VZCZCXRO8310
OO RUEHBI RUEHLMC
DE RUEHLM #0720 1371131
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 171131Z MAY 07
FM AMEMBASSY COLOMBO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 6062
INFO RUEHRL/AMEMBASSY BERLIN 0404
RUEHKA/AMEMBASSY DHAKA 0111
RUEHIL/AMEMBASSY ISLAMABAD 7092
RUEHKT/AMEMBASSY KATHMANDU 5183
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON 3753
RUEHNE/AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI 0969
RUEHNY/AMEMBASSY OSLO 3825
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO 2904
RUEHKP/AMCONSUL KARACHI 2191
RUEHCG/AMCONSUL CHENNAI 7679
RUEHBI/AMCONSUL MUMBAI 5360
RUEHON/AMCONSUL TORONTO 0208
RUEHBS/USEU BRUSSELS
RUCPDOC/USDOC WASHDC
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC
RHEHAAA/NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL WASHINGTON DC
RHHMUNA/HQ USPACOM HONOLULU HI
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC
RUEHLMC/MILLENNIUM CHALLENGE CORPORATION

UNCLAS COLOMBO 000720 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR SCA/INS 
MCC FOR S. GROFF, D. TETER, D. NASSIRY AND E. BURKE 
TREASURY FOR LESLIE HULL 
 
E.O 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECON EINV KCOR PGOV CE
 
SUBJECT: SRI LANKA: PRESIDENT APPOINTS BROTHER  AS MINISTER OF PORTS 
AND AVIATION 
 
REF: A) COLOMBO 263  B) COLOMBO 324 C) COLOMBO 394 
D)COLOMBO 502  E) COLOMBO 698  F) 06 COLOMBO 2086 
 
¶1.  (SBU) SUMMARY:  President Rajapaksa has appointed his older 
brother, Chamal, as Minister of Ports and Aviation.  The position 
makes Chamal responsible for oversight of several multi-million 
dollar ventures that the President has pushed, including an 
international port and airport in his home district, and Mihin 
Lanka, the new budget national carrier named after President Mahinda 
Rajapaksa.  The President himself had held the ports and aviation 
portfolio since dismissing former Minister Mangala Samaraweera in 
February.  By appointing his brother to the post, the President has 
again acted to maintain his immediate family's tight grip on the 
most lucrative and powerful ministries.  End summary. 
 
¶2.  (SBU) On 16 May 2007, Chamal Rajapakasa, Minister of Irrigation 
and Water Management (and brother of President Mahinda Rajapaksa), 
was sworn in as Minister of Ports and Aviation at the President's 
offices.  Chamal will continue to hold the Irrigation and Water 
Management portfolio.  The President had served as the acting 
Minister of Ports and Aviation after dismissing former Minister 
Mangala Samaraweera from the position on February 9, ostensibly for 
breaching party discipline (ref A).  Instead, Samaraweera appears to 
have been sacked because he opposed accumulation of executive power 
by the President and his brothers (ref B).  After his dismissal, 
Samaraweera publicly stated that he had resisted the President's 
effort to ram through approvals of a budget airline named after the 
president and contracts for Chinese companies to build a major new 
port in the President's home district of Hambantota (ref C and D). 
 
CHAMAL LESS INFLUENTIAL THAN HIS BROTHERS 
----------------------------------------- 
 
¶3.  (SBU) Chamal is the eldest of President Rajapaksa's seven 
siblings (Ref E).  With Mahinda as President, Basil as the Special 
Advisor to the President, and Gothabaya as the Secretary of Defense, 
Chamal is the least influential of the clan.  Prior to his current 
postings, Chamal served as the Minister of Agriculture 
Development/Plantation Industries. 
 
COMMENT: KEEPING THE PORTS AND AVIATION 
MINISTRY UNDER THE RAJAPAKSA CLAN 
--------------------------------------- 
¶4.  (SBU) The Ports and Aviation Ministry is significant to the 
President's agenda.  Various donors and investors have committed 
over a billion dollars to expand the Colombo sea and air ports and 
for infrastructure projects in Hambantota.  In addition to the 
Hambantota port project, the President is also pushing development 
of a new international airport in Weerawila (also near the 
President's home district).  The Hambantota projects have been 
controversial, because they do not appear to meet real economic 
demands and because the airport would threaten a vulnerable bird 
sanctuary (ref F). 
 
¶5.  (SBU) Recently, the President seemed eager to regain the popular 
Samaraweera's support by offering to bring him back into the 
Cabinet.  Samaraweera is reported to have insisted on regaining his 
original portfolios.  The President's appointment of his brother to 
the Ports and Aviation job both indicates that a rapprochement with 
Samaraweera is not in the offing and that the President wanted 
someone in this particular ministry who would not stand in the way 
of his signature port, airport, and airline projects. 
 
BLAKE