Monthly Archives: February 2012

Rajapakse: Sri Lanka is no pearl on China’s string

President Mahinda Rajapakse was emphatic: China’s presence in Sri Lanka is strictly business, and not political.
Challenged on speculation that China financed and built the $1.4bn Mahinda Rajapakse port on Sri Lanka’s south coast so it could sneak a naval base into India’s backyard, Rajapakse laughed and said his giant neighbour had not complained.
“No one has said […]

By Gulf Times | Published on February 1, 2012 at 10:32 am

US sanctions against Iran hits small nations like Sri Lanka says Rajapakse

As the United States’ and European Union’s combined sanctions against Iran take effect, small nations like Sri Lanka are extremely worried. Sri Lanka depends
almost entirely on Iran for its crude oil supplies and the only refinery in the country, Sapugaskanda, can only process Iranian crude.
“We are discussing what we should do,” Sri Lankan President Mahinda […]

By R.K Radhakrishnan | Published on February 1, 2012 at 10:23 am

TNA, PSC and the danger of wrong turnings

“The CFA and LTTE surge strengthened the JVP and JHU, ushering Mahinda Rajapaksa into office. What displacement will a ‘third surge’ of external plus Tamil nationalist pressure achieve politically, and which Bonapartist redeemer, less malleably populist and more consistently authoritarian than the present incumbent, waits in the wings to be propelled by history and social […]

By Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka | Published on February 1, 2012 at 10:14 am

Media suppression in Ethiopia: What’s he got to hide?

The case of two Swedish journalists imprisoned in Ethiopia sheds light on a harsh campaign of repression.
IN a filthy Ethiopian prison that is overridden with lice, fleas and huge rats, two Swedes are serving an 11-year prison sentence for committing journalism.
Martin Schibbye, 31, and Johan Persson, 29, share a narrow bed, one man’s head beside […]

By Nicholas D. Kristof | Published on February 1, 2012 at 3:29 am