Saturday 11 December 2010
පුස්වෙඩි ප‍්‍රතිපත්තිවලින් ඖෂධ ත්රස්තවාදය පරාජය කල නොහැක.
පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත‍්‍රී විජිත හේරත් මැතිතුමාට අනුව ඖෂධ ත්රස්තවාදය මර්ධනය කිරීම සඳහා ඖෂධ ප‍්‍රතිපත්තිය හැකි ඉක්මනින් පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට ඉදිරිපත් කල යුතුය. ‘ඖෂධ ප‍්‍රතිපත්තියක් වහා ගෙන එනු’ යන්න ඉතා පැරණි සටන් පාඨයක් බව එතුමා ඉතා හොඳින් දන්නා කාරණයකි. ප‍්‍රතිපත්තියක් අවශ්‍ය බවට මන්ත‍්‍රයක් සේ ජප කලාට එහි අඞ්ගු විය යුතු කාරණා පිළිබඳව සංවාදයක් ඇතිවන්නේ නැත. ඇත්ත වශයෙන්ම ඖෂධ ත‍්‍රස්තවාදයට කත් අදින පිරිස් කියන්නේද ඖෂධ ප‍්‍රතිපත්තියක් අවශ්‍ය බවයි. අන් අය එසේ ප‍්‍රතිපත්තියක් අවශ්‍ය බව පැවසීම පිළිබඳව ඖෂධ ත්රස්ත හිතවාදියෝ සතුටට පත්වෙති. එයට හේතුව ප‍්‍රතිපත්තියේ අඩංගුව පිළිබඳව සඳහන් නොකර කුමක් හෝ ප‍්‍රතිපත්තියක් අවශ්‍ය බව පැවසීම ත‍්‍රස්තවාදයට වාසි සහගත වීමයි.
විජිත හේරත් මන්ත‍්‍රීතුමා කියන ඖෂධ ප‍්‍රතිපත්තිය සහ 2008 වසරේදී පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට ඉදිරිපත් කිරීමට නියමිතව තිබූ ප‍්‍රතිපත්තිය යන දෙකම එකක් නම් එතුමා කරන්නේද ඖෂධ ත‍්‍රස්තවාදයට කඬේ යාමකි. මේ වන විට යම් පමණකට හෝ මහජනයාට කියවීමට ලැබුණු ප‍්‍රතිපත්තිය එසේ පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට ඉදිරිපත් කිරීමට නියමිතව තිබූ ප‍්‍රතිපත්තිය බවට සැකයක් නැත. මේ ලියුම්කරු මීට පෙර දිවයින පුවත්පතට ලියූ ලිපිය සඳහන්කල ආකාරයට එම ඖෂධ ප‍්‍රතිපත්තිය ඉතියෝපියාවටත් ඇමරිකාවටත් එකසේ පිළිගත හැකි එකකි. එය සුන්දර අරමුණු සහ සංකල්ප වලින් සරසා ඇති කිසිදු උපායමාර්ගික ප‍්‍රවේශයක් නැති ලියවිල්ලකි. එවැන්නක් අන්තර්ජාල පහසුකම සහිත ඉලෙක්ට්‍රොනික් ලේඛණ හොඳින් කැපීමට සහ ඇලවීමට දන්නා ශිෂ්‍යයෙකුට වුවද සකස් කල හැක. එම ප‍්‍රතිපත්තිය තුල ඖෂධ ව්‍යාපාරයේ දුෂ්ඨ සහ කූඨ ක්රියා මැඩ පැවැත්වීමට හෝ දැනට ඖෂධ වෙළඳපල ආශ‍්‍රිතව හඳුනාගෙන ඇති ගැටළු විසඳීම සඳහා උපක‍්‍රම හඳුනාගැනෙන්නේ නැත. එවැනි ප‍්‍රතිපත්තියක් එළිදැක්වීමේ උත්සවයකට අන්තර්ජාතික මහා ඖෂද සමාගම්වල අනුග‍්‍රහයද ලබාගත හැක. ඒ ප‍්‍රතිපත්තිය ඒ තරමටම දුර්වල හිස් ලියවිල්ලකි. ප‍්‍රතිපත්තියක් නමින් පුස් වෙඩිල්ලක් පත්තු කිරීමෙන් ඖෂධ ත්රස්තවාදය පරාජය කල හැකි යයි විජිත හේරත් මන්ත‍්‍රීතුමාලා හිතනවා නම් එතුමන්ලාගේ දේශපාලන දැක්ම පිළිබඳව අනුකම්පා කල යුතුය.
මූලිකවම ප‍්‍රතිපත්තියක් අවශ්‍ය වන්නේ සමාජ ආර්ථික වශයෙන් බරපතල ගැටළු විසඳීම සඳහා දේශපාලන මඟ පෙන්වීමක් ලබාදීම සඳහාය. එමෙන්ම එම ප‍්‍රතිපත්ති සම්පාදන ක‍්‍රියාවලිය සැබෑ එකක් නම් ඒ තුල මහජන අදහස් නියෝජනය වීමද සහතික කෙරේ. (නිළධාරීන් කිහිප දෙනෙකු විසින් සකස් කල ලියවිල්ලක් වෙබ් අඩවියක හෝ පුවත්පතක ප‍්‍රසිද්ද කිරීමෙන් පමණක් ඒ අරමුණ ඉටු නොවේ.* ප‍්‍රතිපත්තියක සංකල්පීය රාමුව සහ එහි අරමුණ තුලින් විසඳීමට උත්සාහ කරන ගැටළුව කුමන ආකරදැයි පිළිබිඹු වේ. ඉතා සරල පොදු සංකල්ප සහ අරමුණු ලයිස්තුවක් මඟින් සුවිශේෂී ගැටළු ප‍්‍රමාණාත්මකව හෝ ගුණාත්මකව ගැඹුරට විග‍්‍රහ වන්නේ නැත. තවද ප‍්‍රතිපත්තියක් මඟින් ගැටළු විසඳීම සඳහා පවතින නීතිමය, පරිපාලන සහ ආයතනමය වූයහයන් තුල සිදුවිය යුතු වෙනස්කම් පිළිබඳව මඟපෙන්වීමක් ලබා දිය යුතුය.
ඒ සියල්ලටම වඩා ප‍්‍රතිපත්තියක මූලික හැඩය හෙවත් දේශපාලන උවමනාව සැබෑ ලෙසම පිළිබිඹු වන්නේ එම ප‍්‍රතිපත්තිය පදනම් වන මූලික උපායමාර්ගික රාමුව තුලිනි. ඉහත සඳහන් කල ආකාරයට විජිත හේරත් මන්ත‍්‍රීතුමාලා කථාකරන ප‍්‍රතිපත්තිය පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට ඉදිරිපත් කිරීමට උත්සාහ කල එක නම් එහිදී අවම වශයෙන් උපාය මාර්ග යනු කුමක් දැයි හෝ හඳුනාගෙන නැත. එවැනි ප‍්‍රතිපත්තියක් ගෙන එනු යයි හඬ නඟන්නේ කුමක් සඳහාද? කාගේ අවශ්‍යතාවයකටද? ඒ මේ රටේ ජාතික ජාතික ආර්ථිකයට පිල්ලියක් වී ඇති සහ අහිංසක රෝගීන්ට මර උගුලක් වී ඇති ඖෂධ ත්රස්තවාදය පරාජය කිරීමේ උවමනාව සඳහා නම් නොවන බව ඉතා පැහැදිලිය.
ඒ නිසා විජිත හේරත් මැතිතුමන්ලා රෝහන විජේවීරයන් තෝරාදුන් අධිරාජ්‍ය විරෝධය මුල් කොටගත් දේශපාලනය තව දුරටත් අගය කරනවා නම් බටහිර මහා ඖෂධ සමාගම් වලට යටත් වන ඖෂධ ප‍්‍රතිපත්තියක් රටට වැඩක් නැති බව නිර්භයව ප්රකාශ කල යුතුය. එම සමාගම් වල කූඨ උපක‍්‍රම මැඩපැවැත්විය හැක්කේ මේ ආකාරයේ උපායමාර්ගයකින් බව නිශ්චිතව ඉදිරිපත් කල යුතුය. එසේම ආර්ථික ඝාතක නිළධාරී පැලැන්තිය විසින් හිතාමතා පවත්වාගෙන යන ඖෂධ ලියාපදිංචි කිරීමේ සහ ආනයනය කිරීමේ ක‍්‍රමවේදවල පවතින දුර්වලතාවයන් නිශ්චිතව සඳහන් කොට ඊට ප‍්‍රතිකර්ම ඉදිරිපත් කල යුතුය. තවද වෛiවරු අතින් සිදුවන වැරදි සහ ඔවුන් ඉටු නොකරන යුතුකම් පිළිබඳව පැකිලීමකින් තොව කතාකල යුතුය. එක, දෙක, තුන වශයෙන් ඒවා ලයිස්තුගත කොට ඊට අදාල විසඳුම් රාමුව ප‍්‍රතිපත්තිය තුලට ඇතුල් කල යුත්තේ කෙසේදැයි සඳහන් කල යුතුය.
එසේ නොකර සුවපහසුවට පුවත්පත් සාකච්ඡුා පවත්වා ප‍්‍රතිපත්තියක් ගෙනෙව්, ගෙනෙව් කීමෙන් සිදුවන්නේ අවැඩකි. දැන් එතුමන්ලා ගේන්න කියන නිසාම ඖෂධ ත‍්‍රස්තවාදයට දැනුවත්ව හෝ නොදැනුවත්ව කඬේ යන පිරිස් විසින් සකස් කල ඊනියා ප‍්‍රතිපත්තිය අනුමත කර ගැනීම සඳහා නිදහසට කාරණාවක් ලැබේ. වෙනත් වචනවලින් කියන්නේ නම් එය පනින්න සිටින රිලවුන්ට ඉනිමං බැඳීමකි. ප‍්‍රතිපත්ති කමිටුවකට මහාචාර්යවරු හෝ විශේෂඥ වෛiවරු පත්කල පමණින් රටට ජනතාවට හිතවාදී ප‍්‍රතිපත්තියක් හැදෙන බවට පූරව නිගමනයකට එළැඹීම එතුමන්ලාට තරම් නොවන ක‍්‍රියාවකි.
මේ රටට විනාශකාරී බොහෝ ප‍්‍රතිපත්ති සහ යෝජනාවලි ඉදිරිපත් කල සෑම කමිටුවකම පාහේ එන්.ජී. ඕ. මහාචාර්යවරු නියෝජනය වූ බව රටේ ජනතාව හොඳින් දනිති. ඖෂධ ත‍්‍රස්තවාදයට ගොදුරු වූ මහාචාර්යවරු සහ විශේෂඥ වෛiවරු රාශියක් අදද මේ රටේ ඉහල තනතුරු හොබවති. එමෙන්ම එදිනෙදා ජීවිතයේදී ත‍්‍රස්තවාදයට අවශ්‍ය ආකාරයට ඔවුහු ඖෂධ නිර්දේශ කිරීමේද යෙදී සිටිති. රටේ මහජනතාවගේ පැත්තෙන් බලන විට ඔවුන් එසේ යටත් වන්නේ දැනුවත්වද නැද්ද යන්න වැදගත් නොවේ. ඒ අතරම කිව යුතු යමක්ද ඇත. එනම් මේ රටට ආදරය කරන සහ ඖෂධ සමාගම් වලට යටත් නොවන දියුණු මනසක් සහිත මහාචාර්යවරුන් මෙන්ම විශේෂඥ වෛiවරුද මේ රටේ බොහෝ සිටිති. මහජනයා ඔවුන්ට දෙවිවරුන්ට මෙන් සලකති. අවාසනාවකට එතුමන්ලා මේ ප‍්‍රතිපත්ති කමිටුවලට පත්වන්නේ නැත. එසේ නැතහොත් එතුමන්ලා එවැනි තනතුරු බාරගන්නේ නැත. හොඳ මිනිසුන් ප්රධාන ප‍්‍රවාහයෙන් ඈත්වීම නිසා පුංචි මිනිසුන්ට වේදිකාවට පැමිණීමට ඉඩ සැලසීම මේ රටේ අවාසනාවකි.
ඇත්ත වශයෙන්ම විජිත හේරත් මැතිතුමන්ලා සේනක බිබිලේ ප‍්‍රතිපත්තියක් ගැන දෙඩෙව්වාට භෞතිකව නිශ්චිත ලේඛණයක් ලෙස එවැන්නක් මේ රටේ නැත. ඉතිහාසයේද අප රටේ එවැන්නක් තිබුණේ නැත. සැබෑ ලෙසම නීතිමය රාමුවක් තුල සේනක බිබිලේ ප‍්‍රතිපත්තියක් පුළුල්ව ක්රියාත්මක වන්නේ බංගලා දේශයේය. අප කොහොමත් අපේ මිනිසාගේ දේ අගය කිරීමට මැලිවන ජාතියක් නිසා ඒ ගැන පුදුම විය යුතු නැත. හැත්තෑව දශකයේදී සේනක බිබිලේ මූලධර්ම මත පදනම්ව එවකට පැවති රජය යම් ප‍්‍රතිපත්තිමය තීන්දු ප්රමාණයක් ක්රියාත්මක කලද නිශ්චිත ප‍්‍රතිපත්තියක් පාර්ලිමේන්තුවෙන් අනුමත කලේ නැත. කෙසේ වෙතත් රාජ්‍ය ඖෂධ සංස්ථාව, ඖෂධ නිෂ්පාදන සංස්ථාව බිහිවන්නේ ඒ ප‍්‍රතිපත්තිමය තීන්දු අනුවය. ඊට අමතරව අත්‍යවශ්‍ය ඖෂධ ලයිස්තුවක් නීතිමය රාමුවක් යටතේ නොවුනත් යම් පමණකට ක‍්‍රියාකත්මක විය. ඒවා එසේ සිදුවූයේ එදා රජයේ මූලික දේශපාලන ප‍්‍රතිපත්තිවලට සහ ඒ කාලයේ රාජ්‍ය තන්ත‍්‍රය තුල තනතුරුදැරූ දියණු මිනිසුන්ට පින් සිදුවන්නටය. ඒ නිසා හිස් ලියවිල්ලකට බොරුවට සේනක බිබිලේ ලේබල් ඇලවීමට උඩගෙඩි නොදී සිටිනවා නම් එය කථා කරනවාට වඩා රටට හොඳ බව විජිත හේරත් මැතිතුමාට මතක් කර දිය යුතුය.
විජිත හේරත් මැතිතුමාලාට දේශපාලන වශයෙන් වරදින තවත් ප්රධාන කාරණයක් මතක් කර දීම අමනාපයට හේතුවක් නොවනු ඇතැයි අපි සිතමු. එතුමන්ලා සෑම විටම කොක්ක පටලවා ගන්නේ දේශපාලකයන් සමඟ පමණි. දේශපාලකයන්ට ලණු දෙන ඔවුන් කැලෑ පාරේ රැුගෙන යන ආර්ථික ඝාතක නිළධාරී පැලැන්තිය පිළිබඳව ඔවුන් වචනයක්වත් කතාකරන්නේප නැත. සමහර විට එය දේශපාලන උපක‍්‍රමයක්ද විය හැකිය. නිළධාරීන්ගේ ලණු කකා ඔහොම යං කියා යන එක දේශපාලන වශයෙන් වාසි සහගත බවඑතුමන්ලා සිතා සිටිනවා විය හැක. දේශපාලකයන් අහිංසක නිර්දෝෂී පිරිසක් බව අප කියන්නේ නැත. නමුත් අද ලෝකය පුරා යළි යටත් විජිතකරන ක‍්‍රියාවලිය උපායමාර්ගික දිශාවට රැුගෙන යන්නේ තෝරාගත් ආර්ථික ඝාතක නිළධාරීන් පිරිසක් විසිනි. දේශපාලකයන් වෙරිකාරයන් මෙන් එහේ මෙහේ විසි වෙවී හෝ නිළධාරීන් තෝරා දෙන පාරේ යනවා නම් අධිරාජ්‍යවාදීන්ට ගැටළුවක් නැත. දේශපාලකයන් කරන්නේ අපායට යන පාරේ දෙපස මල් සිටුවා ‘පොට් හෝල්’ වහන එකය. විජිත හේරත් මැතිතුමන්ලාද අඩු වැඩි වශයෙන් කරන්නේ එයම බව කණගාටුවෙන් වුවත් කිව යුතුය. පරණ මාක්ස්වාදී පොතපතේ මේ නව තත්වයන් ගැන විග‍්‍රහයක් නොමැති නිසා විජිත හේරත් මැතිතුමන්ලාට එම තත්වය තේරුම් ගැනීමට අපහසු බව අපට තේරුම් ගත හැක.
අද සෞඛ්‍ය අමාත්‍යංශයේද දැනුවත්ව හෝ නොදැනුවත්ව ඉහත කී ආර්ථික ඝාතක භූමිකාවන් ඉටුකරන නිළධාරීහුද සිටිති. එම අමාත්‍යංශ මූලස්ථානයේ මිදුල දෙස ඞීන්ස් පාරෙන් එබී බැලූවහොත් සිතෙන්නේ ඒ තරුපහේ හෝටලයක් හෝ ජාත්‍යන්තර රාජ්‍ය නොවන සංවිධාන කාර්යාල භූමියක් කියාය. ඒ තරමටම නවීන සුවපහසු වාහන පෙරහැරක් එහි නතර කොට ඇත. ඒ නිළධාරී මහත්වරු ජාත්‍යන්තර ණය දෙන ආයතනවල පිහිටෙන් සුවපහසුව ගමන් ගියාට මේ රටේ බහුතරයක් බෞද්ධ මහජනයාට ඉරිසියාවක් උපදින්නේ නැත. නමුත් ඔවුන්ට දුකක් ඇතිවනුයේ මීට අවුරුදු 30-40 කට පෙර සිටි නිළධාරී පරම්පරාව (පැරණි ජීප් කබල්වල නැඟී ඉතා දුෂ්කර තත්වයන් යටතේ ගම් දනව් වල සැරිසරමින්* ඉටුකල මෙහෙයට අලගු තැබීමටවත් නූතන නිළධාරී පන්තියට නොහැකි වීම පිළිබඳවය. එසේ යම් කාලයක ඌව පළාතේ විශාල මෙහෙයක් ඉටුකල වර්තමාන අධ්‍යක්‍ෂ ජනරාල් තුමාද කේලාම් දඬුකඳේ ගසා වැඩ නොගන්නා තත්වයට පත් කොට ඇත. එදා සිටි පැරණි පරම්පරාවේ පුරුකක් වන එතුමා පැත්තකට කිරීම පිටුපස සිටින නිළධාරීන් කවුරුන්ද කියා සොයා බලන්නේ නම් ඖෂධ ත‍්‍රස්තවාදයේ ගරිල්ලා සටන් කරුවන් හඳුනාගැනීමට හැකිවනු ඇත. අද එතුමා සිටින තත්වය අනුව ඖෂධ ත‍්‍රස්තවාදයට යටත්වේද නැද්ද යන්න පිළිබඳව අපට සහතිකයක් දිය නොහැක. එහෙත් ඖෂධ ත්රස්තවාදය මඩින්නේ කෙසේදැයි එතුමා ඉතා හොඳින් දන්නා බව අපි දනිමු.
වර්තමාන සෞඛ්‍ය අමාත්‍ය මෛත‍්‍රීපාල සිරිසේන මැතිතුමා මේ වන විට ඖෂධ ත්රස්තවාදය පරාජය කිරීමට තමා සූදානම් බව රටට ප්රකාශ කොට ඇත. ඊට ඇති ප්රධාන බාධකය ඊනියා ප‍්‍රතිපත්ති හදන ආර්ථික ඝාතක නිළධාරීන් බව අපගේ පිළිගැනීමයි. ඒ නිසා විජිත හේරත් මැතිතුමන්ලා මේ රටේ ජනතාවට යම් ආදරයක් ඇත්නම් කල යුත්තේ ඖෂධ ත්රස්තවාදය පරාජය කිරීම සඳහා නිශ්චිත උපායමාර්ග හඳුනාගත් ප‍්‍රතිපත්තියක් ගෙන එන ලෙස සෞඛ්‍ය අමාත්‍ය තුමාට අභියෝග කිරීමයි. ඒතුමා ඒ අභියෝගය බාරගන්නවා නම් දේශපපාලන කුහකකමින් තොරව එතුමාට සහාය දිය යුතුය. එතුමා එසේ කරන්නේ නැති නම් බොරු සිල්ලර සටන්පාඨ මත නැහෙන තම වෘත්තිය සමිතිවලට ඇත්ත සටන අතට ගන්නා ලෙස උපදෙස් දිය යුතුය. (දිගු කාලයක් තම ආත්මාර්ථකාමී ඉල්ලීම් වෙනුවෙන් පමණක් සටන් කරමින් සිටින සෞඛ්‍ය වෘත්තීය සමිති නායකයන්ට පොදු මහජන සටනක් අතට ගැනීමට ධෛර්යයක් තිබේද යන්න අපි නොදනිමු) එසේ නැතිව පුස් වෙඩිල්ලකට බොරුවට සේනක බිබිලේ ලේබල් ඇලවීම මඟින් සැබෑ ලෙසම සිදුවන්නේ ඖෂධ ත්රස්තවාදය පොෂණය කිරීමකි.
වෛද්‍ය කේ.එම්. වසන්ත බණ්ඩාර
මහ ලේකම්
දේශහිතෛෂී ජාතික ව්‍යාපාරය
Thursday 4 November 2010
"අප ඉදිරියේ තිබෙන්නේ හැදෙන්ට නියමිත රටක්" - විමල්
අපේ රට අතීතයේදී කැඩෙන්නට නියමිතව, බෙදෙන්නට නියමිතව, වැනසෙන්න නියමිතව තිබූ රටක් බවත්, එහෙත් අද වන විට අපේ මාතෘභුමිය ඒ කෲර ඉරණමින් නිදහස්වී නැගෙන්න නියමිත රටක්, හැදෙන්න නියමිත රටක් බවට පරිවර්ථනය වී ඇතැයි ඉදිකිරීම්, ඉංජිනේරු සේවා, නිවාස හා පොදු පහසුකම් අමාත්‍ය විමල් වීරවංශ මහතා පැවසීය.
අප විසින් ඉතා පැහැදිළිව එම පරීච්ඡේද දෙකෙහි වෙනස හදුනාගත යුතුව ඇතැයි සඳහන් කළ අමාත්‍යවරයා බෙදෙන්ට, වැනසෙන්ට මේ රට නියමිතව පැවති යුගයේ අපේ සිත්තුල මව්බිම පිළිබඳ සුභ වාදී බලාපොරොත්තු ඉතිරිවී නොපැවති බවද, තැන තැන බෝම්බ පිපිරෙණ විට, මිනිසුන් බල්ලන් බළලූන් මෙන් මැරී වැටෙන විට, පත්තර පිටු හැමදාම මරණ දැන්වීම් වලින් පිරීයන විට, රටේ ආර්ථික සම්පත් කුණුකොල්ලයට විකිනෙන විට රටේ ජනතාවට අළුතින් දල්වා ගැනීමට සුභවාදී අපේක්‍ෂාවන් ඉතිරිවී නොපැවති බව සඳහන් කළේය. එහෙත් එ් යුගයේ ජනතාවගේ සිත් තුළ ශි‍්‍ර ලංකාව පිළිබඳ පැවති කලකිරීම වේදනාව අද වන විට මිනිස් සිත් තුළින් ගිලිහී ගොස් ඇතැයි කියා සිටියේය.
අමාත්‍යවරයා මේ අදහස් පල කළේ පසුගියදා, මහනුවර දිස්ත‍්‍රික්කයේ ජනතාවට නිවාස ණය හා සින්නක්කර ඔප්පු ප‍්‍රදානය සඳහා එක්වෙමිනි. මහනුවර ළමා පුස්තකාල ශ‍්‍රවණාගාරයේ පැවති මෙම උත්සවය සංවිධානය කර තිබුනේ ජාතික නිවාස සංවර්ධන අධිකාරිය විසින් වන අතර එහිදී සින්නක්කර ඔප්පු 42 ක්ද ,චෙක්පත් 100 හා ප‍්‍රදාන පත‍්‍ර 118 ක් ද අමාත්‍යවරයා විසින් බෙදා දෙනු ලැබීය.
www.lankacnews.com
04.11.2010
Monday 1 November 2010
War Crimes Inquiry for Iraq.
Ira de Silva London,, Canada
Ms. Navi PillayHigh Commissioner for Human Rights
Geneva.
Geneva.
cc: Hon. Ban ki Moon, Secretary General of the U.N., New York
Dear Madam,
I have just read a news report dated October 26,2010 in which it is claimed that after the publication of the documents by Wikileaks and the press reports of thousands of civilians being deliberately targeted and killed by U.S. British and Iraqi forces you have urged the U.S. and Iraq to investigate allegations of torture and unlawful killings in Iraq. It states that you are concerned that serious breaches of international human rights have have occurred in Iraq. I am writing to you to inquire why you have adopted a double standard and taken this timid approach towards the U.S. and Britain in comparison to your aggressive, accusatory, one sided and judgemental attitude towards allegations of civilian deaths in Sri Lanka in the last stages of Sri Lanka’s struggle to eliminate the leadership of the most ruthless, confirmed terrorists, namely the Tamil terrorists called the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
It is accepted that as a Tamil from South Africa, a country that was supportive of the LTTE, funded their terrorist activities in Sri Lanka and were part of the organized demonstrations in May 2009 to save the terrorist leadership, that you felt the loss of the leadership of the LTTE as did many thousands of other supporters of the LTTE and expressed your sorrow by immediately bringing a resolution at the UN in Geneva, supported by the western governments, who had a vested interest in the continuation of Tamil terrorism to destabilise Sri Lanka. With the publication of documents from the U.S. government files, they are no longer “allegations” but confirmation of torture and unlawful killings of civilians in Iraq. If you are not biased and partial, why have you not immediately called for a war crimes inquiry in Iraq instead of merely asking the culprits to investigate themselves? Is the UN not expected to be impartial and treat all member states in the same manner?
One other point of difference in your attitude towards the U.S. and Britain is that you are urging the U.S. to investigate these allegations while in the case of Sri Lanka you, at the behest of the western powers, brought a resolution against Sri Lanka in Geneva. When that failed you refused to accept the verdict and wanted to bring in another resolution – such was your vindictiveness towards Sri Lanka. It was followed by the insistence of a U.N. panel being set up to investigate alleged violations of human rights and humanitarian law in Sri Lanka even though in doing so the Secretary General was clearly exceeding his powers as prescribed per Chapter XV of the UN Charter where the limits of his authority are specifically defined in Articles 97 and 98. The Charter clearly provides that the Secretary General shall perform such functions as are entrusted to him by the General Assembly, the Security Council and other subsidiary bodies such as the Human Rights Council but does not have the authority to act on his own. He nevertherless appointed a three member panel. As you are the Commissioner for Human Rights, it could be argued that you should immediately set up an inquiry to support the Secretary General and carry out the job that you are supposed to do instead of asking the US to investigate itself. The U.S. had all this information compiled for years, denied having it, rejected reports from other groups and claimed that they were acting within the framework of international law yet you are still expecting them to investigate themselves! It exhibits a subservience to the west and a colonial, biased, racist mentality which has no place at the UN. You are urging the U.S. to investigate itself but both you and the Secretary General scoffed at the notion that the panel set up by the Sri Lankan government would be of any use. It was claimed that it had to be from outside the country to be “independent” – well the same rules apply in this case too. Once more this exposes the double standards being followed by the U.N. and articulated by you.
The question that Sri Lankans have for you and also for the Secretary General, is when are you going to set up an investigation into the human rights violations and war crimes in Iraq which even the British now state was an illegal war? In the case of Sri Lanka it was a legitimate war on terrorists within the country, not an illegitimate invasion by foreign forces. If you do not do so immediately it could be inferred that in the case of Sri Lanka you were prejudiced and vindictive based on your personal agenda and that you yourself should be called to account for not performing your dutires in accordance with the mandate you have been given as the Commissioner for Human Rights – which means the rights of all humans and not a select few which included those of Tamil terrorists.
Looking forward to your statement of the establishment of a commission of inquiry by you into the allegations of the deliberate killing of civilians, rape, torture and other atrocities in Iraq.
Yours truly,
Ira de Silva
London,, Canada
www.lankaweb.com
29th October 2010
Sunday 24 October 2010
යුධ හමුදාවෙන් වගා සංග‍්‍රාමයක්.
යුද හමුදා සාමාජිකයන්ගේ සහභාගිත්වයෙන් වගා සංග‍්‍රාමයක් ආරම්භ කිරීමට යුද හමුදා මූලස්ථානය සූදානම් වෙයි. යුද හමුදාපති ලූතිනන් ජෙනරාල් ජගත් ජයසූරිය මහතා සඳහන් කළේ මඩකලපුව වාකරේ කන්දල්කාඩු ප‍්‍රදේශයේ හෙක්ටයාර් 5000ක කෙසෙල් වගා කිරීමට නියමිත බවයි. හෙක්ටයාර් 900ක වගා කෙරෙන කෙසෙල් මිලදී ගැනීමට පෞද්ගලික සමාගමක් ඉදිරිපත් වී සිටිති. ඒ සඳහා වූ ගිවිසුම්ද අත්සන් කර ඇත. එම පෞද්ගලික සමාගම අයත් වන්නේ මුත්තයියා මුරලිදරන්ට සහ ප‍්‍රමෝද්‍ය වික‍්‍රමසිංහට බව යුද හමුදාපතිවරයා අනාවරණ කළේය. වසර 10ක් පුරා අස්වැන්න මිලදී ගැනීමට එම සමාගම සූදානම් බව පැවසේ. නිෂ්පාදනය කරන කෙසෙල් විදේශීය රටවලට අපනයනය කරනු ඇති. යුද හමුදා සාමාජිකයන් සහ පුනරුත්ථාපනය ලබන එල්.ටී.ටී.ඊ. සාමාජිකයන් යොදා ගනිමින් මෙම වගා සංග‍්‍රාමය ආරම්භ කරන බව යුද හමුදාපතිවරයා කියා සිටියි.
www.lankacnews.com
24.10.10
Saturday 23 October 2010
Campus rebels in remand seek pardon from SB.
A group of 21 University students, who, along with hundreds of others, stormed the Ministry of Higher Education premises at Ward Place last Thursday and allegedly caused damage to the properties there, has written to Minister S. B. Dissanayake’s seeking pardon.
Arrested and produced in courts by the police, they were remanded. Their parents met President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Tuesday and requested that they be pardoned.
Higher Education Minister S. B. Dissanayake said yesterday that the students had individually written to him seeking his intervention and pardon. They had apologized to him for what happened and asked for pardon, he said. There had been no pressure on the students to do so.
Blaming the JVP for student agitations, Minister Dissanayake said that the JVP was using the students in a’ desperate bid’ to destabilisee the country.
In their letters, the students had said the JVP hierarchy had led them into the Higher Education Ministry premises on the pretext of obtaining their signatures to a petition and they had not been aware of the JVP’s plans.
The Minister said that the JVP had misled innocent students to achieve its political goal.
by Norman Palihawadena
www.island.lk
24th October 2010
Thursday 21 October 2010
Wednesday 20 October 2010
බහුජාතික පාන්පිටි සමාගම සැඟවී පහරදීම අරඹයි
පිටි සමාගමට කඬේයන දොස්තරලාට දේශහිතෛෂී ජාතික ව්‍යාපාරයේ දැඩි විරෝධය
සෞඛ්‍ය දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ බෝ නොවන රෝගී අංශයේ අධ්‍යක්‍ෂ පාලිත කරුණාපේ‍්‍රම මහතා විසින් පසුගියදා පෞද්ගලික රූපවාහිනී නාලිකාවක ප‍්‍රවෘත්ති විකාශයකදී වෙළඳපලේ ඇති සහල්වල ගුණාත්මකභාවය ගැන කල ප්රකාශය සම්බන්ධයෙන් වන පැහැදිලි කිරීමක් සහිත මාධ්‍ය නිවේදනයක් දේශිහිතෛෂී ජාතික ව්‍යාපාරය විසින් නිකුත් කර ඇත. සුළු සංශෝධන සහිතව එම නිවේදනය මෙහි දැක්වේ.
තිරිඟු පිටි වල ග්ලසරීන් දර්ශකය සීනි තරම්ම ඉහල අගයක් ගන්නා බවත්, ඒ නිසා තිරිඟු පිටි දීර්ඝ කාලයක් භාවිතා කිරීම දියවැඩියා රෝගයට හේතු විය හැකි බවට ඇති තරම් වෛද්‍ය සාක්‍ෂි ඉදිරිපත් වී ඇත. එසේ තිබියදීත් උවමනාවට වඩා පොලිෂ් කල සහල් වලිනුත් දියවැඩියාව සෑදෙන බවට පර්යේෂණ සාක්‍ෂි නොමැතිව හිතුමතේට ප්රකාශ නිකුත් කිරීමට වෛද්‍යවරු දෙතුන් දෙනෙක් සූදානම් වී ඇත. සහල් උවමනාවට වඩා පොලිෂ් කල විට එහි ගුණාත්මක තත්වය අඩුවන බව අප දන්නේ වසර 3000කට පෙර සිටය. තිරිඟු පිටි පිළීබඳව වචනයක්වත් කතා නොකරන මෙම වෛද්‍යවරු හදිසියේ නින්දෙන් අවදිවී සහල් පරිභෝජනයට පහර ගසන්නේ කාගේ උවමනාවටදැයි ඉතා පැහැදිලිය. ඔවුන්ගේ සහල් විරෝධය හදිසියේ මතු කරන්නේ රට පුරා ප‍්‍රභල තිරිඟු පිටි විරෝදයක් මතුවන අවස්ථාවකදීය. පසුගිය දිනවල තිරිඟුපිටි මිල වැඩි කිරීමෙන් ඔවුන්ගේ ලාභයට අමතරව එකතුවන මුදල රුපියල් බිලියන 6-8 ත් අතර ප‍්‍රමාණයකි. එවැනි තත්වයක් තුල වෛද්‍යවරු දෙතුන් දෙනෙකු පමණක් නොව දහස් ගණනින් වුවද මිළදී ගැනීමට එම කුප‍්‍රකට බහුජාතික සමාගමට හැකියාව ඇති බව රහසක් නොවේ.
මේ උගුලේ හසුවූ සෞඛ්‍ය දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ බෝ නොවන රෝග අංශයේ අධ්‍යක්‍ෂ පාලිත කරුණාපේ‍්‍රම වෛද්‍යවරයාට අපේ දැඩි විරෝධය පල කරමු. මෙම අධ්‍යක්‍ෂකවරයා පාන්පිටි සමාගමේ උවමනාව වෙනුවෙන් පොළඹවාගෙන ඇත්තේ කවදත් රටට හතුරු මෙහෙයුම්වල තිරය පිටුපසින් සිටින පෞද්ගලික රූපවාහිනී නාලිකාවකි. එම මෙහෙයුමේදී සෞඛ්‍ය අමාත්‍යංශයේ වන්නිනායක නමැති මාධ්‍ය නිළධාරියා අදාල සම්බන්ධීකරණ කටයුත්ත සිදුකර ඇත. මේ තීරණාත්මක මොහොතේ විවිධ මාධ්‍ය හරහා සිදුවන සියුම් කුමන්ත‍්‍රණයන්ට ගොදුරු නොවී පාන්පිටි ත‍්‍රස්තවාදයට එරෙහි මව්බිමට ආර්ථික සමෘද්ධිය කැන්දන ජාතියේ මහා සංවාදය තියුණු ලෙස, ප‍්‍රබල ලෙස පණගන්වන ලෙස දේශමාමක ප‍්‍රගතිශීලී සියළු ශ්රී ලංකිකයන්ගෙන් ඉල්ලා සිටිමු.
www.lankacnews.com
20 October 2010
දේෂහිතෛශී, ඔබලා දන්නවාද..? ලංකවේ විශ්ව විද්‍යාල වල සිසුන්ව ජ.වි.පෙ. හරහා උත්ඝෝෂණ වලට පොළඹවන්නේ සිංහගපූරුව හරහා ක්රියාත්මක වන සංවිධාන ජාලයක් විසින් බව, මේ සඳහා සිංගප්පූරු රජයේ අනුග්‍රහය නොමදව ලැබෙන බවත් ආරංචියි, කුමාර් ඩේවිඩ් සිංගප්පුරුවේ සේවය කරන මාහාචාර්ය වරයෙක් ලංකාවේ සිසුන්ට දේශනත් පවත්වලා තිබෙනවා මහින්දගේ දේශපාලනය, ඒකාදීපතිවාදයක් කරා ගමන් කරමින් තිබෙන බවට. මෙම දේශනයේ අරමුණ විශ්ව විද්‍යාල සිසුන්ගේ ඔළු වලට විෂබීජ දැමීමයි. තවත් පොරක් ඉන්නවා මහාචාර්ය රොහාන් ගුණරත්න කියලා, මිනිහට පැවරිලා තිබෙන කාර්ය ලංකාවේ ආරක්‍ෂක අංශ නොමඟ යැවීම. මිනිහත් සිංගප්පූරුවේ ඉඳන් බටහිරයන්ට කඩේ යන එකෙක්. තව දෙයක් අනුර කුමාරට මේ ළඟදී ඉතාලි ආපු වෙලාවේ දී විදේශ තනාපති කාර්යකින් භෝජන සංග්‍රහායක් දීලා තියෙනවා. ආරංචියේ හැටියට ඒ සිංගප්පූරු තනාපති කාර්යාලයේ දී යී. ප්‍රිමා සමාඟම සිංගප්පුරු කොම්පැනියක්. ඒ වගේම හම්බන්තොට වරාය නිසා අනාගතයේදී සිංගපුරුව විශාල ආරථික අර්බුදයකට යනු ඇතැයි කියා මත පළ වෙලා තිබෙනවා. සිංහප්පුරුවේ නාවුක අංශයේ ව්‍යාපාර වැඩි ප්රමාණයක් තිබෙන්නේ ද්‍රවිඩයන්ටයි. මේ සියල්ලේන් පැහැඳිළී වන්නේ කුමක් ද..?
Tuesday 27 July 2010
“SRI LANKA- TOO IMPORTANT TO BE LEFT ALONE”.
The recent developments of U.N Secretary General appointing a committee to advise him on Human rights issues in Sri Lanka and The E.U’s conditional demand that Sri Lanka agrees to fulfill 15 requirement to obtain a six month extension of GSP plus is a clear reflection that various forces external as well as internal, have not given up their heinous attempts to black list Sri Lanka as an international pariah state as long as this government is in power. The UNSG’s latest move in bringing the committee under U.N human rights council which is headed Navaneetham Pillai who has openly expressed her prejudiced views against Sri Lanka and undoubtedly is Pro-LTTE is an indication where the investigation is heading.
From the days just before and ever since the war was over, it was an avalanche of pressure brought on the government of Sri Lanka by numerous sources making demands such as immediate ceasefire, direct unimpeded access to the IDPS, immediate release of IDPS, allegations on human rights violations etc. A destabilized or subjugated Sri Lanka is what is required for some global super powers to get the upper hand in the struggle for supremacy in the Indian Ocean. The relentless campaign to tarnish our image has many segments in it led by the so called international community consisting mostly of western superpower bloc, International agencies (NGO/INGO) under the direct influence of the international community, Sri Lanka Diaspora living in the west, International and local media, locally based individuals and agencies funded by foreign sources with questionable objectives, some local politicians and their political parties. These various segments have been together right through, pressing an agenda directly opposed to the present government policy of eradicating terrorism and they continue to do so until they find a break through. Therefore one cannot be complacent that the war on terrorism is now over and Sri Lanka is heading for better times. These campaigners are armed with proclamations that they are the watch dogs of democracy, human rights, freedom of expression, freedom of movement etc. which rights that are supposed to be violated in Sri Lanka. Now that the government is solidly entrenched in power, the only way of achieving the covert objective is to try and attempt regime change by making things extremely difficult to the government of Sri Lanka. Bang KI Moon the U.N.S.G has come as “Messiah” . It has to be noted that leaders of some countries have been found guilty of war crimes and human rights violations and punished long years after the events when they were out of power and senile. This is a great possibility in relation to Sri Lanka, as long as local leaders who are willing to betray our country’s sovereignty are still holding on to leaderships of major political parties.
The European and North American bourgeois revolutions in the 17th and 19th centuries and the crisis in European feudalism brought the western conflation of democracy and capitalism. The capitalist world in which the head quarters was Washington D.C. was the guardians of the “free world” and the “expansionist” “totalitarian” communist world was head quartered in Moscow consequent of which was the “Cold war”. Liberal economist Lester Thurow writes that “democracy and capitalism have very different beliefs about the proper distribution of power. One believes in a completely equal distribution of political power, ‘one man [sic] one vote,’ while the other believes that it is the duty of the economically fit to drive the unfit out of business and into extinction. ‘Survival of the fittest’ and inequalities in purchasing power are what capitalist efficiency is all about. Individual profit comes first and firms become efficient to be rich. To put it in its starkest form, capitalism is perfectly compatible with slavery. Democracy is not. This is why we can see in the post- cold war political scenario the “free world” super powers at the bottom of placing in power, dictators and tyrants who were favorable to capitalism. The human rights record of theses dictators are much to be desired. Such powers would still wish that someone favorable to their cause is in power in our country too.
Therefore capitalism will always seek places where exploitation can be done to the maximum and Democracy or freedom does not have any importance in this regard. Elam under Prabhakaran would have been an excellent prospect for such an investment on capitalism. Now that he is gone, the next alternative is to have a government subservient to the west.
British Admiral Horatio Nelson has described Trincomalee as the “finest harbor in the world”. The great depth of the harbor and the four miles across entrance are its unique features. It covers an area of twelve square miles and securely enclosed. Nuclear submarines can easily hide in this harbor for long durations without being detected by any enemy radar in times of necessity. There are 101 British built oil tanks with capacity of a single tank at 15000n tons of oil. Thus the power that controls Trincomalee harbor has a great advantage in the hegemony of the Indian Ocean.
The India Sri Lanka accord in 1987 ensured that Trincomalee or any other port of Sri Lanka will not be made available for military use by any country prejudicial to India’s interests in the region and the restoring and operating of the Trincomalee oil tank farm will be undertaken as a joint venture between India and Sri Lanka. The primary reason for India’s intervention in Sri Lankan affairs directly was its security interests which were being jeopardized by the J.R. Jayewardene government which had a strong alliance with the west rather than through sympathy towards the Tamil grievances as proclaimed by India. The disharmony in Sri Lanka was only a vehicle for India to strengthen its security. Trincomalee harbor safely in their pocket and the oil tank farm being entrusted to the IOC (Indian Oil Company) the Indians got what they wanted. They are further strengthening their presence with the proposed Indian built Thermal power plant in Sampoor, close to Trincomalee harbor. Having got themselves assured of Trincomalee harbor in their hands, they were disturbed when Prabhkaran was setting up a chain of LTTE camps around the harbor with the aegis of Ranil Wickramasinghe government which was in power from 2001 to 2004. Moreover Prabhakaran had turned towards the west for his support and the western powers were overtly and covertly providing him support to fight the Sri Lanka State and establish his dream Elam. This is the vital factor which made India to look the other way when the LTTE was entrapped and not give any support what so ever to bail out Prabhakaran and the Tiger leadership. It is nothing but strategic interests of India which came in favor of Sri Lanka state this time, not forgetting that it’s the same strategic interests which made India to nurture the Tigers to fight the Sri Lanka state during Indira and Rajiv Gandhis’ tenures as prime ministers of India. What logical reason than strategic reasons do they have to request for a consulate at Hambantota.
India’s silence over the UNSG appointed panel on Sri Lanka now gives a good picture how strategic interests become more important than good neighbor relations. India now is heavily tilted towards the U.S and the relationship with the U.S far more important than Sri Lanka. Besides Tamilnadu sentiments about their “Tamil Brethren” in Sri Lanka is a sensitive issue which is the other reason for the silence. It cannot be a surprise if India remains non-committee in the latest issue on Sri Lanka allowing it to be hauled over the coals by the UNSG’s panel.
With the changing global power equation, especially the economic balance tilting towards Asia, a dictator in the state of Elam would have ensured that the west has a strong footing in the mid Indian Ocean. Hypothetically, investment could have poured in to Elam from the west and from the Diaspora and Prabhakaran’s type of “socialism” would have ensured forced labor at very cheap rates. Trincomalee had been earmarked as the capital of Elam. Infortunately for them it was not to be.
The government of Sri Lanka building a bunkering Port in Hambantota would see that the importance of Singapore diminishing substantially. Nearly two thirds of the sea traffic on the route to and from the west to east consists of carriers of cargo to and from China. China’s oil supply depends on this route. The piracy in the Indian Ocean is a threat to this vital trade route. America is well established with its bases in Diego Garcia, Singapore and Thailand. Therefore China needs a friendly port in the Indian Ocean, if not a base to counter balance. Sri Lanka is very unlikely to give in to any military interests of China which would be harmful to relations with India but Hambantota Port is going to be one of the most prudent steps taken by Sri Lanka to ensure that Sri Lanka’s geographical potential is maximized for its development. It is widely believed that the reason for the long years of delay in commencing the Hambantota port project was Singapore covertly scuttling all such efforts through powerful local politicians in Sri Lanka. This belief cannot be discarded as a canard, considering the effects of the alternative Hambantota port would have on Singapore.
The strategic importance of Sri Lanka for regional and global powers is the root cause for nurturing of terrorism and destabilizing this country. All Sri Lankans citizens should be mindful that we are a country used as a pawn in the global and regional power play. Falling in to any of these blocks will take us again towards instability. In the meantime the entire nation of Sri Lanka should know that the era when we welcomed everything and very body that is foreign with open arms and hospitality, should now end. The most stringent scrutiny of all foreign activities inside this country should be made and any attempt to subvert the status – quo overtly or covertly should be crushed with no sympathy. There is no guarantee that there is no threat of a new Prabhakaran in the making. The vigilance of the security forces should not be relaxed at all, but should be strengthened further. Any sign of subversion should be dealt with no mercy. A certain degree of regimental rule is required to preserve our sovereignty, democracy and independence.
The west have to be our friends as in the past but they must be made to understand that meddling with our internal problems will take them nowhere in our relations in the future and we should be allowed to decide our destiny without their interference.
UPALI COORY
By Courtesy of www.lankaweb.com
27th July 2010.
Friday 25 June 2010
Friday 18 June 2010
Sri Lanka celebrates first anniversary of war victory.
Jun 18, Colombo: Sri Lanka today staged an extravagant military parade at the Galle Face Green in Colombo to celebrate the first anniversary of the monumental victory over the terrorist war waged by the Tamil Tiger rebels for three decades.
The victory celebrations presided by the President Mahinda Rajapaksa were held at the Galle Face sea front promenade in Colombo with the participation of the armed forces commanders, Defence Secretary, government ministers and other political leaders.
The parade displayed over 9,000 troops from the three armed forces, the police, and the Civil Defence Force representing their units involved in the military operations against the LTTE last year. Highlight of the parade was the participation of disabled soldiers in wheel chairs.
Major General Kamal Gunaratna was the Commanding Officer of the entire parade. Commanders of the Wanni, Northern, and Eastern theaters commanded their respective contingents.
Showing the military might of the country, a large number of military vehicles including armed personnel carriers, Sri Lanka Navy ships, and fighter jets joined the parade.
The parade concluded with a group of paratroopers including two women with colorful parachutes jumping from 6,000 feet onto the Gall Face green.
The government declared today a Special Public and Bank Holiday in view of the Victory Day Parade.
The first anniversary celebrations, due to be held on May 18, were postponed for today due to the inclement weather and heavy flooding in the Western Province including in capital Colombo.
By Courtesy of www.colombopage.com
18th June 2010.
Wednesday 16 June 2010
ශ්රී ලංකාවට එරෙයහි ඇමරිකානු මානව හිමිකම් නාඩගම,
"ඉරාකයට හා සර්බියාවට එරෙහිව ක්‍රියාකිරීමට ඇමරිකාව එක්‌සත් ජාතීන්ගේ ආරක්‍ෂක මණ්‌ඩලයේ අවසරය ගත්තේ නැහැ"
-ලුවිස්‌ ආබර්
මානව හිමිකම් සහ යුද අපරාධ සම්බන්ධයෙන් ශ්රී ලංකා රජය සමඟ සාකච්ඡා කිරිම සඳහා ඇමරිකානු ජනාධිපති බැරක්‌ ඔබාමාගේ මානව හිමිකම් පිළිබඳ විශේෂ සහකාර සමන්තා පවර් සහ යුද අපරාධ පිළිබඳ ජාතික ආරක්‍ෂක කවුන්සිලයේ අධ්‍යක්‍ෂ ඩේවිඩ් ප්‍රේස්‌ටන් දැන් මෙරටට පැමිණ ඇත.
ඊළඟට පැමිණියේ එක්‌සත් ජාතීන්ගේ විශේෂ නියෝජිත ලීන් පැස්‌කෝ යි. ඔහු ආවේද මානව හිමිකම් සහ යුද අපරාධ ගැන අසන්නටය.
ඉන් පසු සම්ප්‍රාප්ත වූයේ ප්‍රභාකරන්ගෙන් ස්‌වර්ණමය තිළිණයක්‌ ලබා ගත් ජපන් නියෝජිත යසුෂි අකාෂිය.
මානව හිමිකම් සහ යුද අපරාධ ගැන විමසීමට මෙරටට පැමිණීමට නොහැකිව ඇත්තේ රටින් පිටත ඊළාම් හොර ආණ්‌ඩුවේ ප්‍රධානි රුද්රකුමාරන්ට පමණි.
මේ හැර බ්‍රිතාන්‍ය පාර්ලිමේන්තුව හමුවේ ද ඊයේ විවාදයක්‌ පැවැත්විණි. මෙරට මානව හිමිකම් සහ යුද අපරාධ ගැන විමසීමට පැමිණි ඩේවිඩ් ප්‍රෙස්‌ටන් ඇමරිකානු හමුදාව සර්බියාවේත්, ඉරානයේ සහ ඇෆ්ගනිස්‌තානයේත් යුද අපරාධ ගැන විමසුවේ නැත.
ඉරාක රොයිටර් ඡායාරූප ශිල්පියා ඇමරිකානු හෙලිකොප්ටර් ප්‍රහාරයකින් ඝාතනය වීම ගැන විමර්ශනයක්‌ කළේ ද නැත. ගෙයක්‌ බාගෙට ගිනි තැබීමෙන් වැඩක් නැතැයි ඇෆ්ගනිස්‌තානයේ සිටින ඇමරිකානු අණදෙන නිලධාරි මැන්ක්‍රිස්‌ටල් කළ ප්රකාශය ගැන ඔහුගෙන් නිදහසට කරුණු විමසුවේ ද නැත.
එහෙත් ඔහු මෙරටට පැමිණියේ කොටි ඝාතක සමාගම විනාශ වීමේදී යුද අපරාධ සිදුවූවේ ද යන්න විමසීමටය. යුද අපරාධ ගැන සොයන්නේ නම් ඒබ්‍රහම් ලින්කන් ජනාධිපතිවරයා ද වගකිව යුතු වේ. ඇමරිකාවේ දකුණේ කැරැලිකරුවන්ට එරෙහිව ලින්කන් එදා "ලී" නමැති හමුදා නිලධාරියා ලවා සිදුකළ යුද්ධ මෙහෙයුමේදී ලක්‍ෂ සංඛ්‍යාත සිවිල් වැසියන් මරුමුවට පත්වුවද ලින්කන් යුද්ධය ජයග්‍රහණය කර උතුර - දකුණ එක්‌ කළේය. එදා ලින්කන් කැරලිකරුවන්ට එරෙහිව ක්රියා නොකළේ නම් අද ඇමරිකාව කියා රටක් නැතැයි හිටපු ඇමැරිකානු රාජ්‍ය ලේකම්වරයකු වූ ලන්සින් වරක්‌ කියා සිටියේය.
ලින්කන් කැරලිකරුවන් මර්දනය නොකළේ නම් සමන්ත පවර්ට හා ඩේවිඩ් ප්‍රෙස්‌ටන්ට අද ඇමරිකාව කියා රටක් නියෝජනය කරමින් ශ්රී ලංකාවට ඒමට ඉඩක්‌ ලැබෙන්නේ ද නැත. එහෙත් මේ අතීතය අමතක කළ ඇමරිකානු යාන්ත්‍රණය මානව හිමිකම් මුවාවෙන් ශ්රී ලංකාවෙන් කරුනු විමසීම හාස්‍යජනකය. ඊටත් වඩා හාස්‍යජනක සිද්ධිය නම් ජපන් හමුදාව නැන්චුන් සමූලඝාතනයට සම්බන්ධව සිවිල් වැසියන් බයිනෙත්තුවලින් ඇන මරද්දී යසුෂි අකාෂි ද ඇමරිකානු මානව හිමිකම් නාටකය පසුබිමින් මෙරටට පැමිණීමට ක්රියා කිරීමය.
ඇමරිකානු නියෝජිතයන්ගෙත් ලියෝ පැස්‌කෝගේත්, යසුෂි අකාශිගේත් අරමුණ වෙනත් කිසිවක්‌ නොව ඇමරිකානු ක්‍රමවේදය මත ශ්රී ලංකාව පවත්වා ගෙන යැමයි.
මෙයට පෙර පැවැති ආණ්‌ඩු ඇමරිකාව හමුවේ දණ ගැසීය. ඇමරිකානු හා බටහිර තානාපතිවරුන්ගේ ඉල්ලීම ප්‍රතික්‍ෂේප කළේ ද නැත. කොටින්ට එරෙහි මෙහෙයුම් නතර කරන්න යෑයි එම තානාපතිවරු ඉල්ලුවොත් එය ඉටු කිරීමට ද ක්රියා කළහ. එහෙත් ඇමරිකානු හා බටහිර ක්‍රමවේදය මෙවර ව්‍යාර්ථ විය.
මේ නිසා ඔබාමා තම නියෝජිතයන් එවමින් ශ්රී ලංකා රජයෙන් විමසීමට පෙර කොටි ඒජන්ත විශ්වනාදන් රුද්රකුමාරන්ගෙන් ප්රභාකරන් කළ අපරාධ ගැන විමසිය යුතුය.
ඔබමාගේ නියෝජිතයන් මෙරටට පැමිණීමට පෙර ඇමරිකානු තැපැල් බාලධාරීහු ඩොලර් ශත 44 ක කොටි මුද්දරයක්‌ ද ප්‍රකාශයට පත් කිරීමට ඉඩ දුන්හ.
මේ අන්දමටට අල්කයිදා සංවිධානයටත් මුද්දරයක්‌ ප්රකාශ කිරිමට ඔබාමා රජය ඉඩ දෙන්නේද?
ඇමරිකාව ප්‍රමුඛ නේටෝ සංවිධානය ඇෆ්ගනිස්‌ථානයේ සිදුකරන ප්‍රහාර නිසා සිවිල් වැසියන් මියයන අතර රාජ්‍ය ලේකම් හිලරි ක්‌ලින්ටන් එම සිදුවීම ශෝකජනකයි යනුවෙන් මාධ්‍යවලට පවසා නිහඬ වෙයි. මේ සිදුවීම් ගැන විමර්ශනය කිරීම සඳහා ඇමරිකානු නියෝජිත සමන්තා පවර් හා ඩේවිඩ් ප්‍රෙස්‌ටන් ඇෆ්ගනිස්‌ථානයට ගොස් ජනාධිපති කරාසිs හමුවී සාකච්ඡා කළේ නැත. එහෙත් මොවුන් මෙරටට පැමිණ ඇත්තේ යුධ අපරාධ ගැන විමසීමටය. කොටි සංවිධානය නැගෙනහිර ප්‍රදේශයේදී පොලිස්‌ භටයන් 600 ක් නිරායුධ කර ඝාතනය කිරීමෙන් පසු පුළුස්‌සා දමද්දී ඇමරිකාව නිහඬව සිටියේය. ඊට වගකිවයුතු කොටි න්‍යායාචාර්ය ඇන්ටන් බාලසිංහම්ට එරෙහිව කිසිදු පියවරක්‌ ගැනුනේ නැත. මේ නිසා ඇමරිකානු නියෝජිතයන්ගේත් ලියෝ පැස්‌කෝගේත් යසුෂි අකාෂිත් මෙරටට පැමිණ ඇත්තේ රෙදි ඇඳගෙනද යන්න විමසිය යුතුය.
අද මෙම බටහිර බලවේග වඩාත් කම්පාවට පත්වී ඇත්තේ කොටින් ඝාතනය වීමයි. තව වසර ගණනාවක්‌ තිස්‌සේ ත්රස්තවාදය ශ්රී ලංකාව තුළ පවත්වා ගෙන යැමට නොහැකි වීම ගැන ඔවුහු දුක්‌වෙති. මේ නිසාම සාවද්‍ය යුද අපරාධ චෝදනා මත මෙරට රජයෙන් තොරතුරු විමසීමට ඉදිරිපත්වී ඇත.
මෙහිදී අතීතය ද සිහිපත් කළ යුතුය. ඇමරිකානු හමුදා ඉරාකයේ මෙහෙයුම් දියත් කරද්දී ඇමරිකානු තානාපතිව සිටියේ පැටිරිෂියා බුටේනිස්‌ය. ඇය අද මෙරට ඇමරිකානු තානාපතිවරියයි. ඉරාක සිවිල් වැසියන් 138000 ක් මියගොස්‌ ඇති බව ඉරාක රජය මෑතකදී පවසා තිබිණි. එසේ නම් බුටේනිස්‌ ද ඊට වගකිව යුතු වේ.
මෙහිදී ඔබාමාගේ ක්රියා කලාපය ගැන ද විමර්ශනයට ලක්‌ කළ යුතුය. ඇෆ්ගනිස්‌ථානයේ සිවිල් වැසියන් ඝාතනය වීම යුද අපරාධ යෑයි නොකියන ඔබාමාට ශ්රී ලංකාවේ සිවිල් වැසියන් ගැන විමර්ශනය කළ හැකිද? යුද අපරාධ ගැන සොයන්නේ නම් ප්රභාකරන් වසර 30 ක් තිස්‌සේ කළ බිහිසුණු අපරාධ ගැන සෙවීමට ඇමරිකාව ක්‍රිටා නොකළේ මන්ද ඔහු දුසිම් ගණන් සිවිල් වැසියන් බෝම්බ තබා ඝාතනය කරද්දී ඇමරිකාව කළේ එම සිදුවීම හෙළා දැකීම පමණකි.
මේ සම්බන්ධයෙන් කොටි න්‍යායාචාර්ය ඇන්ටන් බාලසිංහම් වරක්‌ පැවසුවේ ඇමරිකාව තමන්ගේ වැඩ බලාගත යුතු බවයි. මේ අතර එක්‌සත් ජාතීන්ගේ මහ ලේකම්වරයකුව සිටි කොෆී අන්නන් ත්‍රස්‌තවාදියකු වූ කෞශල්‍යයන් ඝාතනය වීම ගැන වැලපුනේය.
මේ නිසා ඇමරිකාව රඟ දක්‌වන මානව හිමිකම් නාටකය පැහැදිලිය. මෙම නාටකයේ ප්රධාන නළුවා සහකාර රාජ්‍ය ලේකම් රොබට්‌ බ්ලේක්‌ ය. පසුබිමේ සිsටින සහාය චරිත නම් ප්‍රංශ විදේශ ඇමැති බර්නාඩ් කුෂ්නර් සහ නෝර්වේ අමාත්‍ය එරික්‌ සෝල්හයිම් ය.
රොබට්‌ බ්ලේක්‌ දැන් මෙරට සෑම කටයුත්තකට මැදිහත් වේ. ශ්රී ලංකාවේ රජය කරන්නේ කුමක් ද කියා බලමු යෑයි ඔහු විදේශ මාධ්‍යවලට කියා සිටියි
එසේම ශ්රී ලංකා රජයට උපදෙස් දීමට ද ඔහු ඉදිරිපත් වී ඇත. මානව හිමිකම් සහ යුද අපරාධ ගැන හඬ නැඟිය යුත්තේ ඊට සම්බන්ධ නොවූවන් ය. එහෙත් ලෝකයේ විශාලතම යුද අපරාධකරු හා මානව හිමිකම් උල්ලංඝනය කරන්නා ඇමරිකාවයි.
ඇමරිකානු රජය ඉරාකය ආක්‍රමණය කළේ එක්‌සත් ජාතීන්ගේ ආරක්‍ෂක මණ්‌ඩලයෙන් අවසරය නොගෙනය. සර්බියානු මෙහෙයුම ගැනත් අවසර ගත්තේ නැහැ යෑයි හිටපු මානව හිමිකම් කොමාසරිස්‌ ලුවිසේ ආබර් මෑතකදී පිළිගත්තාය.
එසේ නම් බරක්‌ ඔබාමාලාට හා ලියෝ පැස්‌කෝලාට ශ්රී ලංකාවේ ත්රස්ත මර්දන මෙහෙයුම ගැන විමසීමට හිමිකමක්‌ තිබේද? මේ අතර එක්‌සත් ජාතීන්ගේ විශේෂ නියෝජිත ලියෝ පැස්‌කෝ වෙත සාවද්‍ය තොරතුරු යොමු කිරීමට එන්.ජී.ඕ. ක්‍රියාකාරිහු සූදානම් ඇතැයි වාර්තා විය.
යසුෂි අකාෂි ද මෙරට සය දිනක්‌ නතර වී සිටිනු ඇත. යුද අපරාධ සහ මානව හිමිකම් ගැන ක්රියා කරන්නේ නම් මුලින්ම ජාත්‍යන්තර අධිකරණය වෙත ගෙන ආ යුත්තේ ඇෆ්ගනිස්‌ථානයේ සිවිල් වැසියන් ඝාතනය වීමට වගකිවයුතු බරක්‌ ඔබාමාගේ සිට බ්‍රිතාන්‍ය, ප්‍රංශ හා නෝර්වේ අගමැතිවරුන්ය.
කීර්ති වර්ණකුලසූරිය
By Courtesy of www.divaina.com
16th June 2010.
'BBC meets its match in Sri Lankan Defence Secretary'- The Manila Times
With its foreboding lighting effects that appear to have been plucked straight out of Dante's dark epic Inferno-and cleverly devised one suspects to reduce its willing, and oftentimes unsuspecting, "victims" to submission-the BBC's HARDtalk program has attained a universal reputation (or should that be notoriety?) for tough and bruising interviews that border on intimidation.
Why, in its trailer for the widely popular program the BBC has fierce animals from the wild locking horns in deadly tussles, while HARDtalk inquisitor-in-chief Stephen Sackur looks on arms folded barely able to disguise the smirk on his face.
Last week HARDtalk was "on the road" in Sri Lanka with the sole purpose it seemed to derail the widely held perception that this jewel of an island-blessed with every imaginable treasure that nature could bestow -was finally at peace after a crippling secessionist war that lasted for three decades and ended a year ago with the humiliating defeat of the Tamil Tigers terrorist outfit, and at the needless cost of countless lives.
Any independent visitor to Sri Lanka these days cannot fail to be both surprised and exhilarated at the remarkably swift transformation that has come about in this once war-ridden nation.
One can freely enjoy the spectacular beaches (some of the most breathtaking of which cling to the north east coast which was at the heart of the conflict but are now once again open for leisurely business), savor the easily activated smiles of young and old from every ethnic mix, admire an economy that has been rejuvenated and get a real feel of the people's faith in a government given an overwhelming mandate in just concluded elections to sow the dividends of peace and prosperity.
All that, however, appeared to have been lost on the BBC and its rabid attack dog Sackur. He seemed hell-bent on using his platform to paint-with the aid of a handful of accommodating interviewees-a sinister picture of the country that belied any semblance to the harmonious reality that is post-war Sri Lanka.
To give just one glaring example. Sackur kept harking on about alledged state sponsored media persecution even while he was traversing the length and breadth of the island talking on camera to whoever he cared to choose-including even a telephone chat with detained former Army Commander General Sarath Fonseka who is the most vociferous critic of the government.
But then came his interview with powerful Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa-a tough no-nonsense tolerating retired Sri Lankan Army Colonel who (invited back in 2005 by President Mahinda Rajapaksa-his elder brother-to Sri Lanka from the US where he was domiciled with his family to lead the faltering war effort) is credited both at home and abroad with having marshalled the decisive phase of the war that saw final victory.
Now spearheading the vital task of restoring and maintaining law and order in a country that has been on a war footing for so long, Rajapaksa is totally driven to ensuring post-war stability in his homeland.
In a recent interview in Colombo with The Manila Times he was passionate in his hopes and plans for his country's future. "While it is true that the government has been able to regain control of each and every inch of land in Sri Lanka and restore peace, we have to keep in mind that we are emerging from a 30 year long conflict that, apart from its local impact, had international connotations too," said he.
Despite the military success, Rajapaksa is not given to complacency. He explains: "Although the Tamil Tigers have been militarily defeated in Sri Lanka, a lot of pro-separatist activity is taking place internationally, aided and abetted by former Tamil Tigers cadres and activists among the Tamil Dias-pora. So it is imperative that we remain vigilant.
"And while the government is committed to relaxing the emergency regulations and restoring normalcy and giving the people the full benefits of peace, we have to take whatever steps necessary to ensure that terrorism does not raise its ugly head in Sri Lanka ever again."
So, with a reputation as a guy who doesn't mince his words, Rajapaksa's characteristic hard talking style made him the ideal guest for a TV program which prides itself in being called HARDtalk.
But. alas, it turned out to be more than Sackur could handle. Every verbal punch that he threw at Rajapaksa the combative Defense Secretary returned with crushing effect, jolting the normally self-controlled Sackur off balance.
Fixing Sackur with a steely glare and reminding him "that Sri Lanka was a sovereign nation," Rajapaksa tore apart the BBC talking head's argument that Sri Lanka should submit itself to a United Nations brokered inquiry into accusations of atrocities allegedly committed by both sides in the closing stages of the war.
When Sackur pulled out what he thought was his trump card and accosted Rajapaksa with the charge leveled at him by General Fonseka (who, incidentally, has built himself a post-military political career out of making wild accusations against the Defense Secretary) that during the final battle he ordered that even those people waving white flags of surrender should be shot, the Defense Secretary's rage was palpable.
"He is a liar," bristled Rajapaksa, "and if he continues to say that, he should be hanged because that is treason." Sackur, unaccustomed to hearing such hard talking on his show was visibly taken aback, "You mean to say you would execute him?" asked Sacker his voice rising. "Yes, that's the punishment for treason against your country," countered Gotabaya.
And so the interview went on, with the by now emotionally charged Rajapaksa giving back twice as hard as he was getting from Sackur, and making it clear to the BBC frontman that he doesn't have a monopoly on the truth.
So much so that Sackur brought the interview-that by this stage was turning into an absorbing mis-match-to an abrupt end.
Normally the show ends with Sackur shaking hands cordially with his guest. And we hazard a guess his trip is clasping the hand offered by the guest sitting across him and getting a triumphant feel of the sweaty and clammy level he had been able to reduce the often cowering interviewee.
But this time around, in a first-ever for this globally televised talk show, it ended with the Sri Lankan Defense Secretary allowing himself a hearty chuckle in the knowledge that in this particular edition of HARDtalk it was undoubtedly game, set and match to him. And TV viewers worldwide could attest to that!
By Courtesy of www.manilatimes.net
14th June 2010.
Tuesday 8 June 2010
Monday 7 June 2010
Sri Lanka on BBC s Hardtalk, Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa fields questions.
The BBC World Service will air four HARDtalk programs on Sri Lanka beginning Monday (June 7) on BBC World News, BBC announced from London.
The first of the four-part series will begin with `Tamils and the broken north` with Stephen Sackur talking to military officials, the Defence Secretary and former LTTE fighters (who BBC said live in hiding) and civilians trying to rebuild their lives.
Tuesday`s program is titled `Democracy under threat` and Sackur will talk to Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse, the brother of the President. He asks `Has Sri Lanka`s ruling family replaced democracy with their own authoritarian rule?` BBC said.
Wednesday`s program is titled `Former Tiger child soldiers rebuilding their lives.`
This is described as `one of the untold stories of the Sri Lanka conflict what has become of the hundreds of children conscripted and forced to fight as part of the Tamil Tiger army?` the BBC release said.The blurb says hardtalk ``gains exclusive access to the Sri Lanka government`s child soldier rehabilitation program.`
Here Stephen Sackur talks to the rehabilitation program director, to teachers and `to the teenagers themselves about their horrific experiences and new lives.``
`The program poses a troubling question should the victorious Sri Lanka military really be responsible for the rehabilitation of the traumatized and vulnerable Tamil teens?`` the blurb said.
The final part of the program is an interview with Sri Lanka`s powerful Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse which is described as a hard hitting one-on-one interview.
`Stephen Sackur questions the Defence Secretary on the Sri Lanka army`s conduct in the final days of the war, accusation of war crimes, the economy, democracy, the judiciary, freedom of the press and the future of the Tamil people in Sri Lanka.``
Broadcast times are 0330h, 0830h, 1530h and 2030h GMT.
BBC Link
By Courtesy of www.island.lk
07th June 2010.
Saturday 5 June 2010
State ventures will not be sold but made profitable - Wimal
President Mahinda Rajapaksa would never hand over State enterprises to the private sector, but make every attempt to make them profitable ventures, Minister of Housing and Construction, Minister, Wimal Weerawansa, said after an official visit to the Government Factory at Kolonnawa.
Addressing the employees at the Government Factory, he said that the best example was the taking back of SriLankan Airlines from the control of Emirates.
"The Government sector has a proud history behind it and they face certain problems in the present economic situation. The State Enterprises can now give tough competition to the private sector, and we will make every attempt to solve each and every problem," Weerawansa said.
He said that President Rajapaksa since assuming duties as Head of State and the government never sold any State enterprise but always looked for ways and means to turn them into profit making ventures. The government was making every attempt to get over all obstacles facing the State enterprises that are facing problems, and will not allow those institutions to fail, but see that they are successful and find solutions, the Minister promised the employees.
"We must improve this institution to face the challenges ahead to develop the country and request all employees to throw their full weight behind it. I am willing to discuss development plans for this institution with the officials and employees," he said.
Minister Weerawansa was accompanied by Deputy Minister Lasantha Alagiyawanna, and officials and employees of the Government factory with whom he held discussions.
By Courtesy of www.island.lk
06th June 2010.
Wednesday 2 June 2010
Sri Lanka is on the right track - Global corporate 'guru' Dr. Ram Charan.
Sri Lanka has many positives and assets, along with the passion to take the country to the next level, said Dr. Ram Charan, addressing the media during a whirlwind 24 hour visit to the island on an invitation from Brandix Lanka on Monday.
Dr. Charan - who is a highly-sought after business advisor and speaker famous for his uncanny ability to solve the toughest business problems - asserted that "the key thing everybody has to know in this world is that the speed and volatility of external change is very high. No one individual can master this change."
"There is passion here to take this country to the next level, particularly in relation to the economy and education and positioning Sri Lanka in the changing world," he noted.
Responding to a question on his first impressions of Sri Lanka, he said: "This is my first visit here to Sri Lanka. As you know, Sri Lanka has more in common with the Indian culture than some of the other countries. I am glad to see that you are on the growth path and transforming your economy."
For over 35 years, this business 'guru' has worked behind the scenes with top executives at some of the world's most successful companies and has also shared his insights through teaching and writing.
According to Dr. Charan, he visited Sri Lanka for two purposes: "Firstly, I love learning. The second is focused on how I can help Brandix in new ways with new ideas."
"The management of Brandix has a very forward looking, visionary and bold management and ownership to take this company forward towards number one in the world. And these are not light words from me because I am able to examine many companies in the world," added Charon, who consults for the largest and most powerful companies and is among the most sought-after CEO advisors in the world.
Touching on whether it would be wise for Sri Lanka to come out with its own brand, given its expertise in the apparel industry, Dr. Charan said: "See the market, see the change in the market, which gives you the understanding to create new things. Why not?"
However, CEO of Brandix Lanka Ashroff Omar was quick to point out that while branding was one matter, execution was another altogether.
Pointing out that there were other aspects that came before branding, he said: "For example, Apple Computers are built by a huge Taiwanese company which is almost as big as Apple. Providing the total solutions your customer needs is a different discipline. Brandix is not looking at its own brand immediately; we have to first master what we are doing."
Touching on some figures, Omar revealed that total apparel imports into the US stood at US$ 65 billion, of which Sri Lanka exports 1.75 billion and China about US$ 30 billion.
"In China there are apparel companies which are about a billion dollars today, which is not big. There are shoe companies which are close to four to five billion dollars. They don't have their own brand, but 35% of the world's shoes are made by one Taiwanese company. Our whole focus and plan is to be a mega supplier of apparel. As we go along, we will build our own brand if necessary - but we have to first be masters at what we do," he added.
"The market is so big. There is an over 100 billion dollar market in apparel. If you take the six or seven categories which the country is good at, that will account for more than 40 or 45 percent of the total buying."
By Marianne David
By courtesy of: www.dailymirror.lk
Published 2nd June, 2010.
Thursday 27 May 2010
Let us follow the Buddha's path - President
Those who live virtuous lives will not see the faults of the past and grieve in the present. Let us resolve during this Vesak Day to follow the wholesome path of the Buddha with determination and relentless efforts to build a virtuous nation, President Mahinda Rajapaksa said.
President Rajapaksa issuing a message for Vesak said: "Vesak Full Moon Day which marks the birth of Prince Siddhartha, His Enlightenment and Parinibbana is the noblest religious event for all Buddhists. We can spend this day meaningfully by engaging in Buddhist rituals and practice.
We who observe the five precepts do not approve killing, bloodshed and torture. It brings joy to celebrate this Vesak after closing the sorrowful chapter of thirty years of bloodshed and destruction of life. It is fortunate that Buddhists now enjoy the freedom and a secure atmosphere necessary for that purpose. We must enter a spiritual and virtuous way of life in order to sustain that joy.
A path of love (metta), compassion (karuna), sympathetic joy (muditha) and equanimity (upekha) should be followed. Ours should be a nation which is not shortsighted but farsighted and committed to achieve consolation through patience as taught by Buddha.
If delays in the pat obstructed our path to Nibbana, we should learn to avoid such delay.
Yo cha pubbe pamajjithva - paccha so nappamajjathi
So imang lokang pabhasethi - abha muththova chandima
- Dhammapada
"If one was heedless in the beginning but is not so afterwards, he will illuminate this world as the moon emerges through the cloud," thus Buddha taught.
May the Triple Gem bless you!
By Courtesy of www.dailynews.lk
27th May 2010.
Sunday 23 May 2010
The latest 'horror drama'
One year has elapsed after Sri Lanka's Security Forces crushed LTTE terrorism and became the first country to eradicate terrorism. During Sri Lanka's relentless battle against terror, many international organisations and a few countries made desperate attempts to disrupt the operations of the Security Forces.
Some countries, which profess to be the Godfathers in the international battle against terror, made many an attempt to resurrect the LTTE when the world's most ruthless terrorist organistion was on the verge of being vanquished.
Even when the Security Forces were about to trounce the LTTE leadership in the final battle at the Nandikadal lagoon, some countries, at the eleventh hour attempted to pump in the last drop of oxygen to the moribund terrorist organisation which had killed a countless number of innocent people and inflicted untold hardships on millions of people of all ethnic groups in Sri Lanka.
Although these countries and organizations, including some INGOs, who could not directly support a terror outfit which was violating all accepted norms and international conventions, they buttressed moral support for the LTTE and attempted to discredit the country's Security Forces which rendered a magnanimous and invaluable service.
Certain countries and some international organisations shamefully used human rights as an effective tool to exert pressure on the Government, in an insidious attempt to bring about a premature end to the operations of the Security Forces.
Fortunately for us, we had the invincible political leadership of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who did not yield to mounting pressure from all quarters, including a handful of local opportunistic Opposition politicians who attempted to gain petty political mileage.
Had it not been for the indomitable and determined effort of President Rajapaksa and unfailing support extended by Sri Lanka's friendly countries, we would perhaps never have eliminated terrorism and liberated the country.
Ironically, the same extremist elements which had made numerous attempts to protect Tiger terrorists and disrupt Sri Lanka's battle against terror, have again surfaced at a time the entire nation is celebrating the first anniversary of the country's liberation from terrorism.
Controversial Louise Arbour, the then UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, a high-ranking international official, was one whose conduct was questionable. The International Crisis Group (ICG), headed by Arbour, which has now made the latest attempt to discredit Sri Lanka's Security Forces.
As exclusively reported in our lead story last Sunday, the ICG has made an ignominious attempt to level war crimes against the Security Forces which liberated over a half a million people who had been forcibly held by the LTTE terrorists as a human shield. Arbour's move from the UN to the ICG has not changed her moral responsibility one wee bit.
The ICG report, released last Monday to coincide with the first anniversary of the LTTE's defeat, not only puts the scale of civilian casualties far higher than previous UN estimates, but also declares that the ICG has "credible evidence" to suggest that the Security Forces shelled civilian targets and hospitals during the battle against terrorism.
This is no doubt a shameless and unethical attempt to distort the truth and fabricate stories to deny the credit of the Security Forces which had maintained a near zero civilian casualty rate at all times.
The ICG said that its report was based on eyewitness statements, photographs, video satellite images, electronic communications and documents from a "wide range of sources". One has a reason to wonder how the ICG had based its facts or was influenced by the tampered video footings such as the infamous Channel 4 incident which championed concocted stories.
The ICG report could well be the first in the latest series of conspiracies that are likely to emerge in the international arena against Sri Lanka. The few remaining international leaders of the now defunct LTTE, along with a section of the Tamil diaspora and a handful of LTTE sympathisers are behind the latest conspiracy of which Arbour's ICG, perhaps, is only a partner.
In these circumstances, the credibility of the ICG report is at stake as ICG personnel have made hostile expressions on Sri Lanka's conduct of the conflict and the public perception is that their report will be unfairly hostile and cannot be relied upon.
In a subtle attempt to give credibility to itself, the ICG has faulted the extinct LTTE too, as a part of balancing act, knowing only too well that in the absence of personnel or an organisation, no action can be taken against the LTTE. It seems that the sole aim of the ICG report is to frame war charges against the Government and its Security Forces.
To hound a democratically elected government, which has every right to defend its sovereignty and protect its people against the most ruthless terrorists in the world which had bled our nation for 30 years with the support of certain countries in the West to restore the right to life to its subjects to say the least is certainly mind boggling.
Why is the ICG keen on holding an inquiry into the alleged war crimes in Sri Lanka? Are the backroom boys at the ICG playing the role of scripting the ghost report to discredit the Defence Forces of Sri Lanka. The prime objective of the report is to bring Sri Lanka into disrepute in the eyes of the international community. Unlike the non-existent, Sri Lanka is a nation state that can be subjected to international sanctions. Certain Western powers and its allied INGOs tried their best to concoct stories to discredit Sri Lanka in its effort to defeat terrorism.
It is patently clear that certain countries in the West and their shadow INGOs are staging their latest 'horror drama' against Sri Lanka. These extremist elements, who fought tooth and nail to protect the LTTE and failed, now need a busybody such as the ICG to unearth material to sully Sri Lanka's reputation.
Why are these organisations conspiring only against Sri Lanka? Having woefully failed in their attempt for a regime change by using a traitor such as Sarath Fonseka who was only too willing to favour war crimes' allegations, they are now resorting to everything under the Sun in an attempt to tame the leadership which had never been a Western puppet.
By Courtesy of www.defence.lk
22nd May 2010
Tuesday 18 May 2010
මහ කොටියා මරා දමා වසරයි.
බෙදුම්වාදී ත්රස්තවාදය අවසන් කරමින් ශ්රී ලංකාව එක්සේසත් වී අද (18) දිනට වසරක් සපිරෙයි. වීරෝදාර රණවිරුවන් විසින් මුලතිව් වෙල්ලමුල්ලිවෛක්කාල් හි පිහිටි නන්දිකණ්ඩාල් කලපුවේ දී කොටි නායක වේළුපිල්ලේ ප්රභාකරන් ඝාතනය කිරීමත් සමග මුළු දිවයිනම සිංහ ධජය යටතට පත්විය.
යාපනය නගරාධිපති ඇල්ෆ‍්‍රඞ් දොරේ අප්පා මහතා ඝාතනය කරමින් ප්රභාකරන් විසින් ආරම්භ කරන ලද ඝාතන රැල්ල හේතුවෙන් දහස් සංඛ්‍යාත අහිංසක සිවිල් වැසියන් පිරිසකගේ ජීවිත විනාශ විය. එපමණක් නොව තවත් දහස් ගණනක් දෙනා අබාධිත තත්වයට පත් වූ අතර විනාශ වී ගිය දේපළ වල වටිනාකම රුපියල් කෝටි ගණනකි. කොටි ත‍්‍රස්තවාදීන් සමග සාකච්ඡ මාර්ගයෙන් ගැටලූවට විසඳුම් සෙවීමට බලයට පත් සෑම රජයක්ම උත්සාහ දැරූ නමුත් ත‍්‍රස්තවාදීන් එම සෑම අවස්ථාවක්ම ප‍්‍රයෝජනයට ගත්තේ ඔවුන්ගේ ප‍්‍රයෝජනය සඳහා පමණි.
කෙසේ වෙතත් 2006 වසරේ දී මාවිල්ආරු සොරොව්ව කොටි ත‍්‍රස්තවාදීන් විසින් වසා දැමීමෙන් පසු එය විවෘත කිරීම සඳහා ආරක්‍ෂක හමුදාවන් ආරම්භ කළ මානුෂීය මෙහෙයුම සාර්ථකව ඉදිරියට ම ගෙන යනු ලැබිණි. එහි ප‍්‍රතිඵල ලෙස නැගෙනහිර පළාතත් වන්නි මෙහෙයුම මගින් උතුරු පළාතේ පිහිටි සියලූ කොටි බලකොටුත් ආරක්‍ෂක හමුදාවෝ අත්පත් කර ගත්හ. ඒ අනුව 2009 වසරේ මැයි මස 18 වැනි දින මුළු ශ්රී ලංකාවම තිස් වසරක් පැවති ම්ලේච්ඡ ත‍්‍රස්තවාදී ශාපයෙන් නිදහස් විය.
මාතෘ භූමිය ත‍්‍රස්තවාදයෙන් මුදා ගැනීම සඳහා ක්රියා කළ ජනාධිපති මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ මහතාටත්, හිටපු යුද හමුදාපති ජනරාල් සරත් ෆොන්සේකා, හිටපු නාවික හමුදාපති රියර් අද්මිරාල් වසන්ත කරන්නාගොඩ, ගුවන් හමුදාපති එයාර් චීෆ් මාර්ෂල් රොෂාන් ගුණතිලක, සිවිල් ආරක්‍ෂක බලකායේ හිටපු අධ්‍යක්‍ෂ රියර් අද්මිරාල් සරත් වීරසේකර මහත්වරුන්ටත් ජීවිත පූජා කළ එමෙන්ම ආබාධිත තත්වයට පත් රණවිරුවන් ඇතුළු සියලූ වීරෝදාර රණවිරුවන්ට මේ මොහොතේ අපගේ ගෞරවණීය ප‍්‍රණාමය පුද කර සිටිමු.
By Courtesy of www.lankacnews.com
18th May, 2010.
Monday 17 May 2010
"I was convinced that the military option was the only way to eliminate the LTTE"- by Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.
In a sense, I could say that it all began on November 18, 2005 around seven o'clock in the morning. Those were tense moments and we were monitoring the results of Sri Lanka's closest presidential election at Temple Trees.
My brother, then Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa walked out of the self-styled 'Operations Room' where the results were coming in thick and fast. The Ampara district result had just come in. It clinched the contest, for he had just obtained an unbeatable lead over his rival, Ranil Wickremesinghe.
Beaming as he came out of the 'Ops Room', I was the first person he met. As I greeted him, he had just a few words for me: "You must take over as Secretary of Defence," he said. I smiled in reply, realising that I had very little choice in the matter.
Even so, it was a difficult decision. I had retired from the Army in 1991 after twenty years of service and, after obtaining a Post-graduate Diploma in Computer Technology from the University of Colombo, I had reconciled myself to a life domiciled in the United States, where I had lived since 1994.
I had been working as a Unix Systems Administrator at the Loyola Law School in Marymount University in Los Angeles, California for over nine years. Like most others of my age, I had to support my son's education and a mortgage to pay on my house.
However, towards the end of July 2005 when I was informed that my elder brother was given the party nomination for the presidency, I felt it was nothing but right that I should return to the country for a while to help him in his campaign.
My employers were keen to support me -- it was not every day that someone came with a request for leave saying his brother was running for President! I obtained three months leave and came to Sri Lanka leaving my wife and son and kept in touch with my employers via e-mail: I wanted to return to my job as soon as the dust settled on the elections, where I was busily campaigning in the Kurunegala district.
The outcome of the elections and my brother's request had now changed all that. When my wife Ioma and my son Manoj flew to Sri Lanka for the President's inauguration, we discussed what should be done about her job in the United States, my son's future and the mortgage on the house, knowing all along that we didn't really have a choice.
That is because I have always had my own ideas -- and plans -- about the war and I sensed that this was an ideal opportunity to implement them. If I didn't, I would always regret it. While in the United States, I always read avidly about the war effort, kept in touch with officers of my vintage and, as a result, I had come to my own conclusions.
For instance, I was convinced that a military option was the only way to eliminate the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). I believed that it could be done. I also strongly believed that talking to Velupillai Prabhakaran was a waste of time -- and ultimately, a waste of lives. Now, I had the chance to be a part of a team that believed in these same ideas.
I was indeed appointed Secretary of Defence but the President came in for some criticism because of this. He was appointing family members to key posts, his critics said. It is true that I am his brother but my appointment had other advantages.
As a former army officer, I understood the war better than a civil servant and officers in the higher ranks were mostly my contemporaries. And, as the President's brother I always had unrestricted access to him and he had utmost confidence in me. Therefore, I could serve as the crucial link between the political and military establishments ensuring better co-ordination between the two. Few appreciated this at that time.
As Secretary of Defence, I had to brief the President on the state of the war. This I did, gathering information from intelligence services as well as the ground commanders. What I heard from them convinced me even more that the war could be won -- and that it had to be won, for there was no other way. And this is what I told the President.
One of the President's first tasks after assuming office was to visit India. There, he met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for a one-on-one discussion. Thereafter, I was called in to brief Premier Singh. I handed over a report containing my observations which detailed how the LTTE had abused the Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) to recruit cadres, purchase arms and even train civilians for their 'Makkal Padai' ('Peoples' Force'). These, I said, were all signs that they were preparing for war. We even requested military assistance from India to counter this threat.
Of course, as the political head of the country, the President had to purse the democratic option first -- that of talking to the LTTE. But the President was very clear in his instructions to us: he would handle the negotiations in Geneva but the armed forces must be ready for war. They were to be two separate efforts.
I also proposed key changes to the armed forces. A crucial strategy was in appointing field commanders who could get the job done. In fact, I was instrumental in appointing General Sarath Fonseka as the Army Commander.
I recommended General Fonseka for the job as I believed he should have a chance to command the Army. My recommendation posed a problem for the President because General Fonseka's predecessor, General Shantha Kottegoda had two more years to serve and there was no reason to remove him from office. Nevertheless, the President accepted my recommendation and General Fonseka was appointed Commander of the Army in December 2005.
As he was appointed just a week before his fifty-fifth birthday, General Fonseka's tenure had to be extended every year by the President. This too led to difficulties when General Fonseka came up for his first extension in 2006. By then, the Geneva peace talks with the Tigers had broken down and slowly but steadily, the war had begun. But there was pressure on the President from various quarters not to extend General Fonseka's term of office as Commander.
I do recall former Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva calling me to his chambers and having a lengthy discussion on the matter. The then CJ suggested that I should not recommend an extension for General Fonseka as he claimed the General's actions had led to many injustices in the Army causing a lot of dissent and stated that General Fonseka had dictatorial tendencies which could be a threat to democracy.
"It is not necessary for you to have him, you can manage with another person," Silva advised. Many others, including government and opposition politicians and retired and senior serving military officers had the same sentiments.
Yet, I thought that changing the Commander of the Army in the midst of a military campaign was counter-productive. I personally carried General Fonseka's file to the President for his signature, on the very last day the extension could possibly have been given and the President signed it while having lunch.
Many also often ask me the question as to whether the suicide attack on me on December 1, 2006 strengthened my resolve to fight the war to a finish. The truth is that it was not an unforeseen event. At the Security Council, intelligence services had warned us of possible attacks on the President, me and the three service commanders.
The President responded by giving us bullet proof vehicles from his pool of vehicles. It is fortunate that I used a bullet proof vehicle that day -- or else, I would not be writing this today. It is also unfortunate that General Sarath Fonseka did not use his bullet proof vehicle on April 25, 2006 possibly because he was travelling within the Army Headquarters complex which he believed to be secure, in his soft skin vehicle.
Nevertheless, the attack on me was just another incident. It did not demoralise me; nor did it add courage or vengeance to my efforts.
As far as I was concerned, I was committed to end the war, anyway. There were many ingredients to our success. I feel that the single most decisive factor was our decision to increase the strength of the military -- mostly the Army -- three-fold. When such a request is made, it obviously entails a significant burden on the economy; it is not simply a matter of paying the salaries of the additional troops; they need to be equipped with weapons and ammunition, their logistical needs increase and other administrative and organisational changes are needed in the long term.
There are also other political implications and many politicians would think twice about why the military was seeking to enhance its strength in this manner. But again, the President understood the need for our suggestion and he believed it was a fair request. Therefore the President's decision was made easier, and he readily allocated the necessary funds for this purpose.
I was in close contact with our ground commanders at all stages of the battle. This enabled me to process their requests quickly, sort out their logistical problems and at times, directly intervene to facilitate co-ordination between the different forces.
Meanwhile, in the military operations we engaged, our troops were pushing the LTTE back, destroying their strongholds and capturing vital terrain in the process. The Tigers resorted to delaying tactics, putting up a 'ditch cum bund' heavily fortified with mines in the areas they held. Eventually, a major clash erupted at Puthukuduirippu, which had them encircled.
By then, the Tigers had decided to adopt the strategy of taking civilians with them as they retreated and when they had been cornered to Puthumathalan, they had some 300,000 civilians who were being used as their 'human shield'. The international community, the United Nations and India were very concerned and we understood their concerns. The question uppermost on everyone's mind was how these civilians should be rescued.
For the government, it was a time to take crucial decisions. The military had to maintain its momentum to end the long lasting campaign as soon as possible. The end of thirty years of suffering was near because we knew that the top leaders including Prabhakaran were surrounded.
However, at the same time the government had to consider the safety of the trapped civilians. Elsewhere, India, especially Tamil Nadu, was sensitive to events here and their concerns had to be taken into consideration. Meanwhile, Pro-LTTE organisations were lobbying and putting pressure on the international community.
The President was firm in his decision that the offensive should continue. After conferring with him, we arrived at several decisions. We declared 'no fire zones'. We also adopted a self-imposed ban on air bombing, artillery and mortar fire whenever we were confronted with battle zones which were home to civilians. Our field commanders were very mindful of this and restrained themselves often.
Also, at every stage of the battle we made certain that food and medical supplies reached the trapped civilians through the World Food Programme, the Red Cross and the United Nations. In the last stages of the war, this could be done only through sea but we still did so, even if it involved a high risk to the military and even though we knew that some of the food and medicines we supplied invariably went to the LTTE.
We felt that the LTTE strategy was to try and prolong the conflict with the help of civilians under their control with the expectation that some in the international community would intervene on their behalf to ensure that their leadership survives, so that they could live to fight another day.
To try and foil this, we adopted a novel method. We opened up corridors in the battle zone so that civilians could flee to government controlled areas. Nearly all of them did and the whole world saw footage recorded from Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) which showed how the LTTE fired at and killed civilians trying to leave the battle zone. It was a major victory for us because thousands of civilians were evacuated in this manner-and also because the hypocrisy of the LTTE was exposed.
I do admit that it was a very difficult and complex operation. Often, wounded LTTE cadres would change into civilian clothes to cross over. There would be times when we had to hold fire to prevent civilian casualties.
I must remind all those who accuse us of shooting cadres crossing over with white flags that we at all times adopted a 'zero civilian casualty' principle, despite fighting an unconventional war with a terrorist group which adopted each and every method of warfare. By mid-May last year, I was fairly certain that the end was near for the LTTE. I was engaged in visiting every district to meet the families of servicemen in each region. On May 18, by a strange co-incidence, I was at Hambantota, my hometown.
Usually these meeting are conducted in an army camp but since this meeting was in my hometown, it was arranged at Medamulana, at our ancestral home. I then received a telephone call from the President and briefed him to say that the war would in all probability end that day. Close to noon, the President called back to say that the Army Commander, General Fonseka had said it probably could not be done within the day.
I however informed him that this was possible as the field commanders had assured me that the end was at hand. Later, the President was contacted by General Fonseka who had confirmed my prediction. It was on May 18 that the military recovered many bodies of top LTTE leaders after the final battle at Nanthikadal and they began the task of identifying the dead that day itself. It was also the day that there was some speculation that Velupillai Prabhakaran had been killed while trying to flee in an ambulance.
On the following day, May 19, I was attending a meeting of families of servicemen in the Galle district when General Fonseka called me. He carried good news: the body of Velupillai Prabhakaran had been found. It was on the same day that the President addressed Parliament, officially declaring the end of military operations and the capture of all territories previously controlled by the LTTE.
For some, questions remain such as the fate of Pottu Amman, the Tigers' intelligence chief and there are suggestions that he was not killed in the final battle. We do have credible information from extremely reliable sources that Pottu Amman was in the battle zone at Nanthikadal. We also know that he could not have escaped from the tight naval and military blockade that encompassed the area.
It is true that his body was never identified. But it is also true that this area of scrub jungle yielded dozens of bodies which could not be identified positively because they were in an advanced state of destruction. Therefore, Pottu Amman is certainly dead and it would be extremely naïve to believe otherwise.
Since the end of the war we have had some significant breakthroughs, the most notable among them being the capture of 'KP' or Kumaran Pathmanathan, the LTTE's point man in international relations and close confidant of Prabhakaran.
We know that KP was responsible for organising the arms procurement network of the LTTE and that in the two years that he was side-lined by Prabhakaran, the Tiger's supplies dwindled drastically.
However, they reconciled and in the last stages of the war, Prabhakaran re-appointed him to procure weapons. KP arranged for a final shipment but when the battle ended on May 18, the vessel carrying these arms dumped their cargo in the sea on May 20 and made a hasty exit.
We also know that Prabhakaran spoke to KP from Puthumathalan through an intermediary. Prabhakaran's son, Charles Anthony, spoke directly to KP just before his demise. After their deaths, KP anointed himself as the new leader of the LTTE and asked the Tiger diaspora to rally round him and pledged to re-structure the organisation. Therefore, I would rate capturing KP as being as important as killing Prabhakaran -- and that is not an exaggeration.
Now that the war is over, there are demands to relax the military controls in the North and East. In my opinion, that would be foolish. With an organisation as destructive as the LTTE, there are always bound to be some elements who would want to re-group and we must be wary of such possibilities.
I believe protecting our coastline should be a priority now. If our beaches were secured previously, the Tigers could not have smuggled in weapons in such large quantities and they wouldn't have grown in to the monstrous organisation that they were. Similarly the vast jungle terrain in the Wanni must be dominated -- it is this land that the LTTE exploited to the maximum during the early stages of its campaign to wage guerrilla warfare.
The Police must also complement this by adopting a different role. Police officers should speak the language of the region. They should cease to be the paramilitary force that they have been for the past 25 years and revert to their more familiar role of maintaining law and order. These changes require time, effort and most importantly, a change of attitude.
I hear a clamour for political reforms in the North and East and I understand and appreciate that. But I do also sincerely believe that priority should be given not to political reforms but to infrastructure development and attending to the other basic social needs of the people.
The people of the war-ravaged areas now need roads, electricity, drinking water, schools, hospitals and jobs much more than they need amendments to the Constitution. With the former, they can rebuild their lives which had been stalled for nearly three decades. Then, surely, the latter will follow.
In two days, we will be celebrating the first anniversary of our war victory. The victory parade will represent the formations of the final humanitarian operation. We hope to continue this as an annual event, in remembrance of the country's greatest victory in recent times. It is especially a victory for those people who lived in fear of the LTTE in the North and East and in the threatened villages bordering them. But what we must also remember is that this is not a celebration of the President, the Armed Forces, the government, a political party or of one particular community; this a celebration for every Sri Lankan.
As for my future plans, many ask me whether I would follow the footsteps of my brothers and take to politics. If I wanted to do that, I had the perfect opportunity at the April general elections but I declined.
Unfortunately, all my adult life I have been either a professional soldier or an expert in information technology and politics does not have any attraction despite growing up in a political family and being under the constant influence of my brothers. Politics, therefore, is most certainly not an option.
I do believe that I can do more as a public official -- just as I have done over the past five years. There are new challenges that beckon. Remodelling the military into a modern, thoroughly professional peacetime force is one of them.
The Urban Development Authority has now been attached to the Defence Ministry and that is an added challenging responsibility. And who knows, that could be as testing as fighting the most ruthless terrorist organisation in the world!
What is certain though is that saying 'yes' to the President's offer on that November morning five years ago has not been in vain.
By Courtesy of Sunday Times.
17th May, 2010.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)