'I had nothing to do with it', Karadzic tells war crimes tribunal

March 4, 2010, 8:30 AM

He is accused of masterminding the worst crimes in Europe since the Nazis. His tormentors seek to portray him as a "monster". But in the long-awaited self-portrait delivered this week from the dock of a war crimes tribunal, Radovan Karadzic painted himself as a misunderstood and much-maligned anti-communist dissident.

The bombastic warlord associated more than anyone else with the Bosnian bloodbath and the pogroms of "ethnic cleansing" was, it transpires, all along the heroic Vaclav Havel of the Balkans.

It is almost 15 years since the end of the war in Bosnia that left 100,000 people dead, two-thirds of them Muslims mostly killed by Serbs. Karadzic was the Bosnian Serb political leader and military commander-in-chief. Cheated of justice, the victims, families have waited a long time to see Karadzic in the dock.

In a four-hour soliloquy behind bulletproof glass at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague on Monday, the 64-year-old for the first time laid out his version of what happened in the 1992-95 conflict. Predictably, he rubbished the charges against him.
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UNF to oppose, JVP undecided

The United National Front (UNF) will oppose the extension of the emergency when it is taken up for debate at a special session of parliament next week, UNF General Secretary Tissa Attanayaka told Daily Mirror Online.

The UNF which includes the main opposition the United National Party (UNP), Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), Sri Lanka Freedom Party Mahajana Wing and the Democratic People's Front will voice its strong objection against the emergency especially at a time when the country has other issues to concentrate on, Attanayaka said.

"The government is clearly avoiding issues which they should be focusing on by extending the emergency," Attanayaka said.

The JVP which will also attend the special session however remains undecided on whether it will oppose or accept the emergency next week.

JVP Member Anura Kumara Dissanayaka said that his party would hold a discussion on the matter soon in order to reach a decision. Both the JVP and UNP had opposed the emergency when it was taken up for debate just before parliament was dissolved last month.

Parliament will reconvene for a special session on March 9 to extend state of emergency by another month. Parliament was dissolved on February 9 in order to conduct General Elections next month but President Mahinda Rajapaksa is to convene a special session of the house next week to extend the State of emergency.
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Allegation against TRC upon the blockade of the Online Petition of Sarath Fonseka is an utter lie

'The allegation made by JVP MP Vijitha Herath against Director General of the Telecom Regulatory Commission Anusha Pelpita on the deactivation of the web site which includes the "Online Petition" launched seeking the release of Rtd. Gen. Sarath Fonseka, is a total lie and the SINHALAYA News Agency can confirm with credible evidence.

The SINHALAYA News Agency conducted a special technical review on the issue.
This so called Online Petition was launched in a site named www.freesarathfonseka.com and the SINHALAYA News Agency carefully examined all the Administrative and other DNS information related to the domain of "freesarathfonseka.com" to testify the accusation of JVP against the TRC is a total lie.

The site is launched in a server with IP Protocol 96.0.176.2 is located in Hopkins, USA (Hopkinsville, KY, US) and for further clarifications anybody can dial +1-614-534-1960.

The physical location of the Web Server is in USA and only the administrators or the operators with proper access rights (Username, password and the IP address of the Server) can do data entry operations and updates. Any Web Hosting Service Provider can understand that the administration of the said domain is not available to anybody but only to people with proper login details.

If at all any of the authorities in Sri Lanka wishes to block the site, it could be done only to restrict the access of the Internet Service Providers (ISP) located in Sri Lanka. To be precise, a Sri Lankan organization or any such company for that matter can only block the site within Sri Lanka, NOT Worldwide ! So the viewers ONLY IN SRI LANKA cannot access the site.

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Hicorp director refused bail again

Fort Magistrate today refused to grant bail to Welington De Hoedt a director of Hicorp Ltd. The Magistrate added that since the case required investigations both in Sri Lanka and the US granting bail would hinder such investigations

He was arrested and produced in court by the CID on January 7 for allegedly cheating public money by forwarding forged documents to the Sri Lanka Army

Colombo Fort magistrate Lanka Jayaratne on January 13 refused to grant bail for Welington.

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Ranil concedes defeat on April 8

Even before the nominations closed on Friday for the next parliamentary elections to be held on April 8, 2009 Ranil Wickremesinghe, the Leader of the United National Front, has admitted that he cannot win. His aim, as declared by him, is not to win the election but to prevent the ruling UPFA from getting a two thirds majority. This may even be a Freudian slip but it reflects realistically the current political situation of the opposition which is in total disarray.

Till the last minute he was hoping to keep the make-shift coalition with the JVP and Sarath Fonseka going under his leadership and the elephant symbol. He even offered Fonseka the deputy leadership. But Mrs. Fonseka came back with the news that Fonseka will stick with the JVP. This makes the path of the coming election quite clear: the joint opposition which failed to beat President Mahinda Rajapakse with all their forces put together cannot win the parliamentary elections when it is fragmented like a broken pappadam.
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