Bharat Rakshak

Chennai: A group of Indian fishermen were attacked allegedly by Sri Lankan Navy personnel last night for allegedly trespassing into the island nation's territorial waters. One of the fishermen has been injured.
The fishermen have denied that they trespassed into Lankan waters. Stones were allegedly thrown and their nets were torn.

Authorities said there is no formal complaint yet and that they are investigating the incident. "All the fishermen have returned to the shore. None has given a complaint," a senior officer told NDTV.

The book details how KMS, at the suggestion of Thatcher-era politicians, trained a Sri Lankan police unit called the Special Task Force, which used ruthless methods during the civil war, including a 1987 massacre at a prawn farm in Kokkadicholai, eastern Sri Lanka, in which 85 Tamil civilians died.

It also allegedly provided or flew helicopter gunships that took part in massacres. One of the diplomats who appears to have been aware of KMS’s role was Sir Anthony Parsons, a former British ambassador to Tehran and later a part-time special adviser to Margaret Thatcher. He died in 1996.
The UK was concerned that many of the Tamil separatists had communist sympathies and would be open to Russian influence.

An internationally released report exposes the creeping take over of civil administration by security force commanders in Sri Lanka within just over a year of the second Rajapaksa rule.

A CHART published by the International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP) jointly with JDS names 39 mainly army officers recently given key positions of state by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, himself an ex-army officer.

The statement follows:

JOINT PRESS RELEASE: From the Battlefield to the Boardroom – the militarisation of Sri Lanka.

Johannesburg: Dozens of retired military officers are taking over the civil service in Sri Lanka, said journalists and lawyers outside the country. A CHART published by the International Truth and Justice Project and Journalists for Democracy Sri Lanka names 38 mainly army officers recently given key positions of state by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, himself an ex army officer.

“This is a creeping take over,” said the ITJP’s Executive Director, Yasmin Sooka, “add to this the centralisation of power in the hands of the President, the nepotism, the cronyism and the appointment to government positions of a shocking number of individuals who still had court cases against them at the time.This amounts to a coup by stealth. Democracy is being steadily eroded.”

The chart shows loyal military officers exert control over the COVID response, the police, the intelligence services, the prisons, foreign policy, airports, sea ports, customs, utilities, agriculture, fisheries, land development, wildlife protection, and last but not least, the Bribery Commission.

“This is unprecedented militarisation of the state apparatus. Retired and serving military officers have taken over administrative posts, party positions and hefty ministerial portfolios – this will decisively mark the end of the civilian character of the state,” warned Bashana Abeywardane of Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka. ”The military stands accused of committing unspeakable crimes against the country's civilian population for over three decades; allowing them to consolidate their power in political and administrative spheres will be irreversible”.

Tuan wrote:I co-authored and translated this article with Adrien Fontanellaz, a notable researcher and Swiss military historian for a French defense magazine. The article was originally published by the Défense et Sécurité Internationale (DSI) magazine. The DSI is a Paris-based leading French monthly publication specializing in defense, geostrategy, and armaments issues.

Spy Tigers: The LTTE Intelligence Wing

Dilbu wrote:Indian Fishermen Attacked Allegedly By Lanka Navy Over Trespass, 1 Hurt

Chennai: A group of Indian fishermen were attacked allegedly by Sri Lankan Navy personnel last night for allegedly trespassing into the island nation's territorial waters. One of the fishermen has been injured.
The fishermen have denied that they trespassed into Lankan waters. Stones were allegedly thrown and their nets were torn.

Authorities said there is no formal complaint yet and that they are investigating the incident. "All the fishermen have returned to the shore. None has given a complaint," a senior officer told NDTV.

Dilbu wrote:Indian Fishermen Attacked Allegedly By Lanka Navy Over Trespass, 1 Hurt

Chennai: A group of Indian fishermen were attacked allegedly by Sri Lankan Navy personnel last night for allegedly trespassing into the island nation's territorial waters. One of the fishermen has been injured.
The fishermen have denied that they trespassed into Lankan waters. Stones were allegedly thrown and their nets were torn.

Authorities said there is no formal complaint yet and that they are investigating the incident. "All the fishermen have returned to the shore. None has given a complaint," a senior officer told NDTV.

Sri Lanka’s grim record is under scrutiny at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, so the government of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has announced yet another internal inquiry. Foreign governments should not be swayed by this disingenuous attempt to avert urgently needed international action.

There have been at least a dozen domestic commissions of inquiry during the decades of Sri Lanka’s civil war, often created to forestall international pressure on human rights. None has led to prosecutions, or helped families trace missing relatives. Their findings have often gone unpublished, and recommendations never implemented. International observers, UN experts, and the UN high commissioner for human rights have repeatedly highlighted deep systemic problems in Sri Lanka’s judicial processes.

The Human Rights Council has engaged on Sri Lanka for years. Atrocities at the end of the war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam shocked the world in 2009, and a series of UN reports found evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity. In 2012 the council passed a resolution calling on Sri Lanka to implement recommendations of an earlier inquiry. When that did not happen, it recognized the need for an international role to address international crimes.

In 2015 Sri Lanka joined a consensus resolution of the Human Rights Council with commitments to ensure truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence including an accountability mechanism involving international judges, prosecutors, investigators, and defense lawyers. There was progress, albeit slow, which encouraged the council to extend the mandate.

But in November 2019, Gotabaya Rajapaksa was elected president and quickly reversed that progress. Last February, the government said it would no longer honor its commitments in the council resolution. This is not surprising. As defense secretary between 2005-2015, Rajapaksa is implicated in many of the worst abuses. As president he has appointed alleged perpetrators to senior positions, and even pardoned one of the few soldiers ever jailed for killing civilians.

Fear has returned to Sri Lanka as victims of past abuses, activists, journalists, lawyers, and even police investigators and are silenced. Rajapaska’s government has persecuted vulnerable minorities, and this month it demolished a monument to Tamil civilian victims of the war.

The warning signs are obvious. It is crucial that the Human Rights Council adopts a new resolution to ensure continued monitoring, as well as the collection, analysis, and preservation of evidence for future prosecutions. Member countries should not be swayed by the latest outrage or false promises of Sri Lanka’s government.

Philip wrote:Partlt true,as control of India is the strat. prize,enticing us into the Quad, attempting to capture our defence industry,etc.
However,SL is once more under the yoke of the Rajapakses,where the slayer of the Eelam demon is the ruling despot who is each day bringing in more stringent control of the population and stifling dissent. The Chins are reaping rich rewards for supporting the familia to the hilt.Our miserable,myopic ,midgets of the MEA let the ball drop after MR lost his election in 2014. We had 6 years in which to rid the island of Chin influence and turn the screw on the Sirisena-Ranil misfit regime when we were holding the best cards in our hand.

We now have a real task on our hands to limit Chin influrnce and expansion, but the same MEA myopic mentality remains. Asininely the Delhiwallahs look at SL only through Tamilian interest eyes. Some bizarre notion that they can keep TNadu under control and north Indian domination by the SL regime throwing some crumbs to the Tamils. The truth is that the northern Tamils are mentally as different a species from S.Indian Tamils as a Delhiwallah is from a Bombaywallah. 75% of the population are Sinhala speaking Buddhists.Precious little has been dond to woo them over the last 40 years when the ethnic conflict first erupted in our time. We are making the same mistakes diplomatically that wf did 4 decades ago. Whatdo they say about history repeating itself? "The first time a tragedy,the second time a farce."

Philip wrote:A massive haul of heroin,etc. worth over 1000cr. was recently seized by the security agencies in TN,from SL drug smugglers operating with feku p' ports. Ties to Pak and drug cartels abroad exposed.Needless to say the two were jihadi scum. The Pakis have for several decades been using SL to destabilise India,drun running,fake currency and espionage ops.Both TN ,and Kerala v.vulnerable apart from the other southern states which have several v.sensitive defence industries and establishments.
The Europeans penetrated India from the south,it's soft underbelly.SL is the gateway to destabilising India from the arrival of Vasco da Gama 500+ years ago to Cold War days with US mischief ,continuing today with the Sino- Pak campaign tocdestroy India.

The UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) must take urgent steps to address the worsening human rights situation in Sri Lanka, said Amnesty International, following the release of a damning UN report on the country’s efforts to ensure accountability for crimes committed during the civil conflict.

Almost twelve years on from the end of Sri Lanka’s civil war, the report, from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), warns that the country’s persistent failure to address historic crimes is giving way to ‘clear early warning signs of a deteriorating human rights situation and a significantly heightened risk of future violations.’

In February 2020, the Sri Lankan government announced that it would no longer cooperate with the UNHRCs landmark resolution 30/1, which promotes reconciliation, accountability, and human rights in the country, and would instead pursue its own reconciliation and accountability process.

“This report lays bare Sri Lanka’s abject record on delivering justice and accountability and the decaying effect this has had on human rights in the country. The seriousness of these findings highlights the urgent need for the UN Human Rights Council to step up its efforts in Sri Lanka,” said David Griffiths, Director of the Office of the Secretary General at Amnesty International.

“For more than a decade, domestic processes have manifestly failed thousands of victims and their families. Given the government’s decision to walk away from resolution 30/1, and regression on the limited progress that had been made, the Human Rights Council must send a clear message that accountability will be pursued with or without the cooperation of the government.”

Amnesty International is calling on the UN Human Rights Council to implement the report’s key recommendations to put in place more stringent oversight on Sri Lanka, including more robust monitoring and reporting on the human rights situation, and the collection and preservation of evidence for future prosecutions.

The report, which accuses Sri Lanka of being in a ‘state of denial about the past’, details how the failure of domestic mechanisms has further entrenched impunity, exacerbating victims’ distrust in the system. Among a litany of failures, the report addresses the rollback of 2015 reforms that offered more checks and balances on executive power, the erosion of judicial and institutional independence, and the failure to reform the security sector and remove and hold to account those responsible for alleged grave crimes and human rights violations.

The report also offers a withering assessment of regression in other human rights areas, including the increasing marginalisation of Tamil and Muslim minorities, fuelled by divisive and discriminatory rhetoric from state officials, and a shrinking space for civil society, including independent media.

All eyes will be on Canada, Germany, Montenegro, North Macedonia and the UK, who are expected to present a resolution on Sri Lanka at the UN session starting next month.

“The onus is now on these countries, with the support of other UNHRC member states, to present a meaningful proposal that responds credibly to the damning findings and concrete recommendations of this UN report, by putting the Sri Lankan government under proper scrutiny and once again working towards an accountability process agreed at the international level,” said David Griffiths.

“UN member states should learn from past experience, and this time heed the early warning indicators identified by the UN’s top human rights official.”

Background

The OHCHR report, published on 27 January 2021, is available to download here: The Human Rights Council will meet for its 46th session from 22 February to 23 March, during which Canada, Germany, Montenegro, North Macedonia and the UK – the current core group of states leading on Sri Lanka – are expected to present a resolution in follow-up to the OHCHR report.

Amnesty International published an assessment of the situation in Sri Lanka, setting out clear expectations for HRC action, earlier this month. The High Commissioner’s report supports the call for more robust monitoring and reporting on the situation, as well as the collection and preservation of evidence for future prosecutions.

Sri Lanka has a long history of domestic Commissions of Inquiry that have repeatedly failed to deliver justice and reconciliation for victims of human rights violations. Findings of past commissions have not led to any prosecutions of those responsible for atrocities. Amnesty International has documented these processes in the past.

(Geneva) – The United Nations Human Rights Council, at its upcoming session, should act on the recommendations of the UN high commissioner for human rights, Human Rights Watch said today. The council should adopt a new resolution to enhance scrutiny of Sri Lanka’s deteriorating human rights situation and pursue accountability for past and recent violations.

In her report released on January 27, 2021, High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said she was “alarmed” by Sri Lanka’s deteriorating human rights situation and set out steps that the Human Rights Council should take to confront the growing risk of future violations. Since the government of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has withdrawn its support for the 2015 consensus resolution seeking justice and reconciliation, and shown general disregard for upholding basic human rights, the council should act to protect those most at risk and advance accountability for grave international crimes, Human Rights Watch said.

“The UN high commissioner’s report highlights Sri Lanka’s egregious record of complete impunity for appalling crimes, and very disturbing developments under the Rajapaksa administration,” said John Fisher, Geneva director. “The Human Rights Council has given Sri Lanka every opportunity to address these issues over many years, and now greater international involvement is needed to help protect vulnerable groups and hold those responsible for grave international crimes to account.”

During the final months of the civil war between the government and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which ended in May 2009, both sides committed atrocities that killed tens of thousands of civilians. UN investigators found that these atrocities may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity. Grave abuses included summary executions, torture, rape, and the murder and enforced disappearance of journalists and activists.

Many senior figures implicated in those abuses returned to government following the election of Gotabaya Rajapaksa in 2019. The UN high commissioner found that “Sri Lanka remains in a state of denial about the past, with truth-seeking efforts aborted and the highest State officials refusing to make any acknowledgement of past crimes.”

The high commissioner described “a deepening and accelerating militarization of civilian government functions.” Since 2020, she wrote, “The President has appointed at least 28 serving or former military and intelligence personnel to key administrative posts,” including senior military officials who have been alleged in UN reports to be implicated in alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. Among them are the defense secretary, Gen. Kamal Gunaratne, who commanded the 53rd Division at the end of the civil war, and the chief of defense staff, Gen. Shavendra Silva, who is banned from traveling to the United States due to his alleged involvement in extrajudicial killings.

In the 2015 Human Rights Council resolution 30/1, the previous Sri Lankan government agreed to adopt measures to ensure truth telling, reparations, security sector reform, and justice through a hybrid mechanism including international investigators, prosecutors, and judges. In February 2020, three months after Rajapaksa won the presidential election, his government renounced those commitments.

The high commissioner drew attention in her report to the growing dangers vulnerable minority groups face. Rajapaksa set up an advisory council on governance consisting of senior Buddhist monks, established a task force on the sensitive issue of archaeological heritage management that consisted almost entirely of Sinhalese members, and under the pretext of Covid-19, mandated cremations for all deaths, groundlessly preventing Muslims from practicing their own burial rites.

The high commissioner described how counterterrorism laws have been used to “stifle legitimate activities” of civil society organizations. She noted that as of December, over 40 civil society organizations had approached the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights with reports of harassment, surveillance, and repeated scrutiny by various security services.

Bachelet expressed concern that the 20th amendment to the constitution, adopted in October, “has fundamentally eroded the independence of key commissions and institutions, including the HRCSL [Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka], the Election Commission, the National Police Commission and the judiciary.”

On January 21, Sri Lanka announced a new commission of inquiry to examine the findings of previous domestic inquiries, which the government proposes as an alternative to Human Rights Council action. Bachelet noted that “[n]umerous commissions of inquiry appointed by successive governments failed to credibly establish truth and ensure accountability.” She said that the current government “has proactively obstructed or sought to stop ongoing investigations and criminal trials to prevent accountability for past crimes.”

A commission appointed in January 2020 “intervened in favour of military intelligence officers in ongoing judicial proceedings … withholding documentary evidence, [and] threatening prosecutors with legal action.” Meanwhile, “not a single emblematic case has been brought to a successful conclusion or conviction.”

Bachelet concluded that “trends emerging over the past year … represent clear early warning signs of a deteriorating human rights situation and a significantly heightened risk of future violations, and therefore calls for strong preventive action.” She said that once again the Human Rights Council is at “a critical turning point” in its dealings with Sri Lanka. Twice previously the council supported domestic accountability and reconciliation initiatives. “The Government has now demonstrated its inability and unwillingness to pursue a meaningful path towards accountability for international crimes and serious human rights violations.”

Bachelet acknowledged that the current situation in Sri Lanka represents a stark test to the UN: “[T]he trends highlighted in this report represent yet again an important challenge for the United Nations, including the Human Rights Council, in terms of its prevention function.” An independent review of the UN’s actions in Sri Lanka in 2009 concluded there had been a systemic failure of the prevention agenda. “The international community must not repeat those mistakes, nor allow a precedent that would undermine its efforts to prevent and achieve accountability for grave violations in other contexts,” she wrote.

She said the Human Rights Council should enhance the high commissioner’s office’s monitoring and reporting on the situation in Sri Lanka, including on accountability, and “support a dedicated capacity to collect and preserve evidence for future accountability processes, to advocate for victims and survivors, and to support relevant judicial proceedings in Member States.” She also urged UN member countries to take action, by pursuing prosecutions of alleged Sri Lankan perpetrators in national courts under the principle of universal jurisdiction, and by imposing targeted sanctions, including travel bans and asset freezes, against alleged perpetrators.

“This strong and clear report by the high commissioner leaves no room for doubt about the situation in Sri Lanka, or what is at stake when the Human Rights Council considers a new resolution in a few weeks’ time,” Fisher said. “Member states should draft and adopt a strong resolution that protects vulnerable people in Sri Lanka, advances justice for international crimes, and shows that the council is able to respond to challenges posed by the Sri Lankan government.”

Philip wrote:Yet again our wonderful MEA have been royally shafted by the Sri Lankan fuhrer ,the Goat,Gotabhaya Rajapkse.He has cancelled the tri-partite port development agreement between SL,India and Japan. All the while he signs on multiple mega projects with his Chinko masters.This malodorous Chink pimp is turning SL into a Chink colony, gravely affecting Indian security. The Colombo port development,the huge Port City project is effectively Chink territory. In fact SL is more vulnerable than the Pakis in being takenover de-facto that the Pakis.

Our myopic,mentally meandering mandarins of the MEA have repeatedly dropped the ball in SL. The time is long past for India to turn the screws in SL by showing its military mettle in the region.Destabilising the fascist, autocracy of the Rajapakse familia and a med. to long-term masterplan to establish a permanent footprint on the island is inevitable.
Remember that we lost India to the Europeans from our soft underbelly,the south,from the Indian Ocean,where China plans to diminate the littoral nations,controlling them and fncircling India militarily.

Bart S wrote:This is actually a good opportunity for course-correction. This port was actually a concession to Sri Lanka to let them retain their transshipment business (of which India is the main customer). Time to bring this function home with Adani and other ports being developed in the KL and TN. This should have been done decades ago anyway. If we do this their ports will go out of business.

chetak wrote:

Bart S wrote:This is actually a good opportunity for course-correction. This port was actually a concession to Sri Lanka to let them retain their transshipment business (of which India is the main customer). Time to bring this function home with Adani and other ports being developed in the KL and TN. This should have been done decades ago anyway. If we do this their ports will go out of business.

any port in KL will be totally union dominated and so under the control of extraneous forces.

any port in TN will be totally desert cult dominated as these guys now almost own the coastline

so, sirji, take your pick

Bart S wrote:

chetak wrote:
any port in KL will be totally union dominated and so under the control of extraneous forces.

any port in TN will be totally desert cult dominated as these guys now almost own the coastline

so, sirji, take your pick

Money talks louder than anything else so if the govt and pvt cos have any level of competence it should not be a problem. There is some issue or the other in every state but it's no excuse for inaction. Better pay off the union leaders (or in TN, whip up anti-Sinhala sentiment) etc than lose the business to SL (and by extension, China).

Sri Lanka’s president says he has received the final report of an inquiry commission investigating the 2019 Easter Sunday bomb attacks and vowed he will not allow anyone responsible for the deaths of more than 260 people to escape justice

Sri Lanka’s president said Thursday that he has received the final report of an inquiry commission investigating the 2019 Easter Sunday bomb attacks and vowed he will not allow anyone responsible for the deaths of more than 260 people escape justice.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa did not disclose what's in the report, saying only that he had already given instructions to implement its recommendations.

“We will not allow those responsible for designing and enabling this tragedy to escape justice. We will never allow extremism to raise its head again, in this country," he said in his address marking the country’s 73rd independence anniversary.

Two local Muslim groups that had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State were blamed for the coordinated suicide bombings in six places on April 21, 2019. More than 260 people, most of them worshippers at Easter services in three churches and foreign and local holidaymakers having breakfast in three hotels, were killed.

Political infighting leading to a communications breakdown between the then president and prime minister was cited as a cause for the security lapse despite near specific foreign intelligence warnings.
Both former President Maithripala Sirisena and former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe were summoned before the commission.

The attacks, which came after 10 years of peace following the end of a quarter-century civil war, enabled Rajapaksa to win the presidential election later in 2019 on a platform of national security and protecting the interests of the country's majority Buddhist Sinhalese.

Sri Lanka's Freedom Day, as the independence day is known, was marked by ethnic and religious polarization. Tamil political, civil and religious leaders took part in a protest parade for a second day Thursday, marching from the country's east to the north to demand solutions to minority issues.

The protesters want justice for those killed and disappeared during the civil war and release of those detained without trial on suspicion of terrorism.

They also accused the government of moves to alter the demographic makeup of Sri Lanka's north and east, which they consider their traditional homeland, by settling the Sinhalese population there. Tensions also rose after the government made compulsory the cremation of those who died of COVID-19, which has enraged Muslims, Sri Lanka's second largest minority.

In rare show of unity, Muslim leaders and civilians joined the Tamil protest march on Thursday. It is scheduled to end on Saturday in the north.

“I am a Sinhala Buddhist leader and I will never hesitate to state so," Rajapaksa said in his speech.

This article was originally published by “NATO Association of Canada” on May 25, 2020.

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. A large number of Tamil civilians, including infants and children under 10 years, who surrendered to the 58th army division, was 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’s 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 a 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 the war-crimes investigation by the UNHRC, reported roughly one month before the attacks clearly validate 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.

Yagnasri wrote:There are many ports in East Coast like Krishnapatnam which have excess capacity. We can use all of them to teach a lesson to KL.

Yagnasri wrote:There are many ports in East Coast like Krishnapatnam which have excess capacity. We can use all of them to teach a lesson to KL.

Tuan wrote:The essential argument lies within the fundamental political issues that have become port issues. Is India in favor of implementing the 13th Amendment to Sri Lanka`s constitution or the status quo? This is the underlying cause of Rajapakse et al.'s discontent. Given India’s geopolitical and geostrategic interests via-a-vis Sri Lanka, the best option, in my opinion, for New Delhi is to push Colombo to implement the 13th Amendment and reconnect India`s southern belly with northern and eastern Sri Lanka because the Trincomalee port will serve as more significant and strategic importance to India than Colombo port.

The External Affairs Minister bats for Sri Lankan Constitution’s 13th amendment that talks about devolution of power to the Tamil community.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Thursday said fulfilling the expectations of the Tamil people for equality, justice and peace within a united Sri Lanka will be in own interest of the island nation.

In response to a question in Rajya Sabha, Mr. Jaishankar said he reiterated India's support for the reconciliation process in Sri Lanka during his discussions with its top leaders in Colombo last month.

"It is in Sri Lanka's own interest that the expectations of the Tamil people for equality, justice, peace and dignity within a united Sri Lanka are fulfilled," he said. "That applies equally to the commitments made by the Sri Lankan government on meaningful devolution, including the 13th Amendment to the Constitution," the Minister said.

The 13th amendment provides for devolution of power to the Tamil community. India has been pressing Sri Lanka to implement the 13th amendment which was brought in after the Indo-Sri Lankan agreement of 1987.

Mr. Jaishankar held discussions with Sri Lanka’s President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and Foreign Minister Dinesh Gunawardena during his visit to Colombo from January 5-7.

"During my discussions, I reiterated that India's support for the reconciliation process in Sri Lanka is longstanding, as indeed for an inclusive political outlook that encourages ethnic harmony," he said in his written response.

The External Affairs Minister said India has consistently called upon Sri Lanka during bilateral discussions at all levels to fulfill its commitments on addressing the issues related to protecting the interest of Tamils in that country.

"India continues to remain engaged with Sri Lanka at all levels in its efforts to build a future that accommodates the aspirations of all sections of society, including the Sri Lankan Tamil community, for a life of equality, justice, peace and dignity within a united Sri Lanka," he added.

The issue had figured during a virtual summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Lankan counterpart Mahinda Rajapaksa in September last.

To a separate question, Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan said 74 Indian fishermen were arrested and 11 boats were confiscated by the Sri Lankan authorities last year.

"With sustained diplomatic efforts the government has secured the release of all these fishermen. At present, 12 Indian fishermen, arrested along with two boats in January are in Sri Lankan custody," he said.

The Minister said the fishermen have been provided consular and legal assistance by the Indian High Commission in Colombo and Consulate in Jaffna.

"Efforts are ongoing to secure the release of these fishermen. Presently, 62 boats of Indian fishermen are in Sri Lankan custody," he said.

Tuan wrote:It may well be a realpolitik, but from a historic and strategic point of view, India has been using the minority Tamil issue as leverage to kick back at Sinhala politicos against the US influence during the peak of the Cold War and now the rerun of the neo-Cold War crisis against a probable Chinese takeover of the island nation. Evidently, Hambantota is a signal.

The Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) settled a $ 400 million currency swap facility from the Reserve Bank (RBI) of India last week, meeting the terms that the two countries had agreed upon.

The update sparked speculation in local media that India may have “abruptly terminated” the agreement, following Colombo’s decision to pull out of a 2019 agreement to develop a Colombo Port terminal jointly with India and Japan.

However, both countries clarified that the developments were not linked. “The CBSL settled its swap facility with Reserve Bank of India as scheduled. There was no special request from India for a premature settlement as erroneously reported by certain media outlets. Discussions on future collaboration continue,” the Central Bank of Sri Lanka said in a tweet on Friday.

“The two countries had agreed on the date earlier, this scheduled repayment has nothing to do with the ECT decision,” Sri Lanka’s State Minister of Money and Capital Market and State Enterprise Reforms Ajith Nivard Cabraal told The Hindu.

The CBSL obtained the swap facility on July 31, 2020, for an initial period of three months, to cope with the severe economic impact of the pandemic. Subsequently, the RBI provided a three-month rollover at CBSL’s request, until February 1, 2021. “Further extension would require Sri Lanka having a successfully negotiated staff level agreement for an IMF programme, which Sri Lanka does not have at present,” a spokesman of the Indian High Commission said.

“It is reiterated that India abides by all of its international and bilateral commitments in letter and spirit,” he added, days after India urged the Sri Lankan leadership to adhere to Colombo’s commitments on the ECT.

Foreign reserves under strain
Covid-19 struck Sri Lanka in March 2020, putting its foreign reserves under strain since, as tourism, worker remittances and exports were badly hit. Sri Lanka’s looming foreign debt obligations -- $ 6.8 billion this year – and fall in gross official reserves to $ 5.6 billion as of December 31, 2020, according to Central Bank Data, foretell another challenging year.

However, the Rajapaksa administration has said it will not seek an IMF bailout. Colombo has instead sought further loans from China, among others, and additional currency swap facilities from both, India and China. Neither China nor India has responded to Colombo’s debt freeze request. Sri Lanka owes over $5 billion to China and $ 960 million to India in debt repayment.

Secretary to the Treasury S.R. Attygalle said Sri Lanka expects the $1.5 billion swap facility from China to come through soon. “The [bilateral] negotiations are nearly over, only the final paperwork is pending. We should be able to complete that by the end of this month,” he told The Hindu on Saturday.

The currency swap is only one of at least three requests Colombo has made to Beijing since the pandemic. Following approval of a $ 500 million loan from China in March 2020, the Sri Lankan government has sought an additional $700 million loan, in addition to applying for another ‘Covid-19 Emergency and Crisis Response Facility’, to the tune of $ 180 million, from the Beijing-backed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). “The negotiations are proceeding well,” a Chinese Embassy spokesman told The Hindu.

Meanwhile, amid questions over whether New Delhi would clear Colombo’s $ 1 billion swap line request, in the wake of the ECT deal falling through, an Indian official source said: “the request is under consideration.” State Minister Cabraal said: “Negotiations are going on, but even if India decides not to offer it, we will understand. The Indian Economy is also under grave pressure due to the pandemic, you see,” he told The Hindu.