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By Shenali Waduge

While political parties may take pains to prepare competitive election manifestos, does the contents of each manifesto steer the voter to vote? I don’t think so.

In a voting system that usually rotates governance between the two major political parties in Sri Lanka, it leaves little or no choice to the voter, but to choose the lesser evil or not cast their vote at all. This has been the practice over the years at every election held and has eventually led the voter to vote based not only any policy but purely based on one’s own personal agenda.

For the less literate in Sri Lanka it is the usual the goody bag of promises that steer them to cast their vote. For those that couldn’t care less who wins or loses, it is usually the bottle of arrack and a lunch packet that will make them cast their vote. These are the very people who help the political party secure the much needed votes, to come into power.

However, the most regrettable fact is how most middleclass and rich also become party to the farce of voting, by the manner in which they blindly vote, purely for the parampara allegiance to a particular political party, the tragedy of it being that whatever wrong, the party does they would still cast their vote for the party and its candidates. An excellent example was the comedy of errors during the Colombo Municipality elections, when the people voted for the present Mayor of Colombo, thinking they were actually helping to bring members of their favourite color to power.

That really leaves less than perhaps 5% voters who actually vote by studying the policies of the party vying for power. Not that any political party would think this small percentage is significant when it comes to votes! Thus when it is an easy exercise to obtain majority of votes by bribing them with a bottle of arrack, a lunch packet and the assurance that ones “party devotees” will always vote, why would any political party feed the need to worry about a small minority, like the 5%, who are bothered about the real future of the country?

Set against this backdrop of the current voting system, with the political forces circulating power between them, leaves little or no hope for the country. The very parties that hold governance are ironically given the mandate by the people, to iron out policies for the Nation and it is within this farce that the country has journeyed throughout post-Independence.

Yet, in a democratic nation if the power lies with the people who elect a party to power, then surely the public should also be given the mandate to question the policies and actions taken by the Government they have brought to power. The public should not have to agonize for six years to bring another evil force into power for the vicious circle to continue unabated.

It is time to wake up to the fact that the merry men in Parliament will never bring forth any solution to any of the ills that prevails in the country, if it is likely to be disadvantageous to any of them. Whether they are in the ruling or in the opposition this is the only common element they all share. Each time any party brings forth recommendations or proposals they keep dragging the issue, finally taking the entire nation for a ride. It is time that the citizens become more accountable to not only themselves but also to the Nation and demand that they be given the fundamental right to hold the Government in power and all other Members associated with the Government directly responsible to the highest court in Sri Lanka, for breaking the mandate given to them. It would also be opportune too to finally take the bold steps of demanding that all political party manifestos be legally binding, so that the public will have the right to take to task any Member of Parliament, for breaking them.

Government should now accept UN human rights monitoring mission here as International community has helped Sri Lanka by positioning it at the UN rights council

International community has helped Sri Lanka by electing Ambassador Dayan Jayatilake as one of the four Vice Presidents in the UN Human Rights Council. This is a great opportunity to the government to put its acts together on the all important human rights issue.

We call upon the government to start the act with agreeing to the proposal of UN human rights monitoring mission in Sri Lanka, says Civil Monitoring Commission convener and Western Peoples Front Leader Mano Ganesan MP in statement released today.

Ganesan said further in the statement:

“Vice presidency is not a credit but a responsibility. There should be no mistake about it. This responsibility comes with fair investigations on all what have happened and efficient preventive measures. The culture of impunity should go for good. But the reality now is terrible. Even while Sri Lanka is positioned in the UN rights council a Tamil lady officer at the Colombo UN office has run out of the country due to the extortion threats.

And ICJ says in its charge that bullet used in the ACF killing may have been removed. There are many more similar serious charges and occurrences are recorded. If this situation is going to continue, the Tamil people will be compelled to hold not only the government but also those who elected and supported Sri Lanka in the UN rights council, responsible.

This is because no body, but we are the people who are at the receiving end of the carnage of human rights violations and impunity.”

[Full Text of Press Release by Civil Monitoring Commission]

Programme associate at the UN office in Colombo leaves city with her family due to extortion thereat says Mano Ganesan

Vasuki Mahendran, a programme associate at the Finance section of the United Nations country office in Colombo has left Colombo today 26 th June afternoon with her husband and children due to extortion threat. Before exit, she has lodged a complaint with Civil Monitoring Commission says CMC convener Mano Ganesan MP.

Ganesan further said, Vasuki and Mahendran live at Havelock road. They have received extortion demand over the phone on Sunday night 10.45pm. The extortionists had demanded five million rupees to be paid not later than Monday morning 11am in Dehiwela. They have had asked Mahendran to bring the money in his vehicle.

Vasuki and Mahendran have also told CMC that their household at Havelock road was searched by army on June 19 th evening 5.45pm.

The army officers had claimed that they had come for the search after receiving an anonymous telephone call that Mahendran household was harboring a “three wheeler”.

[Fulll text of CMC News Release]

CIVIL MONITORING COMMISSION (CMC)

Monitoring involuntary Disappearances, Abductions, Extra Judicial Killings,
Extortions and Arbitrary arrests and detentions in SRI LANKA
(Chairman) Sirithunga Jayasooriya
(Convener) Mano Ganesan MP
(Members) Luxman Kiriella MP, Suresh Premachandran MP

By Dushiyanthini Kanagasabapathipillai

There are 136 families- 720 persons living in Koiyaavaady welfare camp in Puttlam district for more than 17 years. They were forced to leave their home town in the Northern Province in 1990 by the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam). The Muslim community says that they do not know the reason for the LTTE to act in such a manner.

The people are worried of the duration of their stay in these welfare camps, as the situation is deteriorating in the North. They feel that they are voiceless and powerless:

“I got married earlier since I was not able to continue my education due to poverty. I got displaced when I was one year-old baby. Now I am a mother of two-month old baby” said Subaitha Abdul Wahab (18)

The Muslims complain that they do not have a collective voice for them

Muslims were allowed to take limited amount of money and belongings, when they were forced to leave.

“I have five children. I do not have enough income to provide them with nutritious food. My husband is a labourer. If we were not forced to leave our home town, we will be leading a better life there” said Thiribhaya Rajub (32)

Most of them say that they have lost their identity due to displacement

Mohamed Rukshan (8) wants to become doctor

The Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) complain that nobody supports them to uplift their living conditions

“I earn Rs.150/= per day for helping in the onion or chillie field. It’s not enough, but I have no other choice. I have lost my own house and belongings in Mullaithivu due to forcible eviction by the LTTE. I am very saddened” said Katheeja Umma Neeraipitty (56).

The facilities are minimal

The Internally Displaced People (IDPs) are looking forward to better future

Other:

- Pictorial: Nookkuraansolai welfare camp, Puttlam district
- Photo Journal: Shakthi welfare camp
- Photo Journal: Savukkady welfare camp

Source: humanityashore

Contact: Dushi.Pillai@gmail.com

By Ilaya Seran Senguttuvan

The only way for Rajapakse Inc., to remain in power, after their lackluster
Performance nearing two years is to appease the larger electorate - the chauvinistic, Sinhala Buddhist Electorate. For this you also need a well-equipped Army. As we learn from the Press, the army is calling for a further 50,000 more men. Why do we need additional forces now that the Sri Lanka Govt propaganda units are daily claiming victories in all Fronts? Batticaloa they claim is taken. And so Trinco. So we will eventually have over 250,000 men going after a mere 8,000 LTTE cadres. Does not make too much military sense. We are already a Garrison-State and Colombo is shamefully a military city with ubiquitous soldiers clutching modern, sophisticated and costly rifles and flying in motor-bikes, Jeeps etc., Whatever happens to the Cost of Living and other so long as the Govt can tell Buddhist Sinhala ears they are “winning” the war everything will be forgotten and forgiven. But the raw truth must come out someday - and it will in all its fury and probably sooner than the ruling clique figures.

As to the Tamils, we have been losing since the days of old DS.

Gal Oya scheme put paid to Tamils living for generations in South Batticaloa. The Mahaweli there made it worst. Trincomalee’s ethnic balance continues to slide against Tamil interests. The Colombo eviction, I venture to suggest, is a “Dry run” for things to come in the future for the “Final Solution” of Lankan Tamils.

India and the Int’l Community can and must bring in the necessary sense and justice to our rapid slid into anarchy.

Today, as I write this note, even many Sinhalese, include hard-core Rajapakse supporters, are embarrassed at what their Govt is doing to the Tamils - and, they know justice will soon prevail. Mahinda Rajapakse’s threat last week to “dissolve” Parliament is the painful cry of a man on a hopeless trek - besieged from all sides. Unfortunately, the country’s economy and the well being of 20 million people are being taken along this perilous path.

I know I sound like a Prophet of Doom - but what do we have before us now?

ICJ inquest observer raises concerns about removal of key evidence in ACF case: Calls for renewed investigation

The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) today released an “addendum” to the report of its observer of the investigation and inquest into the killing of 17 Action Contre la Faim (ACF) aid workers in Muttur, Sri Lanka, in August 2006.

In April 2007, the ICJ published the first report of the observer, senior British barrister, Michael Birnbaum QC. In it he expressed concerns over the continuity and integrity of the transmission of the ballistics exhibits. In his “addendum” report he raises serious concerns about evidence that a bullet has been removed from the evidence submitted on 7 March by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) as exhibits to the Kantale Magistrates Court in charge of the inquest.

Given this new information, the ICJ is calling for the President of Sri Lanka to order renewed, impartial and thorough investigations into the killing of the 17 aid workers in Muttur in August 2006 and to ensure those responsible are prosecuted.

During a meeting of the ICJ’s Secretary-General with the President of Sri Lanka in Geneva on 14 June 2007, President Rajapaksa made a commitment to establish a taskforce within the regular criminal justice system to vigorously renew these investigations. The ICJ will closely monitor progress on this and other similarly grave cases.

In his “addendum” report Michael Birnbaum QC makes a detailed analysis of all the forensic reports now available relating to the killings, and in particular, the recently published report of an eminent Australian pathologist, Dr. Malcolm Dodd. At post mortems on the bodies of exhumed victims carried out in October 2006, eight bullets were recovered from seven bodies. Mr Birnbaum compared the descriptions of those bullets given by the two pathologists Dr. Waidaratne and Dr. Dodd, with those given in the report of the Government Analyst. Dr. Dodd found that one of the eight bullets was of 5.56 calibre. In contrast, the Government Analyst concluded that all of the bullets appeared to be of 7.62 calibre. There is therefore evidence to indicate that the 5.56 calibre bullet was removed from the evidence submitted as exhibits to the Kantale Magistrate, and that another bullet of a different type was substituted.

The “addendum” report notes that 5.56 calibre bullets are used in M-16 riffles and that Sri Lankan Special Task Force and some Special Forces within the army and navy are known to use such weapons. It also notes that such weapons and ammunition may have been stolen or purchased or otherwise acquired by other parties. It notes that members of a naval special force armed with M-16s were reportedly in Muttur in early August of 2006.

The report also urges the Presidential Commission of Inquiry that is currently looking into the killings of the 17 aid workers to conduct a full investigation into the recovery, transmission and examination of the ballistic exhibits.

[Full Text of ICJ Press Release]