Col R Hariharan
Highlights
- Sri Lanka President makes it clear that he would not devolve police and land powers to provincial councils as provided in the 13th amendment despite Indian pressure to do so.
- The Tamil National Alliance nominates former Supreme Court Judge CV Wigneswaran as its chief ministerial nominee in the Northern provincial council election.
- Buddhist activists attack a mosque at Mahiyangana while Muslims were attending Ramadan prayers in continuing violence against Muslims.
India –Sri Lanka
differences over 13th amendment
Three weeks after India’s National Security
Adviser Shivshankar Menon met with
President Mahinda Rajapaksa to convey India’s unhappiness at the reported moves
to change the provisions of 13th amendment (13A), President
Rajapaksa has made it clear that no one could pressure him to devolve police
and land powers to the provincial councils (PC) as provided in the 13A). He
said under no circumstances would he change his position.
The President was answering a question on
India’s relentless pressure for implementation of the 13A in full at a
breakfast meeting with media editors at his residence.
The Indian NSA who was in Colombo to attend
the 2nd meeting of the Trilateral Cooperation for Maritime Security
with Sri Lanka and the Maldives, while meeting the President emphasized India’s
unchanging stand on the ethnic reconciliation issue. Apparently this was in a
bid to thwart any Sri Lankan subterfuge to either sabotage the Northern PC
election or dilute the powers conferred to PC under the 13A.
He also met with the
President’s two brothers – Economic development Minister Basil Rajapaksa and
Defence Secretary Gotabaya who had been calling the shots in the Rajapaksa
government. The visiting Indian dignitary also met with the leaders of Tamil
National Alliance (TNA) and the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) as well as the
UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe presumably to understand the political
situation in Sri Lanka.
According to an
Indian High Commission statement issued at the end of the visit, the
NSA “called for an early political settlement and national reconciliation
through the meaningful devolution of power” to ensure that all citizens of Sri
Lanka, including the Tamil community, would “lead a life marked by
equality, justice, dignity and self-respect.” He also emphasised “the need for
adhering to the commitments made by the Sri Lankan Government to India and the
International Community on a political settlement in Sri Lanka that would go
beyond the 13th Amendment.” This makes it clear that India would view Sri
Lanka’s unilateral action to tinker with 13A as contrary to the Indo-Sri Lanka
Accord of 1987.
It is evident now
that India and Sri Lanka have stuck to their contrarian stands on
implementation of 13A. India’s Union Minister V
Narayanasamy said the government was firm that there should be no dilution of
the 13A as per assurance given by Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh. On the
other hand, Sri Lankan spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella says the government will
go ahead with making changes to the 13A as planned.
Although Sri Lanka has promised India that
the PC elections would be held without any change of 13A, the issue could
become a major irritant between Colombo and New Delhi when land and police
powers are denied to Northern PC after the election as it will be a major
political issue when India goes for parliamentary elections sometime in end
2013 or early 2014.
TNA gets ready for PC election
The TNA, which is likely to win the majority
of seats in Norther Province election, has decided to nominate former Supreme
Court Judge CV Wigneswaran as the Chief Ministerial candidate. This brings to
an end a brewing infight among its leaders over the issue.
The TNA has also finalised the seat
allocations for the coalition members of the alliance. The major partner
Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK) would contest 16 seats. Other partners’ allocations are:
EPRLF -12, TELO – 10, PLOTE – 6 and TULF - 6.
The TNA has made
clear that it would not take part in the parliamentary select committee (PSC)
now deliberating on devolution process as it had representatives of the ruling
coalition only. It even excluded coalition member who had contrarian views like
Tissa Witharana and Rauf Hakeem .
Continuing
attacks on Muslims
Muslims continue to be the target of hate
campaign by Buddhist activists. In the latest incident a mob of masked
persons attacked a 40-year old mosque in Mahiyangana on 18 July 18 even
as Ramadan prayers were going on inside the mosque. Main power was switched off
and stones were pelted breaking window panes and shouts of threats were heard.
After the miscreants left police was called. However, no arrests have been made
so far.
Earlier, miscreants had thrown chilli powder
on the trustee of the mosque and threatened to attack if Friday payers were
continued in the mosque. After this incident, the Sri Lanka Muslim Council had
contacted the Defence Secretary Gotabahaya Rajapaksha. According to the Council
he had told them to go ahead with the prayers, and the mosque received
protection. So the mosque went ahead with the Friday prayers when it was
attacked.
The following day raw pork was thrown into
the mosque premises. Such a desecration of the place of worship in the
holy month of Ramadan has hurt Muslim sentiments deeply. A PC minister had
assisted them in cleaning up the mosque after pork was thrown. However, after a
few days he had asked Muslims to close the mosque for their own safety. This would
indicate the continued indifference of the authorities to hate attacks on
Muslims. The hand of Bodhu Bala Sena (BBS) extremists is suspected behind the
desecration and attacks though it had disowned it.
Miscellaneous
Road contract:
Sri Lanka has awarded a $260 million contract for the construction of 47
kilometre long circular highway around port city of Trincomalee to a Chinese
contractor - Hunan Road and Bridge Company, with financing from the Industrial
and Commercial Bank of China. The
highway will connect Nilaveli, Thampalakkam and Sampur areas and will help a
flour mill, cement plan, oil tanks and a proposed coal power plant coming up in
the area.
Chinese tourist arrivals increase:
Sri Lanka has downgraded the forecasted tourist arrivals for 2013, from estimated
figure of 1.25 million to 1.1 million. However, during the first six months of
the year there was a growth of 13.1 percent year on year basis. Chinese tourist
arrivals increased by 72.3 percent to 16,582 tourists during the first six
months of this year, compared to 9,622 visitors during the same period of last
year. In the same six month period tourist arrivals from India dropped by 1.7
percent to 83,981 compared to last year.
Plea for GSP+ concession:
Sri Lankan exporters have asked the government to reapply for EU GSP+ trade
concessions to regain its competitive edge, recover lost ground and lead to
exponential growth in exports. The EU did not extend GSP+ concessions after Sri
Lanka failed to adhere to the norms stipulated by it. Sri Lanka apparels export
sector is said to annually lose around US$ 750 million worth of business due to
this.
Joint Combined Exchange Training (JCET):
Exercise Flash Style - the annual JCET with the US Naval Special Warfare
Community and the Sri Lankan Armed Forces was carried out from July 2 to 19,
2013 at the Naval Dockyard in Trincomalee. Special Boat Squadron, Fast Attack
Flotilla, Divers and Rapid Response Rescue and Release Squadron of the Sri
Lanka Navy and MI 24 Squadron and Regiment Special Forces of the Sri Lanka Air
Force took part in the exercise along with a 10- member team of US Navy SEALs,
Special Boat Unit and Air Force. Tactical combat casualty care, swift water
rescue, high angle rescue and heli rappelling were practised during the
exercise.
Trilateral
cooperation on maritime security agreement: India, Sri Lanka and the
Maldives have signed an agreement to share capacities and information to
address threats to maritime security such as piracy, terrorism and gunrunning
in the Indian Ocean and to pursue sustainable development of maritime
environment. The agreement was signed at the 2nd meeting on Trilateral
Cooperation on Maritime Security held in Colombo.
Written on July 31, 2013 Courtesy:
South Asia Security Trends, August 2013 www.security-risks.com
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