Sunday 21 August 2011By Namini Wijedasa
As long as Colombo skirts the issue, India will continue to pressurize the Sri Lankan government to arrive at a negotiated political settlement with the Tamil minority.
New Delhi needs for Colombo to find and implement a power-sharing arrangement. It is now increasingly clear that, notwithstanding the parliamentary select committee it intends to appoint, the Sri Lankan government prefers sticking with the existing Constitution. These two positions are just not compatible.
That New Delhi is guided by its own geopolitical realities is not in dispute. It is no different with Sri Lankan politicians. When you shave away the rhetoric, you commonly find that survival is the catalyst for statements on either side of the Palk Strait.
“Politics is politics,” Economic Development Minister, Basil Rajapaksa remarked in an interview with Lakbimanews last month, when asked about Indian pressure. “They (India) highlight some issues sometimes. They also do politics, we must also do politics and others are also doing politics. But as a government and a country, they are very responsible... not like some other countries.”
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US ignores report to ‘better’ relations with Lanka
Sunday 21 August 2011
US ignores report to ‘better’ relations with Lanka
By Namini WijedasaTwo years ago, a report released by the US Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee encouraged President Barack Obama’s administration to seek a more positive relationship with Sri Lanka, asserting that the United States could not afford to “lose” the strategically placed Indian Ocean nation.
‘Sri Lanka: Recharting US Strategy after the War’ was a bipartisan report endorsed by Senator John Kerry, the committee chairman, and Senator Richard Lugar, the ranking Republican member. It advised the Obama government to consider a new approach that would increase US leverage in Sri Lanka and help secure longer term US strategic interests in the Indian Ocean. Full Story>>>
