Remembering the Jaffna exodus – 500,000 displaced

 

30 October 2020

On the day 25 years ago, over half a million Tamil men, women and children fled their homes in Jaffna as the Sri Lankan military launched a military offensive to capture the peninsula, under the leadership of then president Chandrika Kumaratunga.

On October 30, 1995, the entire town of Jaffna, the largest Tamil population centre on the island, streamed out in a mass exodus for the safety of the Vanni, which was then controlled by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Walking for several miles east, crossing the Navatkuli bridge, the throngs of people, carrying whatever they could manage, made their way to the neck of the Jaffna peninsula, before making the dangerous boat journey on to Kilinochchi.

On the tenth anniversary of the exodus, the Tamil Guardian wrote,

The exodus, as it came to be known amongst them, undeniably marked a turning point in Tamils’ self-understanding. The context in which the exodus took place was aptly summed by The Times of London, whose correspondent, Christopher Thomas, wrote on October 30: “Many civilians have been killed by government shelling and bombing, which has hit residential areas of the town. There is panic among the 600,000 Tamils on the Jaffna peninsula. The greatest humanitarian crisis of the war is in the making...Tamil civilians in Jaffna are evidently terrified by the advancing of the soldiers and are looking to the Tigers to save them from what they are convinced will be a massacre.” 

Read the full piece here.

 

"The exodus was a colossal human tragedy, unprecedented in its proportions," wrote Adele Balasingham in 2003. "Heeding the appeal of the LTTE cadres and realising the imminent danger to their lives from the invading enemy troops, the entire population of Valigamam - more than five hundred thousand people - stepped out onto the roads carrying their bare essentials and dragging along their children, the elderly and the sick."

Read the extract from her book,  ‘The Will to Freedom’, here.

 

 

‘The greatest humanitarian crisis of the war is in the making’

On 21 September 1995, as the Sri Lankan military prepared to launch its offensive, new emergency regulations were imposed, granting widespread censorship powers on all war-related reporting. All reports had to be run past a government-appointed Competent Authority for Censorship before publication.

Despite the censorship, UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros Ghali appealed for assistance, noting that up to 400,000 were fleeing.

“Reports of the massive displacement of the civilian population in northern Sri Lanka are a source of deep concern to the Secretary General,'' said spokesman Juan Carlos Brandt said in New York.

Christopher Thomas, correspondent for The Times,  wrote on October 30:

“Many civilians have been killed by government shelling and bombing, which has hit residential areas of the town. There is panic among the 600,000 Tamils on the Jaffna peninsula. The greatest humanitarian crisis of the war is in the making...Tamil civilians in Jaffna are evidently terrified by the advancing of the soldiers and are looking to the Tigers to save them from what they are convinced will be a massacre.”

See more press coverage from the time here.

 

The fight for Jaffna

The all-out ground assault to recapture the Jaffna peninsula from the LTTE began on October 1. The first phase, ‘Operation Thunder,’ was intended to capture parts of Valikaamam region, to the north of Jaffna town.

The assault on Jaffna town itself, codenamed ‘Operation Riviresa’ (Sun Ray), began on October 17. Heavy fighting raged at several locations.

Read more on the Sri Lankan military offensive here.

 

The occupation continues

The Sri Lankan military continues to occupy large swathes of land in the region.

The defence ministry website reports that in 1996 the “SFHQ-J was founded as a Task force against illegal migration,” and "played a major role during humanitarian operations to eradicate terrorists from the Jaffna Peninsula.”

It continues to play a role in the “monitoring and surveillance of attempts on regrouping of terrorists,” it adds.

The Sri Lankan military now operates a tourist resort in the land it occupies, as well as being extensively involved in the running of civilian life across the homeland. To this day, many Tamils remain displaced.

 Corona Resurgence Is A National Emergency, Wake Up & Act Swiftly & Decisively 

By M.M. Janapriya –OCTOBER 31, 2020

Dr. M.M. Janapriya

Being a senior medical professional and a concerned citizen studying and following the flow and ebb of the Corona stream, in my beloved motherland I am greatly perturbed by the way Corona raised it’s ugly head again and how this surge is being managed at the moment. I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that there is indeed community spread now. Even though the health authorities and the media are making a valiant attempt to connect the hundreds of cases scattered over most of the country to one or another of the existing clusters they have failed in style according to a PHI who came on Ada Derana TV on the 26th October 2020.

This is a very serious matter indeed and worse is the fact that the health authorities have been economical with the truth. Please watch the clip here from 6.29 minutes to 6.51 minutes. This man is an apology to a proper head of a very important preventive health Department. Listen to him carefully. The journalist is asking “Hand on heart can you say that there is no community spread of this disease at the moment? The doctor says “Yes of course I can say there is no community spread as at present. There is no necessity for us to hide such a thing because community spread is a situation where we cannot link one patient to another. As at present only 90.7% of the allotted bed capacity has been utilized. Ten percent of the beds are still available for use.” He is paradoxically referring to the measly 10% of Corona beds left as if it was 90%. This man’s reply is completely illogical, incoherent and incomprehensible to most of us proper medical doctors. 

On the same clip the Public Health Inspector comes on next and says “ Covid 19 resurgence that has occurred in relation to Divulapitiya and Minuwangoda also called the second wave has got to a very unfortunate level by now. Together with the sub-cluster recorded in Peliyagoda, cases connected with this resurgence are being reported from all over Sri Lanka. Also at this moment in time several cases whose source of infection cannot be determined are being reported from parts of Sri Lanka. Therefore the situation in the country is dire.” Please watch this video between 6.53 minutes to 7.34 minutes. 

The doctor clearly is holding back the truth the question being is he doing it at his own volition or is he being a puppet of someone or indeed is he genuinely incapable of analyzing the situation and coming out with a scientific inference? If any of these is the case he should respectably resign from his job and pave way for a better person to come in. Also it is evident from the recent happenings that the special Presidential task force headed by the Army (ironically not the head of the health sector) which, up until now seems to have done a sterling job, has been caught napping.     

What happened and how it happened

Friends, Colombians, Countrymen, lend me your ears;

I come to bury mother Lanka, not to praise her.

The evil that men do lives after them;

The good is oft interred with their bones;

So let it be with my darling mother. The noble Brandics

Hath told you mother Lanka a woman of ill fame:

If it were so, it was a grievous fault,

And grievously hath she answer’d it. 

Here, under leave of Brandics and the Rest–

For Brandics is an honourable organization;

So are they all, all honourable men–

Come I to speak in mother Lanka’s funeral.

She was my darling mother, who gave unconditional love to me:

But Brandics says she was a woman of ill fame;

And Brandics is an honourable organization.

It hath brought many a kill home to Colombo

Whose Dollars did some coffers fill:

Did this make Brandcs seem ‘untouchable’

When we, the poor cried, mother Lanka hath wept:

A woman of ill fame should be made of sterner stuff:

Yet Brandics says she was a woman of ill fame;

And Brandics is an honourable organization.

(Might be worth listening to this Mark Antony funeral oration by one and only Charlton Heston in the film Julius Caesar. I watched this as a 3rd year medical student on one of the few 70mm screens in the country at that time at the Odeon theatre, Kandy.) 

This is a summation of the events that led to the most recent Sri Lankan Covid-19 debacle in which some powerful business people must have felt that the nation was an expandable lot. Also this poetic narration might give the confused Sri Lankan public an opportunity to delineate who Mark Antony was and who indeed was Brutus. SARS COV-2 is having a field day here on Sri Lankan soil courtesy utter and miserable mismanagement of the infection by the special presidential task force in which subservient doctors play either the second or third fiddle.

From what is happening around us it is obvious even to a second standard school child that 

Corona is everywhere. The “test little trace with passion and isolate with a vengeance” strategy 

of the task force has been defeated hands down. They are still being commandeered by the 

Army and the learned (or not so learned) doctors seem to be just toeing the line. The 

description below describes it all. With apologies to Lord Tennyson, 

“Forward, the Lankan Brigade!”

Was there a man dismayed?

Not though the Nation knew

Someone had blundered.

Theirs not to make reply,

Theirs not to reason why,

Theirs but to do and die.

Into the valley of Death

Dragged the unsuspecting nation.

Corona to right of them,

Corona to left of them,

Corona in front of them

Volleyed and thundered;

Stormed at with droplets and spray,

Unwillingly they were dragged,

Into the jaws of Death,

Into the mouth of hell

Dragged the hapless nation.

This is the current situation. Like in ‘Sama Jathakaya’ we will defer investigating how this came about for the moment and get on with what remedial measures should be called in to action in order to resurrect Sri Lanka and unlike in ‘Sama Jathakaya’ we will pressurize the government to bring the culprits to books once the dust settles.

Read More

 ‘The greatest humanitarian crisis of the war’ – Press coverage of the Jaffna Exodus

30 October 2020

As we mark 25 years since the Jaffna exodus, which led to over half a million Tamil men, women and children fleeing their homes, we look back at press coverage from the time.

On 21 September 1995, as the Sri Lankan military prepared to launch its offensive, new emergency regulations were imposed, granting widespread censorship powers on all war-related reporting. All reports had to be run past a government-appointed Competent Authority for Censorship before publication.

As the offensive began, death and displacement followed. On October 30, 1995, the entire town of Jaffna, the largest Tamil population centre on the island, streamed out in a mass exodus for the safety of the Vanni, which was then controlled by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Despite the censorship, UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros Ghali appealed for assistance, noting that up to 400,000 were fleeing.

“Reports of the massive displacement of the civilian population in northern Sri Lanka are a source of deep concern to the Secretary General,'' said spokesman Juan Carlos Brandt said in New York.

See more coverage below.

"A mass exodus of civilians was reported from Jaffna town today with thousands of people fleeing to the eastern Tenamarachchi section of the embattled peninsula even as the Sri Lankan security forces continued their onward march. ``Thousands of people are on the road,'' non-Governmental sources said today. ``The roads are clogged,'' the sources said, adding the movement of civilians was unprecedented. ``We are watching the situation with considerable concern,'' a United Nations aid official said.

(Hindu, 1 November 1995)

"Many civilians have been killed by government shelling and bombing, which has hit residential areas of the town. There is panic among the 600,000 Tamils on the Jaffna peninsula. The greatest humanitarian crisis of the war is in the making...Tamil civilians in Jaffna are evidently terrified by the advancing of the soldiers and are looking to the Tigers to save them from what they are convinced will be a massacre.."

Christopher Thomas in Vavuniya (London Times, 31 October 1995)

"Tamil sources said thousands of civilians were fleeing Jaffna peninsula by boat to the LTTE-held Kilinochchi region with barely any personal belongings. A senior Government official in Kilinochchi 320 kilometers (200 miles North of here, said nearly 60,000 refugees had poured into the area from Jaffna and the total would reach 300,000 soon. ``More than 10,000 people are streaming in every day,'' said the official, Thillai Natarajah, speaking in the Government held town of Vavuniya. ``Most people are housed in school buildings and temples. ``But the situation is getting desperate,'' he said. ``Many of those were drenched in rain and without a second set of clothes.'' He added that there were food shortages.

(AFP, 4 November 1995)

 

"While Sri Lanka's army fights to crush Tamil rebels, it's battling on another front against foreign relief workers trying to care for 400,000 war refugees. The refugees, including hundreds of wounded civilians, are caught behind the civil war's front line. Western relief agencies accuse the military of blocking desperately needed aid. Tight restrictions are preventing the delivery of drugs, tents and blankets as well as equipment to build latrines, said frustrated aid officials, who spoke on condition they not be named. ...

"About half of the 400,000 Tamil refugees are living and sleeping outdoors in heavy monsoon rains, said Gerard Peytrignet, who heads the International Committee of the Red Cross here. The rest are holed up in churches, schools and relatives' homes. The refugees have very little food or proper sanitation, he added.Doctors are already seeing cases of dysentery and eye infections, and while cholera hasn't struck yet, the conditions are perfect for a deadly epidemic, relief workers warned.

"Sri Lanka's military won't let journalist cross into areas controlled by the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Relief workers are so afraid of making the government angry, they refuse to photograph or shoot video of the refugees suffering and smuggle the pictures out to reporters.

"The war-zone's few hospitals are dangerously low on anaesthetics for surgery and several drugs essential to stopping the spread of diseases and treating war casualties, relief workers said. Few were willing to criticise the government publicly because they are afraid it will shut down their relief operation in retaliation.......'I think they don't want an International presence there to witness what's happening,' a senior Western relief official said.

Paul Watson (The Toronto Star, November 5, 1995 )

 

"...Refugees arriving in the government-held frontier town of Vavuniya yesterday described how tens of thousands fled with only the bags they could carry as monsoon rains lashed down. They walked or rode by bicycle for about 20 miles to other parts of Tiger-run territory. In the Jaffna peninsula, schools, hospitals and government buildings are overflowing with refugees. The unlucky ones are seeking shelter from the monsoon rains under trees and shop fronts.

Philip Sherwell in Vavuniya (Electronic Telegraph, 6 November 1995)

 

" Sri Lanka has banned international agencies from aiding Tamil refugees over fears that some are not impartial. We do not intend to permit any outside agencies, including the UN...to carry out independent operations", said Foreign Minister Laksham Kadiragamar. He also expressed displeasure at the appeal made by UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros Ghali, whom he accused of exaggerating the situation. Tens of thousands of Tamil refugees are fleeing a government assault on the Tamil Tiger stronghold in the north."

(BBC,  6 November 1995)

 

UNHCR Resident Representative Peter Meijer told the press... 'about three fourths of the population of Jaffna had been displaced.' Medicine Sans Frontiers Country Director said the organisation normally works in colloboration with the Health Ministry and that the organisation had so far not been called by the Sri Lanka Government to assist in the matter.

(Sri Lanka Sunday Times, 5 November 1995)

 

"On the idyllic island of Sri Lanka today, a reported half-million Tamil refugees are fleeing troops of the central government homeless and exposed to monsoon rains, falling sick and dying from-disease. The Sri Lankan government of President Chandrika Kumaratunga has insisted that it be the entity to distribute international humanitarian aid, complaining that nongovernmental organizations have permitted relief supplies to benefit the secessionist Tamil movement known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

"Since most of the refugees who fled the government forces closing in on the nothern city of Jaffna are now in territory controlled by the Tigers, relief supplies channeled through the government could not help those in need, whatever the intentions of the government.

"Because the war zone has been closed to reporters and cameras, the human calamity visited upon the Tamils has become a tree falling unheard in the forest. Yet their suffering is as grievous as that of refugees in the former Yogoslavia.

"For the sake of a single humane standard, the United States and other governments should insist that humanitarian aid to refugees be delivered under international supervision. There is also a need for outside parties willing to help broker a ceasefire and a negotiated peace between the Tamil minority and the Sri Lankan government. As in Bosnia, millions of civilians must be saved from the madness of their leaders."

(Boston Globe Editorial, 27 November 1995)

"Estimates of how many Tamils have fled the besieged northern Jaffna peninsula vary from the government's 180,000 to as many as 500,000, some without shelter, but most finding accommodation in camps, old thatched huts or with friends or relations.

"The civilians are fleeing Jaffna where the armed forces are expected to capture Jaffna town, capital of the rebels' wouldbe homeland, any day. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, fighting for the homeland in the north and east of tropical Sri Lanka, have ferried civilians in boats across Jaffna lagoon to camps on the mainland, more and more filtering through to the mainland from this frontline town. .. Families arriving in Vavuniya on Thursday said shelling had decreased in recent days in Jaffna and dry weather meant an easier time for the estimated 110,000 people gathered in Kilinochchi, eight km (five miles) south of the Jaffna lagoon.

``People are still coming into Kilinochchi because they are frightened the (armed forces') operation might start up anywhere after Riviresa,'' one man said as he was chanelled into the Thandikulam army camp for classification.

"Operation Riviresa was launched on October 17 in the north of the Jaffna peninsula and has brought the army into the heart of Jaffna town itself.

``People are running here and there to find relations at Kilinochchi,'' another refugee said. ``People are coming back up from Colombo to find their loved ones. A number are at the mainland ferry hoping they may be on the next boat to cross the lagoon.''

(Reuters, 2 December 1995)

 Amnesty International writes to Pompeo: Raise Human Rights issues with Rajapaksas

27/10/2020

Dear Secretary Pompeo:
I am writing on behalf of Amnesty International and our 10 million members, supporters
and activists worldwide. Founded in 1961, Amnesty International is a global human rights
movement that was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1977 for contributing to “securing
the ground for freedom, for justice, and thereby also for peace in the world.”

Amnesty’s researchers and campaigners work out of the International Secretariat, which
over the last decade, has established regional offices around the world, bringing our staff
closer to the ground. The South Asia Regional Office was established in 2017 in Colombo,
Sri Lanka to lead Amnesty’s human rights work on Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, the
Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Amnesty’s South Asia Regional Office has carefully documented the deterioration of the
human rights situation in Sri Lanka under the current government. Impunity persists for
new and past human rights violations. We ask that during your upcoming visit to Sri Lanka,
you call on President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa to
reverse some of their recent actions which undermine human rights and take steps to
address impunity.

Under the current government, the space for dissent and criticism is rapidly shrinking, as
demonstrated by a series of cases, including the harassment of New York Times journalist
Dharisha Bastians, the arbitrary detention of blogger Ramzy Razeek and lawyer Hejaaz
Hizbullah, and the ongoing criminal investigation against writer Shakthika Sathkumara.
Although Ramzy Razeek was released on bail on September 17, the criminal investigation
against him has not been closed. Hejaaz Hizbullah remains in detention without charge or
any credible evidence of wrongdoing. During his detention for more than six months under
Sri Lanka’s draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), he has only been granted
restricted access to legal counsel or to his family. A third detention order to hold him for
another 90 days was issued this month. He must be released without further delay.

Writer Shakthika Sathkumara was arrested on April 1, 2019 after publishing a short
fictional story on his Facebook page, in which he hinted at child sexual abuse taking place
in a Buddhist monastery. While he was released on bail on August 5, 2019, the criminal
investigation against him has not been closed. If charged and convicted, he could face up
to 10 years in prison. The hearings have been repeatedly delayed, with the next hearing
not scheduled until early 2021. Amnesty International declared him a Prisoner of
Conscience, as he was imprisoned solely for peacefully exercising his right to freedom of
expression and called his immediate and unconditional release.

In the cases of both Ramzy Razeek and Shakthika Sathkumara, the police reports cite the
domestic International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) Act as one of the
legal bases for the arrest. The ICCPR Act was adopted to implement Sri Lanka’s
international human rights obligations as a state party to the International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights. Using the ICCPR Act in this manner is a misuse of a law that is
supposed to protect, not violate, human rights.

More recently, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Sri Lankan government appears to have
targeted the Muslim community. On March 30, 2020, the first Muslim death due to
COVID-19 occurred in Negombo, and despite vehement protests from the victim’s family,
health officials forcibly cremated his body. This was in spite of health guidelines which,
at the time, stated that bodies of COVID-19 victims could be buried or cremated. On the
next day following the first Muslim death, these guidelines were revised to order mandatory
cremation of any person who has died or is suspected of having died from COVID-19. For
members of the Muslim community, burials are considered a required part of the final
rites. Amnesty International called on Sri Lanka to respect the rights of religious minorities
to carry out the final rites of their relatives in accordance with their religious beliefs unless
they can show that restrictions are needed to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The World
Health Organization guidelines allow for either burials or cremations for the safe
management of a dead body in the context of COVID-19.

Eleven years after the end of the conflict between government forces and the Liberation
Tigers of Tamil Eelam (“LTTE”), Sri Lanka has not yet addressed allegations of grave
international humanitarian law and human rights violations documented by several U.N.
investigations, and has not held alleged perpetrators of international crimes accountable.
Investigations on emblematic cases have stalled, remained inconclusive or raised serious
issues of potential interference with court processes. For example, in the well-known 2006
murder case of five students in the town of Trincomalee, 13 members of the security forces
accused of the murder were acquitted by the court in July 2019 reportedly due to “a lack
of evidence.” Recently, Amnesty International also raised concerns that a Presidential
Commission of Inquiry on political victimization may interfere with ongoing court
proceedings in the case concerning the disappearance of Prageeth Eknaligoda. The
cartoonist disappeared on January 24, 2010, shortly before a presidential election in
which then President Mahinda Rajapaksa was seeking a second term. In another
emblematic case in which a conviction had been obtained, President Gotabaya Rajapaska
pardoned Sergeant Sunil Rathnayaka on March 26 of this year, thus undermining accountability, and the victims’ right to justice. Sergeant Rathnayaka had been convicted
in the Mirusuvil massacre case concerning the killing of eight Tamil civilians in 2000.
Among the victims were three children aged 15, 13, and a five-year-old whose body
sustained signs of torture.

The root causes of the 26-year internal armed conflict between the government forces and
the LTTE armed group are yet to be addressed including through meaningful devolution of
power to the provinces. Relatives of those who went missing during the armed conflict or
were victims of enforced disappearances are still awaiting answers. Sri Lanka has the
second largest number of enforced disappearance cases in the world registered with the
UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances. Sri Lanka has not yet
repealed the draconian PTA which facilitates arbitrary detention and removes safeguards
against torture of detainees, or returned all of the military-occupied land back to their
civilian owners. Since the end of the armed conflict with the LTTE in 2009, ethnic tensions
with the Tamil minority have persisted. Since 2013, Sri Lanka has also seen a marked rise
in incidents of harassment, threats and attacks on the minority Muslim community. The
rise in power of Buddhist groups such as the Bodu Bala Sena (“BBS”) coincided with
growing anti-Muslim sentiment in the country. This sentiment has led to violent attacks
against the Muslim community, as seen in the towns of Aluthgama and Beruwala in 2014,
Ampara and Digana in 2018, and, most recently, in Chilaw and several towns in the North
Western and Western Provinces in 2019. The attacks targeted Muslim homes, places of
religious worship, businesses and property. The violence in Aluthgama and Beruwala left
at least four people dead, and several injured, while the violence in 2019 resulted in the
death of at least one person in the Puttalam district. Despite investigations, the
perpetrators of these violent attacks have not been held accountable.
The harassment and arrest of human rights defenders, the failure to hold human rights
violators accountable, and the continued marginalization of minority communities under
the present government threatens the prospects for a peaceful, prosperous future for the
country.

We ask that you raise the above concerns with President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime
Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and urge that the following actions be taken immediately:

• Prosecute effectively and bring to justice those responsible for the execution of the “Trinco Five” students and the enforced disappearance of Prageeth Eknaligoda as well as other alleged perpetrators of grave violations amounting to domestic or international crimes.
• Revoke the pardon granted to Sergeant Sunil Rathnayaka.
• End the persecution of Dharisha Bastians and other human rights defenders,
journalists and lawyers.
• In the absence of any evidence against him, release Hejaaz Hizbullah, who has
been detained for more than six months without any charges, and close
investigations against Ramzy Razeek and Shakthika Sathkumara, who were
imprisoned solely for expressing their peaceful opinions.
• Repeal the Prevention of Terrorism Act and stop the misuse of laws, including the ICCPR Act, to threaten, harass and prosecute dissenters, journalists and activists
for peacefully expressing their opinions.
• Take measures to end discrimination and violence against the country’s Muslim
minority and bring to justice those responsible for attacks against members of the
Muslim community.
• Ensure that religious rites and practices are respected as far as possible and in line with international guidelines, and that any changes to guidelines involve prior consultation with the affected community.
• Return all military-occupied land in the former war zone to its civilian owners or
promptly pay appropriate compensation.

These are a few steps that the Sri Lankan government can take to bring its actions back
in line with its international human rights commitments. Your assistance in bringing them
about would further the cause of human rights in Sri Lanka.

Thank you for your attention to this important matter.
Sincerely,
Joanne Lin
National Director
Advocacy and Government Affairs
Amnesty International USA
202/281-0017
jlin@aiusa.org
Omar Waraich
Head of Office
South Asia Regional Office
Amnesty International
International Secretariat

Sri Lanka’s president is amassing personal power

Constitutional amendments make Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s authority almost absolute

Oct 31st 2020

Never say Gotabaya Rajapaksa leaves things to chance. After decisively winning the presidential election last November, putting family in charge of important government departments, suspending Parliament and finally winning postponed elections in early August in a landslide for his Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (slpp) and supporting parties, still the president insisted that “obstacles” to his authority remained. Changes to the constitution were the only solution. Parliament has granted his wish, creating a near-absolute presidency with the 20th amendment.

As so often in Sri Lanka’s turbulent history, the amendment in effect annuls its predecessor. The 19th amendment was a reaction to the overweening rule of Gotabaya’s brother, Mahinda Rajapaksa, president from 2005 until his surprise defeat in 2015. With Gotabaya, a former army officer, in charge of defence and intelligence, he had prosecuted the even more brutal end to an already bloody 26-year civil war. After the war’s end, triumphalism reigned and critics were intimidated. The amendment limited the president’s powers, expanded those of the prime minister, accountable to Parliament, and strengthened independent oversight of the police and the judiciary. More was promised by President Maithripala Sirisena and his prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, including inter-ethnic reconciliation and devolved government. Yet so dysfunctional became their relationship that intelligence about impending terrorist attacks was ignored. Suicide-bombers struck on Easter Sunday last year, killing 269. Gotabaya’s message of security and competence, along with jabs at the Muslim and Tamil minorities designed to please the Sinhalese Buddhist majority, propelled him to the presidency.

Now the 20th amendment looks intended to cement Rajapaksa rule for years (even though Gotabaya remains bound to two terms). Sri Lankans with dual nationality may now sit in Parliament, or indeed be president. This paves the way for another brother, Basil Rajapaksa, the family’s political strategist, to enter Parliament. Mahinda, currently prime minister, is not in good health, and Basil is his obvious replacement—and eventually perhaps Gotabaya’s. Curiously, several slpp mps resented Basil’s grip on the party enough to complain about the provision. (Why not simply renounce American citizenship? A plan b is always advisable.)

As for the president, the amendment now allows him to dissolve Parliament early, hire and fire the prime minister and appoint judges as well as the heads of the election, anti-corruption and other supposedly independent commissions. Although Parliament can opine on these appointments, it cannot block them.

What will Gota’s absolutist presidency mean? He promises brisk, technocratic government and economic development. In dealing with the pandemic, he has indeed introduced sensible measures to help the poor. Yet personalised rule is more the Rajapaksa mark. Recently the president was indignant when, having ordered that one village should have access to another’s clay pit, a local official asked for written instructions—was his verbal command not enough? Meanwhile, he has named 66 ministers. Patronage networks are multiplying like the alimankada, wild-elephant pathways that criss-cross the island. Such networks, writes Asanga Welikala of Edinburgh Law School, undermine “critical separations between state, society, economy, and the private sphere”.

A Gotabaya presidency makes a return to the earlier hounding of critics possible. Out of public view, Mr Rajapaksa’s notorious irascibility—he flies off the handle and bears grudges—is returning. More probably, his martinet notions of a “disciplined society” risk dashing dreams of a plural, devolved Sri Lanka in which the Tamils who form a majority in the north and Muslims who make up a tenth of the population are as much a part of the polity as Sinhalese.

True, Mr Rajapaksa promises a whole new constitution in the coming year that “fulfils the people’s wishes” better. It is possible a new constitution could contain a kinder accommodation for Sri Lanka’s minorities. Yet for now, Mr Rajapaksa has made explicit the link he sees between an all-powerful state and the centrality of Buddhism, whose more chauvinist priests he courts. Of the 66 ministers only three are Tamils and just one is a Muslim (there is only one woman, too). The message is stark: in the ethno-nationalist state, everyone must know their station.

 Will The US Counterbalance China’s Growing Influence In Sri Lanka?

By Patrick Mendis and Dominique Reichenbach –OCTOBER 31, 2020

Following top Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi’s meeting with President Gotabaya Rajapaksa of Sri Lanka earlier in October, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived in Colombo on October 27 for a two-day visit. After signing the last of four foundational agreements for military ties with India, Pompeo warned the pro-Chinese administration in Colombo that “the Chinese Communist Party is a predator” while “the United States comes in a different way — we come as a friend and a partner.” Notably, Pompeo’s visit piggybacked off of the “2+2 Ministerial Dialogue” in India, which was also intended to curb Chinese influence in South Asia by strengthening U.S.-India military and diplomatic ties.

Despite Sri Lankan Foreign Secretary Jayanath Colombage’s commitment to a “neutral” and “India First” approach to tensions among India, China, and the United States, the pro-Beijing Rajapaksa administration’s actions speak louder than its words. Pompeo may want Sri Lanka to “make difficult but necessary decisions” to reject Chinese aid in favor of economic partnership with the United States; however, Sri Lanka has repeatedly chosen China for its economic and development needs. Pompeo’s visit did little to sway the Rajapaksa administration from China’s power of the purse and its history of Buddhist diplomacy.

SOFA, MCC, and China’s COVID-19 Diplomacy

Since the United States failed to renew its Status of Armed Forces Agreement (SOFA) with Sri Lanka and fell short of finalizing its $480 million Millennium Challenge Compact (MCC) accord in February, China has successfully amplified its efforts to cement economic relationships with Sri Lanka. Through a financial “art of war,” China has become Sri Lanka’s unfailing economic and diplomatic partner in need.

China first provided a concessionary loan of $500 million for COVID-19 relief at the urgent request of the Rajapaksa administration in March 2020. Shortly thereafter, in May, Sri Lankan officials approved a decision to borrow $80 million from China to improve road infrastructure. China then pledged another $90 million grant to the island nation for medical care, education, and water supplies soon after Yang’s visit. The two partners are currently negotiating terms for a $1.5 billion currency swap and a new $700 million loan, marking Colombo’s fourth loan request to Beijing this year.

China has also cemented its Sri Lankan foothold through health care donation diplomacy and the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). In early June, China established the “China-Sri Lanka Belt and Road Political Parties Joint Consultation Mechanism” intended to strengthen “exchanges on governance.” By late June, China sent its third round of medical supplies to Sri Lanka, including 30,000 PCR testing kits, 30,000 disposable coveralls, 600,000 surgical masks, and 30,000 medical goggles.

In comparison, the United States has provided a mere $5.8 million grant and 200 ventilators to Sri Lanka for COVID-19 relief. India finalized a $400 million currency swap, and is considering an additional $1.1 billion swap to help with the economic fallout from the virus. To date, India and the U.S. lack a dollar-to-dollar competitive advantage in Sri Lanka that would have made Pompeo’s visit effective in steering the island democracy away from Chinese partnership.

With Sri Lanka owing over $5 billion to China, President Rajapaksa has faced pressure to distance Colombo from Beijing’s debt trap tendencies. However, he has rejected debt trap claims, stating that Chinese-funded projects “will help improve the living standards of the people.” The Rajapaksa administration is well-aware of its financial decisions, arguing that “in different times in world history, different countries have been the ones who have had the most amount of cash. And now it happens to be China.”

Beijing Consensus in Colombo

Even if internal pressure to reject China continued, Rajapaksa’s recent sweeping power grab allowing him to appoint top officials and dissolve parliament means that his decisions regarding China will go unchecked. The Parliament overwhelmingly approved the 20th Amendment to the Sri Lankan Constitution, concentrating absolute powers under the president and reversing reforms made to curb authoritarianism. The amendment lifted a ban on dual citizens holding office, which will allow “a sibling who is a U.S. citizen to enter Parliament, further strengthening the Rajapaksa family’s hold on Sri Lanka’s political power.” Currently, Rajapaksa’s older brother, former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, serves as prime minister and another brother and three nephews are lawmakers. This consolidation of power will leave the pro-Chinese Rajapaksa family in charge for years to come.

Moving forward, Pompeo must reopen dialogue about the MCC accord and shelve SOFA discussions for the foreseeable future if it hopes to counter China. Washington urged Sri Lanka to choose the United States over China to “secure its economic independence for long-term prosperity.” However, the MCC accord originally failed because Sri Lanka saw through its attempts at masquerading as a means of “economic independence,” while the strings-attached threat of SOFA hung in the air as a “very serious infringement on the country’s sovereignty.” If SOFA is replaced with a less invasive attempt at securing military and economic cooperation, Pompeo’s future dealings with Sri Lanka might be more successful at providing a “transparent” alternative to China’s less-than-pure economic intentions in the island nation, which is strategically located along major Indian Ocean maritime shipping and air routes.

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