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Historical Shift - India, Sri Lanka and the Tamils
Guest Column by Ramu Manivannan

There is a kind of moral stagnation facing us in this country regarding India’s foreign policy towards Sri Lanka. There are historical shifts taking place with profound implications for the future. Indian government’s complicity to the present status of Tamils in Sri Lanka is only comparable to a situation which the historians of twentieth century lament about the early European indifference and the British appeasement policies towards Adolf Hitler and the resultant impact of systemic State violence against the Jewish minorities in Nazi Germany. Neither the horror of mass civilian deaths during the final stages of the military conflict between the Sri Lankan armed forces and the Liberation Tigers of the Tamil Eelam(LTTE) nor the homelessness and internment of the Tamil civilians had made our government and the civil society to ask “ why and how did this catastrophe take place in our neighbourhood?” A major transition has been underway in India’s foreign policy towards Sri Lanka in the last two decades as a result of influential opinions propelled through persuasion than an assessment of the ground realities. The Indian dualism has finally surfaced after a long period of self denials. Truth remains, though weak and very insecure.

India, on the one hand, had long been advocating a political solution to the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka. On the other, India had also been an active part of the Sri Lanka government’s war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) through covert political, economic, military (surveillance and intelligence networking, supply of small weapon, radars, select technical and combat training) and diplomatic facilitation of the ways of war in the island nation. It is crucial to know that the Sri Lankan government war against the LTTE was a multilateral exercise of involving at least eight nations at the surface including China, Israel and Pakistan. But we cannot remain oblivious of the fact that India has been the lynchpin of the consensual polygonal strategies. The result is before us to see.

The political, economic, military and diplomatic support extended by the Indian government to the Sri Lankan governments in its approach to military solution has consistently been acknowledged by the international community. More particularly by the now estranged Sri Lankan war trio, Mahinda Rajapakse, Gotabaya Rajapakse and Sarath Fonseka in several national, political and diplomatic forums. Basel Rajapakse shuttled between Colombo and New Delhi during the final phase of the Eelam-IV like a viceroy’s nominee in the imperial era, while his brother Gotabaya Rajapakse engaged the Chinese military delegations at home. India has now become increasingly shy of acknowledging the Sri Lankan moral obeisance resembling Benito Mussolini’s famous gesture to Adolf Hitler after the Spanish Civil War in 1936.

The Congress leadership and its loyal mandarins at South Block may have settled the score with the LTTE and particularly with its leadership but they have unintentionally dragged the nation into shame at the internment of 300,000 Tamils in the camps under inhuman conditions and death of several thousand innocent Tamil civilians at the end of the war in May 2009. The Indian waiver during the final push resulted in indiscriminate bombings, routine violations of the ‘No Fire Zone’, the use of nerve gas, chemical bombs and ultimately the loss of enormous human lives. Today the Indian government is at the edge in hearing about its unintended complicity to the genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka which is no longer a vague phenomenon. This choice of military solution has been under way ever since the return of the Congress in 2004 and with the appointment of Mahinda Rajapakse as an Executive President of Sri Lanka in 2005.

This was not only a historical coincidence but also the most crucial and lasting development in their joint strategy of ‘fight to finish the LTTE phenomena’. There are other factors such as the US inspired counter-terrorism measures after the twin towers strike by Al-Qaeda in 2001. The US factor became the global catalyst in Sri Lankan government’s drive against the LTTE. Ironically, the challenges emanating from Persian Gulf, West Asia and South Asia (read as Pakistan) has not diminished for the United States. Pakistan had never fully cooperated as the Front Line State of the US led strategy against global terrorism. The challenges faced by the US in Afghanistan are the best revelation of the Pakistan factor and the deep rooted connection between the Islamic fundamentalists and the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan. India on the other hand has become an indispensable rebound space to keep Pakistan under lid. This unearthing American strategy has brought political dividends for India but exposed the vulnerability of its internal security while US tightened the bolts of its homeland security at home. Indian government had unfortunately ended up guarding Sri Lanka in the region like the Americans infamously got entangled in the domestic politics of Latin American countries in the 1970s. Sri Lankan State and its ruling elites have been the major beneficiaries of this significant shift taking place both at the regional and international arena since the beginning of this global drive against terrorism. Historically, the State lexicons have had no mention of State terrorism and the extraordinary violence and brutality committed in the name of counter-terrorism.

The Indian government is at sea again with its renewed old and familiar role in Sri Lankan politics. It is under pressure once again to protect the Sri Lankan State and its ruling elites from the extraordinary challenges like it did in the early 1970s and later in the mid eighties. The emerging evidence about the Sri Lankan government’s request to the Indian government in August, 2009 to keep its troops in alert as Mahinda Rajapakse feared a military coup led by Sarath Fonseka, the former Chief of the Sri Lankan armed forces. This has been revealed by none other than Sarath Fonseka himself though at a less convincing occasion for spelling truth – the 2010 Presidential Elections. There is no doubt about the location of Indian sympathy as no one would expect the Indian government to walk away, at this stage, from Mahinda Rajapakse even we may have reservations about his dictatorial rule and family oligarchy as alleged by Sarath Fonseka. It was no coincidence that the Congress party chose to send two of its Rajya Sabha members as delegates to attend the 19th Convention of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) in November 2009. The visit of the Congress Rajya Sabha members need not have raised eye brows anywhere under normal circumstances but for the emerging political/electoral scenario then in Sri Lanka and the crisis of the Tamils inside the island nation. This was the another opportunity for consolidation of the political and diplomatic ties, as the Congress Party and its leadership perceived, between ruling entities in both India and Sri Lanka. This is also a part of the major transition which is under way for sometime, yet another daring reaffirmation of the paradigm shift.

There are major changes taking place in the geo-strategic environment of South Asia and in the politics of Indian Ocean. Both India and China are vying for a competitive edge over one another. The Chinese who have been long been obsessed with an idea of creating a ring of military and strategic watch posts around India have now acquired a new grip due to their growing influence within the Sri Lankan government. The traditional Chinese modus operandi are all here for exhibition such as development aid, military supplies and the traditional road constructions besides the well anchored Hambantota Harbour project. All these developments indicate that the Indian government must now learn to live with the greater Chinese presence across the Palk Straits. Gwadar in Pakistan, Hambantota in Sri Lanka and Sitwe (Akyab) in Myanmar have become part of China’s strategic triangle. The rationale, hence, is that India must respond and the Indian response would always imply to ‘appease’ the foe.

India is also a part of the larger assessment in the US worldview, as the potential check and balance to the China factor in the Asian theatre of geo-politics. There is an active politics of containment in the Indian Ocean region between Indian, China and USA. There is a mutual suspicion and competition among these powers. However, there is certain gloom and uncertainty in India’s bilateral ties with its neighbours in the recent period. On the one hand, Pakistan continues to be the major obsession with the policy makers in New Delhi and on the other, Sri Lanka has emerged as its Achilles heel. The uncertainty of stable ties with Nepal and the politically embarrassing support to the military junta in Myanmar are further revelations that the South Block is engaged in a shadow boxing with the Chinese foreign policy establishment.

The disappearance of an influential Tamil opinion in the island politics and the loss of traditional bargaining chip of the Indian government done in the name of Tamils are major set backs that Indian government is not able to gauge at this stage. Tamils, both historically and culturally viewed of India as a natural ally and an eternal protector. This attitude of Tamils had been the source of Indian legitimacy in the Sri Lankan ethnic conflict situation. The Tamils in Sri Lanka and Tamils Diaspora abroad during their interaction with the outer world in the recent past had expressed a common position that they are at pains to reconcile with the truth of Indian betrayal. Indian government has at last found ‘something better than the rights of Tamils in the rights of its own national interests’ to persuade the Sri Lankan government to accommodate. This is the historical shift that the Tamils in Sri Lanka and Tamils Diaspora abroad are preparing to understand.

The relationship between the Indian government and the Sri Lankan government has long been conditioned by the survival instinct of the Sri Lankan State and its traditional ruling elites. Indian government is also aware of the strategic potential of Sri Lanka in the Indian Ocean region and its vulnerability as well as the conflicting demands from major powers such as China and USA. India has simply overstepped in its strategic zeal to destroy its cultural vessel of Tamil community in a strategically crucial Indian Ocean state. It has lost the trust of Tamils in Sri Lanka. The radical Sinhala elements have always dreamt of dismantling this Indian influence with the Tamils. Indian government has undone what has taken several centuries to build this natural bond and mutual trust. Tamils now look up to an external guarantor for their survival in Sri Lanka given the nature of political democracy practiced in that country. India will not be trusted to play the role of moderator or mediator for at least another two decades or until the memory of Indian betrayal lasts in the minds of Tamils in Sri Lanka.

Under the present circumstances India can no longer be trusted to play this role. This is another dimension to the paradigm shift in island politics. This brings the US and other Western countries as advocates of Tamils rights and dignity in the island nation. The Indian government must contend with defending the Sri Lankan State and its political elites while the form and content of the Sri Lankan democracy remains the enigma of the military dictators around the world. Zia ul-Haq of Pakistan had famously wondered at the extraordinary powers enjoyed by the then President Junius Jayawardane of Sri Lanka in an elected democracy, which he had never managed even through the military coup. Mahinda Rajapakse had gone further to convert the Executive Presidency into a family fiefdom. There is a history before us that some of the worst dictatorial regimes in the world have been elected by the people and the appalling dictators have also come through the front gates of democracy.

Sri Lanka’s problems are more serious than the worrying ‘Tamil Question’ and they will not disappear by ignoring or denying them as the Indian government wants to do. Sri Lanka must get ready to face and accept more fundamental challenges surrounding its polity revolving around the bigoted political system. India, on its part, must desist from defending the elitist constitutional democracy run by the leaflets of National Security State laws for over four decades now. India must help Sri Lanka to search for justice than contribute to the erosion of such a cherished and noble goal. The stain in our hands should not be allowed to possess our hearts.

(Associate Professor, Department of Politics & Public Administration, University of Madras)

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transcurrents.com
For India, Sri Lanka is not indispensable, but for Sri Lanka, India is indispensable! An Interview with Dr.Dayan Jayatilleka
By Rathindra Kuruwita
Question: President Mahinda Rajapaksa left for India recently and he is set to show his Indian counterpart a draft of the proposed Constitutional amendments. This is seen by many as a gesture of subjugation and their requests to open a Deputy High Commissioner’s office in Kandy and a consulate office in Hambanthota and their insistence of implementing the 13th Amendment are seen by many as attempts to impose their will on Sri Lanka?

Answer: You use the term ‘many’. Who are these ‘many’ and where are they? I have only seen criticisms voiced by the usual handful of Southern extremists, and some small political parties both in government as well as defeated ones. President Rajapaksa is a patriot and a realist, a pragmatist. The handful of critics may be patriots but they are not realists. When we antagonized India we could not win the war, but when we correctly managed relations with India, we won the war. If India had opposed us or not supported us, we may not have been able to win or withstand the Western moves to stop the war. There is a saying that there is no such thing as a free lunch. Every relationship is reciprocal. Sri Lanka has to reciprocate for India’s support.

We must bear in mind that we still need that support because, though the hot war has been won by us, a cold war continues against us in the global arena.

We need India’s support to balance off those who are hostile to us or are influenced by the pro-Eelam trend in the Tamil Diaspora. India is our buffer with the USA. Delhi is under pressure to take a stand hostile to us, or to stop supporting us. That pressure comes from Tamil Nadu but not only from Tamil Nadu...from India’s civil society as well as some of India’s Western friends. If India stops supporting us, not even the Non Aligned Movement will defend us fully, because they take their cue from respected Third World states such as India.

If India allows Tamil Nadu or Kerala to become rear base areas once again for LTTE activity, we will have endless security problems. It is only someone who is deaf, dumb and blind to geo-political realities, who will not admit that India has a stake in our Tamil issue, simply because they have 70 million Tamils separated from our territory by a narrow strip of water. As for the 13th Amendment, I must say very clearly that this is the cheapest price to pay. It is simply a matter of letting the Northern and Eastern provincial councils have the same powers as enjoyed by the provincial councils in all other parts of the island for the last 20 years. If we don’t settle for the 13th Amendment now, we shall jeopardize our military gains and we shall probably have to pay a much higher price some years from now.

The request to open a consulate office in Hambantota seems to be an attempt to balance out the Chinese influence in the area. Wouldn’t this add to the already existing tension between the two super powers? And how would this tussle affect Sri Lanka?

We have to balance carefully between China and India. China is our most consistent and strongest single friend, but the reality is that even with its growing power, China is rather too far to come to our aid if our closest and only neighbor makes a move that is unfriendly to us. As we saw during the tsunami, India’s Navy can put a ring of steel around this island in hours, and even project her naval power up to Indonesia. China’s Navy has not yet developed such a capacity.

We must be aware of our strategic vulnerabilities. We must understand the limits of our China card. In the 1980s, J R Jayewardane’s UNP government thought that Sri Lanka can play the American card against India but he failed. Today, no one must have the opposite but similar illusion that we have a China card to play against India. Even China will not want to upset its relations with giant India, over little Sri Lanka. China did not come to its ally and our friend Pakistan’s aid during the Kargil crisis, when it was pushed back by India. China doesn’t want the West to entangle and entrap it in a tussle with India, which will prevent the onward rise of Asia as a whole.

Sri Lanka must realize that there is a miracle going on, namely the economic rise of Asia, which is propelled by two engines, China and India. It is bigger than the original Industrial revolution! If we plug into both these engines, we can rise with the rest of Asia. If not, we shall be left on the ground, like Myanmar. The man renowned as the Sage of Asia, Lee Kwan Yew, recently said that China and India are two great trees and that Singapore must find a spot in the shade where the branches of these two great trees intertwine. I think that is true, and good advice, for Sri Lanka too.

Although India can match China or the USA in meeting Sri Lanka’s economic needs, it cannot help us on the world political stage as do China or the USA who have UN veto powers. Your opinion please?

India is a member of G 20. It is also a member of many groupings of intermediate powers such as BRICS which consists of Russia, China, Brazil, India and South Africa. If India gives a green light the West, will move against us. The US hasn’t so far, because of its strategic partnership with India, which it needs in order to balance off China. As I said before, without India’s support we will not even get that of our ‘tribe’ the Non Aligned Movement. India has longstanding close relations with Russia, South Africa and Latin America. In fact, India is one of the few powers that have support in the West as well as the East, in the North and well as the South, while China and the USA are competitors who do not have support in some parts of the international system.

We must never forget that despite China’s goodwill, not a dog supported us when India went against us in 1987. Today, despite China’s political support, Sudan is before the International Criminal Court, because it was referred there by the Security Council and China did not block it. The basic reality is that Sri Lanka’s closest friend China is not closest to Sri Lanka physically, geographically! We must neither embarrass nor overburden our friend China nor must we place all our eggs in the Beijing basket.

It was China and Russia that helped us out in the United Nations in the recent past. And they can also assist us in the future as allegations of war crimes gather momentum. So are we jeopardizing their support by seemingly giving into the demands of the Indians?

Russia will not help us if India says not to. Take that from me. The US would have moved against us in the UN and more importantly the IMF last year, if not for India putting in a word in our favour. We have been operating under the Indian and Chinese umbrellas diplomatically, but if the Indian umbrella is furled up, nobody will back us. Our friends will start stepping away from us. This is the basic point: India is so big; it is such a vast market and so powerful an economic player; it is so vital strategically, that no one will take our side against India; no one will support us if India is known to be against us.

I can tell you that as far as certain key issues go, such as the Tamil question and a political settlement with the Tamils, there is no difference between the views of India, China, Russia and the USA! That is true of the Non-aligned countries as well. You noticed that we almost had a problem recently with a pro-Tamil Eelam infiltration and manifestation in revolutionary Venezuela! All these countries want us to settle the Tamil problem politically, by which they mean some kind of autonomy. No one supports Tamil Eelam and no one, not even the USA, has called for federalism, but everyone, and I mean all our friends, want us to solve this problem fast, by means of devolution of power. For India, Sri Lanka is not indispensable, but for Sri Lanka, India is indispensable. That is the cold reality. That is the hard fact.

Can we use the interest shown by all these powers, China, India, USA and the EU without eventually antagonizing one or more parties?

Of course, we can. Lakshman Kadirgamar did it. Before that, Mrs Sirimavo Bandaranaike did it. But we cannot keep saying no to every issue to everybody! And we cannot manage on our own! We must reach out to all, on all points of the compass. We must dialogue with all. Prof GL Pieris has the ability to do that, which he has proven with his successful US trip and meeting with Hillary Clinton. Once again, we have a foreign minister that every Sri Lankans and Sri Lankans everywhere can be proud of.

We must have a policy that defends our vital interests, and compromise on things that are not vital. We must safeguard our core strategic and security interests, while making concessions on tactical issues. Each of these powers has something we need and each of them needs something from us. In order to get what we need we need to give something, which sometimes means giving up something. We cannot have the kavum and eat it at the same time!

The first thing is to understand that we cannot live in isolation, like frogs in the well. If we try, we will crash economically and the Tamil Eelam forces waiting outside the country will triumph. We must also understand that we cannot have everything our way; we cannot negotiate with the rest of the world from a position of strength because we do not have such strength. To build up strength we must have good relations with the world and expand those relations, getting as much as we can and more importantly, learning as much as we can. Each of the global players or sectors you mentioned wants certain things from us, and we should give them whatever does not harm our core interest and our good relations with the other global player or friend. We can have a policy of good relations with all, but at the expense of none.

Since we have an external enemy working round the clock against us, namely the pro-Tamil Eelam section of the Tamil Diaspora, our international policy must be one of building the broadest global united front; the widest global partnerships. If we don’t isolate the Tamil Eelamists, they will isolate Sri Lanka! Here I must repeat what I said earlier: the one thing that all the players you mentioned - China, USA, India, EU, have in common is an urgent need to see Sri Lanka release and rehabilitate IDPs, reconstruct the North and east and arrive at a political settlement with the Tamil people based on some form of autonomy and self-administration. If we do that, we can remove or reduce the pressure on Sri Lanka on issues of war crimes etc. As a top Chinese diplomat and official once told me “You must help us to help you. Sri Lanka must give its friends something to help Sri Lanka with”.

One year after the defeat of the LTTE, what is Sri Lanka’s position in the world. Would you agree if I say, we have not properly used the opportunities given to us to improve relations with other countries? South Indian politicians and its population are still very much anti-Sri Lankan, a sentiment which was clear during the recently held IIFA. Elements of Tamil extremists have set up a transnational government and seem to have gained many sympathizers in the west?

One year after the victory in war, Sri Lanka is not where it should be, either in the world or internally. We have lost the war of opinion in the world’s media. If, as I had recommended, we had quickly followed up the military victory with the implementation of the 13th Amendment while the TNA was disoriented, we’d have been dealing with our ally Douglas Devananda. We lost that moment and momentum because of some small ideological caucuses of ultranationalist pundits who have a disproportionate influence. Even after that opportunity was lost, there are things we could have done.

The government has made the same mistake as the Bush administration after the war in Iraq, namely the absence of a clear postwar plan and program for the area and primarily, the people. Our military did its job superbly, but who congratulates us internationally, one year after? No one, not even our friends defend us publicly when we are criticized! Why? Because, the politicians and the development ministries have not followed up the achievement of the military.

We fought and won a Just War (‘Saadharana Yuddhayak’), but the world looks at us and does not see a Just Peace (‘Saadhaarana Saamayak’) having resulted. What the world sees is something like an occupation of a foreign country or foreign people. Because we do not yet have a Just Peace, world opinion doubts whether it was a Just War to begin with! That is not a sustainable peace.

Simply put, if by today we had a Tamil Chief Minister and an elected Northern Provincial council, the IIFA partial boycott would not have been possible and furthermore, we may not have had this much international pressure on ‘war crimes accountability mechanisms’ either. If we could have shown results in the North, winning the Tamil people over with a fair and just peace, the rest of the world would have told those who criticize us to shut up.

I must also say that in the year after the war, Sri Lanka is losing, or has lost the battle for world opinion. I am not speaking only of the West. In a brand new book, the highly respected senior leader of Singapore, Lee Kwan Yew says that though the Tamil Tigers have been killed, the problem has not been settled and that Sinhalese extremism will be unable to keep the Tamils, who are a ‘capable’ community, ‘submissive’. So it is not just the INGOs and the liberal west which is critical of our postwar policies, direction and situation.

Col. P. Hariharan in his article “India’s concerns in Sri Lanka: Update no. 199’ says that ‘the three things he (Rajapaksa) achieved in his first term of office - wiping out Prabhakaran and his Tamil Tigers, re-election for a second term with increased margin of votes and an unprecedented victory in parliamentary poll with 60% mandate from the voters - give him the confidence to talk from a position of strength to New Delhi.’ Do you think it’s an accurate description of the situation since it stands in contrast with many other commentators who claim that President Rajapaksa has no other option but to agree to everything that India puts on the table?

The only leaders who can talk from a position of strength to New Delhi are President Obama of the USA and President Hu Jin Tao of China, but they are both wise enough not to do so.

What can Sri Lanka do to overcome the challenges both locally and internationally in the coming years?

We must use our brains, and may I say our best brains. We must deploy our best talent to face the global challenge and fight the Cold War against Sri Lanka. We must rebuild our educational system to the point that we can produce those who can compete in the global arena and beat those forces hostile to us. We need to build up quality human resources. Today our external and internal relations are tied together. Our external relations depend in large measure on how we resolve our internal problem with the Tamils.

Remember that it is not a purely internal problem though we may like to think so. In the first place the world is globalised; humanity lives in the era of globalization, so there are no purely internal questions. In the second place the Tamils are spread not only in Tamil Nadu but throughout the world, from the USA to Malaysia and South Africa. We must learn from King Dutugemunu. He wiped out the armed Tamil challenge as manifested in a separate kingdom with a separate king and a separate army. He knew that with the Indian Ocean at our backs, we cannot tolerate two kingdoms with two rival armies on this small island.

However, the story tells us that after the victory he appointed a Tamil sub-king and allowed the people of the area to be governed according to their cultural norms and customs. As a wise strategist he didn’t try to control and dominate everything, nor did he try to change the basic character of the area he had liberated. What he implemented postwar, is another word for provincial devolution within a strong unitary state. King Dutugemunu was wise enough not to think of culturally colonizing the Tamils. We cannot wipe out the Tamils collective identity.

If they think we are doing so, they will resist peacefully. If we are seen by the world to crush non-violent Tamil civic resistance, not in the cause of Tamil Eelam or in support of the Tigers, but simply to protect their identity and ancestral homelands, then we will embarrass our friends and we shall have no one to back us. This is when the pro-Tamil Eelam Tamil Diaspora will have its day. Who knows what stand the big powers and the UN will take then? It is far better to have a timely political process and grant a measure of autonomy while the state is still on top.

[Dr Dayan Jayatilleka, formerly Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva, is currently a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of South Asian Studies of the National University of Singapore. This interview appeared in Lakbima News.These are his personal views and do not reflect the views of the Institute.]

Courtesy: http://transcurrents.com/tc/2010/06/for_india_sri_lanka_is_not_ind.html

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India faces flak in Sri Lanka; seen as a bully
by Sutirtho Patranobis
Mahinda Rajapaksa recently said India should benignly look out for Sri Lanka like its little sister. But not many here currently seem to share that tender emotion; India is being looked upon more as a big bully. India is currently receiving much flak from political parties and the media here over a bilateral business pact, for planning to talk to minority parties directly and – editorials I’m sure are on way -- for triggering the Sunday earthquake off the Nicobar coast that rattled parts of Sri Lanka.

The critics included Weemal Weerawansa of the National Freedom Party, constituent of the Rajapaksa-led ruling coalition and close ally. Weerawansa -- whose anti-India rhetoric is as sharp as his carefully maintained beard -- said India wanted to colonise Sri Lanka through the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA). The tirade was cleverly timed; on that day his boss was signing pacts, excluding CEPA, with the coloniser in New Delhi.

The Marxists, Janatha Vimukhti Peramuna, continued its polemic against India. "India wants to subject Sri Lanka to its political, economic and cultural expansionism," chief Tilvin Silva told The Sunday Leader newspaper.

Then, the main opposition party, United National Party’s Ravi Karunanayake, said India was arming groups to foment disturbance in Lanka; his response to reports that India planned to directly talk to Tamil and Muslim minority parties about a political solution.

Newspapers picked up the political ferment. In its June 6 editorial, The Sunday Times – an established English weekly newspaper - said: "Indians are still fingering their southern neighbour…`beware Mahinda’ when you go to India and they throw these laddus, boondi jelabis and gulab jamuns at you."

"The fact of the matter is that if not for India's "substantial and generous assistance" to the LTTE and the entire northern insurgency in Sri Lanka, these internally displaced persons would not have been in such a pathetic plight in the first place," was ST’s reaction to India’s assistance for the displaced after Rajapaksa returned.

"Fingering" is not a word newspapers usually use in sage editorials. But it’s an indication what many feel about India here. And, it doesn’t seem to have anything to do with sibling affection. - courtesy: Hindustan Times -

Chinese and Indian companies dominate Sri Lanka’s mega project business
By Bandula Sirimanna

Sri Lanka’s entire mega project business has been farmed out to four Chinese companies and seven Indian companies, with over 30,000 semi-skilled and unskilled Chinese workers displacing local labourers, informed sources said.

Chinese companies are currently handling a Special Economic Zone, a 1000-acre Tapioca farm, Hambantota port, 900 MW coal fired Norochcholai power plant, Colombo-Katunayake Expressway, Palai-Kankasanthurai rail-line, Jaffna housing complex for army and a host of other projects. The entire Hambantota project is expected to cost about US$1.5 billion and a consortium of Chinese companies led by the China Harbour Engineering Company and the Sino Hydro Corporation are involved in the project's construction.

China's Huichen Investment will provide US$28 million and manage a special economic zone at Mirigama for Chinese investors. In addition, China has provided US $1million as humanitarian aid for internally displaced persons and technical assistance for de-mining operations in Northern and Eastern provinces. Some 332 km of roads inclusive of the Kandy- Jaffna A9 highway will be developed and modernized with Chinese funding of US $355 million, according to an announcement on Tuesday, a day after the arrival of India ’s Foreign Secretary Nirumapa Rao on a four-day visit to Sri Lanka.

In the wake of China’s economic dominance in the island, India is also stepping into Sri Lanka’s mega project business in a big way by entering into building construction in the North and East . A Mumbai-based company will manage the project to build 12,500 houses in the Kilinochchi district, a similar number in the Mullaitivu district, 10,000 houses in Vavuniya and 15,000 in Jaffna and Mannar, under the supervision of the Government of India. Indian companies have won bids in railway expansion projects in the North and the South as well as in the proposed coal power project in Sampur in Trincomalee. Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd, National Thermal Power Corporation, Lanka India Oil Corporation (Lanka IOC), Cairn Lanka Pvt Ltd, Lanka Ashok Leyland, and Mphasis are now devising plans making massive investments to expand their businesses in the island. Nearly a 100 Indian companies are currently operating in Sri Lanka and so far, they have invested $400 million or Rs. 45,600 million, sources said.

Commissioner, Labour Standards Division of the Department of Labour, P.S. Pathirana said that the Sri Lanka labour laws are applicable for all foreign workers including Chinese working in Sri Lanka in various projects and institutions. Employers should pay their Employees Provident Fund and Employees Trust Fund money for these workers and employers should obtain a worker permit to recruit foreigners.

The Chinese influence is gradually changing community life in Hambantota and the agriculture industry in the area, residents said. They revealed that over 60 farmers in Hambantota are providing Chinese-type green vegetables to around 350 Chinese workers at the harbour construction site as these vegetables are not available in the Sri Lankan market. The project has been funded by the JICA Livelihood Improvement Programme. It focuses on agriculture, infrastructure and institutional development and income generation among the villagers in Hambantota.
 

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Chinese and Indian companies dominate Sri Lanka’s mega project business By Bandula Sirimanna

Sri Lanka’s entire mega project business has been farmed out to four Chinese companies and seven Indian companies, with over 30,000 semi-skilled and unskilled Chinese workers displacing local labourers, informed sources said.
Chinese companies are currently handling a Special Economic Zone, a 1000-acre Tapioca farm, Hambantota port, 900 MW coal fired Norochcholai power plant, Colombo-Katunayake Expressway, Palai-Kankasanthurai rail-line, Jaffna housing complex for army and a host of other projects. The entire Hambantota project is expected to cost about US$1.5 billion and a consortium of Chinese companies led by the China Harbour Engineering Company and the Sino Hydro Corporation are involved in the project's construction.

China's Huichen Investment will provide US$28 million and manage a special economic zone at Mirigama for Chinese investors. In addition, China has provided US $1million as humanitarian aid for internally displaced persons and technical assistance for de-mining operations in Northern and Eastern provinces. Some 332 km of roads inclusive of the Kandy- Jaffna A9 highway will be developed and modernized with Chinese funding of US $355 million, according to an announcement on Tuesday, a day after the arrival of India ’s Foreign Secretary Nirumapa Rao on a four-day visit to Sri Lanka.

In the wake of China’s economic dominance in the island, India is also stepping into Sri Lanka’s mega project business in a big way by entering into building construction in the North and East . A Mumbai-based company will manage the project to build 12,500 houses in the Kilinochchi district, a similar number in the Mullaitivu district, 10,000 houses in Vavuniya and 15,000 in Jaffna and Mannar, under the supervision of the Government of India. Indian companies have won bids in railway expansion projects in the North and the South as well as in the proposed coal power project in Sampur in Trincomalee. Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd, National Thermal Power Corporation, Lanka India Oil Corporation (Lanka IOC), Cairn Lanka Pvt Ltd, Lanka Ashok Leyland, and Mphasis are now devising plans making massive investments to expand their businesses in the island. Nearly a 100 Indian companies are currently operating in Sri Lanka and so far, they have invested $400 million or Rs. 45,600 million, sources said.

Commissioner, Labour Standards Division of the Department of Labour, P.S. Pathirana said that the Sri Lanka labour laws are applicable for all foreign workers including Chinese working in Sri Lanka in various projects and institutions. Employers should pay their Employees Provident Fund and Employees Trust Fund money for these workers and employers should obtain a worker permit to recruit foreigners.

The Chinese influence is gradually changing community life in Hambantota and the agriculture industry in the area, residents said. They revealed that over 60 farmers in Hambantota are providing Chinese-type green vegetables to around 350 Chinese workers at the harbour construction site as these vegetables are not available in the Sri Lankan market. The project has been funded by the JICA Livelihood Improvement Programme. It focuses on agriculture, infrastructure and institutional development and income generation among the villagers in Hambantota.

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