Chamara Wijesooriya

Lanka Voice

Maathalan – (මාතලන්)

VFM RADIO 107

අන්තිම මොහොතේ ප්‍රභාව ගෙනියන්න ඇමරිකාවෙන් නැවක් ආවා රනිල්ව හිරේ දානවට වඩා මෙන්න මේ අයවයි ඇතුළට දාන්න ඕනේ හිටපු නාවික හමුදාපතිගෙන් ඇඟ හිරිවටෙන හෙළිදරව්වක්

Shenali D Waduge

Following US exiting UNHRC calling it a cesspool of political bias”, the United Kingdom has come forward to head the Sri Lanka Core Group which comprises of Canada, Malawi, Montenegro and North Macedonia – a cluster that aligns purely based on influence by either UK, Canada or both. Had UK & Canada exited like US & Germany, would these nations have continued case against Sri Lanka independently? All of their diplomatic relations with Sri Lanka is hardly 3 decades & questions what direct harm Sri Lanka has caused them to merit such disproportionate hostility?

As the United Nations Human Rights Council’s so-called core group” turns its focus on Sri Lanka, one must ask a simple yet piercing question: Have these nations forgotten the colonial crimes committed by the United Kingdom, a former empire whose shadow still lingers over many of them?

Sri Lanka, a sovereign nation that has harmed none of these countries directly, is now under scrutiny for alleged human rights violations during the final phase of the conflict to end 30 years of terrorism —an accusation that demands careful reflection on historical context and fairness. 

The UK, the most prominent member of this Core group, played a central role in shaping the destinies of several of these nations during colonial rule, often to the detriment of the local populations.

Colonial Legacies of Core Group Members

Canada: The British colonial human rights violations to Indigenous peoples come nowhere near those defined as human rights” violations today.

The Indian Act (1876) institutionalized systemic discrimination, restricting cultural practices, governance, and land rights. Even today, Indigenous communities face challenges under federal and provincial laws that advance development projects without meaningful consultation, infringing on self-determination. 

Malawi: 

Formerly Nyasaland, Malawi was economically exploited under British rule, with cash crop economies designed to benefit European settlers. Today, the legacy of these colonial structures persists in poverty, inequality, and limited access to education and health services 

Montenegro & North Macedonia: 

While not traditional colonies, these nations experienced significant European interference, including UK influence in political boundaries and the formation of the Yugoslav state. Today, both face political instability, ethnic tensions, and governance challenges rooted in externally imposed structures. 

United Kingdom: 

The former colonial power exploited, divided, and controlled populations across continents, including Sri Lanka. Today, the UK faces rising inequality, post-Brexit economic and political instability, unresolved regional tensions in Scotland and Northern Ireland, and systemic racial inequities. 

United States: 

The first European settlers in what became the U.S. were largely British convicts and indentured servants. These early settlements laid the foundation for a nation built upon colonial practices. Presently, the U.S. continues to wrestle with systemic racism, inequality, and the legacies of colonial displacement of Indigenous peoples and slavery.

Are you aware of Sri Lanka’s Conflict?

Sri Lanka faced three decades of terrorism and external pressure while striving to uphold its sovereignty and implement post-conflict reconciliation. Unlike the colonial impositions that disrupted the development and social fabric of core group nations, Sri Lanka’s policies have been directed toward rebuilding, maintaining peace, and protecting its citizens.

Yet, the core group pursues a narrative that selectively condemns Sri Lanka while ignoring broader historical and global contexts. This selective lens undermines the credibility of international human rights advocacy and raises the question of fairness: Is this truly about human rights, or about maintaining influence and exerting moral pressure?

Historical and Present-Day Reflection

It is worth reminding the core group that colonial exploitation is not merely history:

·      Canada continues to struggle with Indigenous rights and environmental justice.

·      Malawi continues to confront structural inequalities rooted in colonial economic systems.

·      Montenegro and North Macedonia still navigate political instability and ethnic tensions from externally imposed boundaries.

·      The UK faces unresolved domestic inequality, regional unrest, and historical accountability for colonial crimes.

·      The United States continues to grapple with systemic racial inequities and the consequences of its colonial foundations.

If these nations have yet to fully reconcile their own pasts and present failings, their authority to lead a selective campaign against Sri Lanka is deeply compromised.

A Call for Fairness

Before launching what increasingly resembles a witch-hunt, the members of the core group should pause and reflect on their own histories and present challenges. 

Sri Lanka asks only to be judged on facts and actions, not on selective narratives shaped by historical amnesia and geopolitical interests.

The principle is simple: nations that were once colonies, or whose foundations were built on colonial displacement, exploitation, and division, deserve a fair and consistent application of international standards. 

Sri Lanka, which has harmed none of the core group countries, merits an approach grounded in factual assessment, fairness, and respect for sovereignty.

The world must ask itself: If colonial crimes are forgotten and unaccounted or even acknowledged, can we truly claim moral authority to judge another nation – one that suffered 30 years of terrorism, abiding by the internationally promoted ceasefires, peace talks & negotiations in spite of which the terrorists targeted & killing hundreds & thousands of unarmed civilians. The Government of Sri Lanka was compelled to take action only after the LTTE terrorists closed the sluice gates denying water to over 40,000 farmers committing a war crime. While eradicating the terrorists the National Armed Forces saved close to 300,000 civilians in spite of which a figure of 40,000 killed is being promoted falsely without any proof or evidence failing to even name the dead even 16 years after the end of the conflict.

The Dangerous Precedent being Set

What is being applied to Sri Lanka today sets a dangerous precedent for tomorrow. 

If unproven figures, unverifiable allegations, and politically motivated reports can be used as the basis for punitive action, then no country is safe. Any state — particularly in the Global South — could find itself subject to the same kind of witch hunt” under the guise of human rights, when in fact the motivations are political, strategic, or economic.

If this model of selective justice continues, it risks turning the UNHRC into a tool for global power struggles rather than a platform for genuine human rights protection where a handful of Nations in connivance with the UNHRC attempt to usurp the powers of the UNGA & UNSC 

The very countries driving this agenda should ask themselves: would they consent to having their own colonial crimes, present-day discrimination, or military interventions subjected to the same standard they now impose on Sri Lanka?

Shenali D Waduge

By Raj Gonsalkorale

Some are more equal than others” is a paradoxical phrase from George Orwell’s allegorical novel Animal Farm that highlights societal hypocrisy, where the concept of equality is proclaimed but a privileged few receive preferential treatment

Theatrics in Sri Lankan politics has reached a crescendo with the arrest, remanding and bail out of Mr Ranil Wickremasinghe, former President, Prime Minister, Leader of the Opposition and member of parliament since 1977.

Opposition strong men and women who shunned Mr Wickremasinghe and strongly objected to him being the President of the country, from within Opposition ranks and from outside, and called him various derogatory names in Parliament and outside, rallied around him after his arrest. Some quipped that birds of a feather always flock together although when he was President, many of them questioned his legitimacy as President claiming he did not have a mandate to be President having entered Parliament as a nominated member while the party he led suffered the most humiliating defeat in its history at the general election in 2020. His party, the United National Party polled only 249,435 votes. The 2024 general election was much worse for his party, as it managed to obtain only 66,234 votes nationally.

He was praised by some for steadying the economy of a bankrupt country once he took over the reins of the Presidency.  Many though shared the view that if not for the compulsory fiscal discipline that was mandatory for support from the IMF and their bailout package, Mr Wickremasinghe would not have been able to do any steadying judging by his record as Prime Minister and Minister of Economic Development from 2015 to 2019. They contended that drop in GDP growth from around 6% in 2015 to 2.3% in 2019, increase in the overall debt to close to 90% of GDP in 2019 from around 70% in 2015, arising mainly from a record USD 12 Billion International Sovereign Bond borrowing, contributed to the country’s bankruptcy in 2022, and that his economic credentials were far from satisfactory. Despite this, it has to be said though that as the political leader at the helm as the President of the country, he has to be given some credit for the commencement of the economic recovery along with IMF support.

In this backdrop, many seem to be amused at what some have termed the theatrics displayed by a collection of disparate Opposition politicians. What really brings these people together and what motives they have, as well as the objectives of the government is the topic of conversation and opinions circulating, especially in social media platforms.

As a case has been filed against Mr Wickremasinghe for alleged abuse of State resources, this article does not wish to discuss any aspect of the case, its merits or demerits or any politics associated with it, or not. Suffice to say that it is now left to the Judiciary to make a legal determination based on the evidence that will be presented by the prosecutors and the arguments presented by his legal team in his defense. 

Irrespective of the politics associated with the case filed against Mr Wickremasinghe, what matters and should matter to the general public, again irrespective of party affiliations, is the principle that some should not be more equal than others and enjoy any rights or privileges that are not available to the rest of citizenry, and that no one should be above the law of the land. In the past, many political leaders became overloaded with their ego, and they surrounded themselves with people who played to their ego and received rewards for doing so.  Such leaders were protected by other politicians, some members of law enforcement agencies, and the armed forces, and even some members of the judiciary.  Some were elevated to the status of unofficial kings through orchestrated campaigns. Families of some leaders basked in the glow of this superiority of leaders, and they too were regarded as more equal than other families of ordinary citizens of the country. It cannot be denied by any nonpolitical citizen of the country that the ruling class of the country was collectively more equal than others and they enjoyed a special status that shielded them from the law, where an ordinary citizen would have had to face legal punishment for exactly a similar kind of offence.  

Neither should one deny that such leaders and their families, if they are among the living today, should be brought down from their elevated pedestals, a status created by themselves in their minds and only for themselves, to the same status as an ordinary citizen who is subject to the law of the land.

These more equal than others category of leaders and their families have shields beyond from some in the law enforcement agencies as well as within the judiciary. Their shields have been and still are to varying degrees wider and deeper with sections of the bureaucracy supporting them and shielding them from their illegal practices, often for monetary reward.  Such shields contribute to the maintenance and further elevation of the more equal than others status of these leaders and their families.

Basically, this translates to a situation of cultural exclusivity for such leaders and their families, where sections of the citizenry too are complicit, willingly or unwittingly, and elect and re-elect such leaders as they see them as different and above their own status and deserving special attention and even respect.

However, it needs to be said here that for the first time in the post-independence history of the country, people viewed this self-made exclusivity as unjust and unfair, and voted overwhelmingly to reject them and, in their place, elect a different type of leadership at the last Presidential and Parliamentary elections. This transformation hopefully will lead to the evolution of a Sri Lankan society where no one will be regarded as more equal than others in the eyes of the law of the land.

A word of caution however is relevant here. As the fictional story Animal Farm by George Orwell illustrates, one set of leaders who works hard to replace another set of tainted, corrupt leaders, promising huge changes to the culture of some being more equal than others, should not end up similar or even worse than the leaders they have ousted, and introducing a culture with an exclusivity  that could appear to be different to what has been changed, but which in effect could be even worse and maintained by means that are undemocratic, dictatorial and even violent.  An end by itself cannot justify the means to that end, and it is vital that the means employed are lawful, democratic and nonviolent.

There cannot be any doubt except in the minds of those who considered themselves as members of the some are more equal than others” collective, that a cultural change is needed to ensure every citizen adheres to the law of the land irrespective of their status, which is only a construct in their minds. It is true that over the centuries, history has shown how some people, including the country’s kings and queens and other nobles and high-ranking officials, lived in a status driven feudalistic society, and perhaps it is in the genes of some in contemporary times! In some respects, it can be said that the historical status quo began changing when all of Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) was ceded to the United Kingdom in 1815. The evolution that began did not necessarily result in a more equal and equitable society. Beginning in the late 1920s, in Sri Lanka, a ruling elite began taking shape culminating in a society where a few of them dictated the destiny of the majority.  Many have argued that the so-called independence struggle was not a peoples struggle as such but more a discussion forum involving the small coterie of the elite and the British Colonial authorities, resulting eventually the granting of a negotiated sovereign status to the country that ensured the continuance of some British interests and a governance system based on the British system with the Monarch of the UK being the Head of State of the country and represented in Sri Lanka by a Governor General. In respect of the theme of this article, what is relevant here is that with such independence, there was no marked cultural change in the mindset of a majority of the people of the country, and they witnessed the coming to be of a new set of elites to replace the departing ones who were more equal than others.

In the context of ensuring an equal and equitable society where everyone is equal before the law of the country and no special privileges are given to a few based on their so called status”, Sri Lanka needs a cultural shift in their mindsets and a system change that assigns such a status to anyone based on their values and ethics and not their political power, connections or money. Values based on an individual’s religious beliefs, the teachings of their religious leaders, lessons from living examples of people who have done selfless service to others without any monetary or other rewards expectations, could pave the way for a values-based society to replace a society where these noble characteristics are not recognized, emulated and appreciated.

An article titled System change and ushering a value-based society” (https://www.ft.lk/columns/System-change-and-ushering-value-based-society/4-771369) explores what a system change should mean in a society and how a system change could restore some values that have been eroded over time and how the political, religious and civil society leadership could act and be examples to others about governing within a value system. In a value-based society, a truth and a lie cannot conveniently fall within the ambit of a democratic right. In fact, democracy itself should fall within the ambit of a broader value system. After all, what is a democracy if there are no moral values, if there no ethics, if there is no fairness, if there is no equality and equity, if there is no honesty, and if there is no integrity? In a society that has such values, there will not be any room for some to be more equal than others.

Shenali D Waduge

The people elected Sri Lanka’s second female leader Chandrika Bandaranaiake, the daughter of the world’s first prime minister Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaiake and assassinated Prime Minister S W R D Bandaranaiake, with much hope. Her policies were a direct opposite to that of her parents. During the late 1990s, Sri Lanka embarked on an aggressive privatization and liberalization drive, amidst LTTE terror often influenced by IMF and World Bank advice. While presented as modernization” and private sector efficiency,” the process systematically transferred profits and control of key national assets to a small group of local elites, foreign investors, and corporate partners, leaving the state and people with only short-term cash gains and no change to loan/national debt status.

Key features of this mismanagement include:

• Long-term leases and BOO/BOT deals:

Assets such as hotels, plantations, and utilities were leased or sold with contracts lasting 50+ years, ensuring profits were siphoned to private and foreign hands for decades.

• Elite capture:

Local politicians, public servants, and corporate players colluded in deals that prioritized private gains over national benefit often for commissions.

• Profit leakage offshore:

Amendments to the Monetary Exchange Act in 2016 removed restrictions that previously criminalized hiding profits abroad, allowing local companies to retain billions in offshore accounts—showing that corporate actors were just as culpable as public officials in profiting from these deals.

• Aid-driven conditions:

Many privatizations were aligned with IMF/World Bank prescriptions, pressuring the state to reduce involvement in energy, telecom, transport, and plantation sectors. While these deals were sold as modernization, the long-term strategic losses far outweighed the short-term cash inflows.

• Public backlash and controversies:

Scandals, undervaluation, foreign control, and monopolistic privileges created lasting economic and political resentment, as seen in Water’s Edge, Emirates’ sudden exit from Air Lanka, and criticism over RPC leases.

Key privatizations under President Chandrika

1. PRIMA / Colombo PRIMA Hotel – Late 1990s
2. Privatized under:President Chandrika Kumaratunga

BOT was approved under Jayawardena, but Chandrika converted to BOO.

• Buyer / Foreign involvement:Private consortiums with foreign hotel partners
• Current status:Fully private under BOO model – total monopoly
• State gains:Upfront cash; capital investment commitments
• State losses / concerns:Long-term profits diverted; state had limited operational control
• Aid / Judgment factor:Likely aligned with IMF/World Bank preference for private sector-led tourism; questionable judgment in BOO model
• Scandals / Legal issues:No major annulments, but public criticism over monopoly and long-term revenue loss

• Shell Gas / Colombo Gas (LPG) – 1995–1996
• Privatized under:Chandrika Kumaratunga
• Buyer / Foreign involvement:Royal Dutch Shell (Netherlands), 51% stake
• Current status:Buyback in 2010 under Mahinda Rajapakse; now Litro Gas Lanka
• State gains:~$37 million upfront; infrastructure investment
• State losses / concerns:Dividends to Shell; exclusive monopoly rights; lost strategic control; billions in potential profits diverted abroad
• Aid / Judgment factor:Likely pressured by World Bank / IMF to reduce state involvement in energy; poor strategic judgment on monopoly terms
• Scandals / Legal issues:None formal, but public criticism of revenue leakage

• Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) – 1997
• Privatized under:Chandrika Kumaratunga
• Buyer / Foreign involvement:NTT (Japan) – 35% stake
• Current status:Majority state-owned; NTT exited
• State gains:$225 million upfront; debt reduction; tech transfer; capex commitments
• State losses / concerns:Management fees (1.2% net revenue + 0.5% gross profit); dividends to foreign shareholders; partial influence on strategic decisions; monopoly ended.

NTT managed day-to-day operations for 5 years; fees: 1.2% of net revenue + 0.5% of gross profit

• Aid / Judgment factor:Encouraged under World Bank / IMF liberalization agenda; partial loss of long-term monopoly profits
• Scandals / Legal issues:None reported

• 23 Regional Plantation Companies (RPCs) – Mid-1990s
• Privatized under:Chandrika Kumaratunga
• Buyers / Foreign involvement:Hayleys, Browns, JKH, Richard Pieris, Watawala (Tata India), Udapussellawa & Pussellawa (Finlays UK)
• Current status:Private-managed under long-term leases (50+ years); some leases for 53 years. performance mixed
• State gains:Upfront lease proceeds; ongoing rent/tax revenue; investment commitments
• State losses / concerns:Long-term profits from tea/rubber largely privatized; foreign dividends; strategic control over estates reduced
• Aid / Judgment factor:IMF / World Bank encouraged privatization and foreign investment; poor long-term judgment on lease durations
• Scandals / Legal issues:Some criticism over foreign control and long leases; public dissatisfaction over land control

• SriLankan Airlines (Air Lanka) – 1998
• Privatized under:Chandrika Kumaratunga
• Buyer / Foreign involvement:Emirates – 40% stake; full 10-year management control
• Current status:Government bought back 43.6% stake in 2010; airline remains state-owned
• State gains:$70 million upfront; temporary improvement in management/service
• State losses / concerns:Lost profits (~$200–300m); lost control of routes; forced buyback at $53m; ongoing bailouts
• Aid / Judgment factor:Possibly influenced by liberalization agenda; extremely poor strategic judgment in management control
• Scandals / Legal issues:Sudden Emirates exit left state unprepared; heavy public criticism

• Ceylon Electricity Board / Independent Power Producers (IPPs) – Late 1990s

• Privatized under:Chandrika Kumaratunga
• Buyer / Foreign involvement:Private IPPs; some foreign partners – foreign IPPs included AES (US) and other joint ventures.
• Current status:Privately operated; state partially regulates tariffs
• State gains:Investment in new power capacity; operational improvements
• State losses / concerns:Profits and dividends to private operators; tariff adjustments limited state revenue capture; strategic control reduced
• High tariffs to consumers and profit repatriation abroad.
• Aid / Judgment factor:Likely IMF / World Bank influenced; short-term expansion achieved but long-term revenue ceded
• Scandals / Legal issues:Criticism over high tariffs and private profits; no annulments

Additional Notes / Scandals under Chandrika:

Water’s Edge land: Controversial lease/BOT arrangement; public outcry over undervaluation and foreign management.

BOT/lease undervaluation (~Rs 300–500m estimated); long-term revenue lost.

Some privatizations had long-term leases (RPCs, hotels) that effectively handed profits to private/foreign entities for decades.

Public outcry:  public opinion criticized mismanagement, undervaluation, and excessive foreign control.

Note: Details from publicly available records

Other IMF / World Bank–Influenced Policies and Sectoral Reforms

• Education and Culture:

Programs encouraged privatization of schools, vocational training, and cultural institutions, along with shifts toward foreign-funded curricula, reducing state control and prioritizing donor objectives over national priorities. Present promotion of LGBTQIA ideology among young children is part of that agenda while also being funded & promoted by western embassies & their NGOs.

• Land Administration:

The Bim Saviya land reforms replaced historical land deeds with simplified records, facilitating asset acquisition by private and foreign interests.

Replacing original land deeds with simplified A4-style records and US-operated electronic database facilitated foreign/private acquisitions & was part of MCC.

• Financial Sector:

Partial privatizations and foreign management of banks, coupled with liberalization of capital flows, exposed the national financial system to profit repatriation and offshore holdings.

Partial privatizations included Hatton National Bank (HNB) and People’s Bank collaborations with foreign management/partners.

• Energy and Utilities:

Privatization of LPG, telecoms, and IPPs often came with long-term contracts and foreign management, aligned with IMF/World Bank prescriptions to reduce state involvement in infrastructure.

• Tourism and Hospitality:

Policies promoted BOO/BOT privatizations of hotels (e.g., PRIMA) to attract foreign investment, often sacrificing long-term revenue streams and giving operational monopolies to private consortia.

• Economic Liberalization:

Across multiple sectors, the agenda emphasized short-term investment and fiscal inflows over strategic control, leaving state assets vulnerable to profit siphoning and elite capture.

These policies, though framed as modernization or efficiency initiatives, systematically transferred long-term benefits and strategic control from the state to private and foreign actors, often at the expense of national sovereignty and public interest. With income that could have been generated by the State falling into local private or foreign investor hands or their partnership, while promoting consumerisms & import-culture which invariably meant commissions to handlers, Sri Lanka steadily progressed into the debt trap of its own making due to poor leadership understanding, poor advisors and caving into privatization deals & their carrots.

The privatization agenda under Chandrika not only lost control of key assets but also transferred billions in potential profits abroad, enriching a handful of local elites and foreign investors. Understanding this history is essential for the public to grasp how policy misjudgment, elite collusion, and foreign-aligned privatization contributed to structural economic vulnerabilities in Sri Lanka.

Shenali D Waduge

Trump’s Florida, Palm Beach Mar-a-Lago Manor within the Radius

Were there Drones in some of the 325 Containers marked dangerous that were cleared without customs inspections, many allegedly sent to Israeli businesses located in vulnerable coastal and hilltop areas in Sri Lanka? The geostrategic island must take note as another American warship, USS Tulsa approaches in the wake of USS Santa Barbara last week, and sink holes appear inland, in Colombo. After all Geoengineering Climate Disasters are increasingly the new normal in the Faux Anthropocene.

·  Carlo Domenico Cristofori

The powerful and devastating Russian Geranium 2 drones would have already deployed in Venezuela and so would be ready to strike in the event of a concrete threat against the Latin American country, which has been under the protection of Russia and China for 6 years.The Russian military intelligence website News-Pravda has reported it.

Moscow, Beijing, and Tehran have been defending Caracas and the elected President Nicolas Maduro since 2019, when US President Donald Trump had the Christian Socialist Bolivarian Republic hit with terrible electromagnetic attacks by the US Army in the hope of achieving a regime change, first attempted by the CIA’s American counterintelligence team in 2002.

Then it was mercenary snipers who shot at the crowd to incite a protest against President Hugo Chavez in a military plot that failed, unlike a similar one carried out in the same way by the Five Eyes intelligence agency in 2014 in Kiev.

The American president, dazed by the barrage of statements from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European and NATO leaders opposing peace in Ukraine, has gone so far as to threaten new economic sanctions against Moscow and to envoy US military warship in the water close to Caracas.

On August 25,  President Donald Trump stated that he wants to rename the Department of Defense to the Department of War (named as such until 1947). He told his Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that the current name somehow didn’t sound good”.  But he also yearns for a Nobel Peace Prize.

Trump was perplexed that the United States won World War I, won World War II, won everything”, questioning the rationale of defenders”.

There was a Drone Attack on a Colombian Navy Ship — Just as the U.S. Moved Warships Toward Venezuela

A Colombian Navy vessel was hit by an explosives-laden drone on the Putumayo River, near Puerto Leguízamo. The blast damaged the deck of the ARC Hichamon. No injuries reported.

This comes days after the U.S. deployed three destroyers near Venezuela, and Colombia publicly ruled out a military pact with Caracas.

«These mysterious incidents” in Colombia could be used to justify greater U.S. involvement in the region—or pressure Bogota to get on board» News-Pravda has commented.

The Potentially High Risk for Florida and Mar-a-Lago Manor

Trump can’t joke about Venezuela, as it risks endangering Florida and his own millionaire residence.

The Russian military intelligence website News-Pravda has already published a map showing the US military targets inside the potential range of the Geranium drones (see below details).

The Trump’s Mar-a_lago Manor in Palm Beach

But this calculation was based on a safe range of 2,000 km, even though these sophisticated kamikaze UAVs, based on the Iranian Shahed 136 model, despite weighing approximately 200 kg, including 40 kg of explosives, are capable of flying 2,500 km at a maximum speed of 185 km/h.

So they would therefore also be capable of hitting Miami, Tampa, and Palm Beach, destroying Trump’s Mar-a-Lago mansion in the latter location…

Venezuela appeals to the UN over U.S. military presence in the Caribbean Sea

Venezuela has sent an official request to the United Nations (UN) regarding the deployment of US naval forces in the Caribbean, the country’s Foreign Minister, Ivan Gil Pinto, announced on his Telegram channel on August 27, 2025.

The statement was released following a meeting with the UN Resident Coordinator in Venezuela, Gianluca Rampolla.

We appealed to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to restore common sense and shared our concerns about the deployment of US military units and even nuclear weapons in the Caribbean, which pose a threat to peace,” Gil Pinto emphasized.

The minister noted that Caracas considers US actions, including the deployment of three destroyers, a guided-missile cruiser, a submarine, and an amphibious squadron with 4,500 troops, to be a provocation and an attempt to put pressure on the Venezuelan government.

Trump ‘s Lethal Electromagnetic Warfare in 2019 

US President Trump, who then caused thousands of deaths through harsh economic sanctions vs Caracas and even trough electromagnetic sabotage capable of disabling even hospital operating rooms, recently returned to the attack against Maduro in three ways.

ELECTROMAGNETIC ATTACK: ANOTHER BLACKOUT IN VENEZUELA

• With a propaganda plan funded by Elon Musk against the Bolivarian government,
• by increasing the bounty from $25 million to $50 million for the capture of the Venezuelan president, whom the White House believes has ties to Latin American drug cartels,
• and by sending three warships to the Caribbean Sea to instill a concrete psychological threat.

Maduro blames US, Musk for leading Coup Attempts in Venezuela. The CIA Network…

«On August 18, Reuters reported that the destroyers USS Gravely (DDG-107), USS Jason Dunham (DDG-109), and USS Sampson (DDG-102) approached Venezuelan waters within a 36-hour period to combat drug cartels. The agency attributed the information to sources linked to the US Department of Defense. The news was amplified by headlines warning of an imminent naval operation in the Caribbean, while seeking to reinforce the narrative that Venezuela poses a threat to US security»

Veterans Today Foreign Policy has reported.

These three actions, however, are proving to be failures precisely because of the unconditional support of two nuclear powers like Russia and China, ready to intervene, as in 2019 against elcecromagnetic sabotages, in the event of a serious escalation.

The Maduro Fight against Narcos who are friends of his Political Rival US-backed

But they are proving totally ineffective for three specific reasons:

Musk has clashed with Trump and has therefore withdrawn his financial and social media support for the smear campaign against Maduro.

US FEUD: MUSK Claims EPSTEIN SCANDAL to Impeach Trump and Endorse Vance for President. POTUS answered on Tesla Tycoon’s alleged Drug Use…

All international investigative journalists know that the Bolivarian government has implemented a serious crackdown on drug trafficking, even arresting those who had close ties to Venezuelan political rival Juan Guaidó.

Guaidò is suspected of being a CIA-trained secret agent and supported by both Barack Obama and Donald Trump

despite his embarrassing associations with Colombian cartel officials.

Venezuela: Guaido’s Friends ParaMilitary Narcos Tied to Italian Mafia but Trump charges Maduro

Today, the news of the dispatch of Russian Gernaium 2 drones to Venezuela, reported by the News-Pravda website but also in a video posted on a Latin American military social media profile, leaves little doubt that Putin is ready to defend his protected colony” at all costs.

And it makes Trump’s latest military move appear like a crude threat, similar to the US Navy’s deployment of submarines near Russia.

Ahead of the  Putin-Trump Meeting ADMIRAL NAKHIMOV IS BACK with ZIRCON MISSILES. Russia’s Massive Battlecruiser on Service toward Western Threats against Deal in Ukraine

Russian Geraniums” for Venezuela

How will the situation change with the delivery of Russian UAVs? The growing US military activity in the Caribbean is a reason to wonder how Venezuela can respond in the event of a potential conflict. And the latest achievements of drone engineering can play into her hands.

News-Pravda article has wondered, adding important details…

«We suppose that 2,000 Geraniums” have been delivered to the Bolivarian Republic. Then the Venezuelans will be able to reach American bases in the Caribbean region, and under certain conditions, even facilities on the US mainland».

The US Military Targets in the Radius of Russian UAV (VIDEO)

What will the Geraniums be able to hit when launching from Caracas?

This is the anwer according the russian outlet…

The Guantanamo Bay Naval base in Cuba, capable of accommodating about 50 ships of different classes and about 5,000 military personnel. It was from there that one of the littoral ships LCS-21 came out, which is now cutting circles off the coast of Venezuela.

The map of the US targets in the radoius of Geranium drone launched fron Venezuela

Fort Buchanan base in Puerto Rico, which is an important element of the American military presence in the Caribbean. The Muniz Air Force Base is also located there, an airfield from where P-8 anti-submarine patrol aircraft operate.

St. Croix Air National Guard Base in the Virgin Islands is a logistics hub for the United States Air Force, where B-52 strategic bombers periodically fly in.

Finally, instructors from the American MTR are stationed at the Melgar Air Force Base in Colombia.

And if we launch Geraniums” from the western regions of Venezuela or barges?

Homestead Air Force Reserve Base in Florida, home to the F-15, F-16, and C-130 fighter squadrons. B-52 bombers can also be stationed there.

The Soto Cano Air Force Base

in Honduras, where, among other things, the headquarters of the Joint Interagency Task Force Bravo (JTF-Bravo) is located.

The Atlantic Underwater Testing Center (AUTEC) in the Bahamas, which is the most important facility for comprehensive testing of American nuclear submarines and other promising deep-sea equipment.

«Although the Americans are quite capable of shooting down Geraniums, if Venezuela acquires several thousand UAVs, they will be forced to increase their forces and resources, because the likelihood of an air strike will not be so illusory» Nerws-Pravda pointed out

Waiting for PUTIN-TRUMP meeting in Alaska, DRONES’ CHALLENGE grows among US, RUSSIA, IRAN. Pentagon unveils New MQM-172 Arrowhead to Test it in Ukraine. Moscow already Using Geran 3 (video)

This may make the authorities in Washington think.: Is it even worth the candle if, instead of a cavalry charge, you need to pull together a large group? Especially in conditions of overexertion of naval forces due to activities in the Asia-Pacific region and the Middle East.

Venezuela is a major buyer of Russian weapons, and the supply of Geraniums to it is self—evident. And other countries, at the sight of this, will clearly want to acquire an affordable long arm” of Russian production.

Carlo Domenico Cristofori

https://gospanews.net/en/2025/08/27/russian-drones-geranium-2-in-venezuela-to-deter-trump-threats-even-mar-a-lago-manor-close-to-the-radius-of-a-military-revenge-video

National Development Bank PLC

Reinforcing its commitment to making overseas education a seamless journey for Sri Lankan students and their families, NDB has entered into a strategic partnership with ACCHE (Academy of Career Counselling Higher Education) through the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on 25th August 2025.

The MOU was formally signed by Mr. Sanjaya Perera, Senior Vice President – Personal Banking & Customer Experience, and Mr. Zeyan Hameed, Vice President – Retail Banking, on behalf of NDB Bank, together with Mr. Aruna Moragoda, Director of ACCHE.

Through this partnership, students aspiring to pursue higher education in leading global destinations including, Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Canada, Singapore, Malaysia, and select European countries, will benefit from a comprehensive package of educational and financial support.

NDB’s Student File proposition will play a central role in this initiative, providing a streamlined solution that covers tuition fee payments, living expenses, foreign remittances, and financial advisory throughout the study period. Elevate Officers, dedicated as single points of contact, will further ensure a personalised and hassle-free banking experience for parents and students alike.

ACCHE, a trusted and accredited foreign education consultant since 2006, has guided thousands of Sri Lankans on their academic journeys overseas, offering expert counseling on admissions, visas, and placements. Together, NDB and ACCHE aim to provide students not only with the right educational pathways but also the financial assurance and convenience required to embark on this transformative journey with confidence.

Commenting on the partnership, Mr. Sanjaya Perera, Senior Vice President – Personal Banking & Customer Experience at NDB Bank stated, Education is one of the most important investments a family can make, and we are proud to partner with ACCHE to create a seamless support structure for students pursuing higher studies abroad. Through NDB’s Student File, we are able to deliver end-to-end financial solutions that make the overseas education experience more accessible, efficient, and worry-free for parents and students alike.”

This partnership is yet another step in NDB Bank’s broader commitment to empowering individuals and families to achieve their aspirations, while reinforcing its position as a trusted banking partner at every stage of life.

NDB Bank is the fourth-largest listed commercial bank in Sri Lanka. NDB was named Sri Lanka’s Best Digital Bank for SMEs at Euromoney Awards for Excellence 2025 and was awarded Domestic Retail Bank of the Year – Sri Lanka and Sri Lanka Domestic Project Finance Bank of the Year by Asian Banking and Finance Magazine (Singapore) Awards 2024. NDB is the parent company of the NDB Group, comprising capital market subsidiary companies, together forming a unique banking and capital market services group. The Bank remains committed to empowering the nation and its people through meaningful financial and advisory services powered by digital banking solutions.

Top News Lk

Top News Lk

Top News Lk

Lanka Voice

Lanka ABC news

Asoka Weeerasinghe (Mr.) Kings Grove Crescent  . Ottawa . Ontario. K1J 6G1  . Canada

27 August 2025

Mr. Volker Turk
UN High Commissioner Human Rights (UNHRC)
Palais Wilson
52 Rue des Paquis
CH1201, Geneva
Switzerland

OPEN LETTER

Dear High Commissioner. Turk:

Re: UNHRC RESOLUTION AGAINST SRI LANKA to be presented by UK and Canada at the 60th Session in September 2025

Let me start this letter to you establishing my life’s philosophy which is based on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s, words thus:

We have to repent in this generation not so much for the evil deeds of the wicked people, but for the appalling silence of the good people.”

And I have considered myself as an Associate Member of the World’s Coalition of Good People, if there is such a Coalition in existence.`

The UNHRC’s  intended Resolution against Sri Lanka has bothered me ever since I read that it will be presented in September, especially by Canada.  What’s going on here? I wondered with my adopted home who aided and abetted the Tamil separatist war back in my Birth-country, Sri Lanka.  That Resolution will be presented almost two weeks from now.

Sweet Mother of Jesus, for crying out loud,  why are you letting these UN Resolutions 

happen against Sri Lanka after she having successfully ended a 30-year-long bloody Eelam War in Sri Lanka on 19 May 2009, after watching 100s of thousands of innocent people killed, and maimed for life, from all communities, along the way   .This blithering  disingenuous ACT proves positive that your UNHRC has targeted to rap the knuckles and bully this puny Sri Lanka which happens to be my Birth-country, for having the

gumption to defend its sovereignty almost single handed against an unelected Group of marauding terrorists, the Tamil Tigers, who had the support of foreign countries like India and Canada.

They wanted to dissect the island into two claiming that the North-East is their homeland, Eelam, and also have the right to live and own any square-inch of the rest of Sri Lanka’s real estate.  So how righteous they thought they were.. That’s a helluva-how-do-you-do, isn’t it? So countries and Organizations like your UNHRC,  India, Canada, UK provided them with the  necessary oxygen by aiding and abetting the insolent war against the elected sovereign-democratic Government of Sri Lanka.

Your UNHRC has a gall and temerity to adopt a series of Resolutions calling for accountability regarding alleged violations of international human rights and international humanitarian law committed during the internal armed conflict with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).  That is asinine, to say the least.

 Stop challenging the intelligence of the Sri Lanka people who understands with horror

how your UNHRC Resolution A/HRC/60/21 (2025) could and will destroy Sri Lanka’s Sovereignty.  Damn it!

Don’t you realize that you all at UNHRC had not done your homework to guide the Sri Lankan Armed Force by providing them with a UNHRC War Manual for Dummies, How to win a Terrorist  war without killing anyone.   And so you have gone on with your untenable Goody-two-shoes Act to harass an army that had been trained to guard the sovereignty and the lives of peoples in Sri Lanka.   What the heck is wrong with that, Volker?

This was not a holy war, as I told the Chief of Amnesty International in Ottawa, at a

Luncheon given by His Excellency Walter Rupesinghe the High Commissioner of Sri Lanka to Canada, at his residence on Ottawa’s Range Road in the summer of 1990.  And I was an invitee.

When he told me during after lunch discussions, We don’t agree with the Sri Lanka Government using excessive force on the Tamil Tigers,”   he said.

Now…now…you are being stupid aren’t you.! This is a full fledged armed war and not with catapults and stones and bamboo sticks.   When your Tamil Tiger points the barrel of his Kalashnikov at the heart of my soldier, I don’t expect my soldier to point the barrel of his assault rifle at the knee cap of your Tamil Tiger.   I tell my soldier, go on and shoot at the Tamil Tiger bugger’s heart. Get him before he gets You.”

The High Commissioner was kicking me with his feet under the table to stop me going after this Amnesty International fool.

Volker, and here’s my problem with India.  India’s Indira Gandhi took scores of 100s

of barefooted and some sandaled Guerilla Tamils from Sri Lanka’s North and trained them as Kalashnikov totting, and hand grenade throwing terrorists in 32 Army camps in South India, and at the foothills of the Himalayas in the mid-80s.

After graduating, Indira Gandhi sent them back in khaki military fatigues, jackboots, cradling Kalashnikovs like babies in their arms, and festoons of live bullets around their necks, and enough paisa choking their pockets to fight and destabilize Sri Lanka. And Indira Gandhi was not admonished by your squeaky -clean UNHRC.  And I say BOO to you ratting lot…The  Republican American Nikki Haley hit the nail on the head when

She declared  that yours was the cesspool of political bias and a self-serving body that makes a mockery of human rights”.

It is abominable to say the least , that my adopted home, Canada since October 1970, is presenting the Resolution against my Birth country, Sri Lanka, which I still love and romance with.

Let me be blunt…let me be honest…I resent the UNHCR, the cesspool of political bias making a mockery of ‘human rights’ using my Birth-Mother country, Sri Lanka,  the first nation to be made the testing ground to see whether you all can get away as the self-serving body that makes a mockery of Human Rights.

Right Volker!   Give me a break, Volker!

Volker, you lot at UNHRC stand guilty in my eyes for not acknowledging that Sri Lanka having kicked the butts of the Tamil Tiger terrorists and annihilated them on 19 May 2009,and  gave back to 20.5 million  peoples of Sri Lanka their most treasured, paramount and important human right, their ‘Right-to-their-Lives,” which had been hijacked by the Tamil Tiger terrorists for 30-bloody years.  And that is a classic Text-book example how the Army of a sovereign puny democratic Nation,  annihilated the most ruthless terrorist group in the world, which was the first terrorist group in the world  that had Land, Sea and Air Divisions and used the perfected suicide body-packs, to fight a Terrorist War  for 30-blooding years, and that says a lot about your lot at UNHRC.   

So what have you got to say, Volker, to redeem from your dishonest guilt?  Let’s hear it! That you are in cahoots and still holding hands of the Tamil Tiger terrorist group who assassinated two heads of State – the former India’s Prime Minister

Rajiv Gandhi, and Sri Lanka’s President Ranasinghe Premadasa.  Didn’t you know it?

Don’t you see your cruel acts of hoaxy-Humbugs?  Don’t you see that you lot  are humiliating and erasing the dignity of Sri Lanka’s ‘Khaki Angels’ saying they are criminals, who gave back 20.5 million peoples, their Right-to-Life”,  and  gave the freedom back to every Sinhalese Mother of a school going son and daughter, their five weekdays sentinel duty, to stand at the threshold of the front door  of their homes, from 1:00  to 3:00 in the afternoon, with their eyes glued to the road leading to their homes, praying in their hearts to bring their children home whole, and not in a plywood box of a puzzle of a head and limbs and flesh and clotted blood having been blown to smithereens by a Tamil Tiger Claymore mine at a road junction coming home.  That’s the reality , which you all at UNHRC couldn’t care a bucket full of Tamil Kanji, as you all have proved to be  a self-serving body of a  mockery of human rights.

Volker, what the hell is going on?   It is my Canada that aided and abetted and prolonged the Tamil ethnic war in Sri Lanka, and now home for thousands and thousands of Tamil refugees who sailed in rickety corroding-rotting trawlers as refugees saying they were discriminated against and persecuted in Sri Lanka.   That’s a load of tosh, Volker.  That’s poppy-cock. That’s a plane loaded with buckets filled with Sri Lankan hogswash.  Ha! persecuted and discriminated against, my foot!

IT WAS MY CANADA, that let the Tamil Diaspora collect two million dollars a month for 13 Prime Minister’s Jean Chretien’s and Paul Martin’s Canadian-years to stuff their Eelam-War chests, to buy sophisticated war weapons to fight their war in Sri Lanka. And so it is, that this is my Canada that will be presenting the Resolution against my birth-country, Sri Lanka.  Wow!…That is disingenuous, Canada!   That’s pretty sick, my Canada!. 

Shish! Volker.   This is Bad…This is Ugly…. This is Venomous… This is  not kosher….,this is not cricket and this is why I, a former card carrying Liberal have

 decided NOT to ever vote for the Liberals, the Tamil lying Tiger Blarney Gong Show promoters, any more, as they did on February 4th, 2009, at the Parliament’s Center Block Chambers watched by sardine-packed Tamil-refugees  grinning like Vaddhukkodai-cats, with a piece of  Velvettuthurai dhal-wade in their mouths.

And it is this my Canada who will be presenting a Resolution against my birth-country Sri Lanka, at the 60th UNHCR Session this September.

Sweet Mother of Jesus, can you believe this Tamil boot-licking Act by Canada’s

law-makers.

IT WAS MY CANADA, that let a Tamil Vancouverite, B. Thambirajah on September 22,1993, to wire the sum of Cdn.$990,987 from an HSBC Bank account for the purchase of 60 tonnes of RDX and TNT from the Rubezone Chemical Factory in the Ukraine, for the Tamil Tiger terrorists.

The Tamil freighter MV Swene took delivery of the cargo at the Sea-port of Nikolszayev in Ukraine and was guarded by Sea Tiger speed boats for its onward journey to Sri Lanka.   Wow…wow…That was horrible…that was naughty, Canada.

It were these  RDX and TNT explosives, that were used in a truck bomb to attack the Central Bank Building in Colombo’s Financial District, and bringing it down on 31 January 1996, killing 91 people and injuring and maiming  for life another 1,400.

You know what Volker, with that truck bombing my adopted Canada were well entrenched in aiding and abetting the Tamil Eelam terrorist war.  And with that my Canada abdicated the moral right to call ourselves as Lilly-white and We are Goodie-two-shoes’ in the Commonwealth Nations, and her right to present any form of Resolution at  a UNHRC Session.   Good grief…what a bummer, my Oh my Glorious and Free…Canada, you have failed me, BIGTIME. And It sucks Volker.  All this is to impress the Tamils in nine Greater Toronto Area Ridings

 and licking their ginjali-oil polished boots jockeying for their bloc-votes at the next Federal and Provincial elections.

 If you take a Polygraph test of these refugees, 80% will tell you that they are Economic Refugees who came in search of Ka-Na-Da whose roads were paved with gold and 

 trees lining roads that have green leaves of 20-dollar bills.   They would not have had a Snowball-chance-in-Hell, to come in as legal immigrants if they had tried to clear 

themselves through the ‘point system’. That’s the holy truth and nothing but the truth I swear to God.

IT WAS MY CANADA, that  let their Liberal Government’s Finance Minister Paul Martin,

and Maria Minna their CIDA  Cabinet Minister and nine Liberal  back benchers, support terrorism by patronizing a Tamil Tiger  Fund raiser of a Cdn$ 60 dollar a plate 

rice and curry lunch organized by FACT (Federal Associations of Canadian Tamils), in Toronto, on 6 May, 2000.

Volker, this is embarrassing.   These are the Canadians who have been appointed

to present the UNHRC Resolution against my Birth-country Sri Lanka, at the 60th Sessions in September 2025.  This unfortunate decision is proof positive that UNHRC is  a cesspool of political bias  and a self-serving body that makes a mockery of human rights. Do I smell a den of bad-smelling rats here? You all got my goat.

”Let’s get this right Volker.   It were these separatist Tamils, who for 131 colonial years were the privileged minority of 10% of the population,  who were spoiling for a fight

against the 131 year colonial wronged majority of 75%, of the Sinhalese population..  Not with catapults , stones and bamboo sticks, but with a sophisticated armoury of Kalashnikovs, and live bullets, hand grenades, claymore mines and SAMs, et cetera, having brought into the International waters off the Mullaitivu East coast  of Sri Lanka in 10 armoury ships, and  at night  brought the sophisticated war weapons inland in fiber glass speed boats to fight the Sri Lankan forces in Khaki.

The Sinhalese mothers call them their Khaki Angels and not Army Criminals as you all would call them.  One armoury ship turned around and bolted away in the international waters after being tipped off by the Scandinavian Ceasefire Monitor General Trygve Tellessen that the Sri Lankan Navy was after them.

That’s damn rich, wasn’t it?  And you know Volker, for starters you have no official mandate to finger and interfere in my Mother Lanka’s domestic affairs, or demand repealing her laws.   So let me tell you that your Organization does not command my

Respect as I  have tagged along and piggy-backed what  America’s Republican Nikki Haley who quite rightly said that your UNHRC is The cesspool of political bias and a self serving body that makes a mockery of human rights.”

Here is the paramount reason why you lot made a mockery of Human Rights.

 It was when You lot did not have the decency and honesty to acknowledge the fact that the Sri Lankan armed forces gave back to their 20.5 million people their paramount human right, their ‘right-to-their-life’’, which had been hijacked by the Tamil Tiger terrorists for 30-bloody years. It is when they annihilated the Tamil terrorists, with the killing of the leader Velupillai Prabhakaran with a gun shot to his forehead on 19 May 2009, on the sands of the Nandhikadhal lagoon in the East coast.

That’s when I said to myself under my breath,  that UNHRC Organization is made of a bunch of arrogant humbugs” who made a mockery of Human Rights by not acknowledging that  final closing  act of Tamil Tiger terrorism in Sri Lanka.

 You all failed that simple Litmus test, with your brutal  ugly dishonesty.   What’s wrong with you lot?   Surely, Volker, you are not going to tell me, Oh you are so wrong Asoka.. We are lily white, clean as a swan’s back, and smelling like roses!”  Ha! What a bunch of baloney…what a bucket full of cod-wallops!

IT WAS MY CANADA’S  Conservative Foreign Minister, Lawrence Cannon, who came out with the most pathetic Press Release when the Sri Lankan soldiers annihilated the Tamil Tiger terrorists movement on 19 May 2009.   Every other sister Commonwealth Nation patted the back of Sri Lanka saying Good Show, Congratulations for getting rid of the Tamil  Tiger Terrorist Movement”, but not Canada.

They didn’t want to antagonize the Tamil community and lose their votes at Federal and Provincial elections and monies for their  Election Campaign Funds.

That itself proved positive that Canada was on the path to undermine my Birth Mother country, Sri Lanka, and that we will huff and we will puff and blow your island down and chop it into two and give the Tamil separatists, their mono-ethnic, racist Tamil State, Eelam.

IN CONCLUSION HERE IS MY OBSERVATION  ABOUT YOUR UNHRC, HIGH COMMISSIONER MR VOLKER TURK.  I DON’T TRUST YOU LOT AND THUS IT 

HAS BEEN EASY FOR ME ALIGN MYSELF WITH REPUBLICAN AMERICAN’S NIKKI HALEY’S OBSERVATION  ON YOU LOT AT UNHRC.

Here are the reasons:

1. The UNHRC’s difficulty to acknowledge Sri Lanka’s Classic Text Book War Act of having kicked the butts and annihilated the most ruthless

           terrorist group in the world, the Tamil Tigers on 19 May 2009, thus giving 

           back 20.5 million peoples their paramount Human Right, their 

          ‘Right-to-their-Life’ which had been hijacked for 30-bloody years by the 

           Tamil Tigers;

 2. Not providing my Sri Lankan Armed Forces your War Manual Guide,

How to Win a Terrorist War for Dummies Without Killing a Single Person”, so that they won’t be accused of killing a single terrorist and sundry civilians during the War;

3. Not acknowledging the amazing Classic War Text Book Humanitarian Act by the Sri Lankan soldiers, for having saved 295,873 Tamils from the clutches of Tamil Tigers who used them as a Human Shield and marched them from the west coast to the east coast like a herd of unwashed cattle

for six months under the scorching Jaffna-Killiniochchi sun.  (If you have

acknowledged, I have  not seen it, I withdraw my accusatory comment, I am sorry!);

4. Not having acknowledged that amazing  Classic Humanitarian Textbook Act by housing the 295,873 Tamils in a White Tent City,  and sustaining them, without bumping them off,  by providing a million meals of a Government Dietitian controlled breakfasts, lunches and dinners every day.

(If you have acknowledged I have not seen it, I withdraw my accusatory comment.  I am sorry);

5.  Your accusing the ‘cherry picked’ Armed Forces soldiers (every Sinhalese Mother of a Schoolgoing child’s ‘Khaki Angel”) for being a criminal  in the battlefield.  That is a load of putrid crap, a cock-a-doddle-

do rubbish. When you live by the gun, you die by the gun.  It is that simple.

Share that comment with the colleagues of yours at UNHRC.

6. Through Resolution 46/1 of March 2021 your Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)  was given the authority to establish mechanisms to collect, consolidate, analyze and preserve” evidence  of alleged abuses that happened during the Eelam War.  Only abuses it says, but it does not give credence to the Amazing Human Rights that the Sri Lanka Armed soldiers were involved in.  There have been many.  

         So you all cherry pick the Ugly” and not what was Amazingly Good” in

           the Eelam War Theater.

          That’s what I call a  ‘Mischievous Bias’ to highlight the ‘ugly’ and hurt the

          soldiers who had been trained to save the sovereign country with bad 

          People and in Organizations like yours.

          Thus, I accuse you all to be a cesspool of political bias and a self-serving 

           body that makes a mockery of human rights.’” Hallelujah!

Let me switch gears and tell you Volker, the word that GENOCIDE had been committed during the last five months of the Eelam War.  And you all are

trying to pin that Lie on the Sinhalese Mother’s Khaki Angels.   I tell You

and your crowd at UNHRC that it is a GOD DAMN BLOODY LIE, and I will underline that in red.  Let’s look at the charge clinically as two intelligent persons.

1. It is said that 40,000 Tamils had been killed.   All right then.  Who kept count of the dead… show me the number of skulls, at least in a photographic form, to prove the number if you can’t identify them by name.  IF YOU CAN’T I CONSIDER IT AS A GOD DAMN LIE, and you should bury that as an uncouth poison dart to hurt Sri Lanka;

2. Considering that an adult Tamil body is roughly 5-foot, 6-inches long. how did the Sri Lankan Armed forces get rid of that number of bodies in a Jiffy?   Would you at UNHCR know?   If so, let’s have it.  IF YOU CAN’T,

I CONSIDER IT A GOD DAMN LIE, and you should bury it as a poison dart.

No one informed us that there were at least five-backhoes digging long and deep graves feverishly,  to bury them under four feet  of soil.

3.  No one had complained that the soldiers were getting rid of the Genocide-inflicted Tamils by burning them in pyres of Rubber tyres.  And the odious smell  of smoke was snaking up towards Heaven.

IF NOT, I CONSIDER THE GENOCIDE COMPLAINT IS A GOD DAMN HOAX. You should bury it as a poison dart which is meant to hurt

my Sri Lanka.

4.

                     Hey,Volker. Do your smart guys and girls at UNHRC, think that

Sri Lankan soldiers speedboated the bodies in fast moving fibreglass boats and dumped them far in mid-Ocean in the Bay of Bengal.   The only 

                  hitch is that not a single bloated dead body of a Tamil was found on the

                     shores of the east-coast of India, like in Chennai, Karikal,  Pondicherry, 

                     Nellore, Kanchipuram, and so forth.

                     FAILING I CONSIDER GENOCIDE IS A COMPLAINT OF  A TAMIL 

                     VELVETTITHURAI HALLOWEEN FAIRY TALE. Strip it off your Sri 

                     Lanka Lexicon that is meant to hurt Sri Lanka unfairly, and bury it;

5.  Perhaps, Volker, the Sri Lankan  Army Intelligence had managed to

find the very effective Mantra  the Tamil refugees used, when they

got on a plane with a legitimate Sri Lankan passport and made them disappear at the port of arrival saying they do not have a travel document and say that they are running away from being discriminated against and persecuted by the Sri Lankan Government.   So the Army managed to find this amazing Haro Hara Manthra to make 40,000 Genocide Tamil bodies disappear. That is possible, Isn’t it?”

6.  But here is the catch that I will use to prove the Genocide claim

is a Hoax. Every international War statistic says that at the end of a war, the injured are double the number that were killed.  Volker, if my Graded 3 arithmetic is correct, if 40,000 Tamils were killed during the last phase of the war, by right there should be 80,000 Tamils injured or maimed.  Right?  No one mentioned the horrible sight of the injured  Tamils hobbling along the roads in the north using bamboo sticks as canes, bloodied bandages provided by The Red Cross and hospitals and some with blood dripping open wounds  in the North and East, and saris and sarongs torn to make emergency -bandages.  This observation  promotes this Hocus-pocus lie of Genocide that you at UNHRC had fallen prey to a hook-line-and sinker.

That says much for you smart lawyers at UNHRC.   Ha! What a bunch of 

Jokers…what a bunch of Fools!

With this clinical analysis of this Tamil Haro-Hara Genocide charge by the Sri Lankan Tamils and their International supporters, and Tamil boot – lickers,  Volker Turk, I rest my case that Sri Lankan Genocide is  a Goddamn Hoax, and it is embarrassing that this Genocide charge is repeated by Internationl Lily-white Bullying Humbugs.  That crap has to STOP…just has to STOP!

As a concluding remark on my observations on your 2025 UNHRC Report on my Sri Lanka, you have got my goat  for what you all believe in, systematically alleging State misconduct while bypassing its original mandate.  You guys are skating dangerously on thin ice when diverting from its original mandate given in Resolution 60/251.

                     Your 2025 UNHRC Report on my  treasured Birth-country, Sri Lanka 

                   (A/HRC/60/21.2025) once again demonstrates how your successive

                   High Commissioners have stretched, distorted, and exceeded their 

                   mandates under resolution 60/251. Damn it Volker Turk, let me make it 

                   crystal clear that your UNHRC was created as a subsidiary body to 

                   promote cooperation, impartiality, and universality of Human Rights, 

                   and not to be weaponized into a political tool.   Read this Report not 

                   once…not twice.. but three times if you need to understand this

                   cursed voodoo-doll ‘sinners’ damning overreach.    Volker I tell You to 

                   let honesty, sensitivity, and sanity prevail.   Don’t be another 

                   horrendous bully as your former High Commissioners as they were 

                   outright bullies.  I hope and pray that you are not one from that click, 

                  as birds of the feather flock together.

                  I sincerely hope that , and I live inHOPE that you will make a difference 

                  for me to rethink my belief that your UNHCR is NOT a ‘cesspool of 

                  political bias and a self serving body that makes  a mockery of human 

                 rights as, pronounced by Nikki Haley, the Republican American., that I 

                have tagged along as the truth. 

                I live in HOPE as where is Ruin, there is HOPE for a Treasure, as like the 

               Water (Me) has never feared the Fire(Your UNHCR)!…

                 Volker, the bottom line is that I love my Birth-Mother country, Ceylon

                 then, and Sri Lanka now dearly, who Nurtured me lovingly during my

                 first 19-years of my life.  She knows that I live in a sense of gratitude, 

                 and that I will not let anyone hurt her unfairly and  that includes YOU.

                 Sri Lanka-Amma, don’t you worry.  You know I have stood tall for you 

                  in the past.  And I will never, ever let you down in the future and that is 

                  a  promise”.

Volker, in case you wondered who the heck this Asoka Weerasinghe is.

                      I am here in Canada  because I was invited to come to Ottawa on June 

                     1970 by the Canadian National  Museums Corporation in Ottawa, while I 

                      was domiciled  in  London, England.   They found me during their 

                      head-hunting exercise seeking a  Liberal Research Scientist to take 

                      over the position of the  Head of Thematic Research Section in the Design 

                      and Display Division, to create and produce 15 brand new exhibition

                      Halls of  Human and Natural Sciences  at the Victoria Memorial Museum

                      in Ottawa on Argyle Street. 

                     I am a Geologist, Palaeontologist and a Museologist and fitted their search 

                     as a Research scientist with a Liberal Arts experience as an award winning 

                     published poet in London, an award winning sculptor, an award winning 

                    artist, an award winning  competition Ballroom dancer, and a music 

                    composer on the piano with three of my creations are part of the repertoire 

                    of a Young Danish-Swede band.  My long poem  The Trail of Mankind 

                   was adapted as the storyline for the Orientation Hall of the Canadian 

                   National Museum of Man in Ottawa in 1974.  I was recognized by the Mayor 

                   of Ottawa for guiding the young Canadian creative writers in the Capital 

                   Region, and presented  me with the City’s Civic Appreciation Award for

                   Arts and Culture in 2003;  Organizer and Producer of the Gloucester 

                   Spoken Art – Poetry and Storytelling Series (1995-2007). 

                  Now you understand my sensitivity seeking  theTruth and why I get upset 

                  when someone tries to hurt my Birth-Mother Sri Lanka with Lies as she 

                  does not deserve it.  Not even a modicum of that Poppy-cock. I become

                  Visibly angry and spit dragon breath from my cartwheeling eyes.

                  Now you know!

                  Sincerely and Warmly

                  Asoka Weeerasinghe (Mr.)

National Development Bank PLC

NDB Bank is proud to announce its partnership with Waters Edge as the Principal Partner for the much-anticipated Oktoberfest at the Edge 2025, set to take place on the 24th, 25th, and 26th of October at Waters Edge, Colombo.

Renowned as one of the most vibrant celebrations of Bavarian culture in Sri Lanka, Oktoberfest at the Edge brings together a blend of authentic music, cuisine, and entertainment, making it a highlight in Colombo’s social calendar. This year’s edition promises to be more exhilarating than ever, with an atmosphere of festivity and fellowship that continues to attract both local and international audiences.

Through this partnership, NDB Bank further strengthens its position as a lifestyle partner for customers, extending beyond traditional banking to deliver experiences that inspire joy, connection, and celebration. With a strong focus on engaging with its valued clientele, the Bank’s association with this globally recognized festival underscores its commitment to being part of the moments that matter most in people’s lives.

Commenting on the partnership, Ashan Wikramanayake, Assistant Vice President, Head of Card Center at NDB stated, Oktoberfest at the Edge is a celebration that unites people in the spirit of festivity, culture, and camaraderie. As the Exclusive Banking Partner, NDB Bank is delighted to join hands with Waters Edge in bringing this international experience to Sri Lanka, while offering our customers unique opportunities to connect and enjoy the very best of lifestyle experiences.”

Speaking about the collaboration, Mr. Iyantha Abeysinghe, General Manager of Waters Edge, said, Oktoberfest at the Edge has become one of the most anticipated annual events in Colombo’s social calendar, bringing together the best of Bavarian culture, food, and entertainment. This year, we are proud to have NDB Bank as our main sponsor. Together, we aim to create a truly memorable experience for all our guests, celebrating community, and camaraderie in grand style.”

NDB Bank continues to go beyond conventional banking by creating meaningful engagements for its diverse clientele, aligning with its vision of enriching lives and empowering communities through trust, innovation, and excellence.

මතුගම සෙනෙවිරුවන්

මහජන ඝෝෂා වලින් තමන් තැබූ පියවර ආපස්සට නොගන්නා බව ජනාධිපතිතුමා භික්ෂු දිනයේ දී ප‍්‍රකාශ කර ඇත.නමුත් පියවර පැහැදිලි නැත. වංචනික දේශපාලකයන් අත්අඩංගුවට ගැනීම සඳහා කටයුතු කිරීම දැනටමත් කර ඇත. එ් සඳහා පොලිසිය නීති අංශ මෙහෙයවීම සිදු කර ඇත.එහෙත් යළි වැරදි නොකිරීම සඳහා අවශ්‍ය නීති සම්පාදනය කර නැත. රනිල් ගේ නඩුවෙන් එ් පිළිබඳව පැහැදිලි වන්නට පටන් ගෙන ඇත.
ජනපති ධූරය දරන කාලයේ නිල සංචාරය අතර පෞද්ගලික සංචාරයක්ද සිදු කර රජයට පාඩු සිදුකිරීම මේ චෝදනාවයි.අත් අඩංගුවට ගැනීම සහ නඩුව ඉදිරිපත් කිරීමට පොදු දේපළ පනත යොදා ගෙන ඇත.දහනව වන ව්‍යස්ථා සංශෝධනයෙන් පසු ජනපති මුක්තිය දුර්වල වී ඇති පසුබිමක පවතින නීතියේ තිබෙන ඕනෑම ප‍්‍රතිපාදනයකින් නඩු පැවරීමට හැකියාව ඇතැයි සිතනවා ඇත.එහෙත් ආණ්ඩුක‍්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ ජනපති බලතල හා කාර්ය භාරයන් ගැන සළකා බලන කල්හි රටේ ආරක්ෂාව ආණ්ඩුවේ ප‍්‍රධානියා වශයෙන් සෑම ක්ෂේත‍්‍රයක් කෙරෙහිම ඔහුට තිබෙන වගකීම ඉතා ප‍්‍රබලය.එය අත් හළ නොහැකි බව කියා ඇත. ජාත්‍යන්තර වශයෙන් ජනපතිවාරයාගේ වගකීම හා හැසීරීම ද ඉතා වැදගත්ය. සාමාන්‍ය රට වැසියෙකු වශයෙන් ජනපතිවරයාට හැසිරිය නොහැකිය.ජනපති ජීවිතය තුළ පුද්ගලික සහ නිල යනුවෙන් වෙන් කළ නොහැකිය. විධායකය යනු එතරම් ප‍්‍රබල චරිත නිරූපණයකි.
රනිල් වික‍්‍රමසිංහ මන්ත‍්‍රීවරයෙකු වශයෙන් සිටි මුල් කාලයේ ඇමති වරයෙකු වශයෙන් කටයුතු කර ඇත. සුප‍්‍රසිද්ධ බටලන්ද චෝදනාව ඔහු වෙත එල්ල වන්නේ එ් කාලයේ දීය.රාජ්‍යයට විරුද්ධව කැරළි ගැසීම අලූත් දෙයක් නොවේ.අතීතයේ සිටම එය රාජ ද්‍රොහී ක‍්‍රියාවක් ලෙසට සැළකූහ.එහෙත් කැරළි මගින් රටේ පාලකයා වෙනස් කළ අවස්ථාවන් ද ඉතිහාසයේ නැතිවා නොවේ. ගිවිසුමක් මගින් රට බි‍්‍රතාන්‍යන්ට භාර දුන් පසු ඇතිවූ අරගල දෙකම නිහීන ලෙසට මර්දනය කරන ලදී.ගම්බිම් පාලූ කොට ජනතාව මරණයට පත් කර වැරදි කරුවන් මරා දමා ඉන්පසු පිටුවහල් කොට කළ විනාශය අති මහත්ය.බි‍්‍රතාන්‍ය රජය ගැරැුල්ල ගැන සිතුවේ රජුට ද්‍රෝහී වීමක් ලෙසටය.ඉංග‍්‍රීසි නීතිය විසින් හසුරුවන වර්තමාන ආණ්ඩු ද සිතන්නේ එලෙසය. 89 අරගලයේ දී ජවිපෙ ක‍්‍රියාධරයන් කළ නිහීන ක‍්‍රියාවන්ට විරුද්ධව ප‍්‍රා ඇතුලූ විවිධ නිල නොලත් ඝාතක කණ්ඩායම් බිහි විය.බටලන්ද වධකාගාරය එහි තවත් ප‍්‍රතිඵලයකි.එ් ක‍්‍රියා වල අපරාධකාරී ක‍්‍රියාවලියක් තිබේ.බටලන්ද කොමිසම් වාර්තා වලින් මේ දෙපිරිසගේම ක‍්‍රියා හෙළිදරව් වේ. රනිල්වික‍්‍රමසිංහ එහි එක් චරිතයකි. වර්තමානයේ දී ඔහුට විරුද්ධව නඩු පවරනවා නම් අනිවාර්යයෙන්ම අනෙකුත් කණ්ඩායම් වල නිහීන ක‍්‍රියා ද ප‍්‍රශ්ණ ගත වෙනවා ඇත. එ් නිසා රනිල්ට විරුද්ධව නඩු පැවරීමේ දී බටලන්ද යොදා ගැනීම අනතුරුදායකයයි මේ අය සිතනවා විය හැකිය.
රනිල් අගමැති වූයේ 2002 වර්ෂයේ දීය.ඉන්පසු කීප වතාවක්ම එම පදවිය හොබවමින් විවිධ තීන්දු තීරණ ගනිමින් කටයුතු කිරීම තුළ ඔහුගේ චරිතයේ සුවිශේෂතා හඳුනාගත හැකිය. රනිල් බලය වෙනුවෙන් විවිධ දිශානතීන් භාවිතා කරන ලද්දේය.වරක් ඔහු ඇමරිකානු තානාපතිවරයාට කේලාම් පැවසීය. යුද්ධය නිසා 40000 ක් ඝාතනය විය හැකි යැයි පුරෝකථනය කලේය. මේ ප‍්‍රකාශය කේබල් මගින් ඇමරිකාවට පිටත් කර ඇත. හමුදාවට යුධ අපරාධ චෝදනා නැගීමට එම ප‍්‍රකාශය අද යොදාගෙන ඇත. රනිල් ගේ අගමැති භූමිකාවේ වැදගත් ම සංධිස්ථානය වන යහපාලන ආණ්ඩු කාලය තුළ ඔහු බිලියන 12.5 ණය ගනිමින් රටේ ආර්ථිකය බරපතල ලෙසට දුර්වල කරන ලද්දේය. එ් අතින් ඔහු ආරිථික ඝාතකයෙකි. ඉන්පසු මහ බැංකු බැඳුම්කර මගඩිය පිළීබඳ වගකීමෙන් බැඳුණි. අර්ජුන් මහේන්ද්‍රන්ට රටින් පිටව යන්නට ඔහු සෘජුව උදව් උපකාර කර ඇත.මිලේනියම් සිටි පාවා දීම, ව්‍යවස්ථා දායකයට නොදන්වා ප‍්‍රභාකරන් සමග ගිවිසුම් අත්සන් කිරීම ඔහුට තිබෙන තවත් චෝදනා කීපයකි.එසේම ඔහු ව්‍යවස්ථාව කීප විටක්ම උල්ලංඝණය කරමින් හිතුවක්කාර ලෙසට කටයුතු කර තිබේ.පුරාවිද්‍යා රක්ෂිත රිසි සේ ජනතාවට බෙදා දීමට කටයුතු කිරීමේ තැත වෙනුවෙන් මේ වන විට නඩුවක් ද පවතී.දිවුලපතාන ගම වසා ජනතාවට ඇතුල්වීමට ඉඩ නොදීම සම්බන්ධව තවත් නඩුවක් විභාග වෙමින් ඇත.එ් අනුව බලන කල්හි රනිල් වික‍්‍රමසිංහ මහතා අගමැති ධූරය හෙබවූ කාල වකවානුව තුළ කටයුතු කළ ආකාරය පිළිබඳ නීතිය ඉදිරියේ ප‍්‍රශ්ණ කිරීමට ඕනා තරම් අවස්ථාව තිබේ.එහෙත් එ් කිසිවක් ප‍්‍රශ්ණ කරලීමට වර්තමාන ආණ්ඩුව කටයුතු කර නොමැත. එ් වෙනුවට ඔවුන් කරළියට ගෙනවිත් තිබෙන්නේ ජනපති ධූරයේ වැඩ කළ කාලය තුළ කරන ලද කටයුතු වල අනීතික බවයි.පෙර සඳහන් කළ පරිදි ජනපතිවරයෙකුට නිල ජීවිතය සහ පෞද්ගලික ජීවිතය යනුවෙන් දෙකක් නොමැති අතර එම පදවියට පත් වූ දා සිටම ඔහු මේ රටේ පළමු පුරවැසියා බවට පත් වෙයි. එ් නිසා ජනපති පදවිය සඳහා විවධ වරප‍්‍රසාද සංග‍්‍රහ කර තිබෙන අතර මුක්තිය ලබා දි තිබෙන්නේ ජාතික ආරක්ෂාව සම්බන්ධයෙන් කටයුතු කරන ආකාරය රටට ඉතා වැදගත් වන බැවිනි.පුද්ගලයෙකු ජනපති ධූරයෙන් පහකළ හැක්කේ අල්ලස පිළිබද චෝදනා, රාජ ද්‍රොහී විමේ වරද, ¥ෂණය, ව්‍යවස්ථාව උල්ලංඝණය කිරීම ආදිය පිළිබඳ ශ්‍රේෂඨාධිකරණයේ මතය විමසා පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ තුනෙන් දෙකක චන්දයෙන් එය අනුමත කිරීමෙන් පමණකි.දහනව වන සංශේධනයෙන් මුක්තිය අහිමි වූ පසු මෙය වෙනස් වන්නේ කෙසේද යන්න පැහැදිලි නැත. එහෙත් ජනතා පරමාධිපත්‍ය මගින් පත්වන තනතුරක් බැවින් යටකී පියවරයන් අනුගමනය කිරීම වඩාත් සාධාරණය.නමුත් පසුගිය දිනක ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණය මගින් ලබා දුන් නඩු තීන්දුවකින් ප‍්‍රකාශ වන්නේ අරගලය විසුරුවාහැරීමට ජනපතිවරයා විසින් ගත් තීරණය මූලික අයිතිවාසිකම් කඩ කිරීමක් ලෙසිනි.වර්තමාන නඩුකරයේ දී ද පොදු දේපළ පනත යටතේ නඩු පැවරීමට කටයුතු කිරීම කෙසේ ව්‍යවස්ථාවට එකඟද යන්න පිළිබඳව නීතිඥවරුන් ප‍්‍රශ්ණ කර නැත.
එහෙත් එකක් පැහැදිලිය. ආණ්ඩුවට අවශ්‍ය වන්නේ රනිල් නම් පුද්ගලයාට පහර දීමට වඩා විධායකයට පහර දීමට කරුණු රැුස් කිරීම බවයි. මන්ද යම් නඩු තීන්දුවකින් මතයක් ප‍්‍රකාශ වූ කල්හි එය ඉන් පසු පූර්වාදර්ශයක් වීම ස්වභාවයකි. ඉදිරියේ දී කරන ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධනයකදී විධායක ජනපති ක‍්‍රමය අහෝසි කිරීමට පිඹුරු පත් සකස්කිරීමේ මුල් පියවරක් වශයෙන් මෙම ක‍්‍රියාවලිය සිදුවන බව පැහැදිලිය. විපක්ෂයේ දේශපාලනඥයන් අතුරෙන් හිරුණිකා පේ‍්‍රමචන්ද්‍ර මහත්මිය පමණක් මෙයට සමාන අදහසක් ප‍්‍රකාශ කර ඇත. අනෙක් අය රනිල් නම් පුද්ගලයා වටා රොද බැඳ හුදෙක් දේශපාලන ප‍්‍රශ්ණයක් බවට පත් කරගෙන රජය පෙරලන්න බලාගෙන සිටී.විධායකය හෑල්ලූ කිරීම විධායකයේ බලතල ප‍්‍රශ්ණ කිරීම පිළීබඳ නීතිපති දෙපාර්තදෙපාර්තමේන්තුවටද ප‍්‍රතිපත්තියක් නැත. රනිල් ජනපති ධූරයේ කටයුතු කරන විට ව්‍යවස්ථාව උල්ලංඝණය කරමින් ගත් පියවරයන් අභියෝයට ලක් කරන විට නීතිපති නිළධාරීන් ඔහුව ආරක්ෂා කිරීමට කරුණු ඉදිරිපත් කර ඇත. දැන් හාත්පසින් වෙනස්ය.
මෙයින් පැහැදිලි වන්නේ පුද්ගලයන්ට අවශ්‍ය ආකාරයට විදෙස් බලවේගයන්ට අවශ්‍ය ආකාරයට ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධනයන් කළ විට ඇති වන අර්බුදයයි.මුක්තිය ඉවත් කරන විට ඉන් පැණ නගින ගැටළු ගැන කිසිවක් නොසිතූහ. එ් අවස්ථාවේ දී සංශෝධනය සමගම ජනපතිවරයාගේ බලතල සහිත රීතිද නිර්වචනය කලේ නම් මෙවැනි අර්බුදයක් හට ගන්නේ නැත. වර්තමාන ජනපතිවරයාට ද එලෙස වුවමනාවක් ඇති බව නොපෙණේ. පුද්ගලයෙකුට දඬුවම් දීමට පෙළඹවීම ඇරෙන්නට ව්‍යවස්ථාදායකය තුළින් කරන වෙනස් කම් වලට ප‍්‍රමුඛස්ථානය දීමක් සිදු නොවේ .මේ අවස්ථාවේ දී තානාපති කාර්යාල වලින් සහ දෙමළ ගොලීය සංසද මගින් නඩත්තු කරන පිරිසක් පැලවත්තේ සිටින බැවින් විධායකය හෑල්ලූවට ලක් කර නඩු තීන්දු ලබා ගැනීමේ මෙහෙයුම් සිදු කරනවා යන්න පැහැදිලි වන්නට පටන් ගෙන ඇත. ඔවුන්ගේ බෙදුම්වාදී න්‍යාය පත‍්‍රයට මේ ආණ්ඩුව අසුවී අවසන්ය. අගමැතිට විරුද්ධව නඩු නොපවරා ජනපතිට විරුද්ධව නඩු පවරන ආකාරය හොඳින් සිදු වේ.එම නිසා මේ තත්වය තුළ රටේ රාජ්‍යත්වය අර්බුදයට යවන විදෙස් න්‍යය පත‍්‍ර පරාජය කිරීම සියළු දෙනාගේම වගකීම බවට පත් වෙයි.එය ඉටු නොකළහොත් තවත් ඔළුගෙඩි මාරුවක් පමණක් සිදු වනු නියතය.
මතුගම සෙනෙවිරුවන්

Monara

Top News Lk

Top News Lk

Top News Lk

Jadetimes

MK Bhadrakumar

AUG 22, 2025

A potential India–China border breakthrough could mark a turning point in Asia, easing decades of hostility while undermining Washington’s grip on New Delhi.

This week, India and China have taken a great leap of faith in their mutual efforts to incrementally advance the normalization process in their bilateral relationship. This may assume the nature of a rapprochement when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation [SCO] summit in the port city of Tianjin in northeast China on 31 August–1 September.

The Sino-Indian rapprochement will be a historic event in world politics. It holds the potential to be a key template in the emerging world order in the 21^st Century. From the Indian perspective, what is unfolding promises to be the finest legacy of Modi in a tumultuous political career as his 75^th birthday approaches next month.

Wang Yi’s Landmark Visit to New Delhi
No doubt, the two-day visit to New Delhi this week by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who is also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and director of the Office of the Central Commission for Foreign Affairs, will go down as a watershed event. It is a game-changer because Wang, arguably one of the world’s most seasoned diplomats, has turned boundary talks into a mission to harness recent positive momentum and inject a new dynamic into the normalization process.

Wang forcefully argued that China and India are obligated to demonstrate a sense of global responsibility, act as major powers, set an example for developing countries in pursuit of strength through unity, and contribute to promoting world multi-polarization and democratization of international relations.” Xinhua news agency characterised Wang’s remarks as the consensus” opinion between him and India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar.

Wang and Jaishankar noted that a critical mass is accruing in the relationship. The Chinese foreign minister said Beijing–New Delhi relations are showing a positive trend toward returning to cooperation.” Jaishankar concurred that bilateral relations are continuously improving and developing” and exchanges and cooperation between the two sides in all fields are moving toward normalization.”

Interestingly, Jaishankar called for India and China to jointly maintain the stability of the world economy” and stressed that stable, cooperative, and forward-looking bilateral ties serve the interests of both countries.” The Indian external affairs minister proposed that New Delhi is willing to deepen political mutual trust with China, strengthen mutually beneficial cooperation in economic and trade fields, enhance people-to-people exchanges, and jointly maintain peace and tranquility in border areas.” He later said in a social media post, Confident that our discussions today [18 August] would contribute to building a stable, cooperative and forward-looking relationship between India and China.”

Wang’s visit yielded some breakthroughs, too. Principally, the two countries agreed to resume direct flights; facilitate trade and investment flow; cooperate on trans-border rivers; reopen border trade via the Himalayan passes; facilitate visas to tourists, businesses, media, and other visitors in both directions; and expand the visits of Indian pilgrims to the holy places of Kailash-Manasarovar. China is reportedly lifting the ban on rare earth and fertilizer exports to India, as well as heavy equipment for making tunnels in mountainous areas.

Border settlement: Modi’s defining challenge
The most sensational development is that the two countries are exploring an early harvest” in delimitation of boundaries and have agreed on new mechanisms on border management, which will also work towards de-escalation. This is a highly sensitive issue, as Indian public opinion is shaped by self-serving narratives that emerged after the 1962 war and by the idea of establishing a border that never historically existed.

This is where Modi’s leadership becomes crucial. Modi is probably one of the only leaders today who has the credibility, decisiveness, and vision to navigate a border settlement with China. He has prioritized the normalization of relations with China and is conscious that a truly stable relationship is critically dependent on predictability and stability, which makes it imperative that a border settlement is reached. Modi, during a meeting with Wang on 19 August, emphasized the importance of maintaining peace and tranquility on the border, and also reiterated India’s commitment to a fair, reasonable, and mutually acceptable” resolution of the boundary issue.

Traditionally, India attributed primacy to its post-Cold War relationship with the US as a hedge against China, which, unsurprisingly, spawned absurd notions that Washington regarded New Delhi as a counterweight” to Beijing. Suffice to say, the administration of US President Donald Trump’s erratic foreign policies and, specifically, its unfriendly moves recently to curb India’s strategic autonomy came as a wake-up call.

On the other hand, India’s actions have also been partly driven by domestic economic pressures. The point is, India seeks to lift some restrictions imposed on China in recent years, welcome Chinese investment, and increase people-to-people exchanges to boost its economic confidence. Equally, facing US pressure such as high tariffs, India aims to diversify economic and trade ties with countries, including China, which may help to reduce some of the external pressure from the US.

Shared interests in a multipolar world
Wang has signaled that Beijing is as eager as New Delhi to improve the relationship against the backdrop of an increasingly reckless and belligerent Trump administration. Both sides sense that they have common interests. Inevitably, a China–India working relationship anchored on a strategic understanding will do wonders for BRICS. This prospect is already worrying Trump, who has threatened BRICS more than once for allegedly working to dethrone the dollar as the world’s currency.

It is still early to tell, but if the positive trends in Sino-Indian relations gain traction and become a driving force in international politics, it can galvanise the dormant Russia–India–China [RIC] process, which Moscow has been promoting since the idea was first mooted in the late 1990s by the great Russian visionary-statesman late Yevgeny Primakov. Indeed, the correlation of forces internationally has shifted over the past three decades more or less in the directions that Primakov had envisioned with great foresight.

The roadblocks ahead
On the flip side, though, there is a strong pro-American lobby in India with influence over the media, think tanks, academia, and even the Indian establishment and elite community that root for the ties with the US as a defining partnership of the 21^st century. All sorts of vested interests are in play. Besides, there are phobias regarding China’s intentions, which will take time to wither away. Commensurate with its rise as a global power, China has a growing presence in the regions surrounding India, which is understandable; however, India tends to view it through the security prism – which only adds to threat perceptions. Then there is the complicated Dalai Lama succession issue, where the signs are that New Delhi treads softly to avoid offending Chinese sensitivities.

Typically, an ex-foreign secretary regretted just this week, amidst all the humiliations heaped on India by Trump, that the US has lost” India. For a country with a century and more of humiliation in its history as a colony, a slavish mentality may seem strange, but the comprador class is a veritable Indian reality. Make no mistake, the Trump administration’s frustration with India is geopolitical. None other than the famous White House counsellor for trade and manufacturing and Trump’s close aide, Peter Navarro, blurted out in a Financial Times (FT) op-ed this week that the US should not transfer cutting-edge” military technology to an India which is cozying up to both Russia and China.”

However, a paradigm shift may ensue if Trump indeed proceeds to sanction India, which cannot be ruled out, forcing a profound Indian rethink on its doctrine of strategic autonomy, which had been predicated on the notion that all countries were equal but America was more equal than others.

Washington’s nightmare: Modi and Xi break the ice

Shenali D Waduge

Sri Lanka’s current economic collapse cannot be understood in isolation. It is tied to the 2015 regime change, orchestrated with heavy involvement of the United States and India, which removed the Mahinda Rajapaksa government (though not without its share of faults). The Yahapalana” coalition that came to power in January 2015 was a patchwork alliance of:

• TheUNP (Ranil Wickremesinghe)
• A breakaway SLFP faction led byMaithripala Sirisena (backed by Chandrika Kumaratunga)
• TheTNA (Tamil National Alliance)
• JVP
• Backing from sections of theNGO lobby, civil society activists, Western-funded groups, and pro-Indian intellectuals

This coalition was united not by a shared vision, but by a single mission: to weaken and dismantle the Rajapaksa administration and align Sri Lanka with Western and Indian geopolitical interests by this time India had become a QUAD partner.

Some of the pro-West and pro-India policy shifts during 2015–2019 included:

• Co-sponsoring theUNHRC Resolution 30/1 against own country & its armed forces (2015) – unprecedented in history.
• Entering into strategic agreements like theETCA framework with India and moving toward US-backed pacts such as MCC, ACSA, SOFA. ACSA signed in 2017.
• Weakening state enterprises and pushingprivatization/foreignization agendas.
• Re-orienting economic borrowing away from concessional loans(low interest, long term) toward short-term International Sovereign Bonds (ISBs) — overwhelmingly purchased by US-based venture funds and hedge funds.

Between 2015–2019, Sri Lanka issued over USD 12 billion in ISBs, at interest rates often 6–8%, repayable in lump sums. These borrowings, unlike earlier concessional loans from Japan, China, or multilaterals, became a debt time bomb that directly caused the reserve crisis of 2020–2022.

The same external forces that engineered 2015 re-emerged in 2022 during the Aragalaya.” Mass protests, fueled by both genuine hardship and NGO/social media campaigns, forced President Gotabaya Rajapaksa out of office.

Who returned to power? Ranil Wickremesinghe — unelected, with only one seat in Parliament, but acceptable to Washington, New Delhi, and global financial actors.

Today, many who do not know this history are being made to believe Ranil is the savior” of the economy. The reality is that the economic foundations of collapse were laid during the 2015–2019 Yahapalana years, under his leadership, with full external backing.

Q1: Who actually declared Sri Lanka’s default?

A: It was not Parliament or the President.

The declaration came from the Central Bank Governor Nandalal Weerasinghe and Finance Minister Ali Sabry in April 2022.

Q2: Why did they declare default?
A: They claimed Sri Lanka had no foreign reserves to pay creditors.

Q3.What resulted from declaring default

Critics argue it was a hasty, externally-influenced decision that shut the door on alternative options like bilateral support, bridge financing, or negotiated restructuring.

Declaring default meant Sri Lanka could no longer borrow normally, open LCs… this decision indirectly forced Sri Lanka into the arms of the IMF under strict conditions.

Q4. How did Sri Lanka suddenly suffer shortages in fuel, gas and essentials?

Once default was declared, Sri Lanka lost access to normal credit lines.

Suppliers demanded cash upfront.

Sri Lanka had very low foreign reserves (dollars) to pay for fuel shipments, cooking gas, medicines, and other essentials couldn’t be paid for.

This caused the long queues, blackouts, and shortages people faced in 2022.

Q5: Why didn’t Sri Lanka have enough foreign reserves?

A: Because Sri Lanka had borrowed heavily in short-term commercial loans (ISBs) instead of relying mainly on concessional loans.

These loans had to be repaid in big lump sums. At the same time, the country’s exports were too low compared to what we spent on imports (fuel, food, medicine, vehicles, luxury goods).

Tourism and remittances — two big dollar earners — also dropped sharply after 2019 COVID.

By 2021–22, the government had to spend almost all the reserves just to service old debt, leaving nothing for essentials.

Q6: Who was responsible for taking short-term commercial loans (ISBs), and why were these taken? How much, when, and on what terms?

A:

Until 2014, Sri Lanka’s foreign debt was mostly long-term concessional loans from Japan, ADB, and World Bank — low interest, long repayment (20–30 years).

In 2015–2019, under Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s Yahapalana Government, the debt strategy changed.

Instead of long-term concessional loans, they shifted to International Sovereign Bonds (ISBs) — short-term, commercial borrowings at 6%–8% interest.

These loans were like taking payday loans — high interest, short term, and had to be repaid all at once — unlike concessional loans that are like a mortgage (low interest, long repayment).

• How much?Between 2015–2019, nearly $12.5 billion in ISBs were borrowed.
• Why?To cover budget deficits, maintain artificial stability of the rupee, and repay maturing old ISBs instead of negotiating restructuring.
• Terms:These loans were lump sum repayment (no gradual installments), unlike concessional loans which are paid slowly.
• Impact:By 2020–22, huge repayments came due all at once. With low reserves and no backup plan, Sri Lanka was pushed into default.

Who was responsible when Sri Lanka turned to ISBs (2015–2019)?

Key decision-makers:

• Prime Minister / Minister of Policy Planning:Ranil Wickremesinghe (UNP) — architect of economic policy shift.

Finance Ministers:

• Ravi Karunanayake(2015–2017)
• Mangala Samaraweera(2017–2019)

Central Bank Governors:

• Arjuna Mahendran(2015–2016) — infamous for the 2015 Bond Scam.
• Indrajit Coomaraswamy(2016–2019) — continued ISB dependence.

Economic Advisors / Think Tanks backing policy:

• Advocates of liberalization” & ISBs included officials tied toPathfinder Foundation, Advocata Institute, Verité Research (many with foreign donor influence).

So, the trap was created during 2015–2019:

short-term borrowing, high interest, lump sum repayments, no reserves built.

Q7. Who is being blamed for the economic crisis?

A: The common narrative pushed locally and internationally is that Gotabaya Rajapaksa is solely responsible. But this is not accurate.

• The roots of the crisis go back to 2015–2019 under the Yahapalana (Sirisena–Ranil) Government, which shifted Sri Lanka from low-interest, long-term concessional loans to high-interest, short-term ISBs (mostly from US venture funds). This created the debt trap.
• By the time Gotabaya took office in Nov 2019, 70% of ISB repayments were already locked in (had to be paid)
• The COVID-19 pandemic (2020–2021) wiped out tourism and remittances, cutting $8–10 billion in annual foreign exchange. JVP carried out campaign scaring people from sending remittances back home.
• The 2022 global commodity shock (oil, gas, food) after the Ukraine war made imports unaffordable.
• Yes, Gotabaya made policy mistakes (fertilizer ban, not taking loans or reaching out to traditional friendly nations, prioritizing reserves). But he did not create the structural debt crisis — he inherited it.

So, blaming Gotabaya alone hides the bigger story: the 2015–2019 decisions and externally influenced regime changes that laid the foundation.

Q8. When Gotabaya Rajapaksa failed, why was Ranil Wickremesinghe the only one who came forward?

A: Because the crisis was engineered in such a way that Gotabaya would take the fall and Ranil could return as the saviour.”

• Ranil had no public mandatein 2020 (he lost his seat, his party UNP collapsed), yet he was the only option” offered when GR resigned.
• He allowed Gotabaya to carry the blamefor the ISB repayments that were actually created under his own (2015–2019) Yahapalana tenure.
• Once public anger was directed only at GR through the aragalaya, Ranil could step in as President without election.
• This gave him the perfect chance to continue what he could not finishduring 2015–2019:
  • Strengthening Western and Indian influence in Sri Lanka.
  • Carrying forward IMF-led austerity reforms.
  • Restructuring state assets (privatization) to foreign interests.
  • Re-aligning foreign policy away from China.

In short, Ranil’s rise was not sacrifice, but calculated timing, helped by those who supported the aragalaya which arose because there were no dollars to buy essential commodities — letting Gotabaya fall so he could come in as the solution” to a crisis his camp helped to create. Unfortunately, even the so-called educated are unable to understand this ground reality.

Q9. Does this mean that Ranil Wickremesinghe paved the way for a change of government knowing it would collapse within a short time, being aware of the foreign reserves and financial situation — which the new government was unaware of?

A: Yes.

• The Yahapalana government (2015–2019) under Ranil knew exactly the debt maturity trap they had createdby taking short-term International Sovereign Bonds (ISBs) from US-based venture funds.
• These bonds were stacked to mature in clusters after 2019, meaning whoever came to power would inherit an impossible repayment schedule.
• By late 2019, foreign reserves were already dangerously low. Ranil, as PM and Finance-influencer, was fully aware of this, but the public and even Gotabaya’s camp were not presented with the true picture.
• The new government under GR inherited this time bomb. The pandemic and the 2022 Ukraine war worsened the pressure — but the root causewas already laid by Yahapalana.
• Once the collapse came, the blame was successfully pinned only on GR, creating the vacuum for Ranil to return, unelected, and continue alignment with Western-Indian agendas.

In short, the collapse was not an accident — it was a calculated setup. Ranil’s camp planted the debt trap, kept quiet, let GR walk into it, and then returned when the explosion forced regime change.

Q10. Why is it so difficult for even the educated to understand this very basic ground reality?

A: Several factors contribute to widespread misunderstanding:

1. Complexity of Finance vs. Simplified Narratives
2. ISBs, foreign reserves, debt maturities, and IMF programs are technical. Most media reports simplify them into GR failed” or Ranil saved us,” hiding the underlying debt trap.

• Controlled Information and Media Spin
• Many outlets pushed a narrative that blamed Gotabaya Rajapaksa for the crisis, while portraying Ranil as the saviour,” obscuring the 2015–2019 origins.

• External Influence & Political Engineering
• US-India-backed political maneuvering and the global financial connections of ISBs were not highlighted publicly. Ordinary citizens or even the educated were often unaware of who orchestrated the debt structure.

• Focus on Immediate Crises
• People saw queues, shortages, and inflation. They reacted emotionally to visible suffering rather than analyzing the policy decisions made years earlierthat caused the crisis.

• Misinformation & False Hero Narratives
• Social media and international coverage frequently cast Ranil as the problem-solver, while ignoring that his policies in 2015–2019 created the time-bomb.

Even educated citizens can be misled if the historical context, technical debt structure, and foreign influence are not clearly explained. Without connecting 2015–2019 policies to 2022 collapse, the public is left with a distorted saviour vs. failure” story, rather than the real picture.

Q11. Did Ranil reduce the debt burden after taking office?

A: No. The debt burden continued to grow under his leadership, largely because he relied on IMF-backed loans, new bilateral loans, and domestic borrowing to meet repayment schedules, rather than restructuring the economy for long-term sustainability.

Q12. Did Ranil reverse the ISB debt trap created in 2015–2019?

A: No. The ISBs taken earlier were still maturing, and Ranil’s government continued servicing them under IMF conditionalities. The structural debt problem remains — repayments from 2027 onward are still huge, leaving little room for development.

Q13. Did citizens see immediate relief under Ranil?

A: Not substantially. While he stabilized some short-term imports, citizens continued to face higher taxes, reduced subsidies, inflation, and privatization of state assets, which were part of IMF-mandated austerity measures.

Q14. Did Ranil create new foreign reserves or sustainable income streams?

A: No. The focus was on managing existing obligations, not building long-term reserves or reviving exports and tourism to pre-crisis levels. Economic growth remains weak.

Q15. Did Ranil take steps to protect strategic national assets?

A: No.

During his tenure, several privatizations and foreign partnerships continued in key sectors such as ports, energy, and airports, reducing national control over strategic resources. A notable example is the leasing of Hambantota Port to a Chinese company for 99 years, in exchange for around $1.1 billion, effectively handing over operational control of a major national asset for nearly a century.

Q16. Did Ranil restore public confidence or independence in policy-making?

A: Partially, but largely within IMF or Western-backed frameworks. Monetary and fiscal policy remained constrained, limiting sovereign control over economic decisions.

Q17. What are the long-term impacts of these sacrifices on Sri Lanka?

A: The combined economic, strategic, and political decisions under Ranil have several lasting consequences:

• Loss of National Control over Strategic Assets
• Leases and other privatizations reduce the country’s control over critical infrastructure.
• Future governments have limited ability to reclaim or use these assets independently.
• Debt Dependency and Economic Vulnerability
• Reliance onIMF programs, US venture fund ISBs, and bilateral loans keeps Sri Lanka under external oversight.
• Fiscal policy is constrained — higher taxes, reduced public services, and limited ability to invest in national development.
• Erosion of Sovereignty
• Geopolitical commitments (MCC, ACSA, ETCA) bind Sri Lanka to Western and Indian strategic interests.
• Reduced freedom to negotiate independently with other global partners, including China, Russia, or Middle Eastern countries.
• Limited Long-Term Economic Growth
• Funds are focused on debt servicing, stabilization, and meeting foreign commitments rather than building new infrastructure or generating domestic revenue.
• Citizens face stagnation in wages, job opportunities, and public service quality.
• Public Discontent and Social Strain
• Prolonged austerity, higher living costs, and cuts in welfare may increase social unrest.
• Future governments will struggle to reverse unpopular policies implemented under external pressure.
• Generational Impact
• National wealth is diverted to foreign debt repayments instead of education, health, or technology investments.
• Future generations inherit the burden of foreign-controlled debt and compromised sovereignty.

Q18. Is the savior” narrative accurate for future generations?

A: No.

While immediate collapse may have been managed, long-term vulnerabilities persist due to high debt, dependency on foreign financing, and continued austerity, leaving future generations exposed.

Present generation may feel only a pinch but future generations will be the one’s suffering for the mistakes of the present leaders of which Ranil Wickremasinghe holds the biggest blame & no one else. Simple Truth: Ranil gave us borrowed oxygen, not a cure. The crisis is still alive, only hidden for now.

Q19. Did Ranil protect Sri Lanka’s self-sufficiency and national interests?

A: No.

Policies under his tenure continued import dependence, did not strengthen agriculture or local industries, and allowed key assets to be privatized or leased. Strategic decisions often prioritized foreign interests over citizen welfare.

Q20. Did Ranil create lasting economic stability and transparency?

A: No.

Debt servicing, IMF conditionalities, and high-interest loans continued. Citizens saw higher taxes, reduced subsidies, and limited growth, while transparency in deals and privatizations remained low. The savior” label obscures that long-term vulnerabilities persist.

As a result of the $12.5 billion in ISBs issued during 2015–2019, Sri Lanka’s total foreign debt of around $37 billion now requires annual repayments of approximately $3–3.5 billion (principal plus interest) starting 2027. Following Ranil’s 2023 move to make the Central Bank independent, the CBSL now answers directly to the IMF rather than the Sri Lankan government. Although citizens fund its operations through taxes and deposits, the CBSL is legally bound to follow IMF directives and has no obligation to act with empathy toward the public. With a freely floating rupee, any depreciation increases the amount of local currency required to convert into dollars to meet these repayments, placing further strain on the national budget and citizens.

While some may credit Ranil Wickremesinghe for stepping in when Sri Lanka lacked leadership, this perception is misleading. He did not inherit an unknown crisis—he returned to carry forward a debt trap and economic collapse that he helped create during 2015–2019. His post-2022 leadership” managed short-term appearances and cash flow but did not resolve structural debt, restore sovereignty, or build sustainable economic foundations. In short, he provided only temporary relief, creating an artificial sense of public loyalty, while locking Sri Lanka further into IMF dependency.

Shenali D Waduge

Lanka Voice

National Development Bank PLC

National Development Bank PLC hosted its Analyst Earnings Call recently to discuss the Bank’s financial results for the six months ended 30 June 2025. This was subsequent to the release of the Bank’s financial results to the Colombo Stock Exchange on the 14th of August 2025, where the Bank recorded an institutional all-time high PAT exceeding LKR 4.2 billion.

The Earnings Call was hosted from the Bank’s Head Office in Colombo 02 via a virtual mode with the participation of the Director/Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Kelum Edirisinghe, together with members of the senior management team. The CEO presented a detailed account of salient aspects such as the key macroeconomic trends and the Bank’s performance across income, profitability, balance sheet growth, solvency and investor returns.

Discussions further focused on core themes such as asset growth, CASA mobilisation, cost optimisation, and strengthening of portfolio quality. The CEO also elaborated on NDB’s continued investments in digital transformation, SME empowerment, sustainable banking practices, and support for key national priorities, including export sector growth.

The presentation was followed by a Q&A session where analysts were able to direct their questions to the CEO or any of the panellists present. The Q&A session provided participants with valuable insights among other things, on the Bank’s growth trajectory, interest rate environment, and sectoral lending strategies.

The event was well attended by representatives of local and foreign investment firms, research analysts, stockbrokers, and fund managers. It was organised by NDB’s Investor Relations Unit, reflecting the Bank’s commitment to maintaining strong engagement with the investment community. NDB has consistently conducted quarterly and annual investor calls since 2014, demonstrating its focus on transparency and accountability.

Despite challenges in the external environment, NDB continues to demonstrate resilience and agility, delivering sustainable value to all stakeholders. 

Dr. Ruwan M. Jayatunge M.D. PhD 

Sri Lankan anthropologist Professor Gananath Obeyesekere’s book The Doomed King: A Requiem for Sri Vikrama Rajasinha delves into the life of Sri Vikrama Rajasinha, the last king of Sri Lanka, and critically analyzes his legacy.

The historical portrayal of Sri Vikrama Rajasinha often paints him as a tyrant, a perception that has lingered in the minds of many people. Feelings of anger and aversion towards Sri Vikrama Rajasinha continue to exist, and they are deeply rooted in the shared historical experiences in the collective unconscious of many Sri Lankans.

However, Professor Gananath seeks to challenge these long-held beliefs. While the narrative has often characterized him as a cruel dictator responsible for numerous atrocities, including acts of violence against innocents, these accounts may not tell the full story. According to Professor Gananath, the image we have of him is a distorted one, shaped by the psychological operations and propaganda that were used by the British invaders. By examining a variety of historical evidence, Gananath aims to uncover the real Sri Vikrama Rajasinha and shed light on his true character.

Sri Vikrama Rajasinha, also known as Prince Kannasamy, was born in 1780. There are intriguing tales surrounding his origins, suggesting that he was the son of a widowed Nayakkar Rajamaheshika’s sister and Pilimatalavuva, a chieftain from the Kandyan kingdom.

Pilimatalavuva Maha Adikaram wielded a significant influence and played a crucial role in securing and bringing Prince Kannasamy to the throne. By 1798, at just sixteen years of age, he found himself ruling over the Kandyan kingdom, with Pilimatalavuva by his side, guiding his decisions. However, Pilimatalavuva had ulterior motives. Pilimatalavuva aimed to first place Kannasamy in power, only to later oust him, ultimately paving the way for the establishment of a Sinhala royal dynasty.

Sri Vikrama Rajasinha’s reign lasted only 17 years. When the British captured him, he was a striking young man of 35, standing approximately six feet tall. Descriptions from English physician Henry Marshall highlight his large, dark eyes, an inviting countenance, and a well-groomed beard that lent him a commanding presence. His robust build added to his notable appearance.

Professor Gananath indicates several of his significant accomplishments. King Sri Vikrama Rajasinha is credited with the creation of the artificial Kandy Lake, alongside the renowned Cloud Wall (Walakulu Bamma). He also made significant modifications to the Royal Palace complex, which stands at the center of the city. His remarkable impact on the development and architectural allure of Kandy has largely been overlooked by history. At the heart of this vibrant “cosmic city,” he ingeniously designed the temple complex and lake, forming a captivating centerpiece.

British captain Robert Percival reflects on King Sri Vikrama Rajasinha as a lover of music, endowed with gentle qualities. To understand him better, we should consider the reigns of the kings before him.

King Seethawaka Rajasinghe (1532 – 1593) was a fierce warrior who brought fear into the hearts of Portuguese invaders. However, in the latter stages, he showed signs of psychological distress, possibly stemming from combat fatigue (PTSD?). His paranoia led him to execute many of his generals and nobles out of sheer suspicion.

Then there was King Rajasinghe II (1608 – 1687). English prisoner Robert Knox offers a glimpse into the king’s unpredictable and harsh laws. A notable incident recounts how, while swimming in a river, the king feigned drowning to test the loyalty of two young men. When they courageously swam to his rescue, their reward was a tragic fate—execution for having touched the royal body. This serves as a stark reminder of the unpredictable cruelty that defined his reign.  There is no historical documentation to indicate that King Sri Vikrama Rajasinha acted in such a thoughtless manner.

Professor Gananath indicates the misconceptions surrounding the last king, Sri Vikrama Rajasinha. Some British diplomats unfairly characterized him as lacking intelligence and bravery, with reports suggesting he struggled with alcoholism. However, the reality was quite different. Those British envoys who interacted with him later came to recognize that Sri Vikrama Rajasinha was not only intelligent and spiritual but also a man of substance. He was well-educated and often engaged in meditation to find peace and clarity.

Pilimatalavuva Maha Adikaram’s Role

There’s not a great deal of detail in our history books regarding Pilimatalavuva Adhikaram. It appears that he was quite the strategist, adept at navigating the political landscape. He played a significant role in elevating Sri Vikrama Rajasinha to the throne, though it seems he had his own motives at heart, potentially aiming to usurp the throne for himself at some point.

Pilimatalavuva Maha Adikaram was the third son in a lineage of Kandyan chieftains, tracing its roots back to a distinguished family that served the Sinhalese kings since ancient times. This lineage was further enriched through the integration with South Indian nobility who came to the Kandyan Kingdom during the rule of Sri Vira Parkrama Narendrasinha of Kundasale.

His full name was Pilimatalavuva Vijesundera Rajakaruna Senaviratne Abhayakoon Panditha Mudiyanse, also known as Urulevatta Agra Senadhipathi and Arave Pallegampaha Maha Adikaram III. Both his father and older brother held the title of Maha Adikaram before him.

His dealings with the British were particularly intriguing; he didn’t just collaborate with them but also orchestrated their movements, inviting British forces into the central region, possibly to exploit their weaknesses. Throughout this, he maintained a delicate balance with Sri Vikrama Rajasinha, who relied on him emotionally.

Pilimatalavuva Adhikaram masterfully portrayed himself as an ally to the British, showcasing a level of prudence that outshone Keppetipola Disawe, who relied more on bravery than strategy. In a time marked by internal strife and external threats, Pilimatalavuva Adhikaram navigated his situation with great care over an extended period. He planned to bring the English army into the heart of the country and then annihilate the troops. However, Frederick North, the Governor of British Ceylon, found Pilimatalavuva’s maneuvers questionable and responded with caution. A single miscalculation ultimately led to his undoing, sealing his tragic fate. It’s fascinating to consider him as the ancient Sri Lankan equivalent of Robert McNamara.

1803; The First Kandyan War

The British invasion of Ceylon in 1803, referred to as the First Kandyan War, marked an unsuccessful effort by Governor Frederick North to subjugate the independent Kingdom of Kandy. Colonel James Stuart commanded around 2,700 troops, which included British regiments (71st, 72nd, and 73rd), Madras Native Infantry, and artillery, alongside auxiliary forces. This contingent was part of a larger British military presence on the island, totaling between 4,000 and 5,000 personnel, including local Malay and Sepoy infantry.

The campaign resulted in a staggering loss of life, with 1,091 British soldiers perishing from January to June, leading some accounts to characterize the conflict as a massacre inflicted by the Kandyan forces. The British army, consisting of 3,387 soldiers from seven regiments, faced severe casualties due to both disease and combat, culminating in a significant defeat in the island’s interior. Their underestimation of Kandyan resistance, combined with unfamiliarity with the terrain and the challenges posed by guerrilla warfare, contributed to this disastrous outcome.

Frederick North’s Clandestine Services to the Islanders

Frederick North, 5th Earl of Guilford, was the Governor of British Ceylon from 1798 to 1805. Surprisingly, the important role he played during his tenure isn’t mentioned in our history lessons. North was the pioneer of the civil service in Ceylon and dedicated much of his efforts to improving education. He also initiated the vaccination campaign against smallpox, a disease that claimed the lives of tens of thousands of Sri Lankans each year. (As someone who served as an MOH, I wasn’t even aware of his contributions to public health in Sri Lanka.) In addition to these reforms, he established both domestic and foreign postal services and worked to abolish the “Rajakai system,” which had allowed officials to exploit ordinary villagers without consequence. Thanks to North’s educational reforms, in 1811, Mudali Abraham de Seram’s two sons became the first Sri Lankans to study abroad, attending Trinity Hall in England. Mudali Abraham de Seram is noteworthy himself; he famously read the Kandyan Agreement in Sinhala at Magul Maduwa in 1815, indicating his role as a language translator.

However, towards the end of his term, North faced significant work-related stress, which may have led to adjustment disorder, prompting his return to England. Following his departure, Thomas Maitland took over from 1805 until March 19, 1811.

The Murder of Lewke Disawa

The Lewke family held a prominent position in society during the Kandyan period, forging strong ties with the ruling dynasties of the time. Legend has it that this family traced its origins back to Brahmins who arrived on the island during the reign of King Vijayabahu I in the 11th century.

Among them, Lewke Disawa stood out not only for his impressive physique but also as a formidable wrestler and a respected military commander under King Sri Vikrama Rajasinha. The circumstances surrounding Lewke Disawa’s death remain somewhat murky.

In September 1803, as the Sinhalese army prepared to assault the English fort at Hanwella, he expressed confidence to King Sri Vikrama Rajasinha, suggesting that taking the fort would be straightforward. However, during the course of the battle, a rumor reached the king that Lewke was idling in a paddy field instead of participating in the decisive battle. Fueled by distrust, exacerbated by the schemes of those around the court, the king perceived Lewke’s actions as a lack of commitment. In a moment of misjudgment, he ordered Lewke’s execution.

Notably, Gananatha hints at a deeper narrative behind this tragic event, suggesting possible secret dealings between Lewke and the British, indicating that his actions may have been more than simple insubordination. Rather, it seems there might have been layers of intrigue and betrayal at play in the unfolding of these events. Although the historical record does not show that Lewke Dissawa had secret dealings with the British. But he was suspected of attempting to assassinate the king. It can be assumed that the king ordered his execution for these reasons.

The Brutal Murder of the Entire Ehelepola Family

The Ehelepola family met a tragic fate in 1814, as they were executed on the orders of Sri Vikrama Rajasinha, following the betrayal of his chief, Ehelepola Adikaram. The king ordered the drowning of his wife, daughters, and sister-in-law in Kandy Lake, while his infant son was killed in a rice pounder. King Sri Wickrema Rajasinghe ordered Ehelepola Kumarihamy to kill her infant by pounding its head with a pestle.This atrocity sparked widespread outrage among the populace and significantly contributed to the king’s eventual downfall.

Ganatha argues that the killings of the Ehelepola family were not as savage as historical accounts suggest, claiming that these events have been exaggerated as part of a British psychological warfare against the doomed king. He posits that John Doyley played a crucial role as a spy, spreading rumors and effectively securing the support of the local populace for the British invasion of Kandy. Furthermore, reports from Gregory Powell’s book, The Kandyan Wars: The British Army in Ceylon, 1803–1818, indicate that the practice of infanticide, killing an infant by pounding its head with a pestle, was not initiated by Sri Wickrama Rajasinghe. According to him, the Dutch had adopted this inhumane method way before Sri Wickrama Rajasinghe. During a Dutch assault on a Portuguese fort, a Portuguese woman was compelled to kill her baby, pounding the infant with a pestle before being sent back to the fort. Professor Ganatha speculates that Portuguese General Acevedo also adopted these inhumane methods.

The question arises whether the king derived a sadistic pleasure from the brutality inflicted upon the Ehelepola family, including small children. Professor Ganatha argues against the notion that Ehelepola’s family endured inhumane torture. He clarifies that while Ehelepola’s wife and children were executed in accordance with existing royal law, the process was not carried out cruelly or theatrically, as history shows.  It was Jan Egberts Thoen, a Dutch soldier, who concocted this alarming tale, which John D’Oyly subsequently reported to his superiors.

The Plight of Ehelepola Nilame

Ehelepola Nilame emerged as a contentious figure during the final years of the Kandy Kingdom, with some historians accusing him of betraying Sri Lanka to the British. Born in Ehelepola village in the Matale district in 1773, he was the son of Padikara Nilame and Kossinne Kumarihamy. Ehelepola married Monarawila Kumarihamy, the sister of Keppetipola’s Disawa, who later led the Uva Rebellion in 1818.

Appointed by King Sri Vikrama Rajasinha to govern the Sabaragamuwa region, Ehelepola’s transfer was shrouded in speculation, with a popular but unfounded legend suggesting it was due to the king’s infatuation with Ehelepola’s wife. (This may not be true, and this rumor was fabricated to tarnish the king’s image.)

During his tenure, Ehelepola engaged in negotiations with the British to protect the Kanda Udarata kingdom from the Nayakkar clan, forming a friendship with John D’Oyly’s informant, Wattala Appu, in 1811. However, tensions escalated as Molligoda Nilame fed the king with information that sowed discord between Ehelepola and Sri Vikrama Rajasinha. Ultimately, Ehelepola harbored ambitions of usurping the throne with British military support, prompting General Sir Robert Brownrigg to monitor him closely.

In 1814, Ehelepola initiated a rebellion against the king, expecting British assistance that never materialized, leading to the uprising’s brutal suppression and his subsequent flight to British-controlled territory, where he sought protection. 

General Robert Brownrigg relied on Ehelepola to help him subdue the Kandyan kingdom, yet Ehelepola’s aspirations of kingship ultimately ended in disappointment. Over time, he became a liability for the British authorities, facing ongoing distrust. Following the uprising of 1818, Ehelepola was exiled to Mauritius, where he passed away in 1829 while still in exile.

John D’Oyly—the British Spy

Professor Gananath Obeyesekere highlights the significant role of John D’Oyly, a skilled spy and master manipulator who adeptly learned the Sinhala language and immersed himself in the local culture. This strategic masquerade allowed him to win the trust of the native population. D’Oyly established a network of informants, including merchants and Buddhist monks, who provided crucial intelligence about the Kandyan kingdom. For instance, the Buddhist monks such as Rev. Ahugoda, Rev. Godamunna, Rev. Hurukgamuwa, and Rev. Koskandawala were John D’Oyly’s informants.

Recognized as an exceptionally talented British spy, he understood the immense value of information and employed psychological tactics to sway public opinion against the king. His efforts were instrumental in laying the groundwork for the British invasion of Kandyan territory, especially after the disastrous defeat of British forces in 1803 during the First Kandyan Expedition.

This campaign, which initially saw the capture of Kandy, ultimately resulted in a retreat marked by guerrilla warfare that decimated British troops. D’Oyly believed that the conquest of the Kandyan kingdom could be achieved through intellect rather than brute force, a strategy that ultimately succeeded where the Portuguese and Dutch had failed. Following the British victory, D’Oyly was appointed as the Resident and First Commissioner of Government in the Kandyan Provinces. While Gregory Powell’s book, “The Kandyan Wars: The British Army in Ceylon, 1803–1818,” suggests that D’Oyly’s death was a suicide, many historians contest this claim, asserting that he succumbed to a remittent fever during an official tour in the Seven Korles in May 1824.

Molligoda Disawa ; the shrewd Operator

Molligoda Disawa entered the court of King Sri Vikrama Rajasinha in 1803, quickly establishing himself as a cunning strategist who gained the king’s confidence. He played a pivotal role in sowing discord between Sri Vikrama Rajasinha and Ehelepola Nilame. Often described as vindictive and conniving, Molligoda was seen by Professor Gananath as a clever figure who navigated treacherous waters with skill. In a fateful turn, he aligned himself with the British forces, choosing to forsake his king. Prior to this bold decision, he ensured the safety of his wife and children by sending them to the British side, aided by Major Hook of the British Army.  Ehelepola Nilame put his wife and children’s lives at risk by aligning himself with the British. In contrast, the clever Molligoda took decisive action to protect his family from danger. Molligoda remained loyal to the British, even supporting them during the uprising of 1818. However, as time passed, he grew increasingly isolated and fell into alcoholism. Molligoda Disawa passed away in 1823.

Rev Wariyapola Sri Sumangala’s Heroic Act

The popular narrative in Sri Lankan history portrays Wariyapola Sri Sumangala as a heroic Buddhist monk who boldly removed the Union Jack and raised the Sinhalese lion flag prior to the 1815 Kandyan Convention. However, Ganatha challenges this account, suggesting that it was a fabrication. This revelation might provoke disillusionment and anger among nationalists. It is crucial to prioritize historical accuracy over the perpetuation of myths, as this incident appears to be an exaggeration that never actually took place. The convention was heavily secured, preventing any unauthorized access, and official reports do not document any such disturbances. In his book, The Kandyan Wars: The British Army in Ceylon, 1803-1818, Gregory Powell provides a detailed account of the Kandyan Convention without mentioning this event, further supporting the notion that the story is a fictional tale that has spread through oral tradition.

1818 Uva–Wellassa Rebellion

 The Uva-Wellassa Rebellion of 1818 was sparked by the British violation of the Kandyan Convention, a disregard that ignored the region’s traditions, disrespected the rights of Kandyan chiefs, and imposed harsh rule on the Kandyan people. Growing frustration with British governance led to a significant uprising, led by notable figures such as Monarawila Keppetipola Nilame, Madugalle Basnayake Nilame, and Ellepolla Nilame, all of whom were eager to reclaim the Kandyan Kingdom.

Despite the rebels’ determination, the uprising was ultimately crushed by the British, who possessed far greater military strength. A lack of cohesive leadership among the insurgents further weakened their resistance. The British employed severe tactics, including a scorched-earth policy that devastated resources and created an atmosphere of terror among the local populace.

Major MacDonald of the British Army engaged in retaliatory actions by setting fire to homes, destroying crops, and slaughtering livestock. Collaborators faced execution, while others were forced into exile. Even family members were not spared, being taken as prisoners. (Decades later, in 1864-1865, US Army General William T. Sherman adopted a scorched-earth strategy during his March to the Sea, aiming to dismantle the Confederacy’s will and resources for continuing the war).

Some Kandyan chieftains, like Molligoda Maha Adikaram and Ratwatte Adikaram, sided with the British, while loyalty from other chiefs in areas like Tun Korele and Hathara Korele helped the colonial powers suppress further rebellions. Historical accounts indicate that the British resorted to brutal measures to extinguish the revolt, implementing collective punishments, destroying property, and executing key rebel leaders. Ultimately, the rebellion failed due to internal discord and inadequate planning within the ranks of the insurgents.

The Doomed King

Sri Wickrama Rajasinghe, the final monarch of the Kandy Nayak Dynasty of Telugu descent, reigned from 1739 until 1815. During his rule, some contemporary writers labeled him a Tamil king, a politically motivated tactic aimed at undermining his popularity among the populace. Despite these challenges, he was known for his contributions to architecture and his support of Buddhism, notably completing the Dalada Maligawa complex with the addition of the Pattirippuva. Following the British conquest, he was exiled to Vellore Fort in India, where he remained until his death in 1832.

There is a plausible theory suggesting that the British covertly administered small doses of arsenic to Sri Wickrama Rajasinghe to expedite his demise. This practice was not isolated, as reports indicate that Sinhala rebels in exile also received arsenic, leading to symptoms such as stomach issues, including nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea with dyspnea and swollen feet before their deaths. Notably, Sri Wickrama Rajasinghe experienced similar symptoms in his final days. This method of poisoning was also employed against Napoleon, who succumbed to comparable health problems, with arsenic later detected in his hair. During his exile, the king fathered a son, Rajadhi Rajasinha, who died of unknown causes in exile in Vellore Fort, India, in 1843. The death of Rajadhi Rajasinha has intensified suspicions regarding the circumstances surrounding these events.