Sri Lanka Bribery or Corruption Commission probes complaints against former Chief Justice

(October 28, Colombo - Lanka Polity) Sri Lanka Bribery or Corruption Commission has commenced an investigation regarding the complaints against the former Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva.

The former Chief Justice is accused of soliciting bribery in relation to a case in which he ordered the sale of communication equipment of CBN Sat satellite television. The accused of the case has later made a huge donation to a company to the Buddhist Channel, a Buddhist propaganda television in which the former Chief Justice is a director. It is also accused of of not mentioning his position accurately as he filed application for the registration of the company.

The Acting Investigation Director of the Sri Lanka Bribery or Corruption Commission Sarath Somaweera Lokuge had declined to comment regarding the investigation, reported 'Lakbima' Sinhala newspaper.

Three persons sentenced to death in one day in Sri Lanka

(October 28, Colombo - Lanka Polity)A Sri Lankan judge yesterday sentenced three persons to death in three separate murder cases. The verdicts were delivered by High Court judge Menaka Wijesundara in Anuradhapura High Court, situated in the North Central Province, which is a rural farming area bordering to the former war zone.

Two of the convicted are ex-soldiers. Of them, one was found guilty for gunning down five persons including two Muslim women with an automatic rifle issued to him by the government.

These persons are to be hanged on a date fixed by the President. However, the death penalty is not enacted by the President of Sri Lanka. Over 250 condemned persons are in the death row in prisons with an uncertain future while the Buddhist clergy and politicians are urging the government to enact death penalty to curb the spate of violence in the country.

Justice and Law Reforms Minister Milinda Moragoda recently said he would discuss the possibility of implementing the death penalty with President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

On the same day the three death sentences were delivered, a woman was arrested in connection with brutally hacking to death her 27-year old daughter-in-law with five-month pregnancy in the Central Province Mathale district..

Are Sri Lankan Tamil politicians continuing the same folly?

(October 26, Colombo - Lanka Polity) Sri Lanka's Tamil speaking political parties Tamil National Alliance (TNA), Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), Democratic People's Liberation Front (DPLF), Ealam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) - Naba Wing, Democratic Peoples Front and the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) are to meet today to work out a common programme to form an alliance to pressure the government for a political solution for the minority communities.

The alliance is still in its infant age. However, the minority alliance seems to miss the Upcountry Tamils mostly looked down on upon by the elite Tamils due to their Indian origin and the low economic situation. Petit objectives of the minority leaders as well as the personality clashes must not interfere in this alliance formation since the broadest the alliance it is the most strong before the increasingly dominating Sinhala rulers..

On the other hand, the minorities need to open their eyes to see beyond their own nationalist narrow scopes to see how many Sinhalese have fought for the rights of the minority communities in this land. In the recent past, almost all Tamils were in the hands of either the LTTE or the Sri Lanka Government that waged war either for a Tamil Ealam or a Sinhala chauvinist Sri Lanka. The only alternate views were with the leftists and the social activists of Sri Lanka that were firm on their anti-war stand and on the basis of respecting the minority rights. The majority of the left is ethnically Sinhala although it is not worth mentioning for the leftists who prefer to consider them as internationalists.

Sinhala polity is not one single unit of ethnic chauvinists. The voice of the ethno-socialists were suppressed by the government in a brutality matched with that released against the Tamil bationalists. However, still these anti-war activists are active in Sri Lanka. For instance, who are campaigning for the release of Tamil journalist J.N. Tissainayagam who was sentenced for 20 years rigorous imprisonment for abetting terrorism, as he was charged by the state. Many of the brilliant leftist thinkers and social activists underwent severe difficulties in their struggle for peace among national polities stubbornly unyielding to the current of Sinhala ethnic supremacy in the state.

Sri Lanka's oppressed minority polities cannot win their rights through sheer minority nationalism. The effort for uniting the Tamil speaking Muslims into the Tamil speaking polity is a very positive move especially in the aftermath of the LTTE's arrogant anti-Muslim policies. In the context of the long term defeat of militant Tamil Ealamism, the best option the minorities can select is fighting for a Lankan nation that integrates the Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim polities in an honorable state framework together with other minorities. A slogan of building a Lankan socialist state can unite oppressed nationalities as well as the oppressed classes and sexes etc. .

Are the 'unidentified gunmen' in Sri Lanka planning the first ever killing of female journalist

(October 26, Colombo - Lanka Polity) Suspicions are mounting if Sri Lanka's 'unknown assailants' are ahead of killing the first woman journalist in the killing and intimidation spree of journalists.


The editors at The Sunday Leader say they are under threat. Last Thursday, October 22, Frederica Jansz, Editor-in-Chief of this newspaper and Munza Mushtaq, News Editor were both sent two hand written death threats by post. The two letters are identical — written in red ink and appear to have been posted on October 21.

Similar letters were received by late Editor-in-Chief of the The Sunday Leader who was shot by unidentified gunmen on motorcycles as he drove to work in the city suburbs on January 08, 2009.

On 28 September, a gang of unidentified people threatened her and tried to forcefully gain access to the property of female Journalist and media rights activist, Dileesha Abeysundera, who writes to the Sinhala language sister newspaper of The Sunday Leader. In June, Krishni Ifam, a Tamil reporter who works for media development NGO Internews was kidnapped from outside her home in the capital Colombo and held for a day by people claiming to be the police.

Sri Lanka is among the bottom 20 countries in the World Press Freedom Index. Sri Lanka jailed a Tamil journalist for 20 years under the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act in September. 

At least one Tamil of Sri Lanka has backbone

(October 26, Colombo - Lanka Polity) As most of the former Tamil heroes in the mainstream have gone to oblivion with the ultimate perish of ‘boys’ they themselves spoiled with too many praises, at least one Lankan Tamil has showed his strength of the backbone in a time most of the other leaders are looking for honorable surrender to the system they once identified as apartheid and going after the Tamil Nadu leaders that back the regime created their plight.

Renowned Lankan Tamil scholar Karthigesu Sivathamby, 77, emeritus professor in Jaffna university and secretary general of the International Association of Tamil Research (IATR), chosen to head the main research session in the Tamil Nadu government's World Classical Tamil Conference due to be held in June 2010, has expressed reservations about participating in the meet, as he feels the Tamils in the island nation are not satisfied with Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi's response to the plight of their community.

Sivathamby has written to the Thanjavur Tamil University vice chancellor M Rajendran, who is coordinator for the international event, that Tamils in his country felt that "the chief minister has not responded well enough to the Sri Lankan Tamil crisis, and that Tamils expect a favourable response from him", reported The Times of India. "I have told him that I'm in total agreement with this position. I wanted Prof Rajendran to convey this to the CM so that he can come up with a swift and suitable response," Sivathamby said, but did not elaborate on what sort of response he expected from Karunanidhi, said the The Times of India.

Karunanidhi had named Sivathamby as the head of the committee that would select papers for the main seminar, the centrepiece of the conference.

Sri Lanka President's tour in Vietnam utilized for anti-US propaganda

(October 20, Colombo - Lanka Polity) This photo published by Sri Lanka's state print media propaganda organ Sunday Observer is clear evidence that the President Mahinda Rajaakse's official tour to Vietnam is aimed at propagating his defying policy towards Western super powers that are questioning the human rights conduct of the country under him.

The caption went as "President Mahinda Rajapaksa observing the photographs of Western war crimes displayed at the Museum of War Remnants in Vietnam during an official visit to the country,"

A 68 page report prepared by the War Crimes office in the State Department and presented to Congress on Thursday lists 170 incidents in Sri Lanka between May 2 and 18. It is based mostly on internal reports to Washington from the US Embassy in Colombo, satellite imagery, international relief organizations and media outlets.The report alleges that thousands of Tamil civilians were gunned down by Tiger guerrillas seeking to use them as human shields or killed in what it calls “indiscriminate government shelling.” Stephen Rapp, the US Ambassador at large for war crimes issues has said that the Government of Sri Lanka should investigate the allegations.

Foreign Ministry Sri Lanka in a quick response said on Thursday that the report “appears to be unsubstantiated and devoid of corroborative evidence.” It accused vested interests of endeavouring to bring the Government of Sri Lanka into disrepute, through “fabricated allegations and concocted stories.”

Western super powers become tough on Sri Lanka

(October 21, Colombo - Lanka Polity) Two Western Super powers have strongly asked Sri Lankahuman rights violations during the last phase of the offensive against the Tami rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elama (LTTE) that the state forces totally annihilated in May 2009 eliminating almost entire leadership. There is wide spread allegations regarding the violations of internatinal human rights covenanats both by state and rebel forces. However, the governemnt of Sri Lanka led by President Mahinda Rajapakse is vehemently against any kind of investigation against its toops despite the region's oldest democracy is losing its reputation and the island is being isolated by its traditional Western alies. to account for the alleged

"Accountability is an essential component of national reconciliation.  The United States looks to the Government of Sri Lanka to identify an appropriate and credible mechanism and initiate a process for accountability," US embassy of Sri Lanka said in a statement issued on October 22 in relation to a report detailing incidents that allegedly occurred during the final months of the conflict between the Government of Sri Lanka and the Tamil rebel iberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam that might constitute violations of international humanitarian law or crimes against humanity and related harms. The United States Department of State delivered the report to Congressional Appropriations Committee staff yesterday. 

The Department of State has prepared the report pursuant to a Congressional request and also provided a copy to the Sri Lankan Embassy. The report compiles alleged incidents, as reported by a wide range of primary and secondary sources, involving both sides in the conflict.  It does not reach any legal or factual conclusions, says the US embassy adding that information concerning the majority of incidents cited in this report has originated in first-hand accounts communicated by persons from within the government-declared No Fire Zones and locations close to the fighting.  

The United States says it "recognizes a state’s inherent right to defend itself from armed attacks, including those by non-state actors, such as a terrorist group like the LTTE.  The United States also expects states and non-state actors to comply with their international legal obligations, including the obligation to protect civilians in armed conflict."

Earlier the UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband and Douglas Alexander, the Secretary of State for the Department for International Development, have urged Sri Lankan authorities to fulfill their human rights obligations in response to the findings of a recent EU report on the issue. They said:

'The European Commission’s report on Sri Lanka’s implementation of international human rights conventions raised serious concerns, which we shared."

The report highlighted failings in Sri Lanka’s implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The report is a precursor to the Commission’s recommendation to EU Member States on whether Sri Lanka should continue to benefit from the GSP+ trade preference scheme. "We are clear that to do so Sri Lanka must respect its international human rights obligations under GSP+.We strongly urge the Government of Sri Lanka to take immediate action to address the issues outlined in this report," said the UK officials.