By Bryson Hull-Reuters - Reuters | Aviation Week
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The announcement comes as Sri Lanka this week discussed exploration and purchasing of natural gas with Russia’s natural gas monopoly Gazprom , in what may herald the return of Russian oil explorers to the island’s waters.
Anatoly Isaykin, the general director at Russia’s state-run arms exporter Rosoboronexport, told Reuters that there had been “delivery of the helicopters to Sri Lanka. It is a good transport vehicle and it fulfills its function.”
Spokesmen for Sri Lanka’s defense ministry and air force both said they were unaware of the deal for the Mi-171s. But air force spokesman Group Captain Andrew Wijesuriya said the military was aiming to expand its foray into civilian tourism.
“We are looking to contribute for civil air transportation industry through the expansion of our Helitours operations,” Wijesuriya said, referring to the military’s post-war repurposing of aircraft for tourism.
Sri Lanka, which has a $50 billion economy, forecast a 6.3 percent increase in defense spending to 215.2 billion rupees ($1.9 billion) in 2011 and its high military spending since the end of the war has drawn opposition criticism.
Russia’s Ulan-Ude Aviation Works built the choppers and makes four variants, including military and V.I.P. transport versions, Russia’s state-run news agency ITAR-TASS said.
“A corresponding contract for supplying the helicopters will be carried out on account of the Russian state credit given to Sri Lanka by Russia in 2010 for purchasing Russian armaments,” ITAR-TASS said, without mentioning the total deal cost.
Since the end of the war with Tamil Tigers separatists in May 2009, Russia, China and India have been increasing cooperation with Sri Lanka’s government and are among its biggest benefactors in terms of global political capital.
Russia and China, both with U.N. Security Council vetoes, take a general stand that states have a right to police internal conflicts without outside interference. They have been Sri Lanka’s bulwarks against Western pressure to probe allegations of war crimes from the final months of the conflict.
© Reuters
Friday, August 19, 2011
Post-war Sri Lanka buys 14 military helicopters from Russia
Friday, August 19, 2011
Chinese box game for Sri Lanka
Port Strategy
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China Merchants Holdings International (CMHI), one of China's biggest state-owned conglomerates, is to construct the 2.4m teu Colombo South Container Terminal (CST) in two phases using the China Harbour Engineering Company and the Sinohydro Corporation, the same contractors used for Sri Lanka’s other major box port at Hambantota. Operations are due to start in early 2013, and the whole project is due for completion by the end of 2016.
CST will be constructed with 18 metres of deepwater, and is to possess a total quay length of 1.2km with a landside storage facility of 58 hectares. CMHI has a 55% stake in the project while Sri Lankan conglomerate Aitken Spence’s share is 30%: the Sri Lankan port authority is to hold the remaining 15% stake.
CMHI said that the new facility is looking toward business in both South Asia and East Africa, “which will anchor the port of Colombo's position as a transhipment hub".
However, the Hambantota facility is also expanding: the Sri Lankan Ports authority has inked a US$810-million contract with China Communications Construction Company to build its second phase, which will mean it again outstrips Columbo.
Despite this, there still may be plenty of room in the economy: according to port authorities the volume in Sri Lanka surged by 22% in 2010 to 4.16 million teu.
© Port Strategy
Friday, August 19, 2011
India leery of neighbor's new squeeze
By Sudha Ramachandran | Asia Times
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More important for Rajapaksa was Beijing's assurance of "fullest support in all necessary situations to Sri Lanka in international forums".
It means that the Sri Lankan president can count on the Chinese to come to his rescue should allegations of war crimes against his regime come up for consideration in international bodies like the United Nations Security Council and the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC). He can expect Beijing to use its clout to dilute resolutions unfavorable to Colombo or veto any possible UN security council resolution referring Sri Lanka to the International Criminal Court.
The Sri Lankan civil war came to an end in May 2009, when the Sri Lankan armed forces inflicted a comprehensive defeat on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Although both sides committed atrocities throughout the 25-year-long war, the period from January 2009 till the war's culmination was particularly brutal.
While allegations of war crimes by the Rajapaksa regime were leveled by the Tamil Diaspora and international human rights groups within weeks of the war's end, it was the findings of a report by a panel appointed by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that has provided renewed momentum to the international campaign for trial of key persons in Sri Lanka's political and defense decision-making structures on war crimes charges.
The UN panel said it found "credible allegations, which if proven indicate that a wide range of serious violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law was committed both by the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE, some of which would amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity".
Since the publication of the UN panel report, several other reports and documentaries, such as "Sri Lanka's Killing Fields" by Channel Four of the UK, have revealed in graphic detail the execution of LTTE's political leaders and their families when they surrendered to the Sri Lankan armed forces and the horrific rape, torture and killing of Tamil civilians. These have evoked widespread outrage and clamor for a credible international probe into the final stages of the war, for a trial of the Rajapaksa regime over war crimes and for the imposition of economic sanctions on Sri Lanka.
Responding to calls for an inquiry into allegations of war crimes, the Sri Lankan government set up a Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) in May 2010. The UN panel rejected its credibility saying it "fails to satisfy key international standards of independence and impartiality."
The United States has stepped up pressure on Sri Lanka in recent months. If Colombo failed to put in place a credible internal inquiry into allegations of war crimes expeditiously, "Then we reserve the right to discuss international mechanisms," US State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland warned last week.
It does seem that Sri Lanka will figure on the agenda of the upcoming session of the UNHRC.
Washington is reported to have issued Colombo a demarche to place the findings of the LLRC before the UNHRC. Sri Lankan newspaper the Sunday Times, reported concern in the Sri Lankan government that such a step would open the door to discussions on the UN panel report's allegation of war crimes, the Channel Four documentary and so on.
However, Sri Lankan diplomats are said to have warned their Ministry of External Affairs that there is the possibility of "a more damaging" resolution being tabled by a US ally if Colombo fails to place the LLRC findings before the UNHRC. According to the Sunday Times, "There are fears there could be calls for an ‘international investigation', sanctions and travel bans on those identified in the UN Panel report."
It is in the context of these developments that Rajapaksa's recent visit to China, his second in a year, should be seen.
In May 2009, deft Sri Lankan diplomacy resulted in the UNHRC dropping a Swiss-EU draft resolution calling for an investigation into possible war crimes and adopting instead another resolution that praised Sri Lanka for its victory over the LTTE. China, Russia, India and Pakistan were among the countries that supported Colombo then.
It is not clear this time around just how much support Sri Lanka will be able to rally as evidence of war crimes has mounted since the 2009 vote and is far too damning.
It is uncertain what position India will take. Delhi has run out of patience trying to get the Sri Lankan President to implement the 13th amendment to the Constitution in the North and East. Besides, horrific details laid bare in the Channel Four documentary of the violence perpetrated in the final stages of the war has stirred unrest in the southern state of Tamil Nadu and calls for a tough Indian response, including economic sanctions on Sri Lanka.
That India's stance could be hardening vis-a-vis Colombo was evident early this month when its External Affairs Minister S M Krishna told parliament that he had stressed to his Sri Lankan counterpart the need for "investigations into allegations of human rights violations".
Yet there is concern in India over how a tough new approach will play out in terms of regional strategic equations.
Sri Lanka's rapidly expanding cooperation with China is of mounting concern to India. Beijing is Sri Lanka's largest aid donor and investor. It is involved in infrastructure building on the island in a big way. Among the projects it is executing in Sri Lanka is a giant port project in Hambantota. It is also constructing an airport in Hambantota, a coal-fired power plant at Norochcholai, an oil bunkering facility and a performing arts center in Colombo.
There are parallels between India's troubles in Myanmar today and those that are emerging in Sri Lanka.
It was China's generous extension of military and economic assistance and the protection it gave Myanmar's junta as a veto-wielding member of the UN security council that drew Myanmar firmly into Beijing's orbit. That evoked acute anxiety in India as China's heightened influence and presence in neighboring Myanmar made India's eastern flank vulnerable.
Some Indian analysts have warned that Myanmar's dependence on China could result in it conceding to Chinese demand for naval bases in Myanmar, providing Beijing with presence in the Indian Ocean.
With its location on India's doorstep, Sri Lanka holds similar attractions for India as Myanmar does for China.
Should Sri Lanka's international isolation increase, its dependence on China will grow especially since Beijing, unlike Delhi, holds a security council veto. Will the Chinese demand a naval presence in Hambantota as quid pro quo for bailing out Rajapaksa in international forums?
Much of the international community turned a blind eye when Sri Lanka brazenly violated its obligations under the Geneva conventions and other international laws post-2006. Some countries like India issued statements calling for restraint but did not do enough to stop Colombo's aerial bombing of Tamil civilians. Many, including the US and the European Union, had banned the LTTE and quietly watched its elimination.
India is in a dilemma over an international probe of allegations of Sri Lanka's war crimes. Like China, it is opposed to international interference in domestic issues and sees this as a violation of sovereignty. It is deeply aware of the West's selective use of the war crimes weapon.
This is a weapon that the West uses only against unfriendly regimes. India is conscious too that it is because Sri Lanka's growing proximity to China is problematic for the West that it is now expressing anguish over war crimes.
If Delhi joins the West in putting pressure on Rajapaksa in order to rein him in from his excessive pro-Chinese tilt, it could just end up pushing a defiant and isolated Colombo into a closer embrace of China.
Between 1988 and 1993, India joined the West in its vociferous criticism of the Myanmar junta. In December 1992, it even sponsored a UN resolution calling on the military to respect the will of the people expressed in the 1990 election and to take all necessary steps towards the restoration of democracy. Two decades on, Delhi is still unable to break China's stranglehold over its neighbor.
Indian policymakers see that as a mistake and will be keen to avoid repeating it in Sri Lanka. They would not want another neighbor to slip into the Chinese sphere of influence.
Sudha Ramachandran is an independent journalist/researcher based in Bangalore.
© Asia Times
Friday, August 19, 2011
Sri Lanka, Gazprom discuss oil exploration
Reuters
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The discussion were held as Cairn India , majority held by Cairn Energy , is preparing to drill for oil in one of the eight blocks in Sri Lanka's north-western Mannar basin this month.
Sri Lanka's External Affairs Minister G.L. Peiris held talks in Colombo with a Gazprom International delegation, led by managing director Valery Gulev.
"Peiris discussed ... issues connected with Russian cooperation in such fields as oil exploration in the Mannar basin and the Cauvery basin, the procurement of liquid natural gas and technical expertise in respect of refineries," the ministry said in a statement.
"The visiting delegation said that Gazprom would be happy to bear the expenses of training a team of Sri Lankans in one of Russia's leading institutions in the field of oil and gas technology."
The ministry did not elaborate on any other details of oil exploration.
Sri Lanka's government has said seismic data shows the potential for more than 1 billion barrels of oil under the sea in a 30,000 sq km area of the Mannar Basin, located further south along the western coast.
American and Russian companies from the mid-1960s to 1984 undertook exploration in the north-western Cauvery basin, but no commercial oil was produced and Sri Lanka's civil war ended the work.
With the end of the 25-year war in May 2009, revival plans for the $50 billion economy have focused on oil and gas exploration.
© Reuters
Friday, August 19, 2011
Not so hidden dragon
By Ashok Kumar Mehta | Hindustan Times
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The port, of course, was made in China at friendship prices. Last month, just one ship was berthed in the harbour.
So how did India let China spread its wings over much of the country including Hambantota? Much of it owes to Rajapaksa's strategic decision to reduce dependence on India, a process that has accelerated after the defeat of the LTTE, ironically an outcome in which New Delhi played a key role. Rajapaksa says he wants to reposition Sri Lanka as the ‘pearl of the old Silk Route', doubtless an unintended congruence of China's string of pearls concept that envisions a necklace of bases across the Indian Ocean to challenge Indian and American trade and diplomacy. In August 2009, Rajapaksa clarified: "India need not fear China's role in Sri Lanka. The Chinese will come and go. But Indians will stay.”
But the Hambantota episode has an Indian twist. The first offer was made to India when Nirupama Rao was the high commissioner there. Rejection was dictated by cost and utility of the port facility. At Port Blair recently, national security advisor Shiv Shankar Menon said that 70% of India's shipping is handled by Colombo port which is also being modernised with Chinese assistance.
Speaking about the Indian Ocean Region in 2009, Menon was equivocal about Hambantota becoming a part of China's ‘string of pearls'. Publicly, the Indian foreign office expresses no concern about China's enlarging footprint in Sri Lanka though according to WikiLeaks, in November 2007, Mohan Kumar, the joint secretary dealing with Sri Lanka, had told US embassy official Ted Osius in New Delhi that "we are concerned over China's access to Hambantota.”
In May 2011 in Beijing, Sri Lankan foreign minister GL Peiris said Hambantota will never be a military port. Yet, Gwadar and Chittagong ports, both constructed and modernised by China, are commercially and militarily ‘off the beat' and less attractive than Hambantota which requires just a five-mile deviation from the shipping lane.
At the Shangrila Dialogue in Singapore in May 2011, Chinese defence minister Gen Liang said he was unaware of any plan to use Gwadar as a naval base and he had not heard about any base in Sri Lanka.
Many Sri Lankans are happy at the turn of events. "We are now in a position to juggle India and China but we are closer to China which has no strings attached," noted a diplomat. Another diplomat said China will have storage and fuelling facilities at Hambantota. "So can India," he quipped.
China has become Sri Lanka's biggest benefactor, with its activities increasing dramatically since Rajapaksa took command in 2005. Beijing's substantive political and military assistance during and after the war in tandem with Islamabad has undermined India's supply of defensive weapons. China's assistance now stands at $3.2 billion, overtaking Japan as Sri Lanka's biggest donor. It is Sri Lanka's biggest exporter after India with China-Sri Lanka trade doubling in the last five years to $1.13 billion. China was the biggest foreign investor in 2009. The yuan, not the rupee, has joined the authorised currency list for international transactions.
India's visibility is confined to the northeastern part of Sri Lanka. Still, India holds the ace: the clause in the India-Sri Lanka Accord of 1987 that "Trincomalee or any other port in Sri Lanka would not be made available for military use to any country in a manner which is prejudicial to India's interest." India, though, should now go by Colombo's deeds, not words.
Ashok Mehta is former commander of the Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka. The views expressed by the author are personal.
© Hindustan Times
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Southern journalists protest in Jaffna
Photo courtesy: Vikalpa.org
BBC Sinhala
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Seven media organisations from the south joined the protest held in front of the Jaffna Bus Stand. Former LTTE media spokes person Velayutham Thayanidhi widely known as Daya Master was also among the protesters.
Head of the Federation of Media Employees Trade Union (FMETU) Dharmasiri Lankapeli said “ government or its thugs cannot curtail the press freedom by attacking journalists.
Attacks on journalists
"Irrespective of ethnicity, all journalists will stand together against the attacks on journalists”.
He called upon the government to punish those who are responsible for attacks on journalists and media.
The crowd of journalists and media workers shouted a blunt message: don’t kill us. Saying it was the government that was intimidating their colleagues here in northern Sri Lanka, they marched carrying pictures of Gnanasundaram Kuganathan, a journalist who was beaten almost to death by a gang using iron bars.
Eyewitnesses said the police at first tried to stop the protest but held back as more joined in.
The government has announced the arrest of a man they say instigated the attack.
They say he’s a contract criminal linked to the underworld. But the editor of the newspaper on which the journalist works, said the wrong person was being blamed and he wasn’t satisfied.
Academic fled Sri Lanka
In recent days a prominent university academic who had returned to Jaffna from the United States after the war, has fled Sri Lanka for fear of his safety.
Professor Ratnajeevan Hoole, a scientist, says the government’s chief Tamil ally in Jaffna is running it as a personal fiefdom and stocking public life with his own stooges.
He had left Sri Lanka in 2006 on being threatened by the Tamil Tigers, whom he had criticised. The government accuses the Tamil media in northern Sri Lanka of ignoring a series of big development works it has undertaken.
© BBC Sinhala
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Tamil killings were just collateral damage, says Sri Lanka
By Dylan Welch | The Sydney Morning Herald
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Last month a spokeswoman for Mr Rudd called on the UN Human Rights Council to revisit the claims of war crimes and to ''examine whether their original findings on the civil war can still be regarded as well-founded.'' But the Sri Lankan high commissioner, Thisara Samarasinghe, said yesterday the allegations upon which Mr Rudd based his call - including video footage from a British documentary which showed unarmed Tamils being shot dead - were ''biased and unsubstantiated''.
''That is a statement made by your honourable Foreign Minister,'' Admiral Samarasinghe said. ''He had his reasons to make that request and it will take its natural course, if anybody is interested.''
Despite international criticism and a UN report finding claims of war crimes were ''credible'', the global body has yet to approve an investigation into claims that tens of thousands of Tamil civilians were killed in mid-2009, during the final phase of the conflict.
Admiral Samarasinghe, who was in charge of naval operations against the Tamil Tigers in early 2009, made his comments during an address at Parliament to present a Sri Lankan government report, Humanitarian Operation - Factual Analysis, which challenged the claims of war crimes.
Referring to civilians killed in that period as ''collateral damage'', Admiral Samarasinghe said calls for a formal international probe were inappropriate.
''It was not an international conflict, [it was an] internal conflict and we fought it ourselves and we manage our citizens and I don't see any reason why an international investigation should be carried out,'' he said.
Much of the international concern has arisen since Channel 4 in Britain aired a documentary, Sri Lanka's Killing Fields, in June showing unarmed Tamils being shot dead by men in Sri Lankan army uniforms.
It also showed images it said were evidence that Sri Lankan troops involved in a final push in May 2009 had raped and then shot dead female Tamils.
The footage was rejected as fake by the Sri Lankan government of the President, Mahinda Rajapaksa, but UN experts later declared it authentic.
© The Sydney Morning Herald
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Sri Lanka: A brother out of control
Editorial | The Hindu
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The second issue, which has found strong voice in a recent documentary by a British television station, Channel 4, and in a United Nations report, has to do with the nature of the military operations in the final stages of the war in 2009. Both make allegations of war crimes against the Sri Lankan Army, accusing it of knowingly aiming fire at civilians such that thousands lost their lives, of killing captives in cold blood, and of possible sexual assault. It is shocking that instead of addressing these issues in the right spirit, a high-ranking official of the Sri Lankan government, Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, a brother of the Sri Lankan President, has chosen to vitiate the atmosphere even more with his intemperate remarks against Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, and by attributing motives to the adoption of resolutions on Sri Lanka by the State Assembly.
Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa's comments, made in the course of an interview to Headlines Today television, reveal a troubling contempt for the Tamil minority. He has trashed “the political solution talk,” asserting, among other things, that it was “simply irrelevant” because “we have ended this terrorism in Sri Lanka,” making the egregious assertion that when the 13th Amendment was being drafted, “the government of Sri Lanka was not involved,” and proposing that with the LTTE “gone,” there was no further need to amend the Constitution.
President Rajapaksa would be well advised to distance himself swiftly from his brother's stream-of-consciousness on sensitive issues that are not his business. This includes an outrageous comment that because a Tamil woman, an “LTTE cadre” who was a British national, interviewed in the Channel 4 documentary was “so attractive” but had been neither raped nor killed by Sri Lankan soldiers, the allegation of sexual assault by soldiers could not be true. For this statement alone, Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa must be taken to task.
© The Hindu
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
'Grease devil' panic grips Sri Lanka
By Bryson Hull | Reuters
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Historically, a "grease devil" was a thief who wore only underwear and covered his body in grease to make himself difficult to grab if chased. But lately, the "grease devil" has become a nighttime prowler who frightens and attacks women.
"The story we hear is he comes and bites young women's necks and breasts. Despite several complaints, the police have failed to act on that and in fact in two places have released the culprits," a 36-year-old airline ticketing agent from the Hill Country district of Matale said, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of upsetting authorities.
On Friday, police said they fired tear gas to disperse dozens of people who besieged a police station in the eastern town of Potuvil, demanding the release of four men who had captured and planned to lynch a suspected "grease devil."
Police had arrested the four after they beat officers who rescued the suspect from the mob.
Two men whom villagers identified as "grease devils" were hacked to death on Wednesday by a mob in the central Sri Lankan village of Kotagala, in a tea-growing area, police said.
A 22-year-old man hunting for a "grease devil" in the jungle died after stepping into an electric trap set for wild boars, the Tamil-language newspaper Sudar Oli said on Friday.
At least 30 incidents have been reported across seven districts from Sri Lanka's east coast and across its tea-growing regions in the central Hill Country. Police have arrested 47 people since last month.
"There is no grease devil as such. It is a human among us with an ulterior motive of stealing or to engage in some illegal activities," police spokesman Prashantha Jayakody said.
Jayakody also said some people with "mental disorders" were posing as grease devils: "In one instance, a person was arrested wearing more than 20 (pairs of) women's undergarments."
The panic has nonetheless been enough to prompt men to arm themselves with clubs and sticks to stand guard at night, and women to stay at home.
On Tuesday in the eastern village of Ottamavadi, six people including two police officers were injured in a melee after angry residents stormed a police station after the release of a suspected "grease devil."
Traditional Sri Lankan beliefs about spirits and devils remain strong in some areas, where invocations upon them to cure illnesses or curse enemies are common. Traditional devil masks remain favorite tourist souvenirs.
State TV has been broadcasting a photo of a man the police say is a suspect, his face covered in white greasepaint, with the message that the grease devil is not real.
© Reuters
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Sri Lanka: Confusion and obfuscation all round
By Dr Kumar David | South Asian Analysis Group
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The confusing signals of the recent period include:-
a)President Mahinda Rajapakse and his powerful brother Gothabaya (de facto number two in Sri Lanka’s hierarchy of power) are at cross purposes on core issues and this cannot continue for much longer.
b)The United States is upping the ante, and reading between the lines it is clear that GoSL is running scared; there will be no China to the rescue if confrontation becomes serious.
c)The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) won a landslide victory in July in local government elections and has taken the offensive threatening mass demonstrations unless the government agrees to devolution of power to the Tamil minority. The sixty-four thousand dollar question is what lies behind this stiffening of the TNA’s backbone.
d) The confrontation between Colombo and Madras which has been deteriorating since Jayalalitha’s victory has taken a distinct turn for the worse.
e)The equation between Colombo and Delhi is no longer a happy one where the later knowingly played cheerleader-in-chief to any and every misdemeanour of the former.
I will deal with only the first three items on this list today.
Gothabaya outflanks Mahinda
When the two most powerful persons in a government are close siblings and they make contradictory remarks on key policy matters it is usually a case of good cop – bad cop. It is a prearranged drama where the parties have agreed to take different stances in order to achieve agreed objectives. My instinct tells me that this is not the case this time, and permit me to crow that my intuition has earned a reputation of being spot-on. President Mahinda has gone on record numerous times since 2005 asserting that he is committed to substantial devolution of power to the minorities. He has given such assurances, repeatedly, to the international community and to Lanka’s powerful neighbour Delhi which was Colombo’s strongest supporter in the civil war against the Tamils. President Mahinda appointed an All Party Committee to report on devolution though its report is hidden away in the Presidential Secretariat, and he even set up a negotiating process with the TNA to work out a constitutional package, though predictably it collapsed recently.
Now quite out of the blues brother and Defence Secretary Gothabaya has firmly gone on record more than once that there will be no devolution of power to the minorities and said in no uncertain terms that the constitution as it stands needs no further amendment. Referring to the landslide mandate that the Tamils gave the TNA, Secretary Gothabaya has pointedly asserted that the Sinhalese gave the government an even larger mandate not to grant devolution, and that will be the final word on the matter. For the secretary in charge of the subject of defence to go out of the way and make such far reaching assertions on government policy in respect of minority and constitutional policy is most remarkable. To implicitly contradict the president and line up alongside the hard core chauvinist brigade in parliament is alarming.
I am quite convinced that this is not a prearranged game plan between the brothers. Brother Gothabaya is laying down the law and elder brother Mahinda is being compelled to toe the line. I am not suggesting that Mahinda was personally inclined to give anything substantial to the Tamils, but he has been playing a more nuanced game to pirouette around Delhi and the international community, both of whom were only too eager to be taken for a ride. To repeat myself, since this is important, this policy dissonance between the brothers is a game changer, it signals a modification in the balance of power in the government.
It is not that suddenly President Mahinda has lost his clout, nevertheless there has been a certain subtle shift of gears and it is worth watching how the power-pivot in the Sri Lankan state develops in the coming months.
The US flexes its muscle
According to one school of thought both Washington and Delhi had an understanding with Colombo during what has come to be known as Eelam War IV. The senior partners would not make a fuss about civilian casualties or other alleged brutalities but in exchange after eliminating the LTTE Colombo would show its good intentions by implementing constitutional changes and a substantial package of power devolution. Now Colombo has reneged on this promise (President Mahinda was doing it subtly, brother Gothabaya has gone brutally frank creating a stir) much to the annoyance of Washington and Delhi. Washington has shown itself to be fed up. A Congressional committee has called for the suspension of aid to Sri Lanka, criticism of the Sri Lankan government on human rights issues and war crimes investigation has become more strident and last week fighter aircraft from the USS Ronald Regan over flew Sri Lankan airspace in the opinion of the local air force – a frightened and embarrassed political establishment hotly denied it; what else could it do?
The United States has formally informed the Government of Sri Lanka that it wishes to have the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) report tabled at the UN Human Rights Council meeting in March 2012. It has not made a suggestion or a request but used the stiffer mechanism of delivering a demarche which is an official line of action carrying formal implication of, as yet unspecified, but possible follow up action in the event the demarche is ignored. It is less than an ultimatum but more than a remonstration.
Why has the US taken this step? It is not hard to guess the State Department’s line of reasoning. First, if the LLRC report is not a whitewash, then, not just the US, but everyone knows the government will not release it or will excise vital sections. In this case the demarche is intended to embarrass the government if it suppresses the report. Another possible reason is that the demarche puts pressure on LLRC commissioners, constraining them from crafting a document that blots their personal copybooks. If the LLRC report reaches the UNHRC it will need to stand beside the Darusman Report, Channel 4 videos and whatever else the Tamil diaspora can dig up in the next eight months and flaunt at the Council or in its corridors. If the LLRC report comes off as a lame cover-up, the personal reputations of the commissioners will be sullied. By giving notice that reputations will be on the line the US hopes to stiffen the honourable commissioners’ backbones.
The TNA grows a backbone
In a development that many Tamils consider welcome the TNA has become more assertive not only because of its victory in the local government polls but also because of developments in Tamil Nadu and the reflections of this event in Delhi. The Tamils have given the TNA a mandate but the government of Sri Lanka has made it clear that it will not budge on the devolution issue. What on earth is the TNA going to do? What is it going to tell its electorate? It cannot simply say “They won’t give us anything” and play dead thereafter. It has to mobilise the Tamils in a politics of protest; not the folly of LTTE style adventurism, militarism and terrorism, but mass political activity. TNA leader Sampanthan has given notice that if the government continues to trample on the rights of his people that he will do so, though to what extent the wounds of war have healed and the people of the North and East come out into the open remains to be seen. Eventually it will happen, but the matter has to be put to the test, as foxy old Sampanthan has discerned.
My guess however is that there is more than a testing of the waters in the TNA’s refurbished backbone; more than even taking heart from Jayalalitha’s tough line demanding war crimes investigations and sanctions against the Rajapakse regime. The fearful question for the Rajapakse government is has India (either in its Tamil Nadu or Delhi avatar) given the TNA a green light to up the ante on the political solution matter? If the answer is ‘yes’ the Sri Lankan government is playing with fire if it sends in the police with batons and the troops with tanks to “teach the Tamils a lesson” as the Sinhalese state regularly did from 1956 to 1987. This is another of the as yet unanswered questions that is aggravating the climate of extreme political uncertainty in the country.
The TNA for its part would be foolish to put all its eggs in the foreign support basket. It has to cash in on its election victory and begin work in its base areas among the people. Educating, organising, building structures and above all inducting a generation of young Tamils who can lead the movement when the old men pass on, are the urgent tasks that the TNA is now well positioned to undertake. It must cast its bread upon the waters. I am not wont to make biblical quotations, but this reminds me of another point. In their life before politics newly inducted TNA parliamentarians may have taken up litigations or campaigns that now sit ill with mass politics among the people. It is time to sever these connections and press on with activities that can unite the broad public.
© SAAG
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