US Militarization of Sri Lanka : Sri Lankans to provide Canteen Services
Posted on July 19th, 2016
Shenali D Waduge
There are over 1000 foreign US military bases and installations. The 4 losers of World War 2 host the biggest bases located in Germany, Italy, Japan and Korea. The newest strategy is to set up smaller detachments across the nations where US geopolitics pivots to. It is as a result of such bases in Diego Garcia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and other Gulf states that the US was able to militarily intervene in targeted nations and thereafter set up bases in them. The recent announcement of US State Dept awarding a USD155m contract raises many questions that draw serious ramifications internally for Sri Lankan society and externally for the rest of Asia given the destructive nature of US military.
The Daily FT http://www.ft.lk/article/554084/US-to-construct-a—155-m-embassy-complex-in-Sri-Lanka has reported the construction of a USD155m contract awarded by the US State Dept to Caddell Construction Co to be built in 2 years in a 6 acre area (possibly joining the present US embassy with the former British high commission located right in front of Temple Trees) How is it that Sri Lanka came to know of this very important news only after the US State Department awarded the contract to a fellow US construction company?
Why has the GOSL kept this secret from the general public? Why is there no Parliamentary debate on this? Given that there is no Opposition, what has the Joint Opposition to say about this and why are they keeping mum too? Should such an important decision not be shared with the public and public opinion sought on the matter BEFORE agreeing with the US?
All of the US bases have a history of problems. These bases serve to proliferate weapons, they undermine both international stability and have resulted in increase in internal violence of some sort or the other. The bases have created social problems – rise in rapes by US military personnel, increase in prostitution with female sex industry thriving (high end and poor), increase in drugs, violent crimes by foreign soldiers, a country losing value of prime land in and around the complex, issues of pollution and health hazard caused by testing non-conventional weapons inside the compound.
The most shocking part is that NONE of these crimes committed by US personnel can be charged for criminal offence as the US military are granted immunity under SOFA or status of forces agreement which defines the legal status of US personnel and property in territory of another country covering the criminal, civil jurisdiction, carrying of arms, tax and customs relief, damage claims for US by the host government. The general understanding is that it is in the interest of the host country that the US base is set up. However the agreement provides the US and not the host government a host of rights. US forces are not accountable for anything in a host country. In 1998, host governments processed 5092 cases against US personnel under SOFA.
30% of Okinawa Island in Japan is occupied by US military since World War 2. Locals have been protesting since and the US response was to build another base in 2004 which was luckily stopped due to environmental concerns being raised. In Puerto Rico 2/3 of the island is occupied by US, inhabitants were expelled from their homes to facilitate US bomb testing. We know too well how the Chagossians were virtually carried from the homes and evicted by the civilized British to set up a base for US in Diego Garcia. These people were dumped in Mauritius and even after winning a court order the British Government used Executive Orders and ignored it.
So if a Sri Lankan is raped, killed, molested, kidnapped etc the victims will have no justice whatsoever. If anyone is in doubt they can ask the 65,000 Okinawans from Japan who protested demanding the removal of US military from their Island. It is good to note that despite the people of Japan demanding its government to close the US base, Japan cannot because of the agreement in place. Therefore, if any base has been allowed, Sri Lanka will NEVER be able to remove it.
http://www.oregonlive.com/today/index.ssf/2016/06/65000_protest_us_military_in_o.html
The US also has more than100 bases in Korea and here too US military are not accountable for any crimes they commit. In 2002, two teenage girls on their way to a birthday party were run over by a US tank – the driver was repatriated where a US military court found him ‘not guilty’. In 2006, 2600 car accidents were reported in Korea involving US servicemen. Koreans could not claim damages. Korean Insurance companies refused to cover damages too.
The Netherlands hosts 7 US bases one which has nuclear warheads. Two bases monitor and intercept drug-transport on the Caribbean Sea and another serves as reconnaissance flights over Colombia making the Netherlands indirectly involved in the Colombian conflict. The bases allow US to bring arms and materials to the country without reporting to Dutch customs!
But then the CIA is famed for smuggling drugs! The present Pakistan-India-Sri Lanka and East Asia is a narcotics hotbed!
http://humansarefree.com/2015/02/overwhelming-evidence-that-cia-is.html
All of US bases are platforms for military manoeuvres – aerial bombings on Pakistan are launched from Diego Garcia, the base in Ecuador is used for covert military actions on Colombia, the bases in Iraq and Turkey have served as intelligence centres against Iran and Syria. Bases have also been used for extra-judicial transport, imprisonment and torture of people. Guantanamo Bay is the perfect example while there are numerous other secret centres across Middle East and Europe. Some bases are even used to test nuclear arsenal, while others are for intelligence operations such as the world-wide network of ‘Echelon” bases that monitor all email, phone, data communications traffic.
These bases serve to overthrow governments – of the over 300 overseas military interventions & invasions by US were possible because of the US military facilities in various nations.
US & NATO has managed to surround Iran by occupying Iraq & Afghanistan and placing bases in 8 neighbors of Iran with 3 US-backed nuclear powers in Israel, India and Pakistan and Turkey deploys US nuclear warheads. Iran has every right to protect its nation and its sovereignty. What nation wants to be attacked this way?
Does Sri Lanka want to be an enemy to our friends in Asia? These bases will certainly be used against Russia, China, Iran and even India (though India foolishly thinks itself to be a proud partner of the West – non-whites are never ‘partners’ but kept to serve the interests only)
Do we in Sri Lanka boasting of being a non-violent and non-aligned nation wish to encourage such SADISM by a country whose hobby is bulldozing nations and blowing them to pieces?
This is not a game of Cowboys and Indians!
These are all early warnings for Sri Lanka.
These bases host not only US military but US citizens – soldiers, civilians, and others that include their families. Why are so many 7 star hotels emerging in Sri Lanka, we do not have people to afford such luxury. These hotels are meant for the families and the top brass and other very senior officers who will be regularly flying in from all parts of the world.
The new US base is said to have a US marine residence and a warehouse among other sophisticated items. Why would an embassy need a Marine Residence? And a warehouse to store what? These are dead giveaway for the ultimate creation of a US military base pretending it to be a US embassy complex. The momentum obviously came when in November 2015 Daya Gamage reported that when Samantha Power visited Sri Lanka, she envisaged ‘enhanced military relations’ which is beyond the sale of military equipment and training (it was not given when we needed it and now we don’t need it as the conflict is over)
When scores of foreign military set up virtual residence in Sri Lanka, the GOSL will say these are opportunities for our people. What are the opportunities…we will have to send our women as prostitutes oh yes and they can make money selling their bodies, we will have men and women serving as stewards and waitresses, do parents spend so much on education for their children to be servants in our own country! But then there will be plenty of cocktail circles where the local lackeys will squirm in front of their superiors boasting of hobnobbing with them. What else are we likely to get out of this can anybody please elucidate!!!
In the end we would have become distanced from our historical friends choosing to become their indirect enemy and when we are ever in need of help we would have no one to come to our aid. Irony is that even those that helped the US to get their prize catch would also end up getting the boot one fine day as Saddam, Suharto, Ngo Diem, Pinochet & Osama found out too late.
Why would Sri Lanka knowingly want to suffer the same hassles that nations with US bases are going through?
Shenali D Waduge
July 19th, 2016 at 11:13 am
The GOSL has virtually become a puppet of the Western masters in return for the favour they did for the present rulers to come to power. What else we can expect from them? It’s the people who voted the unworthy lot into power are to be blamed.
July 19th, 2016 at 4:17 pm
I strongly agree with Shenali; building this major embassy complex in Colombo is a major step towards ONE-SIDED ALIGNMENT with a superpower that should be debated and voted upon in Parliament. It should not be done secretly and presented as a fait-accomplished!
In my view, it is not in Sri Lanka’s long term interest to host such a large US Embassy complex replete with accommodations for a substantial military force and arms storage brought in under diplomatic privilege.
Without a doubt, such an establishment can be used in the future to destabilise the country and launch coup-de-etats within the country, and and also allow the USA to engage in various quasi-military
operations against neighboring countries without even asking for the express permission of the Sri Lankan government.
This will be a major TROJAN HORSE installed deep within the country that will be nearly IMPOSSIBLE TO GET RID OF by later governments … in the national interest … without a major conflict with the USA.
Let us recall that the last time the SL government took over a US interest, by nationalising the US Oil Companies, it created a major rift in relations that lasted decades and led to the Rubber-Rice Pact with China to partially overcome the resulting economic embargos. Why do we need to become a slave state of a foreign power all over again?
This complex is as big as the embassy facility that existed in Saigon during the Vietnam war, and is comparable in size to the huge embassy complex in Baghdad that the US Govt built in the early days of the invasion of Iraq confident that they would be able to control Iraq and exploit its petroleum resources and proximity to Iran and other Persian Gulf nations. That hope was dashed by the Iraqi nationalists who launched the on oing insurgency by making it too risky for any American investment to thrive in Iraq.
This is not in the best interest of Sri Lanka; it should not be permitted. On the other hand, purely commercial and civilian government-to-government development projects, that do not thfeaten Sri Lanka’s national security and sovereignty as an independent non-aligned nation, should be encouraged.
We want friendly and close relations with the USA, but we don’t want to become a vassal of the USA or become a base for it to either interfere in Sri Lankan politics and governance or in the affairs of other countries in the region that could alienate them and make Sri Lanka a target for retaliation.
This is the tip-of-the-iceberg of a VERY DANGEROUS DEVELOPMENT that the People of Sri Lanka should play very close attention to.
July 19th, 2016 at 4:18 pm
Oops! I meant “fait accompli”!
July 19th, 2016 at 7:08 pm
An Indian vermin is the US Ambassador (an agent of the Indian Union) in Ceylon. Most of you look at things in an anti Western point. I look at things from what Indian Union, Indian Empire, Indian colonial parasites and Indian vermin are doing to us.
July 19th, 2016 at 7:31 pm
Shenali: “Does Sri Lanka want to be an enemy to our friends in Asia? These bases will certainly be used against Russia, China, Iran and even India (though India foolishly thinks itself to be a proud partner of the West – non-whites are never ‘partners’ but kept to serve the interests only)”
You missed Pakistan and Bangladesh.
(though India foolishly thinks itself to be a proud partner of the West – non-whites are never ‘partners’ but kept to serve the interests only)”
Well Shenali, Indians partnered with the British and our country is run by the Indian Empire, Indian Union and Indian colonial parasites.
July 19th, 2016 at 7:37 pm
This will attract extremist and counter-US attacks on Sri Lanka. This is an invitation for trouble. Interestingly, the expanded US embassy will be done just 2km from the Port City. An obviously apparent plan to counter China by baiting Sri Lanka.
This is what the Caddell website says.
The project consists of a New Office Building, U.S. Marine Residence, Compound Access Control facilities, Maintenance Building, Utility Building, and a Warehouse. The scope will also include entrance and arrival plazas, paved terraces, landscape gardens, roadways, security fencing and gates, security window and door systems, stone and metal façades as well as unique interior architectural finishes. The project will be located on a 6-acre site. The contract duration is 48 months. This project represents Caddell’s 26th new diplomatic facility for the U.S. State Department since 2000.
U.S. Marine Residence!
July 19th, 2016 at 7:38 pm
The prevalent question is:
How does a poor man become rich?
Why are we in our present condition, assailed by foes to the right, left and to the center of us? Let us admit it loud and wide. It is because we are POOR. Our pitiful circumstance is that of being POOR. the Sinhala are POOR. The poor not only have empty stomachs, they also have empty voices. No one listens to the poor.
Now how does a poor man become rich? Up to now it was by going to the rich man to his house and working for him.
Do we not do that by the hundreds of thousands? YES.
What are all these free trade zones about? It is getting the rich man to come down here and set up his businesses. Then our poor blokes can go to him for employment, not outside the country but within the country.
All this is to get out of our pitiful, helpless condition of being a very poor nation.
We are all agreed the borrowing makes us poorer still. Also what we do with borrowed money, apart from making the crooks rich, make the poor man poorer still.
We are impoverished in every sense of the term. We export nothing except cheap labour, especially women labour. What these women do in their free time (or even full time) outside the country is any one’s guess! We have no infrastructures, no specialist man power. Our universites produce frogs in muddy creeks. Our Ph.Ds though multiplying like rats are not better than toilet paper.
Now we are staring into the possibility of a very rich man putting up house in our country and offering employment to thousands. What does this mean? Only that the poor are being offered a possibility of becoming rich. In its larger aspect it means that a very poor country is being offered the chance of earning dollars, not through the stingy tight fisted Bank of Ceylon, but directly from the rich man’s pocket.
The poor are facing the situation of being able to go the rich man, not outside this country but within their own country. The poor are staring into a brighter future.
Mario Perera
Kadawata
July 19th, 2016 at 9:14 pm
Mario Perera,
Your analysis is extremely narrow focusing only on the dollars spent in Sri Lanka without examine the purpose behind those dollars. You don’t distinguish between good employers and bad employers, and good purposes and destructive purposes.
We don’t need American dollars, Saudi riyals, Indian rupees, or even Chinese yuan if those monies are used to enslave us.
There is are alternative ways to earn money and become rich, by educating and training our people in the latest skills and technologies in high demand, investing in the appropriate equipment to multiply their productivity, paying them a competitive wage to enable them to live in Sri Lanka, securing their livelihoods and culture from foreign legal and illegal immigrants who could displace them, and so on.
This is not pir-in-the sky. Japan is a good example. In 1850 when US Commodore Perry sailed his modern battleships of the day into Tokyo harbour, Japan was a feudal backward state without any industrial capability. That event woke up the Japanese nationalists to their nation’s vulnerability. They did not say we are POOR, therefore let us go to work for these rich people and they may throw us a bigger bone than we have now. Instead, they sent tens of thousands of their best most patriotic students abroad to learn all that the West had to offer and bring it back and implement it Japan. They were so successful that within 20 years Japan had industrialization, developed first class universities, technical schools and industrial base, a formidable navy and and army to defend the nation against the Europeans who threatened them. Shortly theteafyer, in the battle of the Sushi Straits the Japanese navy took on the Russian Fleet and utterly destroyed it, shocking the Europeans and announcing that Japan had joined the First world of the day.
My point is, like Japan, Singapore and Switzerland, Sri Lanka can learn wage the innate skills and adaptability of our people and train them to compete in this new information driven high technology age without sowing the seeds of our own destruction by dragging TROJAN HORSES into the bosom of our Motherland!
Furthemore, this is a fortress being built by the US in Colombo to gradually convert Sri Lanka into a captive state just as the Portuguese did when they built the Colomba Kotuwa nearly 400 years ago to conquer and subjugate Sri Lanka, convert its people to Catholicism to make them docile and willing to accept their yoke like dumb oxen. The Though there are more Portuguese surnames in Sri Lanka today than in Portugal, despite all thrir cruelty the Portuguese failed to completely conquer and convert Sri Lanka as they did brilliantly elsewhere in the world like Brazil!
Summarizing, let us not prostitute our bodies and sell our souls for a handful of dollars; there are alternative ways to reach our national goals without doing that!
July 19th, 2016 at 9:18 pm
Oops! That should read “the Battle of Sushima Straits” .
Automatic word completion on my cell phone is wreaking havoc on my spelling! My apologies!
July 19th, 2016 at 9:25 pm
”There is are alternative ways to earn money and become rich, by educating and training our people in the latest skills and technologies in high demand, investing in the appropriate equipment to multiply their productivity, paying them a competitive wage to enable them to live in Sri Lanka, securing their livelihoods and culture from foreign legal and illegal immigrants who could displace them, and so on.”
Ananda, you surely have read of Rip Van Vinckle who slept a long sleep and woke up only to feel his aches and pains, simply because ‘time and tide wait for no man’
Happy dreams, Ananda, good night
Mario Perera
Kadawata
July 19th, 2016 at 9:42 pm
My argument is different.
To day I bought a set of cushion for sofa for $2 each , made in China, very good quality.
It means , in Sri Lanka, we have to make it for Rs. 30 maximum. If Dr. Vasantha Obeysekkara is to set up a factory in Free Trade Zone to make cushions, it will take 5 years to pay all the bribes alone.
We have no future, unless we stop “bribes”.
July 19th, 2016 at 11:44 pm
THE SIXTIES
Singapore’s Economic History in 1960s
As a newly independent country in 1965 with no natural resources, Singapore as an infant nation faced much uncertainty. Unemployment was one of the key issues that needed to be resolved quickly in order to get the wheels of the Singapore economy moving.
With a GNP per capita of less than US$320, Singapore was a third-world nation with poor infrastructure and limited capital. Low-end commerce was the mainstay of the economy and the handful of industries that existed produced only for domestic consumption, leaving no room for direct foreign investment.
To create job opportunities following the massive unemployment and labour unrest, an environment conducive to industrial development had to be formed, thus leading to the birth of the Jurong Industrial Estate – the first of many such estates on the island.
It was during this exciting period of growth that the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) was established with a budget of $100 million to take on the challenge of convincing foreign investors that the country was a good place for business.
These two developments marked the start of Singapore’s industrialisation programme that began with factories producing garments, textiles, toys, wood products and hair wigs. Along with these labour-intensive industries were capital and technology-intensive projects from companies such as Shell Eastern Petroleum and the National Iron and Steel Mills.
The success of this programme over time meant new issues had to be tackled, namely the lack of raw resources that once came from Malaysia and rapidly growing local demand. Singapore’s solution then was to develop its export-oriented industries, as EDB opened its first overseas centres in Hong Kong and New York to be better placed to woo foreign investors.
THE SEVENTIES
As a result, the country remained unaffected in the throes of a subsequent economic global recessionin the 1970s.
Singapore’s Economy In The 70s
By this decade, industrial development was surging ahead as EDB marketed Singapore to be a quick operations start-up location where factories were built in advance of demand and a highly skilled workforce was readily available.
Singapore’s manufacturing industry evolved to become more sophisticated and included computer parts, peripherals, software packages and silicon wafers.
To push Singapore’s agenda as a business hub, more EDB offices were set up in Europe, USA and Asia. During this period, Texas Instruments rolled out a production line in just 50 days after committing $6 million to make semiconductors and integrated circuits for export to world markets. This major investment, which EDB secured in under six months, heralded the start of Singapore’s electronics industry.
To balance the opening of new EDB overseas centres in Zurich, Paris, Osaka and Houston between 1971 and 1976, a Manpower and Training Unit was established locally to focus on industrial training. The Overseas Training Programme and Joint Government Training Centres with Tata of India, Philips of Holland and Rollei of Germany were also drawn up to place young Singaporean workers in apprenticeship programmes for the exchange of knowledge and skills. This unique partnership approach to workforce training was the first of its kind and a significant step forward in Singapore’s investment promotion programme.
Although the world recession in 1975 slowed progress slightly, the city’s economy remained nimble and flexible as EDB pushed for more industrial projects and manufacturing eventually became the largest sector in the economy surpassing trade.
THE EIGHTIES
The Second Industrial Revolution beckoned the growth of technologically advanced & knowledge-intensive activities such as R&D, engineering design and computer software services. Sunrise industries were identified, workers received high-tech training, and Southeast Asia’s first silicon wafer manufacturing plant was built in Singapore.
Singapore Economic History In The 80s
The 1980s saw EDB co-establishing institutions of technology with Japan, Germany and France to meet the specialised manpower needs of high-technology industries. Coupled with the Skills Development Fund, these places of learning provided Singaporeans with the right kind of training for specialised jobs in the electronics and engineering sectors.
At the same time, the Science Park was set up next to the National University of Singapore to stimulate R&D activities by the private sector while the Robot Leasing Scheme was established to offer low-cost financing and technical consultancy to manufacturers who wanted to automate their operations.
Eventually, due to the government’s adoption of a high-wage policy to accelerate the move away from labour-intensive industries and the attraction to high-technology industries, wage bills swelled as the world slipped into an economic slowdown and Singapore slid into a recession.
An Economic Committee, led by then Minister for Trade and Industry Mr. Lee Hsien Loong, then took a long hard look at what was needed to restore Singapore’s competitiveness – consequently recommending the introduction of a flexi-wage system where pay hikes would be relative to a company’s profitability. Another call the Committee made was for EDB to promote all aspects of economic activity.
With the new goal of positioning Singapore as a Total Business Centre, EDB set out to attract international service corporations in the financial, educational, lifestyle, medical, IT and software sectors; identifying PC, printed circuit board and disc drive manufacture as important sunrise industries.
By working hard to attract investors to these areas, Singapore’s – and Southeast Asia’s – first silicon wafer manufacture plant opened in the early 1980s, followed by Apple Computer’s in 1981 and one for disc drives in 1982.
As the promotion of local enterprises also became increasingly important, EDB then set up the Small Enterprise Bureau in 1986 to shape a range of assistance schemes that helped facilitate the growth of these companies
THE NINETIES
The services industry flourished to form one of the pillars of Singapore’s economy, along with the field of biomedical sciences and emerging key industries. This resulted in a diversification of the city’s economic structure, with Singapore hosting a wide range of businesses.
Singapore Economic History In The 90s
The 1990s saw companies moving up the value chain and intensifying their use of technology while the service sector became the engine for growth. EDB shifted its focus from manufacturing to strengthen the new key industries, namely chemicals, electronics and engineering. It also began leveraging its leadership in these industries to develop biomedical sciences; an area that included the pharmaceutical biotechnology and medical technology sectors.
This helped Singapore’s economic structure become more diversified and balanced, resulting in the city hosting a wide range of businesses particularly in higher value-added activities. It also started welcoming talent from around the world to augment the local skill pool and subsequently, become a hub of skilled manpower and headquarters for decision-making.
July 20th, 2016 at 1:47 am
Mario,
There is no easy magical way of earning money and getting rich, and it is certainly not by selling ourselves to foreign powers.
The only way is through hard work, and using our god-given brains to be smarter than others to be more productive while preserving our independence.
You can mock what I say, but the truth of what I have said is self-evident.
July 20th, 2016 at 2:00 am
Dear Ananda,
Thank you
With much respect
Mario
July 20th, 2016 at 4:23 am
Sri Lanka should tell the US that Sri Lanka cannot abide by the UNHRC resolution. The Sri Lankan Army did not commit any war crimes. It is the LTTE terrorists who committed war crimes throughout 26 years of war. No country with an ounce of self respect will place their army in harms way to be tried by a court domestic or hybrid of war crimes the army did not commit in anyway. If individual soldiers committed any crimes, a complaint can be placed in a court of law in Sri Lanka. Why is there a need for special judicial procedures? This government is a puppet of the US, EU, UK, Norway, Sweden, Canada and India and is so subservient to US interests that it is ready to try its own armed forces for crimes that the armed forces did not commit. All the while, the LTTE terrorists who committed war crimes are being shown as totally innocent. Using the ploy of wanting a new constitution which almost all Sri Lankans don’t want, this treacherous government is trying to create a separate state in the guise of a federal state as the TNA separatist terrorists and the US, EU, UK, Norway, Sweden, Canada and India wants. Sri Lanka should tell the US that Sri Lanka cannot abide by the UNHRC resolution. The worst that the US, UK, EU, Sweden, Norway and India can do is impose sanctions on Sri Lanka. So what? Sri Lanka can trade with all the countries of Asia and the rest of the world even if the US, UK, EU, Norway, Sweden and India imposes sanctions. Sri Lanka can grow rice, we have jack fruit, bananas, bread fruit and plenty of water too. So we will not starve just because the US, UK, EU, Sweden, Norway and India imposes sanctions. Also since we can trade with the powerful economies of Asia which includes the Middle East, South East Asia, South Asia, the Far East and Central Asia as well as the rest of the world, actually, we may be OK economically too despite any sanctions imposed by the US, EU, UK, Norway, Sweden, Canada and India. However by avoiding implementing the unjust UNHRC resolution, Sri Lanka will safeguard its independence and freedom which is the most important thing for the next thousands of years as we have safeguarded our independence and freedom for at least the last 2600 years and avoid the creation of a separate state or eelam in the guise of a federal state. So Sri Lanka must very urgently tell the US that we will not abide by the unjust UNHRC resolution but carry out our own domestic process of reconciliation as we see fit. Let the imperialist US impose sanctions. Nothing much will happen to our economy since we can trade with the powerful economies of Asia and the rest of the world instead but Sri Lanka would have preserved its independence and freedom for the next thousands of years and avoid the partition of the country and the creation of a separate state which will be Sri Lanka’s end.
July 20th, 2016 at 4:23 am
Not only this, the treacherous Ranil, Sirisena, CBK, Mangala, idiotic UNPers, those INGOs working for thousands of dollars and even the JVP are trying to dismember the country via constitutional changes. We patriotic Sri Lankans should demand a strong central government, no more powers to provincial councils, no merger between provinces, ideally abolition of the 13th amendment to the constitution and absolute safeguarding of the sovereignty of the country.
The army did not commit any war crimes. it is the LTTE who committed war crimes. However, it is high time that Sri Lanka rejected the US imperialists UNHRC resolution and state at the UNHRC to leave Sri Lanka alone to get on with reconciliation as Sri Lanka sees fit.
Actually Sri Lanka today being accused of committing war crimes by the US, UK, EU, Norway, Sweden, Canada, India etc. is very similar to the way Saddam Hussein and Iraq was accused of possessing non existent WMDs. Although Iraq did everything possible to show the US, UK, EU, Norway, Sweden, Canada etc. that it did not possess WMD it was bombed anyway, regime change brought about since Iraq has massive amounts of oil which the US, UK, EU, Norway, Sweden, Canada companies wanted to extract at cheap rates by bringing on a puppet regime. A similar scenario is unfolding in Sri Lanka since Sri Lanka is located at a strategic location, the US wanting to establish a naval/air base at Trincomalee, the US wanting to establish further US army, navy, air force bases in the island, mineral resources, marine resources, control of the Indian ocean sea routes etc. For this, the separatist, terroristic Tamils who are subservient to the US are who the US is favouring to help them with this task. This is why the US favours eelam. All patriotic Sri Lankans should therefore tell the government to withdraw from carrying out the US resolution and to tell the US to leave Sri Lanka alone.
July 20th, 2016 at 4:24 am
Sri Lanka needs a strong central government in the form of the executive presidency. It is the executive presidency which is keeping the unitary state together since provincial councils have now been provided powers. Therefore if the executive presidency is abolished, the provincial councils will become more powerful and the separatist terroristic TNA will try to break away using threats the North and the East. the PR system is the fairest system which means each vote counts. It is a very democratic system. We do not need any changes to the constitution. These changes to the constitution are only suggested to bring on stealthily a federal or a separate state by falsely labelling it as ‘unitary’ to hoodwink the idiotic Sinhala Buddhists. We do not need any changes to the constitution which is what the separatist terrorists of the TNA, US, UK, EU, Norway, Sweden and Canada wants to dismember this country. Also it is the executive presidential system which can easily carry out programmes to develop the country since otherwise there will be endless wranglings within the cabinet and in parliament about what path to follow for development to happen. A well meaning executive president can easily implement a reasonable and suitable programme to take the country forward. Another main reason to keep the executive presidency as it is to counter the separatist threat since a strong executive president can stop any treacherous activities which goes against the independence, freedom, sovereignty, unitary status etc. of the country since the executive president is elected directly by the people’s vote and is answerable to all the people of the country as a result. So for all these reasons, there is no need whatsoever to change the constitution. However the provincial councils should not be given any more powers, there should not be any merger between provinces, ideally the 13th amendment to the constitution should be abolished and there should be a strong central government if Sri Lanka is to move forward as a country and since it is a small country.
July 20th, 2016 at 9:30 am
Some views re Singapore & Sri Lanka on Economic Progress :
* Singapore does not have ‘sea & land grabbing’ Tamil Nadu next door.
Singapore does not have INDIA with Caste/poverty problems next door.
Tamil leaders push for Separatism is what has destabilised the country from the 1930s and brought down the reputation of Sri Lanka abroad. Games to acquire N&E Lanka for Tamil Nadu expansion policies after TN failed to lead the Indian Southern states into Separatism during the Cold War times, has downed Lanka.
The ‘wars’ with the LTTE was Lanka’s lot, not in S’pore.
* The JVP Communism and violence also downed the country, but this was dealt with from within the country. It had no international dimensions as Tamil Separatism did. However, JVP violence did shake the foundations of the country. No proper talks were held with the JVP & the then govts and led to massacres of 80,000 Sinhala youth of the country, the bitterness felt to this day.
* Singapore is a young, new country, without past fears and mistrust from neighbor countries from many centuries ago. Singapore was not colonised for nearly 500 yrs leaving scars behind as in Lanka. Some of our political leading lights of today (UNP) with strong western connections, are more loyal to foreign interests than to Lanka and Lankans, due to Colonisation & Cold War type fear politics.
* Singapore has had a loyal and strong leadership.
* Singapore did not suffer with the Tsunami of 2004 which was a major negative event with loss of life (some 30,000 plus) economically speaking.
Without similar problems as in Lanka, Singapore flourished.
It is a great wonder that Lanka is still standing !
However, it is not too difficult to overcome Economic obstacles if only the present leaders put more HEART to lead the Country, with genuine concern for the wellbeing of citizens together with ideas for Economic Progress.
Are the present day leaders of Lanka up to it ?
Now that Lanka has turned westward, does Lanka really need big time protection ?
Protection from whom ?
What about Lanka’s own Armed Forces to protect the country ?
July 20th, 2016 at 9:42 am
We hope the Readers saw the article below from the Adaderana of July 20, 2016.
Now it is handing over of the country’s Judiciary to external powers, if the OMP becomes law.
——–
‘Office of Missing Persons’ to betray the armed forces – Mahinda
July 20, 2016 , 10:54 am
The draft legislation to set up an “Office of Missing Persons” is meant to be an integral part of the judicial mechanism to deal with allegations of war crimes that the Yahapalana government has undertaken to establish, says former President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
Issuing a statement, he said that if this draft legislation becomes law, every member of parliament who votes for it will be held responsible by the people for betraying the country and the armed forces.
Full statement:
In the midst of all the political and economic chaos in the country, the government has placed before parliament draft legislation to set up an Office of Missing Persons. This is one of several institutions to be established ‘to deal with the past’ in terms of the UNHRC resolution that the yahapalana government co-sponsored with the Western powers in September last year.
The Office of Missing Persons Bill has many provisions designed to persecute our armed forces and I wish to highlight some of them as follows.
1. The Office of Missing Persons will not be a part of Sri Lanka’s State law enforcement and justice system, but an independent body incorporated by parliament which gives its members the power to function outside the normal rules and regulations that guide state institutions.
2. Even though it is described as an ‘office’ the proposed OMP will be a tribunal for all practical purposes which can examine witnesses, issue summons and hold hearings. Its officers can enter without warrant, at any time of day or night, any police station, prison or military installation and seize any document or object they require for investigations. Anyone who fails or refuses to cooperate with the OMP may be punished for contempt of court.
3. The seven ‘members’ of the OMP are to have experience in fact finding and expertise in human rights law and international humanitarian law which means that the appointees will for the most part be representatives of Western funded NGOs or those who have worked with Western sponsored international war crimes tribunals.
4. According to Section 21 of the draft legislation, the OMP will have the power to receive funding directly from any foreign source.
5. The OMP can acting on its own, enter into agreements with foreign persons or organisations concerning its work.
6. The ‘members’ of the OMP can establish units and divisions and delegate their powers and functions to those entities. They can also can appoint and dismiss staff and consultants. It is not specified in the draft law that the members or staff of the OMP have to be Sri Lankan citizens.
7. Complaints can be received not only from relations and friends of missing persons but from any interested party both local and foreign.
8. Government bodies at all levels including the armed forces and intelligence services are mandatorily required to render fullest assistance to the OMP and the provisions of the Official Secrets Act will not apply to the proposed institution.
9. According to Section 12 (c) (iii) the OMP can admit as evidence any statement or material disregarding the criteria laid down in the Evidence Ordinance.
10. The provisions of the Right to Information Act will not apply to the work of the OMP. No court, not even the Supreme Court can order any officer of the OMP to submit to courts any material communicated to him in confidence.
The foregoing makes it clear that this Office of Missing Persons is meant to be an integral part of the judicial mechanism to deal with allegations of war crimes that the Yahapalana government has undertaken to establish. If this draft legislation becomes law, every member of parliament who votes for it will be held responsible by the people for betraying the country and the armed forces
July 20th, 2016 at 2:41 pm
Thank you Fran
For drawing attention to the proposed legislation for setting up an Office of Missing Persons in Sri Lanka outside the existing system of law, and empowered to act largely independently of the government and the wishes of the Sri Lankan people to serve the agenda’s of Sri Lanka’s enemies.
This is another TROJAN HORSE being dragged into the country to serve the agendas of the foreign and internal enemies of Sri Lanka.
Indeed, it is not what it seems on the surface, but a judicial tool under the control of foreign powers designed
1. To gather evidence and Prosecute the armed forces and the political leadership that defeated the Tamil terrorists, and
2. To silence the patritic forces and maintain the hold on the country by the Yamapalanaya government as a vassal state to their foreign backers.
This bill should not be allowed to become law, and should be defeated without delay.
This OMP bill joins the larger array comprising the 13th Amendment, the ETCA, the FTA, the Monkey Bridge, the Ramayana Pilgrimage Circuit, and the Proposed US Embassy Complex as TROJAN HORSES designed to dismember our Motherland as a unitary sovereign nation and subjugate it to the will of our internal and external enemies!
Organize NOW and RESIST this creeping betrayal of our Motherland by the Yamapalanaya government with ALL YOUR MIGHT!
July 20th, 2016 at 3:58 pm
Ananda,
Thank you. With you in this.
Our Very Best wishes to you and all Patriots !
July 20th, 2016 at 8:24 pm
Swiss authorities indict 13 Tamil Tiger supporters for supporting LTTE through a microcredit system
Wed, Jul 20, 2016, 06:23 pm SL Time, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
July 20, Bern: The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland has indicted 13 accused associated with Sri Lanka’s terrorist group Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) for providing financial support to the organization through a sophisticated microcredit system.
The 13 accused, who come from Switzerland, Germany and Sri Lanka, have been charged with supporting and or being members of a criminal organization, fraud, false certification, and money laundering, the Switzerland Attorney General’s office said in a statement today.
According to the Switzerland Attorney General’s office, at the time of the offences, the LTTE was acting through a Swiss offshoot known as the World Tamil Coordinating Committee (WTCC). This in turn acted through cantonal representatives. As a result of the continuing civil war in Sri Lanka, the LTTE’s financial needs increased considerably.
Accordingly, LTTE leaders in Switzerland devised and implemented a systematic and rapid method for obtaining money from the Tamil diaspora in Switzerland.
The investigations carried out by the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland with the support of fedpol show that around CHF 15 million (US$ 15.2 million) were obtained from the diaspora community using couriers and loans. The LTTE remained an anonymous participant in the process by acting through the WTCC.
The mechanism for providing financial support to the LTTE essentially involved inducing members of the Tamil diaspora in Switzerland, who apparently had no links with each other, to enter into microcredit contracts in their own names but in a fiduciary capacity, and then to pass on the funds to the WTCC.
The method set up gave the WTCC complete control over the entire process of granting each credit, to the detriment of the borrowers concerned, the statement said.
The Tamil diaspora community was first subjected to an economic analysis and potential borrowers were identified. Members of the community entered into fiduciary microcredit contracts for sums of up to CHF 100 000, with the loans being paid to the WTCC. Exorbitant loan repayments were made using monthly donations and by taking out additional microcredits. The new microcredits were obtained from a Swiss bank the canton of Zurich.
In order to obtain the microcredits, two financial intermediaries prepared and used forged salary statements. In this way, they deceived the banks involved as to the financial circumstances of the borrowers. The loans obtained were transported in cash by couriers to Singapore and Dubai; sums of up to CHF 1 million were moved abroad each month in order to fund the purchase of weapons. The LTTE’s funding system collapsed in 2009, following the organization’s military defeat, and the diaspora community stopped making the loan payments.
The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland will submit its proposals for the penalties to be imposed at the main hearing before the Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona. With the filing of the indictment, the Federal Criminal Court becomes responsible for providing further information.
July 20th, 2016 at 8:28 pm
Signing ETCA may even lead to bloodshed: JO
DailyMirror.lk
July 19, 2016
The joint opposition today said that there could even be ‘bloodshed’ in the country if the government signed the Indo-Sri Lanka Economic and Technology Cooperative Agreement (ETCA) disregarding the objections raised by the people.
MP Bandula Gunawardane said the majority of the people including intellectuals and professionals are against the signing of the agreement. “The ETCA comes as a politically-motivated decision and not as a financial decision,” he said.
– See more at: http://www.dailymirror.lk/112749/Signing-ETCA-may-even-lead-to-bloodshed-JO?#sthash.tBdOB2DU.dpuf
July 20th, 2016 at 8:29 pm
Signing ETCA may even lead to bloodshed: JO
DailyMirror.lk
July 19, 2016
The joint opposition today said that there could even be ‘bloodshed’ in the country if the government signed the Indo-Sri Lanka Economic and Technology Cooperative Agreement (ETCA) disregarding the objections raised by the people.
MP Bandula Gunawardane said the majority of the people including intellectuals and professionals are against the signing of the agreement. “The ETCA comes as a politically-motivated decision and not as a financial decision,” he said.
July 20th, 2016 at 8:38 pm
Plans to IMPORT workers from India CONTINUES UNABATED instead of TRAINING & RETAINING our citizens in Sri Lanka.
The OBJECTIVE of this deaf, dumb and blind Yamapalana GoSL is to DISPLACE & REPLACE Sri Lankan CITIZENS and live off unskilled citizens laboring abroad, while they MAXIMIZE their profits in Sri Lanka!
Is this BENIGN GOVERNANCE or engineering a demographic change to fit their ULTERIOR MOTIVES of destroying the Sinhala Buddhist community??
Sinhalayeni …. Awadiwanna ….. you are going to become an ENSLAVED MINORITY in your own Motherland if you let this continue!
………………………….
Telangana IT minister KTR Invited to Srilanka Human Capital Summit 2016
July 19 (Press KS) Telangana Minister KT Rama Rao has received an invitation for an international level summit to be held in Sri Lanka in August. Minister KTR has been invited by the Sri Lankan government as a guest of honour to the inaugural session of the first ever Srilanka Human Capital Summit 2016.
The Sri Lanka Human Capital Summit 2016 of the government has extended an invitation to Telangana Minister for IT, Municipal Administration, Industries and Commerce and NRI Affairs K T Rama Rao for the first ever Sri Lanka Human Capital Summit 2016 to be held at Taj Samudra Hotel in Colombo on August 11 and 12.
The summit is being organised by the government of Sri Lanka in collaboration with the World Bank, Asain Development Bank (ADB) and International Labour Organisation (ILO). The Srilanka Human Capital Summit is aimed to develop a national agenda for developing future human capital to support Si Lanka’s economic growth plans.
KTR will be participating as the guest of the inaugural session of the summit by National Human Resource Development Council of Sri Lanka Chairman Dinesh Weerakkody.
KTR is going deliver a key-note address in the island nation along with Sri Lanka Prime Minister Ranil Wikramesinghe about Building a future ready workforce- Indian Experience and many other top notch personalities including World Bank Director Dr. Amit Dar and others.
July 20th, 2016 at 8:54 pm
As if Arjuna Mahendran has not done ENOUGH DAMAGE to Sri Lanka, the Yamapalana GoSL is appointing him to a TOP POST …………… managing the ETCA to boot! This is asking the FOX to mind the HEN HOUSE!
The Yamapalanaya GoSL has NO SHAME and is COMPLETELY DISREGARDING the objections of Sri Lankans, including …. apparently …..President Sirisena himself!
Instead of being INDITED AND PROSECUTED for the Bond Scam crime, he is being given MORE IMPORTANT JOBS!
Meanwhile, the Auditor General Gamini Wijesinghe is being HOUNDED, NO DOUBT to get him to RECANT the his SCATHING audit of the Bond Scam!
Yahapalanaya INDEED! What a FARCE!
……………………
A top post for Mahendran
DailyMirror.lk
July 19, 2016
Former Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran is to play a major role in finalizing trade agreements with foreign countries including the proposed Indo-Lanka Economic and Technological Cooperation Agreement (ECTA), top government sources said today.
He is also expected to play a role in the government’s programme of providing one million jobs which was one of the pledges made by the Government during the recent elections.
Mr. Mahendran is expected to be assisted by several top personalities from the private sector in implementing the programme to generate one million jobs.
Sources said he would play a major role in initiating the free trade agreements which Sri Lanka hoped to sign with China and Singapore.
Mr. Mahendran is expected to return to the country today and will participate in a meeting with experts in several fields at Temple Trees on Thursday. (Yohan Perera)
July 21st, 2016 at 2:16 pm
America should close down all its overseas military bases and bring all their troops home. American overseas military bases are threats to world peace.
American imperialist expansion is just British Colonialism through other means!
It seems the American govt strings are pulled by European Imperialists in Britain and Europe.
Good for Shenali. Sri Lankans and other peoples are waking up to these nefarious imperialist activities of foreign govt who secretly carry out these acts without the sanction of the people of those countries for example.
I doubt most Americans approve of their own govt interfering in other countries. Or other countries where these bases are planned the native populations approve.
White Colonialism has been totally discredited so why is the world still have to put up with this evil in the 21st century?
July 21st, 2016 at 2:46 pm
The Irony is that USA and Sri Lanka were both battling the British Forces of King George III of England. In 1776 the Americans managed to kick the British out of their country. In 1815 Sri Lanka became subjugated to King George the III of England. Just three years earlier in 1812, the British under King George III tried to subjugate the United States back into the British fold once more. But they were driven out, however the British set fire to Washington DC. The Americans managed to free themselves from the British in 1815. Sri Lanka became subjugated. Now the Americans have colonialists themselves subjugating nations.
Now Americans with the approval of their former British colonial masters are trying to subjugate Sri Lanka.
The irony of it all is quite staggering. Who would have thought the Americans would become as imperialist as the British. Hopefully the American Empire will withdraw back to the borders of the United States soon.
July 25th, 2016 at 1:21 pm
RohanJay,
America has become the ‘guardian’ of Britain & Europe after WW II.
America did not want anything to do with British wars or European wars after America gained Independence from Britain
(Independence Day, July 4, 1776).
During WWI, the British made ship luxury ship ‘Lusitania’ with many American VIPs on board was sunk under strange circumstances off the coast of Ireland which was occupied by Germany. The ship sank in a record 18 minutes with a huge explosions on board, killing 1,924 and 114 American VIPs. That is how America was made to join WW II. The rest is history.
Read details on the web on the sinking of the ‘Lusitania’.
America too was MADE to do stuff ! They are still doing stuff to save Britain.
July 26th, 2016 at 2:30 am
correcting error :
read as : “That is how America was made to join WW I”.