within the JVP and gives a sense of the flavour of the times. Youth grappled with issues of enormous historical importance that also had immediate practical relevance for revolutionary practice. In my view, it is important to emphasise that these discussions and debates took place in a global intellectual environment dominated by the triumph of national socialist ideology, where each national revolutionary movement was supposed to formulate their own unique path to socialist revolution. Internationalism was emasculated of its original Marxist and Leninist content and reduced to mutual assistance among ‘independent’ national socialist movements.
This is the international environment that shaped the evolution of the political positions of the Communist Party and the ex-Trotskyist Sama Samaja Party towards the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), ultimately leading to the move by both to join the SLFP dominated government and participate in the butchery of thousands of youth in 1971 and later in the racist wars against Tamils. In the book, the degeneration of traditional left leaders like Colvin R de Silva appear to be attributed primarily to their social background and entrenched ‘elite’ attitudes and personal relationships. I believe that this was a secondary factor. The basic factor was the de facto abandonment of an internationalist revolutionary perspective and its replacement with a Sri Lankan national ‘socialist’ programme. During the early 1950s the LSSP quietly dumped its previous programme that had emphasised links with the Indian working class in favour of a political alliance with the Sri Lankan SLFP. It made absolutely no attempt to support the building of a revolutionary movement in India.
It is said in the book that “in coalition with the SLFP they introduced progressive economic measures and often took an anti-imperialist stance on world issues and local affairs’(p. 418). In my view, the characterisation of the SLFP as ‘progressive’ was a fundamental rejection of the Marxist programme and an indication that even the LSSP – which had earlier vehemently attacked the Communist Party over this issue – was rapidly moving towards abandoning its programmatic insistence on the need for the working class to take power in alliance with the peasantry and moving to adapt itself to the SLFP in a parliamentary setting; it was therefore no mystery that the revolutionary ardour that was generated by the Hartal in 1953 led not to a renewal of the LSSP’s revolutionary programme but to an electoral alliance with the SLFP a mere two years after. The LSSP had shifted from revolutionary politics based on the perspective of leading the working class to take power, to using the influence it had over the working class to pressure the SLFP to grant it some concessions. From then on it was a short step to abandoning all parts of its programme, including the opposition to the Sinhala Only as official language, in its desire to remove obstacles to forming a governing coalition with the SLFP.
In my view, this rejection of an international outlook and programme was also the key factor that shaped the debate within the JVP on national rights of the Tamil minority. As Lionel points out the JVP attitude towards national minorities did not at the beginning start from a position of racist chauvinism but in its evolution it led inexorably to a position where the JVP became the most ardent proponent of war against the LTTE and the most consistent support of the Sri Lankan military.
It is my strongly held conviction that in today’s world situation, a nationalist orientation would be even more reactionary and destructive than in the period leading up to the First World War. The 20th century proved to be not only the era of wars and revolutions but also the era of ultimate practical refutation of ‘national socialist’ programmes. The new generation must not get trapped in the same bankrupt and reactionary ideological trap. Recognising specific national peculiarities and circumstances is one thing but giving the national state primacy in terms of political programmes and perspectives is another thing.
I believe that debates over these issues and clarity over political perspectives are essential if a new generation were not to repeat all the mistakes of our own generation. I welcome this book which can be the trigger for the revival of these necessary debates and salute Lionel for maintaining his commitment to social justice and for having the intellectual courage to go over and review his own life of committed struggle. This is not a book that attempts to justify every step of his political life or that of his companions, or to demonise his political opponents on the left, but reflects a genuine attempt to achieve a sober understanding of why so many individuals despite the commitment and personal courage they showed in that early period of struggle and conflict subsequently ended up as contemptible political opportunists and traitors to those ideals and values. This is why, despite my differences of opinion and critical remarks, I wish to reiterate that Lionel and Michael have done an enormous service not only to the new generation of youth in Sri Lanka but throughout the world who are seeking answers to the political challenges that they face in coping with the unfolding global crisis that threatens to dwarf the great Depression of the 1930s by providing a serious – though personal – analysis of the events that shaped the past four decades of history. I look forward to Sinhalese and Tamil translations of the book in the near future.
Sisira Jayasuriya is currently Professor of Macroeconomics in the School of Economics and Finance at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia. He is also Director of the South Asia Research Facility. He was the Director, Asian Economics Centre at the University of Melbourne until his move to La Trobe University in 2008. He has to his credit many books and publications mainly in the field of economics research. His current research is on trade, product fragmentation and multinationals; agricultural reforms in India; food security and poverty issues in Asia and the economics of natural disasters. He was a contemporary of Lionel in his days at the University of Peradeniya.
More info on "Rebellion, Repression and the Struggle for Justice in Sri Lanka"
© Groundviews
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Sri Lanka storm kills 19, damages 5,700 homes
Agence France-Press (AFP)
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More than 53,000 people were also forced out of their damaged homes in the southern areas of the country following two days of heavy winds and rain, the centre said in a statement.
It said 41 people who escaped with injuries were admitted to hospitals while the authorities were looking for any survivors among fishermen who were reported missing. About 5,700 houses were also damaged.
Sri Lanka depends on monsoon rains for irrigation and power generation, but the seasonal downpours frequently cause death and property damage.
© AFP
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Freedom of Expression on the Internet in Sri Lanka
Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA)
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In line with the need to emphasise a rights-based framework when addressing online freedom of expression, the report examines the specific cases and practices that restrict freedom of expression on the Internet with respect to regulation, legislation and arbitrary action. In consideration of international freedom of expression standards, CPA’s report examines the government’s compliance with the broader international best practices and recommendations detailed in the report of the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, Frank La Rue, which was submitted at the Seventeenth session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC).
The report looks specifically at the arbitrary blocking and filtering of web content; criminalisation of legitimate expression; the status of intermediary liability and actions of intermediaries; the potential for disconnecting users from Internet access, including on the basis of intellectual property law due to the broad nature of intellectual property legislation. The report also examines the potential threat that cyber-attacks may present to online freedom of expression, as well as the growing concern over and implications of the lack of substantive legislation for the protection of individual privacy and data. The final consideration of this report is with regard to Internet access and the acknowledgement of government policies with respect to providing adequate infrastructure for increasing Internet penetration in the country.
While the reform of existing legislation and regulatory practices is required in order to address the clear concerns about online freedom of expression, the report proposes national and international advocacy to ensure that the government addresses the issue of reform and adheres to international standards on the freedom of expression. There is also a need for a multi-stakeholder initiative so that the perspectives of users, intermediaries and other resource persons are incorporated into the design of legislation and formulation regulatory standards, thereby ensuring wide deliberation and participation to achieve the ultimate goal of strengthening freedom of expression on the Internet in Sri Lanka.
© CPA
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
The Sri Lankan editor trapped in his office for the last five years
By Andrew Buncombe | The Independent
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Since then, two police officers have been assigned to permanent duty outside the building and Mr Kaanamylnathan and his wife have left their three-bedroom home in the city and moved into a small space next to the newsroom. "I don't go out. The only exception is to go and see my doctor, a heart-specialist, once every three months," Mr Kaanamylnathan said. "For that, I have to make to make special arrangements.
The plight of Mr Kaanamylnathan and his newspaper Uthayan, (Rising Sun in Tamil), where six members of staff have been killed in the past decade and many others attacked, threatened and harassed in incidents that continue today, is a frightening window into the world of journalism in Sri Lanka.
Campaigners say reporters and media employees here are among some of the most vulnerable in the world; at least 14 have been killed in recent years and many more forced into exile. Several others are missing and unaccounted for. Among the most high-profile of cases was that of Lasantha Wickramatunga, editor of the often-critical Sunday Leader, who was murdered in January 2009. Nobody has yet been charged with the killing.
The troubles at Uthayan, established in 1986 to appeal to working-class Tamils, did not end after police were deputed to guard the premises. A driver was killed several months later and a talented young reporter – recruited because senior correspondents declined to come to the office anymore – was shot dead the following year on his way to work. Most recently, the paper's news editor, Gnanasundaram Kuganathan, was severely beaten by two men armed with iron bars as he left the office in July.
He has since left Sri Lanka and is staying in Europe. It is unclear when he will return. "It's a miracle that I survived. I was beaten almost to death," he said after the attack.
Mr Kaanamylnathan's newspaper is owned by a Tamil member of parliament. While it insists its news coverage is unbiased, he does not hide the fact that the publication supports the cause of Tamil nationalism. Yet over the years, the newspaper has faced threats from the Sri Lankan military, Tamil militants and unidentified thugs allegedly linked to pro-government paramilitaries.
Between 1990 and 1995, the city of Jaffna, located at the very tip of Sri Lanka, was controlled by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), whose decades-long insurgency for a Tamil homeland was crushed in 2009.
"We have a relationship with all parties, even the military. We carry all the stories and all the statements," said Mr Kaanamylnathan, whose wife pays a weekly visit to the couple's house to make sure all is well. "The government is saying there is no problem, but the opposite is the case."
Campaigners say President Mahinda Rajapaksa has failed to act to protect journalists and in many cases is responsible for a crackdown on dissent. Several journalists have disappeared without trace, among them Prageeth Eknaligoda, a political analyst and cartoonist from Jaffna, who was kidnapped in Colombo in January 2010, just two days before the presidential election. He worked for the LankaeNews website.
The journalist's wife, Sandya, said there had been no news about her husband and no apparent progress with the case. The police claimed they were still investigating but did not appear to be very interested, she said. She has written to everyone from the President to the country's human rights commission but, she said,no one had offered help.
"I have two children and both of them know that their father is missing. But we [are trying] our best to find him," said Mrs Eknaligoda. "We know he is alive somewhere. I urge the government to find him. We are suffering because now we don't have any income."
More recently, the news editor of The Sunday Leader, Frederica Janz, was threatened after giving evidence in the court case of former army chief Sarath Fonseka, who was last week jailed for three years after being convicted of accusing the President's brother of committing war crimes during the final stages of the war to defeat the LTTE. "We will not spare you," said a handwritten note sent to her home in the capital.
Campaigners say that since his re-election Mr Rajapaksa appears to be tightening his grip on dissent. In recent weeks, the government has blocked access to websites, including that of the main opposition party, the UNP. A statement issued at the time by the Ministry of Mass Media and Information said a survey it carried out had revealed that certain websites were in violation of laws designed to protect against defamation and character assassination.
"We saw no 'peace dividend' after the end of the war, and what we've seen since is a crackdown on media that seems aimed at consolidating political power in the President's office and his circle of advisers," said Bob Dietz, Asia programme director at the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). "The situation looks quite bleak."
The moves by the government to try to control online media, a recently new development, were addressed in a report by the Centre for Policy Alternatives, an NGO based in Colombo. "The censorious attitudes towards media freedom and the freedom of expression more generally are increasingly evident in the online sphere," it said.
"The insidious attempts to regulate online content; block websites; the attacks on journalists...and repeated statements from government officials threatening those who provide alternative and dissenting views do not bode well for the future of online freedom of expression in the country."
The minister for mass media and information, Dr Keheliya Rambukwella, could not be reached for comment, but the government has always adamantly denied any involvement in attacks on journalists. Among the goals of its national media policy is to "safeguard the right of all citizens to express their views via any and all media and to receive, provide and gather information required for the proper functioning of society".
After the attack on his office in 2006, Mr Kaanamylnathan took a decision not to repair either the bullet holes in the yellow walls nor the plastic-topped table, around which the senior journalists gather every afternoon do decide what stories will appear on the following day's front page. He said: "We have kept it like this because if we did not, people would not believe us."
Ongoing conflict
A government-appointed body set-up to look into the civil war has reportedly concluded no state should be asked to "suspend military operations aimed at rescuing civilians forcibly held by a heavily armed terrorist group".
The Island newspaper, known to be close to the government, said the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) had noted that while humanitarian law prohibits the targeting of civilians, it permits com-bat operations to rescue "hostages". The report is not yet public.
A UN panel concluded there were "credible allegations" both government troops and the LTTE committed war crimes. It said tens of thousands of civilians may have died and called for an independent inquiry. The government dismissed the claims and established the LLRC.
© The Independent
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