(March 31, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka Guardian) According to information from 20-year-old labourer, Mudugamuwa Manage Piyal, he was arrested on 2 August at 2pm by police and taken first to Deniyaya and then Morawaka Police Station.There had been an attempt by police to arrest Piyal’s brother and one of his uncles earlier in the day regarding a theft at a shop in Porupitiya, but they had escaped.

From this point the victim alleges that a series of beatings took place over several days in a room at Morawaka station. The first incident involved officers kicking the victim until he screamed, and was heard by his mother who waited nearby. Piyal was later handcuffed to a bed and then whipped with his own belt at around 7:30pm by a drunk police officer. During an interrogation set up, the victim claims that he was stripped and beaten again by an officer, who also gripped and twisted his penis. The beatings continued over the 48 hours until he was released without bail on 4 August; he was told to report to the station every Sunday.

Finally Piyal was confronted by officer Sunil Shantha as he left the station, who took his bicycle. The policeman suggested that Piyal's brother had stolen a mountain bike and that he should give up his own to avoid the case being pursued. He was told not to mention it to anyone.

Piyal has been treated at Haldola Government Ayurvedic Hospital for the beating he received in custody. However to date no case has been filed in response to his allegations of torture, despite a written complaint being sent to the Inspector General of Police, the Superintendent of Police Matara, the National Police Commission, Attorney General and the Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission. He continues to visit the police station each week, as instructed by the officers who tortured him.

Sources: AHRC

(March 31, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The Democratic National Front (DNF) yesterday alleged that the authorities were deliberately ignoring the health condition of the former Army Commander General (Retd.) Sarath Fonseka by refusing proper medical treatment.

Fonseka’s wife Anoma told a press briefing in Colombo earlier today that her husband was badly in need of specialists to attend to him owing to the sensitive nature of his ailments.

But instead of providing a specialist the authorities have offered the services of a navy doctor and this was inadequate”, Mrs. Fonseka alleged.

She added that the authorities were even ignoring a court ruling that allowed the former army commander access to proper medical treatment which includes specialists, etc.

Military spokesperson Major General Prasad Samarasinghe refuted the allegations saying that proper medical treatment was being given to the former army Commander and that there was no cause for anyone to be alarmed.

He added that military doctors who have examined the former Army Commander have submitted that he was in good health, and the matter stops there.

By R. Swaminathan

(March 31, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) Conventional wisdom in the “good old days” had it that external security threats stemmed from hostile countries and internal security threats were all totally indigenous. In the last few decades, India’s security scenario has undergone a sea change; and many internal security threats are externally sponsored or guided or inspired or supported or tolerated.We no longer enjoy the luxury of merely blaming the “foreign hand”, but have to gear up to face the challenges that exist and that may come about in the future. The rapidly developing political, economic and military strength of India, if unfortunately accompanied by a fragile internal security scenario, could become a significant factor for instability in the region and in the world.

India is widely accepted to be the country most affected by terrorism, in terms of casualties, duration of challenges, types of terrorism (and their causes) etc. Amongst the various types of violence against society that are faced by India (not necessarily all at the same time and/or with the same intensity) the following could be identified for studying the causes, options for countering them and possible solutions:

· Ethnic struggles for their rights, often leading to demands for secession, militant insurgency, terrorist acts against government targets and even innocent civilians.
· Left wing (naxalite or Maoist) extremism, originally stemming from extreme deprivation.
· Linguistic, caste-based agitations and other parochial movements.
· Cross-border terrorism mostly sponsored or tolerated by unfriendly or ineffective governments.
· Jihadi terrorism, spawned by pan-Islamic fundamentalism.
· Spill-over terrorism from neighbours.

Ethnic Militancy & Maoist Insurgency

Though this paper essentially deals with terrorism and counter-terrorism responses, a brief discussion about the related issues of ethnic militancy and Maoist insurgency may be appropriate.

There is still some ambiguity about the definition of terrorism and who is a terrorist and this leads to a tendency to lump together terms like militants, insurgents, extremists, fundamentalists and (real) terrorists. Some analysts club together the security threats posed by ethnic insurgencies (mostly in the north-east) and Maoist insurgency (widely spread in many states of India) together with the threats posed by terrorism. The insurgencies are socio-political phenomena and are basically territory-related, in the sense that the ethnic insurgencies want to have a separate status (within or outside India) for the areas in which the particular ethnic group is in a majority; and the Maoists want to control territory and, through such control, impose a different system of governance. While all kinds of people fighting for different causes may at times indulge in violent acts, a terrorist is one whose primary aim is to cause maximum destruction, often targeting totally unconnected persons, with the sole purpose of causing and promoting fear and thus influence decision-making. The terrorists seek to influence the minds of the people, terrorise them into losing their faith in the government and impose a state of fear about public safety.

The Maoist (Naxalite) movement has gripped a significantly large portion of India and, as repeatedly stated by the Prime Minister, it presently poses arguably the most serious threat to our internal security. Though the “ideology” and the “methodology” may be imported, the basic causes are indigenous. There is a wide-spread perception that “land reforms” and efforts at redress of genuine grievances have only been superficial and that the “exploiters” continue to “exploit” the poor and the landless agriculturists. It cannot be a coincidence that the Maoists are most effective in areas of past maximum exploitation of tribal communities. If there is any element of truth in this perception, urgent steps need to be taken to remedy the situation on the ground, without necessarily tying them to a cease-fire. The grievances have to be handled by a judicious combination of social, economic and political measures, coupled with police action for the preservation of public safety and Law & Order.

China had, at one stage, provided shelter and support to ethnic-separatist militancy in the north-east. Various militant groups operating in India’s northeast have often found safe haven and operational bases in Bangladesh. The linkages between the Maoists in Nepal and those in the bordering states in India would remain a cause for major concern. One, however, has to recognize, accept and cater for the fact that while external factors could provide, seen-or-unseen, real-or-virtual, inspiration and support (like fertilizer and water) to various groups that pose internal security threats, only the pre-existence of the basic grievances and causes (like soil and seeds) could make them functional.

Present Challenges

The terrorist challenges presently faced by India are mostly India-specific and not really a part of "global terrorism”. The so-called "global war on terror" is not likely to be of much help to India. Some terrorist groups may follow similar methodologies and techniques as used elsewhere; and some get inspiration (and support) from outside to exploit the idea of Islamic jihad as a motivating factor. One of the unfortunate consequences of the raise of Islamic fundamentalism is the mostly indigenous “retaliatory” raise in fundamentalist revivals amongst Hindus and other religionists. Such revivals have the dangerous potential of being accepted by the majority as totally justified. In addition to direct and indirect terrorist challenges, India has also to handle instances of mass violence based on religious, communal, linguistic and such other fault lines.

The first challenge is to be able to recognize that our internal security can be ensured only if there is a political consensus on national security policies. Political entities need to agree to eschew the temptation of exploiting (for narrow party interests or for creating/maintaining vote-banks) divisive issues which have the potential of posing threats to national cohesion and security. Such issues should be discussed between all the concerned political entities and the concerned people and agreed policy approaches worked out. The relatively easy procedure of inciting emotions and passions on potentially divisive issues needs to be given up, though at some cost to the popular “image”.

The adjectives “Jihadi” or “Islamist” are often used in relation to certain terrorist incidents mainly because no other terror group invokes religious sanction or quotes religious texts to justify its terrorist acts. Further, such groups do not shy away from admitting the religious nature of their ultimate goal, i.e. the Islamisation of society. Literature found with activists of Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) talks of this goal seriously. As jihadi terrorists cloak themselves in religious idiom, they can easily draw support from innocent Muslims. Jihadi terrorists are very active against India, not because India is the number one enemy of Islam, but because it is considered to be a soft target.

Jihadi terrorism, inspired by externally generated ideas about taking revenge for perceived wrongs committed against Islam over centuries and the grandiose ambition of establishing an Islamic Caliphate across international borders, continues to pose a major threat. The earlier self-congratulatory claim about Indian Muslims not being involved in jihadi terrorism has been belied by the increasing numbers of Indian Muslims seen to be involved in such incidents in recent times. It is not as if the jihadi terrorists have a joint “global” or "national” headquarters or if such groups hold any defined territories from which alone they operate. There may be similarities in methodologies and techniques; but it would be a big mistake to try and evolve a grand plan of macro solutions to this problem. In order to gain local support, every such group would have to focus on specific local-oriented politico-economic-religious issues; and these may have to be tackled through customised approaches that include the addressing of genuine grievances.

Pakistan has since 1956 been using state-sponsored and state-supported terrorism as an instrument of its state policy and a strategic weapon against India. Sponsorship, support and safe havens provided in Pakistan and Bangladesh have kept cross-border terrorism alive in Kashmir, north-east and elsewhere. The ISI-sponsored militant groups have grown to carry out their jihad not just against the Govt. of India and Hindus in general, but pursue the ultimate objective of the formation of an Islamic caliphate in South Asia, by attacking many targets within Pakistan also. It would seem that the Pakistani state that had sought strategic gains through the sponsorship of terrorism is finding the enterprise increasingly unprofitable; and it is doubtful if the state has the capability to put the genie back in the bottle, or even if it has any such intention.

While (rightly) laying a major part of the blame for cross-border jihadi terrorism on Pakistan and Bangladesh, one has to admit that a disturbingly significant part of jihadi terrorism in India is indigenous. Angry individual Muslims, many of them well educated, not belonging to any organisation, have been active. Dr. Sageman, a retired CIA official, has called them leaderless jihadis and Raman calls them citizen jihadis. They are terrorists born out of the anger of the moment, giving vent to their anger through tactical strikes, but they have no strategic objective. The threats emanating from increasing nexus between local criminal gangs like Dawood’s and LeT terrorists cannot be under-estimated.

Vote bank politics and minorityism are among the factors that inhibit significant action against jihadi terrorists. There is already a creeping feeling that the majority is treated as “second class” citizens and this could blow up as a major reaction, unless the government improves its performance in countering jihadi terrorists.

Trends

I had mentioned (five years ago) in a paper that one of the greatest risks would be an increase in suicide terrorist missions. With the improved overall security arrangements, suicide missions may become the preferred low-cost option. That perception is still valid. Suicide missions need not always be related to bomb-in-truck kind of use of explosives and could include well-planned commando-style missions as in Mumbai in November 2008. Special efforts are needed to reduce the casualties in such attacks, to ensure zero-escapes and meaningful (and prompt) follow-up action against the surviving terrorists; and to mount a viable threat of possible retaliation, so that the costs of such missions become unacceptably high.

The Times of India (14 March 2010) mentioned recent intelligence reports from Pakistan pointing to the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) recruiting surrendered Taliban militants for possible use in India. 130 such militants are said to be under training in an "institute" in Lahore, for the past three months. This might result in an increase in suicide bombings or high-risk commando style attacks.

The bombing in Pune points to the possibility of jihadi terrorists targeting smaller (Tier II) cities. Smaller cities normally have smaller police forces and are likely to be less well protected. There are better chances of succeeding without being caught. Apart from this, as the basic objective of terrorist attacks is to create a fear psychosis (and resultant loss of faith in the government) amongst the people, the wider the target net, the better would be the result for the terrorists. Mass casualty terrorism (as in the cases of 9/11 in New York and 26/11 in Mumbai) are spectacular and has its own value in the terrorists' scheme of things. Attacking smaller cities, resulting in relatively lower casualties will cause wide-spread "We are not safe anywhere" syndrome and help lower the morale of the government and the public. The fight against terrorism of this nature, in the bigger or smaller cities, cannot succeed without the active involvement of enlightened and security-conscious citizenry. The law enforcement and security agencies have not so far been able to enlist the aam admi in the fight against terrorism.

Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram spoke on 11 March 2010 about a real-time decision support system to track down terrorists and organised criminals. “Today, we are fighting our battles on individual pitches. We need to connect, coordinate and supplement our efforts both at micro and macro levels.” Referring to the Home Ministry's Rs. 2,000-crore Crime, Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS) project, he said a conscious decision had been taken to mandate the NCRB to roll out the CCTNS through which a national databank of crime and criminals and their biometric profiles could be created. This database would have a handshake with databases of 21 other agencies of the criminal justice system such as courts, jails, immigration and passport authorities, and subsequently, be extended to other national agencies through the NATGRID so that terror and crime could be fought more professionally.

Without becoming very technical, I distinguish between maritime security and coastal security by considering the former to be mainly concerned with protecting assets on the high seas from attacks at sea; and the latter as aimed at protecting assets on land from sea-borne attacks. As the terrorists found infiltration via the sea quite effective in Mumbai, it is possible that the methodology may be tried again along different coastlines. Many proposals to strengthen the Coast Guard and the State Marine Police have been approved and are under implementation. During research for a paper jointly authored by Prof. V.Suryanarayan and me (scheduled to be released soon by the Center for Asia Studies, Chennai), it was found that the progress on most of these schemes is painfully and dangerously slow Similarly, despite frequent public statements about measures being taken to ensure coordinated coastal security measures, the situation does not seem to have changed significantly on the ground.

Terrorists continue to be innovative in their deadly tactics and expansive in their reach, while security forces are always preparing to rectify the shortfalls of the last “failure”. A disturbing trend is the increase in attacks on security forces (mostly Frontier Corps) protecting nuclear installations in Pakistan and possible infiltration of the Frontier Corps – probably pointing to jihadi terrorists wanting to go nuclear. Such a development poses a serious challenge to India and to the international community. A similar effort in India cannot be ruled out.

Public Perceptions

On the part of the government, it has to recognize the public perception that while considerable progress has been made in the area of collection of intelligence, through technical means, about the activities of terrorist and militant groups, such progress does not seem to have been matched in the areas of penetration of those groups and collection of intelligence through human agents. If this perception is correct, necessary measures to rectify the imbalance need to be initiated urgently.

Further, though the required mechanisms are stated to have been created for effective co-ordination between state and central agencies, as also amongst central agencies themselves, the results do not reflect the effectiveness of these mechanisms. What the public see and hear, soon after any “incident” or “failure of security”, is a prompt litany of complaints from state and central security agencies, against each other. This effort to shift “blame” often takes precedence over speedy investigation and even relief measures. We have seen this phenomenon even relating to the recent blasts at the German Bakery in Pune. The Union Home Minister and the Maharashtra State Home Minister have issued contradictory statements about the alerts issued prior to the blasts. Obviously, one of them is misleading the people.

The finger-pointing blame game is possible mainly because there is a total lack of democratic accountability and legislative oversight (or even awareness) of our security services. Let us compare this situation with a White House statement (relating to the Christmas Day attempted bombing of a commercial aircraft) issued on 7 January2010, in which President Obama said that ultimately it was his responsibility to keep Americans safe from terror plots. He added that “the US government failed to connect the dots that would have prevented a known terrorist from boarding a plane for America.” Though the failure was not the fault of any one individual, from now on the President would hold all intelligence and security officials accountable for the safety of US citizens. The lessons relating to total accountability and that it is not enough to have good systems in place, but it is also important to ensure that the systems work as intended, should not be ignored by those in authority in India.

A necessary step towards targeting terrorism is to form a citizens’ network of information by co-opting civil society organizations like village panchayats, area committees, Residents Welfare Associations or housing societies, private security agencies etc. These organisations have, in the course of their normal activities, access to information that will help in monitoring suspicious activities; and this wealth of information is normally wasted as they lack a viable method of sharing the information with law enforcement and security agencies. The Model Police Act has a salutary provision for the establishment of community liaison cells at different levels of police functioning, which would help in preventing this loss of valuable and actionable intelligence inputs. It is unfortunate that many States that have drafted or enacted new Police Acts in pursuance of the 2006 directives of the Supreme Court have chosen to ignore this provision. Frequent references are made by senior police officers and political leaders about public-private-partnership in counter terrorism efforts, but no worthwhile steps seem to have been initiated on the ground.

Counter Terrorism

Is the Indian establishment really serious about improving our counter-terrorist capabilities or are we satisfied with rhetoric and public pronouncements about proposed schemes? Are these followed up by real action and effective systems? High rhetoric and wishful thinking do not win battles and wars. Terrorism is definitely one of those things that cannot be wished away or handled via the oft-practised bureaucratic procrastination. Careful examination of the threats, design and speedy setting up of systems to counter them, creation of the necessary infrastructure and equipping the intelligence and security forces with the needed equipment, provision of good training and motivation, the setting up of the mechanisms for total coordination / command and control, and prescription of precise lines of accountability are amongst the essential requirements. The public would like the security establishment to reduce “spin” and take them into confidence – to the maximum extent possible. Otherwise, the uneasy feeling that we are not fully prepared to meet the challenge posed by terrorists would persist.

A major requirement is that the State should not descend into brutalizing the society and respond to terror with terror. We have to avoid repeated human rights violations committed in the name of security. Fake encounters, disappearances, mass graves, torture, cruel / inhuman / degrading treatment, arbitrary and long detention, unfair trials, suppression of political dissent, minority persecution etc. are all efforts to hide the neglect or evasion of identifying the root causes of terrorism (in each series of incidents) and tackling them effectively. The much-maligned “experiment” of Salwa Judum in Chhattisgarh is a case in point. The tactics that may have had some success in Gill’s Punjab is not necessarily a good example to follow everywhere else.

It is the whole society, not just the government, which can effectively fight terrorism. Long term measures should include an overhaul of our educational system so that separatists and extremists do not breed more terrorists, taking advantage of constitutional guarantees. We need a minimally uniform mandatory curriculum that would teach the students the essence of all the religions and instil religious tolerance. At the very crucial stage of a child's upbringing, we have to inculcate pluralism through understanding.

Conclusions

The Christmas Day incident in the USA, the White House “gate crashers” at the President Obama’s formal dinner for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and the more recent (21 March 2010) presence of an “explosive” in the cargo hold of a flight from Bengaluru to Tiruvananthapuram should remind us that the best designed and normally well implemented systems could also have failures caused by defective implementation and/or human failure. While such failures cannot probably be avoided one hundred percent, it is essential that system checks should ensure that they are kept to the absolute minimum. In addition to well prepared security exercises, it is essential to have work audits carried out by occasional surprise alert drills, to assess the response times and response qualities. At the same time, it should be borne in mind that deficiencies caused by faulty or inadequate system design and/or inadequate or poorly trained or equipped manpower would be unpardonable.

Terrorism can be contained and should be defeated. India has to make the supreme effort needed to overcome the general inability of democracies to put together the political will, resources and strategies that are necessary to prevail over terrorism. The Govt of India should be prepared to lower the threshold of tolerance in relation to cross-border terrorism and be able to serve credible notice that India is ready to exercise her right of hot pursuit and/or retaliation. Once India's capabilities and determination are made clear, the state sponsors of terrorist acts against Indian interests would realise the futility of such sponsorship.

Terrorism has not succeeded in severely disrupting communal harmony or political stability or economic growth in India. There is gratifying confidence still displayed by the international community, including the business class, in India’s ability to deal with the problem of terrorism and to protect them. Despite the frequent incidents of terrorism, India has not been doing too badly overall. Very few other governments could have done much better, in the given circumstances.

(This note formed the basis of a presentation made at a Panel Discussion on “Maritime Security and Counter Terrorism” organised by the Center for Asia Studies, Chennai, on 25 March 2010. The author, R.Swaminathan, is currently the Chairman of the International Institute for Security & Safety Management (New Delhi) and is former Special Secretary, DG (Security), Government of India. He can be contacted at rsnathan@gmail.com)

By Sarah Farnsworth

(March 31, Melbourne, Sri Lanka Guardian) Three men have walked free from court after pleading guilty to funding the separatist Sri Lankan group the Tamil Tigers.

Aruran Vinayagamoorthy, 35, Sivarajah Yathavan, 39, and Arumugum Rajeevan, 44, pleaded guilty in the Melbourne Supreme Court to providing $1 million to the Tamil Tigers between 2002 and 2005.

Vinayagamoorthy also pleaded guilty to providing electronic equipment, including radio transmitters, used in bomb attacks in Sri Lanka.

It is a federal offence under the United Nations Act to provide funds to a recognised terrorist organisation.

The Tamil Tigers are recognised as a terrorist organisation overseas but not in Australia.

Justice Paul Coghlan accepted that each were connected with Tamil Tigers and knew the group had a reputation of being a terrorist organisation. But he told the court the men were motivated to assist the Tamil community in the north of Sri Lanka.

He sentenced Vinayagamoorthy to two years' jail but released him on a good behaviour bond for four years.

Yathavan and Rajeevan were sentenced to one year in jail and released on a good behaviour bond for three years.

Last year, Justice Coghlan criticised the Australian Federal Police's 2007 arrest of Rajeevan, describing his treatment as "frightfully heavy handed" and of questionable legality.

During pre-trial arguments, the Supreme Court was told Rajeevan was arrested at gunpoint and was refused access to a lawyer during a five-hour interrogation.

Terrorism charges against all three men were later withdrawn by prosecutors and replaced with the lesser charges of funding the separatist group.

By Basil Fernando

(March 31, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka Guardian) No citizen has a special privilege where committing crimes is concerned. Whether the crime is that of murder or rape, income tax fraud or the non-disclosure of information relating to income, it makes no difference. All citizens are bound by the same laws and therefore, those who violate such laws, irrespective of their standing in society; they should be subjected to the same consequences.

The unfortunate situation in Sri Lanka is that this elementary principle does not operate in the country. On the one hand some are allowed to commit crimes and get away with it while on the other certain persons are selected for prosecution and punishment. In this situation there is an underlying arbitrariness and unfairness. It is this unfairness in the operation relating to the basic law with regard to the crimes themselves that justifies the classification of Sri Lanka being among the most lawless countries in the world. This is not due to the lack of laws but rather the lack of the principles of fairness in the application of the laws.

"Having similar crimes and similar methods of dealing with complaints regarding criminal activities is the very essence of a society based on the rule of law and justice. Citizens must be able to complain when crimes are committed should expect that similar investigations and other legal measures will be taken to deal with these crimes."

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At present there is a debate about the disclosure of income by journalists and others. Of course no one has any right to claim any exception to the law relating to disclosure of income. However, there is a gross unfairness if there is a vast section of people who never disclose their incomes and are not subjected to any consequences. This situation makes a mockery of the law when the state puts someone in trouble for an illegal act when almost all others get away with the same act and are not in any way sanctioned. Some are suspected of amassing enormous wealth and are not forced to disclose their income according to the law while some small fry is prosecuted.

This is the same principle that has been manifestly abused in the case of retired general, Sarath Fonseka in relation to many of the so-called crimes for which he is being prosecuted. The kind of allegations that are being made have been made a thousand times against those wielding power but no one is investigated or prosecuted. The very process of trying to select some kind of offense for those who are considered political opponents makes the cynical attitude of the citizen towards the whole law enforcement exercise even worse.

Having similar crimes and similar methods of dealing with complaints regarding criminal activities is the very essence of a society based on the rule of law and justice. Citizens must be able to complain when crimes are committed should expect that similar investigations and other legal measures will be taken to deal with these crimes. However, such expectation no longer exists in Sri Lanka. Today, even the commission of murder and other serious crimes can be ignored for many while others may be prosecuted for the same offense.

Some glaring examples of this are the well known cases of torture and other extrajudicial killings. For example SSP Vass Gunawardena and his family were publically accused of the assault on Nipuna Ratnayake not long ago. This was the case of a young student who was abducted by a group of policemen under the command of a senior police officer in charge of the Crime Division. It was highly publicised with photographs and other materials in the newspapers. For a short time there were discussions and reports in the media. However, today, these policemen continue to hold office.

The worst position is when the state is able to manipulate the evidence and criminal process to such an extent that they can completely fabricate charges, arrest persons, detain them and even subject them to prosecution in the most arbitrary manner. The case of J.S. Tissainayagam and retired general Sarath Fonseka are among the more glaring instances of such fabrications. However, there are tens of thousands of such cases relating to national security laws where lesser known persons have been kept in detention for years and often subjected to torture and other forms of abuse on the basis of fabricated charges. In the disappearances in the south in the period between 1988 and 1991 literally tens of thousands of young persons were abducted from their houses and forcibly disappeared on baseless allegations and there have been no consequences on any of these matters.

Thus, in Sri Lanka's situation today the policing institution has failed to ensure the investigation of all crimes irrespective of who is involved in the commission of the crime. This of course, is not just the fault of the police but also the system of interference into the policing system by the executive. The same today applies to the Attorney General's Department which exercise the public prosecutors function. Whatever independence it may have claimed some decades ago cannot be seen today. Whenever the executive wants a particular legal opinion in its favour the executive claims that it has received such an opinion from the Attorney General's Department.

Therefore today the prosecution function is completely controlled by the executive for political reasons. Where the criminal investigation function and the criminal prosecution function is controlled politically then hardly any kind of fairness may be expected. Under these circumstances there is selective justice where some small fry is made to answer charges, for example for non-disclosure of information regarding his income while the sharks enjoy the freedom to flout the law as they wish.

Of all the tasks of government, the most basic is to protect its citizens from violence.- John Foster Dulles

By Dr Ruwan M Jyatunge

(March 31, Ontario, Sri Lanka Guardian) Commonly violence is defined as the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community that either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment, or deprivation (Krug, Dahlberg, Mercy, Zwi & Lozano, 2002).

Political violence refers to acts of violence undertaken to further the political objectives. Violence is a common means used by people and governments around the world to achieve political goals. In this context Sri Lanka is one of the countries that is highly affected by the political violence. The scale and intensity of political violence has increased in Sri Lanka over the past few decades. Mob violence have become a common occurrence during the elections in Sri Lanka. Violence pervaded Sri Lankan social and cultural life. Although political violence and its associated factors are complex and multidimensional, violence continues to be a permeating and pervasive element of the Sri Lankan society.

"There is a close relationship between political violence, mental health and psychosocial wellbeing. Political violence has a variety of discernible long-term effects on political beliefs and attitudes, behavior and behavioral intentions, emotions, and other psychological variables. It can massively affect the mental health of the people."
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Duncan Pedersen emphasizes the root causes for the political violence and of the view that in poor and highly indebted countries, economic and environmental decline, asset depletion, and erosion of the subsistence base lead to further impoverishment and food insecurity for vast sectors of the population. Growing ethnic and religious tensions over a shrinking resource base often escort the emergence of predatory practices, rivalry, political violence, and internal wars. (Duncan Pedersen -Political violence, ethnic conflict, and contemporary wars: broad implications for health and social well-being)

Collective violence

The collective violence is defined as instrumental use of violence by people who identify themselves as members of a group-whether this group is transitory or has a more permanent identity-against another group or set of individuals, in order to achieve political, economic or social objectives.

William Kornhauser introduced the social attachments theory of collective violence and it deals with the influence of a person’s interaction with society on their potential for membership in violent groups. This theory explains that people who have no attachments to society are more likely to join a group in order to have a sense of belonging.

Collective violence is often social control: self-help by a group. It typically defines and responds to conduct as deviant. When unilateral and nongovernmental, it appears in four major forms—lynching, rioting, vigilantism, and terrorism—each distinguished by its system of liability (individual or collective) and degree of organization -higher or lower. ( Roberta Senechal de la Roche Department of History, Washington and Lee University)

In Sri Lanka, collective violence had occurred in the form of civilian riots, protests pogroms, banditry and gang warfare.etc. Collective violence in Sri Lanka has taken place in political or ethnic dimensions and it has a drastic impact on mental health, as well as the economy.

Childhood trauma and violent behavior

Childhood trauma has a profound effect in brain development and it can negatively affect the person in relation with his / her behavior in the society. Children who had become the victims of collective and personal violence might carry anger and resentment towards the society and it can erupt in a violent form. The researches indicate that majority of the former members of the German Baader-Meinhof Group that engaged in political violence had traumatized childhood. Many research confirm that the link between adverse childhood experiences and social violence.

Trauma and violence that people experience can pass in to the next generation and it can lead to a vicious cycle. A 1998 study by R. Yehuda , et al Vulnerability to posttraumatic stress disorder in adult offspring of Holocaust survivors [American Journal of Psychiatry, 155(9):1163-1171] confirmed that offspring of Holocaust survivor parents with PTSD have a higher lifetime risk for PTSD and report more distress after traumatic events. Therefore, sociopolitical violence has severe damaging effects to the population.

Religious Fundamentalism and Violence

Religious fundamentalism has become a subject of much controversy and debate and it has become one of the contributors of collective violence in the modern world. In the past few decades, collective violence had occurred in Sri Lanka as a part of religious fundamentalism and this trend is aggravating. The clergy who embrace violence and radical path of their faith are psychologically unsound and they view people outside their religion as opponents. They lack empathy when addressing issues related to the people outside of their religious circle and often justify violence against them. They preach hate and instigate their followers to commit violence. Often the clergy who support collective violence have had tormented childhood and some of them had been the victims of sexual abuse. Their anger and resentments are generalized or projected to people outside their faith or ethnic group. They put forth their insecurities as threats to the religion or conspiracies against religion and use it to validate violence.

Political Extremism that leads to Violence

Laird Wilcox defines political extremism as taking a political idea to its limits, regardless of 'unfortunate' repercussions, impracticalities, arguments and feelings to the contrary, and with the intention not only to confront, but also to eliminate opposition with the intolerance towards all views other than one's own by adoption of means to political ends which show disregard for the life, liberty, and human rights of others."

Political extremism in Sri Lanka has vivid faces and the extremism is often masqueraded by using national feelings or religious ideology. Political extremist is one who advocates or resorts to measures beyond the norm, especially in politics. His antisocial components are often concealed and it can emerge when the time and situation is favorable. The political extremists often try to create a homogeneous society that is based on religion or ethnic group.

What is the deep psychology beneath creating a homogeneous society disregarding the multi ethnicity or multi religious spectrum? This indicates the sadistic homosexual instincts inside the extremist’s mind. This feature was evident in Adolf Hitler’s mind. Hitler took every effort to create a homogeneous society in Germany. Hitler believed that the Aryan race were supreme to other races and did not have any racial tolerance. His extremism was connected with the libidinous instincts. According to Henry Murray a prominent personality specialist at Harvard University, Hitler was confused about his sexuality.

According to the DSM 4 homosexuality is not a mental illness but homosexual instincts mixed with sadistic traits and if the person is deeply troubled by it a pathological condition may appear. A political extremist who is deeply confused with his sexuality unable to come to terms with his homosexual impulses would try to create a homogeneous society under any cost. He would be focused and make this extreme vision as his life mission. The German people once surrendered their liberty to such a person.

Political violence and Democracy

Political violence manifests itself at all levels of social organization. The prolonged arm conflict in Sri Lanka has caused a massive and radical transformation in democracy justifying political violence. Free arm circulation aggravated the condition and violence has became a part of day today life. Many politicians facilitated such conditions and saw it as one of the easy ways to grab power and rule inspiring fear among the opponents. The vicious cycle of political violence affected the every layer of the Sri Lankan society.

Kristine Höglund, of the Dept. of Peace and Conflict Research - Uppsala University describes the nature of political violence in Sri Lanka.

……From the perspective of democratic politics, violence and insecurity may affect the election results or the outcome of elections in various ways. Threats and intimidation may be used to interfere with the registration of voters. Voter turn out may be influenced if large sections of the population refrain from casting their votes due to fear of violence. Assaults, threats and political assassinations during the election campaign may force political contenders to leave the electoral process or prevent elections from taking place. ( Electoral Violence in War-Ravaged Societies: The Case of Sri Lanka by Kristine Höglund )

Political violence in the first parliamentary elections in Sri Lanka

The first parliamentary election of Sri Lanka was held in 1947 and mob violence were unleashed in larger scale. As a result of such action, one active supporter of the Communist Party of Sri Lanka (pro-Soviet wing) was injured and became disabled. His 4-year-old son became heavily traumatized by this incident. As a boy, he realized that the people in politics made his father a disable aggravating their living condition. In the later years, the disabled man’s son launched two insurrections causing a collective trauma in Sri Lanka. In the both events, nearly 70,000 people lost their lives.

The Prabhakaran Fctor

Ethnic riots were initiated as a part of political violence in Sri Lanka. Some of the local politicians organized gang violence against Tamils for cheep popularity. When the tensions rose between the Tamils and Sinhalese, some people fabricated awful stories to keep high emotions. Young Prabhakaran used to listen to the terrible stories that occurred in the Gal Oya riots (1956) and 1958 ethnic riots where the mob savagely attacked the Tamil civilians causing many deaths. As the investigative journalist M.R.Narayan Swamy describes he was utterly ravaged when he heard the story of the violent murder of a Hindu Poosari in Panadura. The Poosari was burnt alive by the mob during the ethnic riots in 1958. He was determined to take revenge. He became very much focused and his made his entire life mission to fight Sinhalese. At the age of 16, he committed his first antisocial act – setting fire to a CTB bus. When he became the leader of the LTTE he ordered a number of massacres including Anuradhapura massacre in 1985 and Aranthalawa Massacre in 1987 and hundreds of suicide bombings targeting Sinhala civilians. Hence, Prabhakaran launched his terror for three decades causing over 90,000 deaths in Sri Lanka.

Violence conducted by the radical political groups in Sri Lanka

In Sri Lanka, several radical political organizations conducted violence to achieve their political targets. The JVP launched two insurrections in 1971 and subsequently in 1988. Tamil militant groups launched their violent campaigns since 1970 s and the LTTE became the mainstream militant group that was in action until 2009 May.

As Professor Gamini Samaranayake highlights the origin and development of the JVP and the LTTE relate more closely to the social expansion and the lack of economic and political development in Sri Lanka since the beginning of the 1960s. Basically, both groups are more action-oriented than ideology-oriented and dominated by youth with a similar socio-economic background.( Political violence in Sri Lanka: A diagnostic approach Gamini Samaranayake )

The former JVP General Secretary Lional Bopage explains the genesis of political violence in Sri Lanka in following account.

The island’s post-1948 political leadership did not come into being as a result of a coherent anti-colonial struggle that unified its people. The neo-colonial establishment not only carried forward the policies and practices of the exclusively colonial, mono-cultural and unitary administration, which were not only incongruent with the culturally and linguistically diverse nature of its inhabitants, but also their socio-economic, political and cultural expectations.

The post-colonial Sri Lankan state never considered it significant to protect the dignity and security of marginalised and disadvantaged social groups. Domestic issues were viewed and dealt with in a mindset of a conflict paradigm. Peaceful demands for social equity, justice, security and dignity were continuously disregarded and/or violently suppressed. The indignity and insecurity caused by such attacks on the physical and psychological integrity of individuals and communities thus motivated them to take up arms.- (Political violence in Sri Lanka- L. Bopage)

The Ethnic Riots and Political Violence

The human rights activist Rajan Hoole points out that the politicians like Gamini Dissanayaka, Cyril Mathew etc instigated ethnic riots as a part of political violence. (Sri Lanka: The Arrogance of Power: Myths, Decadence & Murder – Rajan Hoole)

Following extract is taken from Sri Lanka: The Holocaust and After," by L. Piyadasa, Marram Books, London (1984) which gives a comprehensive account how violence can be planned and executed by the politicians.

In Kelaniya, Industries Minister Cyril Mathew's gangs were identified as the ones at work. The General Secretary of the government "union" the Jathika Sevaka Sangamaya (J.S.S.) was identified as the leader of gangs which wrought destruction and death all over Colombo and especially in Wellawatte, where as many as ten houses a street were destroyed. A particular U.N.P. municipal councillor of the Dehiwela-Mount Lavinia Municipality led gangs in Mount Lavinia. In the Pettah (the bazaar area, where 442 shops were destroyed and murders were committed) the commander was the son of Aloysius Mudalali, the Prime Minister's right-hand man. And so on. Thugs who worked regularly for the leaders of the U.N.P., the Ministers of State and Party Headquarters, and in some cases uniformed military personnel and police, were seen leading the attack. They used vehicles of the Sri Lanka Transport Board (Minister in charge, M. H. Mohammed) and other government departments and state corporations. Trucks of the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation's Oil Refinery came from many miles away bringing the men who destroyed so much of Wellawatte. There is much other evidence of this sort. In view of the quasi-governmental nature of the "action," the killings that took place may have been difficult for the eye-witnesses to resist ... But in the neighbourhoods, after the initial shock, Sinhalese and Burghers organised themselves and kept off the gangs who had been sent to burn and kill.

How Nuwara Eliya was erupted following the minister Mr. Gamini Dissanayake s visit, specifies in Sri Lanka - 'Paradise' in Ruins," (Sri Lanka Co-ordination Centre, Kassel, 1983. )

The town was closely guarded by the army. All vehicles were checked. Bus conductors had orders not to transport Tamils. Minister Gamini Dissanayake came from Colombo to Nuwara Eliya to hold a meeting with party members. The day before, M.P. Herath Ranasinghe had arrested precautiously (sic) some well-known rowdies. Soon after the end of Gamini Dissanayake's party meeting they were released. These people went out immediately, well-equipped with petrol, iron rods and other kinds of weapons, and tried to attack two Tamil priests in town. They managed to escape. Without having succeeded they moved on - another mob joined up with the first one. They laid a ring of petrol around a Tamil shop which was then burnt.

Election Violence

Electoral violence has become a widespread trait in Sri Lankan politics. It has profound effects on people and their perceptions about politics and power. As Kristine Höglund, of Uppsala University points out that the electoral violence is used for a number of reasons: to hinder people from voting, to prevent candidates from campaigning, to display discontent with election results, or to overthrow the outcome of the election.

Politics in Sri Lanka and in the Village Politics impede many aspects of life in Sri Lanka. In an anthropological study of a rural village, politics in Sri Lanka is described as “a consuming passion” (Spencer 1990), closely linked to nationalist and religious identity formation. State-based political patronage is widespread in Sri Lanka. State resources have been used by the party leaders for personal benefits, to reward political loyalty, to remain in power, and to undermine the opposition (Suri 2007, 46).

Patron-client relationships are core aspects of party politics and organization in Sri Lanka. The party workers and supporters expect benefits in different forms – for themselves and for their family. Such rewards include, for instance, employment opportunities, state contracts and loans, or governmental welfare benefits (Suri 2007, 99). (Hoeglund, Kristine.- Paying the Price for Patronage: Electoral Violence in Sri Lanka )

Series of violence were unleashed in 1977 elections and many people became victims. Similarly, in subsequent elections this violent trend became a foremost factor. Murders, assaults and arsons became common occurrences during the election time. In the infamous Wayamba Provincial Council, election in 1999 52-year-old woman was assaulted and stripped in public by a local politician.

In 2001 election, a new tendency emerged in the Sri Lankan politics and politicians used army deserters and ex combatants to initiate election violence in larger scale. The culmination of the violence took place in Kandy on polling day for the General Election and ten Muslim youth were gunned down in Udathalawinna.

A large number of combatants with battle trauma took part in election violence from 2001 to 2010 elections and some of them were believed to be undiagnosed PTSD patients. As military psychologists indicate, anger and violence are prevalent problems combatants with PTSD.

Matthew Tull, of the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson did extensive case work on PTSD and social violence. According to him, individuals with PTSD may have intense and unpredictable emotional experiences, and anger and aggressive behavior may ways of establishing a sense of control. Anger may also be a way of trying to express or release tension connected to uncomfortable emotions often associated with PTSD, such as shame and guilt. His research on Iraq and Afghanistan War veterans who screened positive for PTSD reported significantly greater anger and hostility than those in the subthreshold-PTSD and non-PTSD groups. Veterans in the subthreshold-PTSD group reported significantly greater anger and hostility than those in the non-PTSD group.

It’s a known fact that the traumatized soldiers can be used to commit political and social violence. This factor was seen in Somalia and in Rwanda. Extreme groups transform traumatized people into perpetrators of violence. At the end of the American Civil War, extremists formed KKK that conducted a series of racial violence in America through ex soldiers. Many Lincoln brigade soldiers who fought in the Spanish civil war involved in social violence soon after the Great Depression.

Political Violence and Antisocial Personality Disorder

From JRJ to the present leadership every head of the state had his or her henchmen to carry out politically connected violence. They were either ministers or the members of the parliament or thugs with political patronage. Most of them were under educated and had violently inclined behavior. These mob elements had committed a number of atrocities and violent acts but they were always protected and safeguarded by their political masters. This phenomenon has become a naked reality of politics in Sri Lanka. These men were always above the law and had licenses to commit violence in the name of their political leaders. In the psychological context, these characters have deviant behaviors and fit in to the diagnostic category of Anti Social Personality Disorder ( ASPD).

Antisocial Personality Disorder is a condition characterized by persistent disregard for and violation of the rights of others. Deceit and manipulation are central features of this disorder. The people with ASPD disregard the social norms and respect to lawful behaviors. They are impulsive as well as aggressive and with a slightest provocation, they can commit violent acts. They are also reckless disregard for safety of self or others and irresponsible. Their characters are marked with lack of remorse. They are selfish, callous and remorselessly use of others to full fill their goals. They have chronically unstable, antisocial and socially deviant lifestyles. When these brands of men become politically powerful, they can do a vast damage to the country.

Psychological Impact of Political Violence

There is a close relationship between political violence, mental health and psychosocial wellbeing. Political violence has a variety of discernible long-term effects on political beliefs and attitudes, behavior and behavioral intentions, emotions, and other psychological variables. It can massively affect the mental health of the people. People constantly exposed to violence and deteriorating social conditions, become emotionally insensitive and gradually losing their respect for the values of life. The "culture of violence" transforms people to believe that aggressive attitudes and violent behavior are normal and acceptable in an environment where violence is viewed as an acceptable way to get and maintain power and to solve problems. Therefore, psychological distress and mental disorders are closely connected with political violence.

Brandon A. Kohrt of the Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, did a clinical research of the Bhutanese refugees in Nepal and the impact of the Maoist People's War and found that psychological distress and mental disorders in situations of political violence.

Political violence is linked to poor mental health outcomes at the individual and collective levels. People exposed to political violence have symptoms of traumatic stress, depression, anxiety and aggressive feelings and it can lead to a vicious cycle of further violence.

Raija-Leena Punamäki - Department of Psychology, University of Helsinki did extensive study on political violence in Palestine and according to him exposure to political hardships also increased mental health problems, which is a reminder of the price which people are forced to pay in order to cope with political violence.

Ending Political Violence in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka is a beautiful country with high 91% literacy rate. This earthly paradise has been deeply traumatized by the political violence for many decades. The violence has generated further violence damaging inner layers of the communities making it more dysfunctional. Ending political violence in Sri Lanka is a responsibility of an every citizen. When the civil society is aware of the manipulative nature of the political violence, they do not support such action. When the people have insight, they are not gullible or easily carried out by false propaganda that instigates political violence. When the civil society is strengthened and it is safeguarding democracy and protecting human rights there is no space for the political violence.

The US and other Western countries had not been viewing the Chechen terrorists with the same seriousness as the Russians and have been dismissing Russian evidence of Chechens’ links with Al Qaeda.
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By B.Raman

(March 31, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) The hasty return of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to Moscow from his tour of Siberia speaks of the seriousness with which he views the two suicide bombings in the Moscow Metro on the morning of March 29,2010, for which responsibility is reportedto have been claimed by Doku Umarov, the Chechen terrorist leader, who heads an organization called the Martyrs' Battalion Riyadus-Salikhiyn.

Umarov initially called himself the President of the "Chechen Republic of Ichkeria" -- the term the separatists use for a Chechen territory independent of Russia. He assumed this position in 2006 after the then Chechen rebel leader Abdul-Khalim Sadulayev was killed in an encounter with the Russian security forces. The next year, he designated himself the Amir of the Caucasian Islamic Caliphate.

Umarov was born in April 1964 in the village of Kharsenoi in southern Chechnya. He graduated from the construction faculty of the Oil Institute in Grozny. He joined the anti-Russian movement in Chechnya in the 1990s and participated in both the Chechen wars in the 1990s. Till he took over the leadership of the movement in 2006, he was opposed to indiscriminate attacks on civilians. Since designating himself as the Amir, he has become as ruthless in killing people indiscriminately as his predecessors and other Chechen terrorists.

In a statement issued on August 21,2009, his organization had said that it would no longer confine its battle to the Caucasian region, but would attack Russia's industrial centers, factories and infrastructure. It added: "To carry out these tasks, groups have been created and sent to a host of Russian regions with the aim of carrying out industrial sabotage. The priority targets laid out for them are gas pipelines, oil pipelines, the destruction of electricity stations and high-voltage power lines, and sabotage at factories."

The Chechens had been warning from time to time since 1995 of their plans to attack strategic economic targets in Russian territory outside the Caucasian region, including nuclear power stations, but had never carried out their threats. Last year, they had claimed responsibility for an explosion in a Siberian hydel power station, but their claim was refuted by the Russian authorities. According to the Russians, it was an accident for which the Chechens claimed responsibility in order to create panic. The Chechens had repeatedly demonstrated a capability for attacking soft targets such as the Moscow Metro, inter-city trains, a Moscow theatre etc, but had not exhibited a capability for attacking hard targets outside the Caucasian region.

They have the habit of making exaggerated claims of their responsibility for terrorist actions. Their claims last year of having caused the derailment of a train from Moscow to St.Petersburg were refuted by Russian officials. They contended that Umarov’s group had the habit of projecting any accident of a spectacular nature as caused by it. It is often difficult to establish the authenticity of its claims.

The US and other Western countries had not been viewing the Chechen terrorists with the same seriousness as the Russians and have been dismissing Russian evidence of Chechens’ links with Al Qaeda and the role of Saudi money and Pakistani motivation and training in keeping the Chechen terrorism alive and active. American skepticism over Russian allegations of Chechen links with Al Qaeda is influenced by the fact that no Chechens were captured by the US forces in Afghanistan, there are no Chechen detenus in the Guantanamo Bay detention centre in Cuba and the Chechens have never threatened Western nationals and interests despite their advocacy of the creation of a Caucasian Islamic Caliphate, which has been inspired by Osama Bin Laden’s objective of a global Islamic Caliphate.

Despite the US skepticism, it is a fact that during the first tenure of Nawaz Sharif as the Prime Minister (1990-93), the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan, then headed by Lt.Gen.Javed Nasir, had taken an active interest in helping the Chechen terrorists through training and other assistance with the help of money provided by the Saudi intelligence and charity organizations. The ISI used the Tablighi Jamaat (TJ) for this purpose.

It was during his tenure as the DG of the ISI that Lt.Gen.Nasir, in his capacity as Adviser to TJ, drew up plans for the revival of Islam in the Central Asian Republics (CARs), Chechnya and Dagestan in Russia and Xinjiang in China with the help of the TJ workers and funds from Saudi Arabia. A large number of Pakistani, Saudi and Jordanian workers of the TJ were sent on preaching and proselytising missions to these countries and recruits for clerical posts in these countries were brought to Pakistan for training in Islamic religious practices. Simultaneously, they were also given arms training in the camps of the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HUM ), the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HUJI) and the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET) in Pakistan and Afghanistan. They were also sent on proselytising missions to other countries with Pakistani TJ workers to expose them to Muslim communities in the rest of the Ummah. After his removal from the ISI in 1993 under US pressure, Lt.Gen.Nasir himself frequently went on preaching missions to these countries.

An idea of the tremendous headway made by the TJ under the guidance of Lt.Gen.Nasir and with Saudi money in promoting Wahabism in these countries could be had from the fact that whereas in 1991, when the USSR collapsed, there was not a single mosque in Chechnya and Dagestan, by 1999 every village had a mosque, allegedly constructed with Saudi money. The TJ also organised visits by selected Muslims from Chechnya and Dagestan to Saudi Arabia on Haj/Umra.

Many members of the so-called independent Chechen Cabinet when Boris Yeltsin was the Russian President had been trained in Pakistan by the TJ and, during their annual vacation, used to go on preaching missions for the TJ in Chechnya itself as well as in Dagestan and the CARs.

In the last week of June,1995, the Interfax news agency of Moscow had quoted Arkady Volski, the Russian peace negotiator for Chechnya, as claiming that after an incident of kidnapping of 1,500 hostages in the South Russian town of Budennovsk in early June, Shamyl Basayev, the Chechen terrorist leader, had escaped to Pakistan where he had been given asylum. In a statement issued at Moscow on June 27,1995, Tanvir Ahmad Khan, the then Pakistani Ambassador to Russia, had described the claim as false and warned that such allegations would damage Russia's relations with Pakistan.

The Russian authorities refuted the statement of the Pakistani Ambassador and alleged that Basayev had been living in Pakistan since 1991 when he had fled there after his involvement in the hijacking of a Russian plane to Turkey and that from Pakistan he had periodically been visiting Chechnya to organise terrorist incidents. In July,1995, Sergei Stepashin, who was in charge of counter-terrorist operations in Chechnya, and Gen. Nikol Ayev, chief of the Russian Border Security Service, alleged in separate statements that Basayev was amongst a group of Chechen terrorists trained in Pakistani camps.

Another Chechen terrorist leader reportedly trained in the camps of the HUM in Pakistan and Afghanistan was Salman Raduyev, who led a group of Chechen extremists on a raid into the Dagestan town of Kizlyar in January,1996, and took 2,000 Russian hostages. After this incident, then President Yeltsin alleged that the raiding party under Raduyev included Pakistani mercenaries.

The Russian press thereafter carried a number of reports emanating from official sources in Moscow that the extremist elements behind the Islamic revolt in Chechnya had been trained in Pakistan. Strongly refuting these reports, the Pakistani Foreign Office said: " These reports do not serve to promote good ties between Pakistan and Russia which we desire. We hope Russia will also reciprocate our wishes. "

In a statement on January 17,1996, the Pakistani Foreign Office strongly denied Russian allegations that Pakistani mercenaries were helping Chechen rebels indulging in acts of terrorism in Dagestan.

In a statement on January 13, 1998, the Russian Foreign Office described as inadmissible a statement of Zafarul Haq, Pakistan's Minister For Religious Affairs, expressing Pakistan's support for "the noble cause of the Chechen Muslims". He reportedly made this statement while welcoming a delegation of Chechen separatist leaders in his office in Islamabad.

In November, 1998, a high level delegation of the so-called independent Government of Chechnya led by Abdul Wahid Ibrahim in charge of Central Asian and Afghan Affairs in the Chechen Foreign Office, visited Afghanistan for the first time and reached an agreement on the establishment of formal relations between the Taliban-led Government of Kabul and the so-called independent Government of Chechnya.

During the same month, the Russian authorities expelled from the Bashkortostan region a delegation of six preachers of the TJ for making anti-Moscow statements during their preachings. A statement of the Federal Security Service said that their statements were "aimed at fuelling ethnic and religious hostility and offending the dignity of other religious groups." The preachers were to go to Chechnya and Dagestan in January, 1999, but their visas were cancelled and they were expelled.

After the outbreak of terrorist incidents in Dagestan from August 7,1999, the Russian authorities were repeatedly alleging that the incidents were organised by a raiding party of about 2,000 Chechens from Chechnya jointly led by Basayev and a former Colonel of the Jordanian Army called Khattab, that the Chechens were assisted by a multi-national group of 200 foreign mercenaries led by a Pakistani called Abu Abdulla Jafar, who was in charge of a training camp in Chechnya, that before the raids the raiders participated in a special prayer service in Chechnya conducted by three Pakistani Wahabi preachers called Sheikh Abdul Azim, Junaid Bagadadi and Abdul Omar and that Abdul Omar also read out to the raiders a fatwa received from a group of Saudi muftis calling upon them to establish an Islamic state in Dagestan.

Following a denial of these allegations by Mansur Alam, the then Pakistani Ambassador, who wrote a letter on the subject to "Izvestia", the paper quoted Gen.Vladimir Rushailo, the Russian Interior Minister, as saying that "mercenaries from a number of foreign countries, above all Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and the UAE, have been taking part in the fighting in Dagestan" and that the Russian security services had concrete information about the involvement of the secret services of some Muslim countries in the Dagestan violence.

"Izvestia" also identified Abu Abdulla Jafar as a Pashtun who had been residing in Chechnya for some years and running a training camp at a place called Serzhenyurt. The paper also alleged that the activities of the mercenaries in Chechnya and Dagestan were being funded by Osama bin Laden.

After the Taliban Government in Kabul formally recognized the so-called independent Chechen Government in November 1998, many Chechens from Chechnya went to Afghanistan and joined a group of members of the Chechen diaspora from Jordan, Turkey and other countries who were assisting the Taliban in its fight against the Northern Alliance of Ahmed Shah Masood. These Chechens---indigenous Chechens from Chechnya as well as Arabs of Chechen origin from the diaspora who were called Arab Chechens---- crossed over into the North Waziristan area of Pakistan along with bin Laden and his followers in 2001-02 and started working as instructors in the training camps of different terrorist organizations such as the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), the anti-Shia Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LEJ), which is a Pakistani Punjabi organization etc.

While no definitive estimate of the number of Chechens operating from sanctuaries in Pakistani territory were available, the Pakistani media periodically carried reports of their presence and activities. It was the Chechen instructors, who motivated the Pashtuns of Pakistan to take to suicide terrorism. Chechen instructors assisted Qari Hussain Mehsud of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in training suicide bombers.

The Pakistani media reported on November 19,2008, that three tribal elders, who had escaped from Taliban captivity in the Bajaur Agency, had claimed the presence of a large number of foreigners in the Taliban ranks, including Chechens, Uzbeks, Tajiks and Sudanese.

On May 22,2009, the Bloomberg news agency reported as follows: “ Pakistani authorities said fighters from Uzbekistan and Chechnya are among foreign forces helping the Taliban battle the army in the northwestern Swat Valley. “There is no doubt that some Uzbeks, Chechens and people of other nationalities were found involved with their designs to create an insurgency in Swat,” Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira told reporters yesterday in the capital, Islamabad, according to the official Associated Press of Pakistan.”

It was reported by sections of the Iranian media on October 4,2009, that Pakistan`s intelligence agencies’` preliminary investigation had revealed that `Uzbeks, Chechens and Afghans` were among Al Qaeda suspects held during the army operation in the South Waziristan Agency.The detainees also included an Algerian and some Arabic-speaking nationals, the daily “Dawn” reported.

Since 1995, an unestimated number of Arabs have been fighting along with the Chechens in the Caucasian region. The more prominent amongst them were Ibn Khattab, Mohammad bin Abdullah al-Seif and Abu al-Walid, all Saudi nationals, and Abu Hafs al Hurdani, a Jordanian. On September 18, 2002, the Caspian Studies Program had organized a seminar at the Kennedy School of Government in the Harvard University on the Chechen diaspora. Wasfi Kailani, an anthropologist at the University of Yarmouk, who was the main speaker, said that much of the foreign presence in and funding for the Chechen conflict had come from Saudi Arabia. Kailani added that Saudi militants had come to Chechnya to participate in what they saw as a jihad and Saudi missionaries had come to the region to teach Wahhabi Salafism to ex-communists who were embracing Islam after decades of Communist rule in the Soviet Union. He also said that diaspora Chechens were supporting the Chechen movement through a variety of means such as volunteering to fight in Chechnya, running web sites to propagate the Chechen cause etc. According to him, several members of the Taliban and a number of "Arab Afghans" went from Afghanistan to Chechnya in order to join the fight against Russian forces, viewing this as part of their Islamic obligation.

Western skepticism about the Russian evidence regarding the links of the Chechen terrorists with Al Qaeda has been coming in the way of strong action against the Chechen terrorists operating from Pakistani sanctuaries with Saudi money. This skepticism can be compared to the US skepticism over Indian evidence regarding the international dimensions of the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET) and its links with Al Qaeda. Only after the LET killed six US nationals in Mumbai during its sea-borne terrorist strikes in the last week of November,2008, did the Americans start admitting that the LET had become as dangerous as Al Qaeda. The Chechen terrorists have till now not targeted US nationals and interests. Hence, the US skepticism continues. This is a short-sighted approach and will weaken the war against global jihadi terrorism. The LET did not target Americans till November,2008. That did not make it any the less dangerous as a terrorist organization. The Chechen terrorists are as ruthless and dangerous as the LET or any other associate of Al Qaeda. The world has to be concerned over their activities before it becomes too late.

( The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com )

Sri Lanka becoming another Singapore is possible if there is genuine reconciliation and power-sharing with Tamils, including winning over the Tamil diaspora.
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By Ashok K Mehta

(March 31, New Delhi, Sri Lanka Guardian) With Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa on an unprecedented winning spree on the battlefield and at the hustings, can he secure a two-thirds majority in the parliamentary elections on April 8? The complex proportional representation system virtually rules out such an outcome on the strength of just his own party. Mr Rajapaksa wants to drop reliance on defectors and inconvenient allies which had forced him to appoint 113 Ministers out of his alliance’s 131 legislators. Technically he needs another 19 seats to reach the magic figure of 151 in a 225-member House. So rampant is political opportunism that UNF leader Ranil Wickremesinghe has made his party members sign an affidavit to preempt any post-poll defections.

Sri Lanka is divided into 168 constituencies among 109 districts. Of the 225 seats, 196 are directly contested and the remaining 19 come from the national list. The three main parties in the south of the country are Mr Rajapaksa’s UPFA, UNF, and Gen Sarath Fonseka’s DNA. With the General in military custody facing charges of treason and fraud, the Fonseka factor was given an inadvertent boost by his arrest.

The election excitement is really in the north and east where, despite voters’ lists being incomplete, Tamils and Muslims will be voting independently for the first time. Big Brother LTTE is not watching. The North and the East are represented by 31 parliamentarians of which the TNA, the LTTE proxy, held 23 seats in the dissolved House with the balance split between Muslims and Sinhalese. This time around, the TNA has split into four groups and reverted to its old name of Federal Party.

The non-LTTE groups in the fray are EPRLF, TULF, PLOTE and other smaller parties. EPDP led by Jaffna’s own Douglas Devananda, a Government Minister and a future Chief Minister of the North, will contest under the UPFA. In the East, Chief Minister Pillaiyan, the renegade LTTE commander, will fight under his TMVP banner. Unlike in the past, the Tamil vote will get divided among different parties while the Muslims will vote either for the UPFA or UNF, or the SLMC.

Current poll predictions give the UPFA an outright margin over other parties but missing the two-thirds majority target. Provincial elections in the North will be held later in the year depending on the outcome of the parliamentary elections. Many reasons are being suggested for the two-thirds majority required to change the 1978 Constitution devised by President Junius Jayawardene. Mr Rajapaksa, like his predecessor Chandrika Kumaratunga, wants to curtail the executive presidency; change the electoral system and enact Amendments enabling power-sharing with the Tamils; and last but not the least, remove the limitation in the Constitution restricting the President to two terms in office.

People fear that Sri Lanka could be drifting towards a single-party state with a nominal Opposition and power concentrated in the ruling Rajapaksa family. Blinded by the success of the military solution, Mr Rajapaksa has completely ignored the question of national reconciliation. His track record towards devolution indicates that he has sought to buy time pretending that the ethnic problem did not exist and it was terrorism which had to be quelled by crushing the LTTE.

To impress India and the internal community he appointed two panels — the All Party Representative Committee and an Experts Committee — whose recommendations have become archival material. Most recently, he announced the establishment of yet another committee to study the root causes of the ethnic conflict. This is a big contradiction because Mr Rajapaksa has said there is no ethnic conflict. He has dazzled his southern admirers, juggling with the four Ds: Demilitarisation, Development, Democracy and Devolution, forgetting the last D.

India has been taken for a ride with frequent pledges that the 13th Amendment would be implemented soon. Mr Rajapaksa made this commitment to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who announced it in Parliament last year. Foreign Minister SM Krishna stated in Parliament last month: “We keep urging the Sri Lankan Government for a political solution.” Members in the Tamil Nadu Assembly periodically endorse the same sentiments.

The 13th Amendment enacted in 1988 ensured that powers relating to police, land and finance were not devolved to Mr Varatharaja Perumal, then Chief Minister of the erstwhile North-Eastern Province. Twenty years on, Chief Minister Pillaiyan has even less power than Mr Perumal, the difference being that Mr Pillaiyan’s one-time mentor, Karuna, who was made the Minister for national integration had said: “Tamils are interested in development, not devolution”.

New Delhi has good reason to be angry over devolution being pushed to the back-burner despite its unpublicised role in helping Sri Lanka win the war against the LTTE. This was a big strategic investment, even bigger than the deployment of the IPKF and sacrifice of 1,200 lives. All that South Block likes to hear are rosy commentaries on the unique and time-tested relationship between ‘sister countries’.

It is the UN and the West that Mr Rajapaksa has steadfastly defied over transparency and accountability in the conduct of the war who are now turning the screws on the Government over alleged violations of human rights. The US and the UK keep pressing Colombo on reconciliation, early rehabilitation of 11,000 LTTE rebels and a free and fair trial of Gen Fonseka. UN Secretary General Ban ki-Moon is to establish an experts’ panel to advice him on alleged excesses during the war. The EU has withdrawn trade concessions which will hit Sri Lankan textile workers. Former Chief Justice of Sri Lanka Sarath Silva recently observed that the Government has to uphold human rights and the right to freedom of expression in order to reclaim trade benefits.

Stung by Western criticism of its record in governance — not lifting the emergency and anti-terrorism laws even one year after the war and creating new high security zones in the north and the east — Colombo has employed an image makeover company Bell Pottinger. Tourism has registered a 68 per cent increase and National Geographic billed Sri Lanka as the number two tourist destination in the world. Mr Rajapaksa has promised doubling the per capita income from $ 2,000 to $ 4,000 in his current term.

Sri Lanka becoming another Singapore is possible if there is genuine reconciliation and power-sharing with Tamils, including winning over the Tamil diaspora. With or without a two-thirds majority in next month’s elections, Mr Rajapaksa must show he has the political will to win the hearts and minds of the Tamils.

By S. Sivathasan

That a victorious war will ‘rejuvenate’ is the most common delusion of political senility" –– Peter Drucker

War and peace

(March 31, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) A no-war situation can yield dividends to the vanquished is another illusion. Veering from the thought that post-war developments have a dynamic of their own, it is necessary to map out a clear pathway.The compulsions are more for those who have experienced devastation most. Once Nehru was asked how many problems he had. His answer was 400 million. This was India’s population at that time. If a Tamil is asked, how many points of view there are among Sri Lankan Tamils, the answer would be 2.5 million. This is the only viewpoint in which all Tamils concur. It is in our DNA.

Unity around Ideas

There is no need for stereotyped thinking across the whole range of human activity. Nor is there anything mystical or compulsive about it. Differential thought processes do not denote something either erratic or futile. But, when they remain so in perpetuity, splintering a community down the line, nothing concrete can come about. A future of promise demands unification around a corpus of ideas. Tamils at the present juncture cannot work out a cohesive body of thought across the entire spectrum as demanded by the needs of the North East. The most compulsive segment requires isolation for priority consideration. When it’s prime relevance is agreed upon, all thought and energy should be devoted to it’s realization. Economic regeneration for forward social and political movement appears axiomatic. For a people prostrated by war to be resuscitated in peace, the imperatives have to be critically examined.

Fresh opportunity

An immediate happening will be the forthcoming elections. The political entity to be seated in power on April 9 will seek to parley with the rightful representatives of the Tamils. Conversely, the formation of the Tamils, if formidable in numbers, cohesive and pragmatic in it’s thinking and is strengthened by a clear mandate, will thrust itself as the legitimate spokesperson of the Tamils. A monolithic entity alone can command the force and the verve to steer its course single mindedly. Insignificant cabals, inchoate in thought and devoid of leadership, representing a splintered ethnic minority can make nonsense of the parleying process. The Tamils have had an immediate precedent of voting 22 members as a single formation. The occasion exists now to make it even larger. A prospect that any Government would wish to have is a credible formation to negotiate with. It is within the capacity of the Tamils to provide that opportunity to the Government. What a Government in the flush of victory would most desire is the resolution of a seemingly intractable ethnic problem, shift it out of the way and make a beginning in reweaving the political fabric.

Economic initiatives

Even as the political issues are placed on the pad for resolution, immediate concerns of a disintegrated social group has to be addressed. Nourishment for the famished, an assured source of food for the impoverished, housing for the de-housed, and basic wherewithal to create means of employment are among the indispensables. The representatives of the Tamils with a clear perception that the Government alone is capable of delivering the above, should chart their course accordingly. Knowing clearly that foreign aid is needed as a long and sustained programme for this purpose, the Tamil leadership should hark back to the Tokyo Pledge of 2003, enliven it and take off from where it was left. Over $ 4 billion remains yet untouched. The Needs Assessment Study done ahead of the pledge, has estimates worked out against each project for a total of 18 sectors. It is ready at hand for a renewal of the pledge and consequential action, though reviews are needed regarding conceptual parameters and implementation strategies. Tamils and their leadership have to be fully aware that the war has consigned the North and East a few decades behind the rest of Sri Lanka. A redoubled effort for the next decade is the prime imperative for all segments of the country to be on par. It is towards this end that the fullest negotiating capability of the Tamil leadership has to be directed.

As seen earlier, the leadership with strength in numbers, clarity of purpose, unity of command and fortified by a strong mandate should pursue the negotiations to its logical end. The economic imperatives and political issues are not mutually exclusive. They are absolutely inseparable. The economic needs are of immediate relevance while the political issues to be taken up coterminously would demand protracted negotiations. Addressing the economic concerns is indispensable for the people to have the inclination and the mental stamina to participate in the political process.

An aspiration

The inescapable need for unity is a wish widely held by the Tamils. To some it is the coming together of disparate coteries, though having no clear views or principles. To the percipient what would matter is unification around principles, policies and programmes. They opt for a leadership long in the fray, mature in experience and worthy of their trust.

Such a formation has been in the forefront as the parliamentary leadership and is coming forward in it’s task of continuation. One has reason to suppose that its credentials are as worthy as those of it’s leader.

Parallels

About unity in ideas, two historical parallels though seemingly inapt may be cited. The unification of Germany in 1871 is traced to the crushing and humiliating defeat of Germany by Napoleon around 1810. ‘Addresses to the German Nation’, a series of patriotic invocations by Fichte, Professor of Philosophy, galvanized a proud people by rubbing home the need for unity and the value of unification. To the Tamils, the scale of the blow in 2009 is not dissimilar. It should push them to the threshold of an agonizing reappraisal of past thinking and action. A community with a clearly identifiable ethnic identity should construct an acceptable and practical consensus around which all Tamils can coalesce.

A second parallel is the Meiji Restoration of 1868 in Japan. It was thereafter that the writ of the Meiji Dynasty was able to reach the extremities of the country. This was a principal feature of the restoration. The two happenings in Germany and Japan though in the 19th century and despite being separated by half a century, had one thing in common.

The historic changes in both countries ignited a great deal of critical thinking, leading to momentous developments. The comparison stops with the compulsive need for fresh thinking. To the Tamils, the point is urged that their unity should crystallize around certain core ideas.

Unified action

A similar happening has taken place in Sri Lanka and a bridge non-existent for 25 years is now in place, in that the writ runs without interdiction. In addition, there is a further development. Now the thought processes of the Tamils while percolating to all segments of the country, also reach several parts of the globe. In such a context should emerge a corpus of ideas both cogent and cohesive. The community comprises two-thirds locally domiciled and one-third composing the diaspora. Down to earth interaction between the two entities, would result in eschewing contradictory positions or postures. First things first, with a sense of the possible appears a way to move forward.

Around this understanding may be constructed a workable course of action that is purposive.

By Victor Ivan

(March 31, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Ravaya editor Victor Ivan initiated a debate in his newspaper last month about the Sri Lankan media. The title of his controversial article was ‘Is only politics uncivilized’, its import being that the media, too, can be found wanting when it comes to propriety and even plain decency. Ivan argued that a lumpen, uncivilized aspect was to be seen not just in politics, but in the mass media in Sri Lanka as well.He has taken as an example, an instance from the early 1990’s where one of the so called ‘alternative’ (tabloid style) newspapers of that era, (The precursor of the latter day websites) reported that president Premadasa had participated in an occult rite to bring him good luck where he had been bathed in milk by seven naked virgins. Within a couple of days, this story had spread throughout the country. It had been concocted by opponents of president Premadasa to ridicule him. Shortly afterwards, the press that printed the ‘alternative’ newspaper in question was attacked and damaged by an unidentified gang.

Ivan says that the attack on the press got wide publicity, but not the wrong report that preceded it. He argues that it was not feasible for the president to seek legal redress because of the nature of the report and that seeking legal redress would have brought him even more into ridicule. He characterizes this kind of reporting as ‘sahasika varthakaranaya’ (barbaric reportage) and in his opinion, the greater wrong was committed not by the gang that attacked the press but by the alternative newspaper that published the scurrilous report. Ivan argues in that article that journalists have a right to report what can be proved or for what some evidence exists, but not fabricated stories that cannot be proved. He says that we see the latter occurring often in our media. Ivan says that this too should be debated and discussed to the same extent as attacks on the media. His argument being that while killing journalists is wrong, for journalists to literally ‘assassinate’ other people through their writings is also completely unacceptable.

There was a rejoinder to this article written by Sanath Balasooriya, the former president of the Professional Journalists’ Association who is now in self imposed exile in Germany. In this article Balasooriya refers to Ivan as a ‘purohita’ to the ‘rajathuma’ (or a courtier to the King) and he argues that Ivan is trying to justify the use of strong arm tactics against the media. Balasooriya argues that those offended by what journalists write should seek redress within the law and he accuses Ivan of justifying the law of the jungle. Balasooriya asks what would happen if everyone begins to take the law into his own hands, and says that Ivan is holding a brief for the government.

What follows are excerpts of Ivan’s rejoinder to Balasooriya.

Until he left the country, Sanath Balasuriya served as the President of the Professional Journalists’ Association. He was also a major figure in the Independent Journalistic Movement. His voice often surpassed that of all others at picketing campaigns connected with media freedom during the first four years of the Rajapaksa regime. He was an individual who had exhibited his face prominently on TV screens when media coverage was given for such picketing campaigns.

He could also be described as the hero who gave leadership to the so called ‘Rupavahini Revolution’, using the opportunity to get his face exhibited to the world making vociferous statements during the live TV coverage given during the crisis situation that occurred at the Rupavahini Corporation following an incident where a Deputy Minister and his supporters entered the Rupavahini premises and attacked one of the officers working there.

The wisdom of leaders is tested during crisis situations. For him, the incident at Rupavahini Corporation involving the Deputy Minister was a source of amusement. During this incident he spoke like a leader who had inspired a great revolution. He did not look beyond his nose, choosing instead to revel in the instant thrill that he derived from the events of that day. He lacked the wisdom to realize what would happen eventually after the Deputy Minister and his supporters left the premises, beaten and soaked in urine. In the face of the subsequent incidents that followed, which were rather serious, our hero was rendered helpless and reduced to the level of a deflated leader. Wisdom dawns not through revolutionary displays on TV screens. It is not a faculty that grows spontaneously, but a virtue to be cultivated and constantly promoted. For that one should read appropriate books and also associate with people with wisdom.

Sanath Balasuriya is known to the people as a journalist not because of his writings but because of the valour he had displayed on TV channels. Even before he left Sri Lanka, I mentioned his name in two or three articles written by me. Of course, the comments that I made about him were not complimentary. He did not respond to those comments. Perhaps, he would have felt that it was better to remain silent until his application for political asylum was processed. First of all, I wish to congratulate him on having been able to obtain political asylum in Germany.

A different era

Even during the Chandrika Kumaratunga regime, the killing of media personnel took place from time to time. I, too, had to face the threat of assassination. A red double cab used to follow me in the evenings. It was due to my driver’s skill that one attempt made by this double cab to ram my vehicle was foiled. On another occasion, my vehicle came under an acid attack. A gas bomb was lobbed at my office. There were numerous threatening e-mails, telephone calls and letters.

But I believe there is a vast difference between that time and the present day in the way we respond to such threats. The threats or warnings that we used to get those days were not immediately exaggerated into sensational and major news items. We remained silent on the assumption that most such threats were mere attempts to intimidate us. Even the attempts to assault us were not always turned into sensational news.

Those days, even though there were threats against journalists, there was no scheme to provide them with safe houses. There was no scheme to reimburse telephone bills and travelling and entertainment expenses. There was no scheme to provide air tickets to travel overseas and take care of other expenses when there was a threat to security. Thus, when threats become a means of obtaining large sums of money, it is natural that threats are manufactured artificially in order to obtain access to funding. This is what is happening now.

In the old days, our decision to struggle against repression was based not on the funds that could be obtained from foreign sources, but on our understanding of injustice and justice and what was good or bad. Our struggles were not aimed at earning money. On the contrary, they were funded with the pittance in our own pockets. We never thought of exploiting the trouble in the country to secure political asylum for ourselves or our family members in foreign countries.

Even when we had the power or ability to make recommendations and issue certificates, we never misused it to oblige our relations, friends or to earn money. It is sad to note that the freedom of expression has become a mean of earning money by iniquitous means. In the 1990s I investigated the assassinations of Rohana Kumara and Kumar Ponnambalam. But this was not done with the ulterior motive of making money. All expenses incurred in this regard were spent out of my own pocket.

Balasuriya wants to know why I do not show the same interest that I displayed in the past in investigating matters. My response to his question is that we did those things voluntarily and free of charge. At that time, there was no group receiving salaries, enjoying various privileges and facilities, to perform this duty. But today, as there is a salaried and privileged group which includes Sanath Balasuriya to do the job, we remain silent observing how they do these things for a huge salary which we did free of charge in the past.

The funds provided to the Free Media Movement to investigate the disappearance of people like Prageeth and sustain their families have now been suspended by the Sri Lanka Press Institute (SLPI) as these funds have been misused and squandered by Sanath Balasuriya and his gang for their personal benefit. Rs. 8.5 million was allocated by the SLPI to the Free Media Movement for the protection of independent journalists in 2008. This amount was scheduled to be released in four installments. The first installment of Rs. 2,132,062.25 was released on 29 May 2008. A similar amount was provided as the second installment on 6th August 2008. The SLPI requested the submission of details of disbursements to release the third installment. After taking a long time, this gang was able to account for only an amount of Rs. 1,980,445.16. They were unable to account for the balance amount of Rs. 2,283,679.34. The SLPI has observed that most of the receipts submitted to cover expenses were unacceptable and bogus. Following this, the SLPI cancelled its agreement with the Free Media Movement and requested the return of Rs. 2,283,679.34 which had not been accounted for. Up to now they have failed to return this money. (See the second part of article tomorrow for more details - Ed) Was this not the real reason why Sanath Balasuriya and others fled the country? There had been real threats to some members of this gang. But they continued to live in the country. It was only after the SLPI commenced an internal audit in respect of the accounts of the Free Media Movement and raised questions that this gang fled the country. The person in charge of the funds, who is not a journalist, also fled the country about two weeks ago.

Now I would like to pose the following questions to Sanath Balasuriya. What is the amount you have obtained personally from this fund for your safe house, your meals and drinks, and as travelling expenses? What is the amount you have not yet accounted for after receiving money from this fund? Let us forget for a moment the large scale fraud that took place in the Free Media Movement—The Movement received Rs. 26 million for various projects. Can we condone the misuse of funds given to the Free Media Movement to look after the interests of people like Prageeth and sustain the families of disappeared journalists?

Can Balasooriya let us know how much he has received from various projects of the Free Media Movement, in addition to the salary he received from Lake House without doing any work?

Vagrant reporting

We now come to the culture of ‘vagrant’ reporting. Even though Balasooriya has insinuated that I have justified the attack (in the early 1990s) on the printing press that printed the ‘alternative’ newspaper that carried the story of seven naked virgins bathing President Premadasa with milk, I did nothing of the sort. However I did not say that it was unjust either. I did not say so because I frankly do not know a reasonable stance to be adopted in reporting such incidents. What I did was to highlight the danger involved in such baseless reporting.

Such unwarranted reporting has become the order of the day. This is also the point that I want to raise about the present disappearance of Prageeth Ekneligoda. As Balasooriya states, I have never attempted to suggest even indirectly that Prageeth has gone into hiding of his own free will. I do not know who was responsible for the publication of that hideous article relating to alleged sexual behaviour of a minister published on a certain website. But some of Prageeth’s friends I spoke to said that it was Prageeth’s work. Prageeth worked for General Sarath Fonseka. A friend of Prageeth who was questioned by the CID in connection with some scurrilous pamphlets written for Fonseka by Prageeth during the presidential election told me that the handwriting in the said pamphlets were similar to that of Prageeth.

The main objective of the article that I wrote in this regard was to highlight the point that this vagrant form of journalism has contributed immensely to the repression being directed against media personnel. Balasooriya and his gang should be held responsible for promoting this destructive culture. Most of those who write in this fashion are often those who associate with Balasooriya and the gang, who wine and dine with them, and are their close friends. They never took a critical view of this journalistic culture adopted by their friends. They chose to consider them courageous, brave and aggressive journalists.

Balasooriya and his Media Advocate gang blew up minor and insignificant incidents portraying them as very serious and dangerous events and painted a black picture about the country. Given below are some events they blew up out of all proportion.

Poddala Jayantha

I have written before about the misleading report concerning the Police raid on Poddala Jayantha’s house. Sanath Balasuriya was also a party to this deception. This Police raid took place in the night. Poddala really got frightened and shouted for help. When the neighbours gathered around the house, the police party left. The Police Inspector in charge of this search told Poddala that it was a mistake and told him the reasons that had led to the search. Poddala accepted the Inspector’s explanation. He even told his friends that it had really been a mistake. He said so even to some of his friends in the Ravaya.

But Balasooriya and those in the Free Media Movement wanted to make it sensational news both locally and internationally. Accordingly, they issued a statement that an attempt made by the Police to abduct Poddala Jayantha, the Secretary of the Professional Journalists’ Association and a prominent activist of the Free Media Movement has been prevented by the timely intervention of the people of the area. Poddala also opted to subscribe to this blatant lie. What they wanted was to show the world that the suppression of media freedom in Sri Lanka was gathering momentum. They did not want to let this opportunity pass, which would help justify their claim. The growth of the quantum of foreign aid they received was dependant on the degree of suppression of media freedom.

(To be continued)