[The statement ran
counter to promises Mr. Rajapaksa had made to Tamil groups and to foreign
governments that he would devolve considerable authority to the country’s
provinces, including those with Tamil majorities in the north and east. Indeed,
the 13th Amendment to Sri Lanka’s Constitution requires such a devolution of
authority, and Mr. Rajapaksa had promised to “build on” that amendment.]
 |
| President Mahinda Rajapaksa |
NEW DELHI —
The president of Sri
Lanka appeared to rule out greater political autonomy for the
country’s Tamil ethnic minority on Monday, despite promising for years to
support the idea in the wake of a bloody civil war.
President Mahinda
Rajapaksa traveled to Trincomalee, a city on Sri Lanka’s east
coast that was once claimed by Tamil separatists, and delivered an Independence
Day speech that both rejected new power for Tamil-dominated provincial councils
and warned foreign governments not to interfere in the country’s internal
affairs.
“When the people live
together in unity, there are no racial or religious differences,” Mr. Rajapaksa
said in the speech. “Therefore, it is not practical for this country to have
different administrations based on ethnicity. The solution is to live together
in this country with equal rights for all communities.”
The statement ran
counter to promises Mr. Rajapaksa had made to Tamil groups and to foreign
governments that he would devolve considerable authority to the country’s
provinces, including those with Tamil majorities in the north and east. Indeed,
the 13th Amendment to Sri Lanka’s Constitution requires such a devolution of
authority, and Mr. Rajapaksa had promised to “build on” that amendment.
In a joint statement with
the secretary general of the United Nations in 2009, for instance, Mr.
Rajapaksa “expressed his firm resolve to proceed with the implementation of the
13th Amendment, as well as to begin a broader dialogue with all parties,
including the Tamil parties in the new circumstances, to further enhance this
process and to bring about lasting peace and development in Sri Lanka.”
And as recently as a
year ago, the external affairs minister of India, S. M. Krishna, said that Mr.
Rajapaksa had, in a meeting, “assured me that he stands by his commitment to
pursuing the 13th Amendment-plus approach.”
Two weeks later, though,
Mr. Rajapaksa denied giving any such assurances, and his government has sent
clear signals in recent months that it had no intention of building on the 13th
Amendment and may move to repeal it.
When the Sri Lankan
Supreme Court struck down a law in September 2012 because it violated the
amendment, the ruling infuriated the president and soon led to impeachment
proceedings against the chief justice. In October, his brother, Defense
Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, called for the amendment’s repeal.
“This speech makes even
more clear that the Rajapaksas don’t have any interest in sharing power,” said
Alan Keenan, a senior analyst with the International Crisis Group.
The United States has
expressed concerns about the impeachment of the chief justice, and the United
Nations Human Rights Council is expected in March to ask Sri Lanka about its
progress on measures meant to heal the conflict with the Tamils, including
investigation of alleged human rights violations during the civil war and
greater autonomy for Tamil areas. About 18 percent of Sri Lankans are Tamils;
most of the rest are Sinhalese. Tamils also account for a major part of the
population of southeastern India.
Mr. Rajapaksa’s speech
came nearly four years after his government defeated the separatist Tamil Tiger
rebels after decades of bloody struggle. The United Nations has estimated that
80,000 to 100,000 people were killed during the war; other estimates put the
number higher.
The Tamil National
Alliance, the main ethnic Tamil political party in Sri Lanka, said in a
statement that the United Nations Human Rights Council must take “stern action”
against the Sri Lankan government, which it said had not investigated abuses in
good faith, The Associated Press reported.
The Commonwealth Human
Rights Initiative and the Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and Justice released a joint statement on
Monday calling on Secretary General Ban Ki-moon of the United Nations to
“recognize the continuing deterioration of democracy, human rights and rule of
law in its totality” in Sri Lanka.
THE MUMBAI/NEW YORK PHOTO PROJECT: MEET THE ‘WALLAS’
[Change is also under way at New York's Chelsea Market, which specializes in gourmet food and is housed in a collection of industrial buildings that once was home to the National Biscuit Company, or Nabisco. In November, the owner of Chelsea Market, Jamestown Properties, an acquisition and management firm based in Cologne, Germany, and Atlanta, ignited public outrage when the city approved plans to add office towers to the landmark structure. Construction on the towers is scheduled to begin in 2015.]
By Nisha Sondhe And Neha Thirani Bagri
While much has changed in New York and Mumbai over the past 50 years,
the bazaar, or the marketplace, is still the center of commercial activity for
both these cities.
In both these cities, the commercial capitals of their respective
nations, you can get almost anything you want, at any time, day or night - as
long as you know the right person to procure it, or "walla" in India.
And in both cities, sometimes these wallas drive a hard bargain. In this
edition of the Mumbai/New York photo project, Nisha Sondhe documents some of these marketplaces
where products and services range from the brilliant to the bizarre.
In Mumbai, the wholesale flower market in
Dadar, where one can buy flowers brought in from all over
Maharashtra and Gujarat, opens each morning at 4:30 and closes at 8 p.m. The
market, under the overpass next to Dadar station, is a window into India's
thriving flower trade. The Chelsea flower district, a
century-old institution in Manhattan, is hub for unusual flowers, exotic
plants, vases and garden accessories. This market opens at 5 a.m. and is also
best visited early in the day, when the produce is the freshest.
Crawford Market, established in 1869 by the first municipal
commissioner of Mumbai, Arthur Crawford, is still the best place for wholesale
bargains in the city.
The market, which is now called the Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Market, was
in danger of being demolished a few years ago but was saved thanks to the
efforts of conservationists. While the market is traditionally meant for
wholesale fruit and vegetable trading, these days many stores are stocked with foreign goods like Camay soap, Kraft cheese, Fa
deodorant or a pack of Pampers diapers.
Change is also under way at New York's Chelsea Market, which
specializes in gourmet food and is housed in a collection of industrial
buildings that once was home to the National Biscuit Company,
or Nabisco. In November, the owner of Chelsea Market, Jamestown Properties, an
acquisition and management firm based in Cologne, Germany, and Atlanta, ignited public outrage when the city approved
plans to add office towers to the landmark structure. Construction on the
towers is scheduled to begin in 2015.
The market, which attracts approximately 120,000 visitors a week,
sells products ranging from fine foods and baked goods, to books, flowers and
kitchen accessories.
Dhobi Ghat,
a famous open-air laundry where dhobis (washerfolk) wash and dry clothes in
full view of the public, is a source of much fascination for visitors to
Mumbai. Rows upon rows of concrete wash pens come together to make the world's
largest outdoor laundry.
Meanwhile, laundromats in New York, while not as visually interesting,
have their own inherent drama. They are places where "irregular things
happen," according to a New York Times article, and where
people "flirt, debate, gossip, argue, break up, discover love, loiter, do
business and just about anything else that can be squeezed into 27-minute
heavy-soil cycles." In the older apartment buildings in New York City,
personal washing equipment was often prohibited, and the city now has 2,654
self-service laundries to fulfill that need.
The act of washing clothes has inspired art as well. In 2011, a dhobi
is one of the main characters in "Dhobi Ghat: Mumbai
Diaries," a 2011 movie directed by Kiran Rao, and a 1985 cable
TV movie directed by Robert Altman, "Laundromat,"
explored the drama that ensues when two women air out their dirty laundry.
