Sri Lanka - News and Discussion- Post PM appointment crisis

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Tuan
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Re: Sri Lanka - News and Discussion- Post PM appointment crisis

Post by Tuan »

Sri Lanka: Journalists fear a new media crackdown
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/12/ ... 42987.html
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Re: Sri Lanka - News and Discussion- Post PM appointment crisis

Post by chetak »

for those dravidians in parliament, slyly asking why SL tamils were not included in the CAB

Nagarajan K S @ksnagarajan

Leave current CAB. Even in 2004-2009, the period i am aware of.. during both ADMK & DMK govts, if any Srilankan Tamil applies for Citizenship, Q-branch will visit him & threaten to take the application back. Our govts irrespective of who rule never accept them as it's citizens.

10:10 PM - 14 Dec 2019
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Re: Sri Lanka - News and Discussion- Post PM appointment crisis

Post by Tuan »

chetak wrote:for those dravidians in parliament, slyly asking why SL tamils were not included in the CAB

Nagarajan K S @ksnagarajan

Leave current CAB. Even in 2004-2009, the period i am aware of.. during both ADMK & DMK govts, if any Srilankan Tamil applies for Citizenship, Q-branch will visit him & threaten to take the application back. Our govts irrespective of who rule never accept them as it's citizens.

10:10 PM - 14 Dec 2019
Personally this is an Indian internal issue, imho, but if majority of Indians dislike it, it will be undone in the next elections. No need to get worked up over issues, one has no control over, RSS/BJP has been singularly focussed on their goals since 1924. Dravidian movement since 1916. So these are long lasting, legacy issues that cannot be overcome/confronted in forum discussions or social media. So it’s tempest in a teacup.

After all, Sri Lankans want fellow Tamils to come back to Sri Lanka sooner than later, that it’s taking so long is due bureaucratic delays. Indian governments do not want to dilute Tamil population even more than they already have. They can not define a Buddhist Sri Lanka as an enemy nation like they have defined Pakistan and not expect Sri Lanka to walk into Chinese hands lock stock and barrel. So Sri Lankan refugees in India only have two options, live as stateless people in India or go back to Sri Lanka which wants you back, it’s unfortunate but real politic situation.
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Re: Sri Lanka - News and Discussion- Post PM appointment crisis

Post by chetak »

is there no limit to the depravity of these deranged piecefools


twitter

Dr. Mahmoud Shafi, a Sri Lankan doctor who slashed the Uterus of nearly 4000 Hindu and Buddhist women during a cesarean operation to prevent them from having children. This is a new type of jihad... Medical Jihad???


Image
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Re: Sri Lanka - News and Discussion- Post PM appointment crisis

Post by Tuan »

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Justin Dell and Dr. Joseph McQuade of the NATO Association of Canada for their invaluable input and guidance in publishing this Special Report on Sri Lanka’s Easter Sunday Bombings. With this more streamlined article, tempered in tone, I have tried a much stronger presentation of evidence without overstepping its limits in the conclusions I draw from it. Connecting some of the disparate pieces of information that are either buried under or do not comport with, the 'official' story of what happened with the Easter Sunday bombings, I have woven them into a thought-provoking counter-narrative.

Special Report: Sri Lanka’s Easter Sunday Bombings – An Intelligence Failure? Or an Intelligence Operation?
http://natoassociation.ca/special-repor ... operation/
Since the Easter Sunday bombings that rocked Colombo, Sri Lanka, on April 21, 2019, killing more than 250 people and injuring another 500, questions remain unanswered surrounding the role of the Sri Lankan military and intelligence services before and after the event. Even though the Sri Lankan authorities blamed a local group, National Thowheed Jamaath (NTJ), shortly after the attacks, a closer look at the aftermath raises the suspicion that the Sri Lankan government’s ascription of blame to NTJ might have been a hasty, or even dishonest, move. After all, as reported by the New York Times, it is surprising that this low-profile group managed to launch a rather complex and sophisticated attack, with multiple suicide bombers striking different places roughly simultaneously and without warning.

Indeed, due to the long civil war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), also known as the Tamil Tigers, which launched numerous terrorist attacks in Colombo over the years, Sri Lankan security forces have become adept at foiling such operations. Moreover, the negligence on the part of Sri Lankan intelligence agencies comes as a big surprise, given that they received detailed and precise intelligence passed along by neighboring India, which warned of an imminent attack. Hence, even experts are confounded about how such an attack of this scale and sophistication could occur under the nose, so to speak, of the Sri Lankan intelligence agencies.

It is difficult to conceive that this attack took place without the knowledge of at least some elements of the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI) and Terrorism Investigation Department (TID). Sri Lankan intelligence has been extremely vigilant about preventing a revival of the civil war that the security forces of the country fought for over 30 years against the LTTE, going so far as to arrest Tamil university students who had pictures of the leaders of the LTTE in their classrooms.

To fully understand the implications of the Easter Sunday bombings, one must ask the following questions:

Among the stakeholders in Sri Lanka, who would benefit from attacking a Christian minority group in a mainly Buddhist-majority country?
Does ISIS have such a reach in Sri Lanka? If so, why did they choose Sri Lanka?
And most importantly, why did the Sri Lankan security establishment and intelligence community neglect the precise intelligence repeatedly provided to them by India?
The international community must find answers to these questions first so that it can solve the puzzle of the perpetrators’ real identity and motives.

There is evidence to suggest that the current Sri Lankan President, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, a retired Sri Lankan army officer and the former Secretary of the Ministry of Defense and Urban Development of Sri Lanka, who was then planning to campaign for president in the election of 2019, supported and funded the NTJ, as claimed at a press meeting by a then Sri Lankan cabinet spokesperson, Dr. Rajitha Senaratne. He stated that “dozens of NTJ members were on the payroll of Sri Lankan intelligence linked to Gotabaya Rajapaksa,” and again that, “at least 26 members of the recently banned NTJ, who are being blamed for the Easter Sunday attacks, were being paid by Sri Lankan intelligence and linked to Gotabaya Rajapaksa.” Even a former Sri Lankan navy chief of staff, Vice Admiral (Rtd.) Mohan Wijewickrama, corroborated in a tweet the charge that NTJ might have been on the payroll of Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Weeks after the bombings, the former defense secretary announced his election bid.

The Sri Lankan military operates above the law and is contemptuous of the judicial process. For instance, the Sri Lankan military defended its decision to reinstate an intelligence official, Major Prabath Bulathwatte, arrested in 2017 on suspicion of attacking journalists, to investigate the Easter Sunday bombings. According to a report by Reuters, the officer in question was arrested on suspicion that he was behind the abduction and torture of Sri Lankan editor Keith Noyahr in 2008 and the murder of Lasantha Wickrematunga, an outspoken editor of The Sunday Leader newspaper, who was killed in 2009.

Since then, the behavior of the Sri Lankan leadership has been unrepentantly provocative. The appointment of Sri Lanka’s new army chief, Lt. General Shavendra Silva, in early 2019, was criticized by the U.N., the United States, and the European Union. During the final stages of the country’s military campaign in early 2009, Silva commanded Sri Lanka’s 58th division. Under Silva’s command, places designated as safe zones (no fire zones) and hospitals were deliberately bombed, resulting in the deaths of tens of thousands. Large number of Tamil civilians, including infants and children under 10 years, who surrendered to the 58th army division, were never to be seen again and are now regarded as having “disappeared.” The human rights organization, International Truth & Justice Project (ITJP), which has focused its work on atrocities committed during the Sri Lankan civil war, called the appointment “a shocking new low for Sri Lanka.” This is illustrative of the brazenness of the Sri Lankan government’s contempt for sensitivity about ongoing legal matters to do with human rights abuses and war crimes.

In another instance of judicial meddling by the state, the then Sri Lankan President, Maithripala Sirisena, pardoned a hardline Buddhist monk who was accused of inciting violence against ethnic minority Muslims and even convicted of contempt of court. The president’s office declined to give any reason for the pardon, which was condemned by a security think-tank as a blow to Sri Lanka’s already “battered rule of law”. The pardoning of Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara, head of the hardline Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) or “Buddhist Power Force,” came a week after Buddhist groups attacked Muslim-owned homes, mosques and shops in apparent reprisals for the Easter Sunday bombings. Still, Gnanasara was sentenced to six years in prison in August 2018 over a 2016 incident ,when he interrupted a court hearing about the abduction of a journalist in which military intelligence officials were accused.

Another suspicious incident surrounding the Easter Sunday bombing is that, even though the government of Sri Lanka blocked all social media sites, including Facebook and Twitter, following the incident, there were still some photos circulating on Facebook and other social media sites of the alleged perpetrators and their bomb-making factories, which were, in fact, of seemingly random individuals. Their identity was fact-checked by AFP, and they were found not to be Sri Lankan nationals at all. In addition, a local newspaper, the Sunday Observer, reported that a Sri Lankan-born Singaporean academic and author of several books on terrorism, Dr. Rohan Gunaratna, created a considerable stir in Colombo in May 2019, when he made startling claims at a seminar organized by Gateway College, asserting the “complete collapse” of the national security machinery in the country. All of this is to say that it is unknowable whether the video footage of the alleged suicide bombers that the Government of Sri Lanka released is genuine or not. This raises doubts about the official narrative that the Easter Sunday bombers were NTJ, or even affiliates of ISIS, targeting Sri Lanka. ISIS may very well claim responsibility for anything that furthers its bloody cause. But this could simply be the opportunistic exploitation of someone else’ operation. Alternatively, it is plausible that the attacks were staged by Sri Lankan intelligence agencies, possibly with foreign support. This further raises suspicion of possible Chinese involvement.

According to some reports, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is a tool of Chinese foreign policy. The Colombo Telegraph, after the Easter Sunday bombings, exclusively revealed that Retired Major General Kapila Hendawitharana, former Director of Military Intelligence, and Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s right-hand man in the Defense Ministry, is also a collaborator with Chinese Intelligence. The article revealed an audio recording of Hendawitharana, who is also the security head of Shangri-La, telling a Chinese intelligence officer to use diplomatic means to sabotage the relationship between the United States and Sri Lanka. Shockingly, the article avers:

“Hendawitharana is privy to American involvement in Sri Lanka’s new war against terror because of his role in security at Shangri-La, but his concern is not for his employer, in whose hotel so many innocents died, but instead for his handlers in Chinese Intelligence and his political contacts in the Joint Opposition.”

These are disquieting allegations.

In the audio recording, available exclusively below in this report, Hendawitharana is heard telling his Chinese handler to, “appraise your diplomatic channels to work on the US-Sri Lanka relationship.”

“There is some development taking place for which the opposition parties, joint opposition, are making hell of a fit,” he warns. “They want to give Americans free passage for any requirement if the requirement arises for them to occupy Sri Lanka, even making use of the harbors and airports.”

“I am also
on the watch,” he said. “The government will deny. I don’t know the underhand plans of them.”

“Make your diplomatic channels aware of this,” the former intelligence chief tells the Chinese, “and ask them to take it up with the foreign ministry of Sri Lanka in advance as a deterrent action.”

In fact, Gotabaya Rajapaksa is not only a probable Chinese asset, but also a hardline anti-Indian and anti-Western antagonist who reserves particular scorn for the United Nations. He accused the UN of having been infiltrated by terrorists “for 30 years or so,” and as a result, he claimed, the UN has been fed disinformation. He also alleged that Britain and the EU were bullying Sri Lanka and concluded that Sri Lanka “does not need them,” and that they don’t provide any significant amount of aid to the country.

This contempt for the UN and attempts to undermine its credibility only further stokes suspicion, because the Sri Lankan political and military leadership, including President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, would do anything to evade the UNHRC war crimes investigations even if it has to be disruptive terrorist attacks that would help derail UNHRC proceedings. Besides, an investigation conducted by the Sri Lankan Parliamentary Select Committee, dominated by MPs opposed to the Rajapaksa family, stated the extent of the intelligence and police failings raised the question of whether the failure to stop the attacks may have been deliberate.

While it is impossible to give a definitive answer to the question of what the motive of the Sri Lankan military or government would be to stage an attack on its own citizens, one can theorize plausible explanations for such a hypothetical false flag operation. The war crimes investigations were going to be led and sponsored by Western nations, especially the United States, to investigate crimes committed by top-ranking Sri Lankan officials, who were either running for office or evading war-crimes charges. This endless foot-dragging and obstructionism of the Sri Lankan regime when it came to war-crimes investigation by the UNHRC, reported roughly one month before the attacks, clearly validates the argument that the Sri Lankan military intelligence could have orchestrated the attacks while pitting two minority groups, namely the Muslims and Christians against each other. This would mean the Sri Lankan military deviously advanced its hidden agenda that the country is still under threat from local terrorist groups linked to ISIS. With this notion, the Sri Lankan intelligence killed two birds with one stone: (1) the attacks further reinforced the Sri Lankan psyche that only the country’s former defense chief, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who was credited for winning the war against the LTTE, can save them from renewed threats emanated from terrorism, and (2) it justified and distracted the international communities, including the UNHRC from permanently putting a stop to the war crimes investigation.

So, if one connects the dots, the Easter Sunday bombings took place for one of two possible reasons. Either it was a plot to attack Christians by radicalized Muslims with help, prodding, funding and brainwashing from an external source – namely, ISIS – or, it was orchestrated by the Sri Lankan intelligence agencies. The latter scenario appears to offer a better explanation for Sri Lankan security services’ disregard for intelligence warnings from India. Therefore, the Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka could have been a ‘Reichstag Fire’-like ruse facilitated by the Sri Lankan authorities in order to promote their own interests through popular approval of the retraction of civil rights, designed to give the government more power over domestic security. Moreover, such an operation could have been covertly aided by a foreign power, namely China, that would potentially benefit from a regime drawn ever more into its orbit and away from the United States and transnational human rights institutions.
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Re: Sri Lanka - News and Discussion- Post PM appointment crisis

Post by ramana »

Your second conclusion is incorrect.
There was bais in acknowledging the Indian inputs.
The Jihadis inspired by ISIS did the bombing.
The govt of the day ignored the warnings and more importantly the evidence of dummy runs in the countryside.
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Re: Sri Lanka - News and Discussion- Post PM appointment crisis

Post by Philip »

First reaction to the bombings locally were that the current no 1 was responsible for it. He benefited most from it.The jihadis might've done the deed, but who urged them into doing it? The Sino-Pak conspiracy theory has not died out. Like the WTC attacks,were it is now common knowledge that the Saudis were behind the attacks and US intel knew they were planning something,the Q as to why despite our intel passed on the govt. of the day did zilch.

Here the Lankan " quisling" has clearly been identified as Ranil W.After the victory of Sirisena as president,parliamentary polls later where he became PM, nothing was done for 6 years to prosecute the R familia for their umpteen scams and other dark deeds. A deal was famously cut at the last election were RW would stand and lose to the Goat,who would retain him as PM. It was leaked,outrage followed and Sajith P entered the race,but too late to mount a winning campaign.He and his followers have now been expelled from the party on the eve of the parliamentary polls which the SL SC has allowed to go ahead despite the Opposition calls for a delay ,due to CV.

The last few years of skullduggery in SL has been to ensure the return of the R familia ,esp. the Goat as pres.,where the Chins have been working overtime with their Paki lackeys who control most of the drug trade in the island with local partners. A Q asked about the rich young jihadis was,how did they get so rich so fast? Factor in the Paki angle and all becomes clear. The Chin presence in the island is overwhelming.It has penetrated everywhere especially in the eco sphere. The Lankans are indebted wholesale.
Evicting the Chins from the island is going to be far greater task than from the Ladakh "fingers". Here too,we simply watched them enter and take over doing precious little,despite warnings ad nauseum. The blame for this is the mentality of our MEA .We must also ask if there are " quislings" in our side too!
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Re: Sri Lanka - News and Discussion- Post PM appointment crisis

Post by ramana »

Need to purge the Nehruvian thinkers in MEA.
Thanks for your insight.
So you also think the GSL deep state did it?
I then ask what triggered the jihadi family to go postal?
The politics of SL are underlying circumstances where the Islamist jihadis are exploiting.
It's not the other way around.
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Re: Sri Lanka - News and Discussion- Post PM appointment crisis

Post by Tuan »

Ramanaji,

As you can see, I look at April 21, 2019, Easter Sunday bombing events through the lens of Sri Lankan foreign policy interests vis-a-vis the new global order, particularly in the Asia-Pacific geopolitical mobilization and its ramifications on such global powers as the US and China and the regional player India of course!

As such, everyone will have their own racial, ethno-nationalist, cultural, social, professional, and experiential biases that have us see things, events, and ideas differently.

It is thus I had to take what you have stated above with a pinch of salt because, in my opinion, the complexion of intelligence operations is inherently bizarre and unbelievable. Moreover, the nature and dynamics of intelligence business by definition consist of a considerable amount of secrecy but there are whistleblowers and double-crossers in some surprising places.

It is in this spirit, following shocking conversations with a few insiders still working for the Directorate of Military Intelligence of Sri Lanka (who wanted to remain anonymous for PERSEC/OPSEC reasons), I painstakingly collected the very little open-source shreds of evidence out there and wrote the aforementioned article to expose the injustice undoubtedly committed by the current Sri Lankan military and political leadership during the Easter Sunday bombings. I am still gathering facts about the crimes that are committed by the Sri Lankan intelligence agencies.

I would also like to share with you here that according to a high-ranking Sri Lankan intelligence official, the Chinese wanted a regime change during the 2019 presidential election in his country, which is at the epicenter of the Indian Ocean region. Thus the Chinese used Sri Lankan intelligence as their proxies, because it was "widely believed" that that the Indian intelligence, RAW, played a key role in the Sri Lankan presidential elections of 2015 and had toppled the pro-Chinese Mahinda Rajapaksa government. Thus, the Chinese had a few (old) scores to settle in Sri Lanka. It is, therefore, this operation could have been covertly aided by China, which would potentially benefit from a regime drawn ever more into its orbit and away from the United States and India.

It is against the aforementioned backdrop one should head start an investigation to probe this in that direction. According to another official, there was collateral damage and thus the attacks overkilled the intended damage/outcome. Then in order to damage control, the Sri Lankan intelligence blamed ISIS instead of NTJ. That`s why in my analysis I wrote it is a ‘Reichstag Fire’-like ruse facilitated by the Sri Lankan authorities in order to promote their own interests through popular approval of the retraction of civil rights, designed to give the government more power over domestic security. This has invoked the government to describe a crisis that a politician or government has supposedly manufactured to sow fear in the public in order to grab more power or achieve a desired political end.

Philip ji, I agree with you on how the media was framing the actual attack into an agenda-setting tradition but expand the research by focusing on the essence of the issues at hand rather than on a particular topic. That being said, so far I have not heard or found any links whatsoever connecting Pakistan to this attack.
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Re: Sri Lanka - News and Discussion- Post PM appointment crisis

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Sri Lanka's India ties strained as Rajapaksa rethinks port deal
https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/Intern ... -port-deal
COLOMBO -- Sri Lanka's strong ties with neighboring India are being tested after President Gotabaya Rajapaksa announced that his government is reviewing a port deal worth millions of dollars that was signed between the previous Sirisena government and New Delhi.

Political observers say the move is the latest effort by Rajapaksa to distance himself from grants and other funding offered by the "Quad" nations -- the U.S., India, Japan and Australia -- which are trying to counter China's growing geopolitical influence. Sri Lanka's government recently shelved the Japan-funded Colombo Light Railway project and a $480 million Millennium Challenge Corporation grant from the U.S.

Workers at Colombo Port, which handles more than 7 million twenty-foot equivalent units of cargo annually, are demanding that the government scrap the agreement, which authorizes India and Japan to develop the new East Container Terminal. The port workers want guarantees that the project will be fully owned by the Sri Lanka Ports Authority, a government entity.

Trade unions say the project threatens to cede ownership of the ECT to India. Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, a former president and elder brother of the incumbent, said there is "no final agreement" with regard to the project, although the previous government signed a memorandum of cooperation with India and Japan May 2019 to develop the ECT. The terms of the deal gave Sri Lanka a 51% stake, with India and Japan holding the rest. The project was estimated to cost between $500 million and $700 million.

A representative of the Indian High Commission in Colombo said that about two-thirds of Sri Lanka's international cargo traffic is with India. "There are opportunities for win-win cooperation among India, Sri Lanka and Japan in developing the ECT to promote prosperity in our maritime region."

But Shyamal Sumanarathna, secretary of the Ports, Commerce Industries and Progressive Workers Union is adamant that India's stake be curbed. "We heard that there is a lot of pressure from India over this project. But we are not a province of India, we are a sovereign nation and we do not need to dance to their tunes," Sumanarathna told the Nikkei Asian Review, adding, "Following our strike, the prime minister assured [us] that he will sort this issue out."

He warned that the union, which is affiliated to President Rajapaksa's political party, was ready to oppose the government if the project goes ahead. "We can always elect [the party] back, but if the ECT is given to India, we will never get it back. The ECT should be controlled 100% by SLPA and not by a foreign country," Sumanarathna said.

Responding to the union's demands, Rajapaksa last week appointed a five-member committee to examine and report on concerns over the ECT. The committee has 45 days to report back and recommend steps to ensure the terminal delivers the maximum benefit for Sri Lanka.

However, Rohan Masakorala, a maritime shipping expert and CEO of the Shippers Academy Colombo, points out that most modern ports have both international and national partners. He believes the ECT should proceed, saying, "It will also help us to compete better in the long run."

Masakorala disputed the trade unions' claims, calling them "nationalistic" and arguing that their statements are made by people who do not understand global business, or are politically motivated. Masakorala also expressed surprise at their position because the Colombo Port already has international partners and local companies running terminals efficiently.

"South Asia Gateway Terminal has been running for over 20 years with a number of international partners, and similarly the Colombo International Container Terminal has been operating for seven years with a Chinese company," he said.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, which put Sri Lanka in lockdown for over two months, President Rajapaksa has turned to China several times for bailouts as the country tries to extricate itself from a financial crisis.

Harin Fernando, a minister in the previous government led by Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, accused the current administration of turning Sri Lanka into a "banana republic" under Chinese rule.

"In 2014, before we toppled the government, this is what we highlighted. But now we see [the Chinese] doing this much more strategically," he told Nikkei.

Fernando said China now has a complete monopoly on Sri Lanka's development projects and that Sri Lanka is "under debt" to China. He added that many dealings with China in the past lacked transparency and failed to follow due tender procedure, while the public was often kept in the dark.
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Re: Sri Lanka - News and Discussion- Post PM appointment crisis

Post by Philip »

Sadly the MEA dropped the ball.Whether or not R&AW had anything to do or not with the last SL pres. election that saw MR defeated,the fact was that anyone that the combined opposition put up would've defeated him as the stench of corruption was like that of the UPA-2. Tragically,the willing donkey who took the load ( any animal would've defeated MR), Sirisena ,overnight started behaving like a village headman rewarding his family with posts and Ranil W got embroiled in a major scandal where his crony was appointed the Cent.Bank Governor in a bond scandal.Sirisena used it to cut RW to size and their rivalry saw the Rajapakses get off the hook,even though there were umpteen scandals,evidence and 5 yrs. time in which to prosecute them. The Chins weren't booted out,suspicions of the new dispensation also susceptible to Chin coin and backroom deals with the R familia was local gossip.

Our MEA merely looked on as the PRC and Pakis regrouped in the island. No pro- active dpl. measures were taken by Delhi. India could've very easily given the GOSL$1B to repay the PRC loan to cancel the Htota port deal and sign a mutual security pact with us. It's peanuts when we look at the cost of our arms deals .We will now be spending 10+ times that amount to counter the PRC who are now strongly embedded in the island and are preventing any entity that has an Indian connection from an infra project. Both Htota and Colombo ports are now firmly in the hands of the PRC just miles away from our mainland.An unmitigated foreign policy disaster for which some MEA babus will get padma awards or future ministerial positions.I think minister Hardep Puri also had a stint in SL but long ago before the R familia took over and brought the Chins over.

The Easter bombings beautifully orchestrated brought back the R familia as intended. It was as someone said the island's "Reichstag" equivalent. The GOSL were also allegedly by the Lanksn press, warned by our sleuths about an impending attack but did bugger all.Why? Sirisena was the villain who was told about the plot but did nothing.Many Qs still remain unanswered,but it served its purpose bringing back the R familia into power and their PRC backers.

The sad truth is that the island is looked upon by the Delhi Durbar and MEA mandarins through the prism of a TAMIL problem that involves TN politics,not as a national security issue as important as Pak or the PRC. The total neglect of the importance of Buddhism in the island where India is the home of the enlightened one is astonishing.No enlightenment in the MEA minds at all.The Sinhalese Buddhist 75% majority have been completely neglected while the Godless Chinks are trying to usurp Buddhism! We even prevent HH the Dalai Lama from speaking his mind and allowing the Tibetan diaspora to fight for freedom and liberty of their occupied land!

The neglect of vital security issues with our friendly neighbours who are being relentlessly undermined by the PRC and Pak is scandalous. Just recently the Indian HC in Dacca was removed for allegedly infuriating the BD govt.,who are the friendliest of neighbours.Neglect of issues rith Nepal has now reached such a state where there are armed clashes on the border and a PRC puppet PM Oli calling the shots. I feel that our current FM has has his magnificent obession of fealty to Uncle Sam that blinkers hix vision. Read his last pronouncements about the irrelevance of NAM ,whose member states once India's best friends are being rapidly targeted and sucked into the PRC's orbit. One cannot keep blaming Lutyens Delhi or the UPA for the MEA's many disasters today.We are in the second term of the NDA-2.The blame squarely lies with the current dispensation. Our current FM's vision appears to be limited to hanging on to Uncle Sam's tailcoat at any cost expecting him to resolve all our FP issues, oblivious to the rapid erosion of relations with our neighbours and the total obliteration of India's foreign policy towards the PRC.
That happy event took place at Galwan. XI's bayonet up the MEA backside has now forced a total revision of our attitude towards the PRC and for that we have to thank none otherthan XI.

The MEA needs a total revamp with much more strength and resources given to it to fight the PRC around the globe.More security experts must be inducted instead of cocktail party trained flunkeys both to formulate foreign policy and manning our missions.If not we can expect further disasters in the island and elsewhere.
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Re: Sri Lanka - News and Discussion- Post PM appointment crisis

Post by chetak »

In spite of years of India's clumsy buggering around in the SL backyard, our expensive efforts have come to naught because of entrenched factions in the MEA, intelligence agencies, and the rampant factionalism that insists on pandering to the venal dravidian politicians as well as the separatist elements.

The Indian deep state has been established, encroached and entrenched by the britshits since before independence, has over the years been expanded and ideologically embellished by the commies and the islamics and many of them are still marching to the tune of BIF drummers which is why our cross border and neighbourly "relations" have all gone to schitt.

there was never a nationalistic element that was allowed to take root or was even able grow in this corrosive deep state suppressive ecosystem.

to placate rabidly separatist dravidian TN politicos, we have callously slipped into endorsing a separatist movement in SL which is how the majority sinhala there see it.

with the onset of the QUAD and many other multilateral engagements, such entrenched forces will only flower and thrive because the oxygen for their existence will be plentifully replinished once again.

here is SL, openly saying what we have shied away from either admitting or even discussing these many years: that the eelam movement never died. It has metastasized and grown more malignant as cancers do.

The LTTE 2.0 is alive, well and thriving and it's once again, and not so covertly, driving eelam movement as it did before.



TNA won't be allowed to achieve through vote what LTTE failed to do with gun: Mahinda Rajapaksa


TNA won't be allowed to achieve through vote what LTTE failed to do with gun: Mahinda Rajapaksa


The TNA will not be allowed to achieve through the election what the LTTE and its leader Prabakaran failed to achieve with the gun, he said.


30th July 2020

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka's main Tamil party TNA will not be allowed to achieve through the election what the LTTE and its slain leader Velupillai Prabakaran failed to accomplish with the gun, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa has said.

Speaking at an election rally on Wednesday ahead of the August 5 parliamentary election, the prime minister said that his action to end the LTTE's over three decades-long violent campaign had freed the country from terrorism.

"We will not allow the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) to achieve their objectives," Rajapaksa said.

The TNA will not be allowed to achieve through the election what the LTTE and its leader Prabakaran failed to achieve with the gun, he said.


"Sinhalese in the south can go to the north and the Tamils in the north can travel anywhere," he said.

Rajapaksa said the TNA had pacts with some political parties to fulfil their aims.

"We will not allow that to happen," Rajapaksa said, in a veiled reference to the Opposition group led by the former leader of the Opposition Sajith Premadasa.

His Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) party had pledged to preserve the India-backed 13th amendment to the Constitution by granting power to the provincial councils.

The 13th amendment that followed the Indo-Sri Lankan Accord of July 1987 signed between then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and then Sri Lankan President J R Jayewardene envisaged the devolution of powers to the provinces in the midst of the island's bitter ethnic conflict.

India has been pressing Sri Lanka to implement the 13th amendment on the devolution of powers in "letter and spirit" and to fulfil the aspirations of the ethnic Tamils.

However, the Tamils complain that the 13th amendment's due power to provinces had not been devolved even after more than 30 years.

The TNA fights for 29 seats located in the north and east in the 225-member parliament.

They have pledged to seek a federal solution in their struggle for self-determination.


According to the government figures, over 20,000 people are missing due to various conflicts including the three-decade separatist war with Lankan Tamils in the north and east which claimed at least 100,000 lives.

The Tamils alleged that thousands were massacred during the final stages of the war that ended in 2009 when the government forces killed Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) chief Prabhakaran.

The Sri Lankan Army denies the charge, claiming it as a humanitarian operation to rid the Tamils of LTTE's control.

At the end of the civil war, the United Nations accused both sides of atrocities, especially during the conflict's final stages.


International rights groups claim at least 40,000 ethnic Tamil civilians were killed in the final stages of the war, but the government has disputed the figures.
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Re: Sri Lanka - News and Discussion- Post PM appointment crisis

Post by Arima »

chetak wrote:In spite of years of India's clumsy buggering around in the SL backyard, our expensive efforts have come to naught because of entrenched factions in the MEA, intelligence agencies, and the rampant factionalism that insists on pandering to the venal dravidian politicians as well as the separatist elements.

The Indian deep state has been established, encroached and entrenched by the britshits since before independence, has over the years been expanded and ideologically embellished by the commies and the islamics and many of them are still marching to the tune of BIF drummers which is why our cross border and neighbourly "relations" have all gone to schitt.

there was never a nationalistic element that was allowed to take root or was even able grow in this corrosive deep state suppressive ecosystem.

to placate rabidly separatist dravidian TN politicos, we have callously slipped into endorsing a separatist movement in SL which is how the majority sinhala there see it.

with the onset of the QUAD and many other multilateral engagements, such entrenched forces will only flower and thrive because the oxygen for their existence will be plentifully replinished once again.

here is SL, openly saying what we have shied away from either admitting or even discussing these many years: that the eelam movement never died. It has metastasized and grown more malignant as cancers do.

The LTTE 2.0 is alive, well and thriving and it's once again, and not so covertly, driving eelam movement as it did before.
the core problem between Tamils and Sinhalese is about mistrust and hate born out of wrong interpretations of History.

Sinhalese claim Tamils are invaders and not original inhabitants. they always have stories of king invading and plundering the island of its wealth and even during British time Tamils had major say in governance and top jobs.

for Tamils it is loss of pride and position among SL politics and business from 1948.

not sure whether teaching true history will make change to future generations. without solving this fundamental problem outside forces will always work to make the rift permanent.
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Re: Sri Lanka - News and Discussion- Post PM appointment crisis

Post by Philip »

Years ago I gave elaborate historical facts how the westerners first educated the northern Tamils with English,giving the minority community an
advantage in getting govt. jobs and plum posts. The Sinhalese and Sinhala was suppressed.SWRD Bandaranaike betrayed after independenc e in the succession stakes of becoming PM by the Senanayakes father and son,left the party,started his own SLFP from scratch without any money,mortgaged his house,sold his car,etc., and swept the polls with just one campaign point,that he would make Sinhala spoken by 80% of the population as the national language. The rest as they say is history.The northerm Tamils even in the '80s,dominated top govt. posts.More than 60% of ambassadors were of minority origin.The pendelum swung towards the Sinhalese to redress the balance,but the northern Tamils wanted "50-50" which was unacceptable to the majority Sinhalese. When Bandaranaike and Chelvanayagam the Tamil leader worked out the "B-C pact", JR Jayawardene took out street protests winding up the Buddhist monks.SWRD shelved the pact and soon afterwards a conspiracy of right wing Sinhalese assassinated him using a young monk as the assassin.Even from his deathbed,SWRD made a broadcast asking forgiveness for the monk described as a " misguided youth in the garbs of a monk" thus sparing the Buddhist clergy from a massacre.

When Jayawardene eventually came to power with a massive landslide allowing him to turn the parliamentary system into a presidential one ,with all powers in his hands,he forgot or rather ignored the m,any promises he gave to the Tamils when out of power,even sabotaging District Council elections in '81 which was all that Chelvanayagam wanted earlier,local autonomy. At the height of the Cold War,the Tamil militants especially the LTTE were clandestinely supported by various western entities ,as the west then wanted to use Tamil nationalism in the island as a means of dismembering India from the south,our soft underbelly. Francis Day and Robert Clive wormed their way into eventually controlling India by "John Co." from Madras and the Coromandel coast. Unfortunately for the Eelamists,their moment in history is gone. Had Fuhrer Prabhakaran accepted the post of CM of the north,he could've leveraged it with time into something more,but he was too arrogant and ambitious .He wanted equality with the Lankan pres.according to a friend who was at the various peace summits,Thimphu,etc.,etc.That was clearly unacceptable to the GOSL and India and to his great credit,ABV put his foot firmly down when the Sea Tigers wanted international recognition (a back door method of getting the LTTE recognised as a separate state) ,sending our Vice-Chief of the IN to tell the GOSL not to give in to the demand and that India would recognise only one navy in the island,the SLN.
Sadly all our help to SL in combating the LTTE,tsunami relief,etc. has in the last decade plus been wasted by asinine MEA foreign policy allowing the PRC and Pakis to get entrenched in the island,gravely damaging our security. The PRC is using SL in the same manner as the USSR used Cuba during the Cold War. What will India do if PLAN nuclear subs start operating from Htt. and Colombo,and worse still station nuclear missiles on Lankan soil?
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Re: Sri Lanka - News and Discussion- Post PM appointment crisis

Post by Tuan »

Rajapaksa brothers win by landslide in Sri Lanka's election
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/08/ ... 01325.html
Huge parliamentary win could enable the president and his brother to change the constitution and boost dynastic rule.
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Re: Sri Lanka - News and Discussion- Post PM appointment crisis

Post by kit »

Tuan wrote:Sri Lanka's India ties strained as Rajapaksa rethinks port deal
https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/Intern ... -port-deal
COLOMBO -- Sri Lanka's strong ties with neighboring India are being tested after President Gotabaya Rajapaksa announced that his government is reviewing a port deal worth millions of dollars that was signed between the previous Sirisena government and New Delhi.

Political observers say the move is the latest effort by Rajapaksa to distance himself from grants and other funding offered by the "Quad" nations -- the U.S., India, Japan and Australia -- which are trying to counter China's growing geopolitical influence. Sri Lanka's government recently shelved the Japan-funded Colombo Light Railway project and a $480 million Millennium Challenge Corporation grant from the U.S.

Workers at Colombo Port, which handles more than 7 million twenty-foot equivalent units of cargo annually, are demanding that the government scrap the agreement, which authorizes India and Japan to develop the new East Container Terminal. The port workers want guarantees that the project will be fully owned by the Sri Lanka Ports Authority, a government entity.

Trade unions say the project threatens to cede ownership of the ECT to India. Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, a former president and elder brother of the incumbent, said there is "no final agreement" with regard to the project, although the previous government signed a memorandum of cooperation with India and Japan May 2019 to develop the ECT. The terms of the deal gave Sri Lanka a 51% stake, with India and Japan holding the rest. The project was estimated to cost between $500 million and $700 million.

A representative of the Indian High Commission in Colombo said that about two-thirds of Sri Lanka's international cargo traffic is with India. "There are opportunities for win-win cooperation among India, Sri Lanka and Japan in developing the ECT to promote prosperity in our maritime region."

But Shyamal Sumanarathna, secretary of the Ports, Commerce Industries and Progressive Workers Union is adamant that India's stake be curbed. "We heard that there is a lot of pressure from India over this project. But we are not a province of India, we are a sovereign nation and we do not need to dance to their tunes," Sumanarathna told the Nikkei Asian Review, adding, "Following our strike, the prime minister assured [us] that he will sort this issue out."

He warned that the union, which is affiliated to President Rajapaksa's political party, was ready to oppose the government if the project goes ahead. "We can always elect [the party] back, but if the ECT is given to India, we will never get it back. The ECT should be controlled 100% by SLPA and not by a foreign country," Sumanarathna said.

Responding to the union's demands, Rajapaksa last week appointed a five-member committee to examine and report on concerns over the ECT. The committee has 45 days to report back and recommend steps to ensure the terminal delivers the maximum benefit for Sri Lanka.

However, Rohan Masakorala, a maritime shipping expert and CEO of the Shippers Academy Colombo, points out that most modern ports have both international and national partners. He believes the ECT should proceed, saying, "It will also help us to compete better in the long run."

Masakorala disputed the trade unions' claims, calling them "nationalistic" and arguing that their statements are made by people who do not understand global business, or are politically motivated. Masakorala also expressed surprise at their position because the Colombo Port already has international partners and local companies running terminals efficiently.

"South Asia Gateway Terminal has been running for over 20 years with a number of international partners, and similarly the Colombo International Container Terminal has been operating for seven years with a Chinese company," he said.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, which put Sri Lanka in lockdown for over two months, President Rajapaksa has turned to China several times for bailouts as the country tries to extricate itself from a financial crisis.

Harin Fernando, a minister in the previous government led by Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, accused the current administration of turning Sri Lanka into a "banana republic" under Chinese rule.

"In 2014, before we toppled the government, this is what we highlighted. But now we see [the Chinese] doing this much more strategically," he told Nikkei.

Fernando said China now has a complete monopoly on Sri Lanka's development projects and that Sri Lanka is "under debt" to China. He added that many dealings with China in the past lacked transparency and failed to follow due tender procedure, while the public was often kept in the dark.
Sri Lankan ports are viable ONLY in the sense of trans shipment of goods to India.. India can short this out by developing alternative shipping ports to Colombo
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Re: Sri Lanka - News and Discussion- Post PM appointment crisis

Post by Arima »

kit wrote:
Tuan wrote:Sri Lanka's India ties strained as Rajapaksa rethinks port deal
https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/Intern ... -port-deal
Sri Lankan ports are viable ONLY in the sense of trans shipment of goods to India.. India can short this out by developing alternative shipping ports to Colombo
Sri Lanka is leaning Cheen in investments right now. the new ports, SEZ, Airport Petro chemicals etc all flush with Cheen money. Hambantota airport is a white elephant, with huge land given to cheen for development "Read as more debt".

India should use its soft or coercive power and say any more Cheen sub or military ships in SL is a redline and action in the form of challenging Colombo port dominance will be initiated.

i wonder now, all those protests in KL and TN for Kolachal / Vizhijam ports are orchestrated not just by Christian group but Cheen SL nexus may also have some hand. :-?
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Re: Sri Lanka - News and Discussion- Post PM appointment crisis

Post by VikramA »

as one members said the only utility any lankan port serves is to act as a deep port transhipment point to india in IOR.If India develops even a single deep water port in kerala or TN all of lanka's dream of becoming singapore of IOR will come crashing down. If lanka wants to commit suicide let them there is already a small deep water port coming up in Kerala , lets see how lanka's port economy survives that
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Re: Sri Lanka - News and Discussion- Post PM appointment crisis

Post by pushkar.bhat »

Greater Andaman Transshipment Port may effectively drive the final nail into Hanbantota Port as well as the Colombo transshipment terminal. Rajapakshe family would have been told before the announcements made by PM day before yesterday.
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Re: Sri Lanka - News and Discussion- Post PM appointment crisis

Post by Tuan »

‘As far as strategic security considerations go, Sri Lanka has an “India first” approach’
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blo ... -approach/
Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) just secured a landslide victory in parliamentary polls, bringing back Mahinda Rajapaksa as Prime Minister. Admiral Jayanath Colombage, foreign secretary and former commander of the Sri Lankan Navy, spoke with Rudroneel Ghosh on the implications of the return of the Rajapaksas, and Sri Lanka’s equations with India and China:

How do you explain the massive victory of the SLPP in the parliamentary polls in Sri Lanka?

The major factor is the activities carried out by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa since November 2019. He has proven to the country that he can deliver. He is determined to maintain the security and sovereignty of the country. So the main factor is the trust that the Sri Lankan people now have on the incumbent President. SLPP is a new party having been formed only in 2017. But it has steadily gained immense popularity by winning local elections in 2018. Last year this propelled Gotabaya Rajapaksa to the presidency. Now the President has given a boost to the party in the parliamentary polls.

Will we now see the return of an all-powerful executive presidency in Sri Lanka through a repealing of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution?

Most of the constitutional amendments carried out in Sri Lanka were targeting individuals – either to benefit an individual, or to victimise an individual, or to keep an individual out of power. That is why these constitutional amendments have not really lasted long.

There was concern during Mahinda Rajapaksa’s presidency that Sri Lanka was drifting towards China. Now that the Rajapaksas are back in power, will it be more of the same?

It will be different. The President has made it very clear in no uncertain terms that as far as strategic security considerations go, it is an ‘India first’ approach. Which means Sri Lanka cannot be, should not be, and will not be a strategic security concern for India. In the President’s agenda, national security is first. And you can’t have national security without regional security. But on the economic front, the President has said that we are open to anyone who is able to bring foreign investments to the country and no more loans. We want joint ventures, FDI, build-operate-transfer and other such arrangements, but no more loans. Anyone is welcome under this approach. The President has also said that Sri Lanka wishes to remain neutral and to maintain friendly relations with all countries. And finally, he has categorically stated that he will not give total control of a national strategic asset – port, airport or anything – to a foreign country. Deciding the foreign policy is the prerogative of the President in Sri Lanka as per our Constitution.

I want to remind you that even during Mahinda Rajapaksa’s tenure as President, we had excellent relations with India. That was the main factor as to how he could finish the war against the LTTE separatists in 2009. He had even appointed a Troika – then secretary of defence Gotabaya Rajapaksa, then secretary to the president Lalith Weeratunga, and then senior adviser to the president and his brother Basil Rajapaksa – who would shuttle between New Delhi and Colombo and keep the former briefed about the ground situation in Sri Lanka. That helped us win the war. So there was no major shift towards China even during Mahinda Rajapaksa’s presidency. What happened after 2009 is that Sri Lanka’s development needs exceeded tremendously. And at that time the only country that came forward to invest in Sri Lankan infrastructure in a big way was China. Therefore, it wasn’t a foreign policy shift but an economic necessity. True, India also did a lot in the period after 2009 – it built a railway track to the north, built more than 50,000 houses, rehabilitated the northern-most port. But our development needs far exceeded what India alone could do. And the West had boycotted us on the grounds of human rights violations. So China filled that vacuum. But in dealing with China more, Sri Lanka created fear in the minds of the Indian strategic community that began to see Colombo as a threat. And I think that is why India wished for a regime change in 2015 which they did. But the situation after 2015 became worse. Although we had dealings with China we hadn’t given our strategic assets to the Chinese for 99-year lease. That’s exactly what the subsequent government did with Hambantota. So then India became even more concerned. That is why the current President is very clear that national strategic assets won’t be handed over to anyone. Therefore, we won’t be titling towards anyone, we will maintain neutrality and keep India in our hearts as far as strategic security is concerned. But we also have to develop and need investments. So anyone, China, Japan, or anyone else can come.

But China’s naval presence is increasing in the region. How will Sri Lanka deal with this?

Sri Lanka will never allow its soil or territorial waters to be used by anyone against anyone. Especially so against India. That is the last thing we will ever do because it is suicidal. Yes, Chinese naval expansion is a reality, they have the second largest navy in the world, they can build four aircraft carriers in four years, and yes they have a strategic interest in the Indian Ocean and are present here along with other navies from Russia, Japan, UK, France, etc. But starting from 2009 to 2020 August, more than 525 warships have visited Sri Lanka. Topping the list is India with 110, which is natural, second is Japan with 80 ships, and way down the list is China with about 40 ships. So there is no ground to believe that in the last decade Sri Lanka has given any preference to China. Whereas we have given special preference to India and then Japan. So there should be no fear of Sri Lanka becoming a naval facility for China.

Does Sri Lanka fear getting sucked into a geopolitical rivalry between India and China?

We are already stuck in it since 2011-12. In fact, we are caught up in this power game between India, China, Japan and the US because of our geostrategic location. We want to avoid that. We don’t want to be the soccer field where the match is played. Either we should be a player or a referee, but certainly not the soccer field. So that is why the President is very clear that we want to maintain our neutrality and don’t want to be caught up in the major power game. This is the situation for many smaller countries in the region where they are expected to choose between one or the other, or hedge between one against the other. We want to consciously avoid both situations. We believe in multiple alignments instead of singular alignment with a particular country.
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Re: Sri Lanka - News and Discussion- Post PM appointment crisis

Post by Kati »

chetak wrote:is there no limit to the depravity of these deranged piecefools


twitter

Dr. Mahmoud Shafi, a Sri Lankan doctor who slashed the Uterus of nearly 4000 Hindu and Buddhist women during a cesarean operation to prevent them from having children. This is a new type of jihad... Medical Jihad???


Image
Sri Lankan authorities found the Muslim surgeon had not performed any sterilisations
https://factcheck.afp.com/sri-lankan-au ... ilisations
chetak
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Re: Sri Lanka - News and Discussion- Post PM appointment crisis

Post by chetak »

Kati wrote:
chetak wrote:is there no limit to the depravity of these deranged piecefools


twitter

Sri Lankan authorities found the Muslim surgeon had not performed any sterilisations
https://factcheck.afp.com/sri-lankan-au ... ilisations

nice catch

Gilgamesh@Gilgamesh1008·Jan 28
Dr. Mahmoud Shafi, a Sri Lankan doctor who slashed the uterus of nearly 4000 Hindu and Buddhist women during a cesarean operation to prevent them from having children. This is a new type of jihad... Medical Jihad.
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Re: Sri Lanka - News and Discussion- Post PM appointment crisis

Post by Tuan »

Is India washing its hands off Sri Lankan Tamils?
https://www.newindianexpress.com/opinio ... 85822.html
To say that the political decimation of the parties that claim to speak for the Sri Lankan Tamils has been completed is an understatement.

To say that the political decimation of the parties that claim to speak for the Sri Lankan Tamils has been completed is an understatement. It was a rout. The Tamil National Alliance was all but swept away in the unprecedented flood of support that marked the return of the Rajapaksas to pre-eminence in the Sri Lankan polity.

But what was equally remarkable was the swiftness with which Prime Minister Narendra Modi called to congratulate the Sri Lankan leader, even as parliamentary poll results were coming in on August 7. It underscored India’s growing concern that in light of China’s Ladakh ingress and the challenge posed to India’s land and maritime frontiers, Colombo cannot be allowed to slip back into China’s zone of influence. But is India ready to heed the rise of Sinhala nationalism over the cause of the Tamil minority as geopolitical constraints take primacy?

India’s foot-dragging when Mahinda Rajapaksa, as president, was looking for investments to reboot his country’s post-war economy has not been forgotten by the new first family of Sri Lanka, which did not take kindly to being treated like a minnow left dangling by the big fish. Today, more so than ever, Colombo’s strategic importance to India, sitting as it does at a key intersection in its southern backyard—where the sea lanes from the Persian Gulf and Arabian Sea connect to the Indian Ocean, and where China has acquired one critical port after another—can no longer be ignored.

In addition to the $400 million currency swap, the hungry minnow is asking for a $1.1 billion swap and a moratorium on a $900 million loan. These are requests that must be fast-tracked. In return, Delhi needs to ensure that the Rajapaksa regime dials down the anger of Sri Lankan workers over the Colombo Port East Container Terminal contract that was awarded to India (and Japan). Manufactured protests or not, it may take some doing.

As former Sri Lankan diplomat Dr Palitha B Kohona says, the manner in which former premier Ranil Wickremesinghe “parcelled out real estate and parted with Sri Lanka’s crown jewels” as part of his foreign policy balancing act is resented. The Colombo Port project was largely effected to assuage Indian concerns about both the Hambantota Port project being given to the Chinese by then president Mahinda Rajapaksa and the immediacy with which he was co-opted by Chinese President Xi Jinping into the signature Belt and Road Initiative.

Clearly, India cannot allow the Colombo project to slip through its fingers. It must also continue to stay invested in revitalising the Palaly airport in Jaffna and the Kankensanthurai port while building homes for displaced Sri Lankan Tamils across Kilinochchi, Vavuniya and Mullaitivu in Tamil majority provinces. But the vote of no confidence in the TNA—reduced to a mere 10 seats from 16—and the victory of only a handful of luminaries like the former chief minister of Jaffna, lawyer-turned-politician C V Wigneswaran, who heads the Tamil People’s Alliance, and the Ponnambalam legatee Gajendra Kumar Ponnambalam of the Tamil National People’s Front reflects the rapidly shrinking space occupied by Tamil politicians.

The only opposition of any consequence, the newly formed Samagi Jana Balavegaya led by Sajith Premadasa, has a miniscule 54 seats against the 145 seats of President Rajapaksa’s Sri Lanka Podujana Perumana in the 225-member Parliament. Premadasa, whose father Ranasinghe Premadasa was assassinated by the LTTE, is unlikely to take up cudgels for the Tamils. Neither is former president Maithripala Sirsena and former PM and United National Party leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, both reduced to irrelevance.

As the Rajapaksa clan moves to secure a majority in the House, when Parliament convenes on August 20, to scrap the 19th Amendment that limited presidential powers by reaching out to like-minded smaller parties, the fate of the controversial 13th Amendment is lost in the din. The cornerstone of the Sri Lankan Tamils’ quest for greater devolution of powers to the provinces is an unnecessary imposition to the Rajapaksa government and the Sinhala majority, an intrusion in their internal affairs.

The 13th Amendment, part of the Indo-Sri Lanka Peace Accord of 1987 that promised greater powers to the provinces, was repeatedly raised by Delhi with one eye on the domestic Tamil vote. But with a post-Jayalalithaa Tamil Nadu’s deafening silence to poll results, PM Modi—who needs the AIADMK to shore up his numbers in the Rajya Sabha and factors Indian Tamil sentiment into the BJP’s electoral strategy—will weigh whether voicing concerns over the amendment (and India’s Tamil fishermen routinely held by the Sri Lankan Navy) is worth rattling the Rajapaksa cage when it knows this does not sit well with Lanka’s new ruling family.

Gotabaya, validated by parliamentary polls, reflects the trust that the people of Sri Lanka have in the man who ended the 30-year reign of terror by the Tamil Tigers chief Prabhakaran. With a tough crackdown on the Muslim community vulnerable to radicalisation by the Islamic State Khorasan, who were behind the 2019 Easter bombings, his stock runs high.

One of his first moves to tighten direct control of the north and east could come now, from abolishing the provincial councils that run the provinces, making the 13th Amendment redundant. Dr Kohona says, “The provinces have been administered for the last two years without provincial councils, which are anyway a huge drain on the exchequer. It’s time we looked at abolishing them.” The Modi government, aware that Sri Lanka is one of a handful of countries that has refused to comment on the changed status of Jammu & Kashmir to a Union Territory, may choose to say nothing; more so when the prickly issue of the ‘disappeared’ is all set to be raised by the UNHRC early next year.

Rohan Gunaratna, professor of security studies at Nanyang University, Singapore, points to Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s “brilliant ties with India when he was defence secretary, that enabled Sri Lanka to defeat the LTTE” as a relationship the president wants to maintain, while “building equidistance between a declining West, a rising China and a rising India”. The trick for India will be on how to spin that ‘equidistance’ to its advantage without completely vacating its advocacy of the Sri Lankan Tamils’ cause.
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Re: Sri Lanka - News and Discussion- Post PM appointment crisis

Post by Arima »

above article is wrong on multiple counts.
Leadership of India today will not allow SL or Maldives to slip away to Cheen.
Island becoming unsinkable aircraft carrier is not going to happen.
I am sure Indian govt will not allow SL govt to stray away from dharma wrt devolution of power to Tamils.
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Re: Sri Lanka - News and Discussion- Post PM appointment crisis

Post by Tuan »

India must grow its interests in Sri Lanka
https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/op ... 431355.ece
New Delhi must, however, be wary of Beijing which is trying to curtail our interests in the country, especially the Colombo Port.

Amongst India’s South Asian neighbours, Sri Lanka alone has the unique distinction of being a vibrant and functioning democracy, ever since it became independent in 1948. It also has a significantly higher rate of literacy, and an unblemished record of free and fair elections, together with around three decades of ethnic peace. A long-time historical rivalry, however, prevailed between the majority, Buddhist dominated, Sinhala speaking population, and the Tamils, in the Northern and Eastern parts of the Island.

India got drawn into this rivalry, because of the emotional and other ties that linked Sri Lanka’s Northern Tamils, with Tamils in Tamil Nadu. India made the serious mistake of intervening directly in the Sinhala-Tamil ethnic conflict. Pressures for such intervention were accentuated, by political rivals in Tamil Nadu, backing one or another armed Tamil group, in the neighbouring Island. What followed was an ill-advised Indian military intervention, which led to the deaths of around 1,000 Indian soldiers and the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi by the LTTE.
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The Indian intervention did, however, lead to a political understanding and peace between the Sinhalas and Tamils. The conflict ended only after the decisive and bloody military defeat of the LTTE, by the then government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa. The Tamils have since received a measure of Provincial Autonomy, with Colombo directly intervening primarily on issues having a separatist potential. Not surprisingly, the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna Party, led by the Rajapaksa brothers — Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and his younger brother President Gotabaya Rajapaksa — swept the recent Parliamentary Elections, winning 145 of the 225 Parliamentary seats.

The opposition United National Party (UNP), which ruled Sri Lanka for a number of years after independence in 1948, was virtually wiped out, winning just one seat. This débâcle has been attributed to the “lacklustre” leadership of former Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremasinghe. Sajith Premadasa, the son of the former President Ranasinghe Premadasa, who quit the UNP and formed his own party, led an imaginative and aggressive election campaign, winning 54 seats. He has emerged as the Leader of the Opposition.

India has acted skilfully after the ethnic conflict ended, building bridges of cooperation with Sri Lanka, while providing massive financial assistance to the Tamil majority population, in the war-torn northern and eastern provinces. The turnout in Tamil majority areas was substantial in the recent elections. A positive development was a significant move by Tamils in the Northern Province voting for Sajith Premadasa’s SLPP, which campaigned on promises of employment and economic development, throughout the country.

India has played a remarkable role in restoring normalcy in the Tamil dominated Northern Province, with massive assistance for their rehabilitation, housing and development. India has committed $3.2 billion since 1995 for rehabilitation and relief of Tamils in Sri Lanka. It has built 37,000 houses for rehabilitation of Tamils in the north and north-east. It has also built medical facilities which have extended treatment to an estimated 53,000 people. It is now focussing on building 10,000 houses for the “Indian Tamils” resident in Southern Sri Lanka. The focus has thus been on housing and infrastructure, which has sought to ensure that the grievances of conflict do not lead to violence. The success of this effort has been reflected by the large Tamil participation in the recent elections.

Close watch needed

Politically, the huge humanitarian assistance provided by India has ensured the return of normalcy and ethnic peace in Sri Lanka. It has resulted in greater participation of Tamils in the national life of the country. The salience of the Tamil issue, in India’s relations with Sri Lanka, is diminishing steadily. But, New Delhi should keep a close watch on ensuring that his trend continues. One cannot also ignore the geopolitical trends in the Indian Ocean Region, arising from China’s growing determination to erode and undermine Indian influence, even as one keeps a watch on internal developments in Sri Lanka.

Like in other South Asian countries, China is following its policies of “strategic containment” of India and erosion of Indian influence, particularly in South Asia, by backing and funding parties it believes are anti-Indian, while using Pakistan as its principle instrument for reinforcing its efforts. This effort has now been widened, by seeking to undermine Indian interests, by destabilising governments headed by rulers friendly to India, and simultaneously promoting individuals and political parties given to being anti-Indian.

China will spare no effort to persuade the ruling Rajapaksa family to move in that direction. An important aim of such a Chinese effort will be to retain an exclusively Chinese presence in the Colombo Port, by raising anti-Indian sentiments against any Indian participation in the Colombo Port City Project.

India has a natural interest in having a significant presence in the Colombo Port. The overwhelming share of revenues for the port is generated by goods being transferred to and from Indian ports, including items, which have a bearing on India’s national security. An exclusive Chinese presence in the Port would, therefore, be matter of serious concern.

India’s involvement in the expansion of the Colombo Port City, together with a Japanese presence to improve the terms of funding, would make sense for Sri Lanka, given the exploitative terms of Chinese funding and “aid”, which led Sri Lanka into a “debt trap”. Taking control of the areas of projects that it undertakes across the world, as it did in Sri Lanka, following the construction of the Hambantota Port, in Southern Sri Lanka, is a Chinese speciality, whether in Sri Lanka, Kenya, Tanzania or Ethiopia. With SAARC now non-functional, New Delhi would be well advised to activate the BIMSTEC forum, bringing together its Eastern SAARC and ASEAN neighbours, to promote economic and security cooperation, across the Bay of Bengal.

As India prepares to expand security cooperation across the Indo-Pacific region through the “Quad”, where it partners the US, Japan and Australia, the time has come to promote greater cooperation between the members of the “Quad” and Sri Lanka. The US and its allies will have to be persuaded that they should end their counterproductive economic and other sanctions on Sri Lanka, imposed when the conflict with the LTTE, was drawing to an end.

Sri Lanka today needs assistance from the US and its European allies and multilateral organisations like the World Bank and Asian Development Bank, to ensure that it does not land itself in another Chinese “debt trap” like it did, thanks to Chinese “assistance,” in the Hambantota Port project.
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Re: Sri Lanka - News and Discussion- Post PM appointment crisis

Post by Arima »

victory for Indian Foreign Policy.

Sri Lanka Will Adopt "India First Approach", Says Top Diplomat: Report

https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/will-ad ... e-bigstory
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Re: Sri Lanka - News and Discussion- Post PM appointment crisis

Post by nvishal »

Arima wrote:victory for Indian Foreign Policy.
Yes, victory after SL already signed a 99 yr lease with the Chinese who have already started docking their submarines there.
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Re: Sri Lanka - News and Discussion- Post PM appointment crisis

Post by Manish_P »

Looking for us to pay off their debts to the Chinese?
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Re: Sri Lanka - News and Discussion- Post PM appointment crisis

Post by Lisa »

nvishal wrote:
Arima wrote:victory for Indian Foreign Policy.
Yes, victory after SL already signed a 99 yr lease with the Chinese who have already started docking their submarines there.
Do you have a link for this news?
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Re: Sri Lanka - News and Discussion- Post PM appointment crisis

Post by chetak »

Manish_P wrote:Looking for us to pay off their debts to the Chinese?
yes.

how many more times are we goin to get fooled by these same sinhala guys
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Re: Sri Lanka - News and Discussion- Post PM appointment crisis

Post by pushkar.bhat »

The Sri Lankan's are very concerned about Greater Andaman transshipment port. The Sri Lankans realize that if the Port actually comes up then Hambantota and also Sri Lanka's sovereignty will become a football between China and India. They clearly know that India will not repay their debt but can definitely ensure that the port becomes a ghost port and also an albatross around the Sri Lankan PM's neck.
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Re: Sri Lanka - News and Discussion- Post PM appointment crisis

Post by chetak »

Arima wrote:victory for Indian Foreign Policy.

Sri Lanka Will Adopt "India First Approach", Says Top Diplomat: Report

https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/will-ad ... e-bigstory
these are sinhala politicos, the most devious in the world.

we got taken in once.
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Re: Sri Lanka - News and Discussion- Post PM appointment crisis

Post by chetak »

pushkar.bhat wrote:The Sri Lankan's are very concerned about Greater Andaman transshipment port. The Sri Lankans realize that if the Port actually comes up then Hambantota and also Sri Lanka's sovereignty will become a football between China and India. They clearly know that India will not repay their debt but can definitely ensure that the port becomes a ghost port and also an albatross around the Sri Lankan PM's neck.
let's first develop this port.

then we can talk.

This will hurt lanka's interests is a given but it will also burden the chinese even more to balance this

colombo has drawn container traffic away from many Indian ports and every upgrade they make to infrastructure in colombo, it hurts our commercial and maritime interests even more.

How comes no one talks of this particular aspect of Indo lanka relationship
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Re: Sri Lanka - News and Discussion- Post PM appointment crisis

Post by pushkar.bhat »

We did look the other way as container traffic was being diverted from Indian ports to Colombo. That is a fact but perhaps you cannot take away the location of Colombo as a very convenient transshipment point specially for vessels in the IOR.

BTW no-one stopped India from developing their own ports so don't cry about developments in Colombo hurting India. Improve the efficiency of VOC, JNPT, MPT, and then we can speak if all things are equal.

Also Chetak have you interacted by Sri Lankans or visited them? just asking?
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Re: Sri Lanka - News and Discussion- Post PM appointment crisis

Post by chetak »

pushkar.bhat wrote:We did look the other way as container traffic was being diverted from Indian ports to Colombo. That is a fact but perhaps you cannot take away the location of Colombo as a very convenient transshipment point specially for vessels in the IOR.

BTW no-one stopped India from developing their own ports so don't cry about developments in Colombo hurting India. Improve the efficiency of VOC, JNPT, MPT, and then we can speak if all things are equal.

Also Chetak have you interacted by Sri Lankans or visited them? just asking?

starting from 1987 and over the years, very much more than I would have liked or even preferred.

our own foolishness has helped to develop colombo port. we have allowed the "big brother syndrome" to cloud our objectives and every single one of our neighbors have used this extreme naivety on India's part to pull wool over our eyes over the decades. we were made to forget that the primary responsibility of the GoI was the people and infrastructure in India and neighbors came much later, indeed if at all. look at the mess the congis, commies and the babuz have made in nepal, SL and BD

this has always been a cultural as well as a civilizational drawback as was ably demonstrated way back by one prithviraj chauhan and we have yet to internalize the lesson learned from that fiasco.

even the pakis have played this card over and over again while mounting terrorist attacks against us. How can we forget the pakis commandeering Indian medical facilities at will by just one tweet to our erstwhile foreign minister while poor and middleclass Indians had no such free and unrestricted access. A huge percentage of the paki medical bills in India are picked up by Indian NGOs while they do not care to extend the same courtsey for poor Indians in dire need.

Now that for the first time we have substantially blocked off cross border trade with the pakis, they are really in the schitt with domestic vegetable and other prices going through the roof.

otherwise the excuse used for decades by the congis was that either the punjabis would suffer or the kashmiris would suffer and trade is anyway to our benefit. This was the janus faced strategy of the kababing, ghazaling and hobnobbing with embassy trash type of lootyens liberandus, champagne communistas and track thoo aspiring babuz driven foreign policy encouraged by the BIF west and used by the muslim vote bank politicians to fool the ordinary Indians.

the lankans have forever been expecting India to build a land and rail bridge from India to lanka and gift it to them so that they can stroll across to India at their sweet will. Thankfully TN has refused to allow landfall for such a monstrosity in their state and that leaves the option to another state.

They are very sure that in the fullness of time, India with it's muddleheaded and confused foreign policy, will, as a "big brother", oblige them.

a majority of the sinhala lankans are deeply contemptuous of India and Indians and actually look down on us.
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Re: Sri Lanka - News and Discussion- Post PM appointment crisis

Post by Philip »

Victory for Indian diplomacy ,my a* se! After allowing the Hambantora deal to go through with the PRC,so inimical to India,
to claim a " victory" just because one Lankan says that they " put India first", is to beggar belief! It is the same asinine attitude that allowed the PRC to deceive us for decades leading to the crisis today. We ,our MEA believed all the BS spouted out by the PRC over decades while their mission creep carried on unabated, encouraging them to press even further.
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Re: Sri Lanka - News and Discussion- Post PM appointment crisis

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Sri Lanka: Parliamentary Group of ruling party approves proposal to ban cow slaughter
https://www.opindia.com/2020/09/sri-lan ... slaughter/
The Parliamentary Group of the ruling party in Sri Lanka has approved a proposal banning cow slaughter in the country. The proposal was put forward by Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa. In the meeting of the Parliamentary Group of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), the ruling front, PM Rajapaksa had expressed the hope of banning cow slaughter.

Reportedly, his proposal was lauded by all the SLPP MPs. The meeting of the Parliamentary Group took place at 11 am at the Parliamentary premises today. Talking about the proposal, the Sri Lankan PM said that the proposal was quite old and existed since the time of Anagarika Dharmpala, a Buddhist revivalist and nationalist leader. “This is a proposal that exists since the time of nationalist leader Anagarika Dharmpala. No government was able to legislate against it,” Rajapaksa said.
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Re: Sri Lanka - News and Discussion- Post PM appointment crisis

Post by Tuan »

My latest for the Geopolitics...

Sri Lankan War Wounds Still Not Healed
https://thegeopolitics.com/sri-lankan-w ... ot-healed/
After more than 25 years of tense, protracted, and bloody civil war, the guns fell silent in Sri Lanka. In May of 2009 the military defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), commonly known as Tamil Tigers, gave Sri Lanka the golden opportunity to unite the divided island nation. Unfortunately, this never happened. The war was over; nevertheless, the conflict between the minority Tamils and majority Sinhalese has been gradually worsening and they were back to square one this week over the arrest of a pro-LTTE Tamil Member of Parliament — M.K. Shivajilingam — for allegedly commemorating an LTTE steward who died in a September 1987 hunger strike on the aftermath of the failed India-Sri Lanka Accord.

Tamil advocacy groups have previously warned that the proclamation of “victory” over the Tamil Tigers would be a political blunder that would contradict the structural roots of the ethnic conflict in the country. People for Equality and Relief in Lanka (PEARL) issued a statement warning the Sri Lankan Government that the decades old ethnic “conflict is far from over, and if the international community wishes to see decades of violence end in a just peace, it must act to acknowledge both the suffering and the rights of the Tamil community.” PEARL’s statement should be viewed with caution given the recent developments in Sri Lanka, such as the Tamil politicians’ vehement attempt to exploit the arrest of the MP to leverage their strength of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s Sinhala-nationalist majority government.

At the peak of this commemoration controversy, pro-government scholar and international expert on terrorism, Dr. Rohan Gunaratna, now an Honorary Professor at the Sir John Kotelawala Defense University, responded defiantly, which antagonized the Tamil politicians. “Those who glorify terrorists should be arrested, charged, tried and given the maximum punishment to deter others from following their destructive path. It will deter others funded by LTTE front organizations in the Tamil Diaspora from reviving the separatist agenda of the LTTE,” Dr. Gunaratna stated.

Dr. Gunaratna continued by warning that, “If a democracy permits display of terrorist paraphernalia and allows the dissemination of propaganda, the next step will be protests and demonstrations breaking out into violence. Like the Islamic State and al Qaeda, LTTE glorified death. If commemoration and celebration of death are permitted, it will lead to a culture of destruction.” He also emphasized that “It is essential for the government to relist the delisted LTTE fronts overseas, as some of them are operating in Sri Lanka.” And recommended that “the security and intelligence platform in Sri Lanka’s north and east should continue for one generation until the separatist ideology disappears.”

Dr. Gunaratna is perhaps stating the obvious. He is an academic striving to relate to real life situations. Terrorism that is rooted in inequality of a grieved man can best be combated by addressing political grievances. Further, Dr. Gunaratna has no solidarity with the Tamil community other than professional acquaintances.

To make matters worse, as a Sinhala Buddhist scholar, Dr. Gunaratna is obviously biased against Tamil Hindus. Moreover, he is trying to address the symptoms of an issue, and in carrying it to an extreme, may cause other injuries and another set of symptoms with which others may have to content. However, one cannot deny Dr. Gunaratna’s right to state what he wants. He is heading a counterterrorism think tank, not a policy institute or academic institution focused on stability or sustainable peace. A butcher can only sell beef; he does not understand fish. It is also irrational to expect the butcher to serve up a tasty beef curry, since that requires a chef. A surgeon will always find an excuse to use the blade, whereas a natural medicine physician will try to heal slowly when it comes to other wounds and issues.

The mainstream view among security practitioners, scholars and government agencies is that terrorism is wrong and undesirable, and that it is crucial to have effective policies which can eradicate or at least minimize terrorist incidences. However, just as there are varied conceptualizations of definitions of terrorism, so are there varied perspectives on how nation-states should deal with terrorist acts.

Theories about the underlying causes of terrorism have also influenced how nation-states counter terrorism. Many scholars argue that a combination of push and pull factors are the underlying causes of terrorism. On one hand, push factors refer to adverse elements within one’s social surroundings which are likely to propel a vulnerable individual toward terrorism. They include factors such as poverty and unemployment, as well as perceptions of discrimination and political or economic marginalization. On the other hand, pull factors are ideational and psychological and are used to understand why recruits are attracted to terrorist groups. In this context, terrorist recruits may join groups they believe will give them a sense of belonging, as well as prospects of socialization benefits — such as fame and glory — that could be accrued by joining a terrorist group.

Many countries have implemented Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) projects to address the push and pull factors that lead to radicalization. The underlying rationale of CVE is that military force and extraordinary legal measures cannot on their own be used to resolve the underlying causes of terrorism. CVE focuses more on community engagement activities, including:

1. Tolerance-building dialogues through interfaith cooperation;

2. Trust-building between local law-enforcement agencies and their respective communities;

3. Political inclusion through civic engagement opportunities and community service;

4. Organizing community forums to educate young people about the dangers of extremism and

5. Training credible voices within communities, such as mothers, as advocates to counter the messages of recruiters.

During the course of nearly 40 years since the armed conflict erupted in July 1983, more than 150,000 lives have been lost in the conflict in the exotic island nation of Sri Lanka. Of course, one cannot expect the Sinhalese and Tamils to forget their past and live harmoniously as has happened in South Africa. It will take time. Now it is a country in transition. The incumbent government should give the ethnic Tamil minority reasonable autonomy, perhaps within a federal system such as Canada’s, after the rehabilitation of the displaced people and reconstruction of the war-ravaged north and east.

Most of the 300,000 displaced Tamils have not yet been resettled in their original homes. New homes are still being built with the Indian government’s assistance. Although the rail track from Colombo to Jaffna has been repaired, the long-missed Yaldevi has resumed service, and an international airport in Jaffna has opened, the north and east of Sri Lanka remains underdeveloped and disconnected from the rest of the wider world.

The international community should help rebuild and reconnect the war-ravaged northern and eastern parts of Sri Lanka. Simultaneously, the international community must also help speed up the war crime investigations and probe thousands of forced disappearances of Tamil youth. Only when the wounds of the war heal will there be the right climate for a political settlement.

Canadian politician Tommy Douglas reminded us of the salient issues in his political allegory “Mouseland” about a troubled village of mice ruled by cats. The mice voted in black cats that represented the right-wing political parties on the spectrum, and then they discovered how hard life was. Next they voted in the white cats, that symbolized the left-wing parties, and things were different, but still not ideal for mice because the government was still run by cats. As the story continues, a mouse had the idea that mice should run their own government, not cats. This mouse was accused of being a Bolshevik and was imprisoned. The moral of the story: you can lock up a mouse or a person, but you cannot lock up an idea.

The LTTE may have been defeated militarily, but it was none other than former President Chandrika Bandaranaike who boldly stated that the LTTE was only the symptom and not the disease. The Tamils have a problem which will continue even after the LTTE is defeated, she declared after surviving an assassination attempt on her. The present and future rulers should remember and address the Tamil problem if they want lasting peace in Sri Lanka.

Armed resistance is born in an extreme state of oppression. Militants can be eliminated, but militancy cannot in turn be eliminated as long as the underlying causes remain. Man does not live by bread alone. When all citizens are treated politically equal and there is no glaring disparity between the rich and the poor, only then will lasting peace be attained.
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Re: Sri Lanka - News and Discussion- Post PM appointment crisis

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Sri Lankan minister criticizes India for power-sharing call - The Washington Post
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/as ... story.html
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China grants $90M to Sri Lanka after visit by top official
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wi ... l-73548617
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka -- China announced Sunday that it was providing a $90 million grant to Sri Lanka, two days after the island nation's president sought help from a visiting Chinese delegation in disproving a perception that China-funded megaprojects are “debt traps.”

Calling the financial assistance a “timely grant,” the Chinese Embassy in Colombo said that it would be used for medical care, education and water supplies in Sri Lanka's rural areas. and that it would “contribute to the well-being of (Sri Lankans) in a post-COVID era.”

The announcement follows a visit to the Indian Ocean island nation Friday by a Chinese delegation led by Yang Jiechi, a Communist Party Politburo member and a former foreign minister.

During talks with Yang, Sri Lankan President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa asked China to help him in disproving a perception that China-funded megaprojects are “debt traps” aimed at gaining influence in local affairs.

China considers Sri Lanka to be a critical link in its massive “Belt and Road” global infrastructure building initiative and has provided billions of dollars in loans for Sri Lankan projects over the past decade. The projects include a seaport, airport, port-city, highways and power stations.

Critics say that the Chinese-funded projects are not financially viable and that Sri Lanka will face difficulties in repaying the loans.

In 2017, Sri Lanka leased out a Chinese-built port located near busy shipping routes to a Chinese company for 99 years to recover from the heavy burden of repaying the Chinese loan the country received to build it.

The facility is part of Beijing’s plan for a line of ports stretching from Chinese waters to the Persian Gulf. China has also agreed to provide a $989 million loan to Sri Lanka to build an expressway that will connect its tea-growing central region to the Chinese-run seaport.

China expanded its footprint in Sri Lanka during the leadership of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, the older brother of the current leader. Mahinda Rajakapaksa, who is currently prime minister, held separate talks with Yang on Friday.

China’s economic influence over Sri Lanka has worried its closest neighbor, India, which considers the Indian Ocean region to be its strategic backyard.

Yang’s visit came days after the top diplomats of four Indo-Pacific nations — the U.S., Japan, India and Australia — met in Tokyo to increase their involvement in a regional initiative called “Free and Open Indo-Pacific” aimed at countering China’s growing assertiveness in the region.
Last edited by Tuan on 12 Oct 2020 22:31, edited 1 time in total.
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