By Col R Hariharan
Highlights
- Impeachment of Chief Justice: President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s action in replacing the Chief Justice Dr. Shirani Bandaranayake, after Sri Lanka parliament passed the controversial impeachment motion against with a two-thirds majority has come under severe national and international criticism.
- Cabinet reshuffle: President Rajapaksa carries out cabinet reshuffle adding two new ministers to increase its strength to 67.
- India: The joint statement at the end of the 8th India-Sri Lanka joint commission meeting in New Delhi avoids reference to controversial issues like the devolution of powers to Tamils and increasingly discriminative trade practices against India.
- The U.S.: Sri Lanka is likely to face renewed flak at the forthcoming UN Human Rights Commission meeting commencing next month in Geneva. This was indicated by three senior U.S. officials visiting Colombo; they said the U.S. was not fully satisfied with Sri Lanka’s implementation of the recommendations of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliantion Commission (LLRC).
Impeachment of the Chief Justice
President Rajapaksa removed the Chief Justice Dr Shirani
Bandaranayake and appointed Peter Mohan Maithree Perera in her place as Chief
Justice after the parliament the controversial impeachment motion with a two
thirds majority. The President defended his action in the face of strong
national and international criticism of the whole process which lacked
transparency saying the final decision
was taken only after a committee of experts consisting of four veteran
professionals examined the issue.
However, Dr Bandaranayake has contended that she continued
to be in office as the impeachment process was stayed by the superior court. We
can expect the government to speed up action against her on four counts of
misconduct identified by the parliamentary select committee which examined the
impeachment motion before it was voted in parliament. The Department of Revenue has already raised a
number of questions about remittances in her back accounts.
The swearing in of the new chief justice was done
unprecedented security and most the media persons were barred from entering the
premises. The Bar Association of Sri Lanka which had been campaigning against
the impeachment boycotted the swearing in ceremony. The U.S., UK and other European Union
Countries have expressed their concern at the impeachment as it amounted to political
interference in judiciary.
Sri Lanka is likely to come under flak on this count in the
UN Human Rights Council meeting scheduled to start in March 2013 when the Sri Lanka’s implementation of the
Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission recommendations come up for
discussion. The United States has warned that any action that undermines an independent
judiciary would impact on Sri Lanka’s ability to attract foreign investment.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper went a step further and called for Dr
Bandarnayake’s reinstatement. It could also affect Colombo’s hosting of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM)
scheduled from November 15 to 17, 2013 as Canada has already threatened to boycott
it. It is interesting to note that after the passing of the impeachment motion,
Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma has expressed the collective
concern of the as Commonwealth over the impeachment.
Cabinet reshuffle
President Rajapaksa has reshuffled
the Cabinet of Ministers elevating five deputy ministers to cabinet status. There were no surprises. The change of
portfolio of the right wing Jannata Hela Urumiya (JHU) minister Pattali
Champike Ranawakka from power and energy to science and technology was probably
carried out to defer to India’s complaint over the minister’s attitudinal
problem in going ahead with the construction of the India-aided 5000 mw power
plant at Sampur which is behind schedule by two years.
The appointment of Anura Priyadarshana Yapa as the Minister of Petroleum Industries.is considered as a reward for presiding over the parliamentary select committee which recommended the impeachment of the Chief Justice.
Sri Lanka now has a total of
67 ministers including 10 senior ministers.
This would mean 52 percent of members of the ruling coalition in the
225-member parliament are either ministers or deputy ministers. Despite this
the President and Prime Minister DM Jayaratne hold five ministerial portfolios
each.
India-Sri Lanka relations
The 8th meeting of
India-Sri Lanka Joint Commission was held in New Delhi on January 22,
2013 with
the ministers of external affairs of both countries co-chairing the meeting. The External Affairs Ministers
of India and Sri Lanka signed two agreements: Combating International Terrorism
and Drug Trafficking; and Revised Double Taxation Avoidance on the occasion.
The two sides decided to take
several steps to further deepen trade, tourism and investment relations. They agreed
to encourage closer economic and trade linkages with to double the bilateral
trade to US $ 10 billion in the next three years. They also decided to initiate
a dialogue between the Commerce Secretary of India and the Secretary of the
Ministry of Finance and Economic Development of Sri Lanka to evolve a framework
for a special economic partnership between the two countries.
They also reviewed the
progress of a number of India-aided projects including the construction of the
next phase for construction/repair of 49,000 houses launched on October 2,
2012. The pilot phase of constructing 1000 houses for IDPs in the Northern
Province was completed in August 2012.
However, significantly the
joint statement issued at the end of the meeting was silent on a few other
issues of concern to India – stalled devolution process, the lack of progress
from the Sri Lankan side on Sampur Powe Project and the skewed customs duty
structure introduced in November 2012 on cars below 1000cc particularly in the
subcompact category dominated by India.
But apparently, Sri Lanka has
been asked to address at least some of these issues as evident from easing out
of the Power and Energy portfolio from Minister Ranawaka after the JCM. Sri
Lanka has also formed an inter-ministerial task force to promote trade with
India.
However, during the same
period the Government had withdrawn more than Rs 560 million allocated for
development work to Northern Province local councils controlled by the Tamil
National Alliance (TNA). The funds were meant for rural
roads, construction of new buildings for local councils, building new markets
and other structures in 2013. Evidently, the Rajapaksa government is ensuring
that the TNA is kept out of these development works lest it helps them in the Northern
Provincial Council elections to be held in 2013. If we go by other indications
of high handedness against media and politicians opposing Rajapaksa in Jaffna, the
government is unlikely to make any major move on devolution issue in the near
future.
Rajapaksa is scheduled to
visit Bodh Gaya in Bihar on February 8, 2013. He will be meeting Bihar Chief
Minister to understand the growth of the state in the last five year as
a “learning experience.” He is likely to use this opportunity to stop over at New Delhi and meet
the Indian Prime Minister to secure his support for Sri Lanka at the
forthcoming UNHRC meeting as well as in ensuring smooth passage of CHOGM at
Colombo in November 2013. He could announce some palliative measures to address
India’s concerns during his visit to facilitate this.
Sri
Lanka-U.S. relations
A
visiting delegation of three senior U.S. officials - Deputy Assistant Secretary
of State James Moore, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Vikram Singh, and
Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Jane Zimmerman - have warned that a
procedural resolution aimed at pushing Sri Lanka to address human rights
concerns would be submitted before the forthcoming UNRC meeting.
However
they said that although there was progress on the implementation of the LLRC
report there was more that needed to be done in terms of accountability.
“Certainly we have seen progress in infrastructure development, demining,
rehabilitation and the release of former combatants. However there are still
families who feel that their loved ones are being held somewhere. There is a
desire for accountability with regards to extra judicial killings. Therefore
there is a need for accelerated implementation,” they added.
In this context it is interesting to note that U.S. Senators Bob Casey and Patrick Leahy (both Democrats) in a letter Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have called for an independent, international investigation into potential war crimes committed by the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE during the civil war in Sri Lanka. They said such an investigation is needed because the legitimate concerns of the people have not been answered by the government
Miscellaneous
- Jaffna University: Two students – Jaffna University Council President and a union member who were among the four students in the wake of Martyrs Day observed within the University on November 26, 2012 have been released after undergoing six weeks of “rehabilitation” at the Protective Accommodation and Rehabilitation Centre (PARC) at Welikanda. Both the released students were suspected having links with the LTTE.
- Army in development work: Army is to be deployed to rehabilitate and develop 3200 tanks and reservoirs in North Central Province at the invitation of the chief minister. The chief minister has said with this the contractual system would be done away to prevent corruption by contractors whose work had been substandard.
Courtesy: South Asia Security Trends Vol 7 No 1 February 2013 URL: www.security-risks.com
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