Bharat Rakshak

The decision to restart work on the project was announced Thursday during Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe’s visit to Beijing. The move opens the door for additional Chinese investments, and helps China forward its goal of getting access to the Indian Ocean.

The Sri Lankan leader signed several other deals during his trip for railway, road, port and airport projects that would be constructed by Chinese companies in his country.
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Analysts said the Sri Lankan leader’s decision to resume work on the project is a desperate measure to stop his country from heading towards a debt trap. Sri Lanka is finding it extremely difficult to raise fresh funds from the world market after international ratings firms Fitch and Standard & Poor’s reduced the South Asian nation’s credit rating in February and March.

Sri Lanka wants China to reschedule past loans amounting to about $5 billion, and extend fresh loans. This includes Chinese finance for $1.6 billion to spend on a seaport and an airport in Hambantota, the home region of former Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who was known to be close to China.

Financial problems and the need for infrastructure funding were the main reasons behind Wickremasinghe’s decision to restart the Colombo Port City project, according to Weerakoon Dushni, deputy director at the Institute of Public Policy in Colombo. “Managing loan repayments is a major problem. Nearly half of Sri Lanka’s external debt has been raised on non-concessional and commercial terms,” she said adding, “We need to engage with China both in political and economic terms.”

Some experts believe Sri Lanka has approached China for help because India and the United States failed to provide assistance. “The major task for Sri Lanka’s current government is economic development. Yet after its attempt to reduce its reliance on Beijing, Colombo has realized that there is no alternative,” Zhao Gancheng, director of South Asia Studies at the Shanghai Institute for International Studies told the Global Times newspaper. “Over the past year, neither India nor the U.S. has provided it with attractive mega-projects that China did. It is therefore natural for Sri Lanka to turn around and embrace China again,” Zhao said.

The massive concert marked five decades of the charismatic singer’s career

It was 4.30 in the evening on Sunday and thousands had already queued up outside the municipal grounds here for a show that was to begin two hours later.

Jaffna has had its share of high-profile visitors from abroad, mostly politicians and diplomats, but none that has held a huge audience captive for five hours.

The excitement began that morning, when playback singer S.P. Balasubrahmanyam’s chopper landed in Jaffna. Eager fans had gathered near the landing area, looking skyward and holding their mobile cameras up. “I cannot repay their love,” SPB said on his Facebook page, sharing a photograph he had taken of the crowd.

Sell-out performance
Virtually every wall and lamp post in Jaffna town had a poster of SPB with composer Gangai Amaran. The long-time friends — 44 years, they said on stage — were in Sri Lanka for ‘Nanbenda’, a concert that presented glimpses of SPB’s sparkling career spanning 50 years. The singer has been touring different countries to celebrate the milestone with his fans and in Sri Lanka, he performed in Jaffna. The Tamil-majority town was torn apart in the island’s brutal civil war that ended in 2009. This was the first time SPB is in Jaffna, where he has fans across generations.

“Inda mannukku vanakkam!” (my salutations to this soil) the singer said, even his speaking voice evoking loud applause. “My salutations to all those who are not with us now, but are watching over from above,” he said to the nearly 10,000 people in the heartland of Sri Lanka's Northern Province where several thousand lives were lost during the ethnic strife.

The stage was set by the sea and the evening breeze swept over the grounds. A drone camera hovered above, buzzing away like a giant dragon fly determined to make a point. Adjoining the place was Jaffna’s newly-built police station where a few cops stood enjoying a ringside view of the performance.

If you go by the list, the show began with Gangai Amaran’s team, including Deepan Chakravarthy, S.N. Surender and Surmukhi, presenting the Ilayaraja super-hit ‘Janani…Janani’, followed by warm-up numbers. For the crowd, however, the concert began when SPB appeared on stage.

Classic tunes
He began with ‘Nada vinodangal’, the popular Salangai Oli number, setting the tone for the rest of the evening. The pace accelerated with ‘Megam Kottatum’, whose drum beats, for many of us, define the sound of the 1980s. ‘Vandanam’ from ‘Vaazhve Maayam’ soon followed with SPB doing even the hiccups — for the drunk protagonist played by Kamal Hassan — with the same vigour heard in the original three decades ago.

That is what stands out when SPB performs live. While most others are struggling to get pitch-perfect, SPB sounds like he is in a studio, his voice simply refusing to acknowledge the fatigue you would associate with 40,000 songs over five decades. The same charm as he belts out “Anjali…Anjali” in the higher octave, from the only A.R. Rahman song of the evening.

About three hours into the show, SPB presented a medley with samples from some of his most-loved numbers, varying the pace and style.

Shah Jahan, who works in a hotel, had made his way to the venue right on time. “I somehow wanted to make it today and hear him live; nobody sings like him!” said the 20-year-old.

“We wanted to organise a show that would entertain people in Jaffna. The world always looks at them as victims of a war, but they are also real people who like to sing and dance. We wanted something special for them,” Loganathan Suren, a manager with the local organiser Iyngaran Media Solutions, told The Hindu. The organisers want the engagement to continue, perhaps by way of professional training across the Palk Bay. Gangai Amaran announced that he, along with SPB, would work towards setting up a music academy in Jaffna, where visiting artistes from India would work with aspiring musicians. The audience responded with evident restraint, as they did most of the evening.

They appeared to savour the music quietly from their seats. Listening to SPB sing ‘Idu oru pon malai pozhudu’, under a moon-lit sky and wrapped in a gentle breeze, was enough to feel content.

COLOMBO: A group of Sri Lankan Tamils have formed “Siva Senai” (Siva’s Amy) to enable Hindus to face “threats” from other religious groups in the island nation, says the Senai’s Lead Organizer, Maravanpulavu Sachchithananthan, a former UN official turned Tamil nationalist and publisher.

Speaking to Express on the meeting held in Vavuniya recently in which it was decided to form such an organization, Sachchithananthan clarified that the Sri Lankan “Siva Senai” has no links with the Siva Sena in India. He also denied that it is meant to be a militant group.

“It is based on the ancient Tamil dictum that all thought, word and deed should be based on Anbu (Love), Aram (Morality or Religion) or Arul (Grace). We will adopt the path of dialogue in resolving issues with other religious groups and take to action if necessary,” he said.

Asked why he feels an organization like Siva Senai is needed in Sri Lanka, Sachchithananthan said that the Hindus of Sri Lanka (who are all Saivites) face threats and challenges from Christians, Muslims and Buddhists.

“Our first objective is to stop conversion. We are for safeguarding Hindu temples from encroachments by other religions. For instance there is a huge church in front of the ancient Thiruketheeswaram temple in violation of an agreement entered into in the 1960s. In Mannar and Mullaitivu we face challenges from the Catholics and in Vavuniya it is from the Buddhists who are colonizing through the imposition of Buddhism. In the Eastern Province the Hindus face threats from Muslims,” he said.

Asked if the Siva Senai would not be hurting the Tamil cause by splitting the community on the basis religion, Sachchithananthan said: “For 60 years the Hindus of Sri Lanka have sacrificed their interest at the altar of Tamil unity and that cannot go on. The leadership of the Tamil movement has been dominated by Christians. Many in India would ask me if the Tamils of Sri Lanka are Christian!” he said.

On the political front, Siva Senai will push for due place for Hindus in the Tamil political parties and end the dominance of Christians.

“In Mullaitivu, which is 85 percent Hindu, political parties tend to thrust Christian candidates,” he pointed out.

The Sri Lankan Siva Senai would need external support Sachchithanantham said and added that he would expect to get funding from India and the Tamil Diaspora, in that order.

http://defencenews.in/article/Indias-Su ... sion-29028
India's Super-Sensitive Spaceport faces a Chinese privacy invasion
Wednesday, November 02, 2016
By: Asia Times

The decision by the Sri Lankan government to sell the deep sea port in Hambantota to a Chinese state-owned company should not have come as surprise to India. Since April at least, the topic was under discussion as a measure to reduce the country’s debt burden.

Yet, the surprise lies in India’s failure to forestall the deal. Some fundamental questions arise regarding the regional policies under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government.

A full-fledged, permanent Chinese “presence” in Hambantota cannot but affect the geopolitics of Indian Ocean region.

At its most obvious level, Hambantota becomes a hub of China’s proposed Maritime Silk Road in Indian Ocean. By the way, Colombo also proposes to hand over 6100 hecatres of land near Hambantota Port on long lease to a Chinese company as an exclusive “investment zone.”

Hambantota is located only 10 knots away from the Europe-Far East Line, one of the busiest international sea lanes.

Only 1300 kilometers separate Hambantota from each of India’s two strategic naval bases in the Bay of Bengal – Visakhapatanam and Andaman & Nicobar Islands – from where Indian Navy sets out occasionally to make its presence felt in the South China Sea.

Also, Hambantota is just 500 kms to the south of Sriharikota, India’s super-sensitive spaceport from where it launches military satellites and conducts missile tests.

In a nutshell, Chinese presence in Hambantota will end the “privacy” that India enjoyed in the Bay of Bengal as strategic backyard.

Indian diplomacy has suffered a massive setback. Coming on top of cascading tensions with Pakistan and downhill slide in relations with China, India’s security environment gets very cloudy.

The Hindu nationalist Rashtriya Sevak Sangh (RSS), which mentors Modi government, has choreographed India’s policies toward Sri Lanka and owes an explanation.

The RSS estimated that Sri Lanka could be sucked into the Indian orbit by putting rings of engagement around its elites.

RSS prompted Modi government to abandon the traditional leverage of Sri Lankan Tamil problem to exert influence on Colombo and instead deploy “soft power,” overlooking that the Sinhala narrative pits Hindu nationalism as existential threat.

Indeed, Delhi was in triumphalist mood when the “regime change” was accomplished in Colombo in January 2015. Delhi elites celebrated that the new “pro-Indian” government in Colombo would exorcise Chinese influence.

However, twenty months down the lane, the opposite happened. The RSS’s blind faith in Sri Lankan elites to act as India’s proxies proved to be naive and delusional. This tragic miscalculation – not Pakistan, not Kashmir, not Taliban – turns out to be Modi’s most disastrous foreign-policy legacy.

Yet, Colombo cannot be faulted. Sri Lanka stares at a debt trap. The debt-to-GDP ratio stands at 75% and over 95 percent of government revenue goes toward debt repayment.

On the other hand, Chinese diplomacy has outclassed India’s. China has the financial muscle to back up a robust diplomacy, whereas, India punched above its weight.

As rising global power, China will not be deterred by India’s archaic thesis of Indian Ocean being its “sphere of influence”.

China’s stated preference so far has been to work with India in the larger interests of regional stability – be it in Nepal, Sri Lanka or Bangladesh. China invited India invest in its flagship project known as Colombo Port City.

India could have taken up the intellectual challenge in a spirit of pragmatism with long-term objectives in mind. But given their zero sum mindset, Hindu nationalists insist that India cannot cooperate with China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

China probably expected Modi to see the light of reason at some point. At any rate, it so far chose to sidestep Modi government’s patently uncooperative approach.

In Nepal in July, Beijing didn’t resist the overthrow of “China-friendly” prime minister K. P. Oli, just as in January last year in Sri Lanka, it didn’t get agitated when US-Indian moves drove “pro-China” Sri president Mahinda Rajapaksa out of power.

Why is Indian diplomacy looking so disoriented in its natural habitat? Primarily, India never before descended into such an abyss of intellectual bankruptcy. The contrast with China couldn’t be sharper.

Whereas RSS and Modi count on the sayings of India’s ancient Machiavelli, Chanakya ( 4th century BC), to co-relate the country with the twenty-first century world order, China resorts to the intellectual tools of dialectical materialism.

Fundamentally, the Modi government lacks a sense of proportion. When Modi visited Ulaanbaatar in May last year, with an eye on China, he made a stunning announcement of $1 billion as low-interest credit to Mongolia.

Yet, in a bizarre, ironic turn, US$1 billion is roughly the amount China’s Red Chip company, China Merchants Port Holding Limited, will be spending to buy up strategic assets in Hambantota.

Again, only two weeks ago, India organized a BIMSTEC ‘outreach’ at Goa during the BRICS summit in an act of one-upmanship against Pakistan and China. BIMSTEC is touted as a “sub-regional grouping” bringing together Sri Lanka, Bangaldesh and Myanmar under Indian tutelage.

Now, hardly a fortnight later, Colombo bolts away, selling a vast swathe of land to Chinese companies.

Nonetheless, despite the latest setback, the RSS will not be shaken out of the belief that India is strongly placed to tap into the Sino-American rivalry and make a good living out of it. The RSS strategists believe that this was what China did in the Cold war era, too.

They overlook that if China could exploit the American market, it was largely because it was also willing to reform and globalize its own economy.

Equally, China could take advantage of its vast reserves of human resources, thanks to the social formation created through decades of communist rule. India is a far cry from where China stood in the eighties.

A defining moment is approaching in India-China ties. Beijing warned last week that the move by Delhi to invite the Dalai Lama to visit the disputed region of Arunachal Pradesh – hot on the heels of the US ambassador to India – “will only damage peace and stability of the border areas and bilateral relations.” Beijing “demanded” that Delhi should “adhere to its political commitments on Tibet-related issues.”

Indeed, India’s relations with China and Pakistan have lately become intertwined, bringing into the matrix, inevitably, the whole question of China’s presence in South Asia and the Indian Ocean.

Therefore, the thing to be watched closely is how China proposes to utilize the strategic assets in Hambantota.

India’s Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar visited Colombo last week within a couple of days of the visit by Sri Lankan Prime Minister Maithripala Sirisena to Goa for the BIMSTEC outreach where he had met Modi.

The Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera is due now to arrive in Delhi in the weekend on an unscheduled visit.

To be sure, alarm bells are ringing in Delhi. India’s hush-hush assets, which it had safely hidden away in its strategic backyard of Bay of Bengal, face the startling prospect of privacy invasion.

Prem wrote:At least we should Tell Sri Lanka that in case of war , they will be subject to strategic retaliation.

Philip wrote:X-posted from the For.Pol. td.

Grand c*ckup by Indian MEA yet again.Hambantotat sold to the Chinese. The myopia of Indian diplomats is yet again on miserable display despite our leverage with SL. Frankly speaking,India has to put its money where its mouth is. Remember,that the development of the port was first offered to India. Heads must roll in the MEA.We could've easily extended financial support to SL and got a lease for 99 yrs. whatever at Htota,Trinco,wherever!

http://defencenews.in/article/Indias-Su ... sion-29028
India's Super-Sensitive Spaceport faces a Chinese privacy invasion
Wednesday, November 02, 2016
By: Asia Times

The decision by the Sri Lankan government to sell the deep sea port in Hambantota to a Chinese state-owned company should not have come as surprise to India. Since April at least, the topic was under discussion as a measure to reduce the country’s debt burden.

Leaders of Tamil Nadu, across the political divide, privately but effectively supported the Indian government’s policy of opposing efforts by the US and Norway to rescue Velupillai Prabhakaran so that his Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) lived to fight another day, says Shivshankar Menon, India’s former National Security Adviser (NSA) in his book; “Choices: Inside the Making of India’s Foreign Policy”.

“Political leaders across the political divide in Tamil Nadu knew that the only way Prabhakaran could lead Tamil Eelam would be to physically eliminate the real leaders of the Tamils who were in India, just as he had already done to other Tamil leaders in Sri Lanka,” Menon says in the chapter entitled ‘Force Works.’

“Despite differences in public posture on the issue in Tamil Nadu and Delhi, there was cross party private understanding on the basics of the policy toward Sri Lanka with both the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party and the All India Anna Dravida Kazhagam Party (AIADMK) party, as a result of considerable hard work by Pranab Mukherjee (the then Foreign Minister) and Narayanan (the then NSA), as I found when I met alone with very senior Tamil Nadu politicians in Chennai, away from the glare of publicity,” Menon recalls.

“Ironically, by murdering Rajiv Gandhi, the LTTE had caused a shift in broader Indian attitudes, which came to be more in line with those of the Sri Lankan government,” he says.

According to Menon, India’s policy options were limited. New Delhi was aware that a victorious Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa would be less dependent on India and therefore less responsive. Rajapaksa not only had a firm grip on the levers of power, including the military, but also the backing of China, Pakistan “and to an extent, the United States.”

As regards the US he makes the interesting observation that “the United States was willing to help him (Rajapaksa) in practice with intelligence and military training, but was constrained to express human rights concerns, without letting them to rise to the level of affecting his conduct of the war against terrorism.”

On the issues before India, Menon says: “If India had stood aside and asked him (Rajapaksa) to desist, in effect, defending the killers of an Indian Prime Minister, we would have effectively written ourselves out of Sri Lanka for the next decade or more, sacrificing our maritime and other interests in Sri Lanka and abdicating a geopolitically strategic neighbor to other powers. We could hardly abandon Sri Lanka to potentially hostile influences. In effect, Sri Lanka is an aircraft carrier parked fourteen miles off the Indian coast.”

Knowing that victory was round the corner, Rajapaksa was in no mood to agree to Western ceasefire proposals or to any idea that the LTTE leadership might be evacuated to safety, even if that was the only certain way to prevent casualties among civilians that the LTTE had driven onto to the peninsula as their hostages and human shields, Menon notes.

But Rajapaksa’s obduracy was matched by Prabkaran’s whose thoughts and plans were increasingly remote from reality. He had either sidelined or killed people who could have advised him better. Prabhakaran’s obduracy resulted in the complete elimination of the LTTE’s military machine and its leadership, including himself and his family.

The way the Sri Lankans fought the war, though criticized for its brutality in the final stages, might have taken a higher toll if delay and stalemate were brought about, Menon feels in his assessment of the war.

“It is arguable that some brutality was inevitable in a war of this kind against a violent terrorist group that had shown no qualms about terrorizing its own people and physically eliminating all its potential adversaries, Tamil or Sinhala.”

“Indeed, one must logically ask the question, would an earlier adoption of the more brutal methods of the last thirty months of the war have brought it to an earlier end and actually saved lives and minimized the war’s deleterious effects?. This is a recurrent problem in state craft. It is also the strongest justification for the use of atomic weapons to end World War II.”

“The strategist Edward Luttwak argues that there are situations in which one should give war a chance. Was Sri Lanka one of them, where peace building efforts and international mediation only prolonged and worsened the agony?,” Menon asks and concludes by saying: “ These are difficult counterfactuals that go against the grain of liberal thinking, but they do seem appropriate to the Sri Lankan case.”

svinayak wrote:

Philip wrote:X-posted from the For.Pol. td.

Grand c*ckup by Indian MEA yet again.Hambantotat sold to the Chinese. The myopia of Indian diplomats is yet again on miserable display despite our leverage with SL. Frankly speaking,India has to put its money where its mouth is. Remember,that the development of the port was first offered to India. Heads must roll in the MEA.We could've easily extended financial support to SL and got a lease for 99 yrs. whatever at Htota,Trinco,wherever!

This is a stupid article and a paid article

India is trying to fast-track negotiations on the proposed Economic Technology Cooperation Agreement (ECTA) with Sri Lanka, which would result in an expansion of the existing free trade pact in goods and also include services and investments, by striking a balance between services and goods. With China, too, seeking to conclude a similar economic pact with Sri Lanka this year, New Delhi is eager to ensure that it doesn’t fall behind, a government official told BusinessLine.

“India and Sri Lanka had initially resolved to conclude the pact by the end of the last calendar year but couldn’t do so due to some niggling issues in services and rules of origin. The third negotiating round in Colombo earlier this month was encouraging and we hope to take it forward in March in New Delhi and conclude the talks soon,” the official said.

New Delhi is keen to enter the services sector in Sri Lanka, but there are apprehensions in the country that the strong Indian companies could uproot local businesses. “We understand Sri Lanka’s concerns, but services remain our strong area. That is why we are trying to reach an agreement on areas within services, like IT or ship building, where Sri Lanka needs service professionals and India would not be disrupting anything,” the official said.

Baba Leopard Singhji‏@Leopard212

7/7 For more on illegal order to Kill Prabhakaran under white flag and how it made Rajiv and Mani Dixit livid



3:06 AM - 21 May 2015

After claiming South China Sea to be its own sea, telling America to stay off its islands, China is reaching for the Indian Ocean, telling India to stay off its own colony, Sri Lanka. That’s something investors in Southeast Asian markets should keep a wary eye on, as it opens yet another front between the two Asian giants, raising the geopolitical risk of investing in the region. Sri Lanka’s colonization began back in 2007, when China supplied President Rajapaksaboth military and diplomatic support to crush the Tamil Tigers. Then came high profile construction projects and high interest loans that eventually were swapped for equity, transforming China into an owner of Sri Lanka’s major port— and a key outpost in the Indian Ocean for Beijing. That’s bad news for India, which is becoming encircled by China. “China’s growing involvement in sensitive ports so close to India’s shores fed New Delhi’s long-standing concerns about Chinese encirclement,” writes Jeff M. Smith in Foreign Affairs. For its part, China has repeatedly asserted that it doesn’t plan to use the port for military purposes, this assertion coming as recently as last week. But history proves otherwise. In the past three years, Chinese submarines have begun suddenly and repeatedly showing up in the Chinese-operated South Container Terminal in the port of Colombo. “For India, the sudden appearance of a Chinese submarine in Sri Lanka was too much to bear,” continues Smith.“Seventy percent of Colombo’s transshipment traffic comes from India, and New Delhi has long been concerned over China’s efforts to expand its presence in the island nation.” When Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Rajapaksa a few weeks later, he reminded him that Colombo ‘was obliged to inform its neighbors about such port calls under a maritime pact.’ But the same submarine surfaced again in November 2014, catching New Delhi by surprise once more. Apparently, what China says it plans to do with its colony and what it actually intends to do are two different things. And India must either devise a plan to contain China or be prepared to put up with it.(AFP) -

India will not be pressing Sri Lanka to merge the Northern and Eastern Provinces to form a single Tamil-majority, Tamil-speaking province as envisaged by the India-Sri Lanka Accord of 1987, the Indian Foreign Secretary S.Jaishankar told the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) here on Monday.

He was reacting to a demand made by the leader of the Eelam Peoples’ Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) Suresh Premachandran, that India should honor its promise to keep the North and East united. It had even said that it would not allow a referendum to be held on the issue. When the united province was de-merged in 2006 by a Supreme Court order, India did not protest saying that it was for the Sri Lankan government to appeal against the judgment. India had clearly lost interest in the issue. Its interests lay elsewhere in Sri Lanka.


Jaishankar told Premachandran that much water has flown down the bridge since 1987 and as the situation has changed it will be better for all concerned to make use of the various windows of opportunity which have opened up recently with the change of regime in Colombo and secure the rights of the Tamils.

He argued that it would not be wise to hold every other matter hostage to one issue – the merger of the North and East.

However, he added that India would not mind if the Tamils kept the issue alive and kept it on the table for talks with the Sri Lankan government.

Premachandran had highlighted the issue of the merger of the North and East partly because it had been the main theme of the Ezhuga Tamil rally held recently in the Eastern town of Batticaloa. Premachandran is a key member of the Tamil Peoples’ Council which organized the rally.

The merger of the North and East is considered important by the Eastern Tamils because it helps them face the Muslims who tend to dominate them economically and politically. If the East were to be merged with the North, the Tamils will be in an overwhelming majority and can run the province as per their wish, and also bargain with Colombo more effectively for more powers.

But the Muslims are opposed to the merger as their proportion would be reduced from 35 % to 12%. At any rate, successive Sri Lankan governments have been against a merger as they fear that a strengthened and united Tamil province will be in a better position to secede from Sri Lanka. It was to destroy the unification of the North and East wrought by the India-Sri Lanka Accord of 1987 that some Sinhalese and Muslims, enjoying tacit government support, challenged the merger in the Supreme Court and got a favorable verdict in 2006.

Premachandran pointed out that India has a moral responsibility to ask the Sri Lankan government to re-merge the North and East as it is part of the India-Sri Lanka Accord of 1987. If the Accord is still valid, every part of it should be deemed to be equally valid and implemented, he argued.

He recalled that former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had solemnly promised that the merger would remain and that the proposed referendum would not be held. He also recalled that the EPRLF had fully cooperated with India on the implementation of the Accord, and like the Indian Peace Keeping Force, had lost many men in the fight against the LTTE which opposed the Accord.
Courtesy:New Indian Express

Question: What happened finally to your plan of rescuing Prabhakaran and his family by helicopter? Why did the plan not take off?

Answer:

It’s a very sad story………

After Prabhakaran’s son Charles Anthony asked me to rescue his family members by air I devised a plan and made preliminary arrangements. I arranged for a ship to be kept waiting at a far –off port beyond the reach of the Sri Lanka navy. I also made arrangements to buy a second-hand helicopter from an Ukrainian contact.

The idea was for one or two trained pilots from the LTTE’s airwing “Vaan Puligal” to fly into the Wanni. If Prabhakaran was willing ,the family except for Charles Anthony were to be flown out. If the leader was unwilling then he and a few other of his bodyguards and senior leaders were to be flown by the copter and dropped off in a jungle location in Lanka.

Afterwards the heli would fly out to the ship with Prabhakaran’s wife Madhivadhani, daughter Thuwaraga and younger son Balachandran and perhaps a few others. I would be waiting for them at the ship. Thereafter I planned to keep the family safely in one of three countries.Perhaps in rotation.

Q; Were these countries ready to accept the family?Were they western nations?

A: No they were not countries in the west. Two were in Africa and one in Asia. I had been in touch with senior govt officials of these countries through my representatives. When I had sounded them out on this matter they were willing.

Q: The plan itself was rather risky ? Were you confident of it succeeding?

A: Yes it was risky but I was ready to carry it out.We had no choice. If we didn’t risk it, the alternative was certain death. I also had a secret hope that Prabhakaran may agree at the last minute and opt to fly out. So I devised the plan. The key element was surprise. If the first stage was successful we may have tried further flights too to rescue others.

Q: But then what went wrong?

A: It never worked out. It required about 1.5 million US dollars to implement the plan. I did not have that kind of money. The LTTE overseas structure had to give me the money. Castro had promised Charles Anthony that Nediyavan in Norway will transfer the necessary funds to me. But he never did it.

I made repeated requests that it was urgent and time was running out. I would be told “the money is coming, money is coming”. But sadly it never came.

Also Nediyavan was in touch with Atchuthan the Air wing chief living abroad. Earlier he had agreed to provide the required LTTE pilots for the operation. But then suddenly acting perhaps under Nediyavan’s orders he stopped communicating with me. I was really frantic. I approached mercenary pilots to fly the helicopter but nothing further could be done without necessary funds.

And then in mid-May the Sri Lankan army launched a three –pronged offensive and boxed off the Valainjermadam- Mullivaaikkaal- Vattuvaahal area. After that it was too late to attempt a helicopter rescue. So with great sorrow I abandoned the plan. I was furious with Nediyavan and Castro but helpless to do anything.

Q: And within days all were dead?

A: Yes. They were all dead. The whole family was gone. I was extremely sad at Balachandran’s death. He was only 12 years old. I had never seen the boy in person but when he was a child I used to talk to Prabhakaran frequently. This boy would be on his lap and Prabhakaran would often give the phone to him saying “Intha KP Mamavode kathai” (Here talk to KP uncle) So I would chat with him. Later I lost touch with the boy but I was apparently still existing in his memory.

When the war escalated and shelling increased the boy was very frightened. Later when Charles asked me to arrange for an aerial rescue and I started working on the plan, young Balachandran had been told not to worry and that he would be going to KP uncle soon. The little fellow had then put some of his belongings in a small bag and had been carrying it around with him all the time saying “Naan KP Mamata poren” ( I am going to KP uncle)

Sometimes in my thoughts, I visualise Balachandran with his bag telling people that he was going to KP Mama and waiting for a rescue that never took place. When I think of that I get so sad and angry at Nediyavan for obstructing the plan.

Q: Why did he do that?

A: I really don’t know but it must have been on Castro’s instructions. They did not want KP to get credit I think. But this was really a symptom of what had gone wrong in the LTTE. Individuals were letting their petty jealousies and divisions affect the overall good of the movement and struggle.

Q:You are sure about the entire family being killed? There are stories spread by sections of the Tamil Diaspora and Tamil Nadu politicians that Prabhakaran is alive and Madhivathani is alive and so on? What do you say?

A:These types of tales are spread by some for their selfish motives and others believe them because they don’t want to accept emotionally that it is over.

Q: But you don’t have first –hand knowledge of this?

A: Obviously no! But I was in touch with Soosai till the last stages. I have also heard about these matters from official sources. Most importantly I saw Prabhakaran’s body on TV .

Q: But these people disputing it say it was not his body?

A:Utter nonsense. When I saw the TV image I immediately knew it was Prabhakaran. I was so upset that I cut myself off from people and spent hours alone crying, reflecting and meditating.

Q: One of the reasons for this confusion was due to yourself also. When Prabhakaran’s death reports surfaced you announced to the media that it was not so and that he was alive in a safe location. Subsequently you went back on that denial. This action eroded your credibility greatly and provides ammunition to your critics. Why this flip-flop? Can you explain?

A: Yes, I will be happy to explain. What happened was that Prabhakaran ,Pottu Amman and some others broke out clandestinely in one group and moved through the lagoon and coast. Two other groups also moved out in different directions. The idea was to reach the jungles safely

Reconnaissance missions done earlier showed that the soldiers were in three layers around the encircled area. Soosai with whom I was interacting was informed that Praba and Pottu had broken through all three layers. After that there was no communication. We both assumed that the leader had reached a safe place and predictably cut off communication to avoid being monitored.

It was after this that I issued the statement about silencing our arms. I did this in consultation with Soosai. I was using this statement as a basis to accelerate peace initiatives and come to an arrangement where the remaining people could be saved. Nadesan and Pulidevan from another location were also engaged in negotiations.

It was the earlier information received by me that Prabhakaran had broken through the military layers that gave me the belief that he had reached safety. It was this confidence that made me dismiss reports of Prabhakaran’s death and state that he was safe. Also the first media report about Prabakharan being dead was in relation to the ambulance escape. That report was false. Prabhakaran was not in an ambulance

But shortly before I lost contact with Soosai the sea tiger chief surprised me by saying that Prabhakaran could not break through and had returned. Soosai said that he was only a few hundred yards away from the place he was in. Soosai said that the break out attempt had failed and Prabhakaran had returned without Pottu Amman. He could not give me any more information other than that, except to say the fighting was really fierce. A little later I lost contact with Soosai

Some time later I saw Prabhakaran’s body on TV and immediately realised it was all over.

But I must emphasise that my earlier statement denying Prabhakaran’s death and subsequent statement confirming it were both given with all honesty. I did not intend to mislead anyone. I made them on the basis of the information available at that time. People must remember that fighting was going on and communication was difficult. They say “Porin moodupani” (fog of war) about war situations where people get wrong information about the situation.

Q: Yes. I think the term “fog of war” was first used by Clausewitz and recently made famous by Robert Mcnamara. But tell me how did Prabhakaran die? Do you know?

A: You understand that I was not there and must rely on what I heard or was told. On Prabhakaran’s death the information I got was that he and a group of 60 tigers were trapped in a strip of land adjacent to Nandhikkadal lagoon. They had all fought to the very end and died in battle.

Q: What about the stories about Prabhakaran surrendering and being shot after being humiliated?

A: No that never happened. If I know anything about Prabhakaran he would never ever have surrendered. I know the stories being spread. Some do so deliberately. Some simply repeat what they hear without thinking.

I know reliably that a senior TNA leader went around saying that Prabhakaran had surrendered and was brought to Sarath Fonseka who made the LTTE leader kneel down and then shot him. Nonsense! I can’t understand why a veteran Tamil leader who used to cringe before Prabhakaran should speak about him this way after death.


But the army people who defeated Prabhakaran speak highly of him and the way in which he died. Top persons in the defence establishment –I think you understand who I am referring to – told me that they had been very impressed by the courageous way in which this group had fought to the very end and died without surrendering.But some of our people are insulting Prabhakaran after his death. I want to reiterate that my leader fought to the very end and had a “Veera maranam” (heroic death)

Q: I have heard that during the Indian army period Prabhakaran had a bodyguard who carried a plastic can of petrol. His orders were to burn Prabhakaran’s body if he was killed so that the enemy should not get hold of it. But this time that does not seem to have been done.What happened?

A: I heard he had similar preparations this time too. For Prabhakaran it was very important that his body should be disposed of without others getting hold of it. What I think is that the petrol can may have fallen into the water or maybe the fighter entrusted with the duty was killed before Prabhakaran. I am only guessing I really don’t know.

Q: What about Pottu Amman? What do you think happened to him?

A:Since Prabhakaran and Pottu broke out together and Prabhakaran came back alone I presume that Pottu had died in the escape attempt. Otherwise he would have been at Prabhakaran’s side. Since the army is very sure that Pottu’s body was not recovered I am assuming that Prabhakaran himself would have got Pottu’s body destroyed to ensure it did not get into army hands.

Q: There is also the possibility that Pottu escaped?

A:As an argument yes! But realistically no!

The people who say Prabhakaran and Pottu are alive and would surface some years later are only insulting and disgracing their memory. Those who keep up this ridiculous claim must produce Prabhakaran and Pottu without uttering stupid nonsense.

Q: Another point I want to ask you is about Prabhakaran’s body. I expected Prabhakaran’s family members to demand that Prabhakaran’s body be handed over to them and for the overseas tigers to organize a final farewell to the man who dedicated himself to the cause he espoused for nearly 40 years.

A: I thought as you did at that time and obtained legal and diplomatic advice.

I was told that if Prabhakaran’s siblings would make a request that their brother’s body be handed over to them international pressure could be exerted on Colombo in that respect.

So I got in touch with Prabhakaran’s brother and one of his two sisters to ask them to make such a demand. I was rebuffed. In fact his sister’s husband snatched the phone from his wife while I was talking and rudely hung up on me after telling me not to call again. So there was nothing I could do and in the meantime the govt announced that his body was cremated and ashes scattered in the sea. That was that.

Q: So Prabhakaran died in battle. What about the rest of the family? What happened?

A:According to the information I have the wife Madhivadhani was killed in the shelling. I believe it happened before Prabhakaran made his break –out attempt.

Charles Anthony was injured in the fighting earlier but he continued to lead cadres in a last ditch stand. As I told you earlier he did not want to escape and died fighting.

Another thing in this is that Kuga the widow of Sornalingam alias Shankar(killed on Sep 27th 2001) remained with Charles and died along with him. Kuga was a close friend of Madhivadhani and had promised her that she would always be with Charles and be like a mother to him. She refused to leave with other wives and widows and remained with Charles.

The daughter Thuuvaraga also fought and died on the battlefield. I hear she died on May 14th.

As for the youngest kid Balachandran I am a bit puzzled. He would have remained close to his mother and so would have died in the shelling along with his mother. But the pictures I saw on the internet of a dead Balachandran did not indicate he had been killed in the shelling. So there is some confusion in this.

Q: Prabhakaran and the family being killed in this way must have been a terrible blow to you. I think you were his “Maapillai Tholan” (best Man) at his wedding. Why did you perform this role among all his senior deputies and commanders?

A:Yes. I have been close to him and the family. Their loss is a huge,personal loss. My inability to help them or save them will be a permanent source of grief to me.

You asked me about being the Groom’s friend at the wedding. There was a reason for it. When Prabhakaran fell in love with Madhivadhani and wanted to marry her most of the senior leaders and commanders were not in favour. They were opposed to it on the grounds that it would affect the movement.

At that stage Prabhakaran turned to me. He was very shy to tell me about this due to another happening in the past. You see when I joined the LTTE I was also romancing a girl. But Prabhakaran asked me to end the love affair saying a revolutionary should not be involved in a romance. With great reluctance I obeyed him and ended my love then.

Now the situation had changed and Prabhakaran was in love and asking my help. No wonder he was feeling awkward. But I immediately supported him and encouraged him to go ahead with the marriage. I personally spoke to several senior leaders and made them change their mind. It was I who met Prabhakaran’s father and informed him of his son’s matrimonial plan. It is because of this reason that I played the best man role at the wedding

Q: Even after the wedding you were close to him and the family?

A: Yes. Though I spent most of the time outside I was in constant touch with Prabhakaran those days. I used to talk to the children and wife also. After I got married my wife and Madhivadhani used to converse with each other on the phone

I also used to send personal gifts to each member of the family along with the stuff I used to ship to Lanka

During the Indian army period when Prabhakaran had to go to the Wanni jungles his wife Madhivadhani was finding it difficult to cope with two young children. Prabhakaran wanted to send them to a safe place for a while. He wanted to send them to an old comrade “Singham” living in Sweden.

They were brought by boat to India. Thereafter I arranged for travel documents and got them sent to Scandinavia. Later we found that Prabhakaran’s friend was having some problems and finding it difficult to accommodate Madhi and the children

So I took the risk of traveling to Sweden on false papers and transported the mother and children to Denmark. I arranged for safe accommodation there.

Q: With her family members?

A:No not with them. They were reluctant. This was elsewhere with some others.

Then came the talks with the Premadasa govt in 1989. I used the opportunity to get proper travel documents and went to Scandinavia from where I personally escorted the mother and kids to Colombo. I took them to the Wanni and handed them over to Prabhakaran saying I have brought your family home safely. He was very very happy

When I think of that time where I transported the family safely and of the present time where I could not help them I feel very, very sad. Those days both son and daughter were fond of me and I used to carry them frequently

Q: Yes I recall seeing pictures those days of you carrying Charles.

On the question of Charles Anthony and his sister Thuvaraga, there were media reports that they were studying in Britain and Ireland. What happened? When did they return and why?

A:No, no, no! They were never abroad for studies. That’s all false.

Q: Then?

A: You see both children were very clever and could have done very well in higher studies. The mother Madhivadhani was very keen about it. When Bala annai and Adele Aunty came out of the Wanni in 1999, Madhivadhani sent a request to me that I should make arrangements for the children’s higher studies abroad.

So I took some time and made careful preparations. I made foolproof arrangements where both could come abroad and commence higher studies in a very safe environment without their identity being revealed. Madhivadhani was very happy.

But the father Prabhakaran changed his mind after agreeing to it initially. He simply refused to let the children go. Madhivadhani could not make him change his stance. So that was that. They never came abroad for higher studies. Later both joined the movement voluntarily and became trained fighters

Q: Why did Prabakharan adopt this position?

A:I suppose it was due to his principles. He felt it was not correct for him to send his children abroad to safety and higher studies when the children of other people had to remain in the Wanni. It was the same principle that made him encourage the son and daughter to join the movement. Again he felt that he could not keep his children safely at home when the children of other people were fighting.

Q: Thank you for shedding some light on this issue. It appears that we have been misinformed about the actual situation.

However why is it that deliberate attempts are on to spread misinformation and disinformation about Prabhakaran’s demise?Why is there a divergence on this matter between you and Nediyavan?

A:At the start the refusal to accept the truth was emotional. For instance when I issued the statement about Prabhakaran being dead, an activist belonging to the intelligence wing –Kathirgamathamby Arivazhaghan – issued a statement contradicting it. But later he realised the truth and issued another statement accepting that Prabhakaran was no more.

In the case of Nediyavan and those around him they may have had doubts at the start.But now they know fully well that Prabhakaran is dead. However they are deliberately refusing to accept it publicly and are spreading stories that Prabhakaran is alive and that the armed struggle to achieve Tamil Eelam continues.

The pronouncements of Tamil Nadu leaders who say we must fight and get Tamil Eelam and present it to Prabhakaran when he appears helps in this false propaganda.

Q: What is Nediyavan’s motive in projecting this false impression about Prabhakaran being alive?

A:Money! Everything is money now. When I issued a statement about Prabhakaran being dead they started opposing it saying the leader was alive.When I planned to pay homage to Prabhakaran and other senior leaders they blocked it. Earlier I thought they were genuine in this belief about Prabhakaran being alive but later I discovered that they knew the truth but were pretending.

Q: How was that?

A: You see after some time I began negotiating with Nediyavan in a bid to patch up our differences and establish unity. One of the matters I was firm about was that we should acknowledge Prabakharan’s death and conduct a week of mourning. Then Nediyavan said that we should never acknowledge Prabakharan’s death publicly because the movement would not be able to collect money from the Diaspora after that.

I then told him that we cannot run a movement on lies and falsehoods. Besides we would be ungrateful people if we could not pay tribute to the leader who had fought unceasingly for the Tamil cause all these years

I also pointed out that Prabhakaran was the “Aathmaa” (Soul) of our struggle. Without him there was no struggle, no movement or no Tamil Eelam. I said that we needed large amounts of money only to buy arms.With the armed struggle over, we did not need such huge amounts. I said that the businesses we were operating abroad and small donations from our committed supporters were enough to run the movement.

I also said our new task was not to conduct a war but to help our people. The immediate goal was to secure the release of LTTE members in custody and rehabilitate them.The other was to get our displaced Tamils released and resettled

Nediyavan reluctantly agreed and we established unity resulting in myself becoming the leader in a re-structured LTTE. This was in July 2009.I was the chief secretary and Nediyavan the secretary in charge of overseas branch administration. It was agreed to commemorate Prabhakaran’s death during the great heroes week of November.

But then I was seized within weeks on August 5th and brought to Colombo. With that everything collapsed and Nediyavan got the upper hand. So Prabhakaran’s death was not acknowledged and the myth of him being alive is kept alive still.

Q: You said earlier that money plays a big part in this myth being perpetuated. I think I can guess why and how. But could you elaborate please?

A:During the last few months of the war a massive special collection was conducted among the diaspora. Not even a cent went to the war effort. That money is controlled by Nediyavan and his cohorts. There are also numerous money –making concerns either run directly or being financed by the LTTE. All this is big money. There is also an amount collected on behalf of the TRO(Tamil Rehabilitation Organization)

If Nediyavan and his people are to retain control of this cash and businesses and also raise more funds in the future they need to stage the drama that the armed struggle is not over and Tamil Eelam is just there at the junction. For that the big lie about Prabhakaran being alive must be maintained because our people know that without Prabhakaran there can never be a victorious armed struggle in our lifetime.

But this cant go on forever. Gradually the truth will be realised by all and Nediyavan will be exposed.

Q: This explains the puerile politics of Nediyavan and his cabal. But why are Tamil Nadu politicians like Nedumaran and Vaiko (V.Gopalaswamy) also saying that Prabhakaran is alive? Do they really believe it?

A: No. They also know the truth but they too have links to the overseas LTTE now controlled by Nediyavan. Also their politics has been around the image that the LTTE is invincible and Prabhakaran is immortal. So they have to keep on saying Prabhakaran is alive and Tamil Eelam will bloom.

Q: Have you not tried to convince people like Nedumaran and Vaiko?

A: Last year before I was caught I did telephone Nedumaran and spoke for a very long time explaining the position. He then told me to get the LTTE’s central working committee to pass a resolution saying Prabhakaran was dead. How could I do that? All the leaders were dead or missing or in custody.

Then this man Nedumaran did another dirty thing along with Vaiko. They issued a statement saying Prabhakaran was alive and that KP was an agent of the Indian spy agency RAW.

After that I stopped trying to talk to them. I did not speak to Vaiko but I know reliably that he knows Prabhakaran is no more. When told of the death in private Vaiko “kulungi Aluthar” (shaken and cried) But in public he maintains the lie of Prabhakaran being alive. No amount of secret weeping by Vaiko can take away his guilt in the downfall of the LTTE. It was he who spoiled chances of an India sponsored ceasefire

Q: What do you mean? What did Vaiko do or not do in this matter?

A: While I was trying to bring about a ceaefire on one side the political commissar Nadesan (Balasingham Mahendran) was also trying for one. At one stage pro-LTTE sympathisers in the DMK (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagham) like chief minister Karunanidhi’s daughter and Rajya Sabha MP, Kanimozhi along with the Catholic priest Fr. Jegath Gaspar Raj had been negotiating with Central govt minister P.Chidambaram about a possible ceasefire

With Indian Parliamentary elections being held and AIADMK Leader Jayalalitha taking up a pro-LTTE stance the DMK-Congress combine was getting worried about losing. So Chidambaram came up with an idea. He wanted the LTTE to issue a unilateral statement with two main points. One was to agree to silence arms and surrender them in due course. The other was to accept a political settlement as an alternative to Tamil Eelam.

What I heard was that Chidambaram himself had “unofficially” drafted the statement for the LTTE to release under its name. The guarantee given was that New Delhi would exert pressure on Colombo when the statement was released and bring about a ceasefire pending negotiations.

Though Nadesan had been advised not to leak details of the move to people like Nedumaran and Vaiko, he had at one point of time consulted K. Mahendran the Tamil Nadu legislator from CPI(Marxist). The CPM was an election ally with Vaiko’s MDMK in the AIADMK led alliance. Mahendran had leaked details of the plan to Vaiko.

Both were worried that the Congress and DMK would get the credit for a ceasefire and do well in the elections. So they wanted to sabotage it. Vaiko then got angry at the LTTE and warned Nadesan that if the tigers opted for an alternative to Tamil Eelam then the MDMK and other Tamil Nadu parties supportive of the LTTE would permanently withdraw their support to the LTTE.

Nadesan was given the false hope that the AIADMK led alliance will sweep the seats in Tamil Nadu and the BJP will form the govt in New Delhi. Then pressure could be put on Colombo for a ceasefire. Any ceasefire before elections could help the DMK –Congress.

So this man Nadesan abandoned the idea of releasing a statement. Chidambaram could do nothing. All because of Vaiko. They were so selfish that they prevented a possible ceasefire thinking they will do well at the polls.

Q: But even if they had issued such a statement do you think Colombo could have been forced to agree to a ceasefire at that stage when the defeat of the LTTE was imminent? On the other hand even if the BJP won and AIADMK alliance swept the polls in Tamil Nadu things on the ground in Lanka could not have been changed overnight. Given the speedy progress of the Army things would have been over long before India moved even if it wanted to?

A: I agree. But what I am saying is that even the chance of attempting a ceasefire through Indian help was spoiled at the start itself by this man Vaiko. A selfish politician who let the LTTE be sacrificed for his election ambition. Now he is shedding crocodile tears for Prabhakaran in private and publicly talking of another Eelam war. How long will these fellows grind chilly on our heads?

Q: Thank you for relating in detail about these important events of the recent past. Your input provides fresh insight into these matters. But now I want to ask you about the present.

Let me start with your relationship with this government particularly the Defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse. You have already told me about your arrest and your first meeting with the defence secretary. Its obvious that both of you have established good rapport. But there are lots of allegations about this. Several opposition leaders and sections of the media have alleged that there is some kind of shady deal between . What do you have to say?

A: My answer is just the truth. It really is a simple story………………………….

(TO BE CONTINUED)

VIEW FROM ABROAD: White elephants in Sri Lanka
IRFAN HUSAIN — PUBLISHED Jan 16, 2017
HAMBANTOTA, a district capital 240 kilometres south of Colombo, is almost surreal. A small, sleepy town of around 11,000 souls, I have watched it acquire all the outward aspects of a large, modern city. It has a new port, an airport, a cricket stadium built to international specifications, a huge conference centre and a modern administrative complex. It is also surrounded by a cobweb of wide motorways and elevated roads.

The problem is that all these expensive structures are barely utilised. The city’s population is still 11,000, and it has no features to attract tourists. The development of the semi-arid region was ex-president Mahinda Rajapakse’s bizarre brainchild, and the current government has come up with an innovative way to pay back the Chinese for their help in creating this $1.4 billion white elephant.

The controversial deal negotiated with China Merchants Port Holdings will give the Chinese firm 80pc of Hambantota Port, while the Sri Lanka Port Authority (SLPA) will retain 20pc. Combined with this joint venture is an even more unpopular move to give the Chinese 15,000 acres of land around the city on a 99-year lease for an industrial zone.

The current employees of the SLPA are up in arms at the prospect of the Chinese takeover, and have staged several protests to prevent it from happening. One act of sabotage involved forcibly delaying a Japanese and a South African ship, sending insurance rates up.

The opposition, led by the socialist JVP, has led local farmers in their protest. Although most of the 15,000 acres to be handed over to the Chinese belong to the state, there are villages and farms included in the package. The government has offered to compensate these villagers with land elsewhere. Understandably, the locals are unhappy, and their cause is being supported, among others, by nationalist monks. Magama Mahanama of the Monks’ Organisation to Protect National Assets expressed fears of Hambantota becoming a Chinese colony. The protest turned violent when the prime minister and the Chinese ambassador came to witness the launch of the industrial zone.

Oddly, Rajapakse, the populist leader who created the whole mess to begin with for his political ends, has come out against the Chinese deal, insisting that he would have negotiated a better one. When he was in power, I recall asking a senior official in his planning cell how these extensive facilities would ever pay for themselves, given the low population in the area. He replied that the plan was to shift certain government departments from Colombo to force government employees to move to Hambantota. The reason for all this huge expenditure is that Rajapakse is from the area, and wanted to consolidate his grip. He remains popular in the south, and large posters bearing his grinning face are plastered on many walls.

In an effort to sell the joint venture, Ranil Wickramsinghe, the Sri Lankan prime minister, promised locals that the industrial zone would create many jobs. But watching how the port was built, I somehow doubt this. For one, there are few qualified people around, and secondly, the Chinese prefer bringing labour and managers from China. When the port was being built, I used to wonder why we didn’t see any Chinese workers in the area.

The reason became clear when we drove past pre-fabricated barracks behind a wire fence: prison workers had been brought in by the construction company from China, and they were taken to the construction site every morning and brought back in the evening. Hardly any locals were employed. I suspect this is what will happen once China Port Holding takes over. There’s a lesson here for those who think the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor will create a large number of jobs.

Already, the Chinese presence is more visible across the island. Many of the Chinese one sees are tourists, but a significant number are working and living here. It was thought that after Maithripala Sirisena defeated Rajapakse in 2015, the new government would distance itself from China and become closer to India. In fact, it is widely believed that RAW, the Indian intelligence agency, helped in putting together the victorious coalition.

But as the new government has discovered, Chinese loans and direct investments have penetrated deep into the economy. Thus, the ties forged by Rajapakse have proved hard to break, and in most cases, existing contracts have had to be honoured. Despite the local unrest caused by the Hambantota deal, most educated people accept the economic necessity of the joint venture.

The port and the other new facilities were always seen as a herd of white elephants with zero economic viability. And so it has proved. To provide the port with some activity, the government has decreed that all ships carrying cars should deliver them to Hambantota from where they are transported to Colombo by road. This has only raised prices. The airport is even more of a lost cause. The Economist’s correspondent once described the airport as having more lizards than passengers.

Several years ago, I went to see the Pakistan cricket team play against Kenya in a World Cup encounter at the new Chinese-built cricket stadium, and can confirm that there were far more security staff than spectators. Hardly any matches are played there, a situation unlikely to change unless the Chinese take up cricket. Similarly, the conference centre lies unutilised, and the modern motorways are empty. All in all, this is a classic case of building infrastructure for political, not economic, reasons.

As the Sirisena government heads into its third year in power, the threat of a Rajapakse comeback is very real. Given his enduring popularity, the government has continued to delay the local council elections on the grounds that the electoral boundaries have to be redrawn. But this ploy is fooling nobody: whenever these elections are held, Rajapakse’s anointed nominees are expected to do well, providing the government with a loud wake-up call.

Prem wrote:At least we should Tell Sri Lanka that in case of war , they will be subject to strategic retaliation.

chetak wrote:Develop a harbour close to colombo so that the 70% cargo that is now being trans-shipped at colombo, cargo that is ultimately bound for Indian ports comes directly to the new Indian port.

that should light a nice little fire under their ungrateful and scheming sinhalase ass.

arshyam wrote:

chetak wrote:Develop a harbour close to colombo so that the 70% cargo that is now being trans-shipped at colombo, cargo that is ultimately bound for Indian ports comes directly to the new Indian port.

that should light a nice little fire under their ungrateful and scheming sinhalase ass.

Vizhinjam and Enaiyam ports...