"We have initiated a discussion of a program to help Sri Lanka get deeper into a middle-income level country." 

Addressing a business foum organised by Sri Lanka's division of the UK Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, the chair of Laugfs Holdings, criticised the on-going practice of expropriation by successive governments.

The chair, W.K.H. Wegapitiya said:

"We have done lot of blunders and it's still happening,"

"If you don’t protect Sri Lankan entrepreneurs and if you don’t act against these unethical and shortsighted acts there will be lot of accountants without businesses to run."

"We have to get together and change it."

Referring back to past decades, Wegapitiya criticised the government's clamp down on whom he described as 'Sri Lankan' entrepreneurs. 

"They [government] crushed the capitally rich Sri Lankan entrepreneurs"

"There were 27 home grown enterprises that were nationalized by greedy and shortsighted politicians."

"There were very strong enterprising people living in our country. Today you don’t find many Sri Lankan entrepreneurs who have gone to the global arena when compared to India."

The American reggae band ‘Big Mountain’ have refused an invitation to perform at a reggae festival in Sri Lanka, citing concerns over “systemic violence” towards “indigenous populations” in the country.

The band stated that whilst they were keen to spread their message of peace, a performance in the country at such a time would serve to “gloss over or legitimate” their concerns of violence that transpired during the war in the country.

In a statement published on their Facebook site yesterday, the group said:

The name of our band, Big Mountain, derives from a struggle that pitted two Native American communities against one another in a struggle over a sacred piece of land. 

That struggle was being manipulated by a large and powerful mining corporation in search of profit and at the expense of all native peoples of the region.  Troubled by that manipulation and inspired by the struggles of our own Native American ancestors to resist the oppression of European colonizers and wealthy corporations, we recorded a song of the same name and that contained the chorus of “on top of Big Mountain, there is no room for Babylon.” 

By that, we meant that there is another way, a de-colonial ethic, a way to live that is not entangled within the perpetual war, violence, exploitation, and environmental degradation that was introduced in the western hemisphere by European colonizers.
 
We were recently invited to perform songs like Big Mountain at a reggae festival in Sri Lanka.  We were encouraged by this invitation as it provided yet another opportunity for us to share our de-colonial message with our brothers and sisters in humanity. 

We are declining this invitation, however, due to our concern with the violence that has transpired there as of late and that has been described as part of Sri Lanka’s “civil war.” 

Whilst we would be honored to help convey a message of peace and reconciliation, we also feel that to play a concert of this type, at this moment in time, would help to gloss over or legitimate conditions of systemic violence that have transpired in that region and towards indigenous populations in particular.

Joaquin Quino McWhinney
Lead Vocalist for Big Mountain

The home of Dr Jeyakumar, a cancer specialist at the Jaffna Teaching Hospital, was attacked a masked gang on Wednesday night, reports TamilNet.

See here for article on TamilNet and photographs of the crime scene.

The gang entered the house, smashing windows and destroying the place, before dousing Dr Jeyakumar's home in oil. The intruders fled after the family awoke and neighbours became alerted by the family's screams.

According to TamilNet, the police arrived after 'several hours' of delay, and local civil activists suggested that Dr Jeyakumar was targeted due to his involvement in civil society activism.

The attack took place close to Kantharmadam junction - the location of a Sri Lankan Army camp. Several members of staff at the hospital have commenced a boycott campaign since the attack, protesting at the risk faced by staff.

Repeating a common falsehood, Sri Lanka’s President Rajapakse recently lambasted the Tamil diaspora as not having spent a penny on helping the Tamils of the Vanni.

Speaking at the opening of the communications tower in Kilinochchi last week he claimed that ‘not a single member of the so called Tamil Diaspora shouting in foreign countries to protect the rights of Tamils, has donated a single dollar for the welfare of Tamils in Sri Lanka.’

However, the Island newspaper reported the same week that since May 2009, the Diaspora has sent over Rs 1 billion through the state-owned Bank of Ceylon alone to Tamils in the north, especially Vanni.

Since the war’s end, “many Tamils living overseas have begun transferring money to their relatives, particularly the war displaced in the Vanni region,” the paper said.

In fact, the total of Diaspora support for Tamils in Sri Lanka would be much higher, since the substantial transfers through the informal ‘undial’ system are not accounted for in the BoC’s figures..

And given the Rajapaksa government’s deliberate neglect of the people of the Vanni, without this community support it is likely that many in the region will simply starve.

As Harim Pieris, the former Presidential Spokesman notes:

‘The resettlement process is allegedly moving at a slower pace, the 50,000 Indian housing scheme is yet to get off the ground and no one else, and including the government or INGOs has built houses either. Accordingly the resettled Wanni civilians are living in temporary shelters and tents, unless personal resources enable rebuilding their own homes. With rural infrastructure for agriculture and fishing in the North destroyed in the fighting there is not much support for livelihoods either.’

After announcing the closure of a number of embassies in Europe deemed as not serving Sri Lanka's interests, Sri Lanka has appointed an ambassador to Turkey - Bharthi Wijeratne.

The Turkish Weekly reports that Sri Lankan officials said the 'decision to appoint an ambassador to Turkey is an indicator of the country's willingness to improve its relations with Turkey', in light of what Sri Lanka considers to be Turkey's 'rapidly growing economy.'

Sri Lanka's trade deficit for April widened by 2.6 percent year-on-year to $761 million, reported the Reuters news agency.

The export of tea fell 9.3 percent in April, after a record fall in January - April of 11.7 percent.

The export of textiles and garments was also reported to have dropped, 2.2 percent in April.

See here.

“Her statement reiterated long-standing U.S. policy toward Sri Lanka, including calls for further demilitarization of the north, provincial council elections in the north, and mechanisms to deal with outstanding human rights issues. 

Ambassador-designate Sison’s testimony is in complete accordance with U.S policy as well as previous statements by U.S. officials and also reflects the issues discussed during Secretary Clinton's meeting with Minister of External Affairs Peiris last month in Washington. “

“I am confident that the ideas expressed by the ambassador designate and the US government are two different ideas.”

The Sri Lankan envoy to Australia and New Zealand has claimed that Tamil refugees, fleeing the island, are ‘paid’ by smugglers to make the dangerous journey across the Indian Ocean.

In a radio interview by Ashley Hall on the AM program on ABC radio, Admiral Thisara Samarasinghe said that Sri Lanka has evidence that these payments have been made.

Extracts from the interview:

ASHLEY HALL: Who are the people on board these boats? Who's trying to leave Sri Lanka?

THISARA SAMARASINGHE: Oh they were a mix of people who were persuaded to come over by various organisations who were trying to get them out of Sri Lanka for whatever the reasons that they have.

There were economic concerns and they have been paid...

ASHLEY HALL: They have been paid?

THISARA SAMARASINGHE: Yeah, in the sense they have not paid for the moment and we do not know the exact arrangements, and I would prefer to keep this information with ourselves or with the investigators because they are continuing to stop and that has resulted in the 113 people being stopped before they boarded a vessel.

ASHLEY HALL: But you have evidence that people were paid to get on a vessel and travel to Australia and seek asylum?

THISARA SAMARASINGHE: They have evidence. They have not paid, the racketeers, these human smugglers, these international racket band, they do this for various reasons - for money, for…

ASHLEY HALL: For money - how would they benefit financially out of paying people to pretend to be asylum seekers?

THISARA SAMARASINGHE: No, they get people to come and they will, in a greater network in getting people across and they show various concerns to countries, make some comments on various places.

So Sri Lanka been out of this terrorist conflict over three years now has become a (inaudible) place for people to stay and there is no reason for people to move other than anybody trying to see for better life in any other country for economic reasons.

But Sri Lanka now, after three years of the conflict, this one - they are absolutely (inaudible) for people to leave the- peace prevails in every place, development is taking place, job opportunities are there, unemployment in Sri Lanka.

And you have your high commissioner, Australian, to see the condition, nature of the Sri Lanka at the moment.

Writing in The Guardian's Comment is Free section, the newspaper's readers' editor, Chris Elliott, expressed regret over the paper's decision last week to include a 24-page promotional Sri Lanka supplement in the same issue as the newspaper's reporting of on-going torture of deportees.

Elliott wrote:

"Although the disclaimer on the supplement says the Guardian is not responsible for the content, the act of distribution by the newspaper lends a perception of endorsement – probably more so than a normal advert would – and the opportunity this affords to governments is not one we should provide lightly, if at all."

"It is entirely reasonable that Sri Lanka wants to put the past behind it, but the evidence of our front-page story shows that it has not done so, and we should not have distributed this supplement."

The supplement, funded by the Sri Lankan government and entitled, 'Sri Lanka. Asia's next wonder?', was issued with a disclaimer - "An independent supplement distributed in the Guardian on behalf of The Report Company, who takes sole responsibility for its content. Our sponsors have no control over the content of this editorially-led supplement."