Leading up to the Commonwealth Heads Of Government Meeting due to be held in Colombo next month, the Observer profiled Sri Lankan Presidet Mahinda Rajapaksa.
Extracts have been reproduced below. See the full piece here.
Extracts have been reproduced below. See the full piece here.
"Mahinda Rajapaksa: Sri Lanka's saviour or war criminal?"
"The summit is controversial. Rajapaksa, now in his eighth year of power, is much reviled – at least in the west. The chief charges against him are serious: that he ignored, condoned or even encouraged war crimes committed by Sri Lankan troops in the final bloody phases of the campaign to crush the brutal Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (popularly known as the Tamil Tigers); that he has again ignored, condoned or possibly even ordered a wave of repression directed at those who contest his or his government's authority; that he has made no serious effort to reach out politically to Sri Lanka's Tamil minority; that he aims to ensure that his family's grip on the island nation is without challenge for decades to come."
"One problem for his critics is that, though elections are marred by intimidation, violence and the misuse of state resources, few deny that Rajapaksa's successive poll victories reflect a genuine mandate. Even his opponents in Colombo admit that he remains without a serious local political challenger. His heartland is rural, conservative, Buddhist and dominated by the Sinhalese majority."
"There are also reports, backed by images shot on soldiers' phones, of large numbers of summary executions of captured rebel cadres and some civilians. These are the alleged war crimes that the UN wants credibly and independently investigated – something the Sri Lankan government has so far failed to do. Rajapaksa has called the allegations "propaganda" and accused the UN of doing the bidding of "big countries" who "bully" little ones."
"Such rhetoric plays well at home, particularly from a man whose career has been built on an image of the straight-talker from the backwoods, and can be useful globally too. No one in Rajapaksa's neighbourhood is very keen on lectures from the west either. "We can live with it, but the public finger-wagging doesn't help anyone," said one senior Sri Lankan diplomat."
"But even regionally there are now worries about where Sri Lanka is headed."
"These concerns will all be carefully obscured next month. So far the only invited leader not attending the Commonwealth summit is Canada's Stephen Harper. David Cameron says "tough messages" are best delivered in person. Rajapaksa will no doubt be his usual bluff and cheery self at the meeting. But if anyone is delivering a tough message, it will be him."
What he says - "The government is not ready to enter into any kind of ceasefire with terrorists... It is my duty to protect the people of this country. I don't need lectures from western representatives."
What others say - "I've read his speeches and I knew he was a Sinhalese extremist. I cannot change his mind" - Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore's founding prime minister.