Out going CDS meets Sri Lanka President

Outgoing Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Sarath Fonseka bade farewell to President Mahinda Rajapaksa in a convivial atmosphere yesterday at the Temple Trees.

Top Sri Lankan general resigns and may challenge for presidency

Sri Lanka's top general, who masterminded the defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam after a 25-year civil war, has resigned from his post to enter politics as the head of a coalition against the country's president.

Senior Sri Lankan officials told the Guardian that General Sarath Fonseka met President Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday to hand in his resignation, which was accepted immediately. The split appears to have been triggered by the president's efforts to take sole credit for wiping out the Tamil Tigers.

The last straw was when Fonseka was "promoted" to a new, largely ceremonial role last summer. That slight planted the seeds of rebellion. Fonseka is now considering challenging the president in an election to be held before April.

Polls for the country's parliament have to be held by May and it had been expected that the presidential election would take place at the same time. Analysts said Fonseka would become the face of a disparate opposition united by a loathing of Rajapaksa and his three brothers, who run the country as president, ministers and advisers.

"The opposition desperately needs a charismatic leader and the possibility of the general joining has electrified them," said Jehan Perera, a political columnist. "[Fonseka] has been openly saying it was the army that won the war. He is a nationalist … much more forthright perhaps than the Rajapaksa brothers."

Opposition parties talked up Fonseka's potential candidacy to unsettle the ruling alliance and help find any issue that can help them erode the incumbent's post-war popularity. If he did stand for office, Fonseka would be likely to cut deep into Rajapaksa's core vote.

The general is considered even more nationalistic than Rajapaksa. He told a reporter last year that Sri Lanka belonged to the Sinhalese majority and that minorities could not on the "pretext of being a minority demand undue things".

The desire to unseat Rajapaksa has brought about an unlikely alliance of Tamil parties, Sinhalese Marxists and the traditional ruling party. "These people have not tasted power for more than a decade. Fonseka is their last chance. So even the Tamil politicians will back him," said Perera.

The price of that support, says Perera, will be the dismantling of the powerful executive presidency. Many elected representatives fear Fonseka could entrench an autocracy.

"There's a fear that the general as president could become autocratic … that is why the politicians want a pre-poll pact with Fonseka promising good governance, fresh elections and a pledge to get rid of the executive presidency."

Such manoeuvring has not gone unnoticed in Colombo. In recent weeks the president's allies have been openly critical of the general, calling on him not to take "personal credit" for the victory. The army chief was said to have been angered by the offer of a job in the cabinet as "sports minister".

Rajapaksa, say some, overplayed his hand after the defeat of the Tigers in May. He annoyed the deeply conservative but powerful legal fraternity in Colombo by dismissing the then chief justice's criticism of the treatment of Tamil refugees after the war.

The president infuriated opposition parties by luring MPs over to his party with the promise of ministerial jobs. He is also accused of entrenching his power with a cult of personality – among the many titles bestowed on him by supporters are "Sri Lanka's Saviour, the Glorious Overlord of the Sinhalese and the Monarchical Emperor of the Glorious Land of Buddhism".

Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Sri Lanka Diplomatic Sparring Games with international heavyweights EU & U.S.

One thing that has set apart the current administration of President Mahinda Rajapaksa from those of his predecessors is its diplomatic duals with international heavyweights.

While battling the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the government took criticism of its conduct of the war and other rights violations by western nations in international fora head-on, and on more than one occasion came out a winner.

It has successfully fended off scrutiny at United Nation bodies like the Security Council and the U.N. Human Rights Council with the help of regional powers like India and China. Now once again the government is engaged in high-stakes diplomatic manoeuvres, this time with the U.S. and the European Union.

With the former, it is on the request by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to interview the former commander of Army and the current chief of defence staff Lt Gen Sarath Fonseka. With the EU it is over the extension of a preferable tariff waver known as Generalised System of Preference Plus or GSP Plus that was worth over 100 million U.S. dollars in 2008.

The EU last month released the report of an investigation it carried out on whether Sri Lanka should be given the GSP Plus extension. The report said that Sri Lanka was in breach of full implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention against Torture and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The failure could spell the end, at least temporarily, of the tariff concessions.

The Sri Lankan government had until Nov. 6 to make an appeal or representations against the suspension. The government submitted a 48- page document to the EU in Colombo on Nov. 6, titled Observations of the GOSL [Government of Sri Lanka] in Respect of the Report on the Findings of the Investigation with Respect to the Effective Implementation of Certain Human Rights Conventions in Sri Lanka .

The report challenged the findings of the EU report. It said, `in this situation, of the very foundation of the (EU) Report being in question, it would be reasonable to keep action on the document in abeyance, while the authorities of the European Commission and the Government of Sri Lanka continue a constructive engagement concerning the issues at hand.`

The government has maintained that while not cooperating with the EU investigation, its preferred mode of negotiation was through bilateral dialogue.

`The government of Sri Lanka is taking positive action (on the GSP Plus extension),` Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama said on Nov. 5. `We are in dialogue with the EU.`

High-level Sri Lankan diplomats accredited to the EU in Brussels were in Sri Lanka finalising the government`s response over this week before it was handed over. Export Development and International Trade Minister Prof. G.L. Peiris told the Sri Lankan parliament on Nov. 5 that the government had prepared a comprehensive response to the EU report.

Immediately after the October EU report came out, Peiris said that the government would not change its stance and subject itself to any kind of EU investigation. The government had rejected EU requests for an investigation in October 2008 and maintained that such an investigation from foreign powers would undermine the country s sovereignty.

The EU too has said that it wanted to keep an open dialogue with the Sri Lankan government. EU Ambassador to Sri Lanka Bernard Savage told IPS last month the EU hoped that continued dialogue would result in a positive development.

Some members of the EU have been staunch critics of the government s war efforts, but they have had limited clout within the U.N. to force any kind of resolution against Sri Lanka.

The U.S. has also been vociferous in its criticism of the conduct of Sri Lanka s decades-long war that finally ended in May. The State Department last month released a report to Congress on the conduct of the final months of the war. It was critical of both the armed forces and the defeated Tigers.

The rising diplomatic tensions between the U.S. and Sri Lanka went up by notches when on Oct. 28 the DHS requested Lt Gen Fonseka to attend a voluntary meeting at the DHS office in Oklahoma. Fonseka, who is a U.S. green card holder, was in the U.S. visiting his daughters but was travelling on a Sri Lankan diplomatic passport.

According to Bogollagama the DHS officials had informed Fonseka he was to be interviewed as a source on Defence Secretary Gottabaya Rajapaksa and alleged war crimes. Rajapaksa, who is a U.S. citizen, was instrumental in leading the final war efforts alongside Fonseka.

The Sri Lankan government immediately called the request for the interview beyond U.S. jurisdiction. Bogollagama said that Fonseka was privy to privileged information due to his office and he could not share them with a third party without the approval of the government.

`There is no separation between your public life and private life (when you hold high office),` he said, referring to the nature of Fonseka s visit.

He met with the U.S. ambassador to Sri Lanka, Patricia Butenis, on Nov. 2 and conveyed the government position. He also held a telephone discussion with Butenis on the night of Nov. 3. The U.S. ambassador had informed the foreign minister that she would convey Colombo s position to Washington. The U.S. Embassy in Colombo and the DHS office were tight-lipped on the details of the interview that was scheduled for 3:00 p.m. on Nov. 4, U.S. time, at the DHS Oklahoma office.

As the country waited in suspense to see whether Fonseka would in fact attend the meeting, in the afternoon of Nov. 4, Sri Lankan time, about 18 hours before he was to attend the meeting, news broke in the Sri Lankan parliament that Fonseka had left the U.S.

His departure was hailed as a diplomatic success by the Sri Lankan foreign office. `I consider it as a success of the diplomatic relationship (between Sri Lanka and the U.S.),` Minister Bogollagama said on Thursday morning after Fonseka had arrived on the island.

Bogollagama said that Fonseka had initially agreed to attend the interview but had later changed his mind after the government conveyed its decision. Before the request for the interview with Fonseka, Defence Secretary Rajapaksa had been interviewed on arrival in the U.S. by immigration officials when he was travelling as a delegate to the U.N. General Assembly sessions in October.

Bogollagama, who was present at the interview, said that Rajapaksa was interviewed as the Defence Secretary of Sri Lanka and not on the basis of his U.S. citizenship. He did not divulge any details of the interview but said he saw no connection between the immigration interview with Rajapaksa and the DHS request for one with Fonseka.

In between the two came the State Department s 68-page report to Congress on the conduct of the last phase of Sri Lanka s ethnic conflict. The sequence of events has led nationalist groups in Colombo to accuse the U.S. of trying use high-handed tactics.

`This attempt to interview the general is an effort to influence the sovereignty of Sri Lanka,` member of parliament for the People s Liberation Front Vijitha Herath said. The same accusation has been levelled against the EU that of using financial instruments like tax concessions to influence internal decision making in Sri Lanka.

By the end of the week, though, Bogollagama appeared to be satisfied that the latest diplomatic storms had been weathered. But many more may be around the corner.

Diabetes afflicts around two million in Sri Lanka

About two million people suffer from diabetes in Sri Lanka. It has been observed that diabetes patients are on the increase in the urban areas than the rural areas. Therefore it is clear that the disease affects all, irrespective of age, gender, including pregnant women and the younger generation.

Professor of Pharmacology attached to the Medical Faculty of Colombo University, Dr. Kusum Abrew expressed her concern about mal-function of vital organs such as heart, eyes and kidneys leading to coronary disease, vision impairness and paralysis due to this disease.

Children Hospital Specialist Dr. Pujitha Wickramasinghe reiterated that this disease is incurable but controllable when proper treatment is taken. “You could prevent this disease by maintaining the weight of the body in preparation to your height, curtailing consumption of sugar and oily food and engaging in proper exercise and avoiding stress. Grain-food, vegetables, fruit and food containing fibre should be essentially included in the meals,” he said.

It has been indicated that the Diabetes parents are in rapid increase in the world, Sri Lanka Diabetes Association strives very hard to battle the disease in Sri Lanka.

The World Diabetes Day is to be commemorated on November 14 under the theme ‘Awareness and Prevention of Diabetes,’ a media release from the Information Department states.

Statistical report of Sri Lanka Diabetes Association indicates that about 275 million people suffer from this disease in the world. Sri Lanka Diabetes Association Secretary Dr. Mahen Wijesuriya told at a media conference at the National Diabetes Centre, that annually 3.8 million people die of this disease in the world and seven million new patents are being diagnosed.

Source: Daily News

SLIIT wins international competition

The Sri Lankan team from the Sri Lanka Institute of Technology (SLIIT), became the first runner up in the Asia Pacific NetRiders Skills Competition 2009 held recently beating 15 countries across the Asia Pacific region over Tele Presence and Webex.

Sri Lanka competed with countries such as Australia, Hong Kong, China, India, Korea, New Zealand, and Singapore, to win this competition.

The SLIIT team was selected to represent Sri Lanka in this competition by winning all three positions at the National Cisco Competition held recently at the `Achievers 2009`, the tenth anniversary exhibition of SLIIT. Forty teams comprising 120 students participated from the three Cisco networking academies in Sri Lanka.

The Sri Lankan team was led by Thilina Senevirathna, the other members being M. F. Faraj and Yoshan Weerasingha of SLIIT.

Prof. Sam Karunaratne, Chairman, SLIIT lauded the performance of SLIIT students in the field of Networking. SLIIT Managing Director Prof. Lalith Gamage said `This competition provided a platform at Asia Pacific level for networking students in Sri Lanka, which enables them to benchmark their skills.

We fully support Cisco`s efforts in offering an industry ready curriculum for students to enhance their understanding of IT networking and gain specialization in various streams of this segment.

The competition provided them an opportunity to showcase their technical skills in IT networking and nurture their skills across all areas of IT networking. We are indeed proud of our Cisco students` achievement at this international network competition`.

Gold price hits record after 'Sri Lanka purchase'

AFP- The price of gold hit a record high above 1,100 dollars an ounce in trading here on Friday following a report that Sri Lanka had joined India in purchasing the precious metal in favour of the US currency.

"The Central Bank of Sri Lanka has announced that it is buying gold to diversify its reserves," industry body the World Gold Council (WGC) said in a statement issued before gold struck a record high of 1,101.42 dollars.

It later pulled back to stand at 1,092.65 dollars an ounce in late London trading.

Gold had struck a series of highs already this week after the IMF said it had carried out a massive sale of the precious metal to India.

"Over the past year central banks, which have been net sellers of gold are now a new and increasingly important source of demand," WGC chief executive Aram Shishmanian said in the council's statement.

"This latest announcement demonstrates that many central banks are reassessing their reserve asset management policies."

Gold had reached a record high of 1,087.80 dollars on Tuesday as the IMF said it had sold 200 tonnes of gold to India's central bank over a two-week period last month for 6.7 billion dollars to bolster its finances.

Gold and other commodity prices have surged in recent months amid a move away from the dollar, which has been slumping. The move accelerated last month on a report that Gulf states may stop using the greenback for oil trading.

The metal is also winning support from fears over a possible spike in inflation, as gold is widely regarded by investors as a safe store of value.

The sale to India was nearly half the 403.3 tonnes of gold that the IMF has targeted for sale over the coming years.

The Washington-based IMF, which currently holds 3,217 tonnes of gold, is the third-largest official holder of the precious metal after the United States and Germany.

India is the world's biggest consumer of gold, importing between 700 and 800 tonnes of the metal every year or 20 percent of global demand.

A senior IMF official said that the IMF was "lucky" in selling the 200 tonnes to India for roughly 1,045 dollars an ounce, compared with 850 dollars an ounce in April 2008.

Gold's price, which has risen more than 20 percent this year, has a bright future thanks to improving demand caused by the financial crisis, industry experts said this week.

"Although it's difficult to predict in the short term, the overall picture is very healthy," Mark Lynam, an executive for AngloGold Ashanti -- the world's third largest gold producer -- told the London Bullion Market Association annual conference in Edinburgh.

Plush London department store Harrods last month surprised the retail industry by starting to sell gold bars, with prices fluctuating according to the current market price.

Sri Lanka shares up from 2-mo low on bargain hunting

COLOMBO, Nov 6 (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's shares .CSE rose on Friday from a near two-month low, as investors bought shares battered in the recent fall, triggered by weak investor appetite on economic woes and trade union protests ahead of national polls.

The All-Share Price Index of the Colombo Stock Exchange jumped 1.99 percent or 56.80 points to 2911.62, from its lowest close since Sept. 15. It fell 5 percent in five straight sessions up until Thursday.

Analysts said cautious investors bought shares across the board, but in thin volume due to economic and protest worries.

The bourse has fallen 7 percent since the government said on Oct. 13 it will hold national polls by April.

Frequent protests and trade union actions have dampened investor confidence, which had been already on the decline on worries of political uncertainty ahead of national polls.

Investors are also wary of a likely loss of a European Union trade concession that helped boost Sri Lanka's top export, garments, as the EU has been considering to withdraw the concession over a rights abuse probe.

Worries of lower-than-expected corporate earnings and the arrest of one of Sri Lanka's main investors in a U.S. insider trading case in mid-October, have also hampered a market rise. For more political risks, click [ID:nSP478539]

Conglomerate Carson Cumberbatch CARS.CM surged 5.56 percent to 327.25 rupees, while top listed private lender Commercial Bank of Ceylon COMB.CM rose 4.03 percent to 174.25 rupees.

Market heavyweight John Keells Holdings JKH.CM, which posted a 43 percent dip in net profit in the September quarter [ID:nCOL450119] last week, gained 2.38 percent to 140 rupees.

Turnover was 357.7 million rupees ($3.12 million), less than last year's daily average of 464 million rupees.

With 93.7 percent return so far this year, the CSE is still one of the best performing bourses in Asia.

The rupee LKR= closed flat at 114.80/85 a dollar with the central bank buying dollars at 114.80 for a twelfth straight week, dealers said.

Sri Lanka central bank on Thursday said it will allow foreign currency outflows up to $500,000 for foreign investments without its approval with effect from December. [ID:nCOL542636]

The interbank lending rate or call money rate CLIBOR edged up to 9.079 percent from Thursday's 9.079 percent.