The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon has today congratulated the President of Sri Lanka, Maithripala Sirisena, and the Government and the people of Sri Lanka on the first year of the country’s political transition.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon
“He is encouraged by the Government’s commitment to a broad reform agenda that aims to realise durable peace, stability and prosperity for the Sri Lankan people.” the UN said in a statement.
The UN said; “The Secretary-General acknowledges the initial steps the Government has taken to strengthen good governance, advance reconciliation and implement the resolution of the Human Rights Council of October 2015. He urges continued progress in these areas and emphasises the need for inclusive consultation processes to address issues of transitional justice.
“The Secretary-General supports the Government’s efforts to advance a nation-wide dialogue to achieve a long-term political settlement acceptable to all. In this regard, he welcomes the Government’s announcement to commence constitutional reform. He calls on all stakeholders to cooperate in a spirit of inclusion and good faith.
“The Secretary-General remains committed to supporting Sri Lanka’s reform initiatives to secure long-term peace, prosperity and respect for human rights, including through financial support from the Peacebuilding Fund and technical assistance. He commends Sri Lanka’s leadership in working to transform the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals into reality on the ground.”
anonymous / January 8, 2016
“Ban Ki-moon Congratulates Sirisena”
What for? Did he agree to abolish the ‘Executive Prsidency’, be independent and vacate the post at the end of term?. Get a life ‘Ban’.
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Amarasiri / January 8, 2016
UN chief Ban Ki-moon
RE: Ban Ki-moon Congratulates Sirisena
Yes, we need to congratulate the President Mt. Maitripala Sirisena for participating and helping remove the notorious Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa. and dismantling a SMALL part of his corrupt administration and apparatus, with the help of the democratic forces, and the passing of 19A.
However, Mr. Sirisena, has fallen short in many areas. His hands are somewhat tied, because of the Para-Sinhala “Buddhist” Ideology, that is the curse of the Land, the Land of Native Veddah Aethho.
Please ask him what plans Mr. Sirisena has in correcting the errors and excesses of the Mahinda Rajapaksa administration?
Tell him that the people want a plan, a schedule with starting and ending dates.
Tell him that you and the people have very little interest if women throw their brassier or not.
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Amarasiri / January 8, 2016
UN chief Ban Ki-moon
RE: Ban Ki-moon Congratulates Sirisena
We all thought that we elected a decent man. So, can you ask President Maitripala Sirisena why he is protecting murderers. Ask him if that is Sinhala “Buddhist” Tradition of the Land of Native Veddah Aethho.
However, it looks like that we have elected a supported of killers and murderers.
Through the grape vine…
President wreaking havoc : Blocks arrest of Rajapakse siblings in Thajudeen murder ; interferes in Ekneliyagoda investigations and with FCID
Based on the evidence that have surfaced in connection with the ghastly cruel murder of Thajudeen the Rugby player , though it is possible to arrest both Namal Rajapakse and Yoshitha Rajapakse , but because of the pressures exerted by president Maithripala Sirisena , the arrests are thwarted, according to information reaching Lanka Grape vine news inside information division. Earlier on too the media reported one of the Rajapakse siblings was to be taken into custody , that too was obstructed on pressures brought to bear on it by the president.
Meanwhile , the CCTV recordings relating to the Thajudeen murder forwarded to the computer division of the Colombo University for investigation are blurred because of the light flashing on the pictures ,and consequently , the video recordings cannot be made out , the information system Manager S.C.M. B. Dissanayake of the University computer faculty had informed Colombo additional magistrate Nishantha Peiris yesterday, while recommending that those video recordings be subjected to a foreign investigation.
Grape vine news is in receipt of reports that in the FCID investigations in connection with the suspects – Rajapakse siblings , president Maithripala is applying intense pressures . Even when Lalith Weeratunge the secretary to the ex president Mahinda Rajapakse was summoned to the FCID pertaining to the Sil clothes colossal fraud , the president has furiously berated DIG Ravi Waidyalankara the chief of the FCID via the phone. It is also learnt that in the Siriliya account involvement of Shiranthi Rajapakse , because of the intense pressures applied by the president , the investigation has been suspended.
The Grape vine news inside information service within the Presidential secretariat reveals that DIG Waidyalankara who was conducting investigations impartially so far is to be replaced by DIG S.M. Wickremesinghe the president’s secret friend who became notorious as the ‘helup karaya’ of the President when the latter goes gallivanting in the nights after facial ‘make up’ is done for the president by Royal cosmetic expert . Indeed the family of Maithripala had complained that DIG Wickremesinghe is trying to break up the family based on these night outings.It is reported plans are afoot to hand over the FCID to this DIG Wickremesinghe who accompanies Maithripala when he turns into prince charming in the nights and creeps out. Wickemesinghe is the son of a Goviraja of Polonnaruwa.
It is learnt that the president during the last several days using his close SLFP ministers castigated the FCID through media briefings . This is believed to be a part of the plan driven by the ulterior motive to make the FCID submissive and make it dance according to his villainous tune.
It has by now become crystal clear that providing legal aid by the army to the army suspects in the murder of Prageeth Ekneliyagoda , which has never ever happened before in the country’s history is being carried out with the president’s consent . Hence the Civil organizations are throughly disappointed and disillusioned over it. They have expressed their displeasure in this regard.
A Civil organization leader Saman Rathnapriya making a statement today said , the defense secretary Hettiarachi had pressurised the Attorney General’s department to withdraw Dileepa Peiris who is the state counsel ,from the Ekneliyagoda case . It is noteworthy Dileepa Peiris is taking a firm stand against legal aid being provided to the army suspects in Ekneliyagoda’s case.
In the meantime , Josef Stalin the secretary of the Teachers association convening a media briefing yesterday said , “a group is saying ,in the Ekneliyagoda murder investigations, the heroes of the forces have been taken into custody . Just because they fought a war , it does not mean anybody is issued license to kill people. The Brigadier who is responsible for the shooting in the Rathupaswala incident has returned to the country. No action has been taken agaisnt him either.In the report of the Human Rights Commission , it is clearly mentioned , the law shall be enforced against those who did the shooting and who gave the orders. Until today nothing has been done in this regard. It is most intriguing and a big issue to us why this government too is giving protection to them,” Stalin pointed out.
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Rajash / January 8, 2016
Ban Ki Moon is a waste of space in the UN HQ. He is forced to play to US agenda.
This is the guy who congratulated Mahinda for defeating so called terrorism in Sri Lanka. He made the following sentiments then he is making it again.
“He is encouraged by the Government’s commitment to a broad reform agenda that aims to realise durable peace, stability and prosperity for the Sri Lankan people.”
When My3 get defeated next time and perhaps Mahinda comes back again he will blurt out the same rubbish
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anonymous / January 8, 2016
“When My3 get defeated next time and perhaps Mahinda comes back “
Rajash,
You must be day dreaming. There will never be another Jarapassa or MY3 in Sri Lanka again. The working class have suffered enough & the result will be a ‘Labour Govt’.
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Rajash / January 8, 2016
I sincerely hope so
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Amarasiri / January 8, 2016
UN chief Ban Ki-moon
RE:Ban Ki-moon Congratulates Sirisena
Well, well, let’s see. Also ask him to fix the shortfalls and not hide. He is known as the Gamarala President. So you need to be on your watch.
Do you read news? Can you read and understand English. Not all the news appear in Korean.
Sri Lanka accused of allowing continuing human rights abuses
Campaigners note 27 individual cases of serious abuses, a year after President Mathripala Sirisena promised reforms.
Sri Lankan authorities have been accused of allowing continuing human rights abuses, including torture and illegal detention, exactly one year after Maithripala Sirisena took power on a reforming ticket in a surprise election win.
International campaigners say they have documented 27 individual cases of serious human rights abuses occurring in the last 12 months.
Freedom from Torture, a UK-based organisation offering medical aid to survivors of torture, said it had been involved with eight cases. The victim in each was from Sri Lanka’s largely Hindu Tamil minority and the alleged perpetrators were members of the country’s intelligence services or military, which are dominated by the island nation’s largely Buddhist Sinhala majority.
UN calls for Sri Lanka war crimes court to investigate atrocities
Read more
Sri Lanka suffered a crippling 26-year civil war pitting government forces against violent Tamil separatists of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) which ended in a series of bloody battles in 2009. Mahinda Rajapaksa, who was president during the final years of the war, was defeated after calling a snap poll.
On his election, Sirisena pledged widespread reform and reconciliation between Sri Lankan communities. The veteran politician specifically promised an end to abductions in his maiden speech.
Sonya Sceats, director of policy and advocacy for Freedom from Torture, said Sirisena’s repeated recognition that reconciliation in his nation required accountability for serious human rights abuses was a welcome change. “But having set a new tone, the president must match his rhetoric with a clear blueprint for rooting out torture from Sri Lanka’s security sector and putting perpetrators on trial, no matter how powerful they may be,” she said.
The NGO says it has medical evidence of torture by the Sri Lankan military and intelligence services since Sirisena came to power which, it said, suggested that “an abusive ‘deep state’ is still terrorising communities and impeding Sri Lanka’s post-war revival”. Military authorities and the police have always denied any wrongdoings and human rights abuses.
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Two of the survivors referred to by Freedom from Torture identified a well-known military camp in the northern town of Vavuniya as the site of their detention and torture. Others reported abuse at a makeshift jungle camp. Many have scars of branding with heated metal rods and have reported sexual abuse, the NGO said.
A second group has also revealed new evidence suggesting ongoing torture and sexual violence by the Sri Lankan security forces and police, including alleged abductions by unidentified men driving white vans as recently as last month. These “disappearances” became notorious under the repressive rule of Rajapaksa.
“Sadly, it’s very much business as usual,” said Yasmin Sooka, of the International Truth and Justice Project. The ITJP’s report, based on the testimony of 20 survivors of torture who are now outside Sri Lanka, also names the main military camp in Vavuniya as a site of torture. One case was investigated by both groups.
Almost all the survivors interviewed by the ITJP were members of the LTTE, though almost all were forcibly conscripted as footsoldiers. Several were under 18 at the time of their recruitment into the organisation and, having spent only weeks within it, did not declare themselves to authorities as former combatants at the war’s end. Several were involved in political activities such as election campaigning as volunteers or campaigning for the disappeared before their abduction. Five of them are women.
Several described torture chambers equipped with cables, rods and batons for beating victims, water barrels and a pulley system for hoisting them upside down. There were repeated and detailed accounts of severe sexual abuse of both male and female detainees. Many were accused by their interrogators of wanting to restart the LTTE – destroyed as an organisation by the end of the war.
Sri Lanka to issue missing certificates to families of civil war disappeared
Read more
The ITJP said medical reports by court-recognised experts in scarring corroborate accounts of injuries, while the cross-referencing of details common to witness statements supported descriptions of individual locations of alleged torture. “Almost all the statements are taken by lawyers with deep expertise and experience in assessing a survivor’s credibility and if anything was doubtful it would be excluded,” said Frances Harrison, spokesperson for the organisation.
Sirisena is already under pressure on human rights. In September the United Nations said it had found evidence strongly indicating that war crimes were committed in Sri Lanka in the closing phases of its civil war, and called for the establishment of a special “hybrid” international court to investigate individuals responsible for the worst atrocities.
Unveiling a 220-page, two-volume report in Geneva, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, the UN high commissioner for human rights, said it described horrific abuses including torture, executions, forced disappearances and sexual abuse by security forces, as well as suicide attacks, assassinations and recruitment of child soldiers by the LTTE. The report found that both sides “most likely” committed war crimes.
Pressure for an international investigation grew when it became clear that domestic inquiries set up by the then government of Sri Lanka were partisan and ineffectual. The recommendations of a “lessons learned and reconciliation committee” went largely unimplemented.
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Douglas / January 8, 2016
Amarasiri: Your comment of January 8th (above) followed with “Through the grape wine”….. Is that a REPRODUCTION of an article appeared in LankaeNews (LEN) dated January 07, 2016?? Just curious. If it is so, that “Grape Wine” since of late is being brewed in “wild”. That is my opinion.
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Amarasiri / January 8, 2016
Douglas
Grape vine, Lanka vine, other wines frequently get edited out. So the vines need to be on the lookout except at Facebook and Twitter and some other places.
The beauty of the truth is that it is a constant, not a variable, like lies. See, the Earth still revolveson its own axis and goes around the Sun.
So how do you expose, expose and expose so that at least a small fraction of the populace gets to know some news and some truth..
The social media, web sires, including the CT, LEN, and many others are doing a great service on trying to get the truth out.
After all the voters voted these characters, and they have a right to know..
What is happening go to the righ to know or right to know information bill?
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Douglas / January 8, 2016
Amarasiri: ham………… I would like to hear your “Yes” or “No” to my question. I am living and “tasting” in a country of “wine” and know “Different” brews. That “BREW” had been many times “bottled” in different shapes and still served with no apparent “different tastes”.
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Inspector Dirty Hari / January 8, 2016
“The Secretary-General acknowledges the initial steps the Government has taken to strengthen good governance, advance reconciliation and implement the resolution of the Human Rights Council of October 2015. He urges continued progress in these areas and emphasises the need for inclusive consultation processes to address issues of transitional justice.”
Key words:
initial steps
continued process
I agree.
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justice / January 10, 2016
What is the final word on the ‘hybrid courts’ agreed to by SL sponsored resolution at UNHRC?
No definite information is available.
Ban Ki Moon should raise the matter with President Sirisena.
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