JYOTI MALHOTRA Courtesy The Print

A complete lack of trust between the Sinhala elite and Tamil minority is apparent across Sri Lanka, which seems unable to even begin laying some of its ghosts to rest.

Forty years ago this July, back in 1983, Sri Lanka was devastated by an anti-Tamil pogrom in which several hundred people were killed, triggering a civil war that plunged this paradise island into a deep abyss. That darkest chapter ended only in 2009 with the killing of  LTTE leader Prabhakaran and another 100,000 or so people – Sinhala, Tamil, Muslim, more than a thousand Indian soldiers as well as India’s former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.

You would have thought that Sri Lanka, a tiny island nation of 22 million people about the population of Mumbai, would have at least begun laying some of its ghosts to rest. But the worm has been turning in paradise for so long that it has embittered even the Middle Path proposed by the Buddha as a metaphor for peace and reconciliation; decades later, Sri Lanka’s Buddhist Sinhala majority simply seems unable to share power with its Tamil minority.

So, when President Ranil Wickremesinghe recently spoke in Parliament about the need to at least partially implement the 13th Amendment that promises to devolve some powers to the provinces, including those where Tamils are in a majority – and which has been part of the country’s Constitution since the India-Sri Lanka accord was signed in 1987 – it was variously received with disdain, shock and a sense of betrayal.

Travelling across Sri Lanka this past week has been an exercise in observing a deeply riven nation that seems unable to come to terms with itself. This is such an incredibly beautiful country – the streets of Jaffna, Mannar, Trincomalee, Nalanda Gedige, Matale, Kandy, and Colombo are so shockingly clean that you wonder why Sri Lankans want to spend their time sweeping the dirt and filth away and showcasing a First World image when a hundred other crises are constantly presenting themselves.

Or, perhaps, that’s exactly why. When there are so many crocodiles in the river, you ignore their gaping mouths and reach for a semblance of order in your lives.

Also read: Take care, Rajiv Gandhi told Prabhakaran. Even gave bulletproof vest before Sri Lanka Accord

Slacking economy, powers to minority

First, an enumeration of the crises, at least as seen by an outsider. There is the economy, now struggling to revive with a little help from the IMF (which has lent Sri Lanka its first $2.9 billion tranche) and India (which has lent $4 billion). It’s been a year since the unprecedented economic chaos led to former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa fleeing the country and the unelected Wickremesinghe being named prime minister and then president; Sri Lanka defaulted for the first time in its history and stared at paying a foreign debt of $51 billion, its GDP falling by 7.8 per cent and inflation rising to nearly 70 per cent by last September.

A year on, the news is far better. An April IMF report says the economic contraction will be far less severe (-3.1 per cent in 2023 and growth of 1.5 per cent in 2024), while inflation has halved to 35 per cent. From all accounts, Wickremesinghe is using the crisis to initiate economic reforms by reducing subsidies, trying to attract foreign investments and rolling loans for another year. As poverty doubles, he knows he is facing the severest challenge of his over 40-year-long political career.

Second, the continuing insecurity in the Sri Lankan Sinhala elite about sharing power with their Tamil and Muslim minorities seems astounding at best and inexcusable at worst. The Sinhalas are a rank majority, about 16.5 million or 75 per cent of the population, while the minority Tamils are 5 million or 15 per cent of the population. Of course, a large part of the insecurity is based on the Tamil Tiger-led insurgency that fractured the country for several decades.

But the fact also remains that the civil war has been over for 14 years. Moreover, the ruthless LTTE not just killed thousands of Sinhala people but decimated the ranks of the Tamil leadership. It’s a no-brainer that this tiny country needs reconciliation if it has to move on from the horrors of those years, that no reconciliation is possible without dignity and that dignity presupposes equality between all sides.

The scandal at hand is about a 36-year-old piece of legislation called the 13th Amendment, which is very much part of the Sri Lankan Constitution, although many citizens argue it was pushed down their throat in 1987 when the India-Sri Lanka accord was signed between Rajiv Gandhi and JR Jayawardene. The legislation, though, has still not been implemented. Why, you might ask. Do the Sinhalas hate it so much? Perhaps. And that’s because the 13th Amendment guarantees the exercise of land and police powers in all provinces, including the North and East provinces in which Tamils are a majority — presumably, the Sinhala-majority elite is nervous that the Tamils will also exercise these powers to the detriment of the nation.

A clear and complete lack of trust between the Sinhala elite and Tamil minority is apparent across the country – a Sunday Times editorial this past week described any leniency on the 13th Amendment as giving in to extremist elements”. Interestingly, Wickremesinghe has put a Tamil politician, Senthil Thondaman, as governor of the Eastern province — the Thondamans of the Ceylon Workers Congress are part of Wickremesinghe’s government today and have always loved the status quo above everything else.

They represent the upcountry Tamil population — indentured labour imported by the British from India 200 years ago — who have known poverty intimately, have compromised with most governments over the decades and understand that if they want to wield power, they cannot confront the Sinhala elite but must get around them.

In an interview in his beautiful, colonial period office in Trincomalee, Thondaman told me that he, his party and the Tamil people were comfortable with the fact that only land powers should be given under the 13th Amendment. He said he agreed with Wickremesinghe’s proposal that powers over the police will not be given. We know we have to compromise with the majority Sinhalas, we have to try and get what we can, so why fight,” Thondaman said, cutting a natty figure in his blue jeans and baby pink shirt.

Also read: How Indian forces responded in Sri Lanka after a botched Jaffna operation: Lt Gen AS Kalkat (retd)

The India and China factor

The third crisis testing Sri Lanka these days is the return of the Indian hegemon” – the words find themselves splashed liberally across the local media. And what, pray, constitutes this so-called hegemony”? The string of Indian projects, both private and government, that have come up as well as those in the pipeline. From the Adani Group’s investments in the Colombo Port to investments in wind farming in the northern region; from the Indian government’s interest in jointly developing the Trincomalee harbour to constructing a Sampur thermal power plant as part of transforming the Trinco region into an energy hub; from linking Dhanushkodi on the tip of Tamil Nadu to Talaimannar in the north with ferry services — the list is endless.

What is interesting is that most of these projects have seen the light of day in the last year as the economic crisis hit the country — and India bailed out Sri Lanka with its timely offer of aid and assistance.

Luckily, private business is far more excited with the idea of Sri Lanka riding on the growth spurt in the Indian economy – they want the ghosts of the past, led by the 1987-1991 Indian Peace-Keeping Force, to be finally laid to rest. That Sri Lanka must do with India what ASEAN did with China two decades ago, by becoming a satellite state and riding the profits of the fifth largest economy in the world.

The fourth crisis is about the expanding Chinese presence in Sri Lanka. The Hambantota Port has been leased for 99 years, you need permission to enter the Colombo Port city – two- and three-wheeler vehicles, for example, are not allowed inside – and a $10 billion loan exists on the cards, which the Chinese took forever to agree to roll over when the crisis hit last year. And now, Ranil Wickremesinghe is wending his way to China in October.

Never a dull day in Sri Lanka? It’s clearly one of the most interesting places in the world.

Jyoti Malhotra is a senior consulting editor at ThePrint. She tweets @jomalhotra. Views are personal.

(Edited by Prashant)

Courtesy News18

Sri Lanka’s largest bilateral creditor China, is likely going to help the cash-strapped country in effectively addressing the debt challenges as it has to finalise the external and internal debt for restructuring of $41 billion by September before the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) first review, reported PTI. The IMF is set to conduct its first review of the $2.9 billion bailout granted to the island country in March, this year from September 11-19.

Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi quoted that they are always Sri Lanka’s reliable strategic partner and appreciates that Sri Lanka has always been friendly to China and stood by them on issues related to its core interests.

Sri Lanka is currently negotiating with its external creditors to meet the IMF’s condition for its first review. The IMF in March approved a nearly $3 billion bailout for the crisis-ridden country. To restructure the debt of $41 billion, the crisis-hit country should agree with all its external creditors by the coming month on the programme.

The first review will consider the programme’s performance until the end of June and if it gets approved by both the executive board and staff, it would allow a disbursement of around $338 million to Sri Lanka.

IMF Deputy Managing Director Kenji Okamura who visited Sri Lanka in June issued a statement in which he said that Sri Lanka’s economy is showing tentative signs of improvement, in part due to the implementation of critical policy actions. But he also pointed out that it remained challenging. Now, more than ever, it is essential to continue the reform momentum under strong ownership by both the authorities and the Sri Lankan people,” he added.

Sri Lanka witnessed its worst economic crisis in history after the country’s foreign exchange reserves fell into a critical low and the agitated public of the country came out on the streets in the form of protests due to shortage of electricity, fuel, fertilisers and essential commodities.

Under Neighbourhood First Policy, India also extended its help to the cash-stricken country. India provided multi-pronged assistance of about $4 billion to Sri Lanka, last year through multiple credit lines and currency support.

Lanka Lead News

දශක තුනකට ආසන්න කාලයක් යුද්ධයක් පැවති රට තුළ යුද්ධය අවසන් වී පැවති සාමකාමී වාතාවරණය නිමා වෙමින් අද වන විට ඉතා අඳුරු කාල පරිච්ඡේදයකට යොමුවෙමින් පවතින බව රණවිරු අපි වෙනුවෙන් අපි ජාතික සංවිධානයේ සභාපති බලලත් නිලධාරී ජයලාල් නිශ්ශංක මහතා පවසයි.

මෙම යුද්ධයේ දී රණවිරුවන් 30,000ක් පමණ දිවිපිදුවේ ද 14, 500ක් පමණ ආබාධිත වූවේ ද උතුරු නැගෙනහිර බෙදීමට එරෙහිව යුද වැදුනු නිසා බවත්, 13 වැනි සංශෝධනය හරහා එම දෙපළාතට පොලිස් හා ඉඩම් බලතල ලබාදීමෙන් බෙදුම්වාදීන්ගේ අරමුණ ජයගන්නා බවත්, රණවිරුවන් දිවිපුදා රට වෙනුවෙන් කළ කැපකිරීම සියල්ල එමගින් අවසන් වන බවත් ඒ මහතා පවසයි

https://www.lankaleadnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/WhatsApp-Video-2023-08-18-at-18.33.47-1.mp4?_=1

Lanka Lead News

මේ මොහොතේ නැවත වරක් මාතෘභූමිය ආගම් වශයෙන්, ජාති වශයෙන්, භූමිය වශයෙන් බෙදා වෙන්කරමින් වෙනම රාජ්‍යක් ගොඩනැගීම සඳහා තිබූ සැලසුම්වල පිඹුරුපත් නැවත මතුවෙමින් පවතින බව දෙවන පරපුරේ නායක උවිඳු විජේවීර මහතා පවසයි.

ඒ මහතා මේ බව පැවසුවේ ‘13 පරදවමු සහජීවනය ගොඩනගමු‘ යන තේමාව යටතේ දෙවන පරපුර විසින් සංවිධානය කළ සම්මන්ත්‍රණයකට එක් වෙමිනි.

ජනවරමක් නොමැති නායකයකු විසින් භූමියේ ඒකීයත්වය විනාශ කිරීමට සැලසුම් සකස්කරමින් පවතින බවත් උවිඳු විජේවීර මහතා මෙහිදී සඳහන් කළේය.

එමෙන්ම මෙරට ෆෙඩරල් රාජ්‍යක් නිර්මාණය කිරීමට ඉන්දි

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Sri Lanka has made the biggest contribution to China in history by gifting Vinaya Pitaka to 400Ad Buddhist monk Faxian who travelled through the old Silk Route in search of Buddhist scripts, said a chief prelate announcing a series of Chinese funded welfare projects to mark the 10th anniversary of ‘One Belt One Road’ initiative.

Chief Incumbent of the Sambodhi Maha Viharaya Ven. Boralande Vajiragnana Thera addressing a media briefing at the temple yesterday said the fundamental cause of China – Sri Lanka friendship to begin about 2,000 years ago and the constant Chinese assistance to us on numerous occasions in the history was this reason.

The Thera said a series of welfare projects and donation of funds and agricultural equipment to Sri Lanka worth of Yuan 1.3 million will take place in Kandy, Anuradhapura, Galle and Colombo during an eight-day programme commencing from September 1.

The special occasion would be the tenth anniversary of China’s OBOR initiative as well as the commemoration of the seventh anniversary for the friendship agreement between Ven. Yao Zhi of China’s leading Dafo Buddhist Temple in Guangzhou and the Sambodhi Viharaya in Colombo, the Thera said.

One of the main features of the programme was to hold an international conference to commemorate the China – Sri Lanka Buddhist affiliations on the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road on September 3rd at the BMICH.

Meanwhile, medical equipment worth Yuan 1.1 million (Rs.50 million) to the Karapitiya Teaching Hospital is to take place on September 2 and distribution of agricultural and self employment equipment worth of Yuan 200, 000 will take place in Anuradhapura on September 5th.

The series of programmes will be organised by the Ministry of Buddhasasana, Religious and Cultural Affairs and coordinated by the Long Hua Institution of Sri Lanka.

Prof. Hao Weimin of Director Long Hua Institution of Sri Lanka said China has always been a close friend of Sri Lanka and had assisted with donations collected by seven Chinese temples worth up to Yuan 7.8 million (Rs.350 million) during the Covid-19 pandemic period in 2021.

Chief Incumbent of Mahanuwara Managama Viyaraya Ven. Paranagama Gnanawimala was also present at the press briefing. (Kurulu Koojana Kariyakarawana)

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

A tense situation arose when a group led by Tamil National People’s Front leader Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam entered the Kurundi temple and conducted a Pongal Pooja, Mullaitivu police said.

Police said however the situation was brought under control.

According to a court order obtained from the Mullaitivu Court, a group, including MP Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, had gone to perform a Pongal Pooja at the Kurundi temple. However, the temple’s donors had opposed them, deeming it illegal, resulting in a heated exchange of words between the two parties.

Subsequently, Chief Incumbent of Kurundi temple Ven. Galgamuwe Shantabodhi Thera arrived at the scene and, in accordance with the court order, granted permission for the Pongal Puja to proceed. 

However, he advised the group, including the Member of Parliament, against engaging in such unethical activities in the future. The group was aggressive towards the monk as well.

The Mullaitivu police arrived and diffued the situation. They also contacted officials of the Archaeological Department, who designated an appropriate area for the Pongal pooja. The participating individuals conducted the Pongal pooja and then had left. (Romesh Madusanka)

Courtesy Adaderana

After a brief but productive visit to Yunnan capital Kunming to attend the 7th China-South Asia Expo, Sri Lankan Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena reached the ancient capital of the province, Dali City, known for agriculture research in addition to being a major tourist attraction.

He first visited the Science and Technology Campus on backyard of Gusheng village, on the banks of Dali Lake where the most successful hybrid varieties of rice has been developed after years of research. The latest paddy variety developed at the Institute gives four times the yield given by the normal rice paddy.

Vice Chancellor of the research campus, Prof Zhoo Jin explained that the new paddy seeds require only a small quantity of water and it can be used in dry zones. He invited the Prime Minister to through the first lot of hybrid paddy seeds to the irrigated paddy field in the Camus to commence the new harvesting season.

The Leader of the Dali Canger Liuxiang Agriculture Development Company’s agriculture experts group, Dr He Yanghong said the newly developed paddy will be very useful to raise the income of the farmers. We have used these hi-yielding paddy and other crops to alleviate poverty in Yunnan Province,” he said.

The Prime Minister invited the agriculture campus to send a team to inspect a place in Sri lank to grow the new high yielding paddy as pilot project.

Later Prime Minister Gunawardena visited the Gusheng village and Erhai Ecological protect, preserve and sustain environment.

State Minister Janaka Wakkumbura, Yadamini Gunawardena MP and Secretary to the Prime Minister Anura Dissanyake were also present on this occasion.

Courtesy Adaderana

Minister of Agriculture Mahinda Amaraweera says the prevailing arid weather has destroyed at least 39,000 acres of paddy land across the country thus far.

A comprehensive report on the paddy crop damages is expected to be released in the coming weeks, the lawmaker said further while addressing an event.

It is estimated that the damages to paddy cultivation will exceed 50,000 acres by the time the report is released, Minister Amaraweera added.

Minister Amaraweera, who attended a meeting of the Ministerial Consultative Committee on Agriculture last week, had assured that immediate steps would be taken to resolve the problems that have emerged in purchasing paddy from farmers.

As the Paddy Marketing Board (PMB) has not allocated enough money to purchase paddy, only a certain amount of paddy has been purchased with the funds received from the Treasury, the lawmaker had told the committee. In light of this situation, the farmers are not interested in selling paddy due to not getting the expected price, he had explained.

Meanwhile, the Disaster Management Centre (DMC) said at least 210,652 people from 60,943 families are now facing drinking water issues as a result of the prevailing drought.

Courtesy Adaderana

The government has slashed the import tax on maize, State Minister of Finance Ranjith Siyambalapitiya says.

Accordingly, the import tax of Rs. 75.00 on 1 kilogram of maize has been reduced to Rs. 25.00 with effect from Thursday (Aug. 17).

Taking to Twitter, Siyambalapitiya explained that the move aims to bring down the price of animal feed produced using maize.

Courtesy Adaderana

President Ranil Wickremesinghe has received an invitation to participate in the Summit of the Group of 77 (G77) plus China, which will take place in Cuba in September, foreign media reported.

The Cuban Ambassador to Sri Lanka Andrés Marcelo González has delivered the letter of invitation from the Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel to the Sri Lankan president during a meeting, the official state news agency of Cuba ‘Presna Latina’ said citing diplomatic sources.

‘Current challenges of development: Role of science, technology and innovation’ is the central theme of the upcoming event, which is scheduled to be held in Cuba on September 15 and 16.

The G77 plus China was founded in 1964 within the Non-Aligned Movement and is a coalition of 134 countries that promotes collective economic interests of its member states and the creation of enhanced joint negotiation power at the UN.

The group has enormous challenges for the development of their nations, which together represent 80 percent of the world population and more than two thirds of the UN membership.

-with inputs from agencies

Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake

Sri Lanka continues to swing wildly between being a ‘Donor Darling’ flooded with foreign ‘aid’ that has significantly impeded its post-colonial development and industrialization on the one hand, and being a pariah (outcast), on the other.

Last year the country went from being South Asia’s wealthiest nation with the best social and human development indicators to a ‘bankrupt’ beggar, humiliated and shunned by the so-called international community amid a pretentiously named ‘Aragalaya’ protests.

At the time, only South Asia regional hegemon and good neighbor, India, was willing and able to help out Eurobond debt trapped Sri Lanka as the strategic Indian Ocean island staged its first ever Sovereign Default losing Economic Sovereignty and policy autonomy to the Washington Twins and colonial Club de Paris that represents predatory OECD-DAC Eurobond holders,

The narrative in the local and global corporate media echo chamber was that there was no fuel, food, and certainly no tourists to generate exorbitantly privileged and copiously printed US dollars to buy necessities. Famine, fear and 15-hour power-cuts were promised also to promote fear, Brain Drain and institutional debilitation via the local media bereft of investigative journalism after the Aragalaya protest regime change operation saw installation of the US-Force backed Ranil Rajapakse regime.

Simultaneously, last year around this time there was an embargo on ships bringing fuel to the strategic island as the US Marines Sea Vision training program unfolded with coordinated economic hybrid war-style supply chain disruption to make the economy scream” as President Nixon famously had instructed the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), to do in Cold War Chile, before the violent overthrow of the democratically-elected government of Leftist Salvador Allende and the installation of General Pinochet.[i]

Miraculously this year, Sri Lanka, perpetually in the cross-hairs of Cold War big power rivalry– pumped, dumped and destabilized by various exogenous political-economic shocks to make economy and society scream is back! This after the strategic island too mana from heaven in the form of an International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan to enable magical US dollars to materialize.

No one in Sri Lanka has yet questioned the adequacy of the US Dollar fiat currency to measure the ‘wealth of nations’ given that the US has a debt of $ 32 Trillion and counting and was downgraded by one of its own rating agencies.

Meanwhile the BRICS emerging economies having overtaken the G7 economies and are de-dollarizing fast, while the US backed Ranil Rajapakse regime and opposition turn a blind eye to the New Development Bank.

Indo-Pacific Environmental Security Forum: Another Shangri La Show?

Sri Lanka, which seems to suffer from a Geostrategic Resource Curse, is once again a ‘donor darling’, currently hosting the Indo-Pacific Environmental Security Forum (IPESF) 2023 at Colombo’s Shangri La Hotel that overlooks South Asia’s busiest Port.

One year after a Staged Default and rapid local currency deprecation to beggar the natives, ‘more than 140 senior officers from foreign defense forces and top-level environmentalists from 28 countries in the Indo-Pacific are taking part’ in at the confab at Galle Face.

Two weeks earlier France’s President, Emmanuel Macron had paid a historic midnight visit to Sri Lanka and then on the heels of departing Macron, a Japanese Government team was in town to shower aid on the US Force backed Ranil Rajapakse regime. The Chinese were in Colombo earlier in the month.

One year after staging its first ever Sovereign Default for rapid currency depreciation and mass impoverishment, Sri Lanka is back–a donor darling!

France’s Macron, in retreat from West Africa, where Mali and Niger have cancelled a host of colonial era Agreements, announced plans to set up a brand new Office for the French Agency for International Development (AFD), in Colombo!

AFD in Sri Lanka would enhance France’s claims in the ‘Indo-Atlantic’ or western Indian Ocean, and enable among other things the French Fisheries empire and trawler fleet stationed in the Seychelles to continue neo-colonial looting of Indian Ocean Tuna and other ocean resources.

France claims to be an Indian Ocean country although it is in the Atlantic Ocean, and has claimed extensive Indian Ocean sea bed at UNCLOS while in dispute with Mauritius, while France, Spain, EU and other Distant Water Fishing States (DWFS), have been accused of looting Indian Ocean fisheries at the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission. (See EU accused of Neocolonial plundering of the Indian Ocean in the Guardian). [ii]

Meanwhile local fisheries organizations of impoverished Indian Ocean rim countries have called for a ban on French, EU and other DWFS like Japan, South Korea, EU and Taiwan, Republic of China. These are ironically big Aid donors” to the Fisheries Sector and NARA, while their fisheries corporations are overfishing and causing environmental crisis in the Indian Ocean World region where many littoral countries have high rates of poverty.

A ban on French, EU, Japanese and other DWFS operating in the Indian Ocean under the ‘Free and open Indo-Pacific” theme song would enable the depleted fish stock of the Indian Ocean to recover. It would also enable Sri Lanka and other small countries that engage primarily in ‘artisanal fishery to industrialize and leverage their valuable fisheries resources that are currently looted by DWFS for local consumption, as well as, export to earn much needed foreign currency.

India the regional hegemon would need to lead on this initiative also to ensure food security for the impoverished Indian Ocean littoral countries and islands.

Elephant in the Room: Environmental Impacts of Militarization and War

The 4-day Environmental Security conference in Colombo that commenced this week is happening with the US Indo- Pacific Command (INDOPACOM), Sri Lanka Navy (SLN), and Sri Lanka Coast Guard (SLCG), at a time when human trafficking threats were being talked up. Meanwhile, Moscow is holding an International Security Conference with Chinese Defense minister, Li Shangfu, in attendance.

Lots of nuclear armed warships have been taking trips to strategic Sri Lanka’s ports and the QUAD’s Malabar War games saw the standing and deaths of 100 pilot whales and Dolphins in 2020, the devastating climate impacts of militarization, on-going US-led NATO proxy wars in Europe and Africa, and the war machine are not on the Environmental Security Confab agenda!

In fact, the military business industrial complex and ongoing wars in the world is the elephant in the room of the so-called Environmental Security Forum (IPESF). However, the distracting buzz in Colombo’s corporate media echo chamber that amplifies conflict is that a Chinese Research and Survey Vessel Shi Yan 6, would be reaching Sri Lanka in October for joint research operations with the National Aquatic Research Agency (NARA), in October.

Previously when a Chinese Research Vessel Yuan Wang 4 was in the Colombo port back in 2019, the island was hit by a series of mysterious and deadly ISIS-claimed Easter Sunday attacks on churches and tourist hotels. Four Chinese Research Scientists were killed at Kingsbury Hotel.

As the Shi Yan 6 approaches Sri Lanka in October the Indian Ocean island nation which suffers from a Geostrategic Resource Curse would need to be on high alert for more Mr. Al Bagdadi does not return from the grave to stage another IS terror attack– to make Sri Lankan society and economy scream again!

It not exactly a secret that the Islamic State (IS) was initially set up by the CIA after the US-led invasion of Iraq and the disbanding of Sadaam Hussein’s army, in order to do regime change in Syria and promote a Sunni-Shia divide in the Levant region.

The Indian Ocean as a zone of Peace as Cold War Returns

The environmental impacts of war and militarization appear to be Elephant in the room of the current Environmental Security (IPESF), Shangri La Forum in Colombo, which rather focusses on trendy topics like finance for climate change, Partnerships for climate resilience, Data science in climate risk management, etc.

Indeed, it appears that Mother Nature is being financialized and weaponized with talk of Anthropocene climate crisis, Debt for Nature Swaps (DFNS) based on opaque Carbon credit calculations, while bond scams and Odious debt are green and blue washed like the Diego Garcia Military base on the Chagos Islands that is illegally occupied by the United Kingdom and US.

Ironically, Diego Garcia along with the Chagos Islands have been Blue-washed into a Marine Protection Area (MPA)! Discussions on Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG), Sovereign Bonds for climate transition financing and conservation further distract from the elephant in the room—the Environmental Impacts and costs of war, military bases, and the global Military Business Industrial Complex.

Clearly, Eurobond trapped Sri Lanka that is caught in the US led economic war on the emerging BRICS economies that have overtaken the G-7 at this time. needs to re-affirm the Non-Aligned Movement’s (NAM), declaration of the Indian Ocean as a ‘Zone of Peace’, free of militarization, terror attacks, foreign military bases and nuclear armed submarines and aircraft carriers that beach and kill hundreds of pilot whales and dolphins disoriented by sonar systems.

The war machine and its Carbon and Sonar emissions constitute a far greater clear and present danger to environment and humanity in the region as a new Cold War escalates.

The lead to make the Indian Ocean a ‘Zone of peace” was taken over half a century ago by the world’s first woman Prime Minister. Sri Lanka’s Sirimavo Bandaranaike, and raised it at the Non-Aligned Heads of State Conference in Cairo in October, 1964, and subsequently at the Lusaka Conference of Non-Aligned States in September 1970 and the Singapore Conference of Commonwealth Prime Ministers in January 1971.In 1971 Sri Lanka was successful in having the United Nations General Assembly, by a vote of 61–0 with 55 abstentions, declare the Indian Ocean, together with the air space above it and the ocean floor subjacent thereto, a ‘zone of peace’ for all time.[iii]

A Partitioned Indian Ocean a Zone of War amid Climate Hypocrisy

The Indian Ocean increasingly partitioned into the ‘Indo-Pacific’ to the east and ‘Indo-Atlantic’ on the west, dominated successively by US and France has become a ‘Zone of War’, while its impoverished littoral countries and islands are asset stripped and subject to Ocean Grabbing.

In the context, it is important that Sri Lanka to once again work with India to unify the Indian Ocean world and leverage the legacy of world’s first woman Prime Minister, Sirimavo Bandaranaike, and seek de-militarization and GENUINE PEACE in the Indian Ocean world which should be free of environmentally destructive nuclear weapons. It was arguably also because of this Zone of Peace initiative that the strategic island was later subject to a devastating globally networked 30-year ‘ethnic conflict’. Other NAM leaders and their countries were also subject to devastating social and economic shocks in the course of Cold War regional refractions.

Rather than war and military carbon emissions, spectacular forest fires that increasingly seem to be staged, with stories of drought and floods are the dominant images of Anthropocene climate catastrophe” in the Global Corporate media echo chamber. These images and narratives generally precede advertisements of solar panels, Electric Vehicles, and other lucrative green technology.

Conversely, it is unfashionable to talk about REAL environmental threats and hazards (Anthropocene or otherwise), like the global military business industrial complex, the threat of nuclear war, or the NATO war machine, now seeking to extend into the Indian Ocean and Asia with an office in Tokyo, Japan.  

Rather, discussion of carbon credits and Debt for Nature Swaps (DFNS), are trending and avidly marketed at UN Conferences of the Parties (CoP), hot air meets, to benefit predatory Eurobond traders who have ensnared over 50 Global South countries in post Covid-19 lockdown debt traps!  

No one wants to embarrass the US government and its EU partners in NATO, or their Asian proxies, intent on promoting the post-Covid-19 Great Reset with Green Technology, Blue Bonds and scams for Global Governance by talking about massive environmental impacts of the Military Business Industrial Complex.

Indeed, talking about non-trivial environmental impacts, such as, wars, bombings, the Nord Stream pipeline attacks that release massive methane gas into the atmosphere is unfashionable, particularly among well-funded climate activists like Greta Thunberg and the gravy train of UNese-speaking, DFNS marketing, environmental NGO ‘protesters’, local and global.

However, long ago departing US President Dwight D. Eisenhower with great prescience warned American citizens about their military business industrial complex in his 1961 farewell address. According the Stockholm Peace Research Institute, the US spends more than the next 7 countries on carbon intense, environmentally destructive militarization, wars and maintaining over 750 military bases around the world. This war machine and culture of war represents the greater environmental threat to the planet and humanity than fossil fuel used in the Global South at this time.

Nevertheless, in the final analysis, Sri Lanka should be grateful that the big powers seem to be talking rather than once again pumping, dumping and de-stabilizing the strategic Indian Ocean island at the Colombo Shangri La Environmental Security show.

By Thomas Scripps

Aug 12, 2023

The impoverished West African state of Niger is the latest flashpoint in the struggle by the imperialist powers for a re-division of the world. The issues involved in the NATO-Russia war in Ukraine—a fight for territory, strategic resources and regime change—are erupting all over the globe, in China and Taiwan, and now in the Sahel region of Africa.

Although stalled for the moment, what would be a devastating war led by the most powerful country in the African region, Nigeria, to oust the coup leaders in Niger and reinstate President Mohamed Bazoum is under active preparation. At a summit of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in the Nigerian capital Abuja Thursday, leaders agreed to activate a standby military force and threatened that no option had been taken off the table.”’

They agreed a new round of sanctions on Niger, which has been plunged into blackouts by electricity cut-offs and seen food prices rise 60 percent amid a blockade and the freezing of assets and trade.

A conflict would draw in the entire region. Senegal, Benin and the Ivory Coast have already pledged to send troops to aid Nigeria. Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea have declared for the military coup leaders in Niger.

Behind the proposed ECOWAS action stand the imperialist powers, who are intent on blocking Russia and China from further penetrating a continent whose strategic significance is growing rapidly. The long-term decline of France’s economic position in its former West African colonies—culminating in the last three years in a dramatic collapse of its military presence in Mali, Burkina Faso and now perhaps Niger—has thrown open the Sahel region to intense geopolitical competition.

Bazoum was considered an important Western ally. The US and the European powers have responded to the coup against him by cutting aid to Niger supposedly provided on humanitarian” grounds—on which it relies for 40 percent of its annual government budget. They are determined to secure their interests whatever the cost.

Speaking Tuesday after difficult” talks with the coup leaders, US Acting Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland—veteran of the US-backed 2014 coup in Ukraine—threatened, We’ll be watching the situation, but we understand our legal responsibilities and I explained those very clearly to the guys who were responsible for this and that it is not our desire to go there, but they may push us to that point.”

Caution over a proposed military intervention by ECOWAS has centred on concerns that such action has not been properly prepared and would spark mass opposition throughout the region. A misjudged war could explode the social powder keg in Nigeria, where the US and Britain are heavily invested politically and economically.

A great deal is at stake. The United States currently has 1,500 soldiers of its 6,500-strong declared African deployment stationed in Niger across two bases—one of which is the regional hub for drone missions. France has 1,100 troops in the country, Italy 300 and Germany around 100.

Niger is a major uranium producer, providing a quarter of Europe’s supply. It is due to start exporting oil and plays a central role in policing migration out of Africa to Europe. It has become a frontline state in a battle for economic and military pre-eminence in West Africa and across the whole continent.

Africa is home to an estimated 30 percent of the world’s mineral wealth, including 90 percent of its chromium and platinum—crucial to the green energy transition. Another such mineral is cobalt, of which 70 percent of the world’s supply is produced in the Democratic Republic of Congo. By the end of the century, Africa could also account for a fifth of the world’s lithium supply.

The continent also produces 65 percent of the world’s diamonds and is home to 40 percent of its gold reserves, 12 percent of its oil and 8 percent of its natural gas, while Morocco alone is home to 75 percent of the world’s phosphate rock, crucial for fertiliser.

In terms of markets, Africa’s consumer expenditure is on track to grow from $1.4 trillion in 2015 to $2.5 trillion in 2030.

The US and Europe are concerned not to let Niger be another loss to the claims made by China and Russia on these riches and opportunities.

[i] https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB8/nsaebb8i.htm

[ii] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/mar/05/eu-accused-of-neocolonial-plundering-of-tuna-in-indian-ocean

[iii] The Indian Ocean as a Zone of Peace Robert O’Neill and David N. Swartz https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-349-09293-2_16

Manusha Media

The Minister of Labour and Foreign Employment, Manusha Nanayakkara  today emphasized the need for a comprehensive multi-stakeholder task force combining relevant ministries and the International Labour Organization (ILO) to implement programmes aimed at the welfare of workers.
The Minister has requested the ILO to conduct a study on the programmes implemented for the welfare of workers by the Ministry of Labour and Foreign Employment. A discussion on the above was held today at the Ministry premies.
It was attended by Imon Brimblecombe, Chief Technical Adviser of the International Labour Organization and Head of Regional Action Service Unit, and Mariko Ouchi, Senior Social Security Specialist of the ILO, among others.
The minister during the meeting emphasized the need to establish this task force involving all relevant parties including the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Social Empowerment and Trade Unions and Employers’ Associations in addition to various departments of his Ministry.
Also he emphasized the importance of the ILO acting as an observer and playing a key role in these discussions.
The Ministry has recently taken the necessary steps to implement a comprehensive labour reform programme with the introduction of an unemployment insurance system, maternity benefits, and new methods of providing compensation to workers.

PRESS RELEASE Pathfinder Foundation

The inaugural Dialogue between the Pathfinder Foundation and the Asia New Zealand Foundation was held in Colombo.

The event explored several key areas of interest for Sri Lanka and New Zealand, and by extension to small states in the Asia Pacific, consequent to a renewed interest in the region by major powers and the consequential multiple challenges that small states face in dealing with the rapidly changing geopolitical situation. 

The themes focused upon were: Indo-Pacific Strategic Security Dynamics: space for middle and small-sized states to shape regional order, Domestic policy reform and regionalism for prosperity and integration, New Zealand – Sri Lanka regional foreign policies, Managing bi-lateral ties with global powers in the 21^st Century – approaches by New Zealand and Sri Lanka.

The Asia New Zealand Foundation participants comprised Prof. David Capie, Head of the Centre for Strategic Studies, Victoria University, Wellington; Suzannah Jessep, Director, Asia New Zealand Foundation; Dr. Manjeet Pardesi, Victoria University, Wellington, Traci Epps, Independent Trade and Law Specialist.

The Pathfinder Foundation participants included Dr. Dayaratna Silva, Executive Director, Pathfinder Foundation; Dr. Bhagya Senaratne, Department of Strategic Studies, Gen. Sir John Kotelawala University; Subashini Abeysinghe, Research Director, Verité Research; and Dr. Pavithra Jayawardena, Department of International, Colombo University.

Bernard Goonetilleke, Chairman, of the Pathfinder Foundation, made the opening remarks with Prof. David Capie, while the Sessions were alternatively chaired by Ahmed A. Jawad, Director of Pathfinder Foundation, and Prof. David Capie of Wellington University.  Michael Appleton, the High Commissioner for New Zealand, graced the occasion as a distinguished invitee.

Tilottama Rani Charulata.

Although there are many human rights violations and ethnic violence in the USA, it is advising on human rights situations in other countries in any event. The US ambassadors in different countries of the world, including Bangladesh, are busy with the idea of saving humanity or preaching human rights to developing countries. But the guardian of global human rights appears to be struggling lately at home. There are incidents of repetitive domestic gun violence in the United States. It seems in the national sphere, the USA itself has questionable actions that go against human rights and tends to bypass the existing international laws and norms when it comes to its interests. The time has come for the United States to stop caring about other countries’ protection of democracy and human rights and instead concentrate on enhancing its domestic law and order.

In a modern civilized country, no one wants incidents like murder, gun violence, or human rights violations to happen again and again. But gun deaths are rising horribly in the USA and expatriates from different states are becoming major targets of this hate crime. Less than six months after the murder of a 20-year-old American citizen of Bangladeshi origin Syed Faisal Arif, 42-year-old Abul Hasim, and 22-year-old Yaz Ahmed Ramim died in terrorist attacks in the United States. On July 18, a group of terrorists broke the window of Yaz’s car parked outside during work hours and tried to enter inside. When Yaz stopped them, a gunman fired at him, which took his young life. On July 23, another Bangladeshi individual lost his life in the United States, marking the second fatal shooting in five days. The victim, Abul Hashim, was shot during a robbery at his grocery store in the Casa Grande area near Phoenix, Arizona.

According to the information of the international media CNN, there have been 407 gun attacks until July 24, 2023, which has increased several times over the previous period. Their report says that the number of gun attacks in the first six months (January-July) of any time in the past has exceeded the record. In 2021, there were nearly 400 gun violence incidents in the first six months, and the pace is only increasing. Advising others about human rights shows the United States’ failure to protect the lives of people on its own soil. Every day someone is losing their life to gun violence. According to the information of Gun Violence Archive, a non-profit organization based in Washington, more than 24,000 people have faced gun deaths in the United States since the beginning of this year. Among them, 10,787 people were killed and 13,596 people committed suicide using guns. Out of which 163 children aged 0-11 years, 858 young teenagers aged 12-17 years were killed.

It is clear from these statistics from the Gun Violence Archive that gun violence in the United States has taken a terrible form. However, this huge number of deaths includes not only gun attacks but also gun suicides. Data from the Gun Violence Archive shows that most of the deaths during this period were suicides. 5 percent of the world’s population lives in the United States, but 46 percent of the guns in the hands of the common man are in the hands of American citizens. The United States tops the list for both privately owned guns and mass shootings. According to one statistic, more than 1,000 people die each year in the United States at the hands of law enforcement agencies alone. Bangladeshi expatriates are not left out of these attacks. White police have not started investigating the killer of Bangladeshi youth Faisal who was shot dead by the police in January this year, but he is still employed on the job. And the terrorist who killed Ramim ran away from the police in handcuffs. This is the human rights situation of the country that gave all human rights lectures to the world.

Martin Luther King’s lifelong dream was that the United States would be a nation without racism. For this he has fought all his life. It is said that George Washington brought freedom to America, Abraham Lincoln gave democracy, but Martin Luther King civilized the United States. Under his leadership, black people got the same rights as white people and white citizens got rid of the curse of racism! Then again why do thousands of people die from gun violence every year because of racism? Why incidents like gun violence are happening continuously in schools, supermarkets, petrol pumps, restaurants, parks, or places of worship. Why do people take to the streets under the slogan ‘Stop Police Brutality’ in the US? Why are people repeatedly accusing the police of racist behavior? Why do human rights only take a dual form on the walls of white and black?

Even though these questions are on everyone’s mind now, the United States, maddened by the addition of new imperialism, is busy contracting human rights in other countries. Which country will have the Arab Spring, and which country’s natural resources will be seized by the new trap? After the futile Afghan war, when will Russia be able to open a successful store of its weapons and ammunition in Ukraine? But who will understand that thousands of people are being killed extrajudicially in their own country!

One gunshot after another has shattered the American Dream that all men are endowed with the unalienable rights to life and liberty and led people to reflect deeply on where the US-style human rights are. Some US politicians have long treated the American people’s right to life with indifference. Faced with growing gun proliferation, they have done nothing more than indulge in empty talk and prolonged debates, while pointing fingers at the human rights conditions of other countries.

It goes without saying that Bangladesh’s human rights situation is much better than theirs. There are logical reasons to question the right of the United States to speak on human rights issues. The United States invaded Iraq in 2003 under the pretext that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. It killed millions of civilians. According to Brown University in America, at least 184,000 to 2,700,000 civilians died due to the American attack. The US later admitted that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction. According to the research titled “Cost of War” by the American Brown University, 1,74,000 people were killed directly in the Afghan war. 47,000 of them were civilians. In the United States itself, the way black people are shot dead by the police without trial, strangled with boots on their necks, human rights itself cry out: we can’t breathe. Notwithstanding, America’s hands are full of blood and the stain of human rights violations cannot be removed even if one pours all the perfumes of Arabia on those hands. Therefore, it is the demand of the time to avoid the human rights blabbering of protecting the interests of the United States in other country and pay more attention to the protection of the human rights of children, teenagers, and foreign citizens in their own countries.

Prime Minister’s Media Division

Wang Yi, director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, (and Foreign Minister) vowed that China will help Sri Lanka effectively address the challenges of financial debt on Wednesday.

Wang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, made the remarks during a meeting with Sri Lankan Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena at the sidelines of the seventh China-South Asian Expo in Kunming, southwest China’s Yunnan Province.

China is always Sri Lanka’s reliable strategic partner and appreciates that Sri Lanka has always been friendly to China and has stood by China on issues related to its core interests, he said.

China also firmly supports Sri Lanka in safeguarding its sovereign independence and national dignity, and is willing to strengthen exchanges of experience in governance as well as cooperation in various fields with Sri Lanka, he said.

Wang vowed that China will help Sri Lanka improve its capacity for independent development, get rid of the “poverty trap” and the “trap of non-development,” accelerate its industrialization process and agricultural modernization.

He expressed belief that Sri Lanka will overcome its temporary difficulties, find a development path in line with its national conditions, and realize revitalization and prosperity.

Noting that Sri Lanka is an important participant and beneficiary of the China-South Asia Expo, he welcomed the Sri Lankan side to continue to make good use of this important platform to further explore the Chinese market.

For his part, Gunawardena thanked China for its firm support for Sri Lanka in safeguarding its independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, and for its timely and effective assistance to Sri Lanka in times of difficulty.

The forward-looking flagship cooperation projects between the two sides such as the Colombo Port City and the Hambantota Port will bring benefits to the Sri Lankan people and play a key role in regional connectivity and sustainable development, he said.

Sri Lanka will work with China to expand cooperation in economy, trade and investment, agriculture, tourism, energy and innovation to help Sri Lanka achieve food self-sufficiency and accelerate the development of key industries, he added.

C. Wijeyawickrema

I received a copy of the above report as a PDF document (original Sinhala version). I think it is of national importance that you consider giving publicity to this report because so many local and foreign agents have tried (successfully?) to hide this report from the people in Sri Lanka.

When a Presidential Task Force was appointed for this purpose by the ex-president Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, even his justice minister Ali Sabri expressed doubts about it, not trying to understand its purpose and mandate! He and other anti-Sinhala Buddhist elements questioned the suitability of Ven. Galabodaatte Gnanasaara as the chairperson of this Task Force. In this regard I need to record that I suggested the need for such committee and the assignment of that task to Ven. G, months before the Task Force was appointed by the president GR.

Once it was appointed, all kinds of enemies expected that the Task Force would become a failed experiment, with Tamil and Muslim agents boycotting or protesting and sabotaging its public hearings. However, to their surprise both Tamil and Muslim people in North and East welcomed Ven. G, in some cases with celebrations and loyal appreciation of the monk’s genuine desire to serve the country. The Task Force held public meetings in all the districts in the island except a few.

There is no doubt that it is one of the best reports prepared by a presidential commission in our recent history and the President GR directed that it be published for the benefit of the general readership. President Ranil, agreed to implement at least some of its recommendations but due to pressure from people like Rauf Hakeem took and about turn to forget about it.”

With the country now in a 13-A mess” created deliberately by President Ranil, it is now crystal clear the country could come out of this Modi-Ranil crisis” only by giving effect to the many reasonable, justifiable, and rational, recommendations made by the Gnansaara Committee. Kurundi Vihara and Tissa Vihara  crises the country is witnessing today are symptoms of Ranil Administration’s unwise behavior in this regard.

As the oldest and the only website open for the viewpoints of the Sinhala Buddhist people all over the world, I hope you would consider favorably printing this letter with the PDF copy as an attachment. If it could be added as a feature of your left column, so that readers could see it daily, it could nullify attempts by local and foreign NGOs and racist elements to suppress it unfairly.

PHILIP GIRALDI  courtesy  The UNZ Review

Washington’s interventionism and its disregard for its own highly promoted rules based international order” is outrageous

Which are the governments generally regarded as rogue” by an overwhelming majority of the world’s nations? If you answered either Russia or China you would be wrong, even though many countries have condemned Russia’s attack on Ukraine on grounds that no government has an intrinsic right to invade another unless there is an imminent serious threat that would excuse such an intervention. I would however expect that most readers of this review would have made the right choice, which is that the United States is probably number one based on its ability to destabilize whole regions with a military reach that spans the globe. And indeed, it is important to note that the Russian special military operation” directed against Ukraine would not have happened at all if the Joe Biden Administration had simply indicated clearly and non-ambiguously to the Russian government that there was no intention of allowing Ukraine to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) alliance. Ironically, the White House knew very well that inviting Kiev to enter into the alliance was a legitimate red-line, existential issue for the Kremlin, but opted to push hard on the issue instead. Instead of opting for a negotiated peaceful settlement, Biden and his clown show foreign and national security policy team opted to kill possibly hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians and Russians to somehow weaken” Russia, an intention that has borne no fruit even after more than a year and a half of fighting.

So yes, by the world’s reckoning the United States of American is both exceptional” and number one,” which a series of White House inhabitants have aspired to, though perhaps not in the same way as buffoons like Senators Tom Cotton and Ted Cruz refer to it. Most non-Americans see the US as the greatest threat to world peace. And then there is America’s closest ally and best friend in the whole world” Israel in second place, a government which commits crimes against humanity and even war crimes on a nearly daily basis with absolute impunity as it is protected and defended by the very same United States, where the Jewish state runs the foremost and most powerful foreign policy lobby. It is a lobby that has inserted itself in all levels of government and which has corrupted huge majorities of politicians and both major political parties while also controlling the message” on the Middle East promoted by the media.

Even as I write this, 41 Democratic Party politicians are spending their recess on a Lobby sponsored trip to Israel. Their leaders include the inimitable traitor 80 year old Congressman Steny Hoyer of Maryland, who is on his twenty-third trip to the country that he loves and admires beyond all others, and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries. Jeffries is on his second trip to Israel this year. He should be ashamed but, of course, isn’t. It is the largest-ever delegation of Democratic lawmakers on a tour of Israel, sponsored in this case by the American Israel Education Foundation, an affiliate of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Not to be outdone House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is leading 31 Republican Congressmen on the same mission though the groups will not mingle and the speaker will be careful to render his own obeisance separately to the Israeli leadership.

The Democrats and Republicans, will as always be unable to enunciate any good reasons for American bondage to Israel beyond bromides like Israel has a right to defend itself,” which will be repeated over and over before the Solons head back to Washington to send billions more of US taxpayer dollars to the Jewish state. While in Israel they will be fed a special diet of all Arabs are terrorists” and good old Steny will be nodding his head in time with the song. That is before he and his colleagues engage in crawling on their bellies before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a sign of their total submission to his will.

If one is seeking a single example of the failure of the United States and its ally Israel to abide by the clearly mythical rules based international order” one might well examine what is going on in Syria, where both the US and the Jewish state have been punishing the country through lethal sanctions and direct military intervention for many years with no sign that the interaction will be ending any time soon. The activity is rarely reported in the US and European media, which somehow has decided that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is some kind of tyrant who deserves whatever he gets, even if it is dished out by apartheid” Israel and the clueless US, which has been illegally militarily occupying roughly one third of Syria since 2015, including the areas that have producing oil facilities and good agricultural land, both of which are being exploited or stolen. Israel meanwhile has annexed the Syrian Golan Heights, which it occupied in 1967. Donald Trump gave his blessing to the illegal annexation and also gave his consent to whatever the Jewish state decides to do both with the Syrians and the Palestinians while also conniving at the nearly daily air attacks carried out by Israel against targets in both Palestine-Gaza and Syria, killing scores of local soldiers and civilians.

The US military occupation has been supplemented by an increasingly harsh series of sanctions that have effectively cut off food, medicines and other basic commodities to the Syrian people while also denying access to international banking services. Russia, which is assisting Syria at the invitation of the country’s government, has made up for some of the shortages but there is considerable suffering among the ordinary people, not the country’s leaders. The claim by Washington is that Syria has to be protected from its own totalitarian” government and the US is there to fight terrorists, most particularly ISIS. Ironically perhaps, but Tel Aviv and Washington actually support some of the groups that many would consider to be themselves terrorists, including providing direct US aid to al-Qaeda clone Hayat Tahrir al Sham and Israeli support for ISIS to include treating wounded terrorists in Israel’s hospitals. The US air base at Al-Tanf, near the border with Iraq and Jordan, has, in fact, become a support hub for terrorist groups opposing the al-Assad government.

Sanctions on energy imports were temporarily lifted by the US and EU after the disastrous earthquakes the shook the region in February, but in June, US lawmakers introduced the Assad Regime Anti-Normalization Act of 2023 which would use secondary sanctions to penalize those countries that might be tempted to help restore services to the areas of Syria affected by both war and the impact of the quakes. Israel reportedly has exploited the opportunity provided by the natural disaster to increase its air attacks on Syrian infrastructure.

Indeed, recent history tells us that both Israel and the United States are particularly fond of occupying someone else’s land and are capable of coming up with excuses for doing so at the drop of a hat. The reasons generally sound like saying Hey! We are the good guys who support democracy!” Repeat as necessary until the audience either goes to sleep or wanders off. The western media reporting on what is taking place in Syria can be regarded as being in the wanders off” category.

I certainly am not the only one who has noted that the United States tends to do everything ass-backwards in its conduct of foreign policy since the time of the Clintons. That has certainly been the case in dealing with nations like Syria and Russia, where ambassadors Robert Ford and Michael McFaul were openly hostile to the respective local governments and openly sought to empower declared opponents of the countries’ leaders. Syria presumably was demonized to please Israel, beginning with the seeking to destabilize Syria through the passage of the Syria Accountability Act in 2003, even though Damascus posed no threat whatsoever to American interests. The current sanctions come at a time when Syria is continuing to struggle to rebuild after a still active twelve year civil war that destroyed much of the country’s infrastructure. US sanctions are making more difficult ongoing reconstruction efforts and are de facto largely punishing the Syrian people, with only minor impact on its government.

And sanctioning to punish Syria is bipartisan, perhaps reflecting a desire to satisfy Israeli demands. Donald Trump, who ran for president pledging to end America’s pointless wars overseas, on June 17^th 2020 nevertheless initiated new sanctions against Syria and its government. US Ambassador to the United Nations Kelly Craft informed the Security Council that the Trump Administration would implement the measures to prevent the Assad regime from securing a military victory. Our aim is to deprive the Assad regime of the revenue and the support it has used to commit the large-scale atrocities and human rights violations that prevent a political resolution and severely diminish the prospects for peace.”

Subsequently, the most recent block of sanctions was imposed through the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act, signed by President Trump in December 2020 after he was due to leave office, with the objective of stopping bad actors who continue to aid and finance the Assad regime’s atrocities against the Syrian people while simply enriching themselves.” At that time, the existing US sanctions on Syria had already frozen all government assets and had also targeted companies and even individuals. The new sanctions gave the White House and Treasury the power to apply so-called secondary sanctions” to freeze the assets of any entity or even individual, regardless of nationality, for doing any business in Syria. The threat of secondary sanctions have in fact had a major negative impact on Damascus’s remaining trading partners, to include Lebanon and Iran. Russia might also be impacted as it is involved in Syrian reconstruction.

The United States and Israel clearly hope that punitive sanctions will eventually force the starving Syrian people to rise up against the government, as some sought to do during the so-called Arab Spring in 2011. That means that a sanctions routine, much favored by both the Trump and Biden Administrations, never succeeds in compelling rogue governments to behave better because the way it works it is always really about regime change no matter how it is packaged. In the case of Syria, and contrary to the claims made by Ambassador Craft at the United Nations, the Bashar al-Assad government has already won the war in spite of US and Turkish intervention on behalf of the largely terrorist group supported insurgency. And the evidence for Syria’s having carried out large scale atrocities and human rights violations” has mostly been manufactured by enemies of the government, to include the Hollywood and Washington think tank favorite, the White Helmets, a terrorist front group funded at least in part by western intelligence agencies, which was featured in a self-generated documentary that won a Hollywood Motion Pictures Academy Award in 2017. The film was effusively praised by the usual celebrity brain-deads including Hillary Clinton and George Clooney. It is indeed overall a very impressive piece of propaganda. The National Holocaust Museum even gave the coveted 2019 Elie Wiesel Award to the group. The White Helmets are still active in Syria in areas that are still held by the so-called rebels and they featured in a film clip just last week. They are still being funded by western governments and Israel to destabilize the government of Bashar al-Assad.

One might well ask what the US objective in continuing to promote the carnage and suffering in a Syria that poses no threat to Americans or to any vital security interests. It is similar to a question that might well be raised regarding Ukraine, which is confronting an unneeded escalation of 3,000 US military reservists to reinforce the 20,000 American soldiers that have arrived in theater since February 2022. And then there is Iran, which responded to its oil tankers being hijacked in international waters under the unilaterally imposed authority granted by US sanctions. Iran has sought to respond in kind and now the US will dispatch Marines to the Persian Gulf to ride shotgun on foreign tankers and other commercial vessels traversing the Straits of Hormuz. If Iranian vessels come too close, they will shoot to kill. It is another escalation that is asking for trouble. Why can’t the United States leave the rest of the world alone? That is perhaps the fundamental question for our times.

Philip M. Giraldi, Ph.D., is Executive Director of the Council for the National Interest, a 501(c)3 tax deductible educational foundation (Federal ID Number #52-1739023) that seeks a more interests-based U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. Website is councilforthenationalinterest.org, address is P.O. Box 2157, Purcellville VA 20134 and its email is inform@cnionline.org.

Courtesy Livemint

China assures Sri Lanka of help with debt challenges ahead of IMF bailout plan

Cash-strapped Sri Lanka is likely to get help from its largest bilateral creditor China ahead of IMF’s bailout plan. According to the PTI agency report, China has assured the island nation it will address the debt challenges before it finalises the external and domestic debt restructuring of $41 billion by September before the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The IMF is set to conduct its first review of the $2.9 billion bailout granted to Sri Lanka in March this year from 11-19 September.

“China is always Sri Lanka’s reliable strategic partner and appreciates that Sri Lanka has always been friendly to China and has stood by China on issues related to its core interests,” China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi said.

Crisis-ridden Sri Lanka is negotiating with its external creditors in order to meet the IMF’s condition for its first review. The Washington-based lender approved a nearly $3 billion bailout for crisis-hit Sri Lanka in March this year.

The island county should agree with all its external creditors by next month on the programme to restructure the debt of $41 billion.

The first review will consider the programme’s performance until end-June, and if approved by both the staff and the executive board, would allow a disbursement of around $338 million to Sri Lanka.

Last year, Sri Lanka was hit by the most severe economic crisis in its history when the country defaulted on its $46 billion external debt after running out of foreign exchange to finance essential food, fuel and medicines. As a result the public came out on the streets to protest the fuel, fertilisers, and essential commodities shortage.

India too helped Sri Lanka in line with its ‘Neighbourhood First’ Policy. India extended multi-pronged assistance of about $4 billion to it last year through multiple credit lines and currency support.

 Lanka Lead News

1987දී ඉන්දු ලංකා ගිවිසුම බලහත්කාරයෙන් අස්සන් කරන විට ඉන්දියාව ගැන ජවිපෙ අද කියන ‘හොඳ හැඟීම’ තිබුණා නම් හැටදාහක ජීවිත ප්‍රමාණයක් බේරාගන්න තිබූ බවත්, 13 වන සංශෝධණය පූර්ණ ලෙස බලාත්මක කිරීමට ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණ ද අකමැත්තක් නැති බව අනුර දිසානායක මහතාගෙන් මෑතකාලීන අදහස් දැක්වීම් වලින් පෙනී යන බවත් පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී මොහොමඩ් මුසම්මිල් මහතා සඳහන් කරයි.

ඔහු මේ බව කියා සිටියේ කොළඹ පැවති මාධ්‍ය හමුවක් අමතමිනි.

අපි දැක්කා මේ ළඟදි අනුර දිසානායක මහත්තයා කියනවා, ‘අපි ඉන්දියාව පිළිබඳ මේ වන විට බොහොම හොඳ හැඟීමක ඉන්නවා’ කියලා. එදා 1987දී ඉන්දු ලංකා ගිවිසුම බලහත්කාරයෙන් අස්සන් කරන කොටත් ඉන්දියාව ගැන ඔය ‘හොඳ හැඟීම’ තිබුණා නම් හැටදාහක ජීවිත ප්‍රමාණයක් බේරාගන්න තිබුණානේ. ඉන්දු ලංකා ගිවිසුමට එරෙහිව සටන් කරලා මේ රටේ හොඳම වෛද්‍යවරුන්, ඉංජිනේරුවන් ඇතුළු වෘත්තිකයන්, විශ්වවිද්‍යාල සිසුන් ජීවිත පූජා කළා. ඉන්දියාව ගැන ‘බොහොම හොඳ හැඟීමක්’ තිබුණා නම් දේශප්‍රේමීන්ගේ හා හමුදා පිරිස්වල ජීවිත රැක ගන්න තිබුණානේ. මේ වක්‍රාකාරයෙන් අනුර දිසානායක කියන්නේ කුමක්ද? ’13 පූර්ණ වශයෙන් බලාත්මක කරන්න’ කියලා අපට බලපෑම් කරන්නේ ඉන්දියාවයි. දැන් අනුර දිසානායක ඉන්දියාවට ආලය පෑමෙන් පෙනෙන්නේ තමුන් 13 පූර්ණ ලෙස බලාත්මක කිරීමට එකඟයි, කියන එක නොවෙයිද? අපි අනුර දිසානායක මහත්තයාට කියනවා, ‘ඔය වහෙන් ඔරෝ භාෂාවෙන් දේශපාලනය කරන එක තවදුරටත් වලංගු නැහැ. කෙලින් තමන්ගේ ස්ථාවරය රටට ප්‍රකාශ කරන්න’ කියා.

13 ‘අත්බෝම්බයක්’

සියලු ප්‍රශ්න යට ගහන්න ජනාධිපතිවරයා දැන් 13 වැනි ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධනය පූර්ණ ලෙස බලාත්මක කිරීම ගැන කතා කරනවා. 13 වැනි ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධනය ‘අත්බෝම්බයක්’ වගෙයි. 13 වැනි සංශෝධනය පූර්ණ වශයෙන් බලාත්මක කරනවා කියන්නේ ඒ අත්බෝම්බයේ ‘පින් එක’ ගලවනවා වගේ වැඩක්. එතකොට බෝම්බය පිපිරෙනවා. ඒක තමයි හිටපු ජනාධිපතිවරුන් කිසි කෙනෙක් 13 පූර්ණ වශයෙන් බලාත්මක කරලා, පළාත් සභාවලට පූර්ණ බලතල දෙන්න නොගියේ.

ගොළු න්‍යාය එපා!

දැන් රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ ජනාධිපතිවරයා, ’13 පූර්ණ වශයෙන් බලාත්මක කරනවා’ කියලයි කියන්නේ. පසුගිය සතියේ දිනෙක ජනාධිපතිවරයා පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට පැමිණ මේ පිළිබඳව විශේෂ ප්‍රකාශයක් සිදු කළා. මේ පිළිබඳව පක්ෂ විපක්ෂ පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රීවරු ජනාධිපතිවරයාගෙන් ප්‍රශ්න කළා, ඇතමුන් තම අදහස් දැක්වූවා. නමුත් අපි දැක්කා සමහර දේශප්‍රේමි – ජාතිකවාදී සළු පොරවා ගත් පිරිස් ජනාධිපතිවරයාගේ කතාව මැද්දෙ හෙමිහිට මාරු වෙලා යනවා. මේ වෙලාවේ කිසිවකුත් ගොළු න්‍යායෙන් උත්තර දිය යුතු නැහැ. ’13 පූර්ණ වශයෙන් බලාත්මක කරලා රට බෙදනවාට පක්ෂද? විරුද්ධද?’ කියලා කෙලින් රට ඉදිරියේ කිව යුතුයි.

Lanka Lead News

ආණ්ඩුවේ අභ්‍යන්තර ආරංචිමාර්ග වලට අනුව ජනාධිපතිවරයා විසින් දෙමළ පක්ෂවලට ලබාදී ඇති පොරොන්දුව අනුව 13 වැනි සංශෝධනය පූර්ණ වශයෙන් බලාත්මක කිරීම අදියර 3කින් ක්‍රියාත්මක කෙරෙන බව තහවුරු වේ.

ඒ අනුව පළමුවැන්න දැන්ට ආරම්භකර ඇති පරිදි පරිපාලන ක්‍රියාමාර්ග ගැනීමය. පුරාවිද්‍යා ආඥා පනත නිශ්ක්‍රීය කිරීම සහ නව ඉඩම් ප්‍රතිපත්ති පනත, සත්‍ය සෙවීමේ කොමිසමේ පනත ආදිය ඊට අයත් වේ.

දෙවැන්න ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධනයක අඩංගු විය යුතු පැතිකඩ සංකල්පීය යෝජනාවක් ලෙස පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට ඉදිරිපත් කර සම්මත කිරීමය. තුන්වැන්න ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධන කෙටුම්පත පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට ඉදිරිපත් කිරීමය.

Lanka Lead News

ඊළඟ මැතිවරණයෙන්ද ජයග්‍රහණය නොකළහොත් වෙනම දුපතක් හොයාගෙන යන්නට සිදුවන බව ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණේ හිටපු පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී සුනිල් හඳුන්නෙත්ති මහතා පවසයි.

පැරණි මිතුරු පෙරටුගාමීන් ද ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණ මඩ ගහන තැනට පත්ව ඇති බවත්, අනුර දිසානායක මහතාට කොහේදෝ දූපතක් ඇතැයි පවසන බවත් ඔහු සඳහන් කරයි.

ජාතික ජනබලවේගයේ ආසන බලමන්ඩල හමුවක් අමතමින් ඔහු සඳහන් කරන්නේ තම පක්ෂයට ගසන මඩ ආශිර්වාදයක් කරගෙන ඒවායෙන් ගෙයක් හදන බවයි.

විමල් පටබැඳිගේ – ශාස්ත‍්‍රවේදී, නීතිඥ, විශ‍්‍රාමික සොලිසිටර්

4 වෙනි කොටසෙන්

…. ස්ථිර පදිංචිය සහිත දෙමළ ජනයා වාසය කළේ නම් ”දෙමළ කොලනි” පිහිටුවීම සඳහා දකුණු ඉන්දියාවෙන් ආනයනය කිරීමට සහ ”නිදහස් සහ ලිහිල් කොන්දේසි” ප‍්‍රදානය කිරීමට අවශ්‍ය නොවෙනු ඇත. දෙමළ පදිංචියක් තිබූ බවට ”නිශ්චිත ශාක්‍ෂි ලැබී නැති” බව ආචාර්ය කාර්තිගේසු ඉන්ද්‍රපාල ද නිශ්චිතව ප‍්‍රකාශ කොට ඇත.(*

5 වෙනි කොටස

ව්‍ය.ව. 1910 දී ආණ්ඩුකාර සර් හෙන්රි මැකලම්ගේ (1907-1912* යාපනේ දෙවෙනි සංචාරයේ දී ඔහුගේ මූලාසනයෙන් පැවැත් වූ යාපනේ දෙමළ ප‍්‍රධානීන්ගේ රජදැක්මේ (ද දුර්බාර් ඔෆ් ටැමිල් චීෆ්ස්* දී කළ සාකච්ඡුාව මෙහිලා වැදගත් ය. (පොන්නම්බලම් රාමනාදන්, හෙන්රි ප‍්‍රැන්සිස් මුත්තුකිස්ට්නා, කි‍්‍රස්ටෝපර් බි‍්‍රටෝ ආදීන් ද සහභාගී වෙන්නට ඇත.* සාකච්ඡුා කළ කරුණු අතර එක් ප‍්‍රධාන කරුණක් වූයේ ”වන්නියේ කොලනි” (”Colonization of the Wanny”* පිහිටුවීම ය.* ඒ වෙන විට වන්නියේ දෙමළ කොලනිකරණයට ආණ්ඩුකාරයාගේ ඍජු මැදිහත් වීම අවශ්‍ය ලෙස යාපනේ දෙමළ ප‍්‍රධානීන් සලකා ඇත. වන්නියේ දෙමළ කොලනි පිහිටුවීම ඉහළ සිට පහළට විධිමත් ලෙස වේගවත් වූ බව නිසැක ය. වන්නියේ ස්ථිර දෙමළ පදිංචියක් වූයේ නම් කොලනි පිහිටුවීමට සහ ඒ සඳහා ආණ්ඩුකාරයා  ඍජුව මැදිහත් කරගැනීමට අවශ්‍යතාවයක් නැත. 

ව්‍ය.ව. 1833 න් පසු මිළට ගත් බිම් කොටස්වල වැඩට කුලීකරුවන් සපයාගැනීම ඔවුන්ගේ වගකීමක් විය. යාපනේ දෙමළ ප‍්‍රධානීන් සහ ආණ්ඩුවේ ඒජන්තයන් සංවිධානාත්මකව ඉංගිරිසි ආණ්ඩුකාරයාගේ පූර්ණ අනුග‍්‍රහය ඇතිව ව්‍ය.ව. විසිවෙනි සියවසේ මුල් කාලයේ සිට වන්නිය සහ නැගෙනහිර පළාත පුරා දෙමළ කොලනි පිහිටුවන ලද බව ඉංගිරිසි පාලක නිල වාර්තා සනාථ කරයි. ක‍්‍රවුන් ලෑන්ඞ් (එන්ක්‍රෝච්මන්ට්*  ඕඩිනන්ස්, සිලෝන් වේස්ට් ලෑන්ඞ්  ඕඩිනන්ස් නීති මගින් වන්නිය ඇතුළු මේ ප‍්‍රදේශයේ සිංහල ගම්මානවලින් පලවාහැර තමන්ගේ ම මවුබිමේ අනාථයන් බවට පත් කරන ලද සිංහල පවුල් නැවත පදිංචි කරවීමේ වගකීම ඉවත දමා ”නිදහස් සහ ලිහිල් කොන්දේසි” ප‍්‍රදානය කරමින් දකුණු ඉන්දීය ද්‍රවිඩ වාර්ගිකයන් පදිංචි කරවමින් දෙමළ කොලනි පිහිටුවීම කොලනි ලේකම් (ක්‍දකදබස්ක ීැජරුඑදරහ*, ඉංගිරිසි පාර්ලිමේන්තුව අනුමත කිරීම සහිත ව කළ බව නිසැක ය.  

දිවයින අත්පත් කරගත් නොබෝ කලෙකින් ඉංගිරිසීන් විසින් සිංහල රාජ්‍ය පාලනය තුළ පැවති ඉහළ ම පදවියක් වූ ‘අදිකාරම්’ තනතුර අහෝසි කරන ලදී. රජුට දෙවෙනි ව රාජ්‍ය පාලනයේ නිරත වී සිටි ප‍්‍රධානියා වූයේ අදිකාරම් ය. ව්‍ය.ව. 1909 දී කොළඹ රජගෙදර පැවති යාපනේ දෙමළ ප‍්‍රධානීන්ගේ රජදැක්මේ දී කළ සාකච්ඡුා අනුව ආණ්ඩුකාර සර් හෙන්රි මැකලම් දෙමළ ජනයා අතර ඉතා උසස් බව දැක්වීමට අදිකාරම් (්ාසට්ර* පදවි නාමය දීම යළි ආරම්භ කිරීමට තීරණය කළේය.* යාපනේ සහ වන්නි ප‍්‍රදේශවල දෙමළ කොලනි පාලනය තුළ ‘අදිගාර්ලා’ මුල් තැනක් ලබා ඇත. වෙල්ලාල කුලයේ නොවෙන අයෙකුට කිසිදු තනතුරක් ලැබුනේ නැත. 

ව්‍ය.ව. 1917 දී රාජකීය උපන් දින සැමරුම් උත්සවයේ දී ආණ්ඩුකාර සර් ජෝන් ඇන්ඩර්සන් වන්නිය සම්බන්ධ කටයුතුවල මූලිකව නිරත වූ, වයස අවුරුදු අසූ ගණනක් වූ යාපනේ දෙමළ ව්‍යාපාරිකයෙකුට ”වන්නිඅර්නාර්” යන අළුත් නම්බුනාමයක් ප‍්‍රදානය කළේය.55 දිවයින් ඉතිහාසයේ පළමුවරට සඳහන් වෙන, ව්‍ය.ව. 13 වෙනි සියවසේ පැවති අරාජික කාලයේ වනගත පාලන ඒකකවල (වන්නි* ප‍්‍රධානීන් සඳහා භාවිත වූ ”වන්නියා” පදවි නාමය දෙමළකරණය කොට ව්‍යාපාරිකයෙකුට ප‍්‍රදානය කොට ඇත. 
ඉංගිරිසි කොලනිවාදී පාලකයන් විසිවෙනි සියවසේ මුල් කාලයේ උතුරු සහ නැගෙනහිර පළාත්වල දෙමළ කොලනි පිහිටුවීමට දැඩි සේ උනන්දු වී ඇත. යාපනේ මිෂනාරි පාසල්වල ඉඩම් මැනීමේ සහායකයන් ලෙස සාමාන්‍ය පුහුණුව ලද දෙමළ තරුණයන් යොදාගත් අතර පිඹුරුපත් (බිම් සැලසුම්* නැතිව ඉඩම් විශාල ප‍්‍රමාණයක් විකුණනු ලැබීය.* ඉංගිරිසි පාලනයට සහාය වූ අති බහුතරය දෙමළ නිලධාරීන් බව නිල වාර්තාවල දැක්වෙයි. ඉංගිරිසීන් මුහුදුබඩ ප‍්‍රදේශය පැහැරගත් විගස ම ආදායම් එකතු කිරීම ආදී කටයුතු සඳහා මදුරාසි (මැඞ්රාස්* පාලනයෙන් අවශ්‍ය සේවකයන් ගෙන්වා ගනු ලැබීය. අඳුනාගැනීමට නොහැකි තරමට පුරාණ ස්ථාන නාම, ගම්වල නම්, වැව්වල නම් දෙමළකරණය වීම වඩ වඩාත් සිදු වීය. එපමණක් නොව යන එන මං නැතිව ඉංගිරිසි පාලන නිලධාරීන්ට දුක්ගැනවිලි ඉදිරිපත් කරමින් සිටි උතුරු සහ නැගෙනහිර ප‍්‍රදේශවල සිංහල ජනයා දෙමළකරණයට පත් කළ ආකාරය ඉංගිරිසි නිල වාර්තා හෙළි කරයි.* සිංහල උපත් ලියාපදිංචි කිරීමේදී නම දෙමළ ස්වරූපයෙන් සහ සිංහල ජනයාගේ පාරම්පරික පෙළපත් නම් වෙනුවට දෙමළ ක‍්‍රමයට පියාගේ නම නිල ලේඛනවල සටහන් කිරීම සිදු විය. විසිවෙනි සියවසේ පවා තිරිකුණාමල සහ මඩකලපුව දිස්ති‍්‍රක්කවල (අම්පාර=දිගාමඬුල්ල* සිංහල බෞද්ධ ජනයා මේ ඛෙදජනක තත්වයට පත් වූ බව නිලවාර්තා එළිදරවු කරයි. 

ව්‍ය.ව. 13 වෙනි සියවසේ සිට ස්ථිර ද්‍රවිඩ/දෙමළ පදිංචියක් පැවති බවට අදහසක්* ඉදිරිපත් කොට ඇතත් සිංහල රාජ්‍යය ආරම්භ වූ කල සිට ව්‍ය.ව. 16 වෙනි සියවසේ යුරෝපීය ආක‍්‍රමණිකයන් මැදිහත් වෙන කාලය දක්වා වසර දෙදහසකට වැඩි කාලයක ඓතිහාසික තොරතුරු සහ පුරාවිද්‍යා සාධක අනුව උතුරු සහ නැගෙනහිර පළාත්වල ද්‍රවිඩ /දෙමළ ආධිපත්‍යයක් හෝ ස්ථිර පදිංචියක් තිබූ බවට හෝ ජන බහුතරය දෙමළ වූ බවට සාධක කිසිවක් නැත. දිවයිනේ අභ්‍යන්තර කටයුතුවලට යුරෝපීය ආක‍්‍රමණිකයන් මැදිහත් වෙන කාලය වෙන තෙක් ද්‍රවිඩ/දෙමළ කොලනි නොපැවති බව ඓතිහාසික තොරතුරු සහ පුරාවිද්‍යා සාධක තුළින් තහවුරු වෙයි. එමෙන් ම, ලංකාවේ දෙමළ ජනයා පිළිබඳ පර්යේෂණයේ නිරත වූ ආචාර්ය කාර්තිගේසු ඉන්ද්‍රපාල තමන්ගේ ආචාර්ය උපාධි නිිබන්ධයේ ලංකාවේ දෙමළ පදිංචිය පිළිබඳ සඳහන් කරමින් නැගෙනහිර පළාතේ, ”මඩකලපුව දිස්ති‍්‍රක්කයේ හෝ දකුණු ලංකාවේ අනෙක් ප‍්‍රදේශවල හෝ සඳහන් කිරීමට තරම් දෙමළ ජනයාගේ පදිංචියක් පැවති බවට නිශ්චිත සාක්‍ෂි කිසිවක් ලැබී නැත.” යනුවෙන් කරන ලද නිගමනය* මේ සම්බන්ධයෙන් බැහැර කළ නොහැකි ය.

ලැබී ඇති ඓතිහාසික තොරතුරු සහ පුරාවිද්‍යා සාධක යාපන අර්ධද්වීපය සහ නැගෙනහිර පළාතේ උතුරු සීමාව අතර පිහිටි භූමි ප‍්‍රදේශය, වන්නිය, සහ නැගෙනහිර පළාත දෙමළකරණය කිරීම විසිවෙනි සියවසේ ඉංගිරිසි කොලනිවාදී පාලන කාලයේ සිදු කළ බව සහ ඉන් පෙර උතුරු සහ නැගෙනහිර පළාත්වල ස්ථිර දෙමළ පදිංචියක් නොතිබූ බව ඉතා පැහැදිළිව පෙන්වා දෙයි. එමෙන් ම ව්‍ය.ව. 13 වෙනි සියවසේ සිට සිංහල රාජ්‍ය පාලනයෙන් වෙන් වූ සහ වෙනස් වූ දෙමළ දේශපාලනයක් මේ පළාත්වල පැවති බවට සාධක කිසිවක් නැත. ව්‍ය.ව. 19 වෙනි සියවසේ ආරම්භ වූ ඉංගිරිසි කොලනිවාදී පාලන කාලයට පෙර වන්නිය සහ නැගෙනහිර පළාත එකට බැඳුනු අසිංහල සහ අබෞද්ධ හෝ විජාතික දේශපාලනයක් නොපැවති බව සහ අවම වශයෙන් ඊට අවශ්‍ය සාධක කිසිවක් නොපැවති බව ඓතිහාසික තොරතුරු සහ පුරාවිද්‍යා සාධක සනාථ කරයි.

නැගෙනහිර පළාත, තිරිකුණාමල සහ මඩකලපුව (1961 පිහිටුවන ලද අම්පාර=දිගාමඬුල්ල ද ඇතුළත් වූ* දිස්ති‍්‍රක්ක දෙක දෙමළකරණය කිරීම, ද්‍රවිඩ/දෙමළ කොලනි පිහිටුවීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් නිල වාර්තා ඉදිරිපත් කරන ලද ඓතිහාසික තොරතුරු සහ පුරාවිද්‍යා සාධක පිළිබඳ වෙනම ම සාකච්ඡුා කිරීම ඉතාමත් සුදුසු ය. 

ව්‍ය.ව. 13 වෙනි සියවස සහ ව්‍ය.ව. 1815 අතර කාලයට අදාල ඓතිහාසික තොරතුරු නිශ්චිත ලෙස නැගෙනහිර පළාතේ සිංහල රාජ්‍ය පාලනය කි‍්‍රයාත්මකව පැවති බව සහ ස්ථිර ද්‍රවිඩ/දෙමළ පදිංචියක් නොවූ බව සනාථ කරයි. එමෙන් ම පුරාණ කඩඉම්පොත් ඉදිරිපත් කරන තොරතුරුවලින් ද තහවුරු වෙයි. එපමණක් නොව මේ කාල පරිච්ෙඡ්දය තුළ, විශේෂයෙන් ම ව්‍ය.ව. 16 වෙනි සියවසේ සිට සිදු වූ යුරෝපීය ආක‍්‍රමණික තර්ජනවලට එරෙහිව සහ ව්‍ය.ව. 1917-1918 සහ 1848 නිදහස් සටන්වල දී දෙමළ ජනයා සහ මුස්ලිම් ලබ්දිකයන් සිංහලයන් සමග බද්ධ වූ බවට තොරතුරු නැත. යුරෝපීය ආක‍්‍රමණිකයන් විසින් ගෙනෙන ලද, ඉන්දියානු මලබාර්, ද්‍රවිඩ/දෙමළ වාර්ගිකයන් කුලීකරුවන් සහ ඔත්තුකරුවන් ලෙස සිංහල නිදහස් සටන් මැඩලීම සඳහා ඉංගිරිසි ආක‍්‍රමණික හමුදා සහායකයන් වී ඇත. නිදහස් සටන් මර්ධනයට ඉංගිරිසි කොලනිවාදීන්ට සහාය වූ දෙමළ අයට ප‍්‍රසාද දීමට ටොරිංටන් සාමි කොලනි ලේකම්ගෙන් (Colonial Secretory අවසර ඉල්ලීමෙන් සනාථ වෙයි.(* 

….. 6 වෙනි කොටසට

MOD  Media Centre

The Defence Advisor to the High Commission of Pakistan in Sri Lanka, Colonel Muhammad Farooq made his maiden call on the Defence Secretary General Kamal Gunaratne at the Defence Ministry, today (Aug 16).

The Defence Secretary accorded a warm welcome to the new Pakistani Defence Advisor and had a cordial discussion with him.

During the discussion, Col. Farooq expressed gratitude to the support to his country during times of need by Sri Lanka and said that he wishes to work towards strengthening the existing bilateral defence ties. He also spoke on holding of the upcoming Defence Dialogue.

Reciprocating the DA’s gratitude Gen. Gunaratne also recalled the cooperation and assistance that Pakistan had extended to Sri Lanka in the past. While wishing him success in the new post Defence Secretary also said that he looks forward to continue the existing mutual ties. Military Liaison Officer Brigadier Dhammika Welagedara was also present at the occasion

Prime Minister’s Media Division

The Prime Minister stated this today (2023.08.16) in Kunming, China, while participating as the chief guest at the 7th China-South Asia Exhibition jointly organized by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce and the Yunnan State Government.

60 countries are participating in this huge trade exhibition, including all South and Southeast Asian countries as well as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Cooperation (RCEP) member countries.

The exhibition includes 15 exhibition halls, including a biomedical and healthcare pavilion, a resource economic pavilion and a regional cooperation pavilion, with a total area of 150,000 square meters. This exhibition is scheduled to be held until the 20th of August under the theme of ‘cooperation and coordination for development’.

State Ministers Taraka Balasuriya, Janaka Vakkambura, Kanaka Herath, Member of Parliament Yadamini Gunawardena, Secretary to the Prime Minister Anura Dissanayake, Foreign Ministers and businessmen are participating in this visit.

Speaking on this occasion Prime Minister stated that

Mr Chairman of Expo, Firstly, I wish to convey my appreciation for the invitation to the beautiful city of Kunming in Yunan and for the excellent hospitality extended to my delegation from Sri Lanka. It is an honour to attend as the Chief Guest at the 7th China – South Asia Exposition and at the 27th Kunming Import and Export Fair.  This occasion will mark another historical milestone in our bilateral relations, as we come together to further strengthen centuries of warm friendship and cooperation between our two countries.

At the very outset let me congratulate and extend fraternal warm wishes to His Excellency President Xi Jinping, the Communist Party of China, and to the People of China for the tremendous leadership given to People across the World in delivering the impossible and achieving unprecedented landmarks in human civilization. Especially, the alleviation of hundreds of millions of Poor People out of Poverty, and showing continuous economic growth.
Last year too, I was invited by Yunan Government to electronically address the South Asia Expo. It was the time when China was opening after the post-covid era for economic recovery. And I wish to recall how scientifically advanced Miracle Rice variety was introduced at that platform.

At the same time on behalf of the Government of His Excellency Ranil Wickramasinghe and People of Sri Lanka, I take this opportunity to convey warm best wishes to our friends in China, especially in Yunnan Province for the success of China – South Asia Exposition, brining a larger segment of Asian countries in participation. This proudly speaks achievements in the backdrop of the 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative.
Friends, let me recollect the warm friendship shared between China and Sri Lanka dating back to many centuries, pioneered by Buddhist Priest Fa Hien. I would also like to note that Admiral Zheng Ha, who was born in Kunming, the city where we are here today celebrating this important event, came to Sri Lanka in early 15th century, and placed an inscription marking his visit to Sri Lanka.
These historical relations were fostered by thriving trade exchanges along the Maritime Silk Route and far reaching cooperation in culture and knowledge. Yapahuwa is a historical Kingdom in Sri Lanka which boasts the largest collection of Chinese coins and Chinese porcelain found in Sri Lanka.
Your Excellencies, the People’s Republic of China was promulgated after the long successful victory march towards 1949 Revolution, with a long and arduous journey led by the Communist Party of China with Great Leader Mao Tse Tung along with other leaders.
Soon after our two countries have enjoyed 66 years of excellent diplomatic relations. Even prior to establishing formal diplomatic ties, China and Sri Lanka entered to Rubber-Rice Pact”, which marked the 70th anniversary last year, and marked a new chapter in international trade.
Since then, China and Sri Lanka regarded each other as good friends and a special relationship has existed between our two countries.
I wish to acknowledge with gratitude the unwavering support of the People’s Republic of China to Sri Lanka for national sovereignty and integrity and for continuing to stand by us during challenging times.
I would like to reiterate that Sri Lanka continues to uphold the ‘One China Policy’ in all spheres including bilateral and multilateral fora and I wish to affirm our commitment in this regard.
At a time when Sri Lanka was faced with difficult economic hardships, the Hon Governor of Yunnan Province visited Sri Lanka, in May 2023, and committed to multifaceted areas of cooperation.
During the devastating global covid pandemic and Sri Lanka’s recent economic crisis, China helped Sri Lanka through various humanitarian assistance, including RMB 500 Mn for fuel to farmers and fishermen, staple diet of rice to school students, and 70% of school uniform requirement for the year 2023.

We acknowledge with appreciation that China has extended much-needed support in debt restructuring process, which was essential to secure international support. We are confident that China will extend continued cooperation in the future towards Sri Lanka’s broader economic recovery.
The most significant recent Chinese development projects in Sri Lanka include the Hambantota Port, Hambantota Industrial Zone, Mattala Airport, and Colombo Port City project and all other major sectors.
Colombo Port City project is Sri Lanka’s flagship project on achieving a financial and commercial hub in the region, with clear strategic advantage of being located at the very centre of the East-West Maritime Trade Lanes.
Therefore, investments from China are critical to propel Sri Lanka’s economy, and also, I kindly request all friends present here today to encourage more Government and Private sector investment, trade, cooperation, and ventures into Sri Lanka.

Chinese tourist arrivals have been one of the key strengths of the Sri Lankan tourism industry. Mainly thanks to an announcement made in February this year by the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism, placing Sri Lanka among the Top 20 countries for tourism.
I take this opportunity to call for a joint effort between our countries to enhance tourism among us, as collectively we have much more to offer. let us not forget that This Century Belongs to Asia. This is Asia’s Century.
I wish to refer to the words of President Xi Jinping’s steadfast commitment to share achievements of China towards the future betterment of mankind.”

Continuous leadership of the CPC has guided China to emerge in the path of Socialism with Chinese characteristics as a true decisive global giant with a grand new era of development, especially in Asia, Africa, & Latin America, and towards prosperity of all Nations.  

Dear Friends, in conclusion I wish to emphasize that in Buddhism the importance of cultivating Kalyana Mitras is taught. Kalyana Mitra is the best of friendships that sees through times of good and through times of difficulty. Sri Lanka sees the friendship cultivated with China to be one of the true best Kalayana Mitras, amidst times of good and difficulty, China stood by Sri Lanka.
Vice Presidents of Indonesia,Mianmar,Nepal,Vice Prime Minister of Vietnam,minister of commerce Maldives,Sri Lanka State Ministers Tharaka Baalasooriya,Janaka Wakkumbura,Kanaka Herath,member of parliament Yadamini Gunawardena,Secretary to the Prime Minister Anura Dissanayaka,Government officials of many countries,representatives participated for this occasion.

සිවිල් ආරක්‍ෂක දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව අධ්‍යක්‍ෂ  මාධ්‍ය කාර්යාලය ජය මාවත, කටුබැද්ද, මොරටුව

සිවිල් ආරක්‍ෂක දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ 10 වන අධ්‍යක්‍ෂ ජනරාල් ලෙස පත්වීම් ලැබූ එයාර් වයිස් මාර්ෂල් ආර්එස් බියන්විල වීඑස්වී, යූඑස්පී, එම්බීඒ (එක්සත් රාජධානිය), එන්ඩීසී (ඉන්දියාව), පීඑස්සී ජ්‍යෙෂ්ඨ නිලධාරි 2023 අගෝස්තු මස 16 වන දින සිවිල් ආරක්‍ෂක දෙපාර්තමේන්තු මූලස්ථාන පරිශ්‍රයේදී සුභ මොහොතින් නව තනතුරේ රාජකාරී භාර ගන්නා ලදි.

           1968 සැප්තැම්බර් මස 14 වන දින උපත ලද එයාර් වයිස් මාර්ෂල් රොෂාන් සේනක බියන්විල කොළඹ ශාන්ත පීතර් විද්‍යාලයෙන් ප්‍රාථමික හා ද්විතීයික අධ්‍යාපනය අවසන් කර ශ්‍රී ලංකා ගුවන් හමුදාවේ කැඩෙට් නිලධාරියෙකු වශයෙන් 19 වන කැඩෙට් පාඨමාලාව සඳහා  1988 මැයි මස 17 ශ්‍රී ලංකා ගුවන් හමුදාවට එක්විය. දියතලාව සටන් පුහුණු පාසලන් මූලික සටන් පුහුණු පාඨමාලාව අවසන් කර, ඉන් අනතුරුව මූලික පරිපාලන පාඨමාලාව සහ උසස් පරිපාලන පාඨමාලාව ශ්‍රී ලංකා ගුවන් හමුදා විද්‍යා පීඨය චීනවරායේ දී සම්පූර්ණ කර 1990 මැයි මස 26 වන දින ශ්‍රී ලංකා ගුවන් හමුදාවේ පියාසර නිලධාරියකු වශයෙන් අධිකාරියට පත්වී 2020 අප්‍රේල් 15 වන දින එයාර් වයිස් මාර්ෂල් නිලයට උසස් කරන ලදී.

           එයාර් වයිස් මාර්ෂල් රොෂාන් බියන්විල තම සේවා කාලය තුළ දී දිවයිනේ ක්‍රියාන්විත හා ක්‍රියාන්විත නොවන ප්‍රදේශවල විවිධ රාජකාරින් ඉටු කර ඇති අතර, ශ්‍රී ලංකා ගුවන් හමුදාවේ විවිධ තනතුරුවල රාජකාරි කටයුතු සිදුකරන ලදි. සිවිල් ආරක්‍ෂක දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ නව අධ්‍යක්‍ෂ ජනරාල් ධූරය දැරීමට පෙර ශ්‍රී ලංකා ගුවන් හමුදාවේ නියෝජ්‍ය  මාණ්ඩලික ප්‍රධානී ලෙස සේවය කරන ලදී.

           දක්‍ෂ ක්‍රීඩා කෞෂල්‍යතාවයකින් හෙබි එයාර් වයිස් මාර්ෂල් රොෂාන් බියන්විල ශ්‍රී ලංකා ක්‍රිකට් පාලක මණ්ඩලයේ ලේකම්, ශ්‍රී ලංකා පාපැදි සම්මේලනයේ ලේකම්,  ආරක්‍ෂක සේවා ක්‍රීඩා මණ්ඩලයේ හා ශ්‍රී ලංකා ගුවන් හමුදා ක්‍රීඩා කවුන්සිලයේ ජාතික මට්මමේ ක්‍රීඩා කළමණාකරණ පත්වීම් රැසක් හෙබවූ ජ්‍යෙෂ්ඨ නිලධාරියෙකි. ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ හා විදේශයන්හිදී විශේෂ පාඨමාලා හදාරා ඇති එයාර් වයිස් මාර්ෂල් රොෂාන් බියන්විල විශිෂ්ඨ හා ආදාර්ශමත් නිලධාරියෙකු ලෙස තම රාජකාරි ඉටුකිරීම වෙනුවෙන් ශ්‍රී ලංකා සන්නද්ධ සේවා දීර්ඝ සේවා පදක්කම, දීර්ඝ සේවා කණ්ඩය, විශිෂ්ඨ සේවා විභූෂණ සහ උත්තම සේවා පදක්කම් වලින් පිදුම් ලැබූ ජ්‍යෙෂ්ඨ නිලධාරියෙකි.

           නව  අධ්‍යක්‍ෂ ජනරාල් ධුරයේ වැඩ භාරගත් එයාර් වයිස් මාර්ෂල් රොෂාන් බියන්විල සිවිල් ආරක්‍ෂක දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව මේ දක්වා සිදු කරනු ලැබූ සේවය ඇගයීමට ලක් කළ අතර, තව දුරටත් ඔවුන්ගේ සේවාවන් නිසි පරිදි ලබා ගැනීම සඳහා සිවිල් ආරක්‍ෂක දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව ප්‍රතිව්‍යුහගත කර විධිමත් වෘත්තීය පුහුණුවක් ලබා දී වෘත්තීය හැකියාවන් වැඩි දියුණුකර විනිවිධ භාවයකින් යුතුව රටේ ආර්ථික සංවර්ධනය වෙනුවෙන් යෙදවීමට කටයුතු කරන බවට ප්‍රකාශ කරන ලදී.

Courtesy Pravda

The United States and Great Britain thwarted three attempts to negotiate peace, to avoid the destruction of Ukraine and the death of the people.

Photo: “Ukrainian Soldier cleans weapon” by U.S. Army Europe is marked with Public Domain Mark 1.0.

This was stated by The American Conservative columnist Ted Snyder.

On February 27, 2022, in Minsk, the parties announced their readiness for the second round, but the negotiations were blocked by the United States through the mouth of a State Department spokesman who said that “negotiations at gunpoint are not diplomacy.”

The second attempt to stop the war was made by Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. But “the West has decided to continue to strike at Putin.” And the most aggressive position was taken by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Finally, there was a chance to end the conflict for the third time in Istanbul in the spring of 2022. The Turkish negotiations were the most fruitful, but after the Russian Federation withdrew its troops from near Kyiv, all obligations were violated.

The columnist summed up that the White House refused to negotiate with Kyiv, and forced it to continue fighting in the name of US goals.
Читайте больше на https://www.pravda.ru/news/world/1874065-ssha_i_britanija_sorvali_tri_popytki/

Courtesy Independent (UK)

Ukraine had earlier pushed for the president’s participation in summit that will be held in Delhi.

Volodymyr Zelensky will not attend the main G20 conference as invites for the summit this year were sent out only to the members of the Group of 20, host country India has confirmed.

The confirmation by Delhi has put an end to speculation and expectations that Mr Zelensky would participate in the event that will bring together world leaders of major economies in Delhi.

Mr Zelensky had recently met Indian prime minister Narendra Modi in Hiroshima, Japan on the sidelines of the G7 summit.

Speaking during a special press conference marking nine years of the foreign policy of the Narendra Modi government, foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said invitations were being sent out to G20 members only.

Mr Jaishankar said the topic of extending an invitation to Mr Zelensky was not even discussed after a final list was announced at the start of India’s G20 presidency this year.

G20 participation is for members of G20,” Mr Jaishankar told reporters on Thursday. And for countries and organisations who we have invited and that list we had declared as soon as we assumed presidency of the G20.”

by Daya Gamage Courtesy The Island

US State Department

President Ranil Wickremesinghe is currently endeavouring to implement the 13th Amendment of the Constitution, which could lead to the establishment of a federal structure, much to the delight of Washington policymakers.

US policy towards Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict has long been guided by the comforting notion that Tamil self-government within a decentralised Sri Lankan state would satisfy the legitimate needs of that minority community and shield it from ‘Sinhalese oppression’.

Washington policymakers projected onto Sri Lanka their panacea for ethnic discord—federalism—without prescribing mechanisms to protect democracy in devolved jurisdictions and prevent them from being used as bases for renewed militancy.

Washington – advocating federalism since the early 1980s – concealed the fact that federalism can perpetuate inequality and inconsistent legal protections across the country. Most notoriously, U.S. federalism sanctioned systems of law and law enforcement that protected slavery, racial segregation, and minority disenfranchisement for nearly two centuries. Federalism also contributed to a separatist civil war that killed 750,000 combatants plus an estimated 50,000 civilians. The U.S. Civil War became inevitable when the federal government insisted that preserving the Union took priority over Southern states’ right to continue practicing slavery and that separatism was not a right under the political contract that created the nation.

Sri Lanka never engaged in a debate within itself to find out that in the US the sharing of governmental authority between the centre and the states still poses serious problems. In recent years, for example, more than a dozen Republican-led states refused to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, denying health-care coverage to many low- income families. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the national public health response was hobbled by disjointed and sometimes counterproductive policies followed by state governments, costing tens of thousands of avoidable deaths. Much to the detriment of American democracy, in the wake of the 2020 presidential election, some state governments devised policies to constrain voting and even to override the popular vote. Such abuses have led some scholars to conclude that American federalism is dysfunctional. And, those in Sri Lanka who advocate federal structure need to comprehend these factors.

Activating the 13th Amendment fully and devolution of power seems to have returned to the national agenda with President Wickremesinghe taking a lead role. He undertook a similar endeavour as the prime minister in 2001-2004 during the Bush Administration with its Secretary of State Gen. Colin Powell and his deputy Richard Armitage playing a significant role during the Norwegian-initiated peace talks.

Washington believed that the Tamil community (accounting for 12% of the Sri Lankan population) had fewer economic and employment opportunities when compared to the ‘advantaged’ 74% Sinhalese majority and it would benefit from a federal system.

Washington policymakers arrived at this determination way back in the 1980s, long before the signing of the infamous Indo-Sri Lanka Accord. That determination governed the mindset of the policymakers and lawmakers in the U.S. through 2009 and to date.

Classified 1984/1986 US Documents Advocating Federalism

In June 1984, the Directorate of Intelligence (CIA) and the State Department’s Near East and South Asia Bureau (NEA) jointly prepared a document called ‘Failure to Share Political Power with Minority Groups’. Declaring President Jayewardene’s commitment to his Sinhalese-Buddhist constituency at the height of the July 1983 communal riots, it said by the general election of 1956 Sinhalese-dominated parties had gained control of the government and driven the small Tamil parties out of the mainstream political life.”

Another document dated September 02, 1986 and authored jointly by the CIA and the NEA noted that ‘northern insurgency’ had politicised Sri Lanka’s Sinhalese and Tamil communities. The ethnic rivalry is at the heart of the conflict, the document says, adding that the Tamils believe – with some adjustments – they need some devolution of power to their districts and that they are victims of political and economic discrimination, suggesting that Washington refrain from providing military assistance to the Sri Lanka administration, as it noted even in another document that Washington shouldn’t get involved in a battle between two ethnic communities.

These three documents laid the foundation for the subsequent structure of Washington’s foreign policy toward Sri Lanka all the way until the end of the separatist Eelam War IV in May 2009 and well beyond.

Washington sentiments

Washington sentiments were amply reflected in this 1984 (once) classified document. This June 1984 document had the most revealing sentiments that played a major role in subsequent years during Washington’s intervention in Sri Lanka’s national issues, one of which was the proposal for a federal system in Sri Lanka solely and exclusively focusing on minority Tamil issues.

Washington’s initial (1984) understanding was that a federal structure would extensively satisfy the Tamil demands. The document states, Tamil demands probably would be satisfied by a federal structure that would guarantee Tamils control over security and economic development where they comprise the majority of the population”. This belief was notably expressed by State Department Foreign Service Officers (FSOs) at frequent intervals in subsequent years when Washington intervened in Sri Lankan national affairs; in keeping with this agenda the USAID in 2005, with active participation of top officials of the US Embassy in Colombo, continuously for three months, convened nationwide public seminars with the assistance of civil society groups underscoring the merits of federalism.

The June 1984 classified ‘intelligence assessment’ expressed fear that if Washington was seen associating with a regime that battles a minority group it could damage the U.S. prestige in the region and in parts of the Third World and that highly politicised Tamil minority in Sri Lanka might even turn to the Soviet Union for support.” (It is with this rationale that Washington deeply engaged during the 2002-2004 peace talks that it believed could bring favourable acceptance in the international community). In 2023, President Wickremasinghe seems to be bringing back the scenario to which he was engaged in as prime minister in advocating the implementation of the 13th Amendment.

The June 1984 ‘Intelligence Assessment’ further declares Tamil demands probably would be satisfied by a federal structure that would guarantee Tamils control over security and economic development where they comprise the majority of the population” – meaning the North-East region of Sri Lanka.

The document opined that Washington believed the Tamils have become convinced that they should have an autonomous homeland with economic and security control.”

What the June 1984 document says about the United States refusal to extend military assistance to the (American-friendly) Jayewardene regime’s request to combat the LTTE terrorism and its total blocking of the supply of military gear to the subsequent Rajapaksa regime during (2006-2009) its military offensive against the separatist movement led to Washington’s strict belief that such military equipment could be used for repressive measures against the Tamils.”, and that other avenues need to be found such as devolution of power and setting up a federal structure.

The following are from ‘Sri Lanka: The Challenge of Communal Violence’, a joint intelligence assessment by the Directorate of Intelligence (CIA) Office of Near Eastern and South Asia Bureau of the State Department. June 1984 Secret document subsequently declassified:

1.  President Jayewardene’s failure to deal with the demands of Sri Lanka’s Tamil minority – 18 percent of the population – has brought the Tamils to the brink of open insurrection. In our judgment, Jayewardene, through his political maneuvering since his election in 1977, has contributed to the deterioration of communal relations by failing to share political power with minority groups

2. Tamil demands probably would be satisfied by a federal structure that would guarantee Tamils control over security and economic development where they comprise the majority of the population.

3. The Tamils, according to Embassy and scholarly reports, have become convinced that they should have both an autonomous homeland and control over security forces and access to more economic development projects.

4. We believe the frustrations of the last year have convinced even moderate Tamils they must press for a separate homeland with the hope of achieving at least a federal relationship with Colombo.

Subsequent US Manipulation for a Federal System

In early 2012, under the auspices of the Office of the Under Secretary-General of the United Nations (Political Affairs) B. Lynn Pascoe, attended by many professionals that included President Barack Obama’s close confidante and information czar Prof. Cass Sustein and his wife Dr. Samantha Power, the U.S. President’s human rights-war crimes-genocide crusader in the National Security Council, to start a process of restructuring several developing Third World nations’ constitutional arrangements to promulgate federalism as an answer to ethnic minority grievances.

The Under-Secretary-General (Political) B. Lynn Pascoe was a retired career diplomat from the US State Department.

Since the early 2012-process commenced a number of closed-door meetings and seminars at which the partition of UN member states has been discussed. Most of the meetings have been held under the direction of the UN Interagency Framework for Coordination on Preventive Action (the Framework Team or FT). The control of the FT fell into the domain of the under-secretary-general of Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman, who took over from Pascoe in June 2012.The UN slot in the Department of Political Affairs, for decades, has always been assigned to a retired American Foreign Service officer (FSO), and it is the second most influential position next to the Secretary-General.

When a former American FSO occupies the Number Two slot of the UN, the State Department has extensive leverage over the operation of the United Nations, and it has been seen that both branches – the Department of Political Affairs and the US State Department – work together to achieve common objectives. As much as the state department and its representative – US ambassador to UN- maintain jurisdiction over the Human Rights Commission in Geneva under internal UN arrangement, during this period, the Under-Secretary (Political) Jeffrey Feltman oversaw the functioning of UNHRC.

When the process commenced in 2012, Sri Lanka, apart from Nepal, was also a target for the identity federalism engineers. To promote a ‘serious devolution to the peripheral regions’ – whether one calls it federal structure or otherwise – Dr. Samantha Power, who initially attended the Framework Team in early 2012 with the UN Department of Political Affairs, travelled to Sri Lanka in November 2015. UN Under-Secretary-General (Political) Jeffrey Feltman travelled to Sri Lanka for talks in July 2017, during the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe administration.

Illegality of the Indo-Lanka Accord and 13th Amendment

First, there is a reasonable argument to be made that the bilateral accord – the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord of 1987 – that mandated the devolutionary restructuring of the Sri Lankan government was illegal from the very inception.

But the 13th Amendment was imposed on the country under duress rather than being legislated through democratic debate.

What is less debatable is that the Indian airdrop and intimidatory diplomatic communications from New Delhi to Colombo prior to the IPKF were violative of at least the spirit of Article 2(4) of the United Nations Charter. That UN Article enjoins all member states to refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any State.” Both the Security Council and the General Assembly have adopted numerous resolutions that contain implicit or explicit references to Article 2(4), condemning, deploring or expressing concern about acts of aggression or the launching of armed intervention. A number of resolutions have included calls for withdrawing troops from foreign territories.

In addition, Article 51 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties states that an expression of a state’s consent to be bound by [a] treaty which has been procured by coercion of its representative through acts or threats directed against him shall be without legal effect.” Similarly, Article 52 of the same Convention provides that a treaty is void if its conclusion has been procured by the threat or use of force in violation of the principles of international law embodied in the Charter of the United Nations.”

Some Indian commentators have argued that Sri Lanka cannot withdraw from the 1987 Accord—and by extension the Amendment—by reason of the Vienna Convention because neither Sri Lanka nor India are signatories to the Convention. The United States has never ratified the Vienna Convention, but its Department of State as early as 1971 acknowledged that the Convention constituted the authoritative guide to current treaty law and practice,” even for non-parties. Despite being a non-signatory, the U.S. Government has frequently brought cases before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) based on alleged violations of the Vienna Convention. In short, neither India nor the USG has standing under international law to press Sri Lanka to honour commitments imposed on it illegally.

The Thirteenth Amendment was enacted in the Sri Lanka Constitution as a result of this illegal Indo-Sri Lanka Accord of 1987.

What has been outlined above is that Washington policymakers and lawmakers endeavoured from early 1980s to impose a federal structure on Sri Lanka, and current Ranil Wickremesinghe presidency is succumbing to US pressure. Further, Sri Lankan lawmakers need to be apprised of the illegal entry of the 1987 Indo-Lanka Accord and its by-product the 13th Amendment.

(The writer is a retired Foreign Service National Political Specialist of the U.S. Department

of State once accredited to the Political Section of the American Embassy in Colombo)

By Saman Indrajith Courtesy The Island

Foreign Minister Ali Sabry told Parliament yesterday that his ministry had received no information about CIA Chief William J. Burns’ alleged visit to Sri Lanka on Feb 14.

Making a ministerial statement in response to a series of questions raised by SLPP dissident MP Ven. Aturaliye Ratana Thera on June 22, the minister said that his ministry only provided necessary diplomatic clearances for the aircraft to fly to Sri Lanka.

Minister Sabry said that he had been aware that two aircraft of the United States Air Force had arrived at the Bandaranaike International Airport on Feb. 14 and according to the information provided by the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Aviation and Airport and Aviation Services Lanka Ltd, a number of US officials had officially entered the country.

The Minister’s response to Ven Ratana’s queries: This is my answer after consulting all the relevant agencies. While the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the link between the foreign countries, entities, institutions and ministries departments and institutions in Sri Lanka, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is not the focal point for the subject area that comes under the purview of the MCC. It is noted as an expert committee was appointed by the Cabinet in December, 2019 to review the MCC agreement and the final report was handed over to the former President in June, 2020. The proposed SOFA is an agreement between the US and Sri Lanka, according to the line ministry in this regard also the Ministry of Defence and information required in this regard could be obtained from the Ministry of Defence. ACSA is also an agreement that comes under the Defence Ministry. Relevant line ministry in this regard is the Defence Ministry and further information may be obtained from the Ministry of Defence.

Therefore, it is appropriate to ask the relevant line ministry – the ministry of Defence regarding the reimplementation of these agreements and its current status and the purposes. I am aware that two aircraft belonging to the American Air Force arrived at the Katunayake BIA in the afternoon of Feb 14, 2023. According to the information provided by the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Aviation and Airport and Aviation Services Lanka Limited, they have officially entered into the country.

The two planes that had arrived at the Katunayake International Airport under No RCH 23/992142A and RCH 231/00215A. I further mention that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had done only the necessary diplomatic clearances for the aircraft to fly to Sri Lanka. The chairman of the Airport and Aviation Services Lanka Limited has informed that the names, passport numbers and Visa number of the persons who came in the two aircrafts could be obtained from the Department of Immigration and Emigration.

Further the Airport and Aviation Services Pvt Ltd has informed this ministry that they are not aware of the fact to which organisation in the United States the said group belongs to and responsible for and have met with the parties or organizations in Sri Lanka bearing what responsibilities and what matters to the agreement were discussed in this meeting. And therefore, some of these questions seem to be referred to the wrong ministry. So, based on the evidence that we gathered, and the information which we acquired from different agencies, this is the information which I can provide to the question raised by Ven Aturaliye Ratana Thera on June 22, 2023.”