It was with a great sigh of relief that the government saw through the turbulent events of last week. It had managed to act swiftly in defusing what could have been an explosive situation following the police shooting of the 22-year-old Free Trade Zone worker.
To do this, the Army was sent in to stabilise the volatile situation in the FTZ area and an officer -- who had served with Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa in Jaffna prior to Rajapaksa's retirement from active military duty -- was put in charge of the soldiers. The entire blame was put on the door of the Police. They were blamed for having fumbled despite early warnings that the situation could get aggravated following the protests of workers over the controversial Private Sector Pensions Bill.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa's last-minute decision to avert a confrontation with FTZ workers by exempting them from the provisions of the bill had not been properly communicated. The Inspector General of Police lost his job as a result of the blundering policemen who went on the rampage assaulting workers, both on the highways as well as their workplaces, and finally opening fire on them causing that one fatality. If the former IGP had given less priority to providing police security to ruling party politicians who visited the FTZ area for a function and instead ensured peace and order among agitated workers, the crisis could have been averted. He must have felt his neck would be on the block had something gone awry vis-à-vis the VIP politicos who had been there for the function at which the President was also present, but it seems he paid the price anyway.
The anticipated negative fallout from the funeral of the youth did not materialise with the heavy Army presence around Minuwangoda, the home town of the victim. Villagers had to walk to the church where the body was kept from last Saturday morning and the cemetery adjoining it for the burial, the closest a vehicle could get was a distance of nearly 3 kilometres.
The government did not stop at seeing that no trouble took place at the funeral. On Monday, this week, hordes of policemen serving in stations in the FTZ area that was the hot-bed of turmoil the previous week were transferred out to stations out of the FTZ.
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| Members of the main Opposition party the UNP staged a protest against the police shooting of an FTZ worker, at the
Maradana Junction on Thursday. Pic by M A Pushpa Kumara. |
It was in this backdrop that President Rajapaksa and his brother Gotabaya left for Kilinochchi on Monday morning for the commissioning of a communications tower, proudly acclaimed as the tallest in South Asia. The tower will initially be used for military purposes and transmitting state television and radio broadcasts, but there are plans to hire it out for commercial purposes in due course. It was just prior to their scheduled departure that they heard that Opposition United National Party (UNP) leader Ranil Wickremesinge's mother, Nalini Wickremesinghe. had passed away late the previous night and that the funeral was to be held on Monday evening.
While the Rajapaksa duo were in Kilinochchi, the First Lady Shiranthi Rajapaksa paid her respects at the 5th Lane residence of the Wickremesinghes. The President himself paid his respects on his return around 5 p.m., but the Defence Secretary and President's Secretary Lalith Weeratunga were held up due to a technical fault of their helicopter bringing them back, and they had to return in a fixed wing aircraft missing the funeral as a result.
Tribute to Nalini Wickremesinghe
In a message to the Wickremesinghe family, the President not only paid a glowing tribute to the late Nalini Wickremesinghe for her contribution to Sinhala drama, theatre and literature, he paid a handsome tribute to her children who he said had contributed immensely to the country's administration. "Though her children gained fulfilment in education, politics and other aspects, they were guided by her until the very end in keeping with the traditions of a Buddhist lady".
It was a magnanimous gesture on the part of the President who had also visited the Opposition Leader's mother not long ago when he had heard that she was not well.
Come, Wednesday however, political compulsions of a democracy forced the UNP leader to come out strongly against the Rajapaksa government. The first salvo came when Wickremesinghe addressed a meeting of the UNP trade union, the Jathika Sevaka Sangamaya (JSS), which was welcoming its new head, the mercurial Dr. Jayalath Jayawardene, who had been in the thick of things in last week's workers protests around his constituency in Ja-ela.
Wickremesinghe made a rare hard-hitting speech. He spoke of the Employees Trust Fund (ETF) and Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and said that during the period the UNP had been in office, the monies in these twin funds exceeded the value of the country's two largest conglomerates John Keels Holdings and Aitken Spence by 15 times, and had the UNP been continuously in office since 1994, it would have been 100 times more.
He said the government had put monies from these two funds into the Stock Market, and that the Stock Market would collapse if the monies were withdrawn. He accused the government of trying to push through with the controversial Private Sector Pensions Bill to pay back the commercial loan taken from Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Cooperation (HSBC) and to settle the monies lost in the oil hedging deal.
Wickremesinghe then went on to say that the government was "robbing" the money of the workers and the Pensions Bill was meant at legalising this robbery by changing the funds into its name. He said the Rs. 2,500 pay increase promised to public servants was a trick played on them and the government had not paid compensation to those hundreds who were injured in last week's protests against the Pensions Bill.
Oppression of the Satakaya
The UNP/JSS had organised a mass protest rally opposite the Maradana railway station in central Colombo the next day (Thursday) in solidarity with the workers who had protested the previous week. The slogan for the protest was provocatively titled 'Satakaye Mardanaya Erehiva Pela Gasemu' (Let's rally against the oppression of the 'Satakaya' which is the shawl worn by the President).
Wickremsinghe made a brief speech at the event, speaking from the rear of a double-cab where he started off by dramatically showing a blood stained handkerchief saying "this is the blood-soaked hankie - it is the symbol of suppression". He then re-iterated his charge made the previous day that the government was robbing the workers money "which is more than what all the banks and private sector companies own". He said that the 22-year-old Roshen Chanaka had died trying to protect this money, and that the government didn't allow his funeral to be conducted without soldiers standing at attention.
"Though the war has been concluded, the people's expectation for a better future has been shattered by this robbery. Poor people's homes are being smashed down to put up super flats for the rich," the UNP leader said and concluded by saying that the old Marxists would claim that it was the capitalists who robbed the poor, but nowadays the saying is that it is the government that is robbing the poor.
Modest success for the
opposition UNP
The rally itself was a modest success for the opposition UNP. Despite the downcast skies a reasonable crowd had assembled, but the party has miles to go to reach some potency yet to challenge the government. This week the UNP appointed deputy leader Karu Jayasuriya and general secretary Tissa Attanayake to be in charge of the campaign for the 60 local council elections scheduled to be held in July.
Unfortunately, though the UNP/JSS was calling for unity of the working class, a sizeable section of its own camp, the Premadasa camp followers were conspicuously absent from the show. Sajith Premadasa, Dayasiri Jayasekera, Rosy Senanayake, Thalatha Athukorale, Buddhika Pathirana and Ranjith Madduma Bandara were among them.
The government watched the UNP's moves from afar simply monitoring the events. Its greater concern was still the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and what it was planning to do with the workers and trade unions, especially because the government has not yet abandoned plans to bring forth the Private Sector Pensions Bill.
It demonstrated its keenness to keep the JVP in check with a protest rally held by its Colombo District strongman Duminda Silva who transported some 500 people opposite the Fort railway station (while the UNP was protesting opposite the Maradana railway station). Some of the people brought were elderly women and they were seen holding up placards, alas, some upside down. One of them read "JVP=LTTE".
But arguably, it was the sudden passage of resolutions in the State Assembly of neighbouring Tamil Nadu together with the visit of senior Indian government officials to Colombo to follow up on the Joint Statement agreed between the two countries last month that attracted a greater part of the attention of the government.
Call to investigate war crimes
The Tamil Nadu assembly resolution urged the central government in New Delhi to call upon the United Nations to investigate war crimes charges against Sri Lankan government leaders, impose economic sanctions against Sri Lanka until all Tamils in refugee camps are rehabilitated in their own lands and "lead a life of dignity" and to review the agreement that handed over the island of Katchchativu to Sri Lanka in the 1970s.
The state's newly elected Chief Minister Jayalalithaa Jayaram or J. Jayalalithaa as she is known there, has already filed a case before the Indian Supreme Court in 2008 arguing that the island of Katchchativu was ceded to Sri Lanka without the consent of the two Houses of Parliament and contended the 1974 and 1976 agreements between the two countries were illegal.
Jayalalithaa showed some political acumen in the stunt she performed this week. Firstly, she timed her resolution to perfection; just as the India's National Security Adviser Shiva Shanker Menon, Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao and Defence Secretary Pradeep Kumar were packing their bags to leave for Colombo for official talks. While several Indian analysts say the delegation diverted to Chennai soon after the resolution was passed on their way to Colombo, other Indian analysts believe that Jayalalithaa swung into action only after the delegation has sought a prior appointment with her on their way to Colombo. The latter set of analysts say Chennai is a regular 'port of call' for any Indian delegation visiting Sri Lanka for official talks.
Then, Jayalalithaa moved the resolution that no politician in Tamil Nadu would dare speak against. At best they kept silent. The Congress Party, which runs the government in New Delhi maintained a deafening silence. Her arch rivals the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) that was thrashed into third place at the recent assembly elections was forced to support her resolution. Having been assured of their support for the resolution Jayalalithaa went at tangent hammering the daylights out of the DMK saying it was because of the "selfish attitude and ineptitude" of the party when it was in office that "thousands of" Tamils fell victim to the relentless bombing by the Sri Lankan forces (during the final stages of the war against the LTTE).
She referred to the report submitted to the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and said that the report had not called the Sri Lankan President a 'war criminal', but had stated that war crimes were committed. "That is why we want an investigation into this", she said.
Her accusation that the DMK was partially responsible for the civilian deaths in Sri Lanka's northern theatre during those days in May, 2009 was too much for the few DMK members to stomach; they walked out of the assembly as she was on her feet. Thus, the resolution was passed unanimously, though with the DMK members absent during the final vote.
In New Delhi, the ruling Congress Party declined to make an official comment on the Tamil Nadu resolution and in Colombo, the government's cabinet spokesman and Minister Keheliya Rambukwella told a news briefing that "the Sri Lanka government does not deal with provinces, it deals with New Delhi". Unfortunately he forgot the fact that of External Affairs Minister G.L. Peiris only last month wrote to Ms. Jayalalithaa congratulating her on her victory and saying he looked forward to working with her.
According to a report in the Deccan Chronicle, both Shivashanker Menon and Nirupama Rao made special arrangements to visit Jayalalithaa after the Tamil Nadu resolution had been passed, with the former arriving in a special aircraft to get the Chief Minister to fall in line with New Delhi's policy, which is not to push Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa too hard lest he falls entirely into Chinese hands.
After Menon's 45-minute talks with Jayalalithaa, he left her residence without saying a word to waiting media, but an official statement issued by the state government however made no reference to any demand for an UN investigation on the Rajapaksa government on war crimes or on the Katchchativu retrieval.
The statement said the Chief Minister had told the National Security Adviser that the pace of rehabilitation of Tamils in Sri Lanka after the war was slow and that Tamil Nadu fishermen were facing harassment around Katchchativu, which was a slip on her part for it was a tacit admission that Tamil Nadu fishermen were indeed poaching in Sri Lankan waters.
This was a subject that came up for discussion during the Menon-Rao-Kumar talks in Colombo on Friday and yesterday. The trio arrived in the same special aircraft that took Menon to Chennai. Their meeting with External Affairs Minister G.L. Peiris was for protocol, if not cosmetic reasons, their 'real talks' were with the Rajapaksa brothers: Mahinda, Gotabaya and Basil. Having got the Joint Statement heavily weighted in their favour, the Indian delegation had little time for the Sri Lankan External Affairs Minister and the Ministry itself was completely sidelined during the discussions.
In India's context, the talks the three-member high level delegation had with their local counterparts and President Mahinda Rajapaksa were important. Our front page report today reveals details.
In September, India becomes a member of the UN Human Rights Council. Pakistan, a current member, which extended strong support to Sri Lanka, will cease to be a member.
Red carpet welcome for the Indian team
The government has extended a red carpet welcome for the Indian team. The visit was also used as an occasion to announce that Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, has accepted an invitation to visit Sri Lanka. Such invitations have been extended to Singh on many occasions including during meetings Rajapaksa had with the Indian Premier during one on one engagements abroad including New Delhi. On such occasions too, the invitations were accepted by Singh.
On Friday, the visiting Indian team held a lengthy discussion with Presidential Secretary Lalith Weeratunga, Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa and key officials. Among issues discussed were the government's re-settlement programmes, development programmes and Indian aided projects in Sri Lanka.
The outcome of the talks would be most significant to Sri Lanka. Besides other factors, India finds a seat in the UN Human Rights Council in September this year replacing Pakistan. In the past, Sri Lanka has been able to ward off issues with the express support of India. What the outcome would be if India perceives that Sri Lanka has reneged on its promises, would without question become a very critical factor. Thus, Sri Lanka is not yet out of the woods.
Lanka survives round one in Geneva; ball put to LLRC court
With just five days to go for the ongoing United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) sessions in Geneva to end, it is now increasingly clear that the Sri Lanka Government has won a temporary respite.
As the Sunday Times has declared exclusively in the past weeks, the report of the United Nations Panel of Experts (PoE) on alleged war crimes in Sri Lanka will not come for any formal discussion or endorsement at the current sessions. An endorsement would have had far-reaching international repercussions.
That could have included sanctions by individual countries and the issue being raised in other world forums.
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| Foreign delegates attending a session held by Sri Lanka to explain the issues of the UN Advisory Panel’s report in Geneva, prior to the UNHRC sessions. |
Factually, the reason is that no formal official initiative was made either by the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's office or any individual country. However, that is not to say that there was zero initiative on the part of Sri Lanka. The credit for a successful performance at the bi-laterals should go to the head of the Sri Lanka delegation, Mahinda Samarasinghe and Attorney-General Mohan Peiris. In our account about the UNHCR events last week, we had erroneously said that Sri Lanka's Ambassador to France, Dayan Jayatilleke was present. Jayatilleke has said in a statement that he did not take part.
However, in Paris he has been lobbying for Sri Lanka among diplomats based in that country.
The fact that the Sri Lanka delegation performed effectively without the presence of External Affairs Minister G.L. Peiris was a talking point among foreign diplomats in Geneva and those based in Colombo. He was neither leading nor was a member of the Sri Lanka delegation to Geneva to handle the critical issue of the UN Advisory Panel's report.
Sri Lanka's diplomatic thrust, according to a source at the External Affairs Ministry was focused almost entirely on one issue -- the PoE report was advisory and was meant only for the reference of the UN Secretary General. "If it was brought before the Council and given official endorsement, it would be Sri Lanka that would be a victim today. Tomorrow, it would be any other country. We explained this to heads of delegations during one-on-one meetings," the source said. Among the countries that lobbied for Sri Lanka, according to the source, were Pakistan and the Maldives.
Yet, there are technical reasons that delayed any formal discussion on the report of the PoE. UN Chief Ban, who is seeking re-election for a second term, has not formally sent a copy of the report to the United Nations Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillai. However, Pillai did make some informal remarks calling for an international investigation on the matter. Among, other matters, Ban has already received a response from Sri Lanka that though not as a result of the report of the PoE, but in its wake, several initiatives were being taken.
The lynch-pin among these initiatives is the upcoming final report of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC). As one Colombo-based diplomat explained, "The government's hopes to come out of the current imbroglio would hinge on how credible the final report would be. If the report addresses key issues, also highlighted by the PoE, that would help the international community to understand things. The issue now is not devolution or rehabilitation of IDPs. The first, second and third issues are all questions of accountability."
The Sunday Times has learnt the report of the UN Panel of Experts will come up before the UNHRC during its September sessions. By this time, the Government's "comprehensive response" to the UN on matters before and after the end of the separatist war would have been forwarded.
During the ongoing UNHRC sessions in Geneva, External Affairs Ministry sources said, both the United States and the European Union tried to bring the report of the PoE "through the back door". However, such efforts did not succeed. The source said both India and Britain adopted a studiously non-committal stance. No members of their delegations made any comments.
There were reports yesterday that the British delegation will make a formal statement at the Human Rights Council sessions on June 14 (Tuesday) giving Britain's official position. This is the day Britain's Channel 4 is scheduled to air a new film on alleged war crimes in Sri Lanka. Britain's statement comes in the wake of the impending visit to Colombo by Defence Minister Liam Fox. Besides setting out Prime Minister David Cameron's position on Sri Lanka vis-à-vis the UN PoE, Fox is also expected to have a meeting with opposition United National Party leader Ranil Wickremesinghe.
The Conservative Party and the UNP have a close affiliation with party parliamentarians urging that Fox discusses closer ties to help the main opposition party in Sri Lanka develop itself as a democratic opposition. In this regard, some Conservative MPs have suggested assistance in capacity building since the UNP is considered a close political ally of the Conservative Party.
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