Wednesday, 5 August 2020

Sri-Lanka - The Morally and Financially Bankrupt Banana Republic

The successive Sri-Lankan regimes have managed to deceive the world and, in the process, have bankrupted the country – both morally and financially! 

A Criminal Enterprise

Mahinda Rajapaksa and his brothers are world leaders in deception. 

The country has criminals, fraudsters and mass murderers holding important positions. 

This article will list some of the major deceptions of the Sri-Lankan regimes and will be updated regularly to include more examples of shams, deceptions and frauds.   

This is what Gotabaya Rajapaksa told "The Australian" newspaper on 23 March 2009: 

The UN may tell you that at least 2,000 civilians have been killed in fighting since January, but Sri Lanka's Secretary of Defence, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, says there are none. Absolutely none. 

"If you want to believe me, believe me, no civilian casualties! 

In 2009, the Rajapaksa regime arrested five doctors who worked in the War-zone and forced them to tell the media that a maximum of 750 civilians were killed in the final five months of the war! 

In 2011, the regime claimed that around 7,500 civilians were killed! 

A doctor who worked in Sri Lanka's combat zone in the final days of the civil war told the BBC in March 2014 that he was forced by the government to retract his claims about casualty figures. 

Speaking to the BBC's Sinhala service, Dr Varatharaja said he and his colleagues had been threatened with three to four years in jail if they did not recant their statements. 

A UN investigation said 40,000 people were killed in the final five months alone!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-26670691

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-13158916

http://www.channel4.com/news/sri-lanka-war-crimes-inquiry-doctor-varatharajah-thariajah

The regime first dismissed Channel 4's Sri-Lanka Killing Field programme as a fake. It then said in 2012 that it would use the programme to investigate allegations of War Crime! 

In March 2014, the Sri-Lankan foreign minister said in Geneva that the government would use Channel 4 videos to “identify witnesses.” 

Sri Lankan army to investigate civilian war casualties:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17049760

BBC investigates Sri Lanka disappearances:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24662898

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24648595

In 2015, the “new regime” of Maithripala Sirisena co-sponsored a U.N. Human Rights Council resolution calling for the investigation of allegations of war crimes committed during the island nation's long civil war. 

Sri Lanka co-sponsored the resolution at the U.N. Human Rights Council along with 11 other countries calling for the investigation of allegations of wartime atrocities by both government forces and the Tamil Tiger rebels, The U.S, UK,  Australia and Germany were also among the co-sponsors. 

Under Human Rights Council Resolution 30/1, Sri Lanka committed to 25 key undertakings across a range of human rights issues. A core pledge was to set up four transitional justice mechanisms to promote “reconciliation, accountability and human rights” in the country. These included an accountability mechanism involving international judges, prosecutors, investigators, and defence lawyers; a truth and reconciliation mechanism; an office on missing persons; and an office for reparations.  

US imposes sanctions on Sri Lankan War Criminal Shavendra Silva:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/14/us-sanctions-sri-lanka-army-chief-shavendra-silva

US embassy cables reveal details of criminal activities within the Sri-Lankan government:

https://www.tamilguardian.com/content/sri-lankan-government-%E2%80%98officials-complicit-trafficking%E2%80%99-us-state-department

https://www.theguardian.com/world/us-embassy-cables-documents/108763

https://www.theguardian.com/world/us-embassy-cables-documents/243811

Maithripala Sirisena’s Con Tricks 

Maithripala Sirisena’s government had initially backed a UN resolution calling for a war crimes court supported by foreign judges. 

In March 2015, Maithripala Sirisena told the BBC that an investigative committee would work "efficiently, in a balanced, legal and impartial manner". 

Sri Lanka president Sirisena pledges war crimes inquiry:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-31844796

In January 2016, he changed his tune, as usual! He told the BBC that he would never allow international involvement!

Sri Lanka president wants 'internal' war crimes court:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-35376719

In March 2019, the UN high commissioner for human rights, Michelle Bachelet, told the Human Rights Council that in Sri Lanka, “there has been minimal progress on accountability. Continuing impunity risks fuelling communal or interethnic violence, and instability. Resolving these cases, and bringing the perpetrators of past crimes to justice, is necessary to restore the confidence of victims from all communities.”

https://www.ohchr.org/en/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=24371&LangID=E

Sirisena’s government was given repeated warnings about the Easter Sunday bombings by the Indian Intelligence Service and others. 

He failed to take any action to prevent the attacks and has recently claimed that he was only the President and Minister of Defence and his job was in policy, planning, issuing directives and advice!

https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/sri-lanka-president-maithripala-sirisena-vows-to-block-easter-attacks-probe-2049944

https://economynext.com/former-prez-sirisena-refuses-to-accept-responsibility-for-sri-lankas-easter-sunday-attacks-71216/

Impunity Rains 

Murderers, Rapists and War Criminals enjoy immunity as the police and the justice system are corrupt and are highly politicized. 

Outrage as Sri Lanka president pardons Swedish teen's killer:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-50365125

Sri Lanka's president has pardoned and released an army officer sentenced to death for slitting the throats of Tamil civilians, including four children, during the island's bloody ethnic war:

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/03/sri-lanka-pardons-soldier-killed-tamil-civilians-200327033617104.html

Sri Lankan president grants clemency to war criminal:

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/03/30/prsl-m30.html

https://www.change.org/p/mp-hugh-mcdermott-we-demand-that-hugh-mcdermott-sustain-his-support-for-the-australian-tamil-community

https://www.tamilguardian.com/content/british-mps-calls-sanctions-sri-lankan-government-and-military-officials

https://www.tamilguardian.com/content/human-rights-sri-lanka-continue-deteriorate-warns-uk-foreign-commonwealth-and-development

http://www.slguardian.org/2020/11/sri-lanka-fate-of-democracy.html


Bankrupt Economy 

Sri-Lanka has just been downgraded from an upper-middle income country to a lower middle-income country by the World Bank. 

Sri Lank is one of only three countries that are moving to a lower category from the previous year. 

https://economynext.com/sri-lanka-downgraded-to-world-bank-lower-middle-income-country-as-per-capita-income-falls-71644/

http://www.ft.lk/columns/It-is-a-values-based-and-not-value-based-political-culture-that-is-needed-today/4-704038

Sri Lanka’s economy is among the worst affected by the COVID 19 crisis, according to a recent ranking by the Economist.


https://www.economist.com/briefing/2020/05/02/which-emerging-markets-are-in-most-financial-peril

For the foreseeable future, Sri Lanka's economy will remain anemic due to its high debt, weak exports, low foreign direct investment and incompetent government.

Nepotism, Corruption and No Rule-of-Law 

Sri Lanka has a long record of state-sponsored violence and a culture of impunity.

Perpetrators of political violence and fraudsters who are connected to the government act with impunity and people with political connections and suspected war criminals are given important positions!

Sri Lanka’s Expansion into Despotism Goes Unchallenged by Western Democracies:

https://intpolicydigest.org/2020/05/01/sri-lanka-s-expansion-into-despotism-goes-unchallenged-by-western-democracies/

Sri Lanka: Human Rights Under Attack:

Lawyers, Human Rights Defenders, and Journalists Arrested, Threatened, Intimidated

https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/07/29/sri-lanka-human-rights-under-attack



Check the following to see how Singapore went from third-world to first-world while Sri-Lanka is still stuck in the third-world: 






“Sri-Lanka has failed because it has had weak or wrong leaders”   Lee Kwan Yew.




 

Posted by at 3 comments:

Friday, 2 October 2015

Cunning, Deception and Barefaced Lies of the Rajapaksa Regime










Mahinda Rajapaksa, his brothers and cronies are masters of deception!



This is what Gotabaya Rajapaksa told "The Australian" newspaper on 23 March 2009:

The UN may tell you that at least 2,000 civilians have been killed in fighting since January, but Sri Lanka's Secretary of Defence, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, says there are none. Absolutely None!

"If you want to believe me, believe me, no civilian casualties!

In 2009, the Rajapaksa regime arrested five doctors who worked in the War-zone and forced them to tell the media that a maximum of 750 civilians were killed in the final five months of the war!

In 2011, the regime claimed that around 7,500 civilians were killed!

A doctor who worked in Sri Lanka's combat zone in the final days of the civil war told the BBC in March 2014 that he was forced by the government to retract his claims about casualty figures.

Speaking to the BBC's Sinhala service, Dr Varatharaja said he and his colleagues had been threatened with three to four years in jail if they did not recant their statements.

A UN investigation said 40,000 people were killed in the final five months alone!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-26670691 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-13158916 

http://www.channel4.com/news/sri-lanka-war-crimes-inquiry-doctor-varatharajah-thariajah 



The regime first dismissed Channel 4's Sri-Lanka Killing Field programme as a fake. It then said in 2012 that it would use the programme to investigate allegations of War Crime!

In March 2014, the Sri-Lankan foreign minister said in Geneva that the government would use Channel 4 videos to “identify witnesses.”

Sri Lankan army to investigate civilian war casualties:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17049760 
 

BBC investigates Sri Lanka disappearances:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24662898 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24648595 


Here are some examples of how Mahinda Rajapaksa lies:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs8KHEpTuR8 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzGj2hYoymo 

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia/2015/04/sri-lanka-leader-rajapaksa-remains-defiant-150427044812797.html 





        They lie brazenly and the lies are not even credible!


 




Posted by at No comments:

Friday, 7 March 2014

Mass Graves in Sri-Lanka



Sri-Lanka has numerous mass graves across the country.

Successive Sri-Lankan governments have been involved in state-sponsored terrorism for many decades.

These graves date back to the 1970s when there was an uprising against the government by the JVP. The group led two uprisings first in 1971 and the second from 1987 to 1989.

The Sooriyakanda mass grave is the mass burial ground of murdered school children from Embilipitiya High School. These school children were killed and buried as part of the counter insurgency during the second JVP uprising.

It was alleged that over 300 bodies were buried in the location. The mass grave was located in 1994.

The Sri Lankan government last reported in 1996 to have conducted a forensic analysis of the burial ground uncovering an unspecified number of bodies. Local media, NGOs and the US state department have claimed that the investigations are not satisfactory.

"The state's army and paramilitaries carried out large-scale killings at that time and we ask the government to do a full investigation," said Anura Dissanayake, a lawmaker from a political party with ties to the former rebels.

In a BBC interview with David Frost on 28 October 2001, Chandrika Kumaratunga - who was the President of Sri Lanka from 1994 to 2005 - stated that at the time that her husband Vijaya Kumaranatunga was murdered, "Sri Lanka had killing fields; there was a lot of terror perpetrated by the government itself, state terrorism.”

Human remains of 200 people were discovered in Matale in December 2012. Politicians belonging to the JVP party allege that the victims were killed having been tortured and that the heads, arms and legs of many of them had been severed.

The then government was widely accused of running torture chambers in the area in the late 1980s and of conducting extra-judicial executions. As many as 60,000 JVP insurgents were reportedly killed. 

According to the Sri Lankan defence ministry website, the military’s coordinating officer and then commanding officer in the area at the time was Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

According to Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch:

“Unless there is real transparency in the forensic investigation, we will never be sure." "But we know they will not want to open a Pandora's Box that would incriminate many senior figures."

More and more mass graves are being found almost monthly!



“The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who do not do anything about it.” - Albert Einstein


 Useful links for more information:











Posted by at No comments:

Friday, 27 September 2013

Six Facts About Sri-Lanka

Sri-Lanka has become one of the most violent and dangerous countries in the world. Under the Rajapaksa brothers, political violence and corruption have increased dramatically.

1. Sri-Lankan governments have been involved in state-sponsored terrorism and violence for the last 40 years.

In an interview with the British television presenter David Frost, Chandrika Kumaratunga - who was the President of Sri Lanka from 1994 to 2005 - stated that at the time that her husband Vijaya Kumaranatunga was assassinated, "Sri Lanka had killing fields; there was a lot of terror perpetrated by the government itself, state terrorism.”

The Sri-Lankan government is intensifying its crackdown on critics through threats, harassment, imprisonment and violent attacks, Amnesty International said in a report released in April this year.

Check the following:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-23402727 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-23899082  

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24148142  

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24216995 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21964586 

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/2945071c-dcb7-11e2-b52b-00144feab7de.html#axzz2a49k8yXK 

http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/sri-lanka-report-exposes-government-s-violent-repression-dissent-2013-04-30 

http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/there-are-no-human-rights-sri-lanka-2013-05-01 

http://groundviews.org/2013/03/28/a-missing-person-in-sri-lanka-heartfelt-issues-ground-realities/ 

2. Sri-Lanka has the largest Cabinet in the world with more than 90 Ministers.


But the Rajapaksa brothers control more than 80% of the budget! The country is run like a corner shop!

Check the following:

http://www.priu.gov.lk/Govt_Ministers/Indexministers.html 

3. Sri-Lanka's chief justice is a pathological liar.                 

In November 2011, Mohan Peiris said the following in Geneva: "An investigation into the abduction of Prageeth Eknelygoda is being conducted by the police and by the CCD. Investigation is being continued. So far no one has been arrested in this connection."

But, according to the Asian Human Rights Commission, in a question and answer session after the presentation, Peiris said: “according to reliable information, Prageeth Eknelygoda has taken refuge in a foreign country and that the campaign against his disappearance is a hoax.” Peiris failed to provide detailed information about where Eknelygoda had fled, the AHRC correspondent said.

He was ordered to testify before a court in June 2012 during the case over Prageeth Eknaligoda’s disappearance. Peiris told the court that he was not aware of the whereabouts of journalist Prageeth Eknaligoda!

Check the following:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-18332987 


4. Sri-Lanka is one of the most dangerous places in the world for journalists.


Reporters Without Borders ranks Sri-Lanka 163 out of 179 nations on its global Press Freedom Index 2011 - 2012. Sri-Lanka is ranked just above Somalia!

Check the following:

http://en.rsf.org/press-freedom-index-2011-2012,1043.html 

5. Sri-Lanka has high level of corruption and the Rajapaksa brothers and their cronies are involved in looting the country.


A recent S&P report pointed to the country’s weak external liquidity “in the context of low income levels, relaxed lending practices and underwriting standards, as well as a weak payment culture and rule of law.”

During the past 10 years, two state banks, Bank of Ceylon and Peoples Bank, wrote off 125 billion rupees, with the loan defaulters mostly backed by government politicians.

Market regulator Tilak Karunaratne quit in August 2012, saying he could no longer battle against a "mafia of crooks" preventing probes into insider trading and "pump-and-dump" scams in which investors drive up shares and then sell them.

Karunaratne's predecessor, Indrani Sugathadasa, also resigned in 2011, saying she was unwilling to compromise her "principles".

According to Transparency International, about US $ 500 million of the tsunami aid for Sri Lanka is unaccounted for and more than $ 603 million has been spent on projects unrelated to the disaster. In a report examining the funding, the group concluded the discrepancy between relief money received and money spent ''does not have a credible explanation''.

Check the following:

http://www.lankastandard.com/vault/helping-hambantota-investigation 
 
http://www.smh.com.au/world/tsunami-aid-goes-missing-20091227-lgb4.html 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21022854 

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-09-07/an-sri-lanka-arrest/4943012 


6. Sri-Lanka relies heavily on more than one million maids in the Middle East for foreign exchange.



The Rajapaksa regime is involved in slave trade. It sends Singhalese and Muslims women to the Middle East to work as maids and receives fees and remittances of $2.5 billion per year - the second largest source of foreign exchange.

Check the following:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-14190470 

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/saudi-arabia-executes-sri-lankan-maid-8444914.html 

http://world.time.com/2013/08/13/sri-lanka-struggles-to-contain-a-growing-epidemic-of-child-abuse/ 


Posted by at No comments:

Friday, 20 September 2013

State-Sponsored Terrorism and Racism in Sri-Lanka









Since Sri-Lanka’s independence in 1948, Sri Lanka’s Tamils have been killed, kidnapped, raped, robbed, displaced and arbitrarily detained by the Sri-Lankan government.

The persecution of Sri-Lanka’s Tamils started with the passage of the Ceylon Citizenship Act of 1948. It denied citizenship to one million Tamils.

The Act was inspired by Adolph Hitler’s Nuremberg Laws of 15 September 1935, which provided: “A Jew cannot be a citizen of the Reich. He cannot exercise the right to vote.”

The 1958 Sinhalese Only Act was a landmark in the history of Tamil oppression. It generally excluded or handicapped Tamils in public or private employment, education, housing or welfare.

Sri-Lankan regimes have been involved in state-sponsored terrorism for more than 40 years while pretending to be a peaceful Buddhist country. In fact, Sri-Lankan Buddhism is an extreme version that is similar to the Talibans' ideology.

The government has organized race riots in response to peaceful Tamil protests. In July 1983, Sri Lankan President J. R. Jayawardene supplied armed gangs of Sinhalese with voter lists to identify Tamil homes and businesses. He incited the thugs to hack Tamils to death in their houses, offices, and places of work.
Thousands of Tamils were murdered. None of the murderers was prosecuted by the government; and, no compensation was paid to the Tamil victims.

People were burned alive in their cars. Women were raped. In Colombo and provincial towns, soldiers stood by and even supplied petrol. In two pogroms in the biggest prison, Sinhalese inmates killed 53 of their Tamil counterparts.

The statement of J.R. Jayawardene to the Daily Telegraph on 11 July 1983 while state organized race riots were slaughtering Tamils by the thousands and displacing more than 100,000: “I am not worried about the opinion of the Tamil people…now we cannot think of them, not about their lives or their opinion…the more you put pressure in the north, the happier the Sinhala people will be here…Really if I starve the Tamils out, the Sinhalese people will be happy.”

Remembering Sri Lanka's Black July 1983:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-23402727 


In 2004, the previous President Chandrika Kumaratunga gave a public apology to Tamils for Black July, likening it to Nazism.

At their recent rallies, the most prominent new hard-line group, the Buddhist Strength Force (Bodu Bala Sena, BBS) have used coarse, derogatory language to describe Muslim imams and have told the Sinhalese majority not to rent property to Muslims.

Dayan Jayatilleka, a former Sri-Lankan diplomat, calls the BBS an "ethno-religious fascist movement from the dark underside of Sinhala society".


Useful links for more information:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21840600 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21920735 

http://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/a-criminal-monk-to-the-police-commission 

http://groundviews.org/2012/04/23/bigoted-monks-and-militant-mobs-is-this-buddhism-in-sri-lanka-today 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-14926002 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21973292 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21977640 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21964586 

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/03/sri-lanka-slaughter-no-fire-zone 


Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)