An Appeal to United Nations to ban punishments by the Saudi Regime against expatriate workers

Mon, 2013-01-28 04:04 — editor

By Zulkifli Nazim

Many expatriates from various countries who are employed in Saudi Arabia are subject to severe hardships, misfortune and afflictions because of the prevailing laws of that country.

The Saudi Government is at liberty to implement its Company Laws and recruiting and employment systems etc., but when it comes to the question of enforcement of Criminal Procedure Codes, it must be emphasized that the countries which have sent these workers, under the protection of their governments, should take precedence over Saudi Laws.

Citizens of other countries cannot be victims of such barbaric laws of the Saudi Regime. These laws are nothing but 8th Century Arab tribal customs which have been infused with the word “Shari’ah” to make it sound legitimate and religious.

Islam or whatever the religion, has nothing to do with these barbaric customs of the despotic Saudis. These barbaric laws were designed by the Saudi Regime to meet the barbaric, savage and wild demeanour and deportment of the people of their own country and it has nothing to do with those who are being employed by and in that country.

It is imperative, therefore, that every country that sends their people to work in that country must, first, ratify an extradition treaty with that country especially in respect of those employed in Saudi Arabia; and any serious crimes by those employed must be subject to this treaty for extradition of the individual to the country of origin of the worker to be tried according to the laws of that country.

The whole world is aware of the hundreds of Saudi Citizens who have committed crimes in foreign lands being extradited and/or repatriated to Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia cannot meet the desperate demands of the necessary workforce for their sustainability and economy and hence they “import” people to do their ”dirty” work for their own benefit. My question is “Why should these skilled, sem-skilled and unskilled people with various disciplines and vocations, advertised and sanctioned by the Saudi Regime, and who have actually gone there to fill the absolutely essential vacancies, demands and needs of various occupations in Saudi Arabia, which the majority of the Saudis are incapable of, be subject to any form of Saudi Laws of barbarism?”

This arrogance of the Saudi Regime had gone on unabated and unquestioned for too long a time. Don’t you think that it is high time that the representatives bent on achieving justice to all nations – vis-à-vis – The United Nations and all their members, step in at global level and every individual government of every country take action at national level, enforce the most urgent and essential action to eradicate this menace and threat to the expatriate workers in Saudi Arabia?

- Asian Tribune -

Sri Lanka protests US ban on military officer

(AFP) / 24 January 2013

COLOMBO — The US has refused training for a Sri Lankan general in a move that undermined military cooperation and prompted Colombo to turn to China and other nations for help, a top defence official said on Thursday.

 Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse said US authorities had refused to enrol Major-General Sudantha Ranasinghe and Colombo was concerned that the decision was based on “wrong information”.

He did not give details of the course the officer had been nominated to follow, but said he would take up the issue with a senior US delegation visiting the country at the weekend.

“I want to tell them that they are wrong... every time they (US diplomats and officials) meet me, they say they want to strengthen the cooperation with our military,” Rajapakse said.

“If the US stops military training (completely), then Sri Lankan officers will only go to China, India and Pakistan.”

Rajapakse did not specify why Ranasinghe had been rejected. The US refuses entry to any foreign military personnel suspected of human rights violations.

The US and other nations have been highly critical of Sri Lanka’s military for its final onslaught on Tamil rebel areas in 2009, which left an estimated 40,000 civilians dead.

Ranasinghe had been the commissioner-general of rehabilitation responsible for reintegrating into society some 12,000 Tamil rebels who surrendered in the final stages of the war, Rajapakse said.

He said the officer had not been involved in direct combat operations.

The US stopped selling military hardware to Sri Lanka throughout much of its 37-year ethnic war against the Tamil rebels, pushing Colombo to make purchases from China, Pakistan and several East European nations.

Military officials said 200 junior Sri Lankan officers continued to receive opportunities for short-term training in the US, but the issue was with senior officers who had held command positions during the height of the fighting.

US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Vikram Singh and two senior state department officials are due in Colombo Saturday for talks.

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/kt-article-display-1.asp?xfile=data/international/2013/January/international_January962.xml&section=international

Bihar resurgence appreciated in Sri Lanka: High Commissioner

Last Updated: Friday, January 25, 2013, 21:51

Patna: Resurgence of Bihar was widely appreciated in Sri Lanka and the pattern of growth in the state in the last five year is a learning experience, Sri Lanka High Commissioner to India Prasad Kariyawasam said on Friday.

The work done in the field of art, culture and tourism in the state has impressed Lankan tourists, Kariyawasam said after meeting Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, according to an official statement here.

He said a large number of people from his country visit Bodh Gaya every year to have a glimpse of the sacred Bodhi tree and his countrymen were happy over expansion of tourism facilities in Bihar.

The chief minister told the Sri Lankan dignitary that the Bihar government was making efforts to give a new look to the ancient Nalanda university.

Kariyawasam told Kumar that Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa would visit Bodh Gaya on February 8 and had expressed keenness to meet him, which the chief minister readily agreed to.

The Sri Lankan High Commissioner also thanked Kumar for successful conduct of the world Buddhist meet here early this month. The meet was inaugurated by Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.

PTI

http://zeenews.india.com/news/bihar/bihar-resurgence-appreciated-in-sri-lanka-high-commissioner_825060.html

US officials hold talks in Sri Lanka

English.news.cn   2013-01-27 20:39:05

COLOMBO, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- A high level delegation from the U. S. State Department held talks with the Sri Lankan government and opposition members on Sunday regarding post war developments in the country.

Deputy Assistant Secretary of State James Moore, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Vikram Singh and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Jane Zimmerman arrived in Sri Lanka on Saturday.

The delegation met a key Tamil minority political party and discussed issues concerning Tamils in the north and east of the country.

A Tamil National Alliance (TNA) official told Xinhua that issues including that of the resettled war displaced people and an upcoming session at the UN Human Rights Council where the Sri Lankan issue is expected to be raised was also discussed.

James R. Moore is a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs since September 2010. Moore was previously the Deputy Chief of Mission of the U.S. Embassy in Colombo from 2006 to 2009.

Jane B. Zimmerman is a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, responsible for South and Central Asia, the Western Hemisphere, and International Religious Freedom.

Vikram J. Singh is Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for South and Southeast Asia within the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs. Singh serves as the principal adviser to senior leadership within the Department of Defense for all policy matters pertaining to development and implementation of defense strategies and plans for the region.

The Sri Lankan Military defeated the Tamil Tiger rebels in May 2009 after 30 years of war but still continues to face pressure over human rights allegations from several countries including the United States.

Sri Lanka has however denied most of the allegations raised.

Editor: Yang Lina

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2013-01/27/c_132131594.htm

Manushyaputhiran incurs wrath of Muslim body for death penalty views

CHENNAI, January 27, 2013| The Hindu

Manushyaputhran. Photo: N.Sridharan

Tamil poet and writer Manushyaputhiran faces the wrath of a Muslim organisation for expressing his views against the beheading of Sri Lankan maid Rizana Nafeek in Saudi Arabia after being found guilty of smothering a child to death.

Besides denigrating Manushyaputhiran alias Sahul Hameed in strong language, Tamil Nadu Thowheed Jamaath, a Muslim organisation, has challenged him for a debate on capital punishment. P. Jainulabdeen, president of the organisation, has also asked DMK president M. Karunanidhi to participate in the debate as the latter supported Manushyaputhiran’s arguments against the death penalty.

A public meeting has been organised on Sunday against Manushyaputhiran, Nakkheeran editor R.R. Gopal (in whose magazine the writer’s article had appeared) and Mr. Karunanidhi.

“They allege that I have spoken against the Shariat Law. When many countries, including Muslim countries, have banned the death penalty, the barbaric act is still in practice in Saudi Arabia. I wrote against it in Nakkheeran magazine, arguing that it is against civilisation. Fundamentalist elements keen on mobilising Muslim youth for political motives have launched a campaign against me,” said Manushyaputhiran.

He said there were a lot of messages on his Facebook wall and one person even went to the extent of saying that he would physically assault him and would not mind facing the legal consequences. “They are threatening me and calling me for a debate. All I said was that Rizana was only 17 years old when she was executed and no international guidelines were followed in her case. I want to point out that two Europeans sentenced to death penalty could escape punishment in Saudi Arabia because of international pressure. On the other hand, a poor Muslim girl from an Asian country has been brutally killed,” said Manushyaputhiran.

According to him, organisations like the Tamil Nadu Thowheed Jamaath are advocating a pure form of Islam, closing the doors on local Tamil culture and seeking to convert it into a religion that cannot accommodate democratic norms. “I have also expressed my views against the ban on Vishwaroopam because freedom of expression is as important as the rights of minorities,” he said.

In his letter to Manushyaputhiran, Mr. Jainulabdeen said the writer had distorted facts while criticising the execution, including the fact that the maid was not a minor at the time of offence. He had accused the writer of advancing irrelevant arguments against the death penalty.

Efforts to contact Mr. Jainulabdeen were in vain.

Scurrying for curry

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  Vegetable with coconut,pineapple curry, prawn curry and rice.
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  Egg hopper with sambol.
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  kiri bath

A delicately seasoned dish suddenly turns savoury and a totally spiceless one becomes a festive essential in Sri Lankan cuisine.

I’d heard that Sri Lankan food was a cross between that of our South, and of South East Asia; that ingredients, processes and spices (pepper, cinnamon, cloves, turmeric) were like ours. But that a twist of freshness came from a slightly different store of aromatics like lemon grass and pandanus. So choosing it as a holiday destination was easy, especially given the grey grimness that is Delhi in January.

It’s unfair on a cuisine to have to confine comment to 900 words, so for now I’ll focus on highlights of meals — curries, vegetables, rice and hoppers. I ate in Colombo, Bentota and Galle, with a few pit stops, but still just the southwest coast. I’m told that the north has a slightly different cooking style, as does Kandy in the centre. Where we went, though, the cuisine was a celebration of rice, seafood, coconuts and other fruit.

The first sign that the food was going to be a delight was at the Galle Face hotel in Colombo. Its beautiful location apart, the breakfast buffet was worth the stay. There were the expected — Continental and English breakfasts — but there were the local: hoppers (from appam… appa), string hoppers; and puttu (or pittu), the steamed cylinder of ground rice and coconut eaten with curries or palm sugar and sambol, a chutney-like accompaniment. Appams in India are round pancakes, thick and spongy in the centre and delicately lacy at the edges, with a golden rice-white inner side and a golden-edging-on-brown underside. In Sri Lanka they were less aerated, so less porous, and crisper and thinner. The hopper cook at the Club Bentota said that, unlike in Kerala, they didn’t use toddy or yeast to leaven the batter; it was rice, coconut water, coconut cream and what she called “hopper soda”. So that first breakfast at the Galle Face I had first some of a plain hopper, then some with prawn curry and finally an egg hopper. The egg yolk was orange, nestling prettily in the base of the hopper, and after a couple of mouthfuls I ladled some prawn curry on to the smashed yolk and that was paradise. The prawn curry was a pale golden orange, with flecks of red chilli and sweet with coconut milk, fresh pink succulent prawns and some green stuff. The spices were delicate and not totally familiar: pandan leaves, what in Sri Lanka they call rampe (it amazes me that the flower of pandanus, screwpine, gives us the completely different smelling kewra).

The next good meal was at the universally recommended Raja Bhojun, an all-you-can-eat restaurant nearby. Most memorable was the crab, in a hot, generously peppered curry flavoured with curry leaves. There were about 20 other dishes, thick dal, vegetables and “devilled chicken”, which we then went on to eat again at Bentota. Pork, beef, chicken are all “devilled” and very popular. To me they were like a cheap Chinese “chilli chicken sweet-and-sour”, fried bites of meat with crunchy onions, tomatoes and capsicum, coated with tomato ketchup. Forgettable. The interesting dishes, which Chef Priyal cooked, were mallum, a sautéed mix of finely chopped vegetables cooked with grated coconut; curries of prawn and pineapple. There are broadly two spice powders which are made — or bought — and stored: one for vegetarian, and the other for meat dishes.

One completely spiceless dish I loved was a festive essential, kiri bath, milk rice. The milk isn’t dairy, it’s coconut. Soft, almost mashed white rice, barely salted, is cooked with coconut milk and set into soft squares. Chef Priyal suggested I eat it with lunu miris, a spicy sambol, which I did, but in the end I ate it with marmalade. It’s so delicately seasoned that you can barely tell it’s savoury, but with honey or marmalade, the salt and sugar sharpen and define each other.

On our last evening in Sri Lanka we made a discovery, inadvertently, of something we were not in quest of, good Sri Lankan curry. I’ve been trying my best to avoid cliché and not use the word s*r*nd*p*ty. So, although we all know of the three princes of S*r*nd*p, the old name for Sri Lanka, I won’t. By then we were done with curries, but since we were leaving the next day….

In the charming little township that is Fort Galle, there are several cafés and bistros serving Western food. And several who make Sinhalese curries and “Indian buriyani”. This one, Fort Dew, faced the ramparts of the fort, and had a fresh breeze coming in from the water beyond. We ordered two dishes: rice and curry and chicken and rice and curry and prawns. Curry meant many, many vegetable add-ons, so rice, chicken (or prawn) curry, dal, four veggies, papad. The chicken curry was fragrant with garam masala, in shiny orange gravy. Tender green beans were cut long, about two inches, in a mild pale creamy sauce. Carrots, cut into small diamonds, were yellow and coconutty. Potatoes in white gravy which smelt of fenugreek seeds, dry potatoes with browned caramelised onions and curry leaf. Prawns in spicy reddish chopped onion gravy. Chana dal fragrant with cinnamon, garlic and ginger, tempered with dry red chillies. Crisp brown papads. Freshly cut green lime and long green chillies on the side. Each thing we ate tasted different from the other and was Best in Class. When we’d placed our order, we were told that it would take 40 minutes. Obviously everything was cooked fresh. We left wishing we had happened on this place sooner. 

http://www.thehindu.com/arts/magazine/scurrying-for-curry/article4347952.ece

 

Seaplanes in Sri Lanka: up and away with a new air taxi service

A thrilling new seaplane service in Sri Lanka takes you from Colombo into the hill country, landing on temple lakes – and the tickets start at just £30

One of SriLankan Air Taxis' seaplanes. Photograph: Ishara S Kodikara/AFP/Getty Images. Click on the magnifying glass icon to see a map of the places visited

It was at Koggala lake, near Galle, that I first saw the seaplane that was to whisk me up to Sri Lanka's lush and temperate tea country. There, bobbing up and down, lashed to a floating dock, was the white dual-engine DeHavilland Twin Otter, on its tail a phantasmagoric mural depicting the supposed sights of Sri Lanka: leopards, giant squid, elephants and whales.
Seeing the plane floating on two giant pontoons, its wings set on top of a fuselage that holds 15 passengers, I was transported back to a time when air travel was still an adventure, when stepping onto a plane amid the uproar of whizzing propellers felt intrepid.
I'd long wanted to visit Sri Lanka's hills, though driving from Colombo up to Kandy and then on to Nuwara Eliya – while an exciting experience – can eat away at your itinerary. That's why, on a recent trip, I decided to see the country from the sky, by opting to take SriLankan Air Taxi, a little-known seaplane service that, for the price of a hire car, plies routes from Colombo to the coastal towns of Galle and Tangalle, as well as the hill towns of Kandy and Nuwara Eliya, and Dambulla, famous for its cave temple complex.
SriLankan Airlines' seaplane service was set up in 2004 but was promptly suspended due to the country's protracted civil war, which finally ended in 2009. The service was re-launched last year but its existence is still under the radar. It has only been possible to book online since June 2012.
The ceasefire has been a boon to domestic air travel. It is now possible to fly from Colombo to Jaffna in a Cessna operated by ExpoAir (expoavi.com) and another seaplane service, Cinnamon Air (cinnamonair.com), will be launched in early 2013.
Over a piquant fish curry on the veranda of the painstakingly restored Amangalla hotel in the Dutch fort at Galle, I imagined life in wartime Ceylon, having read about Sri Lanka's seaplane legacy and Leonard Birchall, the Canadian second world war pilot remembered as the "saviour of Ceylon". After taking off from Koggala lake, about nine miles east of Galle in a Catalina "flying boat" seaplane in 1942, Birchall spotted a "black speck" on the horizon, which turned out to be the Japanese fleet, the co-ordinates of which he radioed back to Colombo before being shot down (he survived).
The hotel dining room at Amangalla hotel. Photograph: ./Bloomberg Today, Koggala is still a naval base, and doubles as a SriLankan Air Taxi runway. I took the morning flight to Colombo for £40. The cabin was basic and unpressurised; the seatbelt was the only amenity. There was no cockpit door, so I was able to watch the captain and copilot manipulate the yoke, foot pedals and throttles. I could read the plane's instruments and feel the vibration of the propellers.
The plane only needed about a quarter of a mile to take off. Rising off the water, we climbed steeply to 7,500ft and for most of the 45-minute journey followed the ribbon of the Colombo-Galle highway as it bisected paddy fields and palm oil plantations. I barely moved my eyes from the window, from which I could see hilltop Buddhist temples, mosques and cricket pitches.
As we approached Colombo, the pilot banked the plane to the left and we followed the coast to one of SriLankan's two bases in the capital. Since landing a seaplane depends on water levels, currents and visibility, the air taxi's schedules are flexible, their bases changeable. Two more bases are being prepared, one downtown at Colombo Fort and another at the international airport.
During the layover the pilot, Canadian George McBain, told me that, though run by SriLankan Airlines, the whole operation – the plane, the crews, the maintenance – have been leased from Kenn Borek Air, a Canada-based charter airline specialising in Twin Otters. Borek Air leases SriLankan the same planes that ply hunting and fishing lodges in western Canada and Alaska, and support Antarctic research missions. "The Twin Otter is fun to fly," McBain said. "It can go anywhere. There is no other plane in the world that can fly where it goes. It can fly in the open oceans in the Maldives, land on riverbeds, frozen water, glaciers. And you can't see anything from a jet. At 5,000 or 10,000 feet, I have stuff to look at all day long."
Fly into the heart of Kandy. Photograph: Getty Images We flew to Kandy from the Peliyagoda base, which is at an elbow in the river Kelani in a suburb of Colombo. Its dock is leased from a Buddhist temple, its terminal comprised of a collection red plastic chairs. I spun the giant prayer wheels under the gaze of a statue of a standing Buddha as five passengers checked in, posed for pictures on the dock and inspected the plane.
As we flew north-east from Colombo towards the hills, we passed in and out of clouds, the plane skating gently on the wind. Passengers took photographs of waterfalls, plantation houses, still more temples and cricket pitches.
At Kandy, we descended between the trees lining a dammed segment of the Mohaweli river. There were about 50 locals by the dock waiting for the plane to land, taking pictures on their mobile phones. After disembarking, Saleh al-Estry, an Omani tourist who was on my flight, called the journey "fantastic". He said he clicked the seaplane icon on the SriLankan website by chance. "I saw there was a seaplane and thought, 'I should try this'," he said. "The funny thing is, in Colombo nobody knows about this. Even the guy in my hotel had never heard of it."
After a walk around Kandy lake and a tour of the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic, which supposedly houses one of the Buddha's teeth, I boarded a train for the former British redoubt of Nuwara Eliya, Sri Lanka's best-known hill station. For three hours we wound through the jungle and tea plantations I'd seen from the air and at station stops I bought sweet coconuts and wadi (fried savory snacks with chilli chutney) through the window.
After a night at the Hill Club, a rambling colonial pile where guests are served seafood thermidor in a formal dining room by white-gloved waiters, I embarked on the flight from lake Gregory back to Colombo. Seaplane travel now felt routine. In the air I thought of all the remote places I've been that could be made less remote by Twin Otters, and thought with vertiginous dread of the inevitability of future long-distance journeys on pitted and perilous roads.
Not in Sri Lanka, though. George McBain, the pilot, suspected he'd see me again. "A lot of passengers – the ones that we do have – are repeat passengers," he said.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2013/jan/26/sri-lanka-seaplane-service-kandy-galle