Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
04COLOMBO117
2004-01-22 11:17:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Colombo
Cable title:  

OFFICIAL INFORMAL NUMBER 009 (01/22/04)

Tags:  AMGT CE MV LTTE 
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This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 COLOMBO 000117 

SIPDIS

OFFICIAL INFORMAL

FOR SA/INS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/22/14
TAGS: AMGT CE MV LTTE
SUBJECT: OFFICIAL INFORMAL NUMBER 009 (01/22/04)


Classified by DCM James F. Entwistle for reasons 1.5 b and
d.

CONTENTS: LTTE DECLINES TOKYO FOLLOWUP MTG INVITE
PROVINCIAL COUNCIL ELECTIONS ON APRIL 28?
UPDATE ON MINISTERIAL OFFICIALS IN CHARGE
BAD BEHAVIOR GIVES UNP BLACK EYE
DISCUSSION ON IMF VISIT
MPP

LTTE DECLINES TOKYO FOLLOWUP MTG INVITE
---------------------------------------

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 COLOMBO 000117

SIPDIS

OFFICIAL INFORMAL

FOR SA/INS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/22/14
TAGS: AMGT CE MV LTTE
SUBJECT: OFFICIAL INFORMAL NUMBER 009 (01/22/04)


Classified by DCM James F. Entwistle for reasons 1.5 b and
d.

CONTENTS: LTTE DECLINES TOKYO FOLLOWUP MTG INVITE
PROVINCIAL COUNCIL ELECTIONS ON APRIL 28?
UPDATE ON MINISTERIAL OFFICIALS IN CHARGE
BAD BEHAVIOR GIVES UNP BLACK EYE
DISCUSSION ON IMF VISIT
MPP

LTTE DECLINES TOKYO FOLLOWUP MTG INVITE
--------------


1. (C) FYI. Late January 22, the pro-LTTE website,
"TamilNet," reported that the Tigers will not attend the
Tokyo donors followup meeting scheduled for January 23
in Colombo. LTTE political leader Thamilchelvam
declined the invitation on the grounds that there was
"no political stability and unified leadership of
government in Colombo now." As reported, the Jan. 23
meeting, hosted by Japanese Special Envoy Akashi, will
bring bilateral and multilateral donors together with
the GSL to discuss assistance issues. The Ambassador
will represent the U.S. at the meeting. By the way, the
LTTE turn down of its invitation was pretty much
expected.


2. (C) In other news regarding the Tigers, LTTE spokesman
Anton Balasingham has spoken out in strident opposition to
the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP)-Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna
(JVP) alliance. In a January 21 report on pro-Tiger website
"TamilNet," Balasingham asserted that:

"The memorandum of understanding signed between the JVP and
the SLFP after a year of intense dialogue fails to produce
any concrete, realistic formula for a negotiated settlement
of the Tamil national question. Rather, this anti-peace
political pact articulating an incoherent, confused and
mutually contradictory position on a serious national issue
might create objective conditions for the resumption of
ethnic war."


3. (C) Balasingham went on to add that the Tiger leadership
was "studying with great concern the unified reemergence of
Sinhala-Buddhist chauvinistic forces under the new banner of
the so-called United People's Freedom Alliance. This
alliance is opposed to peace and peaceful resolution of the
ethnic conflict." Balasingham's comments come amid other
TamilNet headlines stating things like "LTTE commander warns
of grave consequences" and "Tamils ready to face war."

Clearly the LTTE is a tad restless. (POL)

PROVINCIAL COUNCIL ELECTIONS ON APRIL 28?
--------------


4. (C) FYI. At its weekly meeting on January 21, in
which both the President and PM were in attendance, the
full Cabinet reportedly agreed to hold the Provincial
Council (PC) elections on April 28. (The President's
attendance at this weekly meeting is a great rarity,
especially in these hard-bitten cohabitation days. It
is not clear whether her attendance presages some sort
of thaw with the PM, but most observers do not think so.
By the way, we have heard that the President-PM joint
committee meetings have been further postponed.)
According to contacts, the details of the PC elections
and possible electoral reforms to be implemented prior
to them may be finalized in the coming days. Media
reports suggest that the apparent bipartisan decision on
when to hold the PC elections may preclude the
possibility of an earlier general election. While we
think scheduled PC elections may lower the probability
of a sudden general election, we note that there are
still a lot of calendar days between now and April 28.
(POL)

UPDATE ON MINISTERIAL OFFICIALS IN CHARGE
--------------


5. (SBU) FYI. Pls also pass to INR/NESA: In light of
the President's November 4 ministerial takeovers, we
want to flag the names of officials she has put in
charge. Here goes:

-- In the Defense Ministry, Cyril Herath replaced Austin
Fernando as Secretary. (Herath represented the Defense
Ministry in New Delhi during the recent defense
cooperation talks.)
-- Tilak Ranaviraja replaced Kumar Abeysinghe as
Secretary of the Ministry of Information and

SIPDIS
Telecommunications (formerly Ministry of Mass
Communications).
-- M.N. Junaid remains as Secretary of the Ministry of
Internal Security (formerly the Ministry of Interior).
The President herself remains in charge of all three
ministries and, as such, has not appointed any
ministers. (POL)

BAD BEHAVIOR GIVES UNP BLACK EYE
--------------

6. (SBU) FYI. Just want to flag some local stories
that are giving the UNP government a black eye. In an
ever deepening scandal, Thilanga Sumathipala, Sri Lankan
Telecom chairman and president of Sri Lanka's cricket
board (both major jobs here, perhaps the latter more
so),is accused of massive corruption and connections to
a well-known underworld figure who was slain in a
courtroom in Colombo recently. Sumathipala, who is in
jail pending trial, is a GSL strong supporter and donor,
and the PM has resisted pressure to fire him from either
his telecom or cricket board jobs. In a separate
incident that made the UNP look a bit thuggish, the sons
of two GSL ministers (Mahinda Wijesekara and S.B.
Dissanayake) were recently arrested for allegedly
attacking another minister's (Kabir Hashem) relatives
outside a Colombo nightclub. The three attackers were
released on bail and are awaiting trial. These things
go up and down, but the UNP is taking some flak for
alleged bad behavior of late. (POL)

Discussion on IMF Visit
--------------


7. (C) We talked with Jeremy Carter the IMF ResRep today.
He said the visit last week was not great, that the GSL did
not rise to the occasion and that the loan tranche for this
year was unlikely, as the IMF was putting Sri Lanka back in
the Article IV process. The board will meet in March and
another review will likely take place in May. We will do
more front channel on this next week, but wanted to send a
few quick points:

--according to Carter, missing the USD 80 million loan
tranche is unlikely to cause a big problem, unless GSL tries
to defend its currency in an unwise fashion.

--there is the potential for some problems if WB and
Japanese hold off on their budgetary assistance, as
potential amount is closer to USD 200 million. Required
financing could affect the fiscal deficit target and could
put pressure on interest rates.

We're going to try to get with WB and Japanese to see what
more we can glean. (ECON)

MPP
---


8. (U) FYI - we're working hard to get draft MPPs for both
our countries into SA next week as requested but continue to
be plagued with software/database problems. Latest woe is
that trying to print out a copy results in being thrown into
a worldwide queue that may or may not spit out a copy some
hours from now (all of this from the MPP helpdesk which also
told us they can't do anything to help speed along our print
request). (DCM)

LUNSTEAD