SRI LANKA: PRESIDENT APPOINTS BROTHER AS MINISTER OF PORTS

UNCLAS COLOMBO 000720

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

SIPDIS

STATE FOR SCA/INS
MCC FOR S. GROFF, D. TETER, D. NASSIRY AND E. BURKE
TREASURY FOR LESLIE HULL

E.O 12958: N/A
TAGS: ECON EINV KCOR PGOV CE

SUBJECT: SRI LANKA: PRESIDENT APPOINTS BROTHER AS MINISTER OF PORTS
AND AVIATION

REF: A) COLOMBO 263 B) COLOMBO 324 C) COLOMBO 394
D)COLOMBO 502 E) COLOMBO 698 F) 06 COLOMBO 2086


1. (SBU) SUMMARY: President Rajapaksa has appointed his older
brother, Chamal, as Minister of Ports and Aviation. The position
makes Chamal responsible for oversight of several multi-million
dollar ventures that the President has pushed, including an
international port and airport in his home district, and Mihin
Lanka, the new budget national carrier named after President Mahinda
Rajapaksa. The President himself had held the ports and aviation
portfolio since dismissing former Minister Mangala Samaraweera in
February. By appointing his brother to the post, the President has
again acted to maintain his immediate family's tight grip on the
most lucrative and powerful ministries. End summary.


2. (SBU) On 16 May 2007, Chamal Rajapakasa, Minister of Irrigation
and Water Management (and brother of President Mahinda Rajapaksa),
was sworn in as Minister of Ports and Aviation at the President's
offices. Chamal will continue to hold the Irrigation and Water
Management portfolio. The President had served as the acting
Minister of Ports and Aviation after dismissing former Minister
Mangala Samaraweera from the position on February 9, ostensibly for
breaching party discipline (ref A). Instead, Samaraweera appears to
have been sacked because he opposed accumulation of executive power
by the President and his brothers (ref B). After his dismissal,
Samaraweera publicly stated that he had resisted the President's
effort to ram through approvals of a budget airline named after the
president and contracts for Chinese companies to build a major new
port in the President's home district of Hambantota (ref C and D).

CHAMAL LESS INFLUENTIAL THAN HIS BROTHERS
--------------


3. (SBU) Chamal is the eldest of President Rajapaksa's seven
siblings (Ref E). With Mahinda as President, Basil as the Special
Advisor to the President, and Gothabaya as the Secretary of Defense,
Chamal is the least influential of the clan. Prior to his current
postings, Chamal served as the Minister of Agriculture
Development/Plantation Industries.

COMMENT: KEEPING THE PORTS AND AVIATION
MINISTRY UNDER THE RAJAPAKSA CLAN
--------------

4. (SBU) The Ports and Aviation Ministry is significant to the
President's agenda. Various donors and investors have committed
over a billion dollars to expand the Colombo sea and air ports and
for infrastructure projects in Hambantota. In addition to the
Hambantota port project, the President is also pushing development
of a new international airport in Weerawila (also near the
President's home district). The Hambantota projects have been
controversial, because they do not appear to meet real economic
demands and because the airport would threaten a vulnerable bird
sanctuary (ref F).


5. (SBU) Recently, the President seemed eager to regain the popular
Samaraweera's support by offering to bring him back into the
Cabinet. Samaraweera is reported to have insisted on regaining his
original portfolios. The President's appointment of his brother to
the Ports and Aviation job both indicates that a rapprochement with
Samaraweera is not in the offing and that the President wanted
someone in this particular ministry who would not stand in the way
of his signature port, airport, and airline projects.

BLAKE