Gotabaya remains Upbeat and in Fighting Mood

Hassina Leelarathna in Los Angeles, writing for  DAILY FT, 12 April 2019, where the title reads “Gota fires back against lawsuits”

Former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa has dismissed the two lawsuits filed against him as baseless and insisted that they would only motivate him and his supporters to push for political change in Sri Lanka. “These lawsuits have been filed to delay the process and discourage me. I have handed the matter to my lawyers [in Los Angeles] to take care of and I’m looking ahead to what needs to be done for our country,” said Rajapaksa, commenting on the two civil lawsuits filed against him in the Central District of California.

Gotabaya in Legal Gunsights: One, Two, Three …

ONE = Sanjana Hattotuwa: “The Candidate,” in Island, April 2019,

“The lie is revealed. There was no summons served. The photo depicts a lookalike of Gotabaya Rajapaksa. The FBI is engaged in an effort to ascertain who produced this false information”. The Facebook Page with this content originally in Sinhala also featured a screenshot of a news story from a leading private electronic media institution. This TV channel, with pages on Facebook in both Sinhala and English that regularly generate very high engagement, ran a story which strongly suggested news of Gotabaya Rajapaksa being sued in the US was false and incorrect.

Vengeance Politics at UNHRC Gathering in Geneva: Two Acts

ONE = Callum Macrae’s Updated Video Documentary:“Sri Lanka and the search for justice, ten years on” ….. https://vimeo.com/319579483

An updated short film from Callum Macrae based on his earlier documentary ‘No Fire Zone’, which re-visits the final stages of Sri Lanka’s conflict to defeat the LTTE. This film was screened at the recently ended 40th sessions of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva where Sri Lanka’s Resolution 30/1 to promote Peace, Reconciliation & Accountability was again co-sponsored and rolled over for a further 2 years.

Facing Charles Sarvan: Mark His Obliteration of Context

Michael Roberts

Charles Sarvan’s recent essay in Colombo Telegraph “On ‘Reading’ A Picture” presents reflections with a dispassionate air that conveys an impression of philosophical weight above the tumult of a propaganda war in which all of us are willy-nilly involved.[1] He distances himself at the outset from the identities of the victors in the picture as Sinhalese and the vanquished as Tamil by terming that differentiation “accidental”. But, in concentrating on the horrendous assaults on women perpetrated by men, he proceeds to a presentation of the contemporary Tamil litany about the horrendous acts inflicted on the Tamils in the last stages of Eelam War IV. He does this without any historical, political and cartographic contextualization of the events that unfolded from mid-2006 to May 2009.

 Map I = The Situation in late December 2008

Sri Lanka ct. Mangala b. Geneva …. and ht. wkt. Rajapaksa

Rajeewa Jayaweera, in Sunday Island, where the title runs “

The heat of the theatrics during the 40th session of UN Human Rights Council and praise for Foreign Minister Tilak Marapana for his spirited address has begun to decrease. Northern Province Governor Dr. Suren Raghavan has backtracked and apologized for his injudicious remarks,rejected by Human Rights High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet.

Penetrating Reflections on Sri Lanka’s Response to the GENEVA BALLET

Arising from “THE GENEVA BALLET: The Ranil-Mangala Treachery and Sirisena’s Intervention,” 31 March 2019, …. https://thuppahi.wordpress.com/2019/03/31/geneva-ballet-the-ranil-mangala-treachery-and-sirisenas-intervention/

 

ONE = from Gus Mathews, 2 April 2019

Rajeewa, Thank you for this well researched analysis. It is a well-known fact that if the ‘Western Governments’ requested RW to jump, his reply would be ‘how high’. On a serious note though according to the Sri Lankan constitution is not foreign affairs the sole province of the President who acts through the foreign minister? Any interference into foreign affairs by the Prime Minister must be sanctioned directly by the President. It is also a well-known fact that RW hankers after the powers of the President as he tried on numerous occasions to be elected President and failed dismally. Hence the framing of the 19th amendment that subtly decreased the powers of the President and enhanced the powers of the Prime Minister.

Hostage Situations as defined by US War Manual absolves Sri Lanka in 2009

Daya Gamage in Asian Tribune, 28 March 2019, where the title is different = “U.S. official document clears Sri Lanka of civilian deaths”

Instead of agreeing to collaborate with the United Kingdom to adopt Resolution 40/1 in March – an extension of October 2015 30/1 Resolution which imposed on Sri Lanka a mechanism of ‘hybrid court investigation’ to ascertain the truth about civilian casualties during the Eelam War (2006-2009) IV – Sri Lankan delegation headed by Foreign Minister Marapona, following the impressive official statement rejecting the ‘hybrid mechanism’, among others, should have followed the example set by the United States, not leaving the UNHRC process altogether but dissociated with the mechanism set forth under the 30/1 Resolution.