[President
Maithripala Sirisena said General Chandrasiri would be replaced by H.M.G.S.
Palihakkara, a longtime diplomat who once served on a Truth Commission that
recommended an inquiry into reports of grave human rights abuses committed
during the last phase of the war. The government website that announced the
change emphasized that the new governor was a “nonmilitary civil servant.”]
By Dharisha Bastians
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — A week
after taking office, Sri
Lanka’s new president reached out to ethnic Tamils in the country’s
north on Thursday by appointing a new governor for the Northern Province,
replacing a retired army commander with a retired diplomat.
Tamil
leaders have long complained that, five years after declaring victory over
Tamil separatists, Sri Lanka’s government remained reluctant to demilitarize
the former conflict zone, instead maintaining large detachments of army troops
and vast military compounds there. Particularly irritating to them was the man
chosen as the province’s governor: Maj. Gen. G. A. Chandrasiri, who had
commanded army forces during the last, brutal years of the 25-year civil war
that ended in 2009.
President
Maithripala Sirisena said General Chandrasiri would be replaced by H.M.G.S.
Palihakkara, a longtime diplomat who once served on a Truth Commission that
recommended an inquiry into reports of grave human rights abuses committed
during the last phase of the war. The government website that announced the
change emphasized that the new governor was a “nonmilitary civil servant.”
General
Chandrasiri’s removal was “one of the major requests” expressed by Tamil voters
in the most recent regional elections, said Abraham Sumanthiran, a legislator
with the Tamil National Alliance party.
“We
are hopeful of better times,” Mr. Sumanthiran said. “We think there is hope
with his appointment that things can improve.”
A
United Nations report has said that as many as 40,000 Tamil civilians may have
been killed during the final months of the war, largely because they were
confined to a small territory under heavy government shelling. Rights
organizations also accused the separatist rebels of recruiting child soldiers
and using civilians as shields.
During
the presidential campaign, some Tamil voters expressed skepticism that Mr.
Sirisena would offer significant changes in policy toward the north: He had
served as a lieutenant and loyalist to President Mahinda
Rajapaksa throughout the civil war and relied heavily on the same
electoral base of Sinhalese Buddhists who mainly supported the government
during the fighting.
Still,
Mr. Rajapaksa was deeply unpopular in the region, and turnout for his opponent
was high on Jan. 8 in many parts of it.
Ahilan
Kadirgamar, a political scientist based in the Northern Province capital,
Jaffna, said the new government would have to address a range of pressing
issues in the north, including collapsing incomes, social exclusion and the
return of land under military control. The opportunity for reconciliation
between the Sinhalese majority and northern Tamils, he added, could easily be
derailed by “an overbearing international community” pressing for
accountability.
That
said, he called the appointment of Mr. Palihakkara “the biggest opening we’ve
had since the end of the war.”
“At
certain times in our history, there comes a realization that the country has
gone too far down a particular path, and there is a shift in another direction,”
he said. “I see this as that kind of a moment. It’s a major opening in that
sense.”
STRIKES BY TAXI DRIVERS SPREAD ACROSS CHINA
[In an article published by
China Daily, one driver complained that he had to hand over more than
half of his fare receipts to the fleet company from which he rented his
vehicle. “I get up before 6 a.m. every morning and sit for about 14 hours a
day, only to get 2,000 yuan a month,” or about $325, said the man, Liu Xingyou.
“That’s unbearable.” His income is $70 less than the national average.]
BEIJING — Taxi drivers
in a half-dozen cities across China have gone on strike in recent days to
protest what they say are soaring expenses, shrinking incomes and the
competition presented by a spate of new ride-hailing apps.
Early in the
week, hundreds of drivers in the northeastern rust-belt city of Changchun
blocked roads, prompting the intervention of police officers, who arrested
scores of drivers, according to social media postings that were later deleted
by censors.
Cabbies in
other cities, including Chengdu, in Sichuan Province, and Nanchang, the capital
of Jiangxi Province, also took part in organized work stoppages.
Last week, a
two-day strike in Nanjing, a prosperous city in the Yangtze River delta, left
thousands of people scrambling to find alternate transportation at the city’s
airport, train stations and bus terminals.
In an article published by
China Daily, one driver complained that he had to hand over more than
half of his fare receipts to the fleet company from which he rented his
vehicle. “I get up before 6 a.m. every morning and sit for about 14 hours a
day, only to get 2,000 yuan a month,” or about $325, said the man, Liu Xingyou.
“That’s unbearable.” His income is $70 less than the national average.
Although taxi
strikes in China are not new, the cascade of copycat
protests around the country highlights the organizational power of social
media, presenting a challenge to a government that has little tolerance for
labor unrest.
According to China Labor Bulletin,
a watchdog group based in Hong Kong, worker activism has surged over the past
year, with 569 episodes counted in the final quarter of last year, or three
times the number in the same period in 2013.
The group said
the increase in protests and strikes by truck drivers, construction workers and
miners was probably because of a slowing economy, but also because of the
spread of inexpensive smartphones that have allowed organizers to spread the
word about unpaid wages, broken contracts and other labor complaints.
Cabdrivers in
China have long complained about low wages and long days, but the recent
strikes appear to have also been fueled by the spread of ride-hailing apps like
Uber and a flurry of news media attention to what many drivers say is unfair
competition.
Last week, the central government
introduced new rules that
prohibit privately owned vehicles from using such apps to offer rides. In an
announcement posted on its website last Thursday, the Ministry of Transport
said that only licensed taxis could use ride-hailing apps, a ruling that would
seem to favor homegrown Chinese apps that allow users to summon licensed taxis
by paying an additional fee. “While we encourage innovation, we prohibit
private cars from using platforms to participate in the ‘hired car’ business,”
the ministry wrote.
Uber drivers
in a number of Chinese cities, including Shanghai and Chongqing, have been
fined in recent weeks, but the service remains widely available. Huang Min, a
spokeswoman for Uber in China, said the company had not been contacted by the
authorities.
Geoffrey
Crothall of China Labor Bulletin said the news media’s focus on ride-hailing
apps obscured the main complaint of the Chinese taxi drivers: that rapacious
fleet companies charge onerous rental fees that leave drivers with little to
show for their work. “Drivers are basically held hostage to the companies, and
they are constantly getting squeezed,” he said. “But the discussion of these
apps seems to have encouraged taxi drivers to press their case and try to draw
attention to their longstanding grievances.”
The strikes
seem to be having the desired effect, and a number of newspapers have recently
published commentaries supporting the drivers. In an editorial published on
Jan. 6, the official People’s Daily described the current system as “deformed”
and called for an end to the monopoly enjoyed by cab companies, many of which
are owned by well-connected businessmen. “The drivers are in an absolutely weak
position,” the editorial said. “It’s time to reform the taxi system. The
matters of the market should be left for the market to decide.”
Shanshan
Wang contributed reporting, and Mia Li contributed research.
