SARRC festival in Colombo!




- The Sudar Oli Editorial

(August 01, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The SARRC conference is being hosted in Colombo with great fanfare and amidst tight security measures. The leaders will hold their final meeting following the meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the SARRC countries. But the issue before the country is how this occasion for which large sums of money are expended is going to help the people.

The question is whether this will wind up with the election of President Rajapakse as the chairman of the SARRC or whether it can bring fruitful results. The leaders of the SARRC countries are holding talks in Colombo at a crucial time, when several issues have become acute.

It is said that the Summit is scheduled to discuss issues such as crushing terrorism, alleviation of poverty, pollution, increasing food prices, fuel price hike etc which are of international significance.

India, which is described as a sub-continent, is the largest country in the SARRC. Recently, there had been a chain of bomb blasts in Indian cities such as Ahamadebad and Bangalore causing serious destruction and it is alleged that this was due to cross border terrorism.

Furthermore, authoritative sources maintain that an intelligence establishment in the region is responsible for the horrible bomb blasts opposite the office of the Indian High Commission at Kabul recently.

Meanwhile, there was a clash between the Indian and Pakistani troops in Kashmir along the border between the two countries.

It is also relevant here to point out that bilateral issues cannot be raised at the sittings of the SARRC Summit.

Therefore, meeting of the leaders becomes meaningless if such serious issues cannot be discussed or sorted out. The government of Sri Lanka is trying to taint the struggle of the Tamil nation as terrorism during the Summit!

(An English translation of the Editorial in the Sudar Oli, a Tamil daily based in Colombo)
- Sri Lanka Guardian