Nabbed at Male for alleged drug smuggling

Possibly the strongest ever attack on Sri Lanka by the US State Department was released on Wednesday. Though the Government attempted a reply on Friday, that too was shot down by American envoy Robert Blake in a matter of a few hours with the terse statement: “The US government stands by the report.”

The 200 page report accorded only passing mention to Tiger wrongs!The Government is yet in a daze as the damning report came like a bolt of lightning. According to Foreign Secretary, Palitha Kohona the report came even amidst the ICRC reporting a reduction in abductions and disappearances including those in Jaffna.

True this is more like the pot calling the kettle black or even worse. And the fact remains the US hands are no cleaner or are even far dirtier if we take a look at random examples like Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib, the countless incidents of shooting and bombing sprees resorted to by its forces in places like Iraq, Somalia and Afghanistan killing hundreds of innocent civilians.

Remember it was a highly respected Western medical journal that documented the slaughter of more than 600,000 Iraqi civilians since the 2003 invasion of that country. But Mahinda Aiya, we have to wake up and learn that this is big power politics and they determine what is now known as international opinion. So the moral of this story is do not dare defy this ‘world opinion’ and go seeking friends in places like Iran and Palestine. Then the pay back is with unconscionable interest. Even the French and to a lesser extent the Germans learnt it the hard way by speaking against the invasion of Iraq.

Time is ticking away for the ten year controversial SriLankan management agreement with Emirates to end, but experts have ruled out total divorce as expected due to the much publicized recent acrimony between the two sides. The simple reason being the two are tied together in tangles on code sharing, reservations, etc. And most of all 43.6 percent of the national carrier is owned by the West Asian airline, which entitles it to have two directors on the SriLankan board. Observers are hinting of a possible new tie up between the two. For the West Asian carrier a new tie up would be a ticket to the lucrative Indian market, which is otherwise taboo for it on its own.

With the present Secretary General of Parliament due to retire by the end of March, there is widespread discussion as to who will succeed the outgoing SG with also some lobbying going on among the staff.

While many favour the present Deputy SG to taking over as the new SG, there are also moves to bring in a former SG to fill the vacancy. With the Constitutional Council also non-functional at present, the successor is likely to be picked by the President.

I wish to clarify a news item in the column ‘Odds and ends’ in your March 9, 2008 publication relating to the Diaspora delegation visit to Sri Lanka. I was responsible for assembling together the Diaspora team, following a telephone conversation with the President.

The suggestion of your article that the diaspora trip to Sri Lanka originated from the office of the Sri Lankan High Commissioner in London is inaccurate. The High Commissioner was merely following instructions of the President after a conversation I had with the President on the 13th Amendment.

The news item also said that ‘one of the participants had given evidence against the State at the Karuna trial in London’. Such a vague statement without pinpointing the person concerned is unfortunate. Being in the forefront of Tamil activities in Britain, let me assure you that none of the members in the Diaspora team had given evidence at Karuna’s trial.

The article also refers to ‘intervention made by Douglas’ asserting there was ‘territorial dispute’ with the lot. One member of our team is a TMVPer and we did not hide this fact. On his part he did not have any ‘territorial dispute’ and made a visit to the East on his own, while all the other members of the delegation were denied the visit over a misunderstanding which has since been resolved.

Our reporter says: We are only too aware that our High Commissioner in London informed the Foreign Ministry that she was initiating this exercise, after which the President had told someone in his office to contact someone from the Diaspora and call him. As for giving evidence in the Karuna case it was the MoD that told the President this and thereby had the trip aborted.

Odds and Ends