By :A.A.M.NIZAM – MATARA

In a sudden move, this quisling Mangala Samaraweera got the cabinet to approve on Tuesday  (29th October) to sign theMilleniumChallenge Corporation ( MCC) agreement with the United States despite stern objection by the President. Political analysts say that this move has been taken 18 days before the election to express gratitude for the assistance being provided by the American Embassy for the election and ask why Sajith Premadasa who keeps on making hollow promises saying that he will not bow down to foreign powers did not oppose this move and raised his hand supporting it? Not only the visionless, rakish and lewd Sajith Premadasa abut all American stooge Ministers who raised their corrupt hands in support of this sell-out motion should be condemned as unpardonable traitors. 

Sri Lanka’snational enemy, the foreign servile Ranil Wickremasinghe has said that the agreement with the United States on the  MC will be signed before the Presidential Election. It will be a Black Day in the history of SriLanka and all Sri Lankans should Black flags on their houses, religious places of worship, offices, shops and vehicles (Including three wheels and bicycles) on the day that Ranil signs this agreement. The treacherous Ranil authorized negotiations of this agreement soon after getting elected in the 2001 General election.

The SLPP President and the Leader of the Opposition Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa has expressed curiosity why the government is in a hurry to sign this disgraceful agreement prior to the presidential election, for which there are only a few more days and it is highly awkward to sign an agreement in this manner with a foreign country. Issuing a special message in this connection Mr. Mahinda has stressed that there is much suspicion on the contents that will be included in the agreement and hence the government should divulge to the people and the Parliament the contents of the agreement.  He has called to immediately summon the Parliament and give sufficient time for the opposition members to study the agreement and express their views and suggestions.  If it was not possible or the government is not willing to do so the signing of the agreement should be deferred until after the election. The message also states that although the government has said that this agreement is about road development and land reform the government has failed to properly apprise the people what would happen this proposed measures. Wonder why there is so much secret about this agreement if it, as the government says, is beneficial to the country. We emphatically point out to the government that no agreement with a foreign country should be signed on the sly without the knowledge of the people and the parliament. 

Many Buddhist prelates, religious organizations, civil society personnel, and parliamentarians condemned Tuesday’s cabinet approval and strongly demanded to abandon the moves to sign this agreement through which the country is pawned to the United States for 200 years.  It was sad to note that the bogus nationalist JVP and the NGO vultures remained totally silent as nothing has happened in the country.

Now let us see what the American Embassy says about this project.  Here are extracts from an interview given by U.S. Ambassador Alaina Teplitzto to Nirmala Kannangara of Daily Mirror on 27th May this year (2019). This was her first interview given in this country.

Denying the allegations leveled by the media concerning a permanent US base in Sri Lanka, the US envoy said the ‘Visiting Forces Agreement’ that the US has been negotiating with the Sri Lankan Government updates an existing agreement that dates way back to 1995.

I know there has been talking in the press around the concern of a permanent US base in Sri Lanka. This agreement would provide for nothing of that sort. It is about visiting forces here temporarily at the request and invitation of the Sri Lankan government for the conduct of exercises,” she added.

Responding to a question as to what are the geopolitical interests of the USA in Asia she said that she would look at it from a slightly different perspective. Not so much what the US’ specific geopolitical interests are but as a community of nations, their more global interests regarding a free and open Indo-Pacific space, the free transit of goods both by sea and air, and making sure there are laws and norms that allow nations to trade together peaceably and to get along, and that preserves these spaces for the transit of goods and the transit of services. She said that their interest is in preserving that rules-based order, ensuring that they have a chance to interact with other countries to their mutual benefit. Peace and prosperity are what they jointly working towards as beneficial outcomes for their countries. That’s how she sees their interests. It’s around what is in the mutual interests of all nations.

Responding to a question as to what is the interest of the USA in Sri Lanka’s strategic geographical position along a major sea lane, she said that there is no denying that Sri Lanka is in a very strategic location because of the sea lanes pass by here. For hundreds of years, it has become a path of trade and commerce heading between other parts of the world and the far east. So, it is very important in that regard and a lot of the economy here is linked.

She said that their interest in Sri Lanka as a friend and partner of this country, however, is not entirely around those sets of issues. Sri Lanka is a democracy. The US is a democracy. She said that they partner with democracies worldwide and they have common interests around maintaining that rules-based order that can benefit all nations globally with free and fair playing fields. She said that they also have interests around other issues of global stability and security, such as peacekeeping. Sri Lanka has been a troop-contributing country and they have also wanted to support that effort to maintain stability in other parts of the world.

She added that they also look at other security interests in the sense of ensuring the sovereignty of nations and making sure they can patrol and maintain not only the economic space around their countries but end transnational crime like global narcotics trafficking and human trafficking. We have common interests there. The bottom line is we have many, many more interests than Sri Lanka’s physical geographic locations.

She stated that they have another common interest around human rights and dignity for all and we want to make sure that globally these values are respected.

In response to a question the proposed status of forces agreement between the Sri Lankan and US military and hat are the benefits and drawbacks for both countries in entering into such an agreement, she explained that the Visiting Forces Agreement will help to mutual recognition of professional licenses, fees for professional support rendered, regulations for hiring foreign and local contractors, how US military personnel and civilian personnel can enter and exit Sri Lanka, the mutually agreeing what specific methods will be used. Given that she said that they conduct many joint exercises throughout any given calendar year as a part of their military-to-military relationship, it would certainly help both sides avoid a lot of case-by-case negotiations as they go from one exercise to another. The Ambassador said that there has been talking in the press around the concern of a permanent US base in Sri Lanka and said that this agreement would provide for nothing of that sort and it is about visiting forces here temporarily at the request and invitation of the Sri Lankan government for the conduct of exercises.

Ms. Tepliyz stated that the US looks at partnerships in the region including Sri Lanka with the idea that countries need to have many options, many friends and many partners. She said that they themselves have a relationship with China and they would expect that other countries in the region are also going to maintain relationships and the question for her was always what is the quality of those relationships? Are they ones where there is mutual respect for sovereignty? Are the relationships mutually beneficial in the sense that countries can work together for prosperity in the future? Are they transparent relationships? Are they equal relationships? These are the questions that any country should be asking about its partnerships.

The Sri Lankan Association in Australia SPUR   (Society for Peace, Unity and Human Rights for Sri Lanka Inc) published an article in Lankaweb on 4^th May, 2019 titled Reveal the contents of the MCC agreement to the general public” stated that in the aftermath of the tragic Easter Sunday bombings, the Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe on 27/04/2019 announced that the Millennium Challenge Corporation agreement was signed and that this agreement has provided Sri Lanka USD 500 million which could be used for development work.  In two articles published on the internet in February and March 2019, alleged details of this agreement were leaked to the public.

The articles allege that the MCC agreement is nothing but a plan to splinter Sri Lanka and turn it into a US Military Base.

The Key points alleged in these articles are:

• The agreement was drafted after two years of secretive negotiations between Ranil Wickremasinghe and the Millennium Challenge Corporation and It was to be signed in November 2018
• Undercover of ‘Megapolis’ development, the Americans demanded from Sri Lanka an ‘Economic’ Corridor of 1.2 Million Acres of land from Trincomalee to Colombo for a lease period of 200 years and they insisted that US law must prevail within this corridor
• The US has offered USD 400 million for the corridor which works out to Rs.24 per acre per month.
• It appears that Sri Lanka has been offered 80 million USD more
• The area covered by the corridor contains Eppawela’ phosphates, ilmenite, thorium, monazite, and rare-earth metals Cerium and Lanthanum
• The US insisted that Sri Lanka should abrogate her land laws which had protected her Sovereignty and National Security and that Ranil Wickramasinghe has agreed to oblige by drafting to  two new Bills – the ‘State Land Bank’ Bill and the ‘Land (Special Provision)’ Bill
• The construction of an ‘Electrified’ Railway Line from Trincomalee to Colombo protected with electric fences on either side which will effectively physically split the country into two.
• Anuradhapura and Kurunegala will be in the north of the corridor

The allegations above show that Ranil Wickremasinghe has signed an agreement that destroys the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Sri Lanka.

Given the grave nature of the allegations, it is imperative that the government immediately reveal the contents of the agreement without any redactions to the general public. We strongly request the government to do so immediately and all political and national leaders to recognize the dire implications of the agreement to the national sovereignty and take all steps to REJECT AND REPEAL ‘the agreement with MCC, USA.

Turning towards the audience, this person then went on to show another of the pages from the document in hand, a page that had a Map.

As the lettering just above the map indicates, the map is a visual representation of the spatial structure of Sri Lanka in 2050, as perceived by the MCC.

Edelman was clearly upset and she mumbled feebly that Steve had erroneously shown the wrong map.

Contrary to what Edelman said, there is an electrified railway line running from Trincomalee to Colombo; see the map-legend on the right side of the map; it indicates ‘proposed electrified railway line’. The protective electric fences on either side of the railway line would be the electric border between the North and the South of Sri Lanka.

Again, contrary to what Edelman said, the Corridor between Trinco and Colombo is one of the focus areas for land investment selected by the MCC; it has been chosen by the MCC for maximum economic impact, as indicated in the MCC document above.

In the 7 districts along this Corridor, the Edelman team admitted that there are 10 Land Registries; the GOSL has authorized the Americans to go into these Land Registries where documents pertaining to Sri Lanka’s sensitive and precious Land-Assets are stored and secured; this, even before any agreement has been reached.

Today, from all accounts received, there are Americans seen crawling out from all crannies and crevices in the Land Registry and Survey department buildings.

The Commissioner-General of Lands is no doubt aware of the principle of law applied at the Nuremberg Trials; he is required to comply with only lawful orders; failure to do so would make him equally liable before the law. Perhaps, the Surveyor-General, the Land Title Commissioner, the Government Chief Valuer, officials involved with digitalizing land documents and other Government Officers thrust with responsibility should bear this in mind and consider themselves, to have been put on notice.

In that same MCC Map above, to the South East of Polonnaruwa where the MCC has projected an International airport, there is a distinct encirclement of an area bounded by Vallachenai, Kattankudi, Batticaloa, Sainthamaruthu, Kalmunai, Amparai, Moneragala, Badulla and Hingurakgoda.  

Within this area is, where the ‘Muslim University’ has been constructed, where investigators have identified the heartland of Sri Lanka’s Caliphate terrorists, where the US army, from the US Indo-Pacific Command, has built barracks that could accommodate a Division of US troops, where 20 Caliphate terrorists committed suicide following the Easter massacre, where investigators have identified the home-base of terrorist Zaharan and where the meeting between Hizbullah and Teplitz took place, just two days prior to the Easter slaughter.

Quite suspiciously, while Sri Lanka was yet in deep shock the MCC Board in Washington, just two days after the Easter massacre, unilaterally approved the MCC compact although there is much opposition to it from the Sri Lankan public (on the grounds that they have been deliberately kept in the dark about the details of the Agreement).

and, the matter not even discussed in Parliament; the ‘gift’ had been upped from 420M to 48OM USD by an organization adjudged the most transparent in the US.

‘Matara-Spyhole’, Samaraweera and Teplitz announced the details of the ‘gift’ gleefully to a Nation numbed by shock and horror; it is a silver lining was their message and a ‘gift’ that must be taken immediately, lest the Americans withdraw the ‘gift’.

It would appear that the Americans are using the Easter killings to force us to accept their ‘gift’. That is food for thought.

An untruthful Edelman said that this ‘gift’, has no attached conditions, it is an outright grant and does not have to be repaid.

Bernard Gunathilaka of Pathfinders, of the same ilk as Prasad Kariyawasam the willing servant of the US, said Do not look a gift horse in the mouth”.

Was it Sri Lanka’s misfortune that these two persons had to be in the Foreign Ministry and head it too?

When does a gift horse become a Trojan horse? It is when the gift horse is given with attached conditions; it is when an Agreement has to be signed, to receive a ‘gift’. The ‘conditions’ laid down by the MCC for Sri Lanka to comply with, become the price Sri Lanka has to pay.

When payments are made by the receiver of the ‘gift’, the money touted as an outright grant, ceases to be a grant.

This is the type of modus operandi that was adopted by the traveling snake-oil-salesmen of the wild-west to dupe the people in America; MCC, Teplitz, and Edelman have traveled a long way to Sri Lanka to do the same.

And in the case of the MCC Compact, Sri Lanka would be making an eternal payment to the donor of the ‘gift’ horse; Sri Lanka by complying with the conditions laid down would be gifting the Americans, the donor of the ‘gift’ horse, the entire country forever.

/ to be contd