Post-conflict hype waning for Lanka, tough times ahead – World Bank * Growth decelerated towards tail end of 2011

January 18, 2012,

The World Bank, painting a bleak picture of the global economy, says Sri Lanka’s post-conflict economic rebound is waning and the country is vulnerable to risks associated with falling exports, declining remittances and increased rick averseness of the international investment community. Growth is expected to slow down to 6.8 percent this year, a much slower rate compared to the Central Bank’s forecast of near-8 percent.

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U.S. Government Officials to Visit Sri Lanka and Maldives

Sri Lanka and Maldives

January 12, 2012

• Read this press release in Sinhala
• Read this press release in Tamil

Over the next two weeks the U.S. Embassy to Sri Lanka and Maldives will host four U.S. government visitors who will meet with government officials, civil society representatives, business leaders and political leaders.

Ambassador James A. Larocco from the Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies at the U.S. Department of Defense National Defense University will visit Sri Lanka and Maldives from January 15-19, 2012.  Ambassador Larocco joined the Center in August 2009, after serving more than 35 years as a diplomat.

Ms. Holly Vineyard, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia at the U.S. Department of Commerce will visit Sri Lanka January 17-19, 2012.  Ms. Vineyard directs the Department's regional activities on market access, trade, commerce and compliance with international trade agreements.

Dr. Alyssa Ayres, Deputy Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asia at the U.S. Department of State will visit Sri Lanka and Maldives January 18-24, 2012.  Dr. Ayres assumed her position in August 2010 and her portfolio includes India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Maldives.

Mr. Thomas O. Melia, Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor at the U.S. Department of State will visit Sri Lanka January 20-26, 2012.  Mr. Melia joined the State Department in August 2011 after more than 25 years of experience in promotion of democracy and human rights. 

TNA - SLFP talks at deadlock

18 January, 2012 

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) says that talks on resolving the ethnic issue through power devolution with the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), the main constituent of the ruling coalition has entered in to a deadlock.

The leader of the TNA, R. Sampanthan said that talks which was scheduled to begin on Tuesday did not take place as agreed.

“Talks were to resume on Tuesday but the government delegation did not turn up. We had planed to have talks for three days” he said.

Mr.Sampanthan said that TNA had several rounds of talks and there were discussions with the president.

“We are expecting the government to act upon what has been agreed,” he said.

Commenting on participation in the parliamentary select committee that has been set up to find a solution to the ethnic issue, Mr.Sampanthan said that TNA has never declined to participate in the parliamentary select committee process.

“We want the government to act upon what has been agreed so far before we resume further initiatives” he added.

GLs absence at centenarian celebrations, ANC leaders disappointed

WEDNESDAY, 18 JANUARY 2012 
The leaders of the African National Alliance (ANC) have expressed its disappointment over the absence of its Sri Lanka’s External Affairs Minister Prof. G.L. Peiris in the party’s centenarian celebrations in South Africa recently, informed sources said today.  

The government did not send Prof. Peiris as its representative in the event on January as a mark of protest against the invitation extended to the Global Tamil Forum, an LTTE front. Instead, the government sent Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner to South Africa Shehan Ratnavel as its envoy.  

However, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) participated in the event and interacted with the leaders of the ANC on the national question. During the meeting, the ANC leaders have reportedly expressed their disappointment over the absence of Prof. Peiris.

They have reportedly said that Sri Lanka should have seized the opportunity to learn from the liberation struggle of South Africa.  

The ANC, once led by South Africa’s iconic President Nelson Mandela,was instrumental in the abolition of the legalised system of racial discrimination in that country. (Kelum Bandara)

Krishna Nudges Lanka to Resolve the Tamil Problem

PTI | E T B SIVAPRIYAN | KILINOCHCHI | JAFFNA 
|JAN 18, 2012
Using his visit to the war-torn Kilinochchi town, the first by an Indian leader, to assure the war-weary Tamils of unflinching Indian support and help, S M Krishna today nudged Sri Lanka to resolve the ethnic problem by implementing a "meaningful" devolution package.

The External Affairs Minister distributed newly-built houses and renovated schools, constructed with Indian assistance, and said India was willing to provide more help for their development of the war-torn region.

Arriving in Kilinochchi, former bastion of LTTE that still carries the scars of the three-decade-old ethnic conflict, by a helicopter from capital Colombo, Krishna also handed over high-tech medical equipments worth Rs 1.5 crore to the District Central Hospital which attracts patients from the three northern districts of Kilinochchi, Vavuniya and Mullaitivu.    Full Story>>>

Stop harassment of women

The Lak Wanitha movement which is an association affiliated to Sri Lankan’s main opposition party UNP today called on the Sri Lanklan Authorities to probe the recent killing of a tourists in the southern town of Tangalle and to take effective steps to stop the harassment of women. A woman is seen holding up a placard at a protest organised by the movement in front of the office of Women and Child Affairs Ministry. (Pix by Pradeep Pathirana)

Posted by Thavam

India must kick China out of Sri Lanka: William Avery

Firstpost

New York: Thereare 

New York: There are few more knowledgeable  observers of US-India relations than William H Avery, a former US diplomat, who  served at the US Consulate in Chennai in the 1990s, a time when India’s relations with the US soured after New Delhi’s nuclear tests. In his new book, China’s Nightmare, America’s Dream: India as the Next Global Power, Avery offers a detailed anatomy of the growing ties between the world’s largest and wealthiest democracies.

Avery’s book also delivers a broadside against China and says India must respond to how China has advanced its influence in the region, with allies like Pakistan, Myanmar and Sri Lanka. China has established itself as a growing, and sometimes bullying, power in India’s neighbourhood.

India's economic growth since 1991 hasn't translated into global political clout, reasons William Avery. Reuters

India and most of the countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have festering territorial disputes with China. Avery says India must respond to the Chinese challenge by spending even more on defence and using economic persuasion to influence its neighbours.

“India must now concentrate on the Finlandization of Sri Lanka,” Avery writes, while referring to Finland’s subjugation by the Soviet Union during the Cold War. “In the short term this will mean preventing any further non-Indian involvement in Sri Lanka’s affairs.”

Avery described how China invested millions to turn the sleepy fishing hamlet of Hambantota in Sri Lanka into a booming new port, just off India’s southeast coast, furthering an ambitious trading strategy in South Asia that is reshaping the region and forcing India to rethink relations with its neighbours.

China has been developing port facilities in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Myanmar, and it is planning to build railroad lines in Nepal. These projects, analysts like Avery argue, are irksome to India; there are worries that China is expanding its sphere of regional influence by surrounding India with a “string of pearls” that could eventually undermine India’s pre-eminence and potentially rise to an economic and security threat.

Avery worries that India’s economic growth since 1991 has not been matched by an appropriate increase in its global political clout. It is now, however, beyond the shadow of a doubt that the Obama administration, like the previous Bush administration, is investing in a long-term strategic partnership with India, and has identified China as a threat whiledeclaring Asia as a priority to the US.

India is no budding UK, and any US policymaker who believes New Delhi will act as a lieutenant for US interests has been smoking something herbal. But Avery suggests that New Delhi must build on recent economic successes to make India a truly global power. He suggests that where India sees common interests with the US — a wide and growing field — it should be more than willing to cooperate.

“India possesses the same core values that underpinned the Anglo-American relationship: democracy, human rights, the rule of law and the free market,” Avery writes in his book.

Despite rooting for a stronger India-US partnership, Avery compares India’s reliance on IT outsourcing, or supplying low-cost brains over the Internet to largely US companies, as a kind of “colonial servitude.” He implies that Indian firms are boosting efficiency for US companies with factory-like business processes. “Today,” he writes, “India is falling in to the colonial trap all over again, except this time it is doing so willingly.”

The Wall Street Journal felt that Avery’s book, while “thought-provoking,” sort of missed the plot when it panned outsourcing which was a huge business opportunity.

“It’s a fair point that IT outsourcing is draining India’s brightest minds from pursuing innovation. But to compare the industry to India’s plight under the British Empire, when the country exported raw materials and imported goods manufactured from those materials, is a step too far. (India, for instance, runs a large trade surplus with the US),” wrote Tom Wright in The Wall Street Journal.

Avery will warm the hearts of the folks opposing Wal-Mart’s march into India by arguing that India should think about “more protection” for its nascent industries at a time when its markets are growing and the West is stagnant.

TNA looks towards a new beginning in talks with Govt.

R. K. RADHAKRISHNAN

The Tamil National Alliance, the credible representative of the Tamil people in the north, said on Wednesday that it looked forward to a new beginning in talks with the government, following the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s assurance on devolution and autonomy.

“The President has spoken about going beyond the 13 Amendment. This is a new beginning and we will pursue the talks from here,” TNA MP Sumanthiran told The Hindu, when asked about the progress of talks.

A crucial round of talks were scheduled to begin on Tuesday but the government side did not turn up for the talks.

Krishna hands over houses to beneficiaries

Krishna hands over houses to beneficiaries

WEDNESDAY, 18 JANUARY 2012 17:24

 External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna on Wednesday handed over houses built for Internally Displaced Persons at a function organised at Ariviyal Nagar, Kilinochi

Read more..

SM Krishna flies to Jaffna to meet Sri Lankan Tamils

Colombo: External Affairs Minister SM Krishna on Wednesday flew from by chopper to Kilinochchi on way to Jaffna in the northern province of Sri Lanka to meet ethnic Tamils.

He will gift medical equipment to the district general hospital at Kilinochchi on the third day of his four-day visit after fruitful official talks on Tuesday with Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Prime Minister DM Jayarathna and his counterpart GL Peiris in this scenic capital.

"Krishna will hand over a school repaired with Indian financial assistance at Sivapathakalaiyagam near Kilinochchi and proceed to Jaffna for a luncheon meeting with northern province governor Maj Gen (retd) GA Chandrasiri," an Indian High Commission official said in Colombo.

In the post-armed conflict era, India has been engaged in the rehabilitation of about 300,000 Tamil-speaking minorities who have been living in camps set up for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the northern, central and eastern provinces.

"With a robust programme of assistance to help the IDPs return to normal life at the earliest, we have already provided about 250,000 family relief packages and have set up an emergency medical unit in the camps," the official said.

In the Jaffna province, the minister will hand over about 50 houses built under a pilot project to the Tamil beneficiaries in Nalavadi near Ariyalai in the northern region and gift about 10,000 bicycles to IDPs.

Krishna will also mark the completion of wreck removal works at KKS Harbour in the port city before flying back to the capital late evening.

Of the four agreements India and Sri Lanka signed on Tuesday in the presence of Krishna and Peiris, two are related to the funding of the ambitious housing project with a $260 million line of credit to build about 49,000 units in the strife-torn region for the IDPs and the restoration of the northern railway services with $382 million credit from Exim (export and import) Bank of India.

The restoration will involve laying of tracks on the Pallai-Kankesanthurai railway line, setting up of signalling and telecom systems for the Northern Railway line.

China offers S.Lanka help to find Silk Route wrecks

18 JANUARY 2012 

File photo of a navy gunboat patrols off the coast of Sri Lanka. Chinese authorities are seeking permission to explore Sri Lanka's coastline for possible Chinese ship wrecks from the ancient Silk Route era, an official said Wednesday.

AFP - Chinese authorities are seeking permission to explore Sri Lanka's coastline for possible Chinese ship wrecks from the ancient Silk Route era, an official said Wednesday.
Sri Lanka, an Indian Ocean island, was a key trading post along the ancient Silk Route which saw silk, spices and handicrafts travel by road and sea between Asia and Europe.
The seas around the island's southern port of Galle are known to have at least 75 ancient ship wrecks, of which 25 have been well documented.
The unsolicited offer by Science Foundation of China to deploy experts to look for vessels along Sri Lanka's coast was under consideration, Director General of Archaeology Senarath Disanayake told AFP.
He said, however, that the Chinese had asked to keep half of all antiquities brought up from the ocean bed -- a condition Sri Lanka could not agree to.
"They also want us to pay for a vessel to carry out the exploration and that is something we can't afford," Disanayake said.
China is increasing its presence in Sri Lanka with the construction of a deep-sea port in the island's south as well as several other key infrastructure projects.
Sri Lanka's immediate neighbour India has become sensitive about increasing Chinese influence on the island.

SL President assured me that he stands by his commitment to pursuing the 13th Amendment plus approach -S.M. Krishna

Tuesday 17 of January 2012

(Lanka-e-News -17.Jan.2012, 12.30PM) Remarks by Hon’ble Minister of External Affairs of India Mr. S.M. Krishna at a Media Interaction

Hon’ble Prof. G.L. Peiris, Minister of External Affairs, Distinguished Representatives of the Media,

1. I am pleased to be in Sri Lanka again. At the outset, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Hon’ble Minister Prof. Peiris and the Sri Lankan Government for the warm hospitality extended to me and to my delegation.


2. Earlier, I had the opportunity to call on His Excellency President Mahinda Rajapaksa. We had a useful exchange of views on ways to take the bilateral relationship forward. With Minister Peiris, we had the opportunity to review progress in various areas, including trade, services and investment, development cooperation, science and technology, culture and education. I am satisfied that the projects under our development partnership have progressed well since my last visit.

3. Minister Peiris and I have just signed a MoU specifying the modalities for the next phase of the Housing Project being implemented with India’s assistance of about 260 million US Dollars. This MoU involves the construction of 49,000 houses, out of a total of 50,000 houses. As you know, the Pilot Project for construction of the first 1000 houses is in an advanced stage of completion. During my visit to Jaffna tomorrow, I would be handing over the first lot of these houses to the beneficiaries.


4. We also signed MoUs for Cooperation in the Field of Agriculture and for Cooperation between the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India and Telecommunication Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka.


5. Our development assistance projects are entirely based on the priorities set by the government and the people of Sri Lanka. The main themes are connectivity, housing, health, education, livelihood restoration and economic revival. I would be visiting Kilinochchi tomorrow, to handover medical equipment to the District General Hospital, and also reopen schools we had helped repair. As a token gesture, we are also providing 10,000 bicycles to IDPs in the Northern Province.


6. I am happy to note that our bilateral trade in goods would touch the 5 billion US Dollar mark. India is also a leading player in Sri Lanka, as far as investments and tourist arrivals are concerned. To sustain this positive momentum in our trade and economic relations and take it to the next level, it is necessary to finalize a more comprehensive framework of economic cooperation.


7. India is committed to the unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Sri Lanka. It is our hope that the vision and leadership that resulted in an end to armed conflict will now be employed in the quest for a genuine political reconciliation. We look forward to progress in the ongoing dialogue process, in order to address this issue in a timely manner. We will continue to work with the Government of Sri Lanka, and help in whatever way we can, to take this process forward, in a spirit of partnership and cooperation.


8. We have noted the many constructive recommendations contained in the recently-released report of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC). These recommendations, when implemented, would mark a major step forward in the process of genuine national reconciliation, to which the Sri Lankan government is committed. Sri Lanka must seize this opportunity.


9. The Government of Sri Lanka has on many occasions conveyed to us its commitment to move towards a political settlement based on the full implementation of the 13th Amendment to the Sri Lankan Constitution, and building on it, so as to achieve meaningful devolution of powers. We look forward to an expeditious and constructive approach to the dialogue process. We believe that continuation of the dialogue between the Government and the TNA would pave the way for political settlement, including under the rubric of the Parliamentary Select Committee.


10. I discussed this matter with His Excellency the President this morning. The President assured me that he stands by his commitment to pursuing the 13th Amendment plus approach.

11. I also took this opportunity to emphasize that the issue of fishermen is an emotive issue and needs to be handled with care on both sides. As we explore possible solutions, we must ensure that there is no use of force against the fishermen and that they are treated in a humane manner. We were happy to note that the Joint Working Group on Fisheries which met a couple of days ago, was able to look at various options to address this issue.


12. Friends, India and Sri Lanka are bound by ties of history, geography and culture. Our partnership must therefore progress in the spirit of being the closest of neighbours and friends, whose destinies are intertwined.PRESS RELEASE BY HIGH COMMISSION OF INDIA COLOMBO

Cartoon of the day

Full implementation of 13th Amendment plus, MR tells Krishna President Rajapaksa has promised Indian External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna the full implementation of the 13th Amendment plus.President Mahinda Rajapaksa has promised visiting Indian Minister of External Affairs S.M Krishna that the government will deliver Read more...

Kudu Duminda bolts to Australia : confirmed as a lifetime invalid

Tuesday 17 of January 2012
(Lanka-e-News-17.Jan.2012,10.30PM) R Duminda Silva alias Kudu Duminda , the monitoring M P of the defense Ministry, and the prime suspect in the murder of Bahratha Lakshman and three others , and on whom a court order has been issued for arrest , has bolted from Singapore to Australia according to reports reaching Lanka e news. 

Kudu Duminda who sustained injuries in the shoot out at Mulleriyawa sometime ago was taking treatment at the Elizabeth Hospital , Singapore . His ability to speak and make identifications are impaired. His right side of his body is not properly functioning. His right side leg , arm and eye are adversely affected. The Singapore medical Doctors have confirmed that these defects will be permanent.

The Doctors say he will not be able to resume his social activities and conduct himself normally ,whereby he is seriously affected .

Duminda had bolted to Australia about a week before the dawn of the New year.
Meanwhile, all those underworld leaders who were associated with kudu Duminda except Dematagoda Chaminda who is now in custody , have been murdered by the white van criminals of the regime , reports say. According to defense division sources, these killings had to be necessarily committed by the regime in order to liquidate all the witnesses, and thereby suppress all the unlawful activities and crimes of the regime done jointly with kudu Duminda. 

The stormy protests raised by the family of Bahratha Lakshman after his death , had been curbed by the regime chief by now . The vehicle taken on leasing by Bharatha was relieved of the lease payment burdens. The vehicle that was given to Bharatha by the Presidential Secretariat was released to his family, and the latter had been permitted to continue their stay in the official residence, but not without threatening the family members with death. Under these circumstances , Bharatha Lakshman family is apparently now silenced.