Daily Mirror has reported a mob, including a group of monks, stormed a Christian prayer hall located in Koswatta this morning over the death of two women at a religious event held at the Viharamahadevi Park last weekend. The mob damaged the gate and part of the building during the incident.

Two famous political monks have taken part in this incident. They are concern about ahimsa to animals not about human rights. This is very ugly and shameful.

Other thing was the inaction of police. The police becomes popular week to week I mean Angulana, Nipuna to drowning of a mentally retarded person.

So sadu sadu to all these alleged monks and police personel.

I am Yohan Sasanka Rajapakse. I am 18 years old. I am a student of Sri Sumangala Boys School, Panadura. I will sit for the advanced level exam in 2010. I reside at no 91, Galle Rd, Pinwatta, Panadura. This incident was happened on 02.10.2009.

 It was school interval. I was with the school head prefect Kusal Prasanga, Malith, Tharidu and another five students. The head prefect disclosed that Malith and Tharindu went to a near by communication centre and had seen few video films. One prefect slapped Malith. After this incident I went to the classroom.

 After the school I went to the said communication centre to get a reload for my mother’s mobile phone. Tharindu and Malith were also there. Malith showed me to the others at the communication center. Tharindu came closer to me and said hello. I asked them whether they were going to hit me. They said no. Both Tharindu and Malith went outside.

 There were around five persons in the communication centre. They asked me whether you were Kusal. I said no. They blamed me and said be careful. They also said that they didn’t hit me because I was in school uniforms. When I came outside I saw both Tharindu and Malith. I told Malith that I will see this matter later. Then Tharindu told me that Malith the person who told all the things. After that I got into a bus and went home.

 Around 4pm in the evening I came to Panadura to take medicine for my grandmother and buy a bag for myself. I saw Malith and other students came after attending a tuition class.

I had an argument with Malith. I tried to hit him because I was very angry. I told him to fight with me alone not with the group. I turned away to go.

 I saw another person who was closer to us took a phone call to 119. But I didn’t hear what he said. After that I came to the private bus stand to take medicine for my grand mother. When I was there two policemen, the person who had taken the telephone call to 119 and Malith came closer to me. One police officer was in civil clothes while the other was in uniforms.

 One officer was dragging from my trouser and blamed me using filthy words. He asked me where I live. I said Pinwatta. He slapped my head and said we were searching people from Pinwatta and said they knew how to control Pinwatta people. He assaulted my head. The police officer who was in civil clothes hit my legs with his boots.

 They took me to the bus stand and said me to kneel down. They put my mobile phone and the wallet on the table closer to me. I had more than Rs.1000/= in my wallet.

 The police officer who was in civil clothes searched me. He asked whether I had ganja or drugs. I said that I am still going school and my parents are in the air force and I am not doing such things. Then he blamed me and the air force using filthy words. He also boasted that they were the people who killed Sunbaba and same thing will happen to me.

 At that time also I was knelt down. Two people from the near by shops came and said that I didn’t do such things. Then the police officer blamed those using filthy words and chased them away.

 After that both Malith and I was taken to the Panadura South police by a trishaw. At the police station we were asked to sit on a bench. One police officer had taken my mobile phone and took a telephone call to our house. These police personnel spoke to my mother and said I was in the police station because I had assaulted a boy.

 After that my parents and another relative came to the police station. They told the police officers not to take this matter further. The police recorded a statement from me. But they didn’t read or explain it to me. They took my signature to it.

 After that I went home with my mother. I went to sleep after having a bath. On 04.10.2009 I was taken to a local doctor because I had high fever. The doctor refused to give me Sinhala medicine and advised me go to a hospital. Then we went to a private hospital. There we were told to go to a government hospital. So we went to the Panadura government hospital. I was admitted to ward number one. I was treated there for three days.

 I told the doctors that the police had assaulted me. My mother complained the SSP. Two police personnel from the SSP office came and recorded a statement from me. The JMO inspected me. I was discharged on 06.10.2009.

 Janasansadaya

038 2235191

Lanka Truth has reported that ‘”we should go towards that aim. May be, specially people like me, would have to remove this uniform in the future. We cannot wear this uniform always. However, even if I have to remove my uniform I would not hesitate to take necessary steps for the defense of the country”by Gen.Sarath Fonseka.

It will be very dangerous if military rulers entire politics. We had enough examples in the south asian countries like Bangladesh and Pakistan. So we have to say no to this military Sarath factor.We can’t ignore the allegations of war crimes.

What about Judicial Sarath? We all remember what was happened to Tony Fernando and Attorney at Law Elmo Perera. These are only two examples but there were hundreds.

So if you love democracy, rule of law and human rights please say no to these two SARATH factors. There is a Sinhala saying Inguru de Meris ganima when we allowed Dutch after throwing away Portugese.

Reporters Without Borders urges the Sri Lankan authorities to take
all necessary measures to investigate threatening letters received
six days ago by Frederica Jansz and Munza Mushtaq, two journalists
who work for the Leader Publications media group. “We will slice you
up if you do not stop your writing,” the letters said.

At the same time, senior newspaper employees have been questioned by
the police about their sources in a new attack on editorial
independence.

“The police must treat these death threats written in red ink with
the utmost seriousness, especially as they were sent to two
journalists whose press group has repeatedly been the target of
physical violence,” Reporters Without Borders said. “We urge the
police to track down and arrest those who wrote these letters.”

The press freedom organisation added: “It is also vital that the
authorities order the security forces to put a stop to their
unwarranted summonses and arrests of journalists, and to register the
complaints submitted by journalists when they are physically
attacked.”

The editor-in-chief of the Sunday Leader newspaper, Jansz plans to go
police headquarters in Mount Lavinia (just to the south of Colombo)
on 27 October to file a complaint about the threatening letters (see
photo) that she and Mushtaq received on 22 October. The threats may
have been prompted by the newspaper’s coverage of a video showing
Sri Lankan soldiers executing unarmed men.

Jansz told Reporters Without Borders the letters were similar to
those received by Sunday Leader managing editor Lasantha
Wickrematunge three weeks before he was murdered in January 2009.
“We wrote to the police station describing the threats but the
police have not even contacted me (…) The Sunday Leader’s
publisher mentioned these persistent threats at a meeting with the
president a few months ago. The president told one of his aides to
follow up the matter, but since then there has been nothing.”

Jansz and Leader Publications are currently facing three complaints
brought by the president’s brother, defence secretary Gotabaya
Rajapaksa, one accusing her of contempt of court because she printed
a profile of him in the weekly after a judge ordered the press group
not to publish anything about him. The defence ministry’s website
has meanwhile accused the press group’s lawyers of being traitors
while another site linked to the ministry referred to some of
Jansz’s comments to foreign news media as “prostitution.”

In a separate case, Chandana Sirimalwatta, the editor of the
newspaper Lanka Irida, was detained and questioned by the Colombo
police on 17 October about his sources for an article about tension
between the president and the head of the armed forces, Gen. Sarath
Fonseka. The previous day, the police had gone to the newspaper’s
headquarters to arrest Sirimalwatta.

On 20 October, the government information office threatened to
“blacklist” online media that speculated about tension within the
government.

Ruling party activists meanwhile attacked journalists who were
accompanying opposition members on 4 October as they tried to
approach a “palatial residence” allegedly built by a member of the
president’s family with public funds. Five journalists were slightly
hurt. One of them told Reporters Without Borders that police at the
Matara police station refused to register his complaint.

A few days before that, three Lanka Irida reporters were arrested
near this residence on “terrorism charges”. They were later released
on bail but their equipment was confiscated.

———–
Vincent Brossel
Asia-Pacific Desk
Reporters Without Borders
33 1 44 83 84 70
asia@rsf.org

  A 14-year-old boy was preliminarily charged with a suspected LTTE member, arrested in 1994 and held 15 years without any trail in the Welikada maximum security prison where the state sponsored massacre of 53 Tamil political prisoners occurred in July 1983, People’s Free Stage a Colombo based organization said.People’s Free Stage persons who visited Tissanayagam recently in the Welikade Prison. Tissanayagam , the journalist who is imprisoned for 20 years of hard labor for his role, said by the Sri Lanka government was that in promoting Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam(LTTE), an outlawed Terrorists outfit in Sri Lanka as well as internationally.

While Tissanayagam  visits they found startling facts about, a 29-year-old Tamil political prisoner in Welikada prison that he was arrested at the age of 14 (1994). People’s Free Stage persons shocked and gathered the detailed history of the particular detainee.

The boy was arrested in 1994, there was no statement regarding his arrest given by Sri Lankan prison authorities to UNICEF or ICRC and no charges have been filed against him.

ICRC is also working closely with Tamil Political Prisoners and also visited all prisons at least once a month to provide assistance and check on the quality and accessibility of health care of prisoners.

Sri Lanka Truth

Everything in the Mihin land top to bottom education to health is in danger.    But the greatest humor is this not injected person talking much about late Prof. Senaka Bibile’s  drug policy.

Lanka Truth has reported the Drug Regulatory Authority has directed that 25,000 phials containing ‘Feroxine’ antibiotic injection that belong to the same batch of the phial that was found from Ratnapura Hospital recently with a piece of glass are not suitable to be used and NationalMedicinal Drug Authority(NMDA) took measures yesterday (22^nd) to remove them from hospitals throughout the island.

 The EU has little alternative but to withdraw trade benefits from Sri Lanka after publishing a report today alleging grave human rights abuses during the war against the Tamil Tigers, the top EU trade official has told The Times.

“Unlawful killings are a major problem in Sri Lanka, perpetrated by soldiers, police, paramilitary groups or others, not only during the course of active hostilities,” the report by three independent experts said.

“There is overwhelming evidence to suggest that during the final months of the conflict significant numbers of civilians were unlawfully killed in military operations.” The report concluded that Sri Lanka had violated the UN Convention against Torture, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

The EU has waived import taxes on Sri Lankan garments and other items since 2005, allowing Marks & Spencer, Tesco, Next and other big retailers to import billions of pounds’ worth of cheap clothes from the island.

But Baroness Ashton of Upholland, the EU Trade Commissioner, said the concession was almost certain to be withdrawn because it explicitly obliged the government to meet international human rights agreements.

“The purpose of it very clear,” she told The Times. “The rules are very clear. And if the rules are not kept, the outcome if very clear.”

The Commission must now make a formal recommendation on whether to withdraw the benefits, which must be put to EU member states before a final decision around the end of the year.

But Baroness Ashton said the result was almost a foregone conclusion. “It’s very difficult to see any other recommendation than to suspend it,” she said. “The report is clear in showing consistent human rights problems and no action from the government to address them.”

The EU grants the benefits, known as the Generalised System of Preferences Plus (GSP+), to help developing countries boost their economies while improving human rights, labour and environmental standards.

Sri Lanka was granted GSP+ after a tsunami in 2004 and is the only country in Asia to benefit from the scheme, which explicitly obliges beneficiaries to adhere to 27 international rights agreements.

Withdrawing it would be the most severe international response yet to the war’s bloody finale — in which U.N. officials estimate 20,000 civilians died — and to the subsequent detention of 300,000 Tamil civilians in internment camps.

It would add about six percent to the cost of most Sri Lankan imports to the EU and could force retailers like M&S to buy from China, India or Bangladesh.

That could devastate Sri Lanka’s garment industry, which it says accounts for 10 per cent of GDP, employs about 250,000 people and recorded exports of $1.4 billion to the EU last year alone.

The EU had warned Sri Lanka last year that it would not renew GSP Plus until it had investigated alleged rights abuses, but the government refused to allow an EU team to investigate.

So the EU hired the three experts to investigate alleged abuses independently.

Sri Lankan officials have called their report “outrageous”, and accused the EU of failing to account for exceptional circumstances during the war, and seeking to punish ordinary garment workers.

But Baroness Ashton said that making an exception for Sri Lanka would undermine the entire system by setting a precedent for other beneficiary countries.

“I accept that Sri Lanka has been through difficult times — many countries do,” she said. “This not something we’ve done lightly. But the purpose of GSP+ is clear, and the EU must stand by its commitment.”

Sri Lanka Truth

A large scale malicious attack on Chief of Defense Staff Gen. Sarath Fonseka has been planned states ‘Lanka Irida,’ the Sinhalese weekend newspaper.

The below news item from the Lanka Truth was the result for above publication.

A gang of people claiming to be from the CID broke into the office of ‘Lanka Irida’ week end newspaper today at about 9.30 p.m. states Chief editor of the newspaper Chandana Sirimalwatta.