Hong Kong, China — Marriott International has signed an agreement with Weligama Hotel Properties, a fully owned subsidiary of East West Properties, to open a hotel in Sri Lanka, the Weligama Bay Marriott Resort & Spa 2014 – this will be Marriott’s first property on the Indian Ocean Island.

The 200-room, 11-storey Weligama Bay Marriott Resort & Spa, will be operated under Marriott’s flagship Marriott Hotels & Resorts brand.

“Marriott is delighted to be extending its portfolio and opening a world-class hotel in Sri Lanka,” commented Simon Cooper, president and managing director Marriott, Asia Pacific. “Sri Lanka is a destination that has great potential and opportunity and we hope to capitalise on that and establish a strong presence in the country.

We are confident that the reputation of Marriott Hotels and Resorts and the power of Marriott Rewards, our loyalty programme, will create great interest from both local and international travellers and be successful in promoting the beautiful area of Weligama Bay, as well as the country itself as this is our first hotel here.”

Commenting on the project Mr. Nahil Wijesuriya, Chairman, East West Properties PLC said: “We are among the first companies in Sri Lanka to sign up with an international branded hotel company and to open as early as 2014. The resort is being built according to Marriott International’s five star brand standards, with a beach frontage of 115 meters on the Galle-Matara road in the South-East of the country. The construction is being carried out in-house by East West Engineering Services (Pvt) Ltd. so we have direct control of every aspect of the construction of the resort and are confident that it will be of the highest standards and quality.”

Marriott International is a world renowned operator and franchiser of a broad portfolio of hotels and resorts which include Bulgari Hotels and Resorts and The Ritz Carlton. Marriott International currently operates over 3,700 hotels in over 73 countries and territories around the globe. Marriott Hotels and Resorts are Marriott International’s signature and most widely distributed brand and is also known for the world’s largest loyalty program, Marriott Rewards.

Weligama, located 144km from Colombo is a popular tourist destination renowned for its sandy beaches. Famous for its stilt-fishermen perched on a cross bar of a single pole planted into the sea bed, this attraction has been captured in every corner of the world depicting Sri Lanka as a preferred destination of choice for travellers from all over the world.

The Hotel will be located in Weligama, a part of Matara which is one of the largest cities on the south coast of Sri Lanka, where tourism and fishing are the two main businesses. Tourism is the mainstay of the south-western coast of Sri Lanka. The services sector is expected to be the primary engine of growth in coming years which is expected to be led by tourism.

2011 was declared as the “Visit Sri Lanka” year by the government. The country witnessed record levels of tourist arrivals in the early months of the year; a trend that is expected to continue for the remainder of the year.

“We see great opportunity in Sri Lanka with ever-increasing visitor numbers to the country,” continued Cooper. “While India, UK and Germany are the largest source markets for hotels in Sri Lanka; the Middle East and Russia are the emerging source markets and with the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (“SLTDA”) aiming to achieve a target of 2.5 million tourist arrivals by 2016 we are confident of attracting great leisure and business guests to the property.”

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The Sri Lankan government report by the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission does not take into account the worst abuses perpetrated by government forces and does not advance accountability for the people victimized by Sri Lanka’s civil armed conflict, said the Human Rights Watch.

The report is 388 pages long and was posted on the government’s website on December 16, 2011. The report, while long-awaited, was unsatisfactory and gave very little new information on accountability that could not have previously been enforced by the government. Its shortcomings bring to light a need for an international investigative power, which was suggested by the United Nations Secretary-General’s Panel of Experts last April.

Though the UN Panel of Experts recommended establishing an independent international power to perform investigations into the suspected violations, the Sri Lankan government report shows no realistic way to make the military and government officials that were implicated in serious abuses accountable for their actions. “Governments and UN bodies have held back for the past 18 months to allow the Sri Lankan commission to make progress on accountability,” stated Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The commission’s failure to provide a road map for investigating and prosecuting wartime perpetrators shows the dire need for an independent, international commission.”

The report’s findings mainly exonerated government forces for laws-of-war violations. This is in stark contrast to the findings of the UN Panel of Experts, who concluded that the Sri Lankan government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam both conducted military operations “with flagrant disregard for the protection, rights, welfare, and lives of civilians and failed to respect the norms of international law.”

Due to a large amount of evidence, the report did admit that there were “considerable civilian causalities” during the last stages of fighting and that hospitals had been shelled, resulting in damage and civilian deaths. “It is important that a government-appointed body has laid to rest the bizarre claims of the government that its forces caused no civilian casualties,” Adams said. “Yet, the commission shockingly fails to call for any criminal investigations into artillery shelling of crowded areas in which tens of thousands of civilians died.”

The report failed to inspect the use of heavy artillery against civilian areas as well, and sexual violence was not talked about in the report, which is probably because the commission lacks any form of witness protection. It also failed to mention the torture of detainees, the months-long detention of hundreds of thousands of people that were displaced by the fighting, or the refusal of due process rights for the detainees in the so-called rehabilitation centers.

“It is clear that justice for conflict-related abuses is not going to happen within Sri Lanka’s domestic institutions,” Adams alleged. “The government has been playing for time by appointing the LLRC. That time has now run out.”

Image Courtesy of  http://www.flickr.com/photos/lewishamdreamer/

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It has been over a year since the losing presidential candidate Sarath Fonseka was detained by the incumbent, Mahinda Rajapaksa. Marking the day in February, around 3000 people took part in a rally in the capital Colombo in protest of the war-hero’s treatment and calling for his release. The one-hour rally was according to the BBC attended by a variety of different parties and went relatively peaceful under heavy security. Supporters of the left win People’s Liberation Front (JVP) chanted anti-governmental slogans and carried placards in support of Mr Fonseka who is currently imprisoned after being sentenced to 30 months in jail with hard labour for breaching arms procurement guidelines. Other court cases are still pending.

During his military career, General Sarath Fonseka was known as the most high-profile and arguably the most tactical successful army officer in Sri Lanka. He made his career fighting the Tamil Tigers and was nearly assassinated by a Tamil Tiger suicide bomber in 2006. Over the years, he acquired a tough reputation as battlefield commander, often fighting alongside his troops. He was wounded in action in 1993.

After a fall out with the president over who should get credit for the 2009 military victory over the Tamil Tigers, the general retired from his post and went into the 2010 election hoping to capitalize on his status and win over government. However, the incumbent President Rajapaksa beat him for a second term and 12 days later Mr Fonseka was taken into custody. Despite this, the retired general was elected an opposition MP and had been attending parliament since April 2010 under a military escort. Then in August 2010, Mr Fonseka was found guilty of engaging in politics while in active service and a court martial sentenced him to be stripped of his rank and medals. His subsequent prison sentence is related to the charge of corruption in arms procurement deals. The sentence was a huge blow to Mr Fonseka because it lost him the seat in parliament and took away his voting rights for six years.

Following the court martial’s decision, Sri Lanka’s main opposition United National Party (UNP) dismissed the court as “illegal” according to the BBC, and Fonseka and his lawyers petitioned for an appeal – which was later denied.

The general and his supporters maintain that the charges and imprisonment are politically motivated on behalf of President Rajapaksa. BBC reported that Fonseka accused the incumbent for creating a ‘climate of intimidation and violence’ during the election campaign and seeing that both men are ardent Sinhalese nationalists, the election fight was described as intensely bitter. Supporters of Fonseka say that the general was removed because he dared to challenge Mr Rajapaksa at the polls. The opposition has stated that his fate reflects the government’s intolerance of dissent.

Mr Fonseka has so far only been convicted of two charges. Pending cases involve accusation of fraud, condoning fraud, plotting against the government, creating unrest within the army and keeping army deserters under his protection. He is also suspected of violating and condoning the violation of foreign exchange laws under the Exchange Control Act and for allegedly employing military deserters during his presidential campaign.

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