A Sri Lankan apparel company that owns a majority stake in attune Consulting, a Burlington tech company that makes business management software for the clothing and apparel industry, has invested $20 million in attune to help expand its global footprint....
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Related(?):
Pakistan's Factory Fires
Factory Fires in Bangladesh
Time running out for Bangladeshi workers
Yup, "very little has changed in Bangladesh," despite the ma$$ media coverage.
Sri Lanka must have safer $lave$hops.
Related(?):
"UN failed Sri Lankans, report says" by PETER JAMES SPIELMANN By RAVI NESSMAN | Associated Press, November 15, 2012
UNITED NATIONS — A United Nations report released Wednesday said inadequate efforts by the world body to protect civilians during the bloody final months of Sri Lanka’s civil war marked a major failure that led to suffering for hundreds of thousands of people.
The report accused UN staff in Colombo of not perceiving that preventing civilian deaths was their responsibility and accused their bosses at UN headquarters of not telling them otherwise. A separate UN report released last year said up to 40,000 ethnic minority Tamil civilians may have been killed in the war’s final months.
It's called winning the peace.
The report accused UN officials and member states of being reluctant to interfere. It said the political conditions after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States made countries less likely to stop a government fighting against a group many had branded a terrorist organization.
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The report accused UN staff in Colombo of not perceiving that preventing civilian deaths was their responsibility and accused their bosses at UN headquarters of not telling them otherwise. A separate UN report released last year said up to 40,000 ethnic minority Tamil civilians may have been killed in the war’s final months.
It's called winning the peace.
The report accused UN officials and member states of being reluctant to interfere. It said the political conditions after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States made countries less likely to stop a government fighting against a group many had branded a terrorist organization.
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Also see: Sri Lanka criticizes UN report on war
"Sri Lanka faulted on war crimes inquiry" Associated Press, February 14, 2013
GENEVA — The United Nations’ top human rights official faulted Sri Lanka on Wednesday for failing to investigate reports of widespread killings and other atrocities toward the end of its bloody quarter-century civil war.
In her report to the UN Human Rights Council, High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay also said opposition leaders are still being killed or abducted and the government has made no arrests in cases of disappearances.
Related: Sunday Globe Special: Sri Lanka's Secret Police
In May 2009, the government, dominated by the ethnic Sinhalese majority, defeated Tamil Tiger rebels who were demanding an independent Tamil nation after decades of perceived discrimination.
The report questioned the government’s commitment to follow through on the recommendations of its own war commission report and urges Sri Lanka to permit international experts to investigate allegations of serious human rights violations.
‘‘Unfortunately, however, the government has made commitments to only some of the commission’s recommendations, and has not adequately engaged civil society to support this process,’’ the report said.
Sri Lanka’s government disputed many of the findings. In response, Sri Lanka said it has taken steps to investigate more than 50 instances of civilian killings, and all reported cases of alleged disappearances from the end of the war.
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Take it to the courts:
"Sri Lanka faulted on war crimes inquiry" Associated Press, February 14, 2013
GENEVA — The United Nations’ top human rights official faulted Sri Lanka on Wednesday for failing to investigate reports of widespread killings and other atrocities toward the end of its bloody quarter-century civil war.
In her report to the UN Human Rights Council, High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay also said opposition leaders are still being killed or abducted and the government has made no arrests in cases of disappearances.
Related: Sunday Globe Special: Sri Lanka's Secret Police
In May 2009, the government, dominated by the ethnic Sinhalese majority, defeated Tamil Tiger rebels who were demanding an independent Tamil nation after decades of perceived discrimination.
The report questioned the government’s commitment to follow through on the recommendations of its own war commission report and urges Sri Lanka to permit international experts to investigate allegations of serious human rights violations.
‘‘Unfortunately, however, the government has made commitments to only some of the commission’s recommendations, and has not adequately engaged civil society to support this process,’’ the report said.
Sri Lanka’s government disputed many of the findings. In response, Sri Lanka said it has taken steps to investigate more than 50 instances of civilian killings, and all reported cases of alleged disappearances from the end of the war.
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Take it to the courts:
"Judicial tension rises in Sri Lanka" by BHARATHA MALLAWARACHI | Associated Press, January 04, 2013
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka’s highest court declared Thursday that a parliamentary committee does not have legal power to investigate allegations of misuse of power and unexplained wealth by the country’s chief justice, escalating a showdown between the legislature and the judiciary.
The case against Shirani Bandaranayake, the country’s first female chief justice, has drawn local and international criticism as an attempt by the government to stifle judiciary independence....
Last month, a parliamentary committee found Banadaranayke guilty of unexplained wealth and misuse of power and said she was unfit for office. Parliament is expected to vote for her impeachment this month, and the president then could decide to dismiss or retain her.
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"Sri Lankan chief justice impeached" by KRISHAN FRANCIS | Associated Press, January 12, 2013
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka’s Parliament voted overwhelmingly on Friday to impeach the chief justice in a case widely seen by jurists and rights activists as an attempt by the government to ensure a servile judiciary.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa will now decide whether Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake should be dismissed.
Last month, a parliamentary committee ruled that Bandaranayake had unexplained wealth and had misused her power.
She has denied the charges and said she was not given a fair hearing.
An appeals court annulled the guilty verdict and forbade any further action by Parliament after the Supreme Court ruled that the committee had no legal power to investigate the allegations.
Parliament’s defiance of the court rulings is seen a breach of the constitution. Critics of the president say he wants to remove the last obstacles to absolute power.
Rajapaksa has pushed through laws ending term limits for the presidency and abolishing independent commissions that select top judiciary, police, and public service personnel.
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If only we had a good diplomat to solve this:
"Christopher Van Hollen, 90; was envoy to Sri Lanka" by Adam Bernstein | Washington Post, February 04, 2013
WASHINGTON — Christopher Van Hollen, a career State Department officer who became an authority in Southeast Asian affairs and a leading diplomatic voice during the volatile birth of Bangladesh, died Jan. 30 at the Washington Home hospice....
Dr. Van Hollen served from 1969 to 1972 as deputy assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern and South Asian affairs. The Vietnam War was continuing, but the matter that most consumed Dr. Van Hollen’s energy was the secession of East Pakistan from Pakistan to form Bangladesh in 1971.
Hundreds of thousands of Bengalis reportedly died and millions more were languishing as refugees during the tumult. In much of the world, there was overwhelming public sentiment for Bangladesh because of atrocities committed by the Pakistani Army, including killing and mass rape.
A 1971 benefit concert for Bangladesh at New York’s Madison Square Garden — featuring such entertainers as George Harrison, Bob Dylan, and Eric Clapton — helped galvanize mass opinion in the United States on behalf of the new country of 75 million.
Bob Dylan had turned traitor by then, huh? The Vietnam War was still raging.
The Nixon White House moved gingerly toward diplomatic recognition of Bangladesh, and Dr. Van Hollen was left to explain why before an often hostile Congress.
Pakistan butchers even back then, huh? Maybe all true; however, I will grab a grain of salt with this ma$$ media rendering.
Decades later, Dr. Van Hollen said his personal judgment was that the creation of Bangladesh was inevitable because of ethnic, cultural, and linguistic differences in the region. Publicly in the early 1970s, he presented the US case for continuing economic and military aid to Pakistan in order to maintain political leverage over Pakistan’s president, Agha Mohammad Yahya Khan.
At the time, Henry Kissinger, then serving as President Nixon’s national security adviser, was participating in an elaborate ruse to slip into China via Pakistan to restart US-Chinese relations.
Kissinger the war criminal makes an appearance.
‘‘Because Pakistan was seen as a key intermediary in this process, Nixon and Kissinger were very reluctant to take any action against Pakistan which might upset the evolution of the US-Chinese relationship through the good offices of Pakistan, which had at that time a good relationship with China,’’ Dr. Van Hollen said in a 1990 oral history.
The United States formally recognized Bangladesh in 1972, the year Dr. Van Hollen was appointed ambassador to the Indian Ocean countries of Sri Lanka and the Maldives.
The United States and the Soviet Union were competing for influence in the region, and he described the Sri Lankan government as ‘‘left-center Socialist’’ with ‘‘a fairly strong streak of anti-Americanism.’’
Dr. Van Hollen said he enjoyed cordial relations with President Sirimavo Bandaranaike, the world’s first female prime minister.
He said their smooth rapport was likely because as deputy assistant secretary of state, he had approved of US military support against a short-lived insurrection against Bandaranaike....
Dr. Van Hollen was later a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and director of the old American Institute for Islamic Affairs.
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You can scroll my Sri Lanka label for more.
If only we had a good diplomat to solve this:
"Christopher Van Hollen, 90; was envoy to Sri Lanka" by Adam Bernstein | Washington Post, February 04, 2013
WASHINGTON — Christopher Van Hollen, a career State Department officer who became an authority in Southeast Asian affairs and a leading diplomatic voice during the volatile birth of Bangladesh, died Jan. 30 at the Washington Home hospice....
Dr. Van Hollen served from 1969 to 1972 as deputy assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern and South Asian affairs. The Vietnam War was continuing, but the matter that most consumed Dr. Van Hollen’s energy was the secession of East Pakistan from Pakistan to form Bangladesh in 1971.
Hundreds of thousands of Bengalis reportedly died and millions more were languishing as refugees during the tumult. In much of the world, there was overwhelming public sentiment for Bangladesh because of atrocities committed by the Pakistani Army, including killing and mass rape.
A 1971 benefit concert for Bangladesh at New York’s Madison Square Garden — featuring such entertainers as George Harrison, Bob Dylan, and Eric Clapton — helped galvanize mass opinion in the United States on behalf of the new country of 75 million.
Bob Dylan had turned traitor by then, huh? The Vietnam War was still raging.
The Nixon White House moved gingerly toward diplomatic recognition of Bangladesh, and Dr. Van Hollen was left to explain why before an often hostile Congress.
Pakistan butchers even back then, huh? Maybe all true; however, I will grab a grain of salt with this ma$$ media rendering.
Decades later, Dr. Van Hollen said his personal judgment was that the creation of Bangladesh was inevitable because of ethnic, cultural, and linguistic differences in the region. Publicly in the early 1970s, he presented the US case for continuing economic and military aid to Pakistan in order to maintain political leverage over Pakistan’s president, Agha Mohammad Yahya Khan.
At the time, Henry Kissinger, then serving as President Nixon’s national security adviser, was participating in an elaborate ruse to slip into China via Pakistan to restart US-Chinese relations.
Kissinger the war criminal makes an appearance.
‘‘Because Pakistan was seen as a key intermediary in this process, Nixon and Kissinger were very reluctant to take any action against Pakistan which might upset the evolution of the US-Chinese relationship through the good offices of Pakistan, which had at that time a good relationship with China,’’ Dr. Van Hollen said in a 1990 oral history.
The United States formally recognized Bangladesh in 1972, the year Dr. Van Hollen was appointed ambassador to the Indian Ocean countries of Sri Lanka and the Maldives.
The United States and the Soviet Union were competing for influence in the region, and he described the Sri Lankan government as ‘‘left-center Socialist’’ with ‘‘a fairly strong streak of anti-Americanism.’’
Dr. Van Hollen said he enjoyed cordial relations with President Sirimavo Bandaranaike, the world’s first female prime minister.
He said their smooth rapport was likely because as deputy assistant secretary of state, he had approved of US military support against a short-lived insurrection against Bandaranaike....
Dr. Van Hollen was later a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and director of the old American Institute for Islamic Affairs.
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You can scroll my Sri Lanka label for more.
