We were both happy and sad to hear of Thursday’s landmark ruling by the Indian Supreme Court which independent democracy analysts see as a major step towards cleaning up Indian politics which is beset by corruption and crime.

Happy, because the Supreme Court has helped India to take a giant leap towards a more vibrant democracy where a criminal cannot be a politician who does not serve but abuses his power and plunders the wealth of the country and the people.

We are sad because such a major step towards cleaning up the quality of politicians and politics cannot and will not be taken in Sri Lanka because the independence of the judiciary has virtually being destroyed specially after the illegal impeachment of Chief Justice 43, Shirani Bandaranayake.

The Indian SC known to be powerfully proactive in recent years regarding matters involving social justice, has ruled that members of the Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assembly members who are convicted of serious crimes will be removed from office.

It ruled that members of the Federal and Local Assemblies would be barred from elections if found guilty of offences carrying a jail term of at least two years. More than 150 members in the 543-seat lower house of the Lok Sabha are said to be facing criminal charges.

The Association for Democratic Reforms, an election watchdog, said across India there were 1,460 Lok Sabha or State Assembly members who were facing criminal charges. The figures were based on information provided by politicians to the Elections Commission before submitting themselves to the electorate. The figures show that 15 members face at least one murder charge.

Until now Indian politicians convicted of crimes had kept their jobs while pursuing appeals which can go on for years. But India’s SC ruled that such moves would no longer be allowed, striking down Section 8(4) of the Representation of the Peoples Act. The judges made clear that disqualification from office would take place from the date of conviction.

“If a convicted person has no right to vote, he has no right to contest,” Judges A.K. Patnaik and S.J. Mukhopadhyay ruled.

The judgment will not affect lawmakers who have already filed appeals – just those convicted in future. India’s main parties officially welcomed the ruling, but the government said it was studying it and might appeal.

While India is taking important steps in its democratic journey to development, Sri Lanka is plagued by a crisis of the criminalisation of politics and the politicisation of crimes.

In recent months specially, many chairmen and other members of local councils have been charged with horrific offences while in one of the worst cases a local council member had allegedly ordered a teacher to kneel before him and her students.

Corruption and crime in Sri Lankan society and politics are worst than ever before with the enforcement of the 18th Amendment, which provides the Executive President absolute power. With a patchwork coalition put together in parliament by offering perks and privileges to some parties, the ruling UPFA of the President has absolute power in the legislature also. With media fr eedom suppressed to a large extent, an independent judiciary was the last remaining hope for democracy and refuge for the people.

But with the government acting hard and fast to destroy the independence of the judiciary and with no sign of a turnaround in that dangerous trend, Sri Lanka seems to be reaching a point of no return on the path away from democracy and entering into the perilous pits of dictatorship.

Source: Daily Mirror (Sri Lanka)

Another group of Sri Lankan peacekeepers are preparing to leave for Lebanon.

Army Media Spokesperson Brigadier Ruwan Wanigasuriya said that 140 Sri Lankan peacekeepers and 10 officials are prepared to leave to Lebanon.

Currently, Sri Lankan peacekeepers are sewing in Haiti and Lebanon while more peace keepers are carrying out peace keeping and observation duties in several African countries.

Source: News First (Sri Lanka)

Sri Lanka and Russia signed a bilateral agreement to obtain Russian assistance to develop and research on nuclear technology in Sri Lanka.

The agreement was signed by Russian Atomic Energy Agency, Rosatom Head and former Russian Prime Minister Sergey Kiriyenko and Sri Lanka Atomic Energy Authority Chairman Dr Ranjith Wijewardena on behalf of the two states.

The agreement facilitates research, studies and specialised training on nuclear energy and nuclear waste management in Sri Lanka with the assistance of Russian specialists on the subject.

The two states have given attention to five key areas centering on nuclear research. Dr Wijewardena said this agreement will help strengthen development related activities in many spheres with the incorporation of nuclear technology and to test the veracity of technological activities.

The bilateral agreement was signed as a result of the recent visit of Technology, Research and Atomic Energy Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka to Russia to participate in an International Ministerial Conference on ‘Nuclear Power in the 21st Century’ in Saint Petersburg from June 27-29.

Representatives of 102 countries including ministers and nuclear technology specialists participated in the conference. The minister during the visit held a special discussion with senior officers of the Russian Atomic Energy Agency on the use of nuclear energy in Sri Lanka.

Source: Daily Mirror (Sri Lanka)

The Government has launched the Rataviru Piyasa program to fulfil the housing needs of needy migrant workers and their families. The Government has allocated Rs. 100 million to initiate the program and plans are afoot to build 1,000 houses this year.

The Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment has made a cash bond with the Samurdhi Bank, enabling migrant worker account holders to apply for soft loans.

Under the program recipients will be provided with special concessionary loans (10 percent interest calculated on reducing balance) to build houses through Samurdhi Banks. The program is a concept of Minister for Foreign Employment and Welfare, Dilan Perera.

In addition, the newly-formed Rataviruwo Organisation, which now has branches in all District Secretariat divisions, will help migrant workers and their families to build houses by offering technical support, labour and other assistance. Rataviruwo, comprises foreign employment authorities, State officials and migrant workers and their families.

Formulated and implemented under the guidance of Minister Perera, the organisation strives to help the country’s labour migrants and families to fulfil their socio-economic needs.

Sri Lanka’s migrant worker fraternity, numbering over 1.7 million, is the country’s largest foreign revenue earner. The annual outflow of migrant workers from the country is around 280,000. (by Ananda Agalakada)

Source: Sunday Observer (Sri Lanka)

විපක්‍ෂ නායක රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතා දින තුනක සංචාරයක්‌ සඳහා බ්‍රිතාන්‍යය බලා පිටත් වීමට නියමිතය.

මෙම සංචාරයේදී වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතා බ්‍රිතාන්‍ය විදේශ ඇමැති විලියම් හේග්, පොදු රාජ්‍ය මණ්‌ඩලීය සංගමයේ ලේකම් කමරේඡ් ෂර්මා යන මහත්වරුන් මුණගැසීමට නියමිත අතර, එවැනි තවත් රාජ්‍ය තාන්ත්‍රික හමුවීම් කිහිපයකට ද සහභාගි වනු ඇත.

විපක්‍ෂ නායකවරයා ලබන 22 හෝ 23 යන දිනයන්හිදී මෙරටින් පිටත් වීමට දැනට සැලසුම් කොට ඇතැයි විපක්‍ෂ නායක කාර්යාලයේ ජ්‍යෙෂ්ඨ ප්‍රකාශකයෙක්‌ දිවයිනට පැවැසීය. (අකිත පෙරේරා)

Source: Divaina (Sri Lanka)

A Sri Lankan protester who invaded the pitch during a cricket match between Sri Lanka and India in Cardiff, has been released on conditional bail by a UK court, Wales Online reported.

Manimaran Sadasaramoorthy, 42, of Mitcham in Surrey, travelled to Wales on June 20 this year to take part in a legal protest at the city’s Swalec Stadium against the presence of the Sri Lankan cricket team on British soil.

The team lost to India by eight wickets in the Champions Trophy semi-final.

Pleading guilty to a section five public order offence at Cardiff Magistrates’ Court, the unemployed dad of two told Judge Martin Brown that he ran on the pitch during the match carrying a banner “for the 40,000 people killed by the Sri Lankan government” and a Tamil Eelam flag of a proposed independent state that Tamils in Sri Lanka want to create in the north and east of the country.

The largely peaceful protests in Cardiff followed a violent incident near the Oval Stadium in London the same week, where Tamil and Sinhala activists clashed during the Sri Lanka-Australia cricket match.

Sadasaramoorthy was accused alongside six other protesters, who all pleaded not guilty to the offence and were bailed with the condition that they cannot attend any national or international cricket matches until their trial in September.

An eighth man admitted throwing a stone at a passing car outside the stadium, while a ninth man accused of common assault was unable to submit a plea because he could not understand the Tamil interpreter provided by the court – his case was adjourned until July 23.

Prosecutor David Cooke told the court Sadasaramoorthy gave a false name and date of birth on his arrest and was later found to have “previous convictions for dishonesty”, Cooke said, the last of which was in 2006.

Asked by Judge Brown why he ran onto the pitch, Sadasaramoorthy – who was representing himself – said: “My dad lived in Sri Lanka in the north east and in 2009 the Sri Lankan government declared a war – my father was arrested and they murdered him.”

Saying he was aware the ethnic Tamils had a “grievance” against the Sri Lankan government, Judge Brown asked him to instead explain why he ran onto the pitch on June 20.

Sadasaramoorthy answered: “On the day I went a lot of Sri Lankans were shouting ‘you can never come back to Sri Lanka’, saying if you come there they would kill me, so I told them you are in a democratic country in Britain and that they couldn’t do anything here.

“That’s why I took the flag and ran on to the pitch.”

The judge gave him seven days to pay a £250 fine, £85 court costs and a £25 victim surcharge “in it’s entirety”. Six other defendants who denied public order offences were Regan Chares Kumar Balachandran, 23, of Newham, London, Sukitharshan Karthikesu, 25, of Buckhurst Hill, Essex, Thilakshan Kulasingam, 19, of Mitcham, Surrey, Kaunshanth Maheswaran, 20, of Dartford, Kent, Sivendran Nadarajah, 24, of Mitcham, Surrey and Thayalan Ratnam, 31, of Croydon.

Source: Colombo Gazette (Sri lanka)

UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe yesterday called on the government to re-establish all the Independent Commissions (ICs) for the Elections, Police and Judicial Service etc before holding the Northern, North-Western and Central Provincial Council Polls, which have been scheduled for September.

He told the media in Colombo that Sri Lanka was a signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which required that the will of the people shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections, by universal and equal suffrage, secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.

The Rajapaksa regime had to re-introduce the 17th Amendment to the Constitution.

An independent public service, which could act without political interference, he said was a sine que non to ending the violence and vote rigging that had marred successive elections under the current government.

The UNP leader observed that he had already written to President Mahinda Rajapaksa urging him to re-introduce 17-A and expected him to display his commitment to the conduct of democratic polls.

Instead of adopting time wasting tactics through the establishment of Parliamentary Select Committees, to discuss issues which have been debated for years, the priority was to introduce an urgent bill that could free the public service from its shackles, he pointed out. (by Zacki Jabbar)

Source: The Islands (Sri Lanka)

While rejecting a request made through the police by the British High Commission in Colombo to get a Briton’s passport released from court custody, the Colombo Fort Magistrate yesterday observed that he does not hear cases according to the wants of the British High Commission.

The Britisher in question had been charged with the non-payment of a hotel bill.

Magistrate Thilina Gamage observed that Courts functioned in accordance with rules and regulations and maintained that it was not for the British High Commission, but the owner of the passport to come to Court and make a request for its release.

Grand Oriental Hotel (GOH) Manager had in a complaint to the Fort police alleged that the Birtisher Allen John had defaulted on a payment of Rs.17,202 after using the hotel’s facilities. He had stayed in the hotel on April 4, 2013 and had reportedly left on the following day without paying the bill. However, the suspect had failed to carry his travel documents including the passport with him.

Subsequently, the hotel management had lodged a complaint with police after handing over the suspect’s passport to the police. Police who conducted investigations had informed the British High Commission. It was revealed that the British High Commission had paid the hotel bill owed by the Britisher. Subsequently, the complainant had informed police that they were willing to settle the matter since the bill had been already settled by the High Commission.

Filing a motion before Magistrate Thilina Gamage, the Fort police yesterday informed Court that the British High Commission had sent them a letter requesting to get the suspect’s passport released since he was to be sent back. In this instance, the Magistrate rejected the British High Commission’s move to have the passport released without following the proper legal procedure. (Lakmal Sooriyagoda)

Source: Daily Mirror (Sri Lanka)

A Common Man won three awards — Best Film, Best Director and Best Actor — at the Madrid International Film Festival yesterday.

The movie was directed by Chandran Rutnam and the main roles were played by Sir Ben Kingsley and Ben Cross.

A Common Man, which is set in Colombo, was produced by Manohan Nanayakkara, B. S. Radha Krishnan and Chandran Rutnam, according to a promotional flyer.

The movie is about a mysterious man (Ben Kingsley) who plants five bombs around the city; A public bus, a shopping mall, the Polgoda police station, an intercity train and the Katukurunda Airfield. The man then establishes his mini control station on top a skyscraper in Dehiwala and calls the police chief Morris De Silva (Ben Cross) and informs him that if four prisoners are not released, the bombs will be detonated.

The movie had its premiere at the Laemmle Music Hall Cinema in Beverly Hills, California on March 15, 2013 with the participation of celebrated movie personalities in Hollywood.

The film was nominated in four categories at the festival — Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor.

Source: The Islands (Sri Lanka)

බුද්ධගයාවේ බෝම්බ පිපිරීම්වලට සම්බන්ධ බවට සැකකරන ඉන්දීය මුජහිඩීන් සංවිධානයේ ක්‍රියාකාරිකයකු වන අන්වර් හුසේන් මලික්‌ නමැත්තා ඉන්දීය විශේෂ කාර්ය බළකාය විසින් කොල්කටා නගරයේ බස්‌ නැවතුම්පළකදී අත්අඩංගුවට ගෙන ඇත.

මොහු අත්අඩංගුවට ගනු ලැබූ අවස්‌ථාවේ පුපුරණ ද්‍රව්‍ය තොගයක්‌ හා ව්‍යාජ ඉන්දීය මුදල් නෝට්‌ටුද ඔහු සතුව තිබී හමුවී ඇත.

ඉන්දීය මුජහිඩීන් සංවිධානය තමන්ට පුපුරණ ද්‍රව්‍ය සැපයූ බව ඔහු හෙළිකර ඇත.

මේ අතර බිහාර් රාජ්‍ය සංචාරක සංස්‌ථාවේ කළමනාකරු අඡේ කුෂ්යප පැවසුවේ බුද්ධගයාවට එන සංචාරක පිරිස තම වන්දනා ගමන් අවලංගු කර ඇති බවයි. (කීර්ති වර්ණකුලසූරිය)

Source: Divaina (Sri Lanka)

India, the Maldives and Sri Lanka today signed a deal on maritime security during the second National Security Adviser Meeting on Trilateral Cooperation the Ministry of Defence.

The Secretary, Ministry of Defence and Urban Development Gotabaya Rajapaksa led the Sri Lankan delegation. Shivshanker Menon, National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister of India and Mohamed Nazim, Minister of Defence and National Security of the Maldives headed the Indian and Maldivian sides respectively.

An agreement was reached on the importance of raising the maritime cooperation between the three countries in the current context of maritime security environment in the Indian Ocean region. The meeting follows several senior official and technical level consultations held between the three neighbouring countries.

At the conclusion of the meeting an outcome document detailing specific areas of cooperation in the maritime security sphere was signed.

The High Commissioner of India YK Sinha, the High Commissioner of the Maldives Hussain Shihab and Joint Secretary of the Security Council Secretariat (India) Saurabh Kumar were among the foreign delegates.

Source: Colombo Gazette (Sri Lanka)

The Sri Lankan government and Sri Lankan High Commissioner to India Prasad Kariyawasam requested devotees not to visit or tour the sacred area this week as investigations were continuing.

The Temple’s chief monk Ven. Hakurugammana Saddathissa Thera said the blasts may have have been carried out to prevent devotees visiting the temple. Meanwhile, Government Information Director General Prof. Ariyarathne Athugala said Bihar Province Chief Minister Nithis Kumar had taken the initiative and leadership to inquire into the incident.

Source: Daily News ( Sri Lanka)

Five people including two Tibetan pilgrims were injured in a serial blast inside the Mahabodhi temple complex at Bodhgaya on Sunday morning.

According to Gaya police, the blasts took place in quick succession between 5.30 am and 6 am in the temple complex and near Mahabodhi tree.

Senior police officers, including DIG of Magadh range, have reached the world heritage site-Mahabodhi temple. Forenscic experts from Patna too have rushed.

Mahabodhi temple had been on the hit list of the terrorists and IB had sent an alert last week.

Two Tibetan pilgrims who have been injured are admitted in AM College at Gaya, police said.

CRPF personnel and fire tenders have been rushed to the spot.

Source: Times of India

Watch Video : http://www.dailymirror.lk/news/31994-blasts-inside-mahabodhi-temple2-injured.html

Colombo Magistrate Gihan Pilapitiya yesterday, issued a warrant through the Interpol to arrest the LTTE cadre who intruded into the Cardiff Cricket Ground in England on July 20 when the India, Sri Lanka cricket match was in progress.

The CID filing an application requested that with a view to obtaining a red notice against the suspect, an open warrant too, to be issued in English for the arrest of the suspect identified as Yogeswaran Manimaran alias Mohan Raj, a former resident of Valvettiturai.

He is alleged to be a member of an organised gang specialising in drawing money from foreign account holders’ teller machines by using forged credit cards.

The suspect is alleged to have stolen about Rs. 30 million and used this sum to fund terrorist activities.

An application was also filed under the 2006 Money Laundering Act to suspend the suspects’ bank account held in a private bank in Kotahena.

The CID further informed that two more suspects had been taken into custody in this connection .

The are Pirumandanara, Ananada Ruben, a resident of Dharmapuram and Balasubaramanium Udayas, a resident of Kotahena.

The CID requested a Detention Order to further hold in custody the first and second suspects which was allowed.

IP Priyadharshana of the Counterfeit Notes Division and IP Dhammikia Senadeera prosecuted. (Siranjanie Kumarie and Jayantha de Silva)

Source: Daily News (Sri Lanka)

Notorious criminal and drug dealer Mohammed Azmir, alias ‘Mamazini’, was shot dead by police commandos, in the early hours of yesterday, when he allegedly tried to strangle, with his handcuffs, the driver of the vehicle carrying him to a hideout at Cinnamon Gardens to recover an arms cache following his arrest in Maligwatte.

Commandant of the STF DIG R. W. M. C. Ranawana said that Azmir had been a large scale drug dealer with two warrants for his arrest.

He had threatened to kill anyone providing information to police about his movements, the DIG said.

A large contingent of STF personnel surrounded the area before entering the criminal’s hideout where they recovered a firearm and a hand grenade.

After his arrest the criminal had said that there were some firearms hidden in a hideout at Cinnamon Gardens and while he was being taken there he had attempted to strangle the driver, causing injuries to him.

The STF driver is receiving treatment at the National Hospital. (by Norman Palihawadana)

Source: The Islands (Sri Lanka)

උතුරු පළාත් සභා මැතිවරණය සඳහා ජුලි 6 වැනිදා පැවැත්වෙන රජයේ නාම යෝජනා මණ්‌ඩලයට ඉදිරිපත්වී ඇති අපේක්‍ෂකයන් 52 අතර කොටි සංවිධානයේ හිටපු ක්‍රියාකාරීන් වූ තමිලිනී, දයා මාස්‌ටර් හා කේ. පී. හෙවත් කුමාරන් පද්මනාදන් ද වෙති.

මොවුන් අධිකරණයකින් දඬුවම් ලබා නැති නිසා ඔවුන්ටද සිය නාම යෝජනා ඉදිරිපත් කිරීම පිණිස එදින නාමයෝජනා මණ්‌ඩලය වෙත පැමිණෙන ලෙස දන්වා ඇතැයි රජයේ ඉහළ පෙළේ ආරංචි මාර්ග පළ කළේය.

තමිලිනී කොටි කාන්තා බළකායේ හිටපු නායිකාව වන අතර දයා මාස්‌ටර් හිටපු කොටි මාධ්‍ය ප්‍රකාශක හා කේ. පී. කොටි ජාත්‍යන්තර ආයුධ ජාලයේ හිටපු ප්‍රධානියා වෙයි.

ද්‍රවිඩ සන්ධානයේ හිටපු මන්ත්‍රීවරයෙක්‌ද අපේක්‍ෂකත්වය ඉල්ලා සිටින පිරිස අතර සිටී.

මේ හැර ඊපීඩීපී පක්‍ෂයද සිය අපේක්‍ෂකයන් නාමයෝජනා මණ්‌ඩලයට නම්කර ඇත.

මේ අතර උතුරු පළාත් සභා මැතිවණය සඳහා මැතිවරණ ප්‍රතිපත්ති මාලාව සකස්‌ කිරීමට දයා මාස්‌ටර් සහ ඊපීඩීපී නායක ඩග්ලස්‌ දේවානන්දාට භාරවී ඇත.

මෙම පළාත් සභා මැතිවරණය සඳහා මහ ඇමැති ලෙස මෙතෙක්‌ කිසිවකුගේ නම යෝජනා වී නැතැයිද එම ආරංචි මාර්ග කියා සිටියේය.

මේ අතර ද්‍රවිඩ සන්ධානය විසින් මාවයි සේනාධිරාජා මහ ඇමැති ධුරය සඳහා නම්කර ඇත. (කීර්ති වර්ණකුලසූරිය)

Source: Divaina (Sri Lanka)

The country’s powerful Secretary of Defence Gotabaya Rajapaksa spoke to the Daily Mirror in one of his most wide ranging interviews in recent times, on a gamut of issues.  Rajapaksa explained why he believes that devolution of power is not the solution to the national question.

He also expressed his candid views about his percieved relationship with hard-line Sinhala groups,the issues surrounding the arrest of a senior Police officer on charges of murder and about the controversial Matale mass grave among other topics on this interview.

Full interview>>

Source: Daily Mail (Sri Lanka)

Moneragala High Court Judge Gihan H. Kulatunga yesterday handed down the death sentence to five persons convicted of committing a murder in 2002.

Those convited were R.K.D. Piyadasa of 3rd Mile Post, Kotabowa, Bibile, K.D. John of Ikiriyanpollanda in Medagama, Mohamed Niyaz of Kathaluwala, Medagama, R.K.D. Sugathadasa and K.D. Upul Kumara of Kalugahawadiya, Medagama. They were found guilty of abducting and murdering D.M. Mahinda Nishshanka of Kalugahawadiya, Medagama on October 15 in 2002.

The judge found the five persons guilty of the charges of unlawful assembly, abduction and murder.

The fourth accused in the case R.K.D. Chaminda Rajapaksa of Diyapola in Nannapurawa was discharged as charges against him were not proven.

The case was filed by the Attorney General under the provisions of Article 296 of the Penal Code. (By Ravindu Gunathilake,Badalkumbura Corr.)

Source: The Islands (Sri Lanka)