Sri Lanka News Updates with Discussions

Feb 03, 2011 (LBO) - Sri Lankan apparel exporters are getting enough overseas orders and not been affected as badly as feared by the loss of duty free access to European Union markets, officials said.
`Exports are growing moderately,` said A Sukumaran, chairman of the Joint Apparel Association Forum (JAAF), an industry body.

`We have been investing in technology and processes which helped us improve efficiency.`

He said he expects Sri Lanka to have earned 3.3 - 3.4 billion US dollars in apparel exports, the island`s top industrial export, in 2010.

The pro-LTTE sections of the Sri Lankan diaspora, unable to stomach the defeat of the world`s most ruthless terrorist outfit at the hands of the security forces, wanted revenge. Not in a position to carry out assassinations, they opted for the next best thing. They wanted Sri Lanka punished. Somehow. By anyone.
It was not difficult of course for a disinformation mechanism that had been functioning for well over three decades to paint a bloody war-crimes picture. The evidence was naturally thin and amount to nothing more than allegations concocted by interested parties aggrieved less by incident than by outcome, the total military debacle suffered by the LTTE. The allegations, moreover, were nothing compared to the well-documented atrocities committed by the USA, UK, the EU and Israel over the past few years and of course throughout the long and bloody 20th century.

Presidential advisor on Muslim Affairs Mohamed Niyaz Moulavi passed away this morning, the government information department said. President Mahinda Rajapaksa appointed Mohamed Niyaz Moulavi in 2008 as the Coordinating Secretary to the President on Muslim Religious Affairs. Final rights of the cleric will commence at 10 pm from his residence locted at Peersahib street in Colombo 12 and will proceed to the Maligawatta burial grounds.

Sarath Fonseka has stated that he is ready to talk to the panel that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has appointed to `advise him on issues pertaining to Sri Lanka`. Some would be surprised by this, others not.
Sarath Fonseka is, we all know, pretty much a political neophyte and, as such, much of the naivet that he spewed out during his unsuccessful bid to become president, was expected. One would not be faulted for thinking that the sobering result and consequent reduction in circumstances would have helped mature the man. Nothing of the sort has happened.

By Lakshman Seneviratne, MP Deputy General Secretary UNP

I had mixed feelings when I read the article in The Sunday Times of 20th June 2010 by Ranil Wickremesinghe, Leader of the main Opposition United National Party written as a guest column. I was amused as to whether RW was asleep or in Mars during the past few years!
Lakshman Seneviratne

The UN panel of experts, the EU condition GSP plus concessions drew a plethora of responses in Sri Lanka from politicians, policy makers, media personalities, eminent public figures. These international developments have been revisited in many newspaper articles with the arguments focusing on the threat to sovereignty of the country.

This article attempts to focus on the issue of developing and nurturing capacities of Sri Lankan from politicians to general citizens on the knowledge and the understanding of international politics to effect proper counter measures to international pressures and functions as early warning mechanisms.

The European Union (EU) is attempting to establish contact with the Sri Lankan government over the GSP+ trade benefits to the country after the deadline by the EU for the government to respond to its conditions ended today.

EU Ambassador to Sri Lanka and the Maldives Bernard Savage speaking to Daily Mirror online said that the government had not met the deadline which was issued in order to enable the Commission to revise its recommendations on the status of the GSP+ if a positive response was made.

June 29, 2010 (LBO) Sri Lanka`s latest budget should ensure the island maintains macro-economic stability that would help accelerate economic growth, the International Monetary Fund representative in the island said.
The key element is in ensuring macro-economic conditions remain stable, said Koshy Mathai.

Inflation, interest rates and the exchange rate must remain stable to create the environment for growth, investment and creation of employment.

Ban Ki Moon has appointed his panel to invesitgate the last stages of the conflict in Sri Lanka or the end of terrorism as many Sri Lankans would put it.

But, to the Western word and the UN it is an end of war. Some western news agencies describe it as the panel to invesitgate war crimes committed by the government. The Indonesian panelist who already has put his foot in the mouth says it is also to invesitgate the LTTE. But, where is the LTTE today? They are headless and they have no leaders in Sri Lanka except in the dispora living comfortable lives.

If I was Ban Ki-moon, I would roll over and die. Seriously. First he got his side kick Navi Pillay, adequately briefed by LTTE-sympathizers or those briefed by such, for example, Louise Arbour, Phillip Alston and David Miliband, to use her authority as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to bail out the LTTE, at the time boxed into a few square feet in the North-East corner of Sri Lanka. Navi Pillay was checkmated by the excellent work of our Permanent Representative at the UN, Geneva, Dr. Dayan Jayatillake. Other efforts to meddle in Sri Lanka by dubious outfits with sinister agenda and people by doddering colonials on the verge of being discarded for irrelevancy were also stymied by Sri Lanka`s resoluteness and a shift in the global balance of power away from those who`ve lived and thrived by plunder, lying and the maintenance of double standards.

The Sri Lankan garment industry says the loss of the GSP+ preferential trade benefits will be felt, but will not be catastrophic.

Yesterday (24 June) the Sri Lankan government categorically rejected European Commission (EC) conditions to extend the GSP+ duty free trade scheme for another six months, which would have included the government giving a written commitment to improving the country`s human rights record.

This means the GSP+ will no longer be available for Sri Lanka after 15 August this year.

B.S. RAGHAVAN

In a move reeking of the foul odour of cynicism and double standards, the UN Secretary-General, Mr Ban Ki-Moon has, on June 22, as per a notification posted on the UN Web site, announced the appointment of a so-called advisory panel of three so-called experts to advise him on accountability issues relating to alleged violations of international human rights and humanitarian law during the final stages of the conflict in Sri Lanka that ended last year . The experts will examine the modalities, applicable international standards and comparative experience with regard to accountability processes, taking into account the nature and scope of any alleged violations in Sri Lanka .

Good points by Mr. Wijesinha, although he could have brought up the Amritsar massacre, which perhaps relates more strongly to British media hypocrisy: General Dyer, the English `Butcher from Amritsar` was to receive a warm welcome from the British people, who raised a fund to support him until he died of natural causes, while Udham Singh was executed by the British. You can go back in the Telegraph archives to find wonderful columns describing Indians as sub-human and the need for violence to civilize them. Today, Andrew Roberts and other British historians praise the mass killing of unarmed men, women, and children as necessary for peace, In this light, I believe that Mr. Wijesinha`s pleas will fall on deaf ears.

Today I rented an Army paddle boat and puttered around the Beira Lake. Last weekend I saw them officiating a wedding. It`s weird, but honestly heartwarming. I was looking at some photos someone took of a Navy cruise ship. There was a small child in the captain`s chair, Navy crewmen grinning behind. It made me laugh. A year ago that ship was ferrying troops and evading LTTE suicide boats. Now a five year old is sitting in the captain`s chair. Last year troops in Jaffna were on edge, troops in the Wanni were cleaning their guns. This year they were making Vesak displays. I guess we still need a military presence, but it has really softened. They`re organizing weddings now. They say militarization like it`s a bad thing, but I`m honestly happy to see how things have changed.

COLOMBO, June 17 (Reuters) - Sri Lanka`s central bank said its governor was re-appointed on Thursday to a six-year term, signalling continuity in monetary policy that has been credited with bolstering the country`s post-war economic resurgence.

Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal played a lead role in negotiating Sri Lanka`s $2.6 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan, drumming up foreign investment with a series of roadshows and keeping a rein on inflation.