Losing touch with old friends

Rarely has a government soiled its reputation as dramatically as Sri Lankas. In recent months President Mahinda Rajapaksas regime...

Rarely has a government soiled its reputation as dramatically as Sri Lankas. In recent months President Mahinda Rajapaksas regime has won a war and lost the love of many allies.

Its alleged wartime and other abuses make a grim catalogue: thousands of Tamil civilians allegedly killed by army shelling during the rebels last stand; scores of Tamils disappeared; nearly 300,000 Tamil war-displaced callously interned; murder and intimidation of journalists including J.S. Tissainayagam,sentenced to 20 years hard labour on August 31st for criticising the armys tactics.

There is not much high-minded western countries to whom Sri Lanka once looked for aid money can do about this. Mr Rajapaksa has found alternative friends,in China,Libya,Pakistan and others,who recently scotched a European effort to launch a war-crimes investigation into Sri Lanka. But the Europeans do have one wrench on Mr Rajapaksas government: a trade concession known as GSP Plus. This boon,which has helped make exports to the EU the countrys biggest source of foreign exchange,worth 3.3 billion last year,is up for review. Judging by an EU-commissioned report on Sri Lankas compliance with its terms,which include stipulations on human rights,it can kiss the concession goodbye.

The confidential 130-page report,which has been obtained by The Economist,concludes that Sri Lanka has failed to honour important human-rights commitments,and is ineligible for GSP Plus. Widespread police torture,abductions of journalists,politicised courts and uninvestigated disappearances have all played a part in creating a state of complete or virtually complete impunity in Sri Lanka. The internment of the Tamil displaced,which the government claims is necessary to weed out the last Tamil Tiger rebels and to protect them from munitions left in their fields,is a novel form of unacknowledged detention.

A final decision on GSP Plus is not due until October. The government,which barred the reports authors from visiting Sri Lanka,called the study outrageous but seems resigned to losing the trade preference: a senior official in the trade ministry,S. Ranugge,admitted: GSP Plus is very unlikely.

Perhaps this does not bother Mr Rajapaksa: defying the West is part of his appeal. Anyway,his minions recently secured a 2.6 billion loan from the IMF. But as an indicator of where one of Asias oldest democracies may be headed,it should worry Sri Lankans,and all who wish their country well.

The Economist Newspaper Limited 2009