Sri
Lanka's Ethnic Cleansing Bonds Touted by StanChart
and HSBC,
IMF
Silence on Vote Is "Policy"
By
Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, August 2 -- Less than a week after five countries on the
International Monetary Fund's executive board cast rare votes of
abstention and did not support the IMF's $2.6 billion loan to Sri
Lanka, due to the continued detention of 280,000 people in internment
camps in the north, Inner City Press on July 30
asked the IMF to
finally confirm the five abstentions or to explain why it refuses to
disclose the votes of its executive board.
IMF
spokesperson
Caroline Atkinson replied
that "it's just
a matter of our policy not to... it may even be a matter of our legal
requirements... It's a matter for executive board member to disclose
their voting if they wish to. It's not a matter for IMF staff or
management, that's always our practice." But why?
Later
on July 30,
Inner City Press asked the UK's outgoing Ambassador to the UN John
Sawers about the IMF loan, on which the UK abstained. Sawers too
dodged the question, saying "You'll have to ask my colleagues in
Washington about the situation at the IMF board. The loan has been
approved, as you say." Video here,
from Minute 5:34.
After
that, Sawers mentioned the displacement -- that is, detentions -- and
of the "legitimate concerns of minorities, particularly Tamils."
UK-based
banks HSBC and Standard Chartered both gushed about the IMF loan,
without any reference to ongoing internments. The IMF loan "is a
significant positive for Sri Lanka’s external liquidity position
and should further boost sentiment toward the country," Standard
Chartered’s Mumbai-based analyst Priyanka Chakravarty wrote
in a
research report. "It is noteworthy that the final IMF loan amount
is appreciably higher than originally discussed."
Standard Chartered: "inspiration," ethnic
cleansing not shown
Nick
Nicolaou, chief executive officer of HSBC Sri Lanka, pitched
that "the IMF endorsement provides confidence to overseas
investors... Sri Lanka has an excellent story to tell."
Fellow UK bank Barclays, along with HSBC and JPMorgan Chase, was
involved in the Rajapakse administration's October 2007 bond sale in
the run-up to the final assault on North Sri Lanka.
Now
Sri Lanka says
it wants to
raise $500 million more from overseas. Some say that these
bloodbath
bonds are now ethnic
cleansing instruments. Watch this site.
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