A man trampled to death at Sri Lanka President's ancestral home

(October 03, Colombo - Lanka Polity) An 85-year old Sri Lankan man was trampled to death recently by the crowds that thronged to grab free food served by President Mahinda Rajapakse at his ancestral home in deep south Hambanthota district, reported the latest edition of Sinhala weekend newspaper 'Lanka.' 

G. Arnolis that lived 12, Akuressa, Amboda was trampled on September at Medamulana Walawwa, the ancestral mansion of Rajapakses that rule Sri Lanka today, said the newspaper although the incident was not news for other media.

Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapakse is in a practice of having large meetings of voters of the Provinces where elections are held, at the Prime Minister's official residence Temple Trees in which he resides now. Free food is served from the President's budget for these crowds after the meetings. Occasionally, such meetings are held in Kandy Presidential Palace and some other places as well during election campaigns.

Southern Provincial Council of his home province is having elections on October 10 and a massive gathering place was prepared in a reclaimed paddy field close to Medamulana Walawwa for meetings and to serve free food to voters.

All these actions are against the election law of the state but no Sri Lankan is worried about laws furthermore now.

Tamil speaking communities including Muslims uniting in Sri Lanka for minority rights

(October 02, Colombo - Lanka Polity) In an unprecedented move in the recent past of Sri Lanka, the Tamil and Muslim minority communities have initiated a new effort to unite as a Tamil speaking polity. Sri Lankan Tamils, Indian Tamils and Muslims use Tamil as their common language. However, in recent times, the dominant forces of the Tamil liberation struggle ignored the cultural subtleties in relations with Muslims compelling them to suffer and to alienate from their lingual umbilicus. Although Tamil liberation struggle united the diverse Tamil speaking regional communities like Jaffna, Mannar, Vanni and Batticaloa, it failed to integrate the Indian origin Upcountry and Colombo Tamils.

After the military debacle of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE), the Tamil and Muslim political elements in the main stream have initiated a new dialogue with a view to form a common front to fight for minority rights amidst growing Sinhala Buddhist chauvinism in state and the polity of Sri Lanka. 

V.Anandasangaree, the leader, of Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), Mano Ganesan, M.P.
and leader of Colombo based Democratic People's Front (DPF), Rauff Hakeem, M.P. and leader of Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), Dr. K. Vigneswaran, the leader of All Island Tamil United Front (AITUF) and R. Sampanthan, M.P and leader of Tamil National Alliance (TNA) that are in the dialogue have been able to issue a joint statement, a progressive move in minority politics in post-LTTE Sri Lanka.

They call for an immediate end to the intolerable conditions faced by the minority communities, in particular Tamils in present Sri Lanka and end to military administration and restrictions placed on civilians urging the restoration of full civilian administration to facilitate return to economic and social normality.

Appealing the IDPs be released immediately to return to their homes and permitted to resume without hindrance their traditional livelihood activities, the statement also urges that immediate arrangements be made to allow the Muslim people who were evicted from the North and have suffered acute hardships for nearly two decades to return to their homes and to resume their economic and social activities without hindrance.

Full statement is as follows:

The Tamil speaking peoples of Sri Lanka have suffered great hardships for many decades since Independence. They have faced discrimination and had to suffer ethnic riots, pogroms and ethnic cleansing; in the pogrom in 1983 sections of the state were involved. In the last thirty four years Sri Lanka was consumed by an ethnic civil war in which the Tamil and Muslim people and others in the North and East and elsewhere were victims. The Tamils in particular bore the brunt of the suffering. During the last stages of the war the people of the Vanni suffered traumatic pain which, despite the conclusive end of the war, has still not abated. While we are deeply concerned about the human rights violations everywhere in our island such as death threats, the killing of civilians, and the disappearance of journalists and others, we feel the need to prioritise in this communiqué such collective and unbearable pain of large numbers of our population as compels immediate intervention.

We the undersigned affirm the following and call for an immediate end to these intolerable conditions, and in particular:

•We state that the forcible detention of hundreds of thousands of Tamil citizens of Sri Lanka in camps for Internally Displaced Persons is illegal, without basis in the Constitution and in gross violation of international human rights norms.

•These people should be released immediately to return to their homes and permitted to resume without hindrance their traditional livelihood activities such as farming and fishing, or to take up residence with friends and relatives, or to exercise their lawful right to abode elsewhere at their discretion. Those likely to face criminal charges should be produced in a court of law without further delay.

•We strongly urge that the camps, for so long as they exist, should be open to relatives, religious functionaries, parliamentarians, provincial councilors, civil society, UN agencies, journalists, and national and international aid and humanitarian organisations.

•We urge that immediate arrangements be made to allow the Muslim people who were evicted from the North and have suffered acute hardships for nearly two decades to return to their homes and to resume their economic and social activities without hindrance.

•Similar arrangements must be made to re-settle in their original homes all those in the East, who remain displaced and continue to suffer greatly.

•The restrictions on movement in and out of the Northern Province and some locations in the East should be lifted and the need for permits to enter or leave should be rescinded forthwith. In particular, any form of quarantine of the Northern Province is a violation of basic rights and should be lifted.

•The curfew and other restrictions on normality in many parts of the Northern Province and elsewhere are unjustified and we demand that normality be returned without delay. People in certain parts of the country live in fear, avoid even essential travel, and are inhibited in employment related and social activities.

•We call for an end to military administration and restrictions placed on civilians, and we urge the restoration of full civilian administration to facilitate return to economic and social normality.

Sri Lanka's anti-US drive; coalition parties demonstrate before embassy as officials mock Clinton

(October 02, Colombo - Lanka Polity) Sri Lanka government that is rapidly alienating from West to build up close ties with China under President Mahinda Rajapakse, has initiated a new wave of anti-US rhetoric as elections are weeks ahead in President's home province.

The Sinhala Buddhist religion-nationalist National Heritage Party alias Jathika Hela Urumaya staged a radical demonstration before the US embassy in Colombo yesterday. Almost all the leaders of the party sans its political adviser and de facto ideological guru of the regime Patali Champika Ranawaka were present in the agitation.

U.S. officials called for a possible war crimes investigation for the last leg of the government's military operation to crush the decades long fight of the minority Tamils for an independent state in the northern and eastern parts of the island. 

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, addressing the UN Security Council, Wednesday, noted that rape has been used as a weapon of war in the Balkans, Burma, Sri Lanka and elsewhere and that in too many countries and in too many cases, the perpetrators of this violence are not punished, and so this impunity encourages further attacks.

Secretary to the Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights Rajiva Wijesinha speaking to Sri Lankan television Derana regarding Hillary Clinton's comment that rape was used as a tactic of war in Sri Lankasaid, "To my knowledge, this is not true and I have not come across such an allegation."

Wijesinha mocked Clinton stating that she "tends to make generalized statements, it is clear as she did the same during her campaign for Presidency against Barack Obama and we should take a leaf out of Obama's book and forgive her for this statement".

Elections Commissioner of Sri Lanka totally blind to election law violations in President's home province

(October 02, Colombo - Lanka Polity) Keerthi Tennekoon, Media spokesman of Sri Lanka election monitoring mission Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE) stated that, because the Elections Commissioner is taking no action against election law violations at the forthcoming Southern Provincial Council elections scheduled to be held on October 10, some of the candidates are openly and brazenly committing breach of election laws. "As such this election will go down in election history as one where election malpractices were openly allowed to be committed," he says.

"At other elections, the elections Commissioner who holds discussions with the party secretaries weekly has had no discussions this time," says CaFFE pointing out that the Commissioner has not even replied to the letter addressed to him by CaFFE in this regard. The Elections Commissioner has descended to such a level, CaFFE pinpointed.

The Elections Commissioner gave orders to remove the elections advertisements on either sides of his Office only after the media exposed these illegal acts. If the Elections Commissioner had any interest in halting these election malpractices, he has all the power to take action, Thennakoon asserted.

Railway to Jaffna and antics of a Sri Lankan Minister

(October 01, Colombo - Lanka Polity) "Tune in to any local TV channel this evening at 8.05 PM and watch as Sri Lanka makes history. A message from the Government of Sri Lanka." This was a message distributed by mobile phone companies via SMS alerts on 30 September and people were enthusiastic to see how Sri Lanka makes history on that time.

However, almost all the TV channels telecast an advertisement stating that a fund had been launched to raise funds from people to rebuild the northern railway line to Jaffna and to repair 27 railway stations.

Northern railway line dilapidated due to decades old war and needs complete reconstruction to ply the famous 'Yal Devi' train to Jaffna beyond Thandikulam where the journey ends now.

The 'creative' concept of mocking the phrase 'Sri Lanka makes history' belongs to the Minister of Transport Dallus Alahapperuma, one time journalist of a radical tabloid, and Triad, the non-official state advertising agent that is owned by the daughter and son-in-law of Dr. Sarath Amunugama, Cabinet Minister of Public Administration and Home Affairs and Deputy Minister of Finance and Planning.

Unfortunately, the President Mahinda Rajapakse has got angry over the misuse of the image of state in this publicity campaign and rapped the 'creative' Minister Alahapperuma, media reported. Anura Priyadarshana Yapa, Minister of Information and Media and Cabinet Spokesman, holder of an envied position, disowned the responsibility of the concept and asked the journalists that queried about it to contact those who conveyed the controversial message.

Meanwhile, in the advertisement, several compartments of the train is dis-coupled and the people belonged to all three communities push the parts difficultly to re-couple them. Some say that there is a hidden satire in the advertisement since it was not necessary the passengers to push train parts so difficultly and the engine driver could have reversed the train with the help of the guard to re-couple the dislodged compartments in the way it is normally done. Does the Minister convey the message that people need to fund this project since the pilots of the nation do not pay attention?

In fact the government levies heavy taxes from the countrymen from rice to petrol and from needle to motor vehicle. The state obtain massive loans locally and internationally to run the economy and for development projects and it is not necessary to burden the public further to pay off their hard earned money to build a railway line. At the moment, the government is developing the road network and other infrastructure in the Northern Province areas recently captured from the Tamil Tiger rebels with assistance from the states like China and India.

(Photo: dilapidated Jaffna railway station)

How do people 'escape' from the refugee camps in Sri Lanka unless they are internment camps?

(September 30, Colombo - Lanka Polity) Wording in some of the statements of the state officials reveal the true nature of the status of the refugee camps in Northern Province of Sri Lanka where around 300,000 internally displaced, mostly Tamil civilians are held.
Sri Lanka's Sinhala nationalist English daily 'The Island' today published this report:

At least 20,000 of the nearly 300,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the Vavuniya camps had escaped, SSP for Kandy Ranjith Kasturiratna said at the Kandy District coordinating committee meeting, chaired by Central Province Chief Minister Sarath Ekanayake, on Monday.
 

SSP Kasturiratne said special police teams from Kandy had been dispatched to the IDP camps in the North to conduct investigations.

Police investigations had revealed that about 20,000 had escaped from the camps. They were believed to be LTTE cadres.

Marxist nationalist People's Liberation Front (JVP) MP Vijitha Herath pointed out today at a press conference held in Colombo that these places are not detention camps for people to 'escape'.

However, it is  well known fact that the mobility of the inmates of these camps are thoroughly restricted. Government under pressure from the international community to release these refugees, only recently decided to allow selected refugees to stay with the relatives that live outside. However, media reported that there were many flaws in application process. Human trafficking is also taking place in large scale. Many youths that were suspected of associating the Tamil rebels were abducted and they had simply disappeared.

"Government told a blatant lie to the world stating that it had resettled 6000 refugees of the Menikfarm in their villages although they had been re located at Kaithady and Mirisuvil in Jaffna, said JVP parliamentarian Vijitha Herath. About 40,000 of the Jaffna residents are still in the refugee camps, he said adding that around 2000 have been settled on the borders of Ampara, Batticaloa and Trincomalee districts.

 

Land Sri Lankans fought for homelands is now in foreigners' hands

(September 29, Colombo - Lanka Polity) Majority Sinhalese and the minority Tamils fought almost three decades for land in Sri Lanka where the land is being acquired by foreign businessmen following the end of the civil war with total annihilation of Tamil rebel forces. This land acquisition both in land of the 'Sinhalese Lions' ain the southern parts of the island as well as the Tamil homeland in northern and eastern areas previously the de facto state of the defeated Tamil Tiger rebels existed.

Sri Lanka has a span of 6.5 million hectares and 80% it belong to government, that restricts foreigners from buying land. But the state cannot block the 20% private land be sold to foreigners despite the government levies a tax of 100%. In most cases the selling price is undervalued in deeds and the state loses much of the tax revenue while the local land owners, most of them ardent patriots supporting the present system, do not disclose the real amounts they gained through deals with foreigners.

Much of the private land in ancient Dutch Fort in Sinhala dominated Southern Province is now sold to foreigners, said a resident of the picturesque location adjacent to Galle harbor. Altogether, 10,000 acres of land island wide has been purchased by foreigners so far, says the Minister of Land and Land Development Jeevan Kumarathunga.

Meanwhile, the government is also looking for investors for state land. "Delegates from the Sri Lanka board of investment met with executives from Omaxe in New Delhi and others seeking investments and have liberal rules governing businesses," reported The Economic Times of The Indian Times.

It further said:

“With the civil war over, we are seeing a huge demand for housing,” said Puravankara group MD Ravi Puravankara. The group is planning to launch a villa project in Colombo. “We have already initiated the land acquisition process,” he added. It is aimed at the Sri Lankan diaspora who may return to enjoy the long-desired peace. But, it will cost them around $2 lakh each.

L&T has already laid the foundation stone for its commercial park in Colombo and is all set to invest around $150 million for its residential and commercial projects in country with a population of around 20 million, about a fifth of Maharashtra.

The commercial complex, a 51 storey building in Colombo city with 15 lakh square feet, will be called the Diamond Tower. “We plan to make this the tallest building in Sri Lanka,” said C Ignatius, director of the Sri Lanka board of investment. Larsen declined to comment for the story. 

The Sri Lankan government is doing its best to attract overseas investors, especially from India, and has made the foreign direct investment rules simple. For an Indian real estate company to build complexes, all it needs to invest is Rs 2 crore. Also, there is no lock-in period for the investors. They can cash out and repatriate the money to India anytime they want.

“We have carried out an extensive research in Sri Lanka and our research shows that the country has huge potential for the developers,” Omaxe chairman and MD Rohtas Goel told ET. But, the company is yet to finalise its plans.

Sri Lanka, with many plantations, beaches and a colonial past, could draw global hospitality and manufacturing companies. “Many multinationals could also enter the country which would again increase the demand for commercial and office space,” said Cushman & Wakefield executive director Kaustuv Roy.

Government has demarcated an entire residential area in Sampur that was liberated from the Tamil Tigers a high security zone and thousands of residents of the villages still languish in refugee camps despite the government 'freed' them from the hold of the Tigers. Sampur is a Tamil residential area located close to Trincomalee natural harbor in the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka.

Emptied Sampur is given to India's National Thermal Power Corporation to build a 1000 MW coal power plant.

Government of Sri Lanka encourages local and foreign investors to invest in state land in the fields of agriculture, industry and tourism etc. It is targeting an FDI of $2 billion by 2010. According to government statistics, Sri Lanka received $889 million in FDI in 2008 and $400 million, so far, this year. The Board of Investment declined to comment on how much it expects the Indian real estate developers to invest.