The Colombo Crimes Division (CCD) has begun an investigation over an incident where a man was “forced” to drown in Bambalapitiya this morning in front of several onlookers.
Police spokesman senior DIG Nimal Madiwaka said that the victim was believed to be mentally retarded and used to throw stones towards trains and vehicles passing by.
Earlier today the victim had reportedly thrown stones towards the Bambalapitiya police before jumping into the sea and drowning, the police spokesman quoted the Bambalapitiya police as saying.
However shocking television footage taken by a cameraman from his television office showed men attempting to beat the victim using sticks and preventing him from coming ashore resulting in his death by drowning.
The police spokesman said that with the airing of the footage the CCD was asked to take over the probe on the incident. The probe will include possible police involvement in the incident. Navy divers meanwhile are looking for the body of the victim, the police spokesman added.
A bus with more than 40 passengers on board skidded off the road in Badulla this morning and fell into a culvert and landed on its face with the rear end of the vehicle in the air. Miraculously only three passengers sustained minor injuries in the accident. Picture shows the vehicle at the scene of the accident. Pic by Palitha Ariyawansa
The Motor Traffic Department has to reissue brand new driving licenses within a period of just one year as the licenses issued last year have become illegible, reported Daily Mirror.
Commissioner of the Motor Traffic Department B. Wijeratne had admitted to media that the company assigned printing licenses had been using low-grade ink, which caused the fading.
He has admitted that Department of Motor Traffic has no option than issuing new licenses to those who got their licenses last year. The Department has received over one hundred and fifty thousand complaints it appears.
However the question is whether Commissioner of the Motor Traffic Department B. Wijeratne can so easily wash his hands off the matter. How much public money is additionally spent for this work? Who bears the cost? Will Commissioner of the Motor Traffic take the responsibility? If not, will he please explain who takes the responsibility for this additional spending?
Academic and Executive Director of the Centre for Policy Alternatives Dr. Pakiasothy Saravanamutte was detained and questioned by the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) at the Bandaranayaka International Airport upon his return to Colombo from an overseas trip this morning.
Sources close to Dr. Saravanamutte, who had just last month lodged a complaint with the police over a death threat, said the CID had questioned Dr. Saravanamutte regarding the former convener of the Free Media Movement Sunanda Deshapriya.
Airport authorities who detained Dr. Saravanamutte at the airport had said the CID had wanted to question him since February this year. Upon arrival the CID officials questioned him for several minutes before letting him go.
Minister of Plantation Industries D.M Jayaratnes’ vehicle had been involved in a collision in the Luhunuwatte area at around 11 am today.
The Minister had reportedly been travelling in the Uva Paranagama police division on an inspection when his vehicle had collided with that of a threewheeler, bearing six persons who had been on their way to cast their ballot at the Uva Urban Council Elections.
Four of the six passengers in the threewheeler, including three buddhist monks had recieved minor injuries in the incident while the driver of the threewheeler is said to be in a more serious condition.
Minister D.M Jayaratne had confirmed the incident to Daily Mirror online, adding that he had not been injured in the incident.
A girl who was among the group of students admitted to the Matara hospital following vaccination against Rubella died this morning. Another 26 schoolgirls still remain in hospital.
Peshala Hansala (12) who was in Grade eight of Matara St.Thomas Girls School, met with her tragic death in the early hours this morning, hospital sources confirmed.
Arrangements were made yesterday to immunise about 300 schoolgirls and several of them had taken ill after the vaccination.
During the last few months, serious concerns were raised about the non availability and the use of expired medicine at state hospitals. Minister of Health Nimal Siripala De Silva has failed to take any action. Now one girl dead and 26 others hospitalised after vaccinated against Rubella. Is this the kind of heath service Minister Nimal Siripala De Silva provides for the people of this country?
Will the minister admit the personal responsibility for this sad and unnecessary death, for not having taken any action even after the serious concerns were raised by doctors and media?
Not all Sri Lankan media is dancing to the tune the government wants them to. Obviously someone is irritated. Level of irritation is seen from the content of Defence.lk. – Yes, this is the same site has won an international reputation for its unbiased and truthful reporting (“Heavy fighting in Muhamalai. 157 tigers killed and one Sri Lankan army soldier suffers minor injuries in his left thumb”)
Before I get into the topic – brief description about this site. As said in its front page it is run by the Ministry of Defence, Public Security, Law and Order. So whoever behind is paid by the public money collected from tax payers. They have to work for public – not for a political party or political figures. Unfortunately this is not what we see from this web site. The Gobilas behind it are ready to run errands for any petty politician that supports Rajapakse government. How Defence.lk ran errands for Pillayan during the Eastern provincial council elections was a good example.
Humiliating and insulting media personnel to the level of putting their lives to danger is nothing new to the Gobilas of Defence.lk. One instance of doing this was depicting Mr. Ranjith Wijewardene, Chairman, Wijeya Newspapers, Mr. Siri Ranasinghe, Editor, Lankadeepa and Ms. Champika Liyanaarachchi Editor, Daily Mirror (both newspapers published by Wijeya Newspapers) as dogs manhandled by Prabhakaran. The message is clear. These are the traitors and you know what to do with them. It is just the luck of these media personnel that inborn Sinhala chauvinists of Champika Ranawaka and Wimal Weerawansa type did not take it seriously. Otherwise their fate would have been not too different from that of Keith Noyahr.
The latest was to combine Sirasa and LTTE logo together. This appears on top of what looks like a long explanation to the dubious role some high ranking officers played recently. Written in impeccable English, this article unsuccessfully tries to portray the war reporting to a conflict of media and soldiers.
This is what Defence.lk says (two paragraphs reported verbatim, emphasis mine):
We have serious concerns over this “defence analyst” issue. We do not mind any person trying to make his living by writing whatever crap to the newspapers. It is the freedom of expression that we have vowed safeguard even at the risk of our lives. Yet, we too have our right to lay bare the truth of those cowboy defence analysts, for the good of the public. War is handled by officers with 35-40 years of service, who had spend most of their lives in the battlefront, we seriously do not believe that people like Mr. Iqbal Athas have any capability to question about military tactics, service promotion schemes or even about the military procurement.
For instance, some of the so called “defence analysts” in Sri Lanka have a great tendency to give misleading picture on military PROCUREMENTS. They always quote numbers and try to speculate something fishy about the deals. Nevertheless, they rarely inform the public about the needs of the soldiers and the urgency of meeting such requirements. Those speculations are much often aimed at character assassinations of the service commanders than informing the public. What these “analysts “hide form the public is that all these PROCUREMENTS are being made after a thorough analysis of expert technical evaluation boards and on their recommendations. Also, what public is unaware about these mean spirited people is that they are being highly paid by the weapon dealers for acting as the opinion makers for them.
I think the cat jumps out of the bag here. So the who issue is about ‘PROCUREMENTS’, nothing to do with war. Ha Ha Ha. How funny. It is the PROCUREMENT information they are so worried about – NOT the security details.
Anyway the threat is clear. Media have been named. It is not difficult to understand the underlying threat behind statements of this nature:
“Any discernible person who sees Sirasa TV, or reads the Sunday Leader, the Morning Leader, Iru Dina, the Daily Mirror, and the Sunday Times, Lanka Dissent, Lanka E news, etc can understand the way that the soldiers are being humiliated, scorned and blamed.”
Can we have any clearer indication where media freedom stands today?
(GOBILA is a Sinhalisation of the surname of Paul Joseph Goebbels, Minister for Public Propaganda in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945, and not meant as an insult)
The Nation deputy editor and former Daily Mirror deputy editor Keith Noyhar has been reported missing and suspected to have been abducted after his car was found abandoned near his house yesterday night, Daily Mirror reported. Later he was released after badly beaten up, and had been admitted to the hospital.
One might say it is too early to point fingers as investigations are still going on. One may even suggest (I am sure Anura Priyadharshana Yapa will do) personal motives. If one wants one can even suggest this was done by aliens. (Reports of alien abductions of human beings are common) However Keith Noyhar is not the only Sri Lankan journalist to meet such unfortunate fate during the last few years and I am sure any rational mind can put two and two together.
Most interesting is what Mahinda Chinthana promised to media personal in Sri Lanka in 2005, which I reproduce below (Pages 81 and 82 of Mahinda Chinthana). Not sure how many media personnel voted and supported for the ‘baits’ of tax free computers and vehicles, but it is apparent now that is not what in for them.
