This is one of the pictures at a recent exhibition in London billed as the “first international showcase of Sri Lanka's leading contemporary artists since the end of the civil war in 2009”:

The artist is Pala Pothupitiyie.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa this week grumbled that Western countries were refusing visas to Sri Lankan minister, but were issuing them to ‘terrorists’ – his word for Tamils who seek refuge abroad from his militarized rule.

See The Sunday Leader’s report here

“Some of these [Western] embassies even refused to grant visas to my ministers for official economic business, while they gave them to terrorists or suspected terrorists. All they need to say is that my government is persecuting them and claim refugee status,” he said.

Responding to accusations of his government’s abuses, he said critics were making money from leveling charges.

“These so-called activists and defenders of human rights and many NGOs are getting benefits, thanks to that [accusations].”

So much for reconciliation, peacebuilding and all that! 

The IMF this week urged Sri Lanka to sign the trade deal with India that has been held up by Sinhala nationalist commercial interests allied with the Colombo government.

The CEPA (Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement) between India and Sri Lanka has been under negotiation since 2005. It was supposed to be signed in 2008.

Although the agreement has been largely finalized, President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government has been dragging its feet.

In an effort to get the deal through, last month India agreed to renegotiate aspects of the agreement. But getting a new deal may take all year, the Sunday Times reported.

Meanwhile, interestingly, Japan was surprised when last September Sri Lanka sought out a free trade deal (see the Sunday Leader's report).

Despite oft-repeated claims of Sri Lanka’s ‘turn to the East’, the volumes of trade show Sri Lanka’s dependency on Western markets.

Of Sri Lanka’s exports, just 1% and 4% go to China and India, respectively.

The point was again made this week by the IMF’s Resident Representative for Sri Lanka, Dr. Koshy Mathai, in comments reported in the Daily Mirror.

“Sri Lanka should focus her attention on growing economies such as China and India, rather than entirely on the US or the European region,” he said.

The IMF official also stressed the importance of CEPA, saying fears of Indian labour flooding the domestic market were unfounded, and argued Sri Lanka’s service sector would benefit from Indian clients.

None of these arguments are new (see LBO's analysis of CEPA and the criticisms here). As Sri Lankan economist R.M.B. Senanayake pointed out last May,

“Definitely for there is no more scope for a small country to go it alone in the world of globalization. We should integrate more closely and benefit from the larger regional economy."

(See his interview last May here.)

But Sri Lanka also knows its Sinhala first economic vision is at odds with a globalised economy.

In particular, CEPA could enable a revival of the Northeastern economy (see here).

It will also likely weaken Sinhala nationalist commercial interests close to the Rajapaksa regime. Sri Lankan firms will face competition from Indian ones.

As Senanayake put it,

“[Sri Lanka’s] architects, lawyers, engineers, accountants are able to exploit the local consumer freely. But where lies the interest of the consumers? All protection helps those who want to exploit the public.”

After demonstrations last May, just before President Rajapaksa visited India, he met with protestors and his office released a statement vowing:

“The government will not enter into any pact or agreement that is inimical to its people and economic interests."

On International Women’s Day (March 8), the Global Tamil Women Forum (GTWF) appealed to international governments, parliamentarians, institutions and human rights defenders over the plight of Tamil women in Sri Lanka.

The appeal urged the international community to ensure:

“An international, independent war crimes investigation to be established,

“The facilitation of adequate witness protection so that the perpetrators of such crimes can be held accountable for their actions.

“The immediate release of those who remain in arbitrary detention, and

“Full access to be granted to International Committee of the Red Cross and other international aid agencies to facilitate the rehabilitation process for these women to return to a life of normalcy.”

See the full text of the document here.

“Our failure to acknowledge male rape leaves it in the shadows, compounding the humiliation that survivors experience. For instance, the majority of Tamil males in Sri Lanka who were sexually assaulted during that country’s long civil war did not report it to the authorities at the time, later explaining that they were simply too ashamed.

“The International Criminal Court, nearly all American states and many countries use a sex-neutral definition of sexual assault. The United Nations and the White House must likewise move beyond the shortcomings of Resolution 1325 and commit to ending wartime sexual violence against everyone.”

- Prof. Lara Stemple,  director of graduate studies and of the Health and Human Rights Law Project at the School of Law, University of California, Los Angeles.

See her comment in the New York Times here

Amongst the changes to atttract foreign investment, Sri Lanka is to abolish its standard tool for this – long tax holidays for those prepared to invest.

Sarath Amunugama, senior minister for international monetary co-operation, says it’s his idea:

“I was the chairman of a committee to look into this and we have suggested drastic changes and one is to abolish tax concessions given under the Board of Investments (BOI).”

See LBO's report here.

But three weeks ago, it was the IMF that was arguing for this. As the IMF’s resident representative in Colombo Koshy Mathai put it,

"Rather than having the BOI operate as a tax concession generating machine, the idea is now for the BOI to be re-purposed to be an investment facilitating agency."

See LBO’s report here.

See also our earlier posts:

“The brutal attacks on fishermen who stray into Sri Lankan waters has given ordinary Indians a brief glimpse of the lack of accountability of Sri Lanka's security forces, and the unresponsiveness of the Rajapakse government to serious abuses.

“The Indian government was right to condemn the murder of its own citizens, and demand an investigation. But it also should ensure justice for Sri Lankan victims. When the UN panel of experts submits its report next month, it will be important to have the Indian government standing behind them.”

“India should take the lead in demanding that the full report of the panel be made public and, as warranted, encourage the SecretaryGeneral to implement its recommendations.”

- Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director of Human Rights Watch. See her comment here.

Sri Lanka could be hauled before a war crimes tribunal over the killing of “many thousands of civilians” in the final months in 2009 of its armed conflict.

The warning by US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, Robert Blake, came in an interview with AFP Monday.

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) was quoted Sunday as saying the party was hopeful of reaching an understanding on power sharing with the Sri Lankan government at talks this week.

See the Sunday Times report here

However, another Sunday Times story then quoted the TNA saying that the talks had been “postponed indefinitely”.

Apparently, the Sri Lankan ministers concerned are now involved in local government election campaigns and thus would not be available for talks.

See the report here.

Recall the saying ‘Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me’?

See WSWS's photo gallery here, taken on the once heavily fought for A9 highway through Vanni to Jaffna.

Despite the end of the war, foreigners need permission to visit the Vanni region, once home to 300,000 Tamils, all of whom were displaced in Sri Lanka's onslaught.

The UN says 160,000 houses in Vanni were destroyed or damaged in the final phase of the war (2006-9).

None have been rebuilt. Most of the 'resettled' live in tents or fragile shacks.

Some people struggle to make a living through rickety tea stalls for travellers - but have to compete against the Army's. 

See also our earlier posts:

'So much for ‘resettlement’ ... ' (Jan 2011)

'Terror in Jaffna: blocking international efforts' (Jan 2011)

'Military budget 100 times that of resettlement ' (Oct 2010)

Whilst Sri Lanka and its international allies labour to present an image of emerging 'post-conflict' normalcy - and even of 'reconciliation' in the offing - events in Jaffna this week made clear the country's future is exactly the reverse. The military's desecration of the ashes of LTTE leader Vellupillai Pirapaharan's mother, and its anxious, violent efforts in preceding days to prevent public mourning of her death underline not only the popular sentiment amongst Tamils, but the state's unshakable insecurity. In short, the seventy-year long antagonism between the Sinhala ethnocracy and the Tamil people will endure and grow. This is not a matter of ancient hatreds, but of state policy and the politics to come.

By desecrating Parvathi Amma's remains, the Sri Lankan military has  again demonstrated the extent to which the Sinhala sense of self rests on the ability to inflict pain and humiliation on the Tamils. The slaughter in the Vanni is celebrated as a heroic victory, the repression of the Tamil areas presented as necessary to pacify an implacably hostile population, and the state-sponsored colonisation of Tamil areas as an epic re-conquest of historic lands. While international community remains perplexed by Sri Lanka's conduct - or puts it down to a yet-to-be-fixed backwardness - the Tamils recognise the logic.

While the Tamils must bear the brute material reality of this oppression, it is such acts of barbarism that will come to define Sri Lanka on the international stage. Parvathi Amma's death was, understandably, of little interest to international media. But the desecration has been swiftly covered by several international newspapers. For all the money Colombo will plough into public relations in the years to come, its image will ultimately be framed by its own macabre violence and repression. The attendant themes of ethnic discrimination and unpunished war crimes will not end. The Diaspora will see to that.

Unlike her famous son, Parvathi Amma and her husband were never involved in politics. Yet, no sooner had the war ended, Sri Lanka arrested them both. There was no charge, of course. But this was, after all, another opportunity ripe with symbolism for the Sinhala polity to yet again demonstrate its domination over the Tamils. Only when her husband died in detention would Sri Lanka release Parvathi Amma. Yet Colombo fretted about this quiet and remarkable woman.

Despite its repeated self-congratulation over its military defeat of the LTTE, the Sinhala polity remains anxious and restive. Which is why when Parvathi Amma also passed away, the state began lashing out. When people in Jaffna put up black flags of mourning, the military tore them down. Troops leveled machine guns to bar Jaffna University's students from attending her funeral, and intimidated and videotaped those present. Politicians from Tamil Nadu who sought to attend were refused visas and deported. Ultimately, frustration over the palpable affection and respect the global Tamil community showed for Parvathi Amma (and it is indisputable why this is so) prompted the vile desecration of her remains.

This is Sri Lanka's future, as it has been the past. For the Sinhalese polity, international, as well as domestic, priorities will be driven solely by a need to keep the Tamils in a state of terror and dependence. See, for example, the refusal to allow international access, let alone rehabilitation, reconstruction or economic revival in the Tamil areas. Maintaining a state of repression in the Tamil areas will become an all consuming pre-occupation. Victory over the LTTE has not lessened an imprecise fear that continues to gnaw.

Paradoxically, it is Sri Lanka's repression that will help consolidate the Tamils' struggle amongst a new generation, both in the island and in the Diaspora. It was Sinhala majoritarianism, after all, that helped fashion a robust Tamil identity infused with a determination to withstand domination. In mourning Parvathi Amma, the Tamil nation again came together. The defiant Tamils who hung black flags in Jaffna, the university students who protested, the expatriate Tamils who attended public memorials and the Diaspora media which covered the funeral and programmes of commemoration acted as one.

Conversely, it is precisely because Sri Lanka has failed to cow the Tamils that bullying and displays of force at Parvathi Amma's funeral and the subsequent desecration of her remains became necessary. A much loved and respected woman was this week transformed into a figure of historical importance for the Tamil nation and a dignified symbol of our struggle. In her death, as in her life, Parvathi Amma has brought new strength and resolve to her people.

“Sixes hit (by Sri Lankans) shatter the roof of the English palace and things in it tumble.”

- verse from Sri Lanka’s official song for the cricket World Cup.

Well after the start of the cricket World Cup, President Mahinda Rajapaksa Wednesday ordered his country’s official song to be taken off air.

Rajapaksa told reporters he was displeased with its contents because it insults foreign teams.

See Canadian Press’s report here and AFP's here.

Apart from the verse about England above, the song warns that Australians will end up as bird food while New Zealanders, still reeling from the Christchurch quake, could have their jaws broken.

Lahiru Perera, the singer, is surprised. As he points out,

"This is the official cheer song and it got the approval from everybody including the cricket board. I am at a loss to understand how this was approved first and is being taken off air now."