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DG National Security Studies warns: Hasty recognition of Taliban likely to send wrong signal to Tamil and Muslim communities here

Recommends nothing short of death penalty for terrorism
By Shamindra Ferdinando
Director General of Institute of National Security Studies Sri Lanka (INSSSL) Prof. Rohan Gunaratne says hasty recognition of the illegitimate Taliban administration would be inimical to Sri Lanka.
Prof. Gunaratne asserts that consequences of such a move would be catastrophic and may result in domestic challenges to the government.
In an exclusive interview on ‘Hide Park’ on Derana 24×7 recently, Prof. Gunaratne, the author of ‘Afghanistan After the Western Drawdown’ explained how a wrong move on Sri Lanka’s part vis-a-vis Afghanistan could give a wrong signal to both Tamil and Muslim communities here as well as to the international community.
Pointing out that Taliban hadn’t regained power through an internationally accepted election, Prof. Gunaratne who earlier had the opportunity to interview senior Taliban figures emphasized the responsibility on the part of the current government to await the UN’s response to the developments in Afghanistan.
Gunaratne succeeded Asanga Abeygoonasekera as DG of INSSSL, which comes under the purview of the Defence Ministry. The change took place in the wake of the 2019 presidential election. Abeygoonasekera, who contested the Gampaha district at the 2015 general election on the UNP ticket had been the founding DG of the outfit established by then President Maithripala Sirisena and later became an advisor to Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa.
Declaring that Taliban hadn’t changed and essentially remained an extremely violent outfit among international coalition of terrorist organizations, Prof. Gunaratne advocated toughest possible measures against terrorism.
The academic emphasized; “Nothing short of death penalty for terrorism. The government should consider, at least at this stage, especially after developments in Afghanistan and the continuing presence of Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, how to deal with the situation.”
Gunaratne asserted the importance of the government reaching consensus on what he called proper legal and policy framework to manage external threats.
Prof. Gunaratne appeared on Derana 24×7 before the Islamic State mounted a suicide attack just outside the Kabul airport compound. The single blast claimed the lives of nearly 180 persons, including 13 US personnel.
Prof. Gunaratne advised that Sri Lanka shouldn’t recognize any group that hadn’t gained power through constitutional means. The official stressed the importance of having a proper general election in Afghanistan, formation of an all-inclusive government followed by UN recognition before Sri Lanka decided on the issue at hand.
Gunaratne, who first cut his teeth as a journalist in the now defunct Sun newspaper in the early ‘80s emphasized the need to examine carefully what was going on there before Sri Lanka recognized the Taliban whom he categorized as new actors.
During the interview Prof. Guneratne made reference to the Islamic State as the party behind those who carried out the 2019 Easter Sunday carnage here blamed primarily on the NTJ (National Thowheed Jamaat) now a proscribed group.
About a week ago Illankai Thamil Arasu Kadchi (ITAK) member and Jaffna District TNA lawmaker S. Sridharan compared the Taliban’s triumphant return to Kabul and the Tamil community’s struggle here. The MP’s declaration didn’t receive the backing of his party.
Former Director General of Presidential Media Division (PMD) and the incumbent Director General of the Government Information Department Mohan Samaranayake told ITN yesterday (29) that recognition of a country by a particular government would depend on its agenda. Samaranayake was responding to the interviewer’s query regarding China quite clearly indicating its desire to work with the Taliban.
Samaranayake, formerly with the UN mission in Colombo said that recognition of Afghanistan would largely depend on five permanent members of the UN Security Council comprising the US, Russia, China, UK and France.
Both Prof. Gunaratne and Samaranayake found fault with US strategy vis-a-vis Afghanistan with the former alleging that the failure on the part of successive US political leaderships though the US military enjoyed superiority over any other military.
Samaranayake discussed the challenge experienced by China and Pakistan in the wake of rapid changes in Afghanistan. ITN interviewed Samaranayake close on the heels of a devastating Islamic State attack directed at Afghans seeking to leave the country and the withdrawing Americans.
Sri Lanka’s Ambassador in Kabul retired Navy Chief Admiral Piyal de Silva returned to Colombo before the fall of President Ghanis’s administration clearly kept afloat with the military muscle of US and its NATO allies. Admiral Silva succeeded retired Air Marshal Gagan Bulathsinhala following the 2019 presidential election.
Diplomatic sources say both Pakistan and China appeared to have adopted a sort of soft approach towards Taliban and are working with the new leadership. Recently, Afghanistan developments had been taken up when Pakistan High Commissioner in Colombo Maj. Gen. (retd) Muhammad Saad Khattak met newly appointed Foreign Minister Prof. G.L. Peiris at the Foreign Ministry, where the Pakistanis gave an assurance on the safety of Lankans in Afghanistan on behalf of Taliban according to a statement issued by the Foreign Ministry.
The statement quoted HC Khattak as having told Prof. Peiris that Pakistan has received an assurance from the Taliban as regards the safety of foreign nationals in Afghanistan and also made a pledge that rights of women and children would be protected. The High Commissioner also said Pakistan hoped that Afghanistan would soon establish a peaceful government structure and integrate with the rest of the world.
Former Premier and the UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe has warned against hasty recognition of Taliban. Former PA National List lawmaker and Sri Lanka’s former Ambassador to Iran M.M. Zuhair, PC, strongly criticized the UNP’s stand.
The US led NATO forces evicted the Taliban from Kabul in late 2001 following 9/11 Al Qaeda attacks on the US. Foreign forces reached agreement with Taliban on the basis of Doha talks initiated during the previous Trump administration. Foreign forces are scheduled to complete their withdrawal on August 31.
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Pope Francis to evict Cardinal Raymond Burke from Vatican

Pope Francis is evicting US Cardinal Raymond Burke, an outspoken critic, from his Vatican apartment and revoking his salary.
Cardinal Burke is part of a group of American conservatives who have long opposed the Pope’s plans for reforming the Catholic Church.
A Vatican source told the BBC that Pope Francis has not yet carried out his intention to evict the 75-year-old and the decision is not meant as a personal punishment, the source added. Instead, it comes from the belief that a person should not enjoy cardinal privileges while criticising the head of the church.
Still, the move is “unprecedented in the Francis era”, Christopher White, a Vatican observer who writes for the National Catholic Reporter, told the BBC. “Typically, retired cardinals continue to reside in Rome after stepping down from their positions, often remaining active in papal liturgies and ceremonial duties,” he said. “Evicting someone from their Vatican apartment sets a new precedent.”
White warned that the decision could “provoke significant backlash” and deepen divides between the Vatican and the US church, where there is already “fragmentation”.
Cardinal Burke has yet to respond to the news and the BBC has reached out to his office for comment.
The Pope revealed his plan to act against the cardinal at a meeting with heads of Vatican offices last week. His frustration with US detractors who take a more traditional or conservative view on several issues appears to be coming to a boil.
Earlier this month, he fired Joseph Strickland, a conservative Texas bishop who had blasted his attempts to move the church to more liberal positions on abortion, transgender rights and same-sex marriage. The removal followed a church investigation into governance of the diocese.
A few months before, the Pope told members of the Jesuit religious order in Portugal that there was “a very strong, organised, reactionary attitude in the US church”, which he called “backward”, according to the Guardian.
Tensions with Cardinal Burke, who was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI, have been simmering for nearly a decade, with the American prelate openly criticising Pope Francis over both social and liturgical issues.
“Cardinal Burke’s situation seems to stem from his gradual alienation from the Pope,” said White. “It appears the Pope perceives Burke as fostering a cult of personality, centred around traditionalism or regressive ideals. This action seems aimed at limiting Burke’s influence by severing his ties to Rome.”

Most recently, the cardinal held a conference called The Synodal Babel in Rome on the eve of the Pope’s synod, or meeting of bishops, last month.
He also joined fellow conservatives in publishing a “declaration of truths” in 2019 that described the Catholic church as disoriented and confused under Pope Francis, saying that it had moved away from core teachings on divorce, contraception, homosexuality and gender. Notably, he disagreed with the Pope promoting Covid vaccines.
Within church politics, he and Pope Francis were at odds over the firing of the head of the Knights of Malta after the order’s charity branch was found to have distributed condoms in Myanmar.
The Pope, in turn, has demoted Cardinal Burke within the church hierarchy or moved him to posts with less influence over the years.
Michael Matt, a columnist for the right-wing Catholic newspaper The Remnant, wrote that the most recent action taken against Cardinal Burke showed that Pope Francis was “cancelling faithful prelates who offer hierarchical cover to pro-life, pro-family, pro-tradition hardliners”. He accused the Pope of putting critics into “forced isolation”.
(BBC)
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Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger dies aged 100

Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger has died at the age 100.
He served as America’s top diplomat and national security adviser during the Nixon and Ford administrations.
In a statement, Kissinger Associates, a political consulting firm he founded, said the German-born former diplomat died at his home in Connecticut but did not give a cause of death.
During his decades long career, Mr Kissinger played a key, and sometimes controversial, role in US foreign and security policy.
Born in Germany in 1973, Kissinger first came to the US in 1938 when his family fled Nazi Germany. He became a US citizen in 1943 and went on to serve three years in the US Army and later in the Counter Intelligence Corps. After earning bachelor’s, master’s, and PhD degrees, he taught international relations at Harvard.
In 1969, then-President Richard Nixon appointed him National Security Adviser, a position which gave him enormous influence over US foreign policy in two administrations.
(BBC)
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