“We’re ready to give further aid to Sri Lanka” says India

B. Muralidhar Reddy - India on Thursday expressed its readiness to provide further humanitarian assistance, on the request of Colombo, for the welfare of nearly 2.5 lakh war-displaced people housed in the refugee camps of Sri Lanka’s Northern Province.

The assurance was conveyed by visiting Minister of State for External Affairs Preneet Kaur to the Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama in a meeting on the sidelines of the 8th Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) Ministerial Meeting here.

Ms. Kaur told Mr. Bogollogama that New Delhi was aware of the difficulties faced in the de-mining and resettlement process and is ready to discuss the possibility of increasing assistance to Sri Lanka.

She referred to the offer of assistance for rebuilding the Duraiappa Stadium and establishing a cultural centre in Jaffna. Mr. Bogollogama said that though de-mining work carried out by the Sri Lanka Army and the Indian de-mining teams was progressing expeditiously, more assistance was required to complete the process.
IDP resettlement

India is already committed to give Rs.500 crore to meet requirements for the welfare and resettlement of internally displaced persons (IDPs).

Mr. Bogollogama told Ms. Kaur that from the perspective of his Government, everything possible was being done to improve conditions in the IDP welfare villages. He briefed her on the Sri Lankan Government’s initiatives in resettling the IDPs and explained the difficulties encountered in the progress.

Sri Lanka, as Chair of the 8th Ministerial Meeting, convened the Coordinating Group Consultations of the ACD to discuss matters pertaining to the 8th ACD Ministerial Meeting.

A statement by the Foreign Ministry said the Group Consultations highlighted, among others, the need to renew the mandate of the High Level Study Group — comprising representatives of all 31 member states — to review the progress of projects under the identified 20 areas of cooperation, such as Poverty Alleviation, Environment Education, E-education, Energy, Small and Medium Enterprises, Information Technology, etc, and to strengthen cooperation to facilitate the clusters of Trade, Tourism and Transport.

In his key-note address at the meeting, Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajpaksa again assured the international community of his Government’s commitment to a speedy resettlement of the war-affected displaced Tamil civilians. However, he said that de-mining activity may take some time.

Mr. Rajapaksa told the delegates that the military defeat of the LTTE was achieved mainly through Sri Lanka’s own efforts, and that Asia can rebuild itself through greater reliance on its own people. He added that Asian economies are facing hardships caused by others who should share the burdens of recovery.
Postal services resume

Meanwhile, postal transportation to Jaffna via a land route recommenced on Thursday and mail bags will be sent up to Vavuniya by train. “These would be taken to Jaffna on the A-9 route by a Sri Lanka Transport Board bus from Vavuniya,” said Post Master M.K.B. Dissanayake.

The Government is in the process of normalising the public administration system in the north to cater to the public. “Public affairs in the north were hindered as a result of LTTE terrorism over the past three decades,” a Government statement said.

Further, a programme to register the marriages of internally displaced couples living in the welfare villages of Vavuniya has been launched.
Marriage registration

Under the programme by the Equal Access to Justice Project of the United Nations Development Programme, with the guidance of the Uthuru Wasanthaya Task Force, 27 couples in the Zone Kadirgamar Nagar welfare village who had not registered their marriages exchanged vows and received marriage certificates.

“The majority of them had been prevented from entering into wedlock due to the LTTE’s ban on marriage in 2008. The documentation process relevant to marriage registration done with the participation of Ananthi Jeyarathnam, Assistant Registrar-General of Vavuniya, was accompanied by Hindu and Catholic customary marriage ceremonies providing couples the opportunity to solemnise their marriages,” the Government said.

© The Hindu

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Boat-bound Tamils plead for asylum

By Geoff Thompson - Almost 260 Sri Lankans aboard a boat moored in Western Java have made a desperate plea to Australia and other countries to consider their bids for asylum, saying returning to Sri Lanka is no longer an option for Tamils who wish to survive.

The group was intercepted in Indonesian waters on the weekend after a phone call from Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Last night, journalists were allowed to board the vessel and speak to the asylum seekers, who are refusing to leave.

A gangplank creaks as journalists cross from an Indonesian Navy frigate to the 30-metre wooden cargo boat moored alongside it to view for the first time, all together and close-up, a mass of 255 faces drawn with fatigue, fear, hope and disappointment.

Huddled skin to skin they looked up knowing this may be their only real moment in the international spotlight, on which their plea for extraordinary attention would live or die.

As babies and young children slept on the boat's top deck, the fluent English of a young bearded man calling himself Alex was put forward as their best chance of being understood.

"There are people in the camps right now being murdered even today as we speak, as we are sitting comfortably on this boat in the shores of Indonesia, there are still Tamil people in Sri Lanka who are dying every day," Alex said.

"This is why most of these people here have fled from genocide in Sri Lanka and trying to find a future somewhere else.

"First of all I would like to say thank you to Mr Kevin Rudd because he has accepted many refugees in the past, and those refugees can be any one of our brothers or sisters who have found refuge and found safety in Australia.

"And we are thankful to him, but the other thing we would like to tell Mr Rudd is the fact that there are still many more Sri Lankans who need help.

"For you to share intelligence and make sure that this boat does not reach Australian waters - it was very difficult for us to accept because we came until the last point believing that Australia will accept us into their country."

But these asylum seekers are now Indonesia's problem, to be dealt with by organisations such as the International Organisation for Migration - which enjoys Australian funding - and Indonesian authorities seeking solutions which may rely on detention centres built with Australian money.

But for now these Tamils are determined not to leave their boat and have threatened self-harm if forced.

"Ask yourselves one question, if you had no home to go to, if you had no country to live in, if you had no place to go, if you had no country of your own - what would you do and how long would you stay in a boat before you were promised to enter a country that will give you asylum?" Alex said.

"How long will you go? How desperate will you be? Take a look at the picture today, look at my people, we're not only suffering back home, we're suffering here.

"We have no choice, we have no country to go back to, we cannot go back to Sri Lanka."

But Australia was not the first and certain choice for these asylum seekers - simply the cheapest and easiest place to get to, even if it means living in a Malaysian jungle for a month. Something even nine-year-old Brindha understands.

"Please help us and save our lives, we are your children. Please think of us, please, please," she said.

"We have lived in a forest for one month. Please sir, please take us to a country, it's OK if it is not Australia, it's better, if any other country takes us, we can't live in Sri Lanka."

© ABC News

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Sri Lanka: Harassed NGOs, stifled journalists and a self congratulatory government

Iman Qureshi - Sri Lanka came to the end of a 26-year-long war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE) on the 18 May 2009. Since then, 'peace' has been balancing on a curtailment of basic freedoms. Despite criticism from the international community, Tamil civilians have for months been placed in what the government calls "welfare camps". UN officials have compared these to internment camps. With 260,000 people crammed into just 16 camps lacking in basic sanitation. Water is sparse and a third of all children are malnourished. Civilians, policed by armed guards, are forbidden to leave the grounds and with the monsoon season approaching the camps are expected to flood, spreading disease and causing tents to disintegrate.

The Sri Lankan government has outlined its reasons: Tamils need to be screened for any remaining affiliations with the LTTE in order to prevent a resurgence, and the vast minefields in the northern and eastern parts of the country need to be cleared before the area is once again inhabitable. The government, having pledged three months ago to release 80% of the detainees by the end of the year, has so far released only 20,000. Furthermore, draconian measures put in place by President Mahinda Rajapaksa's government suggest that its intentions aren't all that straightforward.

A record of state sanctioned murder, abduction and intimidation keeps the grudging dissident media at bay. According to Amnesty International, 14 journalists have been killed since 2006; the Committee to Protect Journalists allege that no one has yet been brought to trial in any of these cases. Additionally, foreign journalists have throughout the year been deported and refused visa renewals.

The media is not Mr Rajapaksa's only adversary. NGOs have also been made to tread around the government with caution. The head of the NGO, Forut, arguing that it should remain neutral, was deported for not flying a Sri Lankan flag over the office after the Tamil defeat. James Elder a spokesman for UNICEF, was expelled in September for criticising the treatment of children in the camps. The Red Cross was ordered to leave eastern Sri Lanka where the biggest camps are located. It seems that while Mr Rajapaksa is more than happy to receive foreign aid in the form of a gargantuan IMF loan ($2.6 billion) or the £12.5 million of humanitarian assistance allocated by the Department for International Development (DFID), foreign aid workers are largely unwelcome.

Camps aside, Sri Lanka is hardly a model example for human rights. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, presiding over a UN Security Council resolution on Women and Peace and Security passed on 30 September, named Sri Lanka as a prime culprit for using rape as a tactic of war. The question is; should the British government be handing out monetary aid to a country closely skirting the line of human rights violations, when they have little control over how or where it is spent?

Following months of demonstrations outside Westminster, it is clear that a large Tamil diaspora in the UK is worried for the future wellbeing of Tamil Sri Lankans and fearful of Mr Rajapaksa's impune government. The string of disappearances, tortured suspects and arrests without charge is long, and although it has slowed, it has by no means stopped. Last month the army clashed with camp detainees, injuring several. As reported by the Economist, Sinhalese Sri Lankans are flocking to Tamil areas in order to reclaim "stolen" land. The British government is in a tricky predicament: do they aid, and thereby perpetuate, detention camps and a racist regime, or do they outrightly refuse assistance to some quarter of a million internally displaced people? British Minister for International Development Mike Foster's visit to Sri Lanka on 6 October has highlighted the pressing urgency for western countries to impose more stringent conditions.

Realistically there's not much western governments can do as far as human rights are concerned. A recent European effort to launch a UN war-crimes investigation in Sri Lanka was rejected by China and Russia who argued that such domestic issues should be addressed internally. The only remaining force the EU retains against the Sri Lankan government is the "GSP Plus", a trade concession that has benefited the country greatly in making exports to the EU the biggest source of foreign exchange: it is up for review on 15 October. The Economist has reported that, based on stipulations within the contract to honour human rights which have been broken, Sri Lanka is ineligible for a renewal.

With NGOs and the media being stifled and expelled, it is difficult to determine exactly what is going on. Ultimately it is up to Mr Rajapaksa to maintain a fair and unbiased governance, so far there is little evidence to show that this has been the case. If the fragile situation isn't handled carefully, Sri Lanka might very well see a greatly feared return to terrorist insurgencies and sectarian violence.

© The Journal

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UN human rights chief criticizes Sri Lankan government

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay on Wednesday (Oct 14) criticized the Sri Lankan government for not responding “to our many requests for an international investigation of what we say is widespread acts of killing of civilians."

Speaking at a press conference in Brussels Wednesday evening, she said that “such a request has also been made by the (UN) Secretary General and we are working very closely with the Secretary General to hold the President of Sri Lanka to his promise which he made to the Secretary General that he will look into the issue of accountability and so we want to know what kind of mechanism is he setting up."

The UN human rights chief said, “we have pointed out that they have in the past attempted to hold national investigations of very serious acts of killings that occurred of NGO and humanitarian workers and these investigations were dropped."

“They do not have a very good record in holding serious investigations. Now, I am engaged in discussions with the Secretary General over what kind of mechanism would be acceptable. But as I said the bottom-line is that the government is resisting these suggestions," Pillay, a former South African high court judge, was quoted as saying by EuAsiaNews.

Asked if she was planning to visit Sri Lanka to discuss the human rights situation, Pillay told journalists that the Sri Lankan government has told the Secretary General and publicly that they would not let in the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

© Examiner.com

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U.S. Business and Govt representatives tour port city

A group of American and Indian business leaders joined a delegation of U.S. and Sri Lankan trade officials on 14 October visit to Trincomalee, a city in the Eastern province of Sri Lanka, which was just months ago enveloped in a terrorist conflict. The trade mission to coastal Trincomalee was part of the Sri Lankan government’s efforts to rebuild its Eastern and Northern Provinces, where it concluded its 26-year conflict with the Liberation Tiger of Tamil Eelam terrorist group in May.

“The Eastern Province is the model for redeveloping the North,’’ said Jaliya Wickramasuriya, Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to the United States and a member of the government delegation. “Trincomalee has taken the lead in that effort. That is why we are here.” The day-long visit was intended to encourage large and medium-sized businesses to operate in the Eastern Province.

Sri Lankan forces defeated the LTTE in May 2009, but the conflict displaced about 225,000 people in the Eastern Province and eventually 290,000 people in the North. The Eastern Province residents have been fully resettled. The government is steadily started resettling displaced people who are in welfare centers in Vavuniya. The government is determined to resettle most of the displaced by end of this year.

The government has launched major infrastructure development campaigns in both the East and the North. The projects include the construction of new roads and bridges, rail line repairs, upgrades to water and sewage works, new irrigation systems, hospitals, schools and municipal buildings.

During the visit, the group of about 20 business people and about a dozen U.S. and Sri Lankan government officials first met with the Chamber of Commerce & Industries of Trincomalee District at the Hotel Club Oceanic for a beachfront briefing on the region’s economy. The trade mission also received a briefing on Trincomalee and national government plans to develop the Eastern Province from the Staff of Eastern Province Governor Mohan Wijewickrama and an official with the Sri Lanka Board of Investment. Some of those who took part in the day-long visit to Trincomalee run construction businesses that could share in the re-development work. Others represented manufacturing and technology companies.

Tourism has bounced back since the conclusion of the LTTE conflict in May. In August visits were up 34.3 percent compared to August 2008, and in July tourist arrivals were 28.6 percent above those a year earlier. Sri Lankan tourism officials said that the country will need an additional 20,000 hotel rooms by 2016. Currently there are about 30,000 hotel rooms.

Sri Lanka expects about 500,000 visitors this year. That’s the same number of tourist who came to Sri Lanka in 1982 – the year before the conflict began. But it’s a marked improvement over tourist arrivals in recent years. For instance, just 167,187 tourists came in 2008. The tourism authority expects more than one million tourists annually by 2016.

Melani Schultz of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) also briefed on livelihood projects that the USAID’s CORE (Connecting Regional Economies) program is conducting in the Eastern Province. They include partnering with businesses to build up new enterprises, such as dairy farms, and establishing vocational training centers.

Sri Lankan officials believe that creating livelihoods for returning displaced communities is vital to stabilizing regions that suffered through years of conflict and terrorism. U.S. officials said they shared that view, and that they want to provide jobs as a way of aiding post-conflict reconciliation. “Creating good jobs and the opportunity for a brighter future is itself the best single way the United States can contribute to reconciliation,” said Michael Delaney, the Assistant U.S. Trade Representative and Head of the U.S. delegation.

The visit concluded with a visit to the Sri Lanka Navy’s Dockyard and a harbor tour on Navy swift boats.

The trade mission to Trincomalee was part of a week-long series of meetings and negotiations regarding U.S.-Sri Lankan business ties. The meetings included a “private-public partnership” conference with about 40 U.S. businesses and 30 more companies with operations in India, as well as with trade representatives and diplomats from both the U.S. and Sri Lanka. The week also featured the seventh annual meeting between Sri Lanka and the U.S. to discuss a Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) signed in 2002.

© Lankaweb

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Sri Lanka sells $500 mln global bonds - IFR

Sri Lanka on Thursday sold $500 million in global bonds maturing on Jan 22, 2015, said IFR, a Thomson Reuters service.

The 7.40 percent bonds were priced at par to yield 505.9 basis points over U.S. Treasuries, according to IDR.

The joint book managers on the sale were HSBC, JP Morgan and RBS.

© Reuters

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Govt to set up two new FTZs in N-E

Lakshmi De Silva - The Government will establish two new Free Trade Zones in the North and East - one will be in the Kilinochchi District and the other in the Trincomalee District, Enterprise Development, Investment Promotion and Mass Media and Information Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa told the Daily News yesterday.

Tax holidays for 15 years and other incentives would be offered to the investors who start industries in the North and East while the local residents would gain employment opportunities from these FTZs. Two Sri Lankan investors have already indicated their willingness to start a cement factory and a fertilizer factory, he said.

Though the FTZs were started as far back as 1978, the total foreign direct investments made up to 2005 was only 2,700 million US Dollars.

It was on an average around US$ 100 million per year but from 2005 to 2008 direct foreign investments had reached the 2,800 million dollar mark which is a great achievement, he said "We are a government that encourages the private sector and the BOI had initiated steps to approve new enterprises and now a total of 500,000 persons are directly employed in the FTZs and a large number of persons have also received indirect employment and we are heading for a brighter economic future," he said.

© Ceylon Daily News

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Asylum seekers declare hunger strike

The 255 Sri Lankans aboard a boat in western Java have unfurled a large banner declaring a hunger strike.

The ethnic Tamils are refusing to leave their wooden boat in Merak Harbour after being intercepted at sea at the weekend on their way to Australia.

Indonesian authorities have been surveying local options to accommodate the asylum seekers in hotels and guest houses, because detention centres are too full.

Their spokesman, who calls himself only 'Alex', was led away to inspect them when others on the boat protested apparently worried that his actions may send the wrong signal.

'Alex' then returned to the boat and after a debate helped unfurl a large blue banner on the boat's cabin roof declaring a hunger strike to the international community.

"We have got some information to say that the navy is about to try to get us off the boat because no country is about to take us and they want to try to get us to land," he said.

"So we decided on the strike to let the whole world know that we need their assistance as soon as possible. We need somebody to consider our case."

The words life and death are written in the banner's corner alongside a question mark.

The group wants to be immediately accepted as refugees into a third country and does not want to enter the United Nations' system in which claims can take up to 10 years to process.

The asylum seekers' boat was intercepted by Indonesian authorities after Prime Minister Kevin Rudd personally spoke to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Australia says responsibility for the group of asylum seekers now rests with Indonesian immigration officials.

Banten Province's immigration chief, Dr Harry Purwanto, has rejected suggestions the Sri Lankans will be moved to Indonesian detention centres.

He says the centres are too full and authorities are instead scouting local hotels and guest houses as possible places to house the asylum seekers.

Indonesian officials say the Sri Lankans will not be forced to come ashore and there is no time limit on their decision.

However, immigration officials suggest negotiations may take one to three days; the navy says not more than a week.

Limited places

But the United Nations says it is possible the group of asylum seekers will end up in Australia.

The regional spokesman for the UN's Refugee Agency, Richard Towle, says his staff in Indonesia will deal with anyone who wants to claim asylum.

But he says there could be delays because the number of places available for refugee resettlement are limited.

"They could end up in Australia and that again is not a new phenomenon. Australia takes recognised refugees from Indonesia on a regular basis and has a generous tradition of doing that," he said.

"The number of available places internationally to resettle refugees is quite limited.

"The key states that offer resettlement places globally have only limited capacity to take refugees and that's where we often get the delays. It's not in the UNHCR processing side, it's in finding states that are willing to accept cases on a resettlement basis."

The asylum seekers are clearly desperate. Last night members of the group made a direct plea to Mr Rudd for help, telling reporters they were fleeing "genocide" in Sri Lanka and feared being killed if they were returned to the country.

It is possible they are talking to people via mobile phones and gathering information about some of the media reaction from Australia.

The asylum seekers keep repeating to the media that they are not terrorists.

In stark contrast to their threat to blow themselves up on the boat earlier this week, they are now trying to deliver a softer line, saying that they want international assistance.

© ABC

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Asylum seekers declare hunger strike - Brisbane Times

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Convener of the Inter-university Students’ Union further remanded

When Mr Udul Premaratne, convener of the Inter-University Students’ Union was produced before the Gangodawila Magistrate yesterday (14) his lawyers made a request to release him on bail. But the Police raised their objection to this move as usual and he was further remanded.

Considering the appeal the Magistrate stated that a decision whether to grant him bail or not will be taken up o 16th.

© Lanka Truth

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Sri Lankan president invents an “international conspiracy”

By Vilani Peiris - The Sri Lankan army captured the last area held by the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in May, slaughtering most of its top leadership in the process. The fighting has concluded, but none of the underlying political reasons for the conflict have been addressed, let alone resolved. Successive Colombo governments have exploited the anti-Tamil war for 26 years to divert, divide and suppress opposition from working people over their pressing problems.

Now lacking a war, President Mahinda Rajapakse has invented an “international conspiracy” to fill the ideological gap. With the backing of the Colombo media, the government regularly denounces unnamed powers and their local co-conspirators for smearing the name of the Sri Lankan military and undermining its “victory” against the “Tiger terrorists”. The “conspiracy” is woven into the government’s tub-thumping jingoism and used to denounce any critic of its war crimes and anti-democratic methods.

The theme was prominent in the government’s campaign for the Southern Provincial Council elections held last Saturday. Speaking at an election meeting on October 7, Rajapakse declared: “A section of the international community backed by a few locals with vested interests are conspiring to tarnish the image of the country and its war heroes using false and malicious allegations… Although we have strong and friendly relationships with other nations we are not ready to bow down in front of injustice and unreasonable conditions. We would never betray the honour of our motherland. It comes before everything else.”

The “conspiracy” being referred to began in May when several European powers, backed by the US, attempted to pass a resolution at the UN Human Rights Council calling for a limited investigation into war crimes in Sri Lanka and greater access to detention camps into which more than 250,000 Tamil civilians have been herded. In the final weeks of the war, the military was responsible for killing thousands of civilians through indiscriminate bombardment of the remaining LTTE-held territory.

The resolution was completely hypocritical, given the murderous neo-colonial wars waged by the US and its allies in Afghanistan and Iraq. Its purpose was to pressure the Rajapakse government to accept US and European calls for a “political solution” to the war and to enhance Washington’s influence in Colombo against its rivals, particularly China. The Sri Lankan government, with the backing of China, Russia and India, blocked the resolution and passed a cynical counter-resolution praising its victory in the “war on terrorism”.

Ongoing pressure by the US and European powers on Sri Lanka has kept the “conspiracy” alive. Having failed at the UN Human Rights Council, the US held up a much-need IMF loan for months as the Sri Lankan economy slid deeper into crisis. The European Commission has threatened to end its General System of Preference (GSP) concessions for Sri Lankan exports unless an investigation is carried out into human rights abuses. The loss of the concessions on garments and other exports could cost Sri Lanka around $US150 million in exports.

Limited criticisms from US and European officials have added further fuel. On September 30, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared in the UN Security Council that, “[W]e’ve seen rape used as a tactic of war before in Bosnia, Burma and Sri Lanka and elsewhere.” The comments produced uproar in the Colombo media and protests from the Sri Lankan government. A US State Department spokeswoman noted that while there were no reports of the Sri Lankan military using rape as a weapon, Colombo nevertheless “must focus to the future and move forward on the promotion of peace and the protection of human rights.”

Rajapakse’s posturing as an opponent of the major powers is absurd. He is unable to even name the “Western conspirators” because his government is desperately seeking to patch up its differences with the US and Europe. The president has sent his brother and advisor Basil Rajapakse to Europe to explain the Sri Lankan government’s case and to argue for the maintenance of GSP concessions, while refusing any investigation of its human rights record.

Nevertheless, Rajapakse is clinging to his “Western conspiracy” like the proverbial drowning man. While the government has easily won a series of provincial council elections, the results are deceptive. The main opposition parties—the United National Party and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna—offer no alternative for working people. They backed the war, joined in the triumphal victory celebrations and vigorously deny being part of a conspiracy to tarnish the country’s reputation. Neither party has any solution to the economic and social problems facing workers and the rural poor.

Popular discontent and anger are, however, rising. Five months after the end of the war, Rajapakse’s claims that it would usher in a new period of peace and prosperity are wearing thin. The government is confronting a deepening economic crisis produced by its huge military spending and compounded by the global recession. Unemployment jumped to 6.3 percent in the second quarter, up from 5.2 percent in the first quarter. According to government statistics, 155,000 industrial jobs were lost in the second quarter of 2009. Having finally received the IMF loan, the government is preparing to make savage cutbacks to social spending and price subsidies as well as accelerating privatisation and holding down wages.

Fearful of the eruption of social discontent, the government has maintained the huge police state security apparatus built up in the course of the war. With the backing of the opposition parties, the parliament continues to approve ongoing emergency regulations that give the president sweeping, anti-democratic powers. Far from being demobilising, the army is being expanded and preparations made for the permanent occupation of the North and East of the island. Throughout the country, roadblocks and checkpoints manned by heavily armed police and soldiers have been maintained. Security sweeps through residential neighbourhoods, arbitrary detentions without trial and “disappearances” by pro-government death squads continue.

The government is compelled to invent justifications for these draconian measures. Along with the “international conspiracy”, the government couches everything in the language of militarism. Shortly after the defeat of the LTTE, Rajapakse announced an “economic war” to “build the nation”—that is, to demand new sacrifices from working people to defend corporate profits. He has also declared a “war on the underworld” to justify the ex-judicial murder of alleged criminals.

At the same time, the defence ministry, military and police keep up a steady barrage of scare stories to maintain the poisonous communal atmosphere in the country. Daily announcements are made of the arrest of LTTE “terrorists” and the discovery of suicide bomber jackets, and massive hauls of arms and ammunitions. If one relied on the Colombo media, it is as if the war had not ended.

A few recent headlines give the flavour: “Thirty kilos of explosives found at Puthukkudiyiruppu”; “A doctor who helped Tigers captured”; and “A van loaded with Tigers’ explosives captured, they were to bring to Colombo.” Arguing for a further extension of the emergency powers last week, Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake declared that although the “terrorists were defeated”, threats still remain.

The real conspiracy against working people in Sri Lanka is by the government and the Colombo political establishment as a whole. Utterly incapable of meeting the aspirations of workers and the poor for democratic rights and decent living standards, it is continuing a campaign of anti-Tamil communalism, conspiracy theories, half-truths and lies as it prepares to use police state measures to suppress any opposition by the working class to the ongoing assault on its jobs, conditions and living standards.

© World Socialist Web Site

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