Below is an extract from the testimony of Robert O. Blake, Jr., Assistant Secretary, Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, to the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia. The full text of his prepared speech can be found here.

Sri Lanka stands poised to be a capable and willing partner to effectively combat violent extremism, trafficking and piracy, and thereby help to ensure the maritime security of the region.

But the Government’s worrisome record on human rights, weakening of democratic institutions and practices, and the way in which it conducted the final months of its conflict against the Tamil Tigers hamper our ability to fully engage.

The Administration believes – and Congressional Appropriations language specifies – that our security cooperation, in many forms, should remain limited until progress has been made on fundamental human rights, democracy and governance issues, and the concrete steps necessary for a true and lasting national reconciliation.

It is no accident that Sri Lanka’s cricket team has long been made up mainly of Sinhalese.

Ahead of the World Cup final Saturday, Mel Gunasekera writes for AFP:

While [world record wicket-taker Muttiah] Muralitharan is the only Tamil in Sri Lanka’s team, the Muslim minority is partially represented by opening batsman Tillakaratne Dilshan.

Dilshan, who has a Muslim father and Sinhalese mother, was born Tuwan Mohamed Dilshan but converted from Islam to Buddhism and changed his name.

His manager, Roshan Abeysinghe, said he did it "for personal reasons," adding that Dilshan "wanted a Sinhala identity".

Suraj Randiv, the 26-year-old all-rounder, who made his Test debut against India Saturday, is another of the cricketers who have changed their religion and names before joining Sri Lanka's national team.

Suraj Randiv was previously known as Mohamed Marshuk Mohamed Suraj, but he converted from Islam to Buddhism and changed his name in 2010.

The dominant logic of life in Sri Lanka is explained by scholars Deborah Winslow and Michael Woost in their book ‘Economy, culture, and civil war in Sri Lanka’ (2004, Indiana University Press, p5):

“Over the twentieth century, religion has gained in importance as a marker of ethnicity. Almost all Sinhalese are Buddhists, and most of the Tamils are Hindu, but some of each are Christian. Thus religious divisions have never exactly mirrored ethnic ones.

“However, Sinhalese who are not Buddhist have found it socially and politically expedient to downplay their religious identity and give more emphasis to their Sinhala ethnicity.

“Increasingly since independence in 1948, a single, discrete Sinhalese Buddhist category has been rhetorically opposed to all the rest, who then are, by reduction, not Buddhists, not Sinhala speakers and, in some eyes, not true Sri Lankans.”

As Prof. Sankaran Krishna explains in his book, ‘Postcolonial Insecurities’ (1999, Univ. of Minnesota Press, p31):

“Sri Lanka’s movement from a peaceful, indeed idyllic Ceylon to a synonym for macabre ethnic violence is the story of a majority community’s attempt to fashion a nation in its own image through monopolisation of the state and of the consequent emergence of a secessionist ethnonational movement.”

See also our earlier posts: 

'Strict Criteria' (Dec 2010) and 'Ethnocracy' (Nov 2010)

On March 14 Sri Lanka abruptly suspended acceptance of Indian-manufactured train power sets.

Each reportedly costs $3.5m, the engines are manufactured by Indian state-owned firm RITES Ltd.

The reason given by Sri Lanka for the suspension was that one of three already delivered had ‘stopped’ on a run on March 11 due to unspecified defects. An electrical short was later reported.

Minister of Transport Kumar Welgama told reporters that defects had been identified and reported to President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

“We have already initiated an investigation into the suitability of these Indian locomotives. We cannot waste public funds for spurious imports,” he declared. (The engines, by the way, are being paid for with an Indian credit line).

However last week engineers from RITES Ltd dispatched to examine the ‘defective’ power set found that it had been ‘tinkered’ with by Sri Lanka’s engineers – and was pulling more coaches than its haulage capacity.

Sri Lanka now says the suspension of the imports has been revoked.

Interestingly the suspension of Indian deliveries followed just after Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister was forced to retract his wild accusation in Parliament that LTTE was running training camps in India. The climb down came after Delhi’s strident objections.(see also this)

 Two months after what has been described as Sri Lanka’s worst natural disaster since the 2004 tsunami, the lives of those in the most affected districts of Batticoloa, Amparai and Trincomalee remain devastated. The state’s much hyped rhetoric of aid has not materialized into tangible relief. Quite the reverse. In a predictable repeat of the post-tsunami situation, the state’s efforts to hamper flood relief for Tamil areas are part of a wider determination to block re-development there.

 Since the first wave of the recent floods, there have been reports of direct or subversive state attempts to undermine the relief effort in the East: of government officials blocking aid away from those in need, of flood distress loans being denied, and so on. These reports come amid a fundamental lack of transparency as to Sri Lanka's distribution of donor aid, including the millions pledged towards 2011's floods.

Meanwhile, those involved in humanitarian support for Tamil civilians have long been subject by the state to intimidation, harassment, abduction and even murder - crimes that continue with impunity. Nearly six years since seventeen Action contre la Faim (ACF) workers were murdered in Trincomalee, not only has no one been punished, the state’s intimidation of humanitarians is unabated. Recent reports of attacks on Batticaloa village officers by the state’s paramilitary allies,  and the abduction of three Christian priests in Batticaloa who were providing flood relief, are met with customary nonchalance by the state.

Despite proclaiming the end of war and the emergence of ‘peace’, a climate of sovereign menace prevails in the Tamil areas. Just this month, several international NGOs, including the American agency, Care International, stated their intentions to wind down operations in Sri Lanka, a move linked directly to the restrictions placed on NGOs, including new visa regulations and government interference in the distribution of aid. Alongside directed intimidation of some, the reputation of NGOs collectively are attacked amid a popular Sinhala nationalist hostility towards foreigner actors – still denounced as ‘pro-LTTE’ or ‘pro-separatist.’

In the floods’ aftermath, as with the ongoing post-tsunami and post-conflict humanitarian crisis, the state’s standard policy vis-à-vis Tamil suffering is clear: the diversion of international aid alongside violent intimidation of those involved in providing relief. This habitual response to Tamil suffering, and the underlying Sinhala-Buddhist extremism from which it stems, are recognised by all close observers of Sri Lanka's protracted crisis: when its for the Tamils, humanitarian relief, development and equitable growth are seen to constitute a direct threat to a Sinhala-first order.

Yet, the international community continues to remain ‘perplexed’. Even amid the slaughter of the closing stages of the war, as US embassy cables reveal, Western officials were certain that Sri Lanka would welcome international assistance towards rehabilitation as soon as the fighting ended. They were wrong. Sooner or later, Sri Lanka will end up on the internnational agenda. But much more suffering - and strife - will have to take place between now and then.

Using as context the quarter final of the Cricket World Cup between co-hosts Sri Lanka and England, the TYO-UK (Tamil Youth Organisation) on Saturday conducted an awareness campaign on Sri Lanka in London, on a day marked by huge protest by the TUC (Trade Union Congress) against public spending cuts.

As up to a reported 500,000 demonstrators marched through central London, TYO members on the periphery handed out leaflets and gathered signatures for a postcard campaign calling on the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to boycott Sri Lanka as a sporting partner.

The effort is part of a wider campaign to encourage international boycott of Sri Lanka as a tourist destination and as a producer of goods, TYO said. The Sri Lankan cricket team is due to tour England this summer.

“South African sporting teams were shunned by the world during the apartheid era, and in 2008 the ECB cancelled its tour of Zimbabwe due to concern over ongoing human rights abuses.” said Brinthy Skanthatheva, one of the organizers of the campaign.

“It is repugnant that a team representing Sri Lanka, a state which has slaughtered over 40,000 civilians in the space of a few months [in 2009], is allowed to play in England.”

TYO activists fanned out throughout the West End of London, from Knightsbridge where they lobbied shoppers outside Harrods luxury department store, to Hyde Park, where the TUC rally was taking place and the main thoroughfare of Piccadilly.

The activists said they received positive feedback from the general public, including many crickets fans amongst the marchers.

“Of course we support England. We are British and Tamil, none of us would even dream of supporting Sri Lanka [in the tournament]. We have nothing to do with a Sri Lankan identity,” Ms. Skanthatheva told reporters awaiting the address to the TUC rally by main opposition Labour Party leader Ed Miliband.

Asked if it was appropriate to mix sports and politics and to censor sportspeople for their governments’ conduct, Ms. Skanthatheva, referring to the examples of Apartheid South Africa and Zimbabwe, replied that historically sports boycotts have been powerful signals to repressive states of international rejection of their abuses.

“Sport and politics are inseparable. Above all else, sports events legitimise a country. It promotes the perception that the country is without problems [and that] its government’s conduct is acceptable by international standards.”

“Sport is not just a past time. We cannot protest about war crimes against civilians one minute and cheer for sports teams from that state next. Is it right to welcome sports teams representing Libya to international sports fora today?”

Participants at two other demonstrations on Piccadilly in support of pro-democracy movements in Libya and Syria respectively, signed postcards and added TYO’s ‘Boycott Sri Lanka’ placards to theirs, TYO activists said.

Ms. Skanthatheva said the TYO was under no illusion about the difficulty in organising a sporting boycott, but was undeterred. She referred to the long struggle for this against Apartheid South Africa.

“A handful of South African activists first began agitating for a boycott of goods and sports in the early sixties, but especially amid the politics of the Cold War, international action only became reality in the seventies, and then only slowly,” she said.

“The world is a now a lot smaller than it used to be. And issues of human rights, state violence, and popular rights are at the forefront of international politics as never before.”

“And we are in it for the long haul,” the Tamil activist said.

As ever in Sri Lanka, after the initial blaze of publicity … the state ensures that nothing that might benefit Tamils can proceed.

Last June, the Indian government’s declared intention to build 50,000 houses in the war shattered Northeast sparked much media interest, hope (in the Northeast), and controversy (in South).

Then nothing happened.

A foundation stone was finally laid in November.

But then Sri Lanka suddenly announced that most of the houses would not be new builds, but repairs. India rebutted this promptly.

Now, three months later, it’s clear Sri Lanka has again managed to stall the Indian initiative.

The ‘pilot project’ of 1,000 houses, President Mahinda Rajapaksa says, now won’t start till July - two years after Sri Lanka declared the war over.

See the Hindustan Times’ report here

Here's a reminder of Indian high commissioner to Sri Lanka Ashok K Kantha’s pledge in January:

"As the people of Jaffna seek to resurrect their lives after years of armed conflict, the Government and the people of India remain committed to facilitate development in the region."

See also our comment in Dec 2010: 'The state is the main obstacle to developing Tamil areas'.

 And our analysis in Jan 2011: 'Terror in Jaffna II: blocking international efforts'.

With Tamil Nadu due to go to the polls within weeks, the issue of Indian fishermen being attacked in the waters between India and Sri Lanka has once again made the news.

The oceanic border between India and Sri Lanka has no visible demarcations and fishermen often find themselves on the wrong side.

While Sinhala fishermen (often seeking tuna) have been arrested in Indian waters and later released, there has also long been a history of the Sri Lankan navy attacking and killing Indian fishermen.

Poll related

Ahed of the forthcoming polls, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi has pledged to find a solution to the killing of Indian fishermen by the Sri Lanka Navy.

"The increasing incidents of fishermen killings, torture and arrests in the recent past have become a regular thing. The only solution for this is to get back Katchatheevu.

Attempts with this effect would be made consulting central government," Karunanidhi said as he released his DMK party’s manifesto for the elections.

Meanwhile Tamil actor Vijay, who has come out in support of the main opposition AIADMK, has already staged a protest at Nagapattinam against the killings, while the party itself has made a similar pledge.

Similarly, the BJP has also promised to protect the interests of Indian fishermen and prevent attacks upon them by the Sri Lankan navy.

Targeted restrictions

The waters off the northern Sri Lankan coast have been under-fished for many years.

Citing security concerns during the war, the Sri Lankan Navy severely restricted the access Tamil fishermen had to the seas they depended on for their livelihoods.

Recently, after the defeat of the Liberation Tigers in May 2009, Sinhala fishermen from the south have been encouraged to fish the northern waters, while restrictions on Tamil fishermen have only been slightly reduced.

Thus the waters between India and Sri Lanka have a more abundant supply of fish than elsewhere, making for a relatively easy fishing experience for the Tamil Nadu fishermen and the Sinhala fishermen with their more up-to-date equipment.

For Tamil fishermen, who are attempting to rebuild lives after many years of deprivation, all these encroachments are a further hurdle to their being able to support themselves from their livelihoods.

Thus the Sri Lanka Navy has been selective in who can fish these waters from the Sri Lankan side, and then provided security and cleared the path for the chosen few.

Naval spin

Meanwhile, the Sri Lanka Navy has tried to portray the conflict as between two groups of fishermen, rather than one of military maneuvering to arrange matters in the interests of Sri Lanka’s Sinhala-first ideology.

A meeting, organized by a Sri Lankan government official, was held between fishermen from India and Sri Lanka to ‘resolve the issue’ but ended with no agreement reached.

Rear Admiral Susith Weerasekera, the Sri Lanka Navy’s northern commander, said that “every possible measure will be taken in order to improve relations with Sri Lankan and Indian fishermen”.

"Indians stray into Sri Lankan waters unwittingly", Weerasekera was quoted as saying by MSN India.

He charged that large scale fishing using trawlers in the international waters had soured the relationship between the fishermen across the Palk Straits between Sri Lanka and India.

He was speaking at a festival on the islet of Katchatheevu, which had been opened up to fishermen from both countries to mark St Anthony’s festival. This annual festival draws thousands of fishermen and their families from both countries.

No solution

Meanwhile the meeting between the fishermen from both countries ended with no solution reached.

A delegation of Indian fishermen from the coastal districts of Ramnad, Nagapattinam, Rameswaram, and Pudukottai of Tamil Nadu had met with Tamil fishermen from the North of Sri Lanka.

The Indian fishermen are said to have asked for more time to retrain in deeper sea fishing, while the Tamil fishermen are said to have “refused the request” as “it is their livelihood that is at stake,” reported Colombopage.

While there has been longstanding commercial competition between Tamil fishermen from India and Sri Lanka, prior to the war, they often worked it out cooperatively between themselves.

Sharing a language and culture, fishermen’s associations on both sides have in the past resolved any issues amongst themselves, without turning to military or governmental involvement.

But the end of Sri Lanka's protracted war has provided a Sinhala dimension to the simmering - and fostered - tensions in the Palk Strait.

"A people’s knowledge of the history of its oppression is part of its heritage. Knowing the truth allows victims and relatives to gain a sense of closure, some restoration of dignity and receive acknowledgement of their suffering.

"The truth is a tool to combat impunity. It is a tool for justice. And it is a vital step in preventing a recurrence of the events that led to the violations."

- Navi Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. See her full statement here.

“In February, [Sri Lanka] Prime Minister DM Jayaratne argued in Parliament that it was important to extend the Emergency partly because remnants of the LTTE were active among the Tamil diaspora. This month, he brought LTTE cadres to Tamil Nadu, a lot closer. What could be the argument next month?”

- Sutirtho Patranobis, writer with Hindustan Times. See his comment here

“The emergency laws grant state authorities sweeping powers of detention and permit the use of secret prisons, a practice that encourages human rights abuses like enforced disappearances, torture and death in custody, which could constitute crimes under international law.”

- Amnesty International, 2010. See the statement here.

Sri Lanka’s government Wednesday denounced the US-led air operation against the Libyan regime with a familiar refrain.

“These strikes are harming civilians and are also a violation of the territorial integrity of an independent country,” External Affairs Minister G.L.Peiris told Parliament.

The air strikes were contrary to the United Nations resolution 1973, he claimed.

Prof. Peiris was speaking in an adjournment motion moved by ruling SLFP (Sri Lanka Freedom Party) parliamentarian, A.H.M.Azwar. The motion condemned the attacks on Libya and called on other governments to do so as well.

Minister Peiris himself fell short of condemning the attacks, but all other government members who spoke on the motion did so.

No members of the Opposition spoke on the motion.

See the Sunday Times website's report here.

The irony is incredible. Sri Lanka, whose governments over three decades murdered over a hundred thousand Tamil civilians throughout bombardment, blockade, extra-judicial killings and disappearances (and that was before the mass killings of forty thousand more in 2009), has something to say about Libya.

The Foreign Ministry statement says the "issue of protection of the civilian population in Libya remains a concern for Sri Lanka, as indeed for the rest of the international community."

"Their plight must not be allowed to deteriorate because of the use of violence," the statement adds.

Apparently, there’s a need to move towards "resolving differences through peaceful means and dialogue."

“Sri Lanka which has a longstanding relationship with Libya, deeply desires the early commencement of such a process."

(From Reuters' report Wednesday)

Sri Lanka’s bourse is Asia's best performer so far in 2011 with an 8.6 percent gain, after a 96 percent rise last year.

But foreign investors have sold a net $55 million (Rs 6.1 billion) in 2011, after selling a record net $240 million (Rs 26.4 billion) in 2010.

Sri Lankan stocks are meanwhile amongst the world’s overpriced:

The bourse is trading at a forward price-to-earnings (P/E)ratio of 14.7, one of the highest among emerging markets, compared with 12.2 in Asian markets and 11.4 in global emerging markets.

P/E is the price of a share divided by its estimated future earnings.

See our earlier post:

‘Sri Lanka’s stocks: a closer look’ (Jan 2011)

The sixth annual Tamil Studies Conference, "Parimaanam: Images, Embodiments and Contestations" organized by the University of Toronto and the University of Windsor, will be held at the University of Toronto from May 13-14, 2011.

Registration to the public is open. Click here. 

See comments from 2010’s participants below:

As the Sri Lankan government continued to massacre thousands of Tamil civilians through mass bombardment, newly inaugurated President Obama addressed the press on the White House lawn, saying:

“First, the [Sri Lanka] government should stop the indiscriminate shelling, ... including [of] several hospitals, and ...

“... the government should live up to its commitment to not use heavy weapons in the conflict zone.

“Second, the government should give UN humanitarian teams access to the civilians who are trapped between the warring parties so that they can receive the immediate assistance necessary to save lives.

“Third, the government should also allow the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross access to nearly 190,000 displaced people ... so that they can receive the support that they need.”

But Sri Lanka did none of these things. Instead, the massacres and humanitarian blockade continued. It was, Colombo argued, a “humanitarian mission” and “fighting terrorism.”

Up to 40,000 civilians were killed in the last six months of Sri Lanka's war.

Just weeks before Obama’s comments, Robert Templer, Asia Director of the International Crisis Group observed:

“Barack Obama's administration has said it is committed to the principals of international law and humanitarian protection. Sri Lanka is the perfect opportunity for the new US president to show that this is not empty rhetoric."