It was a week where the Government was engaged in wars on two different fronts.
The latest one is the diplomatic war fought this week thousands of miles away, in the Big Apple or New York. Instead of artillery or multi-barrel rockets, this was with the use of words and deeds.
Troops now on the doorstep of Tiger guerrilla strongholds in the Wanni carried out a series of probes into their enemy positions this week. This was whilst directing artillery fire at their targets.
Mention R2P, the international shorthand for Responsibility to Protect and people blow hot and cold. In Sri Lanka it would be mainly hot. Particularly so after former Australian foreign minister Gareth Evans’ Neelan Tiruchelvam Memorial Lecture last year when he introduced R2P to a Sri Lankan audience as head of the International Crisis Group that is in the forefront of the advocacy of this concept.
The ‘fuel price’ was the burning issue in the House this week, with heated arguments and accusations from the main opposition UNP and JVP MP’s against the government not passing the benefits of the recent downward trend in world oil prices to local consumers.
When more than 100 world leaders addressed the General Assembly last week, one of the biggest underlying fears expressed in many of the speeches was the possible impact of the current US financial crisis on the developing world.
