BRITAIN CUTS AID TO SRI LANKA AS A METHOD OF HAND TWISTING TO MAKE GOVT.ACCEPT THEIR WAY OF PEACE

By Walter Jayawardhana

Observers in Colombo said that the British effort to bring peace to its former colony of Sri Lanka could be in trouble since the British High Commissioner in Colombo, Dominick John Chilcot is in a diplomatic row with the Colombo government and Britain has decided to freeze a package of aid to the island nation as a method of hand twisting.

The Sri Lankan government yesterday blocked a visit to the rebel-held north of the island by a group of British diplomats, led by Colombo’s Deputy British High Commissioner Lesley Craig who had wanted to discuss the future of the troubled peace process with the Tigers.

Sources in Colombo said while British money continues to flow into Sri Lanka to fund an insurgency waged against the government the British High Commissioner has brought pressure on the government not to wage war against them.

Speaking in British parliament, the country’s Minister of Foreign Office Kim Howells said, “'What is Britain doing to help with the search for peace? First and foremost, we are offering the benefit of our Northern Ireland experience.”

Sri Lanka’s second largest opposition party has already declared that Sri Lanka is in need of a genuine peace process without external interference. So it is expected that a peace process with the British hand twisting would be vehemently opposed and campaigned against heavily by them in the country.

Using a ceasefire the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam has even developed its air wing forcing the Sri Lanka government to close down its only international airport to night time flights.

While Sri Lanka is unable to allow night time flights due to the inability to equip its small air force to deal with LTTE’s small converted aircraft invading the city of Colombo Britain is dictating its former colony not to increase its military budget to fight the world’s most innovative terrorist group, sources in Colombo charged.

Britain said it was withholding millions of dollars worth of aid to its former colony to twist the government’s hand and until the government of Sri Lanka meets defense spending conditions- another way of telling stop the war with the insurgents. While observers see no end to the millions of dollars still flowing to the LTTE Britain has seen it fit to stop its aid to Sri Lanka, political sources charged.

Britain said it is suspending half of the 2.95 millions of pounds it had earlier agreed to give to help Sri Lanka pay off some debts to the World bank after paying only half of the payments.

“What we have said for this year is we are making half of the agreed payment because there is an ongoing consultation process about progress towards meeting the conditions agreed between the two governments," the spokesman for Britain's mission in Colombo said.

"The remainder of the money will be paid to Sri Lanka when we are satisfied that those conditions have been met."

The British High Commissioner visited a news paper office in which the editor claimed that she had been threatened by a the defense secretary. He said he was declaring solidarity with the editor. The defense secretary said he did no such threatening.

The newspaper is owned by the uncle of the leader of Opposition , Ranil Wickremesinghe, who himself expelled a British reporter from the country for writing against his government, when he was the Prime Minister. The newspapers of the company are constantly used for political propaganda and sometimes to publish untrue political stories.

Whether the claim of the editor was true or not, the interference of the British High Commissioner was seen as interference in the internal affairs of the country by sections of the government.
It has become customary for British High Commissioners to interfere in the internal affairs of the country. During a United national Party regime former President Ranasinghe Premadasa declared a former British High Commissioner persona non grata and ordered him out of the country,
accusing him of interference in the internal affairs of the country.