Special Media Reaction: Ambassador's January 10

UNCLAS COLOMBO 000072

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR S/ES, INR/MR, PA
SA/INS (CAMP, SIM, GOWER) SA/PD (SCENSNY, ROGERS,
PALLADINO); SSA/PAS

UNCLASSIFIED SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958:N/A
TAGS: PHUM KPAO PTER EAID OIIP PREL CE LTTE
SUBJECT: Special Media Reaction: Ambassador's January 10
Speech to the American Chamber of Commerce on Peace Process

REFTELS: A) Colombo 2166 (2005) B) Colombo 0054


1. (U) Summary: English and Sinhala media January 11 ran
bold front-page headlines and lead stories highlighting
Ambassador's January 10 speech to the American Chamber of
Commerce in which he noted that peace should be the nation's
highest priority, criticized recent LTTE violence and lauded
the GOSL's restrained response to LTTE attacks. Mainstream
and pro-LTTE internet news pages also published excerpts
from the speech. The business sections of local papers also
played the story up, emphasizing the Ambassador's assertion
to the business community that a potential Free Trade
Agreement with the US should not be the primary focus of the
GSL and the Sri Lankan business community, but that instead
Sri Lanka should focus on increasing overall trade and
playing a more helpful role in concluding the WTO Doha Round
in 2006. TV news on main channels did not run related
stories, but radio stations added speech as main news item
in their news reports. End Summary.


2. (U) Government-owned English Daily News and Sinhala
newspaper Dinamina bannered in large font, "America warns
Tigers." Mainstream independent Daily Mirror and Sinhala
counterpart Lankadeepa led with, "U.S. gives tough warning
to LTTE." The Sinhala nationalist Island, and its sister
Sinhala paper Divaina bannered, "US: Return to war at high
cost." The independent Lakbima, the only Sinhala paper
without an English counterpart, did not carry the story.
Mainstream Lanka Business Online and Lanka Academic
prominently featured the speech as well. The Financial
Times, published with the Daily Mirror, bannered, "Lanka
missing `US investment' bus: Ambassador Lunstead tells Lanka
not to bank too much on FTA but improve conditions to draw
FDI."


3. (U) Pro-LTTE media emphasized the consequences of war
according to the Ambassador's statement. Government-owned
Tamil daily Thinakaran led with "If the Tigers go back to
war there could be serious effects, warns America," and
Independent Tamil daily Thinakkural bannered, "If the Tigers
go back to war it will have to face a very strong military,
warns America." Pro-LTTE newspaper Sudar Oli ignored the
statement, while Tamil Net, an organ of the LTTE,
underplayed the speech, with a weak headline, "US wants cost
of return to war to be high." Popular independent Tamil
newspaper Virakesari ignored the speech altogether.


4. (U) Comment: Bold, front-page coverage of the
Ambassador's remarks to the Colombo business community
indicates the Sri Lankan media keenly follows every nuance
of our position on the peace process. PD alerted all media
to full text of speech posted immediately on mission web
site. We will continue to monitor media for editorial
reaction to the Ambassador's speech, which should appear in
the coming days. The full text of the speech may be found at
http://srilanka.usembassy.gov/. End Comment.

Lunstead