Sri Lanka major opposition UNP protests at Hambanthota

UNP MP Eran Wickramarathna at empty airport of Mattala

Sri Lanka's major opposition United National Part (UNP) held a protest demonstration today in Hambanthota against the police inaction before the attack at the UNP MPs at Mattala airport and Hambanthota harbor.

A group of UNP MPs and Provincial Councilors went to Hambanthota today from Colombo and began their protest before Hambanthota police station. A large number of local government members and activists also participated in the protest.

They demanded to arrest the culprits including the Mayor of the Hambanthota Municipal Council who was seen wielding a pistol.

The protestors handed over a petition to the police and marched to the Hambanthota town.

The protest was led by UNP leadership council chairman Karu Jayasuriya. Hambanthota district MP Sajith Premadasa also addressed the people.

Networked solar power project to be commissioned in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka's first networked solar power project located in Gannoruwa in Hambanthota district is to be commissioned officially on August 08.

The Ministry of Power and Energy says that the project will generate 500 kilowatt.

The project was implemented with the assistance of South Korea government. The government of South Korea provided Rs. 412 million for the project.

The Gannoruwa solar power plant is a part of the solar power project of Hambanthota district. The Japanese government also provides assistance to the project.

The entire project will add over 700 kilowatts to the national grid.


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China's Sri Lanka port raises concern

(February 18, Colombo - Lanka Polity)  We feel the following UPI article is significant since it reveals the Indian pessimism regarding China's involvements in the affairs of the Indian Ocean. It also discusses about the Hambanthota port and its implications on international affairs.

China's construction of a port in Sri Lanka and a Chinese admiral's suggestion Beijing build a naval base in the Gulf of Aden has raised fears in the Middle East that a confrontation between China and India is looming along vital energy export routes.

Both the Asian titans, whose economies continue to expand despite the global financial meltdown, are heavily dependent on Middle Eastern oil and will become more so as supplies dwindle.

The Indians are building their naval forces across these vital shipping lanes through which some 85 percent of China's oil supplies pass along with raw materials from Africa.

Inevitably, these will increasingly encroach on Middle Eastern and African waters as Beijing seeks to protect the economic arteries on which it is becoming increasingly dependent all the way from the Persian Gulf to the South China Sea.

This is causing grave concern in India, which is vying for the same energy and mineral resources as China.

This raises the prospect, distant though it may be, of a confrontation between the two. The region is vital too for the Gulf states as an energy export and trading route as they increasingly look eastward.

There is also the possibility that one day China and the United States, which has long been the dominant naval force in the Indian Ocean, may also clash.

New Delhi views China's efforts to expand its regional clout through its "string of pearls" strategy -- ringing India with naval bases and electronic listening posts -- as an attempt to muscle into waters India has long considered its own.

Indeed, the Chinese are seeking to protect their maritime trade further east as well in the Strait of Malacca, a major shipping choke point between Malaysia and Indonesia that links the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea.

Beijing wants to ensure unhindered access to the narrow waterway for its energy shipments.

The construction of the $1 billion container port at Hambantota, until recently a fishing hamlet on Sri Lanka's southeastern coast, illustrates how the Chinese thrust into the Indian Ocean is becoming more pronounced.

The deep-water port will include a development zone and an oil refinery.

Over the last few years, the Chinese have built a similar port at Gwadar on Pakistan's Arabian Sea coast, which will eventually be the terminal for pipelines carrying Gulf crude and natural gas to western China.

Another is planned at Chittagong in Bangladesh, an oil refinery terminal in the northern Bay of Bengal east of India.

These could become bases for China's growing submarine fleet, a potential threat to the arterial shipping lanes running east from the Persian Gulf.

The Chinese are reported to have established a naval base in Myanmar and intelligence surveillance bases on islands across the Bay of Bengal.

Another is reportedly being built on Marao Island in the Maldives chain that runs south toward the British base of Diego Garcia, currently manned by U.S. forces.

Beijing says it has no interest in establishing major foreign bases so far from home. But as its economy mushrooms and its naval forces swell, it will inevitably require bases to project its growing power.

China is reported to be interested in establishing facilities in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Myanmar, Pakistan and Thailand.

In December, Rear Adm. Yin Zhou, a senior officer at the Chinese navy's Equipment Research Center, proposed a naval base be established in the Gulf of Aden, which would take Chinese expansion even further west than it is now.

Ostensibly, Yin's idea was to support China's naval flotilla attached to the international anti-piracy task force deployed off Somalia.

There is no question that piracy is a growing problem, not only in the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea, but in the Strait of Malacca and elsewhere.

The International Maritime Bureau, which monitors global piracy, said there were 42 attacks on oil tankers around the world in 2009, a 40 percent increase over 2008. And most took place off Somalia and the Arabian Peninsula.

But given China's naval expansion, it would make sense for Beijing to seek a military foothold in the Gulf of Aden, adding another strategic dimension and threat of conflict to a region already riddled with risk.

A man trampled to death at Sri Lanka President's ancestral home

(October 03, Colombo - Lanka Polity) An 85-year old Sri Lankan man was trampled to death recently by the crowds that thronged to grab free food served by President Mahinda Rajapakse at his ancestral home in deep south Hambanthota district, reported the latest edition of Sinhala weekend newspaper 'Lanka.' 

G. Arnolis that lived 12, Akuressa, Amboda was trampled on September at Medamulana Walawwa, the ancestral mansion of Rajapakses that rule Sri Lanka today, said the newspaper although the incident was not news for other media.

Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapakse is in a practice of having large meetings of voters of the Provinces where elections are held, at the Prime Minister's official residence Temple Trees in which he resides now. Free food is served from the President's budget for these crowds after the meetings. Occasionally, such meetings are held in Kandy Presidential Palace and some other places as well during election campaigns.

Southern Provincial Council of his home province is having elections on October 10 and a massive gathering place was prepared in a reclaimed paddy field close to Medamulana Walawwa for meetings and to serve free food to voters.

All these actions are against the election law of the state but no Sri Lankan is worried about laws furthermore now.