COLOMBO, Jan 19: Just days head of the visit of a high-level US State and Defence Department delegation to Sri Lanka, the island nation’s powerful Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa has warned that if the US denies military training to Lankan nationals on grounds of human rights violations in the country, Lanka will turn to China.

Speaking at the National Chamber of Commerce here on Friday, Gotabaya had said that if the US refused to give scholarships to Lankan military personnel wanting to pursue advanced and specialised training in its war colleges, Lanka would have no option but to turn to China which would offer similar facilities.

On Saturday, the US embassy announced that Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, James Moore; Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defence ,Vikram Singh; and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Jane Zimmerman; would be in Sri Lanka and Maldives from Jan 26 to Feb 1.

“In Sri Lanka they will meet with senior Sri Lankan officials, members of various political parties as well as civil society to discuss a wide range of issues, including progress in implementing the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission recommendations and National Action Plan,” a press release said.

Vikram J. Singh is principal adviser to senior leadership within the Department of Defence for all policy matters pertaining to development and implementation of defence strategies and plans for the region.

CALAMITOUS SETBACK: UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay has described the impeachment and sacking of chief justice Shirani Bandaranayake as a “calamitous setback for the rule of law in Sri Lanka”.

“Sri Lanka has a long history of abuse of executive power, and this latest step appears to strip away one of the last and most fundamental of the independent checks and balances, and should ring alarm bells for all Sri Lankans,” Pillay’s spokesman Rupert Colville said on Friday.

Pillay is to take up this issue at the next meeting of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva In March.

Meanwhile, the Mahinda Rajapaksa government is trying to break the back of the judiciary by announcing that it plans to draft a new constitution which will curb the judiciary and strengthen parliament.

Using the carrot and the stick, the government had given to two top lawyers, the headship of two major state banks. Simultaneously, unidentified persons sent threatening letters to lawyers who had led the movement against the impeachment of the chief justice, and to a supreme court judge who had given a ruling in favour of the CJ.