Sri Lanka Accountability: Investigate LTTE-TNA allegiance

By Shenali D. Waduge

LankaWeb.com
January 30, 2014

We agree with the US, UK, EU, UN and UNHRC head. There are serious allegations to be investigated. The onus is on the Government of Sri Lanka to immediately INVESTIGATE – how the LTTE emerged, who trained, armed and financially sponsored them and the most important link between a terrorist organization and a political entity such as the TNA. In our eyes both LTTE and TNA are one and the same – the Sri Lankan public now demand that this evil nexus be investigated and the criminality of these entities be exposed and charged under the country’s laws and regulations.

LTTE-TNA links (lethal combination of Terrorists and Politicians)

Attempts at Separatism
1.    Creation of Tamil ethnic political party – All Ceylon Tamil Congress during British rule
2.    Creation of the ITAK (Federal Party) by Chelvanayagam in 1949 (year after independence)
3.    Vaddukoddai Resolution 1972 calling for youth to take up arms (Prabakaran was just 18years)
4.    Creation of Tamil New Tigers on 22 May 1972 by Prabakaran
5.    Tamil New Tigers rechristened as LTTE on 5 May 1976

Collective Responsibility – Guilty by Association

·         Did Prabakaran hijack what the Tamil politicians wanted or were both following the same objective by different route?
·         Did it serve both Prabakaran and elements of the Tamil political set up to annihilate all moderate Tamil politicians who were for peacefully living with other communities?
·         How many Tamil civilians do not wish to make their stand about the LTTE or the TNA and to negate the false assumption that Tamils wish to live separate from the other communities in Sri Lanka?
·         Why do Tamils not come out to say that most Tamils in reality live outside of the ‘Tamil Homeland’ thus putting to rest the charade and lies? Does the Tamil civil population not hold the key to silencing all critics and nullifying separatist claims on the grounds that Tamils cannot live with Sinhalese.

TNA-LTTE

TNA is an unregistered alliance formed in 2001.
TNA comprises ACTC (All Ceylon Tamil Congress) / EPRLF (Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front) / TELO (Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization) / TULF (Tamil United Liberation Front)
LTTE’s influence over voters enabled TNA politicians to enter Parliament – Investigate this.
TNA and LTTE are making the identical demands. The only factor that differentiates the 2 is LTTE had arms.
Now with the LTTE factor removed TNA is continuing the same demands.

LTTE-TNA alliance

2001 TNA election manifesto
TNA announced that the LTTE was the ‘sole Tamil National Entity’ in 2001. TNA claimed LTTE was the SOLE REPRESENTATIVE of the Tamil people in Sri Lanka and LTTE had a right to negotiate on behalf of the Tamil people.  Investigate!
a) Recognition of Tamils as a distinct nationality 
b) Recognition of a Tamil Homeland with guaranteed territorial integrity 
c) Recognition of the inalienable right of self-determination of the Tamil nation. 
d) Recognition of the right to full citizenship and fundamental democratic rights of all Tamils.

2004 TNA election manifesto

“Accepting the LTTE’s leadership as the national leadership of ‘Tamil Eelam’ Tamils and the Liberation Tigers as the sole and authentic representative of the Tamil people, let us devote our full cooperation for the ideals of the Liberation Tigers’ struggle with honesty and steadfastness. Let us endeavour determinedly, collectively as one group, one nation, one country, transcending race and religious differences, under the leadership of the LTTE, for a life of liberty, honour and justice for the Tamil people.”

Investigate:
·         TNA Parliamentarians attending pro-LTTE events abroad and locally throughout 30 years
·         TNA Parliamentarians speaking atop LTTE stages, delivering speeches that echo separatist sentiment.
·         TNA Parliamentarians paying homage to dead LTTE suicide cadres
·         TNA Parliamentarians communicating and liaising with LTTE fronts overseas
·         Foreign mission briefings/country data on Sri Lanka that describes ‘TNA as a pro-LTTE party’ while international media too carry the same description.

·         2004 EU Election Observation Mission Chief John Cushnahan released the EU report on 17 June 2004 clearly establishing the LTTE-TNA alliance: Quote: Firstly, the LTTE intended that no other rival Tamil party (or Tamil candidate from the mainstream political alliances) to the TNA would be able to claim to represent Tamil interests. A chilling message to this effect was sent early in the campaign when a UNP candidate and an EPDP activist were murdered. Incidents such as this seriously restricted the right of the parties other than the TNA to campaign freely in the Northern and Eastern Districts. During the 2004 elections, the major incidences of violence was perpetrated by the LTTE, whereas at the earlier elections, the primary source of the violence (although not all), were the two largest political parties. Unquote

·         2009 statement by Anandasangaree (President/Secretary of TULF) to the President of Sri Lanka: 

 “Democratic Tamil National Alliance considers the TNA, as the first and the worst enemy of the Tamil People. They should take full responsibility, among many other matters, for the loss of several thousands of lives and for causing injuries for many more.…. All have become paupers now. They will find hardly anything left when they return to their homes one day. All these or atleast 90 % of these could have been saved and total displacement could have been avoided if only the TNA had the forethought to advise the LTTE to release the people from their grip, to go anywhere they liked. The TNA is blamed for this because, when everyone, every organization, every country, the EU, the UN etc. had made this request specifically, only the TNA kept on asking for the war to stop. When the 8000 students who sat for the G.C.E(O/L) exam were taken away for compulsory training by the LTTE the TNA kept mum. Some of them are now dead and others are under detention by the Government. Where are the children and grand-children of the TNA MPs. Will the TNA at least now tell the world as to what happened to the students at Sencholai. …. “Who are these gentleman of the TNA now wanting to form an alliance with the DTNA. They are the people whom the LTTE elected to represent them in parliament fraudulently and it is they who unashamedly claimed the LTTE as the sole representatives of the people. The LTTE is no more and hence they do not need any representation in Parliament. Under the Present circumstances the most honourable action the TNA can take or must do is to quit parliament without clinging on to that office. Neither the PLOTE nor the EPRLF (Pathmanabha) gave any indication to Mr. Srikantha who met me by appointment and the other two by accident. As for me I will not touch the TNA even with a “pole”. The dead, the injured and those living in the IDP camps deprived of all their rights will not pardon us if we have any deal with them. The TNA should not under-estimate our alliance partners who cannot be bought over with a mayor-ship or with any membership in Parliament as they sold themselves in April 2004. …. “For five years I fought a lone battle, amidst threat to my life, unbearable humiliations etc. I was also christened as a “traitor”. I now feel exonerated. Let the souls of the dead haunting our homes bless me and not curse me.” 

V. Anandasangaree, has signed the statement as President – TULF & Secretary – DTNA/2009. Incidentally, Anandasangaree had to eat his own words because he has now joined the TNA alliance which he accused in 2009.
  
Guilty by Association

 In investigating and establishing the links with LTTE-TNA every killing and act of crime committed by the LTTE automatically incriminates the TNA as being guilty by association.
LTTE’s crimes include suicide missions, destruction of civilian property, premeditated targeting of civilians, denying fundamental rights under the UN Charter to Tamil men, women and even children by forcibly recruiting them as terrorists, denying children their right to life, right to live with parents, right to education and right to freedom of movement, banks heists, political assassinations, narcotic trade, human smuggling and a host of other crimes which TNA by association with LTTE becomes culpable. Investigate!

 COLLECTIVE RESPONSIBILITY – COLLECTIVE GUILT

 Allied Forces Denazified Germany – LTTE/TNA need to be denazified as well

 When Germany was denazified by the Allied Forces with the objective to totally eliminate any ideology associated with Nazism.

Sri Lanka must totally eliminate ideology associated with SEPARATISM.

·         Germans could not decry against foreign occupation (The Sri Lankan Army is the National Army of Sri Lanka and the GOSL has every right to position its troops wherever they like and their numbers cannot be questioned by any nation or group)
·         Germans could not object to foreign military presence which remained for 13 years in Germany
·         Denazification is a legal term coined by Pentagon in 1943 (Denazification Directives)
·         The Allies thus removed all physical symbols associated with Nazi regime.
·         The Nazi Party was abolished (TNA is the political arm of the LTTE)
·         Nazi links to cultural, social, intellectual, economic or even politics was abolished.
·         Everyone who supported Hitler or the Nazis were held accountable and charged with war crimes at the Nuremberg Trials. (WE DEMAND INVESTIGATION TO EVERYONE WHO SUPPORTED LTTE/TNA IN THEIR CRIMES FROM 1980S TO DATE)
·         The Nuremberg Trials aimed to purge all elements of Nazism – even the Swastika was removed
·         German and Austrian refugees had to fill a questionnaire that categorized them – 1.5million Germans were categorized as hard-core Nazis
·         US took over German media and 37 German newspapers, 6 radio stations, 314 theatres, 642 cinemas, 101 magazines, 237 book publishers, 7384 book dealers and printers made sure there was NO CRITICISM of Allied occupation or its troops.\
·         More than 30,000 book titles ranging from school textbooks to poetry were banned, those who possessed these books were punished
·         All artwork related to Nazism was prohibited
·         If denial of holocaust is considered a CRIME and is BANNED. The denial of LTTE crimes must be equally considered a CRIME and should be BANNED. 30 years of suffering LTTE put Sri Lanka through cannot be forgotten. Each of us are victims in our own way. We need to differentiate who made merry by LTTE terror and who suffered because of LTTE terror. Investigate.
·         Allied forces ran posters in German which read ‘YOU ARE GUILTY OF THIS’  or “THESE ATROCITIES : YOUR GUILT” photos of dead humans carried headings with “WHO IS GUILTY” or “THIS TOWN IS GUILTY”.
·         Germans were forced to see rotting corpses and made to feel guilty in an Allied program to make ALL GERMANS feel ‘collectively responsible’ and ‘collectively guilty’ for the crimes of the Nazis. This was how US, UK and FRANCE treated ACCOUNTABILITY. Sri Lanka went about a totally different path and for that these same countries find fault.

 YES WE WANT ACCOUNTABILITY:

·         We want the world to know that India first mobilized groups of unemployed Tamil youth from Sri Lanka and trained them in India by Indian intelligence and retired army officers.
·         We want the world to know that these trainings began far before the July 1983 riots which makes us wonder whether this was a created incident to bring out the LTTE into the open.
·         We want the world to know that the majority of Tamils live outside their propaganda suited “Tamil Homeland” and amongst the very Sinhalese they say they cannot live with.
·         We want the world to know that in countries where minorities like Tamils making just 10% of the population can never hold positions as Chief Justice of Sri Lanka, Inspector General of Police, Chairman of the Central Bank, Chairman of State TV, Heads of Government Departments, University Professors and Vice-Chancellors, Ambassadors and High Commissioners and the person tipped to be the first Tamil PM was gunned down by the LTTE as was the Mayor of Jaffna who became the 1^st killing of the LTTE.

 The public have been demanding that the GOSL INVESTIGATE the LTTE and its links to the TNA.
This investigation must commence now. The Public must be invited to send all evidence of such ties and the State must bring criminal charges against all the men behind these two movements having proven their guilt by association for the bulk of LTTE crimes were meted upon civilians and under Geneva Conventions and all other customary international laws civilians are non-combatants and anyone targeting them in the pre-meditated manner the LTTE had using suicide bombers becomes a war crime and if TNA is guilty by association all TNA members must be brought to trial using all the country laws already in place to facilitate this.

WE DEMAND AN INVESTIGATION INTO LTTE-TNA ALLIANCE without delay.

MoD to probe TNA-LTTE nexus ahead of Geneva HR summit

By Shamindra Ferdinando
Island.lk
January 28, 2014

*EU polls monitors’ report used as evidence

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) would probe the nexus between the LTTE and the five-party Tamil National Alliance (TNA), a senior MoD spokesman told The Island yesterday.

The official said that the investigation would focus on the close relationship between the LTTE and the TNA since late 2001, when the political grouping recognised the LTTE as the sole representatives of the Tamil speaking people.  Based on the findings, legal action would be taken against TNA members, the MoD said.

The international community, too, would be informed of the TNA’s pro-LTTE activities during the conflict, the MoD said.

The TNA consists of the Illankai Tamil Arasu Kadchi (ITAK), the TELO, PLOTE, EPRLF and TULF.

The MoD official was responding to a recent resolution adopted by TNA-led Northern Provincial Council to urge the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to inquire into the alleged atrocities against civilians during the military offensive against the LTTE.

The MoD official said:

"We intend to investigate senior TNA members including those in Parliament and the Northern PC. The investigation is aimed at ascertaining how the TNA influenced the LTTE strategy leading to war in mid 2006."

Asked whether the MoD had irrefutable evidence to support allegations against the TNA, the official said that following parliamentary polls in December 2001, an EU Election Observation Mission had revealed that the TNA had been backed by the LTTE to win the majority of seats in the Northern and Eastern districts.

The MoD said some senior TNA representatives had even attended the passing out parades of the LTTE’s child soldiers. Photographic evidence was available, the MoD said. "We will also inquire into the circumstances under which the TNA on behalf of the LTTE ordered Tamil speaking people to boycott presidential election in November 2005." The TNA made the announcement on November 10, 2005 in Kilinochchi, the then nerve center of LTTE operations in the Northern Province.

The MoD acknowledged that there hadn’t been a comprehensive investigation into the TNA-LTTE nexus though some military officers felt an inquiry was a necessity. Responding to a query, the MoD said that except for last presidential polls in January 2010 when the TNA backed former army commander General Sarath Fonseka, the alliance had worked closely with the LTTE at the general elections in 2001 and 2004.

LTTE Political Wing was meant to infiltrate military-held areas; Sasitharans no saints -MOD

By Shamindra Ferdinando
Island.lk
January 16,  2014

The Defence Ministry yesterday said that Northern Provincial Council member Ananthi Sasitharan was under investigation, though she had publicly distanced herself from the LTTE fighting cadre.

A senior Defence Ministry spokesman said that the ongoing inquiry was meant to establish her role during the conflict as well as the post-war era.  The Defence Ministry was responding to criticism of its decision to weigh the need to rehabilitate Ms. Sasitharan.

During the conflict Ananthi Sasitharan worked at the Kilinochchi Divisional secretariat.

Ms Sasitharan successfully contested the first Northern Provincial Council polls last September. Representing the Illankai Tamil Arasu Kadchi (ITAK) she polled the second highest preferential votes in the Northern Province comprising the administrative districts of Jaffna, Vavuniya, Mannar, Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu.

Asked whether authorities had specific information regarding Ms. Sasitharan’s involvement in terrorism, the official pointed out that an attempt was being made to sanitize her on the basis that her husband, Velayutham Sasitharan alias Elilan functioned as the political wing leader of the Trincomalee district.

The Defence Ministry alleged that the LTTE created a political wing especially to infiltrate territory in Northern and Eastern Provinces, during the Norwegian arranged Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) in early 2002. The CFA stipulated that LTTE could establish political offices in areas under the government control, the ministry said, adding that the Sasitharans could have taken advantage of the CFA on many occasions.

Sri Lanka wouldn’t give special status to those terrorists masquerading as political activists, the Defence Ministry insisted. Referring to the killing of LTTE political wing leader S. P. Thamilselvan in early November 2007, the ministry stressed that the former Jaffna commander was targeted as he was a member of a terrorist outfit.

In fact, a US military team that examined the ground situation in late 2002 asserted that the LTTE was exploiting the CFA to its advantage. The team from Pacific Command alleged that: "Since the signing the CFA with the government of Sri Lanka, the LTTE has increased political presence within military controlled territory and actively repositioned, re-equipped and re-trained combat forces. As a result of these activities, the LTTE has improved its ability to affect civilian popular opinion, interdict military lines of communications and seize control of additional territory."

The ministry said that those who had visited Sri Lanka to examine the ground situation ended up listening to either former terrorists or the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) which endorsed the LTTE as the sole representative of Tamil speaking people leading to the outbreak of eelam war IV.

Economic outlook 2014 SL will show all characteristics of growth of small developing countries: Dr. Kelegama

DailyMirror.lk

January 16, 2014

The Talking Economics editorial team interviewed Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) Executive Director Dr. Saman Kelegama to get his views on the outlook for 2014 for the global economy and for Sri Lanka. Excerpts …

Q: Dr. Kelegama, what is your overall take on the economic prospects for 2014, globally?
It’s difficult to forecast global economic growth in contemporary times because of the high volatility and uncertainty in an inter-connected world. Slow recovery from the 2008/2009 global economic crisis and external shocks has further aggravated the situation.

Even an international institute like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) keeps changing its global economic forecasts every quarter. What was stated in its World Economic Outlook in April 2013 changed in the October 2013 report. Any prognosis on the global economic outlook and its implications need to be interpreted with caution.

Q: Based on the data available, what are your views on how 2014 will pan out for developed countries in particular?
The IMF expects that global economic growth in 2013 would be recorded at 2.9 percent and this will increase to 3.6 percent in 2014. Both forecasts are down by 0.3 and 0.2 points, respectively, from the last prediction made by the IMF in July 2013. These latest predictions were made despite the signs of recovery in the Euro area in the third quarter of 2013.

In the EU, business confidence indicators suggest that activities are close to stabilizing in the periphery and recovering in the core economies. But the worrying public debt level and the fragmented financial system are issues in the EU. The Japanese economy recovered from -0.6 percent growth in 2011 to stable 2 percent growth in both 2012 and 2013 after a quantitative easing policy pursued by the new government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

As a large sum of the quantitative easing money is flowing out or leaking from Japan, the impact of this policy will gradually diminish in 2014, indicating a lower growth in the Japanese economy. Meanwhile, the US economy is expected to recover from 1.6 percent growth in 2013 to 2.6 percent in 2014.

Q: Let’s stay with the US for a minute – what are the key developments in the US economy to look out for?
After the financial crisis in 2008, US used several rounds of the bond buying strategy, known as ‘quantitative easing’, to pump credit to the US economy to revive it. Further to the announcements in June 2013, on December 18, 2013, it was announced that monthly bond purchase will be reduced by US $ 10 billion, which will amount to US $ 75 billion with effect from January 2014.

So, there are very clear signs of a tapering off of quantitative easing and the US Fed making a permanent exit from low interest rates. The impetus for stronger global growth will as usual come from the US economy.

Q: What about the prospects for emerging markets, particularly China, India and ASEAN?
China’s growth moderated in 2013 due to the rebalancing policy of focusing more on the domestic market. China is gradually shifting from the export-oriented and investment dominated economic model to a somewhat domestic-oriented and consumption dominated economic model.

The 7.6 percent growth in 2013, although less than the 9.3 percent growth recorded in 2011, remains high by international standards. China is expected to maintain this growth rate for 2014 with 0.3 percentage points lower than 2013.

India, the other major market in Asia has shown much slower growth during 2012 and 2013, 3.2 percent and 3.8 percent, respectively. This has happened due to low business confidence resulting from policy uncertainty, double digit inflation caused mainly by deregulating administrative prices and depreciating currency, rising current account deficits, etc.

The Indian case clearly shows that rising external account deficits cannot be solved by short-term foreign capital inflows. Measures to enhance exports by addressing deep seated structural problems in the economy are essential. With currency depreciation and other measures taken in recent months, India will show a growth revival to 5.1 percent in 2014 but elections related uncertainty in mid-2014 could dilute growth prospects.

Q: To what extent are developments in the West, for instance the Fed taper, having an impact on these emerging markets?
After June 2013, with the signals of US gradually ending its quantitative easing policy, we saw some funds exiting from developing countries back to the US. It is estimated that countries such as Malaysia and Thailand lost close to 1.2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) growth due to such pull-out of funds.
Some East Asian countries saw an increase in portfolio inflows from Japan consequent to the Japanese stimulus which compensated for some of the capital outflows to the US. These developments in the global market have created volatility in Asian financial markets.

Meanwhile, EU austerity is having an impact on ASEAN exports to the EU. Overall, ASEAN countries will show a marginal improvement in their growth rates from 5 percent in 2013 to 5.4 percent in 2014.

Q: What are the prospects for global trade in 2014 – will there be a notable impact?
Yes, all of these developments mean that there will be a weak recovery of global trade. This will be also due to some emerging protectionist forces by the limited progress of the WTO Doha Round (although the WTO Bali Ministerial was successful) and growing space of negotiations of mega regional initiatives like the Trans Pacific Partnership and Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership.

Of course, there will be better growth in 2014 compared to 2013 in overall global trading. In contrast to 2013, where a lower growth of imports and exports were seen compared to 2012, in 2014, there is estimated to be acceleration of import growth by 5.9 percent and export growth by 5.8 percent compared to lower growth for both in 2013.

Q: What about oil and commodity prices?
As estimated by international agencies, there will be a decline in both oil and food prices in 2014 and this will ease pressure on the foreign reserves of developing countries and support inflation management policies.

The consumer price increase at 5.7 percent for emerging and developing countries estimated for 2014 clearly shows that maintaining inflation at the single digit level will not be a major problem for most developing countries although the case may vary from country to country.

Q: How are small developing countries coping with these changes?
Despite volatility, the developing economies have shown promising growth in services exports, tourism and remittances. The services export growth has been mainly driven by the IT sector. In Sri Lanka, for instance, IT exports that amounted to less than US $ 50 million in 2001 have reached close to US $ 500 million in 2012. The growth in tourism is a result of the growing income levels, spread of Internet, etc. and this too was seen in Sri Lanka in the post-2009 period at a rapid rate.

People travelling overseas for jobs are also showing an increase. Remittances now exceed overseas aid and FDI in many developing countries. In Sri Lanka, remittances exceed 8 percent of GDP and are an important source of support to the balance of payments. With male migration for jobs now exceeding female migration, Sri Lanka is gradually moving towards exporting semi-skilled and skilled labour.

Remittances and tourism have been significant sources in sustaining the economic growth momentum in some developing countries and we will see the same trend in 2014.

Q: Let’s focus a bit closer on Sri Lanka now. What is your overall assessment of Sri Lanka’s economic prospects for 2014?
In 2014, Sri Lanka will show all characteristics of growth of small developing countries as I mentioned above with IT services exports, tourism and remittances playing a role in overall growth. With close to 6 percent GDP public investment in physical infrastructure as announced in the 2014 Budget, the debt financed government-led growth with some spillovers to private sector activities like construction will be visible in the economy.

Overall, Sri Lanka will also show a slight improvement in growth in 2014 compared to 2013 but the improvement may not manifest in full if 2014 is going to be an election year. Perhaps the growth rate will be between 7 percent and 7.5 percent — a reasonably high rate from an Asian perspective.

Q: You mentioned debt-financed growth. There are many questions regarding the sustainability of this strategy. How do you see it playing out in 2014?
We may see the end of global easy money in 2014 with the tapering off of quantitative easing in the US. Short-term foreign capital inflows to Treasury bonds/bills cannot be relied upon as an assured source of foreign exchange to boost up reserves in the coming years. LIBOR rates will grow at a faster rate in 2014 relative to 2013. This in turn means that international commercial borrowing is going to become costly in 2014.

Sri Lanka has already seen these tendencies in the second half of 2013 in its pursuit of borrowing from the global market where the US $ 750 million bond issue of the NSB carried 8.87 percent interest rate and the bond issue of the DFCC carried 9.62 percent interest rate and the bank settled for US $ 100 million instead of going for the desired US $ 250 million. Already the government has announced that it will go for a US $ 1.0 billion sovereign bond in 2014.

Presumably, part of it will go for infrastructure development work and other part for debt/interest repayment. What interest rate it will carry with the current BB- Sovereign Credit Rating will be an important issue in the context of overall management of the economy. Needless to say, a lower rate will be more manageable than a higher rate.

Q: Do you see any significant developments on the international political economy and trade front?
During the last four years Sri Lanka has been hit by two sanctions, viz., the GSP-Plus removal in August 2010 and US sanctions on Iran starting July 2012 that diminished crude oil imports from Iran at a concessional rate. The GSP-plus removal led to Sri Lanka losing over Rs.780 million from ready-made garments – the largest export item of the country — as was reported in Parliament in October 2013.

In 2014, Sri Lanka will embark on the China-Sri Lanka FTA. Will Sri Lankan ready-made garments gain in the Chinese market what it lost in the EU? Will the China-Sri Lanka FTA give duty free market access to key exports from Sri Lanka like ready-made garments, tea, gems and jewellery, rubber products, IT, etc.? If generous market access to Sri Lankan active exports is offered by China it will also give a boost to the overall exports that is much needed at a time when the export share in GDP has declined.

Likewise, the US sanctions on Iran will hit Sri Lanka’s oil imports – the largest import item of the country — in 2013 since Sri Lanka had to opt for some spot market purchasing from Oman, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Vietnam, etc., instead of the earlier arrangement of 93 percent dependence on Iranian crude oil at a cheaper rate. Before the sanctions, the oil bill was 25 percent of the overall import bill of US $ 20 billion; i.e., close to US $ 5 billion.

In 2014, there are reasons to believe that the oil bill might be more than US $ 5 billion if the price factor dominates over the volume. Given the improving relations between US and Iran there may be a possibility of removing these sanctions and in that case, with overall global downtrend in oil prices in 2014, Sri Lanka will be a beneficiary.

Two important global political events to watch in the context of the Sri Lankan economy would be the March 2014 UNHRC session in Geneva outcome and the May 2014 Indian elections outcome and their implications for the economy.

Q: What are some of the key ongoing policy issues facing Sri Lanka that need to be tackled in 2014 and beyond?
Global experience shows that debt financed consumption and investment-led growth do not necessarily improve market sentiments and is not sustainable. Sustainable growth requires real sector growth with exports taking the lead and increased inflow of FDI.

So, it becomes all the more important to build on the export pick up seen in Sri Lanka in the months of September and October 2013 and also create a consistent and predictable policy environment to attract more FDI to ensure sustainable high growth in the coming years.

Why 1984 Golden Temple raid still rankles for Sikhs

By Poonam Taneja
BBC Asian Network
July 13, 2013

 

In June Sikhs gathered at the Golden Temple to mark the 29th anniversary of what they see as a war crime

Four Sikhs have been convicted in London of attacking a retired general who led the Indian army's assault in 1984 on the Golden Temple in Amritsar.

The attack on Lt Gen Kuldeep Singh Brar, 78, in September last year brought one of the most controversial events in recent Indian history back into the headlines.

The storming of the Golden Temple, codenamed Operation Blue Star, was aimed at flushing out Sikh separatists.

They had been demanding an independent homeland - called Khalistan - in the Punjab.

The army's operation outraged Sikhs around the world, who accused the troops of desecrating the faith's holiest shrine.

Storming of the Golden Temple

• 1982: Armed Sikh militants, led by Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, take up residence in the Golden Temple complex
• 3-8 June 1984: The Indian army attacks the Golden Temple, killing Bhindranwale, his supporters and a number of civilians
• 31 October 1984: Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi who had given the go-ahead to Operation Blue Star, was assassinated by two Sikh bodyguards
• November 1984: More than 3,000 are killed in anti-Sikh riots across India

According to the Indian government, about 400 people were killed, including 87 soldiers.

But Sikh groups dispute this figure. They say thousands died, including a large number of pilgrims who were there for an important Sikh festival, the anniversary of the death of their fifth guru, Arjan Dev Ji.

Parts of the temple were damaged during the fighting and Sikhs felt it was an attack on their religion.

Operation Blue Star led to the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who was killed by her Sikh bodyguards in revenge.

Almost three decades later a group of Sikhs saw an opportunity to take revenge on Lt Gen Brar, who was in London on holiday with his wife Meena, a visit the couple regularly made, astonishingly without any security.

Lt Gen Brar told the court - by video-link from India - there had been many attempts on his life since 1984 and several extremist Sikh websites had had him listed as their number one target.

The jury at Southwark Crown Court were told by Lt Gen Brar: "[Operation Blue Star] wasn't carried out against the Sikh community but against militants who had been carrying out a lot of killings."

He said they had given the militants lots of warnings but when they had failed to respond, they had had no other option but to go into the temple.

Lt Gen Brar, bearing the scars to his throat, returns to India after the attack in London

 

He said he had told his soldiers to use minimum force and not to damage the temple, but after the soldiers came under attack from all sides "they were dropping like mosquitoes.

"You can't sit there like dead ducks," he said, adding that they had had to fight back to defend themselves.
His attackers - Mandeep Singh Sandhu, 34, Birmingham, and Dilbag Singh, 36, from London, were just children when Operation Blue Star took place, but they bore a grudge.

The court was told that two members of Dilbag Singh's family had been missing since 1984 - his father and brother, who were in the temple complex at the time of the Indian army's attack.

When Singh Sandhu and Dilbag Singh found out Lt Gen Brar and his wife were in the capital, they made two reconnaissance missions to check out their movements.

A friend, Harjit Kaur, 38, of Hayes, west London, followed the couple into a casino, a restaurant and onto a bus.

Then on the night of 30 September, in a quiet street just yards away from their hotel, Lt Gen Brar and his wife were attacked.

The court heard Mrs Brar was thrown against a wall as three men grappled with her husband.

He told the court: "I shouted out, 'Who are you? Go away!' and tried to fight back."

The attackers will be sentenced on 19 September

 

Three assailants wrestled him to the ground and a fourth slashed his throat.

"I thought I was never going to see my wife and children again," he said.

The attackers ran off into the night and drinkers from a nearby pub helped Lt Gen Brar as blood poured from his wounds.

He was taken to hospital, where he needed emergency surgery to the deep cuts to his face and neck.

The police initially treated it as attempted murder, but the defendants were charged with wounding with intent to commit grievous bodily harm.

The Golden Temple was built in the 16th Century and contains one of the holiest books in Sikhism

 

Dilbag Singh admitted he had followed Lt Gen Brar but said it had been with a view to exposing him to the Sikh community so they could protest against his presence in London.

Mandeep Singh Sandhu refused to give evidence. Kaur also denied the charge.
But all three were found guilty of wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm.
A fourth man, Barjinder Singh Sangha, 33, of Wolverhampton, had previously pleaded guilty to wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm. Another man remains at large.

India diplomat row: Delhi says 'no stand-off' with US

Devyani Khobragade maintained a diplomatic silence on meeting reporters in Delhi

India's Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid has sought to downplay the row with Washington over an Indian diplomat who was arrested in the US. 

There was "no stand-off" with the US, he told reporters in Delhi, and predicted problems would be sorted out.

The row erupted after the diplomat, Devyani Khobragade, was arrested in New York on charges of visa fraud and underpaying her housekeeper.

She is now back in India after an apparent agreement with Washington.

"If there are any issues" India and the US will "sort them out mutually", Mr Khurshid said in televised remarks.

He was speaking a day after Ms Khobragade arrived in India, where she was greeted by her father, Uttam. On Saturday, the two were welcomed by Mr Khurshid.

Analysis

Jonathan Marcus BBC diplomatic correspondent

 

In requiring the US to remove one of its diplomats from Delhi, the Indian government is effectively treating the departure of its own diplomat from the US as an expulsion.

The question now is whether this draws a line under the messy diplomatic spat between the two countries.
Of greater importance is the longer-term impact this may have on bilateral ties. India, a democracy and rising power in Asia, is seen in many quarters in Washington as a natural fit to become a special partner of the United States. The US has sought a closer strategic and military partnership with Delhi but to a large extent has been rebuffed.

India is cautious about advancing ties too quickly. It doesn't want to antagonise Beijing, and many Indians still see the US as having been far too close to Pakistan.

Surrounded by reporters on leaving the Maharashtra Sadan state guesthouse, Ms Khobragade gave little away. 

"No comments, I am really thankful for all your support... I cannot make any comments right now. My government will speak for me, my lawyer will speak for me," she said.

Ms Khobragade was asked to leave the US as the diplomatic rift deepened.

The US meanwhile confirmed that an American official will leave its embassy in Delhi at India's request - Mr Khurshid described this as an expulsion.

"We have our reasons and have informed the US about it. We are in touch with the US. We will do what needs to be done. I do not think that this needs more discussion," Mr Khurshid said.

Washington said it deeply regretted the move but hoped that it would bring closure to the case and lead to a return to constructive ties.

The expelled US diplomat has not been named.

Sources told Agence France Presse that the individual was of similar rank to Ms Khobragade and had been involved in the Khobragade case.

'Shocked and appalled'

Ms Khobragade and her father (l) met the Indian foreign minister the day after her arrival in Delhi

 

India had demanded an apology after Ms Khobragade, 39, was handcuffed and strip-searched following her arrest last month. It refused to waive her immunity so she could be prosecuted in the US.

Ms Khobragade has always denied any wrongdoing.

On Thursday she was indicted by a US federal grand jury in Manhattan, but was also granted immunity by US officials, paving the way for her to return to India.

Ms Khobragade was arrested after a complaint from her maid, Sangeeta Richard.

She in turn accused Ms Richard of theft and attempted blackmail.

Delhi said it was "shocked and appalled" at the manner of her arrest, and ordered a series of diplomatic reprisals against the US.

Security barricades around the US embassy in the capital were removed and a visiting US delegation was snubbed by senior Indian politicians and officials.

On Wednesday, the embassy was ordered to stop "commercial activities on its premises". India also said that embassy cars could be penalised for traffic offences.

The embassy has been told to shut down a club within its premises which includes a pool, restaurant and tennis court, NDTV news channel said.

.......................................

Devyani Khobragade: Bureaucratic and diplomatic negligence

By PJ Crowley Former US Assistant Secretary of State

The Indian and US negligence has turned a minor legal case into a diplomatic and political test of the countries' relationship

Every crisis theoretically provides an opportunity. But the current diplomatic rift between the United States and India seems to be a lost opportunity to avoid a crisis.

Rather than deepening relations, the two countries are deep into a lengthy period of crisis management.
The brouhaha was triggered by the arrest of the Indian deputy consul general in New York, Devyani Khobragade.

Ms Khobragade was accused of lying on an application for her housekeeper's work visa, over-reporting the amount of money the housekeeper was paid.

This is the third case of alleged mistreatment by Indian diplomats in New York in three years.
The US contends that Ms Khobragade's limited diplomatic immunity does not cover private conduct that violates US law.

'Despicable and barbaric'

Political hell has broken loose in India over the manner in which Ms Khobragade was detained. She was handcuffed after dropping off her child at school, subjected to a strip and body cavity search, then placed in a cell with the general jail population.

Barricades were removed from the front of the US embassy in Delhi, apparently in retaliation 

 

A high-level Indian official characterised the treatment as "despicable and barbaric". Secretary of State John Kerry called Indian National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon to express regret.

New Delhi has retaliated by taking away privileges accorded US diplomats in India and removing security barriers guarding the American embassy there.

It has also elevated Ms Khobragade to a position at its United Nations mission that carries full diplomatic immunity. Whatever this means for the court case, it clearly indicates the dispute is no longer just a diplomatic problem but a political one as well.

The strip-search was an unforced error.

The US Marshals Service says it followed "standard arrestee intake procedures," a cringe-worthy bureaucratic phrase that means it went by the book.

Ms Khobragade was treated like every other female defendant awaiting a court appearance.

"The US could have declared Ms Khobragade persona non grata, demanded her immediate departure and refused further work visas for domestic help for Indian diplomats”

But the arrest of a diplomat is never just another case. If the state department did not know she would be strip-searched, it should have - and should have demanded special handling.

In diplomatic circles, any perceived slight is reciprocated. You step on our toes, expect the same. The political and public fallout was predictable, particularly in a country like India with a vigorous and sometimes inventive media.

En route to the courtroom in lower Manhattan, both countries lost sight of the big picture and the broader interests that should shape the relationship between the world's oldest and largest democracies.

India is a rising power the United States has been cultivating for years.

Frustration over the consulate's dismal human rights record is understandable, but a prosecution is necessarily a lengthy process that is bound to cast a shadow over the relationship even under the best of circumstances. The Italian case of American Amanda Knox comes to mind.

The state department alerted India about the case in September, but it's unclear what diplomatic efforts were undertaken to resolve the underlying issues short of prosecution.

The US could have declared Ms Khobragade persona non grata, demanded her immediate departure and refused further work visas for domestic help for Indian diplomats.

But once the United States chose to prosecute, it had not just to do everything by the book but do everything right, to keep the case focused on her. That obviously did not happen.

Devyani Khobragade at a fundraiser on 8 December

On the Indian side, it is unclear why the Indian ambassador to the United States or the country's foreign ministry failed to clean house when first alerted by US authorities.

Indian diplomats surely understand that disrespecting US law and international norms undermine its emergence as a constructive global actor.

India's removal of security barriers is excessive and irresponsible.

Even if the remaining security arrangements are adequate - India has primary responsibility for embassy security under the Vienna Convention - New Delhi should understand how sensitive such a move is given last year's attack on a US diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya.

Once charges were pending, both sides should have worked together to ensure the case did not undermine vastly improved, but still occasionally testy, relations between the two countries. That didn't happen either.
That India and the United States have allowed a minor legal case to become a major test in US-India relations is bureaucratic and public diplomacy negligence.

After all, tending to the big picture is supposedly what governments and foreign ministries do for a living.
There are still plenty of reasons to be optimistic about US-India relations. Mutual interests far outweigh differences. But if this week is any indication, the road ahead will be bumpy.

PJ Crowley is a former Assistant Secretary of State and now a professor of practice and fellow at The George Washington University's Institute of Public Diplomacy and Global Communication.

.............

Indian diplomat tells of anguish at leaving US without children

By Abhaya Srivastava 

.

New Delhi (AFP) - An Indian diplomat at the centre of a bitter row with the United States told Sunday of her "immense stress" at leaving behind her young family in New York, and vowed to clear her name.

Indian consulate official Devyani Khobragade was allowed to leave the United States on Friday after a month-long dispute over her arrest and strip-search on suspicion of visa fraud involving her domestic servant.
Khobragade was granted full diplomatic immunity and allowed to fly back to India -- just hours after charges were filed in court alleging she lodged false documents to obtain a visa for her servant and then underpaid her.

Khobragade, 39, told an Indian newspaper of her anguish at leaving behind her daughters, aged seven and four, in New York along with her husband, a US citizen, who works as an academic.

"I wonder if I will be able to ever reunite with my family, my husband, my little kids. I miss them," Khobragade told The Sunday Express.

"What if my children choose to study and work in the US? What if I can never return to the US, which I cannot now. Does it mean we will never be able to live together as a family again?" she said.

"I know I am honest, and I will come out clean. But we do not know how much time it will take and for how long my family will have to suffer due to this," she added.

Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade gives a traditional greeting after her return from the US in New Delhi

 

Her arrest on December 12 outside her children's school and treatment in custody, where she said she was subjected to a cavity search, outraged India which claimed she benefited from full diplomatic immunity.

US prosecutors disputed this, and filed charges in New York accusing Khobragade of sometimes forcing the Indian maid to work 100-hour weeks, even when sick and often without a day off, for pay as little as $1.22 an hour.

Khobragade did obtain diplomatic immunity when last week New Delhi asked Washington to grant her a G1 visa given to diplomats at India's UN mission, which is also in New York.

The row between the two countries, which had embraced each other as strategic partners, saw weeks of feisty exchanges that strained bilateral ties and left resentment on both sides.

India has removed extra security barriers at the US embassy in New Delhi, demanded contract details for domestic staff employed by American diplomats and even stopped the mission importing duty-free food and alcohol.

On Wednesday, it ordered an embassy leisure centre popular with American expatriates in the capital to stop admitting non-diplomatic members, while scheduled visits by US officials to India have been cancelled.

In a fresh retaliatory measure late Friday, India asked the United States to withdraw an embassy official in New Delhi.

The expelled American diplomat was a "similar rank" to Khobragade and is thought to have helped the family of her maid travel to America where they were granted protection by prosecutors.

US prosecutors say the family of the maid were evacuated to the United States because of attempts to intimidate them.

In her newspaper interview, Khobragade said she would continue a legal fight to clear her name, including attempting to have her case in New York officially dismissed in a federal court.

"I have come to India but my stand still needs to be vindicated. And of course, I have been separated from my family, and I am under immense stress for my children," Khobragade said. 

"I spoke to my kids for hours last night, and they are already missing me. The four-year-old asked me, 'Mommy, when will you be back home', and I had no answer." 

She cannot return to the United States unless she surrenders to the court on arrival, and her name is being placed on US immigration watch lists "to prevent the routine issuance of any future visa", according to US officials.

 

TNA THUGS want their OWN STOOGES in GOSL administration of the Northern Province! Just like the LTTE they support!

Sequel to Wigneswaran’s demand:

TNA intensifies campaign against NPC Chief Secy with death threats

by Uditha Kumarasinghe and P.Krishnasamy 

SundayObserver.lk

January 12, 2014

The intensified campaign against the Chief Secretary of the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) by Chief Minister C. V. Wigneswaran and other TNA Council members has ended in death threats.

Chief Secretary of the Northern Provincial Council Mrs. R. Wijialudchumi Ramesh when contacted by the Sunday Observer yesterday said that she has been receiving death threats via SMS from abroad and telephone calls from unknown persons demanding her to give up her post.

The death threats come weeks after Northern Provincial Council Chief Minister Wigneswaran’s demand to oust Mrs. R.Wijialudchumi Ramesh from her post and appoint another SLAS officer of their choice. Wigneswaran has not only demanded the removal of Chief Secretary of the Northern Provincial Council but also its Governor G.L. Chandrasiri.

Public Administration and Home Affairs Minister W.D.J. Seneviratne said that the Chief Secretary Wijaialudchumi Ramesh has not done anything wrong and that she has acted with responsibility based on the guidelines of the Sri Lanka Administrative Service.

The NPC Chief Secretary who addressed a media briefing by the Sri Lanka Administrative Service Association (SLASA) in Colombo on Thursday said that she had received death threats from the NPC administration. The NPC Chief Secretary alleged that she is receiving death threats via SMS from abroad and unknown telephone calls threatening her to give up her post.

Minister Seneviratne said there is no necessity for his ministry to take action as this is a disclosure of threats received by a Government official and the police has already taken steps in this regard. She disclosed this to safeguard her life and duly informed the police. The Public Administration and Home Affairs Ministry Secretary had also inquired about this from the police. At present she has been provided security by the police, the Minister said.

Minister Seneviratne said when Wigneswaran assumed office as the NPC Chief Minister, the Chief Secretary had worked closely with him and the Provincial Council administration. Now they level allegations that the Chief Secretary does not cooperate with them. Information has also been received that some foreign organisations affiliated to the pro LTTE Tamil diaspora are also behind the move to remove the NPC Chief Secretary from her post.

The NPC Chief Secretary said the other SLAS members are also under pressure to vacate their posts to enable the NPC to appoint those willing to pursue its agenda. The SLASA also accused the NPC administration of intimidating its Chief Secretary and other officials.

SLASA officials said the NPC Chief Secretary is under heavy pressure from the NPC administration to support its agenda. The SLASA which expressed serious concern over the developments in the Northern Province warned that such interference could cause an adverse impact on the country’s post reconciliation process.The Association has called for the immediate intervention of President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Northern Province Governor Major General G.A. Chandrasiri to end the intimidation of the Chief Secretary.
The Chief Secretary of Northern Province Ms. Vijaialudchumi Ramesh said that she was receiving death threats by way of SMS from abroad and phone calls from unknown elements who wanted her and other Sri Lanka Administrative officers in the Council to vacate their positions immediately to enable the ruling party to have their favourite officials.

She said that public officials in provincial councils and the line ministries have no peace of mind when carrying out their duties due to political elements in the ruling party interfering in their duties. She said that their primary duty was to protect the interest of the State and ensure that no person misuses or misappropriates public wealth.

She and her fellow officials of the Administrative Service had given their utmost cooperation to the members of the Northern Provincial Council within the rules and regulations of the country, she said.

Sustainability at a Sri Lankan hotel

 By Martin Wright
TheGuardian.com

January 9, 2014

Sri Lankan hotel chain Jetwing boasts impressive sustainability credentials. Martin Wright asks the chairman if it is all too good to be true.

 

 

 

Koggala Beach south of Galle, Sri Lanka, 2010. Photograph: Yadid Levy / Alamy Photograph: Yadid Levy / Alamy/Alamy

 

If you were going to pick a name for one of the most ecologically progressive hotel chains in the southern hemisphere, you'd hardly plump for 'Jetwing'.

It might smack of a tacky 1960s love affair with the glamour of air travel but this family-owned Sri Lankan business is quietly transforming itself into something of a green pioneer.

Not that you'd notice. Most of Jetwing's hotels hardly ooze greenery. There's none of the wood-and-thatch, earthy adobe ambience of your typical eco-retreat. Some of the chain's latest hotels, are exercises in defiant modernism. The new Jetwing resort in the Yala National Park looks more like a bold new art complex in Berlin that has been parachuted onto the Indian Ocean shoreline than a sensitive development on a world heritage site.

The green stuff – solar panels, biomass boilers, bottling plants which avoid the use of plastic bottles – are tucked away out of sight. It's all rather coy. But that could be about to change.

I met up with the chairman, Hiran Cooray, at a Jetwing hotel on the outskirts of Colombo, where he'd just treated himself to a week's ayurvedic retreat in an effort to offset the health effects of a corporate lifestyle. This is boomtime in Sri Lanka: the end of the Tamil Tiger insurgency has brought about a heady rush of optimism, with heavy spending on infrastructure, and areas once off limits opening up. Tourists are returning in droves, undeterred by controversy over the government's human rights record. Any tour operator in the country has to run to stand still. So sustainability has to prove it can pay its way, or it will get trampled in the rush.

Today, Jetwing's eco-initiatives are starting to look like sound economic sense, with savings on everything from diesel to electricity bills. But the business logic wasn't much in evidence back in 1991, when a stirring talk by Greenpeace activist David Suzuki convinced the young Hiran to act. "We started with the sewage. At that time, all the hotels sent it straight into the sea. That was normal practice." He persuaded his father, Jetwing founder Herbert Cooray, to set up a treatment plant, but had a harder time with the executive team. "They were saying, 'Why should we spend good money on recycling shit?' And to be honest, it was a gamble."

It paid off in terms of reputation. "The number one attraction is the beach. If you're killing the beach, you're killing the goose that lays the golden eggs." Jetwing surfed on the back of enthusiastic media coverage, neighbouring hotels were bounced into following suit, and a few years later, the government made sewage treatment mandatory.

With the green bit between his teeth, Hiran started recruiting engineers and naturalists who shared his enthusiasm, and together they set about transforming the whole chain.

They started with hot water. Solar heaters, hardly revolutionary even for Sri Lanka in the 90s, were an obvious first step, providing "instant savings" on electricity bills. More adventurous has been the decision to install boilers fuelled by biomass – specifically, cinnamon wood. It sounds like an arcane choice. Is it really sustainable? "Completely", Cooray explains. "Cinnamon is a woody plant, and with two harvests a year, the farmers are left with a lot of waste which they have to get rid of quickly." Jetwing found farmers only too ready to let them take it off their hands and now the boiler wood stores, packed high with cinnamon wood, are suffused with a spicy scent.

Solar pv followed, and the latest hotels are set to be completely solar-powered, even selling surplus back to the grid, with diesel generators relegated to a backup role.

In a few years, lighting has gone down the power demand curve from incandescent to CFL to LED. The new hotels are all designed to make maximum use of cross ventilation – through draughts which keep the main spaces cool without the need for the artificial chill of air conditioning. That's still present in all the guest rooms, though Jetwing are pioneering air conditioning via reverse absorption chillers – essentially a form of heat exchanger – driven by steam from the biomass boiler.

But before this all sounds a bit too good to be true, it's time to mention the rather hefty elephant in the room – jumbo shaped in more ways than one. As befits its name, virtually all of Jetwing's customers arrive by air. That's quite a carbon footprint. I ask Cooray if he's considered offsetting. Yes, they thought about it, he says, but adds that there is a strong school of thought in Sri Lanka that doesn't believe in taking responsibility for the sins of others – the developed world, in other words. It's a common enough response from business leaders in the sub-continent, and to some extent it's understandable.

But for a tour company it's a tougher position to defend. I put it to Cooray that his customers are, after all, sinning in order to fill his coffers. "Well, that's true", he admits. If Jetwing does do more to engage its customers with its sustainability story, as Cooray intends, then inviting them to offset their flights – preferably via a project in Sri Lanka itself – could perhaps be a part of the message. Overall, the savings are ratcheting up, and he no longer has to battle sceptical management teams. "It may have started from the heart, but now the head is also feeling happy." And it's proving popular with some of the big tour companies who send customers Jetwing's way. For operators like TUI Travel, which has its own strong sustainability policy, it's a neat fit – although as Cooray ruefully comments, "unfortunately, their purchasing team doesn't answer to their sustainability team".

So as Sri Lanka throws itself into a heady rush of tourist expansion, will Jetwing's green stripes really bring competitive advantage at home? "I think so, but what you must realise is that while we're competing with other companies here, we are all on the same side when it comes to competing with other countries. The first decision a customer makes is whether to come to Sri Lanka at all." If the country as a whole has a greener reputation because other operators are surfing on the back of Jetwing's reputation, Cooray argues, everyone benefits.

Martin Wright is founding editor of Green Futures Magazine and a director of Forum for the Future. He is based in Mumbai.

Sri Lankan President and First Lady visit Church of the Nativity

ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka. 
Jan 07, Bethlehem

 
The Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, Theophilos III, of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, hosted a dinner in honor of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa and First Lady Shiranthi Wickremasinghe Rajapaksa Monday evening (Jan 6) on the Eve of Eastern Christmas Celebrations.

President Rajapaksa, First Lady, Palestinian President Dr. Mahmoud Abbas, Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah and local and foreign dignitaries were present at the dinner hosted by the Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilos III.


The Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, the traditional birthplace of Jesus, celebrates the Eastern Orthodox Christmas on January 7. Most Eastern Orthodox Christian denominations celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ on January 7, in contrast to the Western Christian tradition of celebrating on Dec 25.


The Church of the Nativity is a basilica located in Bethlehem. The Church of the Nativity is a World Heritage Site, and was the first to be listed under Palestine by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The site is also on UNESCO's List of World Heritage Sites in Danger. Due to its cultural and geographical history, the site holds a prominent religious significance to those of both the Christian and Islamic faiths.

Special prayer blessings were conducted at the holy site, known as the Grotto, at the Church by the orthodox priests.

Later in the evening, President, First Lady, and the Palestinian President attended the midnight Mass for the Orthodox Christmas Eve at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem conducted by the Patriarch of Jerusalem.
(Photos by Sudath Silva)

This SERIAL TRAITOR to Sri Lanka MUST BE DEPOSED by the Catholic Church & PUNISHED!

This despicable man, Rayappu Joseph, is a Racist Separatist supporter of Eeelamist Terrorists posing as a Catholic Priest. He is a SERIAL TRAITOR to his Motherland, with a LONG RECORD of giving aid and comfort to Terrorists and Separatists.

Rayappu Joseph should be DEFROCKED & DISOWNED by the Catholic Church of Sri Lanka, if the Catholic Church is to retain its position as a Patriotic Religious Organization. Do it now, before the Catholic Church is tarred and feeathered with the same brush!

The Government of Sri Lanka should now bring TREASON charges against this man for ALL OF HIS CRIMES in support of the Terrorist Eelamists committed over the last 30 years. MAKE an EXAMPLE of this TRAITOR hiding behind priestly robes!

..............................................................................................

Bishop Rayappu Joseph

Sri Lanka: Bishop calls for international investigation into war crimes
IndCatholicNews.com
January 7, 2013

The Bishop of Mannar, Mgr Rayappu Joseph has called for an international investigation to ascertain the truth about alleged war crimes. He said: "Given that most of the Tamils in the north and east of the country no longer have confidence in an internal process. This will contribute to reconciliation".

Bishop Rayappu Joseph, pointed out that many priests, lawyers, journalists and activists who have tried to cooperate with the institutions on the topic of "war crimes" have been threatened and intimidated. "On many occasions, the police and the Commission for Human Rights have even refused to accept complaints", he said.

"Thousands of cases of human rights violations, sexual abuse, murder, disappearances, extrajudicial killings remain unpunished".

ecause of this position taken - while the Sri Lankan government categorically rejects the idea of an international investigation - the Bishop has been labelled in some circles as "a political activist", but Mgr Rayappu replies: "There are too many controversial issues in Sri Lanka: people who disappear, others arrested and illegally detained, tortured or killed in prison. I hug, talk and deal with the aspirations of the faithful who live in my diocese and, more generally , throughout Sri Lanka. For me it is a human, spiritual and religious mission".

He said: "The people of the North and East still live in fear. The women live in fear of being raped. Others live in fear that the military will seize their lands. Many who are in prison live in fear of being tortured. The common people fear the high level of military presence. And all those who criticize the government, including representatives of many churches, live in fear and insecurity".

The Bishop asks: "What need is there to maintain such a high number of armed forces in the North and East of the island? Why can’t one completely restore the civil administration in those areas, such as in the rest of the country?".

Mgr. Rayppu denounces "the colonization sponsored by the state in the Tamil areas", to create an electoral imbalance and progressively eliminate the language, the culture and customs of a people.According to the Bishop, "In Sri Lanka we have a lot to learn from South Africa. There, the majority was dominated by the minority; in Sri Lanka there is a majority that dominates a minority. In Sri Lanka, the government, which is accused of war crimes and massive violations of human rights, is still in power, and is reluctant to committing itself in genuine dialogue".

The Bishop of Mannar, Mgr Rayappu Joseph has called for an international investigation to ascertain the truth about alleged war crimes. He said: "Given that most of the Tamils in the north and east of the country no longer have confidence in an internal process. This will contribute to reconciliation".

Sri Lanka expects to be an Upper Middle Income country by 2016

ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
Jan 03, Colombo



Sri Lanka expects to graduate to the "Upper Middle Income" category by 2016 and the Central Bank will fashion its macroeconomic policies accordingly to avoid the Middle Income Trap, the head of the country's monetary authority said on Thursday.

Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal explained that as some countries have stagnated at this middle income level, Sri Lanka's medium term macroeconomic strategy will need to focus on avoiding this "Trap".

Presenting the Central Bank's policy direction and work plan for the upcoming year "Road Map for Monetary and Financial Sector Policies for 2014 and Beyond" for the eighth consecutive year, Cabraal said Sri Lanka for the new year targets a 7.8 percent growth in the country's GDP while maintaining inflation at mid-single digit levels.

"Now we are a US$67 billion economy. We expect the economy to grow 7.8 percent this year and to gradually expand it to 8.5 percent in 2016," he said.

However, the predicted growth could slow down due to external factors such as uncertain weather conditions, geopolitical tensions and slower growth in global demand.

Central Bank is confident that inflation could be contained at around 5% or below, in the medium term and it is expected to be 4-6% during 2014.

The Road Map 2014 presentation comprised an assessment of the macroeconomic developments in the previous year, policy direction for 2014 and for the medium term, particularly to ensure a smooth transition into the post-US$ 4,000 per capita Upper Middle Income era.

Reducing trade deficit from current 12.8 percent of GDP in 2013 to 11.6 percent of GDP in 2014 and continuous improvement in productivity are some other goals set for 2014.

The monetary authority expects the budget deficit to narrow substantially in 2014 to 5.2% of GDP from 5.8% in 2013. By 2016, the fiscal deficit is expected to be reduced to below 4% of GDP.

Noting that Sri Lanka aims to achieve a US$ 100 billion economy, the head of the monetary authority said it would demand a significant improvement in the productivity levels of the current workforce.

In the fiscal sector, the major reforms implemented in the recent past are expected to enhance revenue mobilization and in the medium term, revenue is expected to reach 15 to 16% of GDP with the expected improvements in the tax base and tax administration, and greater tax compliance.

The maintenance of foreign reserves at desirable levels will enable the Central Bank to prudently manage market dynamics and any impending risks, Central Bank head said.

The current account is expected to record a surplus in 2014, after 26 years, reflecting the rebound in revenue and the rationalization of recurrent expenditure. It is expected to improve faster than anticipated in the past due to increased inflows from workers' remittances, tourism and the service exports will mitigate the impact of trade deficit.

Cabraal expressed hope that state-owned enterprises will become more viable in the year. "We hope performance of SriLankan Airlines, Ceylon Petroleum Corporation and Ceylon Electricity Board is going to change and this would create enormous impact on the well-being of the country," he said.

The Governor said the Central Bank is in a position to steer the economy along a more stable and sustainable path while maintaining economic and price stability and financial system stability to support sustainable and inclusive growth this year.

How to sue the United Nations

By  Dharshan Weerasekera
LankaWeb.com
December 31, 2013
 
 There has been renewed interest in a paper of mine published in Foreign Policy Journal in March 2013, titled, “The Illegality of UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon’s approach to Sri Lanka,”[1] (see Shenali Waduge, “Dharshan Weerasekera exposes Sri Lanka’s External Affairs Ministry’s deficient legal work,” Lankaweb, 29 Nov. 2013).  In that paper I argued that the Secretary General exceeded his authority in commissioning the Report of the Panel of Experts on Accountability in Sri Lanka, which report subsequently served as the basis for two resolutions passed against this country at the United Nations Human Rights Council.

I recommended that one of the principal remedies open to Sri Lanka was to petition the International Court of Justice for an Advisory Opinion on the legality of the aforementioned report.  If the court deemed the report illegal, it would make all subsequent measures based on that report, including the two resolutions, illegal, and of no effect in law.  A number of people have asked me to clarify certain matters with respect to the original recommendation.  In particular, they have asked three basic but practical questions:  Who can file the type of petition I’m suggesting?  What is the procedure involved?  What are some of the specific questions of law that can be asked in the instant case?

I believe it is important to answer the above questions, at least in a perfunctory way, because it is becoming clearer by the day that a legal challenge may be the only concrete option Sri Lanka has to save its neck at the upcoming March-2014 sessions.  Navi Pillay has all but promised that she will push for independent war crimes investigations against this country at the aforementioned sessions.  Mr. David Cameron (no doubt also speaking for his friends the Americans) has promised the same thing.[2]  Finally, in an ominous development, the European Parliament, by resolution, has indicated that it might be time for independent investigations.[3]
To repeat, Sri Lanka’s critics are gearing up to give this country the thrashing of a lifetime at the March-sessions.  It is vital that Sri Lanka have remedies that give it tangible leverage in the international arena, and a pending legal challenge at the ICJ will most definitely give Sri Lanka such leverage.  I shall therefore take each of the aforementioned questions in turn.
         
i)  Who can file the petition?

The most important question with respect to my suggestion that Sri Lanka petition for an Advisory Opinion at the ICJ, is whether a country can file such a petition, without going through a UN organ.  Some people have said that there may be a problem with this matter, because both the ICJ Statute and the UN Charter, in the relevant provisions, do not explicitly say that a country, acting on its own, can file for an advisory opinion.
For instance, Article 65(1) of the ICJ statute says,

The court may give an advisory opinion on any legal question at the request of whatever body may be authorized by or in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations to make such a request.[4]

It appears that the provision above contemplates that the request for an advisory opinion must come from an organ of the UN, and there is no indication that a country, acting on its own, can file the petition.  When one looks at the UN Charter, meanwhile, Article 96 says this:

(a)    The General Assembly or the Security Council may request the International Court of Justice for an advisory opinion on any legal question.[5]
(b)   Other organs of the United Nations and specialized agencies, which may at any time be so authorized by the General Assembly, may also request advisory opinions of the Court on legal questions arising within the scope of their activities.[6]

So, the Charter specifically designates the General Assembly and the Security as the principal organs that can ask for advisory opinions, and says that the General Assembly may authorize any other UN organ to also ask for advisory opinions.  In practice, the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, UNESCO, International Fund for Agricultural Development, and others, have made requests for advisory opinions.  That still doesn’t solve our problem:  Can Sri Lanka, as a country, file the petition?  To my knowledge, it’s never been done before, but I believe it is possible.

The authority for a country to petition for an advisory opinion comes from a statute enacted subsequent to the Charter, namely, the “Convention on Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations,” adopted by the General Assembly on 13 February 1946.  Section 30 of this convention says:

If a difference arises between the United Nations on the one hand and a Member on the other hand, a request shall be made for an advisory opinion in accordance with Article 96 of the Charter and Article 65 of the Statute of the court.[7]

So, clearly, a Member can file the petition without having to go through a UN organ.  Sri Lanka can therefore file this petition on its own.

ii)  Procedure 

I shall briefly discuss the procedure involved in obtaining an advisory opinion, and also tackle an important question, namely, whether it would be sufficient for the request to come purely from the President.  The basic procedure for advisory opinions is set out in the Statute of the Court, as well as the Rules of the Court.  In essence, there are three steps involved:  first, an official letter to the court requesting the advisory opinion; second, general notification by the court to all UN Members, and third, special notification by court to selected Members and Organizations, plus the setting of dates for return of written submissions, as well as oral arguments.

Article 65(2) of the ICJ Statute handles the first issue above and says that the questions upon which the advisory opinion is sought are to be laid before the court by way of a written request “containing an exact statement of the question upon which the opinion is requested,” and is to be accompanied by a dozier containing all documents “likely to throw light on the question.”[8]  Article 66(1) handles the second issue, and says that the moment the court receives a request for an advisory opinion the court is to inform all Members of the UN that such a request has been made.[9]

Article 66(2) of the ICJ Statute addresses the third issue above, and says that the moment the court receives a request for an advisory opinion, the court is to make a special and direct communication to select Member States and Organizations the court considers might be able to provide information on the question that the court has to answer.  The court is to set the deadline for the return of submissions by the aforementioned States and Organizations, and also set a date for oral arguments, if necessary.[10]

I’ll next turn to the important question I referred to earlier.  Since a country filing for an advisory opinion is unprecedented, who would actually sign the letter making the request?  In other words, would it be sufficient if the President were to make the request through Sri Lanka’s official UN representative in Geneva?

This is a thorny issue.  Article 104 of the Rules of the Court says:

All requests for advisory opinions shall be transmitted to the court by the Secretary General of the United Nations, or, as the case may be, the chief administrative officer of the body authorized to make the request.[11]

In my view, the President of a country can be considered its “chief administrative officer” for the purposes of the above Article, and should be able to make the request.  I feel, however, that it is wise to be a bit careful at this stage.  For instance, one of the initial concerns the court will have is that if it accepts a petition sent by a leader of a country acting in a personal or unilateral capacity, it will open the floodgates for leaders of countries to file for advisory opinions at the drop of a hat:  the court will be literally swamped with requests for advisory opinions, and will not be able to get any other work done.  No court in the world will be happy with such a predicament.

In my opinion, given the unprecedented nature of the case, Sri Lanka should play it safe.  If the Government is going to file this case, it should first obtain a Parliamentary Resolution.  That resolution would assert the need for an advisory opinion, and ask the President to forward the request to the ICJ.  The Parliament consists of the representatives of the People:  a resolution in Parliament asking for an advisory opinion is therefore the equivalent, in a very real sense, of the entire country asking for the advisory opinion.

Under the above circumstances, when the President makes his request to the court, he will be able to cite the resolution, and in effect say that he is conveying a request made by the people of Sri Lanka as a whole.  I do not think the court will decline such a request.  So much, then, for procedure.  Let’s now move to the most important issues:  the questions that ought to be submitted to the court.

iii)  What are the questions that ought to be asked in the instant case?  

To the best of my knowledge, there are no set criteria for the types of questions that can be submitted for advisory opinions.  A perusal of past questions reveals that they cover issues ranging from the broad and profound, to the mundane and technical.  Just to give some examples, two of the most famous recent cases have been, one, where the General Assembly requested the court to give an opinion on whether, one, the unilateral declaration of Independence by the provisional Government in Kosovo was in accordance with international law (2008)[12], and two, where the General Assembly requested an opinion on the legal consequences of the wall being built by Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (2003)[13].

A petition filed in 1953, meanwhile, was for an opinion on whether the General Assembly could on any ground refuse to honor an award of compensation made by the United Nations Administrative Tribunal.[14] 

In short, as I said, the legal issues considered run the gamut from the profound to the mundane and technical.  The only constant seems to be that the questions have to be pure questions of law, and not of fact.
With that background, I shall present my suggestions for the questions that ought to be asked, and then briefly discuss them.  (I emphasize that the following are merely suggestions and not definitive formulations.

The reader can suggest better and more refined questions.)  In any event, here is my choice for a set of questions:

1)  Having regard to the United Nations Charter, any other relevant document, and the record, did the Secretary General commit a fundamentally illegal act when he commissioned the Report of the Panel of Experts on Accountability in Sri Lanka?

2)  If the answer to question (1) above is in the affirmative, what is the legal status of resolutions A/HRC/19/L.2/Rev.1 and A/HRC/22/L.1/Rev.1 passed with respect to Sri Lanka at the Human Rights Council?

3)  If the answer to question (1) is in the negative, what is the scope of Article 2(7) of the United Nations Charter?  Article 2(7) says,

Nothing contained in the present Charter shall authorize the United Nations to intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state or shall require the members to submit such matters to settlement under the present Charter.

Who determines if an intervention has taken place, and if so, are there remedies available to the nation so interfered with?

I shall now briefly comment on the above questions, with special regard to possible tactics the UN’s lawyers might use to tackle them.  The first question is obviously the most important.  I believe this is also where Sri Lanka can make the strongest case.  The constraints of time don’t allow me to discuss in detail everything that is wrong with the Secretary General’s report, (I have sketched the main problems in my essay, “The Illegality of UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon’s approach to Sri Lanka,” and refer the reader to that essay.)  My point here is simply that, I believe the UN’s lawyers will not try to defend the report either:  I think its easier for them to concede that the Secretary General exceeded his authority in commissioning the report, and then to try and defend his actions.

They have two choices:  one, they can argue that the Secretary General did what he did for a good cause, i.e. in the interests of justice, for the sake of human rights, out of compassion, and so on.  Or two, they can argue that whatever problems the report may have, including its possible illegality, it ought not to impact the two resolutions that have been passed against Sri Lanka, because the report was only an insignificant factor in the overall decision-making process at the UNHRC that led to the passage of the two resolutions.  Sri Lanka’s lawyers will therefore have to find ways to counter these to “defences.”

Let’s move to the second question.  I believe the real battle will be fought over this second question:  i.e.  “If the report is illegal, what happens to the resolutions?”  As I have said, the UN’s lawyers will say from the outset that the Secretary General’s report is “insignificant” a “redundancy,” and so forth, and that it in no way played any role in the decision-making at the UNHRC that led to the resolutions.  When they are shown the actual references and citations to the report in the record, they will say those references don’t mean anything because those references are only a minor part of a larger set of other sources of evidence which influenced the UNHRC in its deliberations over the resolutions.

Sri Lanka’s lawyers therefore have to make an air-tight case that the Secretary General’s report was not an incidental or insignificant factor, but in fact the sole basis for those resolutions, at least with respect to certain important matters contained in them, such as the demand for war crimes investigations.  I believe that, in addition to whatever argument Sri Lanka’s lawyers generate to establish the aforementioned case, they will have to be prepared to cite every single instant that the Secretary General’s report was cited anywhere in official UN discussions or documents up to the passage of the March-2013 resolution, so that the court can get a sense of the true influence of the report.

Let’s move to the third question.  Needless to say, if the court gets to the point of answering the third question, it means Sri Lanka would have “lost” the case, in the sense that the court would have already decided that the Secretary General’s report is legal.  In my view, however, morally speaking, Sri Lanka cannot really “lose” this case.  Even if the court rules that the SG’s report is legal, and hence the resolutions valid, Sri Lanka will be in no worse position than it is in now:  i.e. on the verge of having a resolution authorizing war crimes investigations from being passed against it.  At most, Sri Lanka would have been able to stall or postpone this result by a few months.  Sri Lanka, however, would have shown the world that it will not take abuse lying down, and that it is willing and able to take the fight to the critics.  That’s a moral victory.

On the other hand, if the court gets to the point of answering the third question, and answers it, that also is a tremendous moral victory, because it entails an advance for international law, particularly with respect to a long-overdue interpretation of Article 2(7).  One of the biggest problems one sees in international relations today is the tendency among certain powerful nations to intervene in the internal affairs of weaker nations, and to try to do it under the facade of international law, and often using facilities and mechanisms provided by the United National itself.

For instance, if we think about the run-up to the Iraq Invasion, the first thing that the Coalition led by the United States that was urging the invasion tried to do was to get a UN resolution authorizing the invasion.  (Of course, they did not get one, and invaded anyway, but to this day the only legal justification for the invasion, albeit tenuous, is that there was at least one resolution[15] in favour of some sort of meddling in Iraq.)

My point is this:  to the best of my knowledge, the International Court of Justice, the principal legal organ of the UN, has not had an opportunity to comment on the general practice of interventions such as the above, especially with respect to protections weak nations may have under Article 2(7) to resist such interventions, or at any rate to gain compensation in the event of such interventions.  If Sri Lanka files its case, it will be a marvelous opportunity for the court to give a definitive and extended legal assessment with respect to these issues, and this in turn will be of immense help to those nations that, now and in the future, face the prospect of such interventions.

For the above reasons, I believe the Government should waste no more time.  It should pick its team of lawyers and other experts and set them to work preparing the case, and, most important, set the machinery working with respect to getting the Parliamentary Resolution alluded to earlier, which will call on the President to request the Advisory Opinion in question.

Dharshan Weerasekera is an Attorney-at-Law practicing in Sri Lanka.  His book, The UN’s Relentless Pursuit of Sri Lanka, was published in July 2013.
   

---

[1] Dharshan Weerasekera, “The Illegality of UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon’s approach to Sri Lanka,”  www.foreignpolicyjournal.com, 19 March 2013

[2] Mr. Cameron has reportedly said, “Let me be very clear, if an investigation is not completed by March, then I will use out position at the UN Human Rights Commission and call for a full, credible and international inquiry,”  (Neville Ladduwahetty, “The Channel 4 “Documentary,” Daily News, 29 November 2013)

[3] In Clause No. 3 of the resolution, the EU Paliament, “Calls on the Sri Lankan Government to further implement the LLRC panel’s recommendations, and for a proper, full, transparent and impartial investigation of the many outstanding allegations and concerns arising from a conflict that saw numerous war crimes and other violations committed by both sides,”  (European Parliament resolution on situation in Sri Lanka, 2013/2982 (RSP), 10-12-2013, www.europarl.europa.eu

[4] ICJ Statute, Article 65(1)

[5] UN Charter, Article 96(1)

[6] Ibid, Article, 96(2)

[7] Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations, 13 February 1946, Section 30

[8] ICJ Statute, Article 65(2)

[9] ICJ Statute, Article 66(1)

[10] ICJ Statute, Article 66(2)

[11] Rules of the Court, Adopted on 14 April 1978, Article 104

[12] Compatibility or otherwise with international law of the unilateral declaration of Independence by the Provisional Government in Kosovo, 2008

[13] Legal consequences of the wall, 2003

[14] Effect of award of compensation by UN Administrative Tribunal, 1953

[15] For example, Security Council Resolution 1441, passed in 2002