"Sri Lanka ruling party prevails; Wins majority in revote, picks prime minister" by Bharatha Mallawarachi, Associated Press | April 22, 2010
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Veteran politician Dissanayake Mudiyansalage Jayaratne took the oath of office as Sri Lanka’s 20th prime minister yesterday after the ruling party won a large parliamentary majority.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s United People’s Freedom Alliance increased its parliamentary gains to 144 seats in a 225-member Parliament after new voting but fell short of the two-thirds majority it sought to make constitutional changes.
A revote was held Tuesday in some areas affected by fraud....
It was an election, right?
The prime minister is largely a figurehead who heads the government in Parliament....
Well, THEY ALL ARE.... which makes this a LOT of FILLER, doesn't it?
Now a one-day wonder for you:
"Refugee jailed as US fights asylum grant; ACLU suit pushes immediate release" by Shelley Murphy, Globe Staff | April 30, 2010
Baskaran Balasundaram arrived at Logan International Airport in summer 2008 with a story of torture and survival, seeking refuge from a violent civil war in his native Sri Lanka.
He told immigration officials that he had been kidnapped from his parents’ farm by a terrorist group that forced him to live like a slave at a training camp. He said he escaped, only to be captured by the Sri Lankan Army and tortured repeatedly because he is an ethnic Tamil.
But if Balasundaram, now 27, expected to find freedom in the United States, he was mistaken.
Yeah, the PROPAGANDA and IMAGERY you are served with, foreigners, is a far cry from the reality.
He has remained locked up at the Suffolk County House of Correction since he arrived in Boston nearly 22 months ago, even though an immigration judge granted him asylum in February 2009.
On Wednesday, the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts filed suit in US District Court, urging a judge to immediately release Balasundaram and rule that US officials have violated his civil rights and the Immigration and Nationality Act.
The suit says the Department of Homeland Security has left Balasundaram to languish in jail while appealing his asylum, on the grounds that he provided material support to terrorists while being held captive by them.
“He managed to escape this Tamil training camp,’’ said Laura Rotolo, an attorney for the ACLU who filed the suit on behalf of Balasundaram, “. . . He comes to the US only to be stuck for 22 months, and who knows how much longer, in a United States jail. It’s just a bitter irony.’’
Rotolo said the government has no evidence that Balasundaram provided support to terrorists and is basing its contention on Balasundaram’s personal account of the five months he was held captive in 2007 by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, also known as the Tamil Tigers and designated by the US government as a terrorist organization.
Well, THAT is NOTHING NEW!!!
The rebel group was embroiled in a civil war with the Sri Lankan government in the country located off the coast of India....
Balasundaram has not been charged with any crime....
I TOLD YOU it was AmeriKa!!!!
In October 2007, Balasundaram escaped from the camp, then was captured, tortured, and interrogated by Sri Lankan authorities seeking information about the terrorist group’s activities, the suit says.
Yeah, U.S. can't really criticize, can they?
At a Sri Lankan government camp, “army officers beat Balasundaram, hung him upside down, hit his back with barbed wire, and put a bag doused with gasoline on his face until he could no longer breathe,’’ the suit says.
Sure smells like torture to me.
The US Department of State and human rights groups documented abuse and persecution in Sri Lanka, where the Tamil Tigers, fighting for a separate state for the Tamil minority, forcibly recruited civilians and the government illegally detained thousands of Tamils on suspicion of terrorism.
Last year, the Sri Lankan military defeated the rebel group, ending a 26-year civil war.
Have they emptied the concentration camps yet?
The Department of Homeland Security argued during the hearing on Balasundaram’s asylum request that he should not be allowed to stay in the United States because he received military training from a terrorist organization and provided material support to terrorists.
But Immigration Judge Eliza C. Klein rejected those arguments, concluding that Balasundaram did not receive military-type training from the terrorist organization or provide material support.
“Specifically, he was forced to watch propaganda training videos and observe [Tamil Tiger] members using weapons and crawling through barbed wire fences,’’ Klein wrote in February 2009. “His limited exposure was neither willing nor participatory.’’--more--"
When the executive no longer listens to the courts you know what kind of society you have, AmeriKans?
I'll give you a clue: it starts with an F and ends with an ism.
Final Filler: Moviegoers in Sri Lanka get cheaper tickets and beer but no popcorn
For more see my Sri Lanka file.
