Tag: Mangala Samaraweera

Sri Lankan Finance Minister Protests Anti-Muslim Remarks of Top Buddhist Monk

As per media reports, the chief prelate of the Asgiriya Chapter called for a boycott of all Muslim-owned businesses, alleging that they were working to “sterilise” the Sinhala population. 

New Delhi: Three days after a top Buddhist monk stated that he condones the stoning of Muslims, Sri Lankan finance minister Mangala Samaraweera on Wednesday strongly came out against the statement and said that “true Buddhists” should unite against the “Talibanization” of the religion.

However, there has been no other vocal condemnation from other politicians, including from the top leadership.

In fact, Sri Lankan president Maithripala Sirisena on Tuesday took part in a religious ceremony to consecrate relics presided over the top monk who had preached social boycott and physical violence against Muslims.

The sermon by chief prelate of the Asgiriya Chapter of Buddhism Warakagoda Sri Gnanarathana was made on June 15, but reported in the media a few days later.

Also read: Sri Lanka: Hundreds of Muslim Refugees Flee Negombo as Communal Tensions Flare Up

As per media reports, the chief prelate called for a boycott of all Muslim-owned businesses, claiming that they were working to “sterilise” the Sinhala population. 

“Don’t buy from those shops. The young people who ate from those shops, I think, will not be able to have/lose their children. You should know this,” he said.

His remarks came after a nationalist Sinhala paper had claimed last month that a Muslim doctor had “sterilised” over 4,000 Buddhist women.

The monk did not name the doctor, but asserted that women devotees wanted him stoned.

“Such traitors should not be allowed to stay free. Some upasaka ammas (women devotees) said he should be stoned to death. I don’t say that, but that is what should be done. If one of our people did that to the other community, we will slice them. Laws and rules are not necessary. We should unite as Sinhala-Buddhists. We should not look at colours and vote. We should elect people who think of the (Sinhala) race and the country,” he stated.

Incidentally, the Sri Lankan news portal EconomyNext reported that the senior-most police officer of North-western province, whose wife worked in the same hospital as the muslim doctor, was being probed for fuelling the rumours to cause “racial hatred”. Till now, “no evidence” has been unearthed by ongoing investigations of the accusations of sterilisation against the doctor, as per another report.

On Wednesday morning, Sri Lankan finance minister Samaraweera was one of the few political voices who protested stridently against the remarks of the senior Buddhist monk.

There have been no statements yet from President Sirisena or the Sri Lankan prime minister.

The situation in Sri Lanka has a parallel to its larger South Asian neighbour, India, where political leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi have similarly remained silent through communally-tinged remarks of ruling party politicians.

In Sri Lanka, Buddhist monks are part of the political mainstream. They have also seen as leading the front in fanning majoritarian Sinhala sentiments.

Also read: Sri Lanka Should Not Turn a Blind Eye to the Ascent of Wahabi Extremism

The island nation has only been at peace over the last decade, after the Sri Lankan military defeated the Tamil Tigers group after a 26-year-old campaign. The civil war began as a result of long-term tensions over discriminatory official policies and finally broke out after devastating riots against minority Tamils in 1983.

Following the May 21 Easter Sunday bomb attacks which was carried out by an Islamist terror group, there have been a series of riots targeting the Muslim community in the Indian Ocean country.

A view of the damage at St. Sebastian Catholic Church, after bomb blasts ripped through churches and luxury hotels on Easter, in Negombo, April 22, 2019. Photo: Reuters/Athit Perawongmetha

A parliamentarian monk from United National Party (UNP) went on a hunger strike demanding the resignation of two Muslim Governors and minister for having links to the suspects. Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) general secretary Gnanasara Thero, who had been pardoned by President Sirisena, had also threatened to join the campaign if the governors were not fired.

No proof has been shown so far for the allegations, which has been strenuously denied.

Nine Muslim ministers and the two governors resigned in first week of June in a joint move to protest the ‘victimisation’ of the community, even though they had red-flagged the perpetrators to security authorities.

Even then, Samaraweera had been among the lone voice to express caution.

The resigned Muslim ministers had also met the senior monk as part of efforts to reach out of the politically influential Buddhist clergy.

The communal aftermath of the Easter Sunday attack is also enmeshed in the jostling between political parties with the presidential elections scheduled towards the end of this year.

As per media reports, the main target of the campaign against the Muslim ministers is minister Rishad Bathiudeen, who did not ally with Mahinda Rajapaksa to give him parliamentary majority after President Sirisena made him prime minister in October 2018. Sirisena had to reinstate UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe as prime minister, with the Supreme Court also terming his actions as unconstitutional.

Incidentally, the sermon of the chief prelate had begun with an endorsement of Chamal Rajapaksa as the next presidential candidate, even though the opposition has not yet taken a decision. Warakagoda Sri Gnanarathana had previously also held the UNP responsible for “destroying” Sri Lanka.

India and Sri Lanka Agree to End Bottom Trawling, But Differences Still Remain

Despite making progress with talks on November 6, both sides are still conflicted over the timeline by which bottom trawling should be brought to an end.

Despite making progress, with talks on November 5, both sides are still conflicted over the timeline by which bottom trawling should be brought to an end.

Indian fishing boats. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Indian fishing boats. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

New Delhi: Even as Sri Lanka rejected the proposal for a three year grace period to transition from bottom trawling, a Sri Lankan Tamil leader who was part of the official bilateral talks, claimed that there was some progress owing to India’s acknowledgement that this environmentally harmful practice has to end.

On Saturday, Indian and Sri Lankan ministerial delegations held talks on the vexing issue of fishermen, which resulted in some terms of reference being drafted for a joint working group to meet frequently and find a permanent solution.

The Indian delegation included external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj, agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh and shipping minister Pon Radhakrishnan. The Sri Lankan side included foreign minister Mangala Samaraweera, fisheries minster Mahinda Amaraweera and Sri Lankan member of parliament from Jaffna district, M.A. Sumanthiran.

“We made significant progress in the talks that were held yesterday,” Sumanthiran told reporters on Sunday morning.

The Tamil National Alliance leader measured progress in terms of the Indian government accepting that bottom trawling will have to be eliminated.

“Yesterday’s discussion ended with the Indian government agreeing with bottom trawling coming to an end,” he said.

Bottom trawling is a fishing method where the net is trawled, or dragged across the seabed, which according to scientific reports, have led to the destruction of deep sea ecosystems in several parts of the world.

Differences over timeline

The advisor to the Sri Lankan fishermen delegation, Thiyagaraja Waradas told The Wire that he felt that there was a change in tone from the Indian central government during this round of talks. But, the proposal for a long ‘grace period’ showed that there was still no credible solution from the India.

India had sought a grace period of three years to transition Indian fishermen to a more sustainable method of fishing. But, this was rejected by the Sri Lankan government and fishermen.

“Three years’ time [for bottom trawling] is not practical. By the end of that period, they themselves will stop fishing as there will not be any fish left,” said Sumanthiran.

He pointed out that the first of the three terms of the reference of the joint working group – “expediting the transition towards ending the practice of bottom trawling at the earliest” – was a reflection that the crisis had to be addressed immediately.

Sumanthiran said that the issue of bottom trawling was “90% of the dispute”.

“We have shown satellite images of 500-1000 Indian boats coming near the Sri Lankan coast for fishing. We have also got images of before and after images after bottom trawling occurs,” he said.

The Sri Lankan Tamil leader had introduced a Bill in the Sri Lankan parliament to ban bottom trawling, earlier this month. He hoped that it will be passed in the budget session next year.

He indicated that once the bottom trawling issue was solved, the other concern of fishermen straying into each other’s waters can be easily tackled.

The other terms of reference for the joint working group was to draw a standard operating procedures for handling arrested fishermen and ascertaining possibilities for patrolling.

“It is inevitable that fishermen will stray into each other’s waters. That’s why there was stress on using modern technology to help in communication,” he said.

The joint press release issued after the Saturday meeting noted that there “was support for expediting the provision of communication tracking sets to the fishermen”.

The joint working group, with the new terms of reference, will meet every three months – and at their first meeting, take up the issue of detained fishing vessels.

However, Sumanthiran was not in favour of releasing bottom trawlers which had been taken into custody by the Sri Lankan navy after they crossed into Lankan territorial waters.

“It would be a contradiction to put those bottom trawlers back to work,” he said.

The fisheries ministers from both sides have also agreed to meet every six months, with the first meeting scheduled for January 2, 2017.

The fishermen associations of the two countries will also meet every six months. They had recently met on November 2 in Delhi after a gap of over one and half years. However, there was still considerable gap to be bridged between the two sides, with Indian fishermen demanding that they should get 85 days over next 3 years to fish in Sri Lankan waters. This was predictably rejected by the Sri Lankan fishermen delegation, which comprised of fishermen leaders from the Tamil majority-northern province.

Obama’s Disappointing Sri Lanka Policy

Washington could make it clear that increased military cooperation is off the table indefinitely and that bilateral ties are directly related to progress pertaining to the UN Human Rights Council resolution.

Washington could make it clear that increased military cooperation is off the table indefinitely and that bilateral ties are directly related to progress pertaining to the UN Human Rights Council resolution.

Nisha Biswal, US assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian affairs (R) and Tom Malinowski, assistant secretary of state for democracy and human rights (L) shake hands with Sri Lanka's minister of foreign affairs Mangala Samaraweera during their meeting in Colombo, Sri Lanka July 12, 2016. Credit: REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte

Nisha Biswal, US assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian affairs (R) and Tom Malinowski, assistant secretary of state for democracy and human rights (L) shake hands with Sri Lanka’s minister of foreign affairs Mangala Samaraweera during their meeting in Colombo, Sri Lanka July 12, 2016. Credit: REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte

Sri Lanka’s compliance with a recent UN Human Rights Council (HRC) resolution on Sri Lanka was discussed in detail on June 29, during the HRC’s 32nd session. Significantly, the resolution – designed to heal the wounds of decades of war – was co-sponsored by Colombo last October.

Since longtime autocrat Mahinda Rajapaksa unexpectedly lost a presidential election in January 2015, the new government has assiduously worked to repair relations with a host of Western nations, especially the United States. And, while over the past 18 months some progress has been made, caution remains the order of the day.

Sri Lanka’s new government has taken the country in a less authoritarian direction. The passage of the 19th amendment to the constitution trimmed presidential powers that had been expanded on Rajapaksa’s watch. In June, a Right to Information bill was passed.

On the metric of rights, then, the new government is definitely better than the previous one. On the other hand, while Colombo now has a massive reform agenda, it’s not clear how much of it will ever be implemented. For example, corruption was a key reason why Rajapaksa lost the presidency. However, ongoing investigations still have not resulted in convictions or even many indictments. And, while Colombo is purportedly committed to transitional justice, those issues are not even being explained to the general public. Furthermore, people residing in the Tamil-majority Northern and Eastern Provinces still face a host of problems pertaining to militarisation, human rights violations and socioeconomic troubles. Colombo appears to be most invested in the possibility of a new constitution; whether such a document would satisfy the aspirations of the Tamil community remains an open question. In short, there are reasons to be worried that President Maithripala Sirisena’s legacy may be one of incremental change, not deeper reform.

UN high commissioner for human rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein delivered a diplomatic and thorough oral update on Colombo’s progress. Frankly, the high commissioner’s language could have been stronger and more critical. That being said, his remarks should leave no doubt that most of the resolution’s prescriptions – pertaining to national reconciliation, accountability for war time abuses, institutional reform and human rights – have yet to be implemented.

US Ambassador to the HRC Keith Harper spoke briefly about Sri Lanka.

“We thank the high commissioner for his interim report requested last September detailing the progress Sri Lanka has made, and the important work that remains. We look forward to receiving the full report next March. In the interim we encourage the government of Sri Lanka to make continued tangible steps in fulfilling their commitments reflected in resolution 30/1 and elsewhere to credible justice, accountability, and reconciliation mechanisms.”

Unfortunately, that’s all Harper had to say. A range of other nations came with stronger words, including Canada, Ghana and several European countries.

Let’s keep in mind that diplomatic pressure on Sri Lanka over the past several years (at the HRC and beyond) was largely due to efforts led by Washington. With what appeared to be moral clarity and a vision for lasting peace in a war-torn nation, the US spearheaded three resolutions on Sri Lanka at the HRC from 2012 to 2014. Admittedly, the US is not a member of the HRC this year; nevertheless, a stronger statement would have been welcomed.

Mangala Samaraweera, Sri Lanka’s foreign minister, also spoke on June 29. He did what he usually does, painting a wildly optimistic picture of the new government’s performance thus far.

Tellingly, on June 28, US ambassador to Sri Lanka and the Maldives, Atul Keshap delivered a speech at the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce in Colombo. Keshap was unsurprisingly upbeat about America’s evolving bilateral relationship with Sri Lanka.

Here’s part of his prepared remarks:

“Today, ladies and gentlemen, it pleases me to report that American relations with Sri Lanka are at an historic high. As President Sirisena and Prime Minister Wickremesinghe lead their government in moving ahead with needed constitutional reform, national reconciliation, and fulfilling their United Nations commitments, the United States will remain steadfast in our support of efforts to rebuild the economy, advance good governance, and ensure that all Sri Lankans can enjoy equal rights, equal opportunities and the full benefits of post-conflict development and prosperity, regardless of their ethnicity or origins.”

The timing of Keshap’s speech, just a day before Colombo would go under the microscope of the Geneva-based HRC, will remind observers about a development that’s become increasingly clear since January 2015: human rights and accountability for alleged wartime abuses – matters which the US used to care deeply about – are no longer the priorities they once were for Washington. Keshap used similar language in a July 4th  message (to mark US independence day). “As fellow democracies bound by shared beliefs in universal freedoms, US-Sri Lankan relations are at a historic high,” he said.

Trade, aid, security cooperation and investment will probably shape the bilateral relationship in the months ahead. We’ll likely hear about how the difficult war-related matters will take time and that skepticism regarding Colombo’s plans is both unwarranted and unwise. We’ll almost certainly be reminded that the new government needs time and space to implement its ambitious agenda, but that more positive changes are sure to come. We may hear that there’s no need to worry that most of the reform agenda – from anticorruption efforts to transitional justice – still hasn’t been implemented. In essence, we’ll be asked to wholeheartedly agree with the Obama administration’s roseate assessment of the current state of affairs in Sri Lanka – and double down on an approach that’s based principally upon hope and naiveté, rather than an appreciation for the realities on the ground.

Nisha Biswal, US assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian affairs is visiting Sri Lanka this week. Tom Malinowski, assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labour, is as well. According to a media note, “economic cooperation as well as democratic governance and reconciliation” are on the agenda.

The visit would be an auspicious time for the Obama administration to be open and honest about difficult war-related issues, including accountability and the broader transitional justice process. Instead of praising the Lankan government, Washington could make it clear that increased military cooperation is off the table indefinitely and that bilateral ties are directly related to progress pertaining to the HRC resolution. Unfortunately, Biswal and Malinowski are unlikely to be conveying messages of this nature. 

Taylor Dibbert is a New Leader at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs, New York. The views expressed here are his own.