இன்றைய யாழ்ப்பாணம் - ஒரு பார்வை

(அரசியல் அபத்தங்களுக்கு அப்பால்)- இன்றைய யாழ் மக்களின் ஒரு குறுக்கு வெட்டு அழகுக் காட்சி ஆவணம்

China moots trilateral cooperation with India, Sri Lanka

China moots trilateral cooperation with India, Sri Lanka
Press Trust of India  |  Beijing  February 27, 2015 Last Updated at 17:57 IST

China today proposed trilateral cooperation involving India and Sri Lanka for regional stability as the new government in Colombo sought to re-balance its ties with China, preferring to follow a "non-aligned" policy. 

"China is open-minded about trilateral cooperation between China, India (and) Sri Lanka," Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said during a joint press conference with Sri Lankan counterpart Mangala Samaraweera. 

"I want to say both India and Sri Lanka are China's cooperative partners in South Asia," Wang said. 

Samaraweera is the first Sri Lankan official to visit Beijing since president Mahinda Rajapaksa's defeat in polls this January. China made significant investments in Sri Lanka during Rajapaksa's tenure, raising concerns in India. 

Samaraweera's visit to China will be followed by new Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena's next month. 

New Govt. reshaping foreign policy

New Govt. reshaping foreign policy

Hardly has the country finished celebrating its 67th year of Independence from the yoke of four centuries of foreign rule, than her Foreign Minister jets off to Britain and then the United States of America, brief in hand, to plead the country’s case to be treated as a respectable member of the comity of nations.

Sri Lanka’s more recent foreign policy initiatives have been a total disaster. Towards the end of his term, even the former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, while proclaiming his achievements on many fronts, conceded that there were shortcomings in the running of his foreign policy. This was an understatement, and he was to blame for it himself as he interfered directly in appointments to the Foreign Service and allowed a nonplussed Minister and a freelance ‘Monitor’ to run the Foreign Office to the ground. On foreign policy per se, they veered away from Non-alignment, made enemies with the West, and angered India with their overtly pro-China stance.

This Government is now on a repair mission and the new Minister (though not new to the post) has a major task at hand. Having made his initial working visits to India and the European Union (EU), he proceeds to London and then to Washington where he will meet his counterpart. His final stop will be the United Nations where he is SLOTTED to meet the Secretary General. His predecessor in the job was afraid of visiting the US capital or New York and engaging the Americans and the UN. Used only to lecturing he could not listen to them, nor did he have the capacity to engage and counsel his interlocutors.

It was he who completely misread diplomatic signals and gave his president the ‘dead rope’ that the US would not sponsor a resolution against Sri Lanka at the UNHRC (United Nations Human Rights Council) in Geneva. This resolution calling for a probe into allegations of war crimes TARGETED the country’s political leaders and its Armed Forces. Foolishly trying to play hardball with the West, we lost vote after vote, pinning our hopes on China and Russia. We also adopted a crazy ‘Look Africa’ policy purely to win votes in Geneva. Today, that resolution is still on the table at the UNHRC calling for a ‘credible investigation’ on the last stages of the military campaign against the LTTE in 2009. A tentative effort no sooner this Government came to office to ‘dump the resolution’ was baulked at, and appears to have made no headway.

The new Government has rightly pledged to ensure the protection of those members of the Armed Forces who fought a blood-thirsty terrorist organisation, overcame it, and brought peace to this country.

This ‘war against terror’ was fought amidst Western pressure, lobbied heavily by the Sri Lankan Diaspora to stop the fighting and give a lifeline to the LTTE leaders. To former President Rajapaksa must go the credit for resisting that pressure and seeing to the end of that reign of terror. His successor, President Maithripala Sirisena, speaking at the Independence Day celebrations on Tuesday, paid a tribute to his predecessor for completing that onerous task. But ill-advised as he was, the former President adopted a wrongheaded policy to CONTINUE rubbing the West on the wrong side after the battlefield victory.

The country faced the consequence of the West’s wrath. In the US the Leahy Amendment of 2010 for the first time restricted aid to Sri Lanka tying it to good behavior on the human rights front. The EU sent 15 demands (which were ignored) prior to stopping GSP+ TRADE concessions to Sri Lanka. By offering a trade-off, the new Government has promised a “credible domestic investigation”. This was what the then Government ought to have initiated straightaway, but dragged its feet instead to bring the situation to where it is now. This promise will now have to be kept. Merely because the US Assistant Secretary of State visited Colombo this week and pledged to work together with the new Government, or the Minister of Foreign Affairs is visiting Washington next week to mend fences, the UNHRC resolution will not melt away so easily. But the moves will, hopefully help ease the tension between the West and Sri Lanka and a reasonable compromise would be to give the new Government time to get its act together, thus getting a postponement from the UNHRC sessions in March going deeper into the resolution.

The resolution can be laid by till September this year when the UNHRC meets again. By which time it is hoped, the heavy hand of the West/US will be taken off, reconciliation between the North and the Government in the South would be in better shape, and the country can move on from the bitter memories of the virtual ‘civil war’ of yesteryear.

In Washington next week, the Minister will have more on his plate to deal with than mending fences and dealing with the UNHRC resolution. Full engagement in the diplomatic, political, economic, trade and INVESTMENT spheres will need to be discussed.

It is an open secret that the former US Ambassador in Colombo reached out to the Opposition, especially the then Leader of the Opposition and thus moved away from an exclusive engagement with the former President in the belief that they (the Opposition) would somehow want to build up the relationship with the US if elected to office. The Rajapaksa Presidency saw this coming, but rather than defuse the moves and engage the US constructively, it jumped headlong into a policy of US bashing, accusing NGOs of being instrumental in ‘regime change’ measures and misreading the growing Indo-US axis. The US was in no doubt, it seems, that their Sri Lanka policy required to rebalance the outreach away from the Rajapaksa Administration.

While in Washington, the Minister might also want to study the expenses incurred in managing the embassy there over the years, and the cavalier way it was run. This mission at one stage did not have a single career diplomat in service. The transactions over the mission building were covered in scandal. US-based public relations firms were recruited to write even press releases, so pathetic was its capability. Lobbying firms were paid for by the Central BANK and from private addresses in Colombo. This newspaper has already catalogued these shady deals as they happened then.

But whatever the Foreign Minister agrees to in Washington, he will need to deliver in Sri Lanka. He cannot be seen to have capitulated in the face of Western pressure and sacrifice the Sri Lankan Armed Forces at the altar of diplomatic expediency. There is also the political cost factor; another election is due. Those who lost the recent elections are baying from the sidelines that a ‘sell-out’ is imminent. It would not be in the interest of the West to give that anti-West lobby the whip hand either. In New York, the Minister is also scheduled meet the US ambassador to the UN, Samantha Powers. It is a good move because her clout with the US President on the Sri Lanka issue is not to be under-estimated.

Sixty seven years ago, on the eve of Independence, the first Prime Minister of Lanka, D.S. Senanayake said in his Call to the Nation ; “Freedom carries with it grave responsibilities. Our acts and omissions henceforth are our own. No longer can we lay the blame for defects and errors in our administration on others”.

That is the price of freedom. With freedom comes responsibilities.

Source: Editorial 

New Sri Lanka gov't ends US lobbying contracts

New Sri Lanka gov't ends US lobbying contracts
Associated Press By MATTHEW PENNINGTON

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a sign of improving relations with the U.S., Sri Lanka has terminated lobbying contracts worth tens of thousands of dollars a month that the previous government had signed to help it win friends in Washington amid war crimes allegations, the nation's ambassador says.

The investment in lobbyists to foster political and economic ties had gathered steam last summer, in the dying months of the administration of then-President Mahinda Rajapaksa, but with little apparent benefit, as Sri Lanka's international isolation deepened over its refusal to credibly probe civilian deaths during the civil war that ended 2009.

But political change inside Sri Lanka itself has done the trick. There has been a turnaround in the U.S. relationship after new President Maithripala Sirisena won Jan. 8 elections and promised democratic reforms and accountability for human rights violations.

Sirisena was elected in large part because of public dismay over the rising cost of living on the South Asian island, where the monthly per capita GDP is about $540. Rajapaksa was also widely criticized for nepotism and alleged government corruption.

Washington-based lobbying groups are often hired by foreign governments to help win the ear of U.S. officials, lawmakers, media and other opinion-makers. Justice Department online records show Sri Lanka signed eight contracts with such groups from 2014, with monthly fees ranging from $5,000 to $75,000.

"The new government does not see a reason or requirement to have lobbying groups at this juncture," Sri Lankan Ambassador Prasad Kariyawasam told The Associated Press on Friday. "To my knowledge, all those contracts have been terminated since the election of the new government."

Vinoda Basnayake of Nelson Mullins Riley and Scarborough LLP said soon after the election, the embassy informed his company that its $35,000 monthly contract was not being extended. Nelson Mullins was one of several groups hired to serve Sajin De Vass Gunawardena, a lawmaker who had advised Rajapaksa on foreign affairs. Basnayake said its fees for the last quarter had been paid in advance.

But Connie Mack, executive vice-president of Levick Strategic Communications LLC, said its client, Sri Lanka's central bank — whose chief has been replaced by the new government — was three months or $180,000 in arrears on payments for the contract it terminated Jan. 28. Mack said he planned to meet with the Sri Lankan ambassador soon to discuss the issue.

Kariyawasam, a career diplomat who became ambassador last July, told the AP he did not know if any payments to lobbyists were outstanding because he did not sign any of the contracts.

The Obama administration is keen to improve relations with Sri Lanka, which forged closer ties with China under Rajapaksa. The island lies off the coast of southeastern India, on sea lanes linking East Asia and the Middle East.

New Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera visited Washington this month, winning U.S. support for a delay in the publication of a U.N. investigation into the war. The report is politically sensitive in Sri Lanka because it could implicate elements of the nation's military that crushed the resistance of ethnic Tamil rebels.
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MODI TO VISIT Sri Lanka

India leader to visit Sri Lanka as pro-China policy ebbs
Associated Press

The new Sri Lankan president, Maithripala Sirisena, returned from a visit to India this week, his first trip overseas, and highlighted the improving ties that had soured because of Sri Lanka's closeness to China under the previous administration.

Sirisena won a surprise victory last month against former ally Mahinda Rajapaksa, who relied heavily on China for infrastructure projects and backing against human rights allegations at the United Nations.

China's increasing influence in Sri Lanka had made India anxious because it considers the Indian Ocean region to be its strategic backyard.

China has provided loans for an airport, sea port, highways and power plants in Sri Lanka, where it became the largest investor. The new government, however, announced it would investigate a $1.5 billion Colombo Port City project, constructed on an artificial island off Colombo, because of suspicions it was not transparent.

The deal was sealed last September when Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Sri Lanka and won Colombo's support for a proposed maritime "Silk Road" linking China with Europe.

The late Rajiv Gandhi was the last Indian leader to visit Sri Lanka in 1987 to sign a peace pact to end an ethnic Tamil separatist rebellion still in its infancy. India sent peacekeepers to Sri Lanka as part of that agreement, angering the Tamil Tiger rebels whose suicide bomber assassinated Gandhi in 1991 at an election rally.

The rebels were crushed by the Sri Lankan military in 2009. China assisted Sri Lanka in the civil war by providing arms and later defended the country at the U.N. Human Rights Council against allegations of abuses in the civil war.

Former Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited Sri Lanka in 2008, but only to participate in a summit of South Asian leaders.
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MOVE TO BRING MR ON NATIONAL LIST

MOVE TO BRING MR ON NATIONAL LIST
Senior parliamentarians in SUPPORT of the Rajapaksa have launched a sudden operation to get former President Mahinda Rajapaksa into Parliament through the National List.

They have decided to meet Malani Fonseka and Janaka Priyantha, both United People's Freedom Alliance national list parliamentarians, to discuss this issue. Several senior parliamentarians have come forward for this and reliable sources say that parliamentarians who were appointed through the National List have not yet taken a final decision on this.

Senior parliamentarians in SUPPORT of the Rajapaksas have launched a sudden operation to get former President Mahinda Rajapaksa into Parliament through the National List.

They have decided to meet Malani Fonseka and Janaka Priyantha, both United People's Freedom Alliance national list parliamentarians, to discuss this issue. Several senior parliamentarians have come forward for this and reliable sources say that parliamentarians who were appointed through the National List have not yet taken a final decision on this.

However, the final decision of appointing parliamentarians through the National List rests with the General Secretary of the United People's Freedom Alliance. According to certain sources, Susil Premajayantha, who holds this post, is not in agreement with this operation.

No investigation conducted against KP so far!

KP travel ban to stay
No investigation conducted 
so far
Sarath Maslalasekera

The Court of Appeal yesterday extended the Interim Order restraining LTTE arms procurer Kumaran Pathmananthan alias KP from leaving the country until February 26, 2015.

At the outset, Solicitor General Suhadha Gamlath who appeared for the Attorney General moved court to extend the ban on KP for another week from yesterday as investigations were not being conducted. The Court of Appeal Bench comprising Justice Vijitha Malalgoda and Justice H J C Madawela accordingly extended the ban until February 26.

Senior Attorney Upul Kumarapperuma, Senior Counsel for the Petitioner JVP Propaganda Secretary Herath Mudiyanselage Vijitha Herath submitted that the investigations into KP's arrest and his ACTIVITIES were not conducted up to date.

Senior Counsel Kumarapperuma said that KP is living freely without any investigations being initiated against him by the authorities. He also sought a comprehensive report giving reasons from the Army Commander and Commander SECURITY Forces Kilinochchi for providing SECURITY to KP.

The petitioner has cited eight respondents. They are the IGP, Defence Secretary, Controller of Immigration and Emigration, Army Commander, Commander Security Forces, Kilinochchi, Director Terrorist Investigations Division (CID), the Attorney General and KP.

Senior Attorney Upul Kumarapperuma with Attorneys Thanuka Nandasiri, Kaushalya Perera, Keshani Jayasuriya, Ayantha Dehiattage instructed by Sunil Watagoda appeared for the Petitioner Vijitha Herath. 

போர்க்குற்ற `உள்ளக விசாரணையை` எதிர்த்து யாழ்-மக்கள் ஆர்ப்பாட்டம்

"MR Should Speak To President If He Wants To Be Next PM"

"MR Should Speak To President If He Wants To Be Next PM"

Friday, 20 February 2015 10:07

Cabinet Minister of Health and Indigenous Medicine Rajitha Senarathne said if Mahinda Rajapaksa wants to be the next Prime Minister, he should  discuss the matter with President Maithripala Sirisena.

Addressing a press conference in Colombo, Minister Senarathne said that Rajapaksa is still engaging in ACTIVE politics as a Senior Advisory to the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP).

“If he wants the post of Prime Minister he can discuss the matter with the President and compete in the general Election as the Prime Ministerial Candidate of the SLFP” the minister added.

Senarathne also asserted that  the objective of the 100 day programme is to end ‘family oriented’ politics, corruptions and to bring ‘good governance’ to the country.

"Therefore Rajapaksa does not have any barrier to compete as the Prime Ministerial Candidate", Senaratne said.

 “The message sent by Mahinda Rajapaksa to the Nugegoda rally did not mention anything about  him  competing as the Prime Ministerial candidate.” he said.

(Methmalie Dissanayake)

Rajitha: India did not insist on 13 A plus implementation

Rajitha: India did not insist on 13 A plus implementation
February 19, 2015, 9:36 pm  by Zacki Jabbar

India has not insisted that the 13th Amendment Plus pledge which former President Mahinda Rajapaksa had given it, be implemented, the government said yesterday.

Asked during the weekly Cabinet Press Briefing in Colombo, if Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had during last weeks official talks with President Maithripala Sirisena in New Delhi, insisted that the 13th Amendment to the Sri Lankan

Constitution be improved to 13A Plus as promised by Rajapaksa, Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne, who was part of the presidential delegation answered in the negative.

"No there was no such demand. The former President had got plus and minus mixed up. That was the way he did his calculation, which eventually led to defeat," Senaratne observed.

Minister said that India had been assured of the Sirisena government’s commitment to resolving the ethnic issue in a manner that was acceptable to all communities.

The Tamil National Alliance would be engaged in a constructive and positive manner, the minister noted, adding that the government in principle was committed to devolution within a unitary state.