Sri Lanka News Updates with Discussions

AB
I think if we target say Zaharan's place at a meeting place we can get the same crowd..Let us try..it will be a great series..

have you listened to AB?

Is Kilinochchi captured yet?

have you listened to AB?

food lorries leave for north

LOS ANGELES A Sri Lankan man has become eligible for asylum in the U.S. after being detained for more than four years on allegations he was a member of a terrorist group, an American Civil Liberties Union spokeswoman said Tuesday.

The U.S. attorney general's office decided last week that it would not review an Immigration Appeals Board decision granting asylum to Ahilan Nadarajah, who was released from custody in 2006, ACLU of Southern California spokeswoman Tessie Borden said.

U.S. immigration judges twice granted asylum to Nadarajah, but the government appealed both decisions to the board, Borden said.

The attorney general's office did not immediately return a phone message seeking comment.

Nadarajah, 28, said he fled his homeland seven years ago after Sri Lankan government forces tortured him for allegedly being a member of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a separatist group listed as a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department.

He arrived in this country in October 2001 but was detained after the U.S. government accused him of being affiliated with the Tigers.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered Nadarajah's release in March 2006, saying the government was violating federal law by holding him without being charged and without the possibility of deportation in the foreseeable future. (The Associated Press)

In the most understated of ways one cannot be faulted for thinking that former Treasury Secretary P.B. Jayasundera has become a sort of scandalous project of President Mahinda Rajapakse s. A scam, a Sakvithi deposit, if you like.

PBJ fresh from his tour of duty to Iran together with Ceylon Petroleum Corporation Chairman Asantha De Mel where he went as a special envoy of the President, P.B. Jayasundera seems not to be taking his retirement lightly.

Despite resigning from the Treasury he continues to hover about like a bad smell, and even though his former offices have now reluctantly been handed over to his successor Sumith Abeysinghe, Jayasundera is due to take up rooms in an upstairs section of the Finance Ministry and continues to call the shots.

With whispers aplenty that Jayasundera will be appointed a special advisor to the President and live to see another budget, it was again the Supreme Court and Chief Justice Sarath Silva who had to remind the government there was a law in this land and it had better be followed or else...!

SC gets tough

The Supreme Court Monday directed Jayasundera to appear in court next Wednesday (8) to apprise court of the positions he still held in the public service or government if any.

Chastising the law enforcing authorities of negligence in their duty to take legal action against persons impugned and found guilty by court, the Supreme Court directed the Criminal Investigations Department, the Bribery Commissioner and the Secretary to the President to appear in court and explain why they had not taken any action on the findings by the court against PBJ and what steps were being taken.

Just 24 hours after the Supreme Court order on Monday however, with an impunity characteristic of this regime, P.B. Jayasundera was seen like a bad penny yesterday rolling back into Temple Trees and sitting in on a Garment Export Industry meeting.

Minus GSP+

High on the agenda at the meeting were the GSP+ concessions which were still hanging in the balance.

Earlier in New York Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama had in discussions with EU s Ferrero-Waldner requested the EU Commissioner not to investigate in order to extend the GSP+ concession to Sri Lanka as it was unnecessary and inappropriate to do so.

Ironically while PBJ, one of the most potent symbols of bad governance by this regime sat at the meeting in his capacity as Rajapakse favourite number two second perhaps only to Mervyn Silva, the EU which had consistently stated the concession is necessarily linked to good governance and human rights issues is likely to officially announce the proposed investigation as per its regulations governing the GSP scheme, to determine if the GSP+ concession can be extended to Sri Lanka.

People will suffer

Bogollagama last Friday (26) also warned it would be the people who suffered if the EU s GSP+ conditionalities were implemented

He told his Cypriot counterpart it would be unfortunate if the people are consequently deprived of their livelihood and said political issues should not be linked with trade and economic facilitation where the real beneficiaries were the people.

The question then of course is why the government is not taking the necessary steps to fulfill the criteria to qualify for the GSP+ facility and save the people from the consequences of its loss?

Be that as it may, on Monday the Supreme Court was to direct the Inspector General of Police, Director - CID, Chairman, Bribery Commission, Director General - SEC and the Attorney General to take action on the basis of the findings in the Supreme Court Judgment.

The court further directed that action be taken in relation to the infringements of the law, and also referred to a note submitted to court by the 22nd Respondent in the case, Nihal Sri Amaresekera further to his oral submissions in the case.

The Chief Justice was visibly angry when he was told the CID had summoned Petitioners in the case, Vasudeva Nanayakkara and 22nd Respondent and former PERC Chairman Nihal Amaresekera to the CID to make statements following the SC judgment on July 21.

Go home

Go home if you don t know your job, Chief Justice Sarath Silva told the top CID Officer in open court.

The Judgment was in the public realm, the CJ added, telling the CID that Jayasundera should have been prosecuted immediately on the basis of the findings of the court on corruption and fraud.

Also present in court was the Chairman, Bribery Commission, Ameer Ismail, the Director General, Securities Exchange Commission, Channa De Silva and the Inspector General of Police, Jayantha Wickremaratna.

Interestingly enough the SEC comes under the Ministry of Finance of which PBJ was the secretary long after the Judgment was made. A conflict of interest situation on which the likes of PBJ seem to thrive, given the tenor of the SC Judgment on the LMSL case.

The Chief Justice also observed that bribery and corruption was rampant in this country and called upon the Bribery Commission to take action.