Archive for the ‘Foreign Relations’

Out in the Wilderness – Dayan Jayatilleka on 13th Amendment and getting sacked by Boggles

Sri Lanka’s soon-to-be-ex-Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva took time off from his busy schedule of sipping martinis, getting up the American’s noses, and fighting on the Western Front, to have a little chat with us. This is his first interview since the Foreign Ministry announced that he has been recalled from Geneva, effective August 20th. David Blacker: First off, there seem too be two opinions on your sacking. One, that you were too pushy about the 13th Amendment. Two, that you pissed off the Israelis. Which is it? Dayan Jayatilleka: It could be either, both or neither. The editorials in The Island and the Daily Mirror on July 20th, indicate that it could have a personal aspect. Let’s unpack the other opinions. If I were ‘pushy’ about the 13th amendment I was only pushing a line that was the official stance of the government of Sri Lanka as contained in two post-war joint statements, of May 21st…

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Beyond the time-warp in Sri Lanka

‘About 2000 years ago the Sinhala people started facing the dreadful enemy invasions and threats from diverse communities living in the Indian subcontinent,’ according to extremist politician Cyril Mathew and his associates in a book published thirty years ago, Diabolical Conspiracy. The fact that Sinhalese too originated from the Indian subcontinent, and that rival kingdoms in South Asia often cooperated as well as occasionally clashing, was conveniently bypassed. Their account went on to describe all manner of threats faced by Sinhalese Buddhists in their encounters with others: ‘By subjecting the innocent and defenceless Sinhala people to extremely cruel tortures and harassments such as beheading, bloodbaths, killing on the spike and setting whole villages on fire, the foreign invaders mercilessly suppressed the Sinhala people and forced Hindu, Catholic and Christian doctrines well and truly into their minds and bodies… the Sinhala people who became adherents of the doctrine of the foreign tyrants were given lands, possessions, honours, offices, wealth etc. commensurate…

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The East and West at the UN Human Rights Council: Never the twain shall meet?

“Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet.” (Rudyard Kipling, Barrack-room ballads, 1892) Through a fortuitous twist of fate at the end of May I had the opportunity to be a witness to an event of considerable global importance; the Special Session of the UN Human Rights Council on Sri Lanka. The outcome of this meeting has sparked substantial controversy, and has been extensively covered in both local and international press, which I have been following with great interest. Please permit me at the outset to elaborate upon my personal situation as this may help to explain my position on this subject. I am a dual citizen of both Sri Lanka and the United Kingdom, a child of Sri Lankan parentage; I was born and raised in England. My traditional Sri Lankan upbringing caused me a certain internal conflict, a situation which was later mirrored in the proceedings and outcome of the Special Session,…

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Sri Lanka’s Foreign Policy: Missing the Woods for the Trees

Sri Lanka’s decisive military victory over the LTTE owed much to a robust foreign policy as it did to a strong military and political leadership with the resolve to defeat the enemy. The results are evident. At the Security Council, it was the steadfast position of permanent member China that the sovereignty of a member-state cannot be imposed upon through a resolution against it. Even a resolution blocking an IMF loan to Sri Lanka was denied. At a regional level, it was India , who took the position that the LTTE could be militarily defeated, provided a political solution that recognized Tamil self-determination within a united Sri Lanka followed. On foreign aid, it was once again China and India . The former pledged $1 billion for a southern port and agreed to finance a power plant on the west coast, while the latter will build a similar plant on the east coast along a shared littoral with the strategic harbour…

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Potato Farmer’s Poultry Venture

I arrive on holiday at the Colombo airport with my family. It is I, your potato farmer. In my last post I told you about my trial, you might remember. Mine is a complex family: “Look my darling, your children and my children are playing with our children”. We often have quarrels about our respective ancestry, me very proud of my heritage, thinking it far superior to hers, she thinking exactly the same about hers: its uniqueness, cultural values and religious beliefs. She thinks my belief system is foreign, and often smacks my kids. I too deliver equally unfair blows at hers. An effective trigger for our family quarrels is the cake we serve at tea. She — accusing my kids of gobbling up the big slices; me — accusing her of baking them to the taste of hers, so mine won’t get a fair chance to enjoy a slice. At the airport we go through immigration, customs, Dialog SIM…

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How Sri Lanka Missed the Moon

When Apollo 11 astronauts landed on the Moon 40 years ago this month, they were more than just Americans taking that historic first step on to another celestial body. They did plant the American flag there, acknowledging the nation whose tax payers had financed the massive operation. To allay any fears that one nation was claiming the Moon — which was explicitly ruled out by the Outer Space Treaty of 1967 — they also left a plaque which read: “Here men from the Planet Earth first set foot upon the Moon, July 1969 A.D. We came in peace for all mankind.” It was signed by the three astronauts –- Neil Armstrong, Edwin (Buzz) Aldrin, Jr., and Michael Collins –- and President Richard Nixon. The plaque received wide publicity at the time, but the astronauts actually left behind some more items. Amidst the various scientific instruments and other items gathering dust at the first landing site — in the southern Sea…

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Post-war reconciliation and nation-building in a global context

There have been three civil wars fought against the Sri Lankan state: 1971, 1986-89, 1979-2009.  The Sri Lankan state prevailed in all three. These three wars settled three basic questions. The first uprising was about the character of the State, society and the economy and it was settled in favor of the market economy and multiparty democracy. The second civil war brought up the same questions but placed at the forefront the issue of centralization or devolution and power sharing (Wijeweera’s 300 page magnum opus was all about it), and with the victory of the state that too was settled in favor of the post Accord structural reform, the 13th amendment and provincial autonomy, with all parties including the militarily defeated JVP actually contesting the PC elections. This reform remained dormant because of the full-scale war waged in the North East by the Tigers. The third civil war, just won, settled the question of one state (country) or two, in favor…

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Exclusive video interview with Somawansa Amarasinghe, the Leader of JVP, in English

Two weeks after I had interviewed Prof. Tissa Vitharana on, among other things, the full implementation of the 13th Amendment, I spoke with the Leader of the JVP Somawansa Amarasinghe for his take on constitutional reform. During the course of our interview, Mr. Amarasinghe came out strongly in favour of the rights of all minorities, the need to meaningfully look into the well-being of Tamils interned in IDP camps and the importance of a secular State. Recalling the violent history of the JVP, he suggested that it was government that pushed the JVP to violence, yet saw little parallel between this violence and that of militant Tamil nationalism. Acknowledging that inequality, the marginalisation of Tamil youth and the denial of some of their rights led to the rise of violent conflict, Mr. Amarasinghe said the JVP accepted the historic repression of Tamil youth, but that this was justification for the violence to establish Eelam. On the other hand, he said…

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Sri Lanka: Spice Island or Bland Nation?

Located strategically in the Indian Ocean, Sri Lanka was a hub in the maritime silk and spice routes for millennia. It drew traders from the east and west for both business and pleasure. Notable among the attractions were spices, whose many aromas and flavours formed an integral part of the tropical paradise experience. The traditional Lankan curry contained up to 13 spices and herbs. Most plants were not native – cardamom came from South India, cloves from Indonesia and chilli all the way from the Americas. Cinnamon was Sri Lanka’s unique contribution to this delightful mix. The origins didn’t really matter: the islanders knew just how to mix the native and the foreign to achieve legendary results. As Sri Lanka embarks on national integration after three decades of highly divisive war, it is worth recalling these aspects of its heritage. For the war not only devastated our economy and blighted the prospects of a generation; it also nurtured high levels…

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Bob Rae, The Sunday Times and Wikipedia

In what may be a first for a Sunday newspaper in Sri Lanka, a reference from Wikipedia is used to buttress a case for the alleged pro-LTTE bias of Canadian Liberal MP Bob Rae, recently deported from Sri Lanka after first being issued a visa to enter. The Sunday Times has a full page devoted to a rather long-winded story titled Lanka’s dual track foreign relations. My interest here is not to debate Bob Rae’s real or perceived partiality to the LTTE, but to briefly look at the manner in which a lengthy excerpt from Rae’s wikipedia entry is used to frame a flimsy argument. The Sunday Times notes that, …it was public knowledge that Rae had periodically made strong statements backing the Tiger guerrillas. So much so, there was some evidence in the cyberspace. The Wikipedia, the free, multilingual online encyclopaedia operated by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation, among other things, has these few lines to say about Bob Rae: “………Rae…

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Will the Tamil aspirations be buried by the Diaspora’s memories?

I was just watching a past episode of the ‘Riz Khan’ show which is available on YouTube and the subject for discussion was what the future holds for the Tamil people. The three panelists consisted of the former Sri Lankan ambassador to the US and Mexico, a human rights activist and a spokesperson (Ms. Janani Jananayagam) for London based ‘Tamils against Genocide’. Ms. Jananayagam is also in the running for the European Parliament elections according to TamilNet. Now while the entire aim of the panel discussion seemed to be on looking at what the future holds for the Tamil people now that the war’s over, I was pretty surprised to see the spokesperson for ‘Tamils against Genocide’ seemed only interested in talking about what has happened in the past. In fact, such was the focus of this lady that she even saw fit to speak about incidents that took place within one year of Sri Lanka gaining independence! Now correct…

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Battleground Geneva: The Special Session of the HRC on Sri Lanka

“Sri Lanka forces West to retreat over ‘war crimes’ with victory at UN” – The TIMES (London), May 28, 2009 “Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends …Mmm, I’m gonna try with a little help from my friends” – The Beatles Was Geneva the last battle of the Thirty Years (hot) war, the first battle of the next war – a long Cold War against Sri Lanka — or was it a combination? Only future history will tell. When we aren’t involved, our arithmetic goes awry. We speak of four Eelam wars when there were five, because we omit the important one fought between the LTTE and the IPKF. There were five Eelam wars fought on the soil of our island: 1978-1987, 1987-1990, 1990-1994, 1995-2002, and 2006-2009. Similarly, there weren’t two defeats suffered by the Tigers and pro-Tiger separatism, namely military (on the Wanni coast) and diplomatic (at the UN in Geneva), but three, military, politico-ideological…

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India, Sri Lanka and the Minority Question

Spontaneous street parties broke out, fireworks crackled in the air and strangers offered flowers to  soldiers to celebrate the news in Colombo – Asia’s Idi Amin was no more! One of the Indian subcontinent’s longest wars was at an end. The day before, street parties in New Delhi had celebrated the victory of the Congress Party in the elections that marked the maturing of Indian democracy and the fact that the Tamil Nadu electorate had a sophisticated view of the situation in Sri Lanka. It is, hence, to be hoped that India, the regional superpower, will play an effective role to ensure peace with justice for the minorities in Sri Lanka. The victory of the Congress Party was a victory for the whole of India and marks the deepening and strengthening of the roots of democracy as well as dynastic politics. Above all, the victory of the Congress Party was a vote for communal harmony and peaceful co-existence among the…

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Saying ‘No’ to Mum and Finding Our Post Colonial Identity

Baron Naseby is a British Conservative Party politician. He has visited Sri Lanka many times, including most recently with the British all-party delegation. Watch him in this clip explaining to a partly hostile diaspora audience his position against international intervention in Sri Lanka. He has got it right. The focus of the international attention at this juncture should be weighted towards getting the Tamil Tigers to release civilian hostages, as opposed to pressuring the government to agree to a ceasefire. As these two articles, one in the Canadian National Post and the other by DBS Jeyaraj, point out, the voice of the Tamil diaspora has been hijacked by a minority and the wrong message is blackening their name in the international arena. The Tamil diaspora focus should be on negotiating an LTTE surrender and demilitarization. The LTTE faces inevitable defeat. They should be pressured to admit it and lay down their arms. Which other modern conflict has come to this…

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Rejecting Bildt, one way winds and concerns over conflict regulation

The most recent controversy in Sri Lanka’s foreign relations popped up with news reports on Sri Lanka’s apparent ‘rejection’ of entry clearance to Swedish Foreign Minister the Hon. Carl Bildt. Minister Bildt, a senior Swedish politician and former Prime Minister of Sweden from 1991 to 1994, was supposed to visit Sri Lanka on Wednesday 29 April 2009, accompanied by his French and British counterparts, Bernard Kouchner and David Miliband. Some news agencies, including Xinhua, reported that Minister Kouchner and Foreign Secretary Miliband were supposed to visit Sri Lanka in their capacity as permanent members of the UN Security Council (therefore, the visit is not related to EU-SL relations). In a press release, the government of Sri Lanka states that it envisaged the visits of the French and the British Foreign Ministers purely on a bilateral basis and not in terms of their membership in a regional or United Nations context. According to the Xinhua news report, Karel Schwarzenberg, the Foreign…

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About Groundviews

Located at the Centre for Policy Alternatives in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Groundviews is a citizen journalism website that uses a range of genres and media to highlight critical perspectives on governance, reconciliation, human rights, the arts and literature, democracy and other issues. The site has won two international awards, including the prestigious Manthan Award South Asia in 2009. The grand jury's evaluation of the site noted, "What no media dares to report, Groundviews publicly exposes. It's a new age media for a new Sri Lanka... Free media at it's very best!"

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