Sri Lanka Cabinet planning to Surrender the Country to the Americans through the MCC SOFA and ACSA Compact
Posted on November 10th, 2019
Mahinda Gunasekera
Thanks
to the report published in the Lankaweb on November 6, 2019, by the Indian
investigative journalist Sarojini Dutt, we are now able to see the foolish and
dangerous steps taken by the present government to sacrifice our independence
and sovereignty to the USA for a mere handful of dollars ($480 million)
promised as a grant, which too would go directly to US contractors engaged to
carry out the work involving land surveys and converting the land grants given
to landless farmers into freely marketable units to be registered in a
digitized land bank system. This no doubt would make the land holders in the
not too distant future, rootless and landless, selling off their land that
provided them their livelihoods to the highest bidders including foreigners as
provided in the new State Land Bank Act and the Land (Special Provisions) Act
replacing the LRC Act which guaranteed them tenure over their lands.
Her expose’ reveals some of the hidden areas in the Millenium Challenge
Corporation’s Compact under negotiation which was inadvertently distributed to
invited participants by the MCC team leader Steve Dobrilovic during a briefing
to senior legal officers of Sri Lankan banks and the then President of the Bar
Association in September 2018. The documents released included a map of Sri
Lanka as envisaged in the year 2050 following implementation of the Compact
which the present Cabinet of Minister approved for acceptance and nominated the
Finance Minister, Mangala Samaraweera to sign it on behalf of the country while
the people were focusing their attention on the Presidential Election scheduled
to be held on November 16, 2019. The map in question also showed a 200
mile corridor between Colombo and Trincomalee to be awarded to the US
authorities coming under US jurisdiction where an electric rail track was to be
built effectively dividing Sri Lanka into a southern and northern region. These
negotiations took place in absolute secrecy between representatives of the
government and the MCC team from the USA housed within the Temple Trees complex
used by the Prime Minister. Due to the lack of openness and secrecy
involved, the concerned citizens were jolted into shock and dismay, leading to
the Most Venerable Ududumbara Kasyapa Thero to undertake a fast unto death at
the Independence Hall demanding that the President, Prime Minister and Leader
of the Opposition commit themselves in writing not to proceed with the signing
of the Compact Agreement prior to same being discussed in Parliament and a
decision taken in a democratic manner. With opposition mounting and the fast of
the monk going into the second day, the key officials of the government
provided the written assurance enabling the venerable monk to call off his
fast.
The USA which operated a major military base in the island of Diego Garcia from
which they carried out hostilities in the Middle East, Afghanistan, etc.
obtaining a 50 year lease of the territory from the UK which expired in 2016,
having tricked and cheated the indigenous Chagossian people of a place to live
by instilling fear in them about a life threatening disease that would strike
them if they continued to remain, and thereby expelling them from Diego Garcia
and moving them away to live in Mauritius. The Chagossians have since appealed
to the UK Supreme Court and the UNGA which have ruled in their favour which
will allow them to get back to their island homeland soon with Britain being
compelled to hand back the island to Mauritius in whom sovereignty rests.
No wonder the USA is eyeing Sri Lanka as a logistics hub and potential military
base to replace Diego Garcia for which they were willing to make a grant of
$480 million to the political party whom they helped to install in the year
2015. Please click on the LINK below to access the article:
http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2019/11/06/sri-lanka-cabinet-surrenders-the-country-to-the-americans/
It is unimaginable that the politicians elected for just a five year term had
the audacity to secretly negotiate the break up of our sovereign country for a
bundle of $480 million, overturning our Non-Alligned policy, and tie up our
country with the military industrial complex of the USA which has evolved a
policy of continuous war necessary to profit from the sale of weapons and war
material and impose their will on other nations. Having co-sponsored a
resolution at the UNHRC along with the USA, UK and other western powers to put on
trial our heroic security forces personnel that sacrificed their life and limb
to regain the country after three decades of Tamil Tiger terrorism, it
was still not expected of them to drive their dagger into the heart of this
country ending the independence, freedom and sovereign status enjoyed by the
people from time immemorial over many millennia.
Mahinda Gunasekera