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Conflicting
claims over sex abuse charge Anusha Damayanthi
Perera died of an illness on August 20, 2000 allegedly due to neglect.
But little appears to have come out of investigations held at the
time. National Child
Protection Authority Chairman Prof. Harendra de Silva said last
week that the unsatisfactory conditions of the Ranmuthugala Certified
School for girls had been compiled into a report and released after
the little girl's death. "I found some people guilty in this
case, but as far as I am aware, there was no inquiry and nobody
was interdicted." According to Prof. de Silva, the child died
between the period when the raid was conducted and the release of
the report. The Women and
Children's Bureau which had acted on the case upon a complaint,
told The Sunday Times that due to lack of evidence no charges were
filed. With cases
such as this being swept under the carpet and perpetrators getting
away lightly, questions are being asked regarding a system which
is supposed to protect children. Provincial
Minister of Social Services Mahesh Almeida denied there had been
any negligence in the home. "That's a lie," he said. He
also declined to comment on the ongoing case of alleged sexual abuse
of two girls who ran away from the Ranmuthugala Certified Schoool.
He said an inquiry has been ordered and appropriate action would
be taken accordingly. The lawyers
representing the girls who ran away from the Certified School on
July 25, claimed the girls had been sexually abused by people within
the institute and without. However, the Provincial Commissioner
for Probation and Child Care W.M. Ratnasiri refuted the allegations
ruling out incidents of sexual abuse by the management. Mr. Ratnasiri
claimed that the girls had run away on their own. According to him
a woman, believed to be the mother of one of the girls had taken
them away in a three wheeler. "The girl on her mother's advice
had asked other girls to join her but only one had agreed. The wounds
on their legs were not as a result of ill treatment at the institution
either," he said. He also alleged
the girls had been abused prior to coming to the Certified School
and not at the institution. "Most of the girls have been abused
prior to admission. The girl from Polonnaruwa had been at Ranmuthugala
for three years following a case before courts for eloping with
a boy. And the other girl from Mawanella had had an affair and had
given a statement to courts that she eloped with her boyfriend to
live happily," Mr. Ratnasiri alleged. He said the
Assistant House Master (warden) is strict on the children because
they are difficult to be disciplined. "There is no need for
her to abuse the children. We must take into consideration that
these are children who have been brought here because they cannot
be controlled in the home environment." When the case
was taken up on Wednesday at the Gampaha Magistrates Court the Assistant
House Master and her husband who were arrested were released on
bail and the case was put off for September 17. With a past
record of lenient action being taken against perpetrators -such
as a mere transfer to another home- there is a need to break the
pattern, a child rights activist and lawyer who wished to remain
anonymous said. "We have to look at the root cause. The pattern must be broken and a dialogue should begin to identify why this is the norm in the administration today." He called for a joint effort by child rights organizations while also stating that the NCPA report on the Ranmuthugala home must be made public. Get
that flag down Over the weekend,
the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission told the LTTE that the hoisting
of the Tiger flag in government-controlled areas was a violation
of the ceasefire agreement. This came after
the LTTE hoisted its flag at a ceremony in government-controlled
Vavuniya and insisted its right to do so just as other political
parties were hoisting their flags at various events. But SLMM deputy
chief Hagrup Hauckland said the hoisting of the LTTE flag was provocative
and it should be removed. He said the local leadership in Vavuniya
appeared to be ignoring the SLMM directive and they had thus written
to the LTTE leadership in Kilinochchi. Mr. Hauckland said they were awaiting a reply though he could not say how hopeful they were in view of the LTTE's continuing defiance of the monitors' orders to dismantle the Kinniya camp. On Thursday, the LTTE officially informed the SLMM that it was not budging from Kinniya and the monitors have now called on the Oslo government to intervene. Norwegian special envoy Eric Solheim is expected here as the trouble-shooter within the next few days. STF
commando shoots himself The officer identified as Upul Theekshana from Mawanella committed suicide at the Bahirawakanda Temple where they were provided accomm odation while on special duty for the Randoli perahera of the Dalada Maligawa. Only
the UN can give Iraq security and sovereignty Whatever their
motives, American calls for "US troops out" raise the
same questions that rack the minds of Iraqis as they enter the fourth
month of the occupation. What would happen if the Americans indeed
pulled out abruptly? Would there be a security "vacuum"
and who would fill it? The return
of Saddam Hussein and his regime - which US officials cite as a
serious possibility - is one of the less likely scenarios. It would
clearly be a massive propaganda blow to Bush and his neo-conservatives,
dooming him to defeat in next year's election. Iraq's collapse
into civil war on ethnic or religious lines is also improbable on
present form. Some "ethnic cleansing" took place in and
around Kirkuk and Mosul in the first postwar weeks as Kurds moved
to reverse Saddam's Arabisation campaigns. US forces helped to stop
it by imposing a freeze on all evictions until a property claims
commission could adjudicate them. Would a US troop withdrawal prompt
the evictions to resume again? Not necessarily.
Kurdish political leaders had no hesitation in joining the US-appointed
"governing council" for Iraq and still have faith that
they can draw up a new Iraqi constitution that would give them regional
autonomy as well as a significant say in central politics. As long
as they feel their dual demands can be met, they have a strong motive
to press their constituents not to resort to ethnic violence. At
the local level, Kirkuk and Mosul now have councils with Kurdish
and Arab (as well as other minority) representation. This is also
a strong factor in favour of stability. The risk of
Shia/Sunni violence is also low. Iraq's modern history does not
contain major cases of it. Saddam's mass killing of Shia after their
1991 uprising was ordered from the top and performed by the security
forces. It had little resonance among ordinary Sunnis, in contrast
to the way that religiously or ethnically based hatreds have been
aroused and manipulated by politicians in the Balkans, Ireland and
south Asia. Like their Kurdish counterparts, Shia leaders still
give top priority to a new constitution that will outlaw discrimination
on ethnic and religious lines for the first time. As Iraq's majority
community, they have an even greater stake in creating a federal
state, and see no reason at this stage to contemplate armed action. Of course,
policies of violence cannot be totally discounted in a country traditionally
awash with guns. The Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution
in Iraq can still call on the Badr brigade, the armed Shia guerrilla
force which it built up during exile in Iran. Muqtada al-Sadr, the
fiery young fundamentalist from Najaf, is forming an Islamic "army"
of devotees. Their activities
hint at what could be the main danger in a post-US Iraq - the threat
of regional fragmentation and warlordism under the umbrella of a
nominally unified state. Rather than sliding into civil war over
who controls Baghdad, power in Iraq might slip into the hands of
local religious leaders or Afghanistan-style warlords linked to,
or tolerant of, mafia and other crime. Iraq's tribal traditions
proved remarkably resilient in the face of Saddam's initial drive
for secular modernisation. Later the dictator sought to encourage
and coopt them. So the foundations for tribally based warlordism
are still strong, as became clear in the aftermath of the old regime's
retreat in April when several tribal leaders sought to seize power
in their own regions by force. None of this
means the US should claim the right to stay in Iraq. It does, however,
point to the need to pull out carefully and responsibly. Precipitate
and disorderly withdrawal is a sorry part of the legacy of colonialism
in Palestine, India, Congo and elsewhere. This is why many Iraqis
say they want the US to stay at least until it repairs the country's
infrastructure. It is not too
late for the UN to be given overall control over the transition
to independence, as France, India, Russia and others have suggested.
This would make it possible for UN peacekeepers to come in. The
notion of US and British troops remaining in Iraq after an independent
Iraqi government takes power in elections next year is absurd. A
government that hosts invaders cannot be independent. But a government
can retain UN-authorised peacekeepers for a period of several years
without forfeiting its sovereignty, as for example Cyprus has done.
If Iraqis want protection from potential instability when the US
departs, the UN is the place to turn. |
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