Sri Lanka - News and Discussion

Gerard · Post by **Gerard** » 19 Jun 2009 03:23

DANK story post has been inserted above

Shirish · Post by **Shirish** » 19 Jun 2009 04:17

thanks

Anabhaya · Post by **Anabhaya** » 19 Jun 2009 04:21

Charles was his eldest and was killed in another area. Balachandran was his youngest.

Nice story, though!

thusitha · Post by **thusitha** » 19 Jun 2009 18:29

Shirish
The Tamil politician on a secure phone wired through the elusive Indian satellite, ‘Sanjaya’ relayed the ensuing gun shots to a quiet dinner table, where the future of Indian politics was being shaped. The kneeling chief was made to look up at the phone while the top of his head the back of his skull exploded to the two 9mm bullets fired by the SLA Colonel.

The scion cheered, while the daughter went about drinking her chilled cucumber, tomato and corriander soup and the mother gazed into the fire place, where a small bust of the family patriarch sat. The uncanny look-alike statue had witnessed the death of a daughter, and both grand children to flight and to assassination. Stone cold, the patina shone almost to signify that the new generation had taken over the reins of the country. And that too with a signal that rang across neighbors and on several continents.

Yeah, a good story. But I am sure of one thing, Sonya and the family got their revenge. Do not mess with Italians. They are as patient as we are. They will wait years and strike when the time is right.

It’s the signal all of India is waiting for. The new India is here.

Nothing will make me happier than to hear this. If India gets the right balance, the neighbouring countries will do well. I saw an article on Asian Tribune regarding China selecting stability of the region instead of instability. Hopefully India would take the same path and try the best to make the region stable instead of unstable. Hopefully PAK will destroy Thaliban and we will have some peace in this region for few more years to come. Nothing like economic development to make regional unrest go away.

JE Menon · Post by **JE Menon** » 19 Jun 2009 21:02

India will never act on base motives such as "revenge".

suryag · Post by **suryag** » 19 Jun 2009 23:07

Gurus over here, was there any move ever to build a land bridge linking dhanushkodi and talaimannar. IMO, this could lead to further integration of SL's economy with the economy of our southern states. It also provides a good exit/entry point for our goods.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 20 Jun 2009 00:25

suryag wrote:Gurus over here, was there any move ever to build a land bridge linking dhanushkodi and talaimannar. IMO, this could lead to further integration of SL's economy with the economy of our southern states. It also provides a good exit/entry point for our goods.

Something like the Florida Keys project? We should promote this as a SAARC initiative.

putnanja · Post by **putnanja** » 20 Jun 2009 01:28

suryag wrote:Gurus over here, was there any move ever to build a land bridge linking dhanushkodi and talaimannar. IMO, this could lead to further integration of SL's economy with the economy of our southern states. It also provides a good exit/entry point for our goods.

I believe SL first proposed something like this, a land bridge with rails for trains too and pipes of petrol etc if I remember right. For some reason, it never found favor with India.

Added some links...

India-Sri Lanka economic talks

...
A major point that came up was the proposed land bridge between India and Sri Lanka (Rameshwaram and Mannar) and it was decided that an Indian team would make a preliminary pre-feasibility study in Tamil Nadu, followed by a feasibility study involving technical and financial implications. Sri Lanka is keen on the feasibility study as it wants this issue to be in the basket of issues that the Sri Lankan Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, will discuss during his Japan visit and with other world leaders in order to arrange funding for it.
...

Land bridge to Lanka to cost $500 million

A bridge too misunderstood

Proposed Bridge Between India And Srilanka

Sridhar · Post by **Sridhar** » 20 Jun 2009 01:36

Sri Lanka first brought up the idea of a bridge when the Sethusamudram project was in its initial stages. It was seen as a response to that project and an attempt to preserve Colombo's primacy as a transshipment hub. However, it was not considered a serious proposal because the LTTE was in control of substantial parts of the territory through which any goods or passenger traffic would flow. Now, with Sri Lanka fully in control of all its territory, and with diminished concerns terrorism, drug trafficking, smuggling etc., it could potentially be revived. It is a relatively easy project, with shallow waters most of the way. Probably easier and less expensive than the Sethusamudram project itself.

putnanja · Post by **putnanja** » 20 Jun 2009 01:43

Sridhar, are you sure this was proposed to scuttle the sethusamudram project( not that I favour sethu samudram)? The proposal was initially mooted around 2001-2002 during the NDA regime. Was that when the sethusamudram project was conceived too? I thought there wasn't any move on the sethusamudram project till around 2005-2006.

Sridhar · Post by **Sridhar** » 20 Jun 2009 02:23

Ravi,

I didn't say that it was proposed to scuttle the Sethusamudram project. It was seen as being a response (not really to scuttle it, but to provide an alternative land-based route so that Colombo would not lose its transshipment advantage). Some of the Sethusamudram fanatics did perceive it as an attempt to scuttle the project, but that was not the view of people in Government or mainstream observers. As it turned out, the Sethusamudram project does not quite take away Colombo's advantage in any case, so that point was moot.

The Sethusamudram project was initiated (or rather re-initiated) during the NDA Government, almost ever since the alliance with the DMK was formed. The first budgetary allocation for the project was made in 2000 and studies initiated that year itself. It was formally launched (or re-launched) by the Government in 2005 with the formation of the Sethu Samudram Corporation. It existed well before the land-bridge project ever came up for discussion.

Kashyap · Post by **Kashyap** » 20 Jun 2009 10:22

Sri Lanka’s economy can bounce back from its weakest growth in six years and become the “Hong Kong of India” as the end of almost three decades of civil war boosts business opportunities, HSBC Private Bank said.

Decades of fighting on the Indian Ocean island shackled its $32 billion economy, which according to figures released yesterday expanded 1.5 percent last quarter from a year earlier as the global recession intensified the slowdown. Ports, retailers, apparel and tea exporters could lead a recovery after the Tamil Tiger rebels were defeated last month.

“The rebound will be spectacular,” said Arjuna Mahendran, the Singapore-based chief investment strategist for Asia at HSBC Private Bank, which oversees $494 billion in assets. “To start with, Sri Lanka’s location gives its port a natural advantage.”

Sri Lanka could benefit from its proximity to India, just as Hong Kong profits from being a trade hub to China. Sri Lanka lies just 31 kilometers (19 miles) south east of India, the world’s second-fastest-growing major economy.

Seventy percent of the volume handled by the Colombo port is trans-shipment of goods imported by India and this could be increased because Indian ports don’t have adequate depth, Mahendran said. Sri Lanka has embarked upon a plan to quadruple capacity at the Colombo port in three years.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam were defeated on May 16, ending their 26-year struggle for a separate homeland in Sri Lanka. The Tigers, who controlled a third of the country at one point, fell swiftly since January as the Sri Lankan military launched an unprecedented offensive to wipe them out.

‘Lot of Potential’

“It’s something you never expected to happen when you have lived most of your life under the specter of war,” said Otara Gunewardene, who runs Odel, Sri Lanka’s biggest department store. “It’s unbelievable. I see things differently now and see a lot of potential for growth.”

Odel plans to sell a stake in the company to overseas investors and spend $20 million to add another 70,000 square feet to its flagship store in Colombo and open new outlets in other cities in the country.

“We fought terrorism and now the economic war has to be fought,” said Malik Fernando, whose family owns Dilmah Tea Co., among the best-known Ceylon tea brands in the world. “For manufacturers, the cost of doing business is very high because infrastructure, like roads and power, was neglected because of the war.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid= ... WBJEg2yGrw

Sri Lanka bourse hits over 10-mo high on bluechips

By Shihar Aneez

COLOMBO, June 19 (Reuters) - Sri Lankan shares gained 2.2 percent on Friday to hit an over 10-month high led by bluechips on post-war enthusiasm, easing borrowing costs and confidence after the end of a 25-year war.

The rupee closed flat with the central bank preventing appreciation by buying dollars at a flat rate.

The Colombo Stock Exchange, measured on the All-Share Price Index rose 52.89 points to 2456.86, its 8th straight rise and the highest close since August 12, 2008. It has risen around 9 percent this week.

The bourse has risen 63.5 percent in 2009 and 28.8 percent since the government declared victory in the war on May 18.

Only China's Shenzhen Stock Exchange has given a higher return than Sri Lankan bourse in 2009 among Asian bourses, according to Reuters data and it is one of the few global share markets to have recovered its losses since September.

The Colombo Exchange has performed roughly twice as well as the global benchmark emerging equities index, which has gained 32 percent this year.

'This is mainly due to expected positive development after the war-end,' said Hussain Gani, associate director at Asia securities. 'There are foreign interest on bluechips.'

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/afx/2009/06 ... 64413.html

Sri Lanka Tourism Looks to Boom After War's End

Hoteliers big and small in Sri Lanka are getting ready to cash in on what they say is the inevitable boom around the corner after last month's end to the nation's bloody quarter-century-old civil conflict. Tourism in this tropical-island nation was one of the industries hit hardest by the war between government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). From the white-sand beaches of Hikkaduwa to the verdant mountains of Kandy, the tourism industry has endured a 25-year-old yo-yo ride with profits fluctuating from year to year with the state of the conflict.

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/ ... 60,00.html

Kashyap · Post by **Kashyap** » 20 Jun 2009 10:24

Restrictions on Colombo-Jaffna air route eased

The Civil Aviation Authority yesterday confirmed that the Defence Ministry had eased restrictions on domestic air routes between Colombo and Jaffna.

Earlier civilian air traffic used a longer route where planes had to fly over the sea instead of over land between Jaffna and Colombo to avoid LTTE controlled areas. This resulted in longer flying time and high costs.

Now with the end of the war flights can fly over land cutting short the flying time, the CAA said.

“Flights have been operating from Palaly to Ratmalana for some time. Instead of the route over the sea, the Defence Ministry informed us on Wednesday that clearance has been given to fly directly over land” CAA Acting Director General and CEO Parakrama Dissanayake said.

“Domestic flights are soon to begin using this route. We hope that domestic carriers transporting civilians will soon begin to use this direct route” Director General Dissanayake said.

“We have been flying the Jaffna Colombo route for about five years now so this is not something new for us. However the removal of the restriction will lead to shorter travel times” Deccan Airways spokesperson Mario Stubbs told the Daily Mirror.

Mr. Stubbs confirmed the new routes would shorten the travel time by about 10 minutes each way resulting in a 16 percent cost saving. “This cost saving could also be passed onto the passengers in the long run” Stubs said.

http://www.dailymirror.lk/DM_BLOG/Secti ... RTID=52352

Sri Lanka gets Chinese finance for bunker facility

June 18, (LBO) – Sri Lanka is getting a 65 million US dollars loan from China's Exim Bank to build an oil storage facility in the Southern coastal town of Hambantota, a senior government minister said.

"The objective of this project is to supply and store marine fuel, aviation fuel and LP gas and provide bunkering services for vessels passing by Sri Lanka," information minister Anura Yapa said.

A bulk storage tank farm with a capacity of 82,000 cubic meters of fuel storage and connecting pipelines would be built, Yapa said.

The facility will come up at a new port being built in Hambantota, also finance by China.

The Exim Bank of China is already financing a large proportion of a coal fired plant in Sri Lanka's Western coast, north of Sri Lanka's capital Colombo.

The Hambanthota port located at the southern tip of Sri Lanka bordering one of the busiest international shipping lanes.

Bunkering, or ship oil services are already offered from Colombo by several companies. In the Eastern port city of Trincomalee, Lanka IOC, a unit of Indian Oil Corporation sells bunkers.

http://www.lankabusinessonline.com/full ... 1833384611

War-Risk Charge On Sri Lanka Airspace Removed - Officials

COLOMBO (AFP)--U.K. insurance underwriters have removed a war-risk surcharge on Sri Lanka's airspace after the island ended nearly four decades of ethnic conflict, an official said Friday.

The London-based Joint Cargo Committee also lowered its risk status from " severe" to "high," said Lasinee Serasinhe, the director general of the Insurance Board of Sri Lanka.

"We were informed of the decision. However, the war risk premium for (sea) ports remain unchanged" and at the highest risk level, she said.

Tamil Tigers carried out air attacks using light aircraft between March 2007 and February 2009 before they were completely routed by ground troops in May.

Two of the Tiger Zlin-143 aircraft crashed while attacking targets in Colombo in February this year, while troops also recovered a dismantled Zlin in May from an area previously held by the rebels.

Rebels have in the past targeted Sri Lanka's sea ports and the sole international airport, prompting foreign underwriters to increase premiums.

In mid-May, Sri Lankan troops wiped out the Tamil Tiger leadership and claimed victory in the decades-old separatist conflict which, according to the U.N., has claimed up to 100,000 lives.

http://www.nasdaq.com/aspx/stock-market ... -officials

Kashyap · Post by **Kashyap** » 20 Jun 2009 11:18

Fishing restrictions lifted

By Sunil Jayasiri

With normalcy returning to the North and East after years of conflict, the government yesterday lifted fishing restrictions placed on fishermen venturing out to sea from areas that fell within the northern coast between Mannar and Mullaitivu, the Information Department said yesterday.

“With this latest move on the instructions of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, the government has now removed all fishing restrictions from the entire country,” Information Chief Anusha Pelpita told the Daily Mirror. “Senior presidential adviser Basil Rajapaksa made the announcement on the removal of the fishing restrictions,” Mr. Pelpita said adding that on Monday, the government lifted fishing restrictions in seas off the eastern coast, introduced to prevent LTTE Sea-Tiger operations.

Navy spokesman D.K.P. Dassanayake said a security assessment was carried out before the Defence Ministry instructed the navy to ease the ban on fishing in the northern seas.

“Now the fishermen can revert back to their source of employment – fishing 24 hours of the day and 365 days of the year without any restrictions,” Captain Dassanayake said.

http://www.dailymirror.lk/DM_BLOG/Secti ... RTID=52436

Shirish · Post by **Shirish** » 20 Jun 2009 12:54

that AN 124 was carrying arms from Pak to SL, thats got GOI 'upset'. More fun in da sun

RayC · Post by **RayC** » 20 Jun 2009 23:33

Shirish wrote:that AN 124 was carrying arms from Pak to SL, thats got GOI 'upset'. More fun in da sun

Could you give details if you are talking of the plane that was detained in Mumbai.

If it took off from Diego Gracia, why should it fly over India?

BajKhedawal · Post by **BajKhedawal** » 20 Jun 2009 23:36

This Agreement between the GOI and Sri Lankan government on the water boundary was signed in year 1974. It was signed by Indira Gandhi and Sirimavo Bandaranaike. After signing the agreement, Indira Gandhi said, "Kacchativu was sheer rock of no strategic importance."

It’s coming to bite us in the musharaff now isn’t it? Just look at the physical location of the 275 acre island and decide for yourself, whether it was a self goal or not? (it’s the one that’s encircled, right next to Rameaswaram)

When your nation is surrounded by enemies, how can you keep donating Indian territories willy-nilly?

shravan · Post by **shravan** » 21 Jun 2009 00:46

Lanka praises Israel's support in its battle against terrorism
http://www.zeenews.com/news540818.html

Colombo, June 20: Sri Lanka has praised Israel's "consistent support" in its three-decade long battle against terrorism and underlined the need to boost bilateral ties.

Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama, during a meeting with Ruth Kahanoff, the Deputy Director General of Foreign Ministry of Israel, thanked Jerusalem for its consistent support to Sri Lanka "towards eradicating terrorism" in the country, a Foreign Ministry release said.

Bogollagama said the two countries should work together to further strengthen the good relations that exist between the two countries for their mutual benefit.

Kahanoff, who was here on a two-day visit that ended yesterday, had called on the Foreign minister, Foreign Secretary and other officials during her stay.

Israel, provided kfir fighter jets and the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) that played a major role in the battle against the LTTE.

The two sides also discussed regional and international issues of interest to both sides.

Deputy Director General Kahanoff called for further expansion of bilateral cooperation that is beneficial to both countries, the release said.

Israel, meanwhile, has provided medical supplies for the displaced Tamil civilians put up in various welfare camps in Vavuniya and other places.

"The visiting Israeli Official donated a consignment of medical supplies as a gesture of goodwill, for the use of IDPs in the Wanni," the Foreign Ministry release said.

Kohona, recalled the "excellent" cooperation extended to the government of Sri Lanka by Israel in the areas of defence, agricultural development, water management, health, labour, tourism, culture and sports.

"There would be greater focus on new areas where there was potential, which were identified for greater cooperation, especially in the areas of agriculture and tourism," the release said.

Bureau Report

Stan_Savljevic · Post by **Stan_Savljevic** » 22 Jun 2009 07:18

Prescience of someone

here confirmed....
Sri Lanka may extend president's term: Report
http://www.hinduonnet.com/holnus/003200906220322.htm

kit · Post by **kit** » 22 Jun 2009 08:06

X posting

http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htterr ... 90619.aspx

Not a very good source but this caught my eye

The Chinese military has formidable counterinsurgency experience and recently trained the Sri Lankan army, before that nation’s final confrontation with Tamil rebels.

Can anyone post some material regarding chinese involvement in Sri lanka.If true this will have serious undercurrents against Indian politic despite Rajpakse s seeming bonhomie .

thusitha · Post by **thusitha** » 22 Jun 2009 11:37

Stan_Savljevic
Prescience of someone here confirmed....
Sri Lanka may extend president's term: Report
http://www.hinduonnet.com/holnus/003200906220322.htm

Not so according to this.

http://www.hindu.com/2009/06/22/stories ... 821300.htm

Anyway, him winning the next presidency is a forgone conclusion (Unless MR made a major screw up prior to the election). Having a presidential election is just a waste of money and time.

thusitha · Post by **thusitha** » 22 Jun 2009 11:44

kit
X posting

http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htterr ... 90619.aspx

Not a very good source but this caught my eye

The Chinese military has formidable counterinsurgency experience and recently trained the Sri Lankan army, before that nation’s final confrontation with Tamil rebels.

Can anyone post some material regarding chinese involvement in Sri lanka.If true this will have serious undercurrents against Indian politic despite Rajpakse s seeming bonhomie .

It is very unlikely people can train Sri Lankan army for counter insurgency after 25+ years of experience in it. Most probably they would have given us support on intelligence, training of equipment e.t.c. But then again PAK, U.S and Israel gave us support as well. Hardly a threat to India.
I am not sure why Indian are worried about Sri Lankan (Sinhalese). I think apart from Patriotic Indians, we are the most friendly towards India as we believe we have very strong ties with India (as opposed to Indians who fight for separation)

chetak · Post by **chetak** » 23 Jun 2009 01:36

thusitha wrote:
kit
X posting

http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htterr ... 90619.aspx

Not a very good source but this caught my eye

The Chinese military has formidable counterinsurgency experience and recently trained the Sri Lankan army, before that nation’s final confrontation with Tamil rebels.

Can anyone post some material regarding chinese involvement in Sri lanka.If true this will have serious undercurrents against Indian politic despite Rajpakse s seeming bonhomie .
It is very unlikely people can train Sri Lankan army for counter insurgency after 25+ years of experience in it. Most probably they would have given us support on intelligence, training of equipment e.t.c. But then again PAK, U.S and Israel gave us support as well. Hardly a threat to India.
I am not sure why Indian are worried about Sri Lankan (Sinhalese). I think apart from Patriotic Indians, we are the most friendly towards India as we believe we have very strong ties with India (as opposed to Indians who fight for separation)

We worry because the sinhalese are the cause of the tamil problem in srilanka. You are friendly towards India because that is where your major self interest lies. We supported you against the ltte.
Lets see the taste of your pudding now that the ltte are gone.

We hear enough "altruistic" reasons from our other neighbors to be taken in by any more of the same.

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 23 Jun 2009 02:49

Still, I've never heard of Bangladeshi Hindus attacking Indian Army or assassinating Indian Prime Ministers. India has let down the Tibetans even more than Lankan Tamils, and yet I've never heard of any Tibetans attacking Indian Army or assassinating Indian leaders.

If someone is attacking our army and assassinating our leaders, then I'd see them as a prime enemy, and not some wayward victims of circumstance to feel pity for.

Likewise, what if there were no Sinhalese on Sri Lanka -- would Lankan Tamils be friendly to India, or would they be trying to pry Tamil Nadu away? I don't like how Eelamists quickly resort to venom against non-Tamil Indians at the drop of a hat. That tells me where their true inclinations lie.

SwamyG · Post by **SwamyG** » 23 Jun 2009 02:59

thusitha wrote: But then again PAK, U.S and Israel gave us support as well. Hardly a threat to India.
I am not sure why Indian are worried about Sri Lankan (Sinhalese).

1 of the countries in your above list has been constantly biting us; another country in that list has been helping it bite ever since. And you take support from those too; and you expect us to not feel threatened

thusitha · Post by **thusitha** » 23 Jun 2009 07:04

SwamyG

1 of the countries in your above list has been constantly biting us; another country in that list has been helping it bite ever since. And you take support from those too; and you expect us to not feel threatened

Yeah, we have done so to get the arms we need to fight against Terrorism.
In the JRJ era we aligned with U.S. Now we aligned with China. In both cases India feels threatened. Can we ever aligned with any body so that our country can get developed or are we suppose to everything according to the wishes of India? I mean think about it, how can we ever be a threat to India? We do not have any military power to attack India. Only thing that would cause problems to India is if we create some kind of Naval base in SL for China. But long before that India would have attacked SL, I believe.

Also it is a good thing, because the centre has an excuse to Support Sri Lanka against the wishes of TN (Stating that India needs to help SL so that it would not align with China, Russia e.t.c is good for India.)

SwamyG · Post by **SwamyG** » 23 Jun 2009 07:10

Say, you and me are neighbors; and I invite all people who trouble you routinely to my house. Are you telling me you will not be perturbed or not concerned for the safety of your family? It was amusing to see your list of countries before the sentence "Hardly a threat to India."

I don't expect SL to act as per the wishes of India; but at the same time I expect India to be watchful who SL befriends.

thusitha · Post by **thusitha** » 23 Jun 2009 07:38

SwamyG
Say, you and me are neighbors; and I invite all people who trouble you routinely to my house. Are you telling me you will not be perturbed or not concerned for the safety of your family? It was amusing to see your list of countries before the sentence "Hardly a threat to India."

Doesn't this happen in families all the time. Some one you think as an enemy might be a friend of that persons brother. If you understand each other enough you should be able to live with that. I have no problem with that as long as we understand each other well.

And any way in the history of SL we have never been an existential threat to India. But you have been. So who should be watching who is the question.

vina · Post by **vina** » 23 Jun 2009 13:32

thusitha wrote:And any way in the history of SL we have never been an existential threat to India. But you have been. So who should be watching who is the question.

Get your history right. India never existed EVER in it's current form as a country before August 15, 1947. So all this talk about "existential threat" and that too "throughout history" is so much bunk.

SwamyG · Post by **SwamyG** » 23 Jun 2009 22:29

And any way in the history of SL we have never been an existential threat to India. But you have been. So who should be watching who is the question.

If you want to go by history, there has been no "Srilanka" or "India" as we know it until 20th century. We had kingdoms, infact tamil kingdoms existed in the island. And kings routinely fought each other or made treaties and helped each other in terms of war (and probably peace).

Philip · Post by **Philip** » 24 Jun 2009 05:09

SL Northern Tamils have only themselves to blame forn the dreadful 25 years of horror by supporting their fuhrer Prabhakaran,an evil monster responsible for decimating an entire generation of Tamil youth, among tens of thousands of others ,for the sake of his megalomania.It is astonishing that a highly intelligent community,the JTs,succumbed to this dictatorship.The diaspora should now look to winning across the table and using the ballot instead of the bullet what they could not achieve through the bullet.I forsee a spilt in the diaspora,with the criminal elelement who cannot give up their ill-gotten gains through crime and those who want to achieve their goal of autonomy through democrartic means.For all practical purposes,Eelam is as dead as the dodo and the diaspora can plot and plan from their European bases,as did Russian emigre counter-revolutionaries in the early part of the last century with the same amount of success!

Sridhar · Post by **Sridhar** » 25 Jun 2009 03:05

The official Sri Lankan story on the last battle:

http://www.defence.lk/new.asp?fname=20090621LastBattleN

It has some pictures of the place where Prabhakaran was killed as well as an animation showing the events of the last 3 days, overlaid on a map of the Mullaitivu area.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 25 Jun 2009 03:27

The hardline SL Tamils lost it when they attacked IPKF and killed RG. It was only the DMK crooks who supported them. And once MK was on the wane and interested only in his progeny retaining power the case was lost.

The odd thing is both Bhindrenwala in Punjab and Prabhkaran of LTTE both bit the hand(India) that could save them under other's guidance.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 27 Jun 2009 00:45

X-posted...

When Pigs Fly–and Scold: Brits Lecturing Sri Lanka!
By Gary Brecher

Key fact: in Sri Lanka heroes were allowed to get fat, another reason to like the place.

You see some pretty sick stuff when you do my job, but I just read something sicker than any Congo cannibal buffet. It’s an article by a posh little limey named Jeremey Brown condemning the Sri Lankan government for being too messy in putting down the LTTE, and demanding that we stop buying the cheap textiles the poor Sinhalese make their living churning out.

What’s sick about this is that the British establishment destroyed the Sinhalese people completely. Completely and purposely, sadistically. Stole their land, humiliated and massacred their government, made it Imperial policy to erase every shred of self-respect the Sinhalese had left. You can talk about the Nazis all day long, but for my money nothing they did was as gross as what you find out when you actually look into the history of British-Sinhalese relations. If you can even call them “relations”; I guess a murder-rape is a relation, sort of.

But nobody knows about it. Weird, huh? Nothing weirds me out more than the total news blackout the Brits have managed to put on all the sick sh1t they did to brown and black people all over the world. They had a system, and it worked. They’d grab some paradise island in the tropics, use the Royal Navy to wall it off from the rest of the world, and crush the local tribe. If the locals resisted, the Brits would starve them to death, shoot them down, infect them with smallpox or get them addicted to opium–whatever they had to do to gang-rape the locals so bad that they’d lose the will to resist.

And to this day, they don’t catch even a little bit of Hell for it. Everybody thinks the Brits are all cute and harmless. You’re all a bunch of suckers for those suave accents, you suckers! The truth is that compared to the Brits, the Nazis you’re always yammering about were a gang of eighth-grade stoners who ran around spraypainting swastikas on school property. The Nazis lasted one decade; the Brits quietly ran their extermination programs for three hundred years, and to this day they wouldn’t even think of feeling guilty about it. Wouldn’t cross their minds.

That’s what made me want to puke battery acid when I read Mister Jeremy Brown’s sermon on the naughty Sinhalese: this pig Brown has no clue about why Sri Lanka is so fu*ked up, no hint at all that it’s the result of British Imperial policy. Not “mistakes” or “a few bad apples” or “regrettable excesses” but clear, cold, ruthless British policy.

One of the funniest bits in Brown’s little Anglican sermon to the Sinhalese is when he mentions Arthur C. Clarke, the Brit sci-fi writer who moved to Sri Lanka. The reason that’s funny is that a few years back, when he was too senile and drunk to watch his tongue, Clarke admitted in an interview that the whole reason he moved to Sri Lanka is “for the boys.” As in, he liked to rape little boys, and they were cheap and pretty in the dear old ex-colony. The fu*king Brits wouldn’t stop raping the Sinhalese even after their troops were forced off the island.

Jeremy Brown wouldn’t know that, of course. To him, Clarke is a wonderful example of all the wonderful things British people have done for po’ little Sri Lanka:

“Britain has…helped to rebuild Sri Lanka’s tourist industry: Britons accounted for 18.5 per cent of the foreigners who visited the former colony’s famous beaches, wildlife parks, tea plantations and Buddhist temples last year. Only India sends more tourists. Many Britons also own property there, especially around the southern city of Galle, not far from where Arthur C.Clarke, the British science fiction writer who settled in Sri Lanka, used to love to scuba dive. [Is that what they’re callin’ it these days? GB]

So the question facing British shoppers and holidaymakers is this: should they continue to support Sri Lanka’s garment and tourist industries?

Don’t you love that last sentence: “Sadly, the answer must be no.” Anybody who can write a sentence like that without blowing his brains out at the monitor is a hopeless twit anyway, but let’s help Jeremy out a little bit, folks, let’s go back in time and take a quick look at all the wonderful things the Brits did for these rotten, ungrateful Sinhalese.

The pattern you see in the colonizing of Sri Lanka is a real familiar one, if you study the European naval empires: the Portugese, the greatest sailors and explorers, came to Sri Lanka long before the Brits, claimed the place, but couldn’t hold on to it. The Portugese lost the island to the Dutch, those up’n’coming Protestant go-getters, in the mid-1600s. That’s another pattern you see everywhere, the old Papist powers losing out to the Protestants, who were just faster and smarter.

The next stage was also totally by the book: the Brits, the canopy tree if you know what I mean, come along and force the Dutch out. There were times the Brits sort of liked the Dutch; they were Protestant, at least, and blonde/blue-eyed. But business was business, and the Brits realized, by the end of the 1700s, that Sri Lanka was worth taking. Of course they didn’t say that in public; the official reason was that they had to boot the Dutch to guard the island from the nasty radical Frenchies.

That way of stealing islands, making it sound like you had to take them for the greater good–that was classic Brit strategy. They always made it look like they were forced, against their will, to grab this or that colony. I dunno if y’all ever saw a movie called Erik the Viking, but it has a great scene with John Cleese playing this insane bloodthirsty warlord who orders people tortured to death in this tired, disappointed upper-class voice, and then whines, “It’s the stress that gets you”–all put upon and harrassed, like Attila the Hun meets The Office. That’s a perfect image for the way the Brits booted the Dutch out of Ceylon, tsk-tsking while they stole every shed, cannon and bale of tea on the island.

With the Dutch trade rivals gone, the Brits had only one problem left: the damned natives, the Sinhala, or “Kandyans” as they were called back then. That dumb name, “Kandyans,” came from the fact that their main city was Kandy, up in the highlands in the south of the island, the fat part of the teardrop. The Sinhala lived in the highlands for the simple reason that it was a little cooler, not as totally malarial, up there compared to the stinking coastal marshes.

By all accounts, the Sinhala/Kandyans were harmless slackers, who didn’t need or want much from the outside world. All they asked was for people to leave them alone up on their big rocky highlands to do their Buddhist thing. Unfortunately that wasn’t British policy. It irked the redcoats that Kandy still had a king, an army, all this impudent baggage that went with independence. The British decided to break the Sinhalese completely, crush the whole society.

You have to remember that by this time, the early 1800s, the Brits have perfected their techniques in little experiments all over the world. Those Clockwork Orange shrinks were amateurs compared to the Imperial Civil Service. They had dozens of ways of undermining native kingdoms.

British administrators were trained to do a kind of rough, quick sociological sketch of the natives, get a sense of the fault lines and then figure out how to exploit them. The Brits saw fast that the Kandyans were a sluggish bunch of people divided into rigid castes in the classic subcontinent pattern. That made it easy: the Brits made two big castes their official pets and shunned the others, setting up a violent hate between different parts of Sinhalese society. That guaranteed that if the diehard Sinhalese/Kandyan nationalists ever revolted, the teacher’s-pet castes would have a good selfish reason to help massacre them.

Then there was the Kandyan king himself. The Brits weren’t dumb in the way Paul Bremer was dumb, “de-Baathifying” Iraq. They loved corrupt local rulers. Much easier and cheaper to bribe one fat old degenerate on a throne than negotiate with all the commoners. So the Brits started playing with the nervous, dumb-ass Kandyan royals, scaring them with the threat of losing everything and then teasing them with the possibility of the safe, soft life of a Brit puppet.

This was the major leagues of Colonialism. To give you an idea of how important Ceylon/Sri Lanka was back then, try this on: in 1802, when French armies were kicking British and Prussian and Italian and Russian ass all over Europe (weird how nobody remembers that, huh?), the Brits were so terrified they tried to give Napoleon all their colonies except Sri Lanka and Trinidad. Those were the two they needed to keep.

And this is where another standard Brit policy came into play–a real smart one that we ought to be imitating: use native auxiliaries, not homeland troops, as much as possible. For all kinds of reasons, but here are the main ones:

1. If you bring in troops from some remote part of the Empire to do your dirty work, it’s those troops, those faces and accents, the locals will remember, and hate, for generations. So you, the sly little pink Brit administrator, can stroll in later and commiserate with the locals as they show you around their burned huts, bayoneted kids, etc., and even say with a straight face, “Oh my, those auxiliaries from wherever, what ruddy heathens, eh? Outrageous, I shall certainly let Whitehall know about these abuses!” Then, of course, you get in your sedan chair, close the curtains and chuckle all the way home to where your little bum-boy is waiting.

2. Nobody back in London counts casualties as long as it’s Malay mercs dying. You can lose a lot of them–and a lot of Malays did die fighting the Sinhala, especially in the total rout of a malaria-sapped Brit/Malay force at the Mahaveli River in 1803–but nobody is going to make a fuss in the Times of London (Mister Jeremy Brown’s paper, as you may recall). If you’re lucky they’ll pop off before payday and you can keep their payroll for that estate in Shropshire.

3. Dropping hot-blooded feisty Malay muslims with guns far from home and making them fight Sinhalese bleeds Malay society as well as Sinhalese. Left in peace, Malays could be trouble–a proud, warlike people. So by sending them to die in Sri Lanka, you’re diverting all that young, angry Malay blood away from SE Asia and using it to bleed Kandy (bleed Kandy–I like that!). Two birds, one bloodsoaked stone.

You see why I get impatient with you gullible suckers yammering about the fu*king Nazis? The Nazis were retards, a white-trash tantrum, an eighth-grade chem-class pipe bomb, a quick-fizzle flash in the pan, compared to the Brits, the scariest motherfu*kers ever to butt-f*(k the planet.

The mercenaries the Brits sent to crush the Kandyans were Malays, muslims from SE Asia who didn’t need a lot of pep talks to slaughter South Asian Buddhists (and steal their chickens). That was life for the Brits back then, at the top of their game: picking up pieces from one part of the world and dropping them where they’d do the most harm, half the world away. “Ah yes, let’s ferry some Malay mercs to Kandy, that should give the bloody idol-worshippers something to think about!”

Destroying Buddhism was a big part of Brit policy. The Buddhist routine, the temples, begging monks, long boring prayers–it was the glue that kept Kandy together. So the Brits decided to destroy it. They even said so, in private memos to each other. They weren’t shy in them days. Here’s the Brit governor in 1807: “Reliance on Buddhism must be destroyed. Make sure all [village] chiefs are Christian.”

Up to 1818, the Brits had a blast messing with doomed Sinhala rebellions, trying out CI recipes like Frankenstein guesting on Rachael Ray. A good time was had by all, except the Sinhalese. They had a very, very bad time, and it was about to get worse.

See, another constant you’ll find in Brit imperial policy is that although they’re very sly and patient, they have a very good sense of when to cut the crap and just wipe out a tribe that’s been annoying them for too long. They were getting sick of the Sinhalese, with all their bickering and intrigues; the redcoats just weren’t enjoying the Col. Kurtz game the way they used to. So boom: the “kill’em all” era begins.

But they did it smart, not like the idiot boastful Nazis y’all love to obsess on. I bet every one on the planet can name the Nazi death camps, but I’d be surprised if more than, say, a half dozen people outside Sri Lanka can name the policy the Brits used to destroy the Sinhala for good.

Anybody? Didn’t think so. See, here’s another little tip for up’n’coming genocidaires out there: always pick the most boring name possible. Those fu*king Nazis, with their heavy-metal jewelry and titles! Dopes! You want extermination programs with names that put everybody to sleep.

And that’s why in 1818 Britain brought “the wasteland policy” to Kandy. They could have called it what that Liberian wacko called his campaign: “Operation No Living Thing.” That’s what it meant: Brit-led troops “draining the sea” the Sinhala irregulars swam in by burning every hut, every field, and killing every animal in every village they suspected of harboring “rebels.”

Hey, that’s another key Brit CI techniques: that word “rebels.” Blows me away: how can a Sinhalese in Sri Lanka, fighting for the country his people have owned for a hundred generations, be a “rebel”? And the pipsqueak redcoat officer hunting him down, who was born and raised in fu*king London–he’s not the “rebel,” he’s the forces of law and order, the rightful authorities. Quite a racket if you have the sheer, sociopathic nerve to say it with a straight face. (I’m talking to you, Mister Jeremy Brown!)

What does “rebel” mean, anyway? I’ve noticed that in English press it’s a bad word. Here it’s different, because we were the rebels in 1775 and proud of it. But see, people who know the American revolution think that the Brit policy against the Yankees, where (give or take a Banastre Tarlteton or two), the redcoats tried to avoid killing civvies, was normal Imperial policy.

Bullshit. The reason the Brits let us go, didn’t try scorched-earth on us, was that we WERE Brits, as far as they could tell: white protestant English-speaking humans. If you weren’t all of the above, you weren’t human. The only other war where English troops had the same restraint was–take a guess. Right: the English Civil War. In England, they fought clean. But when Cromwell marched up to subdue the Scots, who were Protestant (good) but non-English (bad), a lot of POWs never made it back to the holding pens, and a lot of crofts were torched, and a lot of girls were raped. When he moved from Scotland to Ireland, where the filthy locals were filthy Papist as well as non-English, well, you don’t want to know what happened there.

So in places like Sri Lanka, full of brown heathens, Brit policy had nothing to do with fu*king Yorktown. More like Dresden, only lower-tech.

The “Wasteland” policy was smart and mean at the same time–another sure mark of the Brit Imperial Touch. It was designed to deny the “rebels” support in the short term, but in the long term it was pure punishment, taking away the land, livestock and other assets of all the Sinhalese who were even suspected of being “rebel”-lovers.

And it worked. To this day, 200 years later, the Sinhalese castes who backed the rebels are dirt poor, and worse: they’re hated by everybody around them and they even hate themselves. And nobody even remembers who did it to them, poor lab rats. They think it’s their own fault, that there’s something wrong with them.

There’s more, and worse, but to tell the truth, this is making me sick. I’ve tried to tell this story a dozen times and nobody wants to know. You just end up vomiting battery acid all night, and pigs like Mister Jeremy Brown of the Times of London never lose one second of sleep over all those bodies, and all those lies and sheer nastiness. What’s the use? I’ll just fastforward through a couple of highlight shots. Take reprisals. You know, like those bad ol’ Nazis used to do after a “rebel” attack? The Brits were there way before the Nazis. They took revenge for a half-assed Kandyan revolt by killing one out of every hundred Sinhalese. Like, at random. To keep it fair, you know, not play favorites.

And then the nastiest CI weapon of all, the demographic bomb. This was a Brit specialty all over the world (see Fiji for a weirdly similar case). The Brits ran India, so they had total control over millions of obedient Tamil peasants who were starving, desperate, and ready to go anywhere, just pile into the hold of a ship and get out to cut cane or plant rice in some place that may as well have been on the Moon for all they knew.

So along with the massacre/reprisals, the Brits came up with one of their classic two-birds-one-stone plans: to neutralize the Sinhalese, let’s import huge hordes of Tamils from India! They’re cheap and docile and they’ll give the Sinhala something to keep them busy even after we have to leave the island, haw! And meanwhile they’ll drive the price of labor down even further! Brilliant, chaps, absolutely brilliant!

And they did it. Worked so well it’s still working today. And when they were done totally destroying the poor Sinhalese, the Brits did what they do best, better than any other murder gang on the planet: they took that amnesia zapper from Men in Black and zapped everyone in Sri Lanka, then turned it on themselves and were suddenly so innocent, so damn virtuous and clean, that a pig like Mister Jeremy Brown can actually sit down at a computer and boast about all the wonderful times England has raped Sri Lanka, from olden times right down to Arthur C. Clarke buggering every little boy on the island. Heckuva job, Brownie! Satan himself is shaking his head, muttering, “Gotta give it to the fu*kin’ limeys, damn it….they got no shame at all, ya gotta admire that. Damn, even I wouldn’t have had the gall to talk like that Jeremy Brown. I’m putting him down for CEO of the Hell Propagandastaffel the minute his liver packs up and he lands down here.”

OK, done. Now you can all pass around that amnesia gun.

http://exiledonline.com/when-pigs-fly-a ... sri-lanka/

It applies 100 percent to India too.

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 27 Jun 2009 07:29

The country that gave rise to Cromwell is lecturing the Singhalese on how to treat other ethnic groups. Hah, what a laugh.

Philip · Post by **Philip** » 29 Jun 2009 22:53

Great post on the art of running a colony and impovershing the natives!

Kashyap · Post by **Kashyap** » 01 Jul 2009 18:55

Minister of Enterprise Development and Investment Promotion, Anura Priyadharshana Yapa and President, Huichen Investment (Holdings) (Pvt) Ltd., Wang Yu Ping exchange the agreements of the dedicated Chinese Special Economic Zone (SEZ) at Mirigama

Sri Lanka creates economic zone for Chinese investors

June 30, 2009 (LBO) - Sri Lanka's investment promotion agency, the Board of Investment, said it signed a deal with China's Huichen Investment to manage a special economic zone dedicated to Chinese investors.

http://www.lankabusinessonline.com/full ... 2020773369

Sri Lanka-China pact on power project

B. Muralidhar Reddy

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka and China on Monday signed an agreement on the second and third stages of the $891-million Norochcholai Coal Power 600 MW Project. Meanwhile, local media reported that the Jathika Hela Urmaya (JHU), a constituent of the ruling combine, had threatened to withdraw from the government if it implemented the 13th Amendment and gave police powers to provinces.

http://www.hindu.com/2009/06/30/stories ... 721500.htm

New PE Firm Says Sri Lanka Is Cinderella Story Of Asia

By Shasha Dai

Private equity investors wax poetic about Asia, but for the most part, by Asia, they mean established economies like Japan, or up-and-comers like China or India. Sri Lanka tends to be an area that gets a lot less focus, but one firm, Singapore-based Calamander Capital Ltd., hopes to change that. Calamander, headed by Chairman Roman Scott, is looking to raise $150 million to invest in the South Asian island nation. We caught up with Scott to ask him why.

http://blogs.wsj.com/privateequity/2009 ... y-of-asia/

Sri Lanka revises up '09 economic growth target

Wed Jul 1, 2009 6:13pm IST

By Shihar Aneez

COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lanka on Wednesday revised up its 2009 economic growth forecast owing to optimism following the end of a 25-year separatist war, the central bank governor said.

"We have revised the growth target to 3.5-4.5 percent from 2.5 predicted earlier, due to optimism in the economy after the end of the war," Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal told an economic summit.

Sri Lanka earlier had forecast growth to hit a minimum of 2.5 percent due to global recession and the lag effect of an inflation-fighting tight monetary policy, down from 6.0 percent in 2008.

Nandalal Weerasinghe, the chief economist at the central bank, said the growth will be broad-based and be given a boost by expected reconstruction in areas formerly controlled by the Tamil Tigers separatists until their defeat in May.

"Once the reconstruction phase in the northern province starts, there will be new openings in fishing, construction, telecommunication, banking, transport, and agriculture," Weerasinghe said.

Prakriti Sofat, a HSBC economist based in Singapore, said this week in a presentation to local investors that Sri Lanka should achieve 4 percent growth this year.

The island nation's economy in the first quarter of 2009 grew 1.5 percent from a year earlier, its lowest pace since 2003 and slower than the 4.3 percent growth in the fourth quarter of 2008.

The $40 billion economy's growth has not fallen below 5.4 percent since 2003.

http://in.reuters.com/article/southAsia ... 1220090701

Kashyap · Post by **Kashyap** » 01 Jul 2009 19:17

Perfect harmony - A musical journey

Two groups of young people from India and Sri Lanka presented an evening of musical melodies, titled “Perfect Harmony - A musical journey”, in the stately Forbidden City Concert Hall in Zhongshan Park on June 27.

The concert was brought to the people of the capital city by the Embassies of India and of Sri Lanka.

Shillong Chamber Choir of India and Soul Sounds of Sri Lanka are two internationally famous choirs. Their repertoire included contemporary and operatic music ranging from western classics to traditional and folklore songs.

Each of them comprises around 20 talented performers including singers and backup artists. They used to perform in Switzerland, UK, Poland and Austria. Their performances have also included a personal invitation to perform for the former president of India.

An exhibition of Indian and Sri Lankan Heritage Sites coincided with the concert which highlighted the rich cultural heritage of these two South Asian countries. The India Tourism Office, Beijing and the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau put together this rare show with the kind cooperation of the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC).

http://english.people.com.cn/90001/9078 ... 90005.html

The Indian Ambassador to China Ms. Nirupama Rao, the vice chairman of CPAFFC Mr. Feng Zuoku and the Sri Lanka Ambassador to China Mr. Karunatilaka Amunugama on opening ceremony of the concert. (Global Times Photo)

The Ambassadors of the two countries and the members of the choirs posted for pictures. (Global Times Photo)

putnanja · Post by **putnanja** » 02 Jul 2009 03:24

Karuna concedes Eelam not possible

Chennai, July 1: M. Karunanidhi today said an independent Tamil Eelam (homeland) was no longer achievable in Sri Lanka, marking a major shift in the DMK’s stand on the demand following the LTTE’s defeat.

“We can now only fight for equal rights and autonomy for Tamils there,” the chief minister said during a special discussion in the Assembly on Lankan Tamils.
...

Kashyap · Post by **Kashyap** » 02 Jul 2009 18:00

Sri Lankan opposition parties join gov't reconciliation agenda

COLOMBO, July 2 (Xinhua) -- All major opposition parties in Sri Lanka have heeded a government call to join its development and reconciliation effort in view of the end of the island's long drawn-out civil war, government and party officials said Thursday.

The parties attended the All Party Committee for Development and Reconciliation chaired by President Mahinda Rajapakse Thursday morning.

The committee was convened by Rajapakse to discuss national reconciliation after the end of the military campaign against Tamil Tiger rebels, who had been fighting for an independent Tamil homeland in the north and east for more than two decades before being defeated in May.

Priorities on development and post rebel politics were to be discussed at the forum.

"Although we have not been told of any objectives of the meeting we will attend it because it deals with the development of the country," said Tissa Attanayake, the general secretary of the main opposition United National Party (UNP).

"We were given less than 24 hours notice. But it is a national issue," said Tilwin Silva, the general secretary of the third largest party JVP or the People's Liberation Front.

Both the UNP and JVP had stayed away from Rajapakse's all party conference convened with the objective of achieving southern political party consensus on the ethnic problem involving the Tamil minority.

The main Tamil party the Tamil National Alliance and the main Muslim party the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress also attended Thursday's meeting.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009- ... 641456.htm

Sri Lanka foreign reserves rise 23 pct to $1.6 bln

By Shihar Aneez

COLOMBO, July 2 (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's foreign currency reserves have risen by over 23 percent in two months as funds flowed into the country after the end of its long war against the Tamil Tigers, the central bank governor said on Thursday.

Sri Lanka in March sought a $1.9 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan to avert a balance of payments crisis, after spending half its reserves defending the rupee and paying foreign investors who sold off treasury securities after the global downturn.

http://www.lse.co.uk/macroeconomicNews. ... _to_16_bln

Sri Lanka to hold presidential elections in November

Thu, Jul 2, 2009, 12:12 pm SL Time, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.

July 02, Colombo: Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa is to seek reelection in November, once the four years of his term is completed, a source close to the President said.

According to high level sources in the ruling party, plans are being made to hold the Presidential elections this year and the general election early next year to capitalize on the immense popularity that the President enjoys now due to his solid leadership in defeating the terrorism.

A re-election bid after completing 4 years of his term is in line with Sri Lanka's Constitution. According to the Constitution the President, at any time after the expiration of four years from the commencement of his first term of office, can declare his intention of a reelection, for another term.

President Rajapaksa will be completing 4 years of his presidency on November 19. He was elected as the fifth executive President of the country in 2005 for a six-year term that is to end in 2011.

Recently momentum was gathering for a move to extend President's term without an election. However the President has rejected the move saying that he has no intention to be in power beyond his term without seeking re-election following the democratic norms.

http://www.colombopage.com/archive_091/ ... 945CH.html