Sunday February 19, 2012
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| By Our Political Editor | |||
The temperature outside the Serena Hotel in Islamabad last Tuesday afternoon was near zero. The main engagements finished the previous day, President Mahinda Rajapaksa and senior members of his entourage were relaxing at the presidential suite. Later that day, two more dignitaries -- the Defence Minister of Pakistan and the Chairman of that country's Board of Investment were to call on Rajapaksa. External Affairs Minister G.L. Peiris told the President about the news from Colombo. Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe had tabled a ten page United National Party (UNP) response to the final report of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC). He had also made a statement. In fact Wickremesinghe had written to Rajapaksa enclosing the same report a day earlier. However, he was away in Pakistan and the letter had remained unopened in Colombo. A discussion ensued. Presidential Secretary Lalith Weeratunga telephoned Malik Samarawickrema, former UNP Chairman and close confidant of Wickremesinghe, in Colombo. He spoke briefly about Rajapaksa's concerns over the UNP statement and handed the phone to Minister Peiris. Once a cabinet minister in Wickremesinghe's United National Front government, where he championed the virtues of the 2002 Ceasefire Agreement with Tiger guerrillas, Peiris added his own 'concerns.' He then handed over the telephone to Rajapaksa. The President asked Samarawickrema in Sinhala "why is Wickremesinghe doing this?" Such a response would only 'internationalise the Sri Lanka issue,' he exhorted. Samarawickrema faithfully conveyed the details of the conversation to Wickremesinghe. The opposition UNP leader was happy. His statement in Parliament had had an instant effect. The episode showed that matters at home were of much concern to Rajapaksa though he was on an official visit to Pakistan. He had arrived there last Monday to be greeted at the airport with a 21-gun salute. He went to his hotel for a quick change and was off to the pyramid like Aiwan-e-Sadar, the official residence of the President. There the tri-services presented him a guard of honour ahead of talks with President Asif Ali Zardari. The standoff between Zardari and the military, now on the brink of a serious political crisis, was to cause its own issues. The guard of honour had to be at the official residence since neither President Zardari nor Prime Minister Yosuf Raza Gilani would visit the airport for this purpose. On the other hand, a 21-gun salute to honour the President was not possible at the residency in Islamabad since it was a heavily built up area. Hence it had to be held at the airport.  
U.S. Under Secretary of State for Civilian Security, Democracy and Human Rights, Marie Otero addressing the media at the Colombo Hilton. Pix by Indika Handuwela |
