Colombo’s facelift and the one-way road to Chinatown at Galle Face

by Rajan Philips

The facelift operations in Colombo are impressive. The environmental police, cleanup crews and garbage collectors are keeping the streets clean. Pavement bricklayers and traffic police are busy on Galle Road as long sections of Colombo’s main thoroughfare are being turned into a one-way street and the pavement is being widened in some parts of the roadway. Newspapers are abuzz with the juicier news of land deals and glitzy development projects. The target of all deals is Galle Face and all of them appear to show a Chinese connection, as China seems to be taking India’s utmost isle on a good-as-long-as-it-lasts merry-go-round in the global circus.

Sri Lanka In Tamil Nadu

By Tisaranee Gunasekara

“Certain short-sighted, narrow-minded parties are talking about the 13th Amendment without considering the development or welfare of the people who live in the North and East”.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa (Election-speech in Chavakachcheri – 19.7.2011)

When Tamil Nadu’s newly-elected Chief Minister publicly advocated an economic blockade of Sri Lanka and a war crimes trial of the Rajapaksas, Colombo responded with more than a touch of arrogance: “Sri Lanka deals with India and not with individual states”, Cabinet spokesperson Minister Keheliya Rambukwella declared, and added, snidely, “Ms. Jayalalitha is free to come here, with the permission of Delhi” (The Hindu – 10.6.2011). The Rajapaksa regime’s dismissive attitude towards Tamil Nadu is clearly unshared by the world’s sole (albeit somewhat ailing) superpower. Last week Hilary Clinton became the first US Secretary of State to make an official visit to Chennai and to hold talks with Chief Minister Jayalalitha Jayaram, including on Sri Lanka.

India’s Chinese Bogeymen

by Frederica Jansz

Bejing has considerable leverage in post conflict Sri Lanka.  Chinese involvement in the defence sector has not reduced after the war, and the Chinese are seen diversifying from being just suppliers of defence equipment to infrastructure and capacity building.

The Chinese have used North Industries Corporation (NORINCO) and subsequently the state owned China Poly Technologies Limited for the supply of defence equipment to Sri Lanka.  Chinese defence related industries like CATIC have diversified into infrastructure development in the North, specifically to the A-9 and A-32 roads and also to the construction of a luxury hotel in Colombo Fort.

US builds closer, strategic ties with Tamil Nadu

Sunday Times

External Affairs Ministry fails to see danger signals in Clinton's Chennai visit US Congress resolutions after Channel 4 film add pressure on Govt. while embassy fails miserably Govt. seeks crucial vote of confidence from North amid growing credibility crisis

Events across both sides of the Palk Strait, the waters that divide Sri Lanka and India, were much in focus this week. Across the seas, the world's only super power fired a strong diplomatic salvo on Sri Lanka. That was through the visit of US Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton, to Chennai -- easily the first such official engagement from a highest ranking dignitary from Washington DC. The conduct of mature diplomacy, where there is little gung-ho or rhetoric on sensitive issues perhaps led sections of the government and their supporters to heave a sigh of relief that there was no fire and thunder. The message was neither loud nor clear to them. It was reminiscent of how a Sri Lanka delegation headed by Attorney General Mohan Peiris secretly meeting with the UN Advisory Panel chaired by Indonesia's Marzuki Darusman probing alleged war crimes -- an event revealed exclusively by the Sunday Times on March 6. After the unpublicised meeting on February 22, initially covered up by UN spokespersons in New York, the talk did the rounds at the highest levels of the government that all "issues have been sorted out."

Rule by ballot after years of rule by bullet begins in North

The Nation
At the elections held yesterday to 65 local government bodies which had to be postponed due to election petitions, the government had thrown its full weight behind its propaganda campaign in the North. A large number of UPFA Ministers and MPs had been vigorously campaigning in the province for several weeks in support of the party candidates in the running for 16 local bodies in Jaffna district and three bodies in Kilinochchi district.

Ranil’s appeal for more time for Govt; Ban responds cautiously

President must show remorse for killings like Emperor Asoka, says UNP leader



UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has agreed to give Sri Lanka more time to engage in what he called a “meeting of minds” to address the concerns of the International Community, but said this could not be an indefinite period.
His response came after Opposition UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe met the UN Chief in New York on Tuesday and appealed to him to give more time and space for the Sri Lankan Government to work out a political settlement to the “democracy deficit” in the post-war period.
The meeting was a rare one as the UN Chief normally does not meet with Opposition leaders of countries. He was accompanied by his Chief of Staff Satish Nambiar while Devinda Subasinghe, former Sri Lankan Ambassador to the US, accompanied the UNP leader.

CAN SRI LANKA DITCH AMERICA AND EMBRACE CHINA?

By Gamini Weerakoon

Sri Lanka’s friends - Dimitry Medvedev and Hu Jintao

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa went into warm embraces with Presidents Hu Jintao of China and Dmitry Medvedev of Russia at the St Petersburg International Economic Conference last month but there were only brickbats for Rajapaksa from British political leaders such as David Cameron and the US State Department during the same period.

THE CURSE OF INFALLIBLE LEADERS

By Tisaranee Gunasekara

“Whoever says he’s 100% right is a fanatic, a thug, and the worst kind of rascal.”
Czeslaw Milosz (The Captive Mind)

Hosni Mubarak, Muammar Gaddafi, Vellupillai Pirapaharan AND Saddam Hussein

Last week, in a question-and-answer session with five editors, Indian PM Manmohan Singh stated that the ‘legitimate grievances’ of Lankan Tamils did not disappear with the LTTE. He went on to underscore the need for a ‘new system of institutional reforms’ which will make Tamils feel “they are equal citizens of Sri Lanka’ and enable them to “lead a life of dignity and self-respect”.
Last week, the US State Department Spokesperson indicated that if Sri Lanka is ‘unable or unwilling’ to investigate alleged human rights violations, the international community may be compelled to examine other (‘international accountability’) options.

KILLING FIELD AND SRI LANKA

SUNDAY LEADER

By Tisaranee Gunasekara

We had fed the heart on fantasies, The heart’s grown brutal from the fare; More substance in our enmities Than in our love….”
Yeats (The Stare’s Nest)

Rajapaksa regime subjecting Sri Lanka to global ridicule

By Mangala Samaraweera

The ineptitude of the present regime in the face of intensifying and relentless international pressure is driving Sri Lanka further and further into isolation and is likely to have devastating effects for this country’s prospects for rebuilding and reconciliation in the post-conflict phase.

The Tamil Nadu Resolution: Jayalalitha secures Chennai stopover in Delhi-Colombo shuttle diplomacy

Rajan Philips

The Tamil Nadu State Assembly resolution of June 8, 2011, apart from provoking conflicting emotions among Sri Lankan Sinhalese and Tamil nationalists, served notice on the Union government that Chennai is to not to be by-passed in future shuttle diplomacy between Colombo and Delhi. Delhi would appear to have heard the message loud and clear. A day after the resolution, the Indian troika of National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon, Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao and Defence Secretary Pradeep Kumar stopped in Chennai en route to their pre-scheduled meetings in Colombo.

War Crimes and White Flags

Tassie Seneviratne

Senior Superintendent of Police (Rtd.)

There is so much energy generated in allegations of Human Rights violations and War Crimes, against Sri Lanka in the international arena, that the heat could be utilized to throw some light on reality. The hottest salvo against Sri Lanka is the allegation of "War Crimes and White Flags" aimed by none clean enough to point an untainted finger at us.