Sri Lankan residents in the UAE say the deepening constitutional crisis in their homeland has stirred up memories of the country's brutal civil war and fear it could lead to fresh divisions.
Sri Lanka’s President Maithripala Sirisena stunned the country and the rest of the world two weeks ago when he sacked Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe over allegations of an Indian-backed assassination plot and suspended parliament.
Mr Wickremesinghe has refused to recognise his dismissal — branding the move a coup — and remains ensconced in the prime minister's official Temple Trees residence in Colombo, which is surrounded by his supporters to prevent his removal.
The president's appointed successor, Mahinda Rajapaska, is also mired in controversy following his first tenure as the country's premier.
Mr Rajapaksa led the country from 2005 to 2015 and has the backing of Sri Lanka’s Sinhala majority community for ending the 25-year civil war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a rebel group of minority Tamils fighting for independence.
The Tamil separatist guerrillas were defeated in 2009. But Mr Rajapaksa has faced widespread allegations of human rights abuse over claims he targeting thousands of Tamil civilians in the final weeks of the war against the LTTE militant group, a charge he has denied.
Sri Lankans in the UAE are watching events unfold with keen interest and no shortage of concern.
Most believe the dissolution of parliament and a call for early elections is the answer to resolve the political impasse in their island nation.
Kalum Sujith, 42, a Dubai resident, believes the political turmoil is tarnishing Sri Lanka's reputation on the world stage.
“The situation is really bad now,” he said.
“The country is not stable so my hope is they go for elections. There have been strikes, government entities are not working properly and this is affecting people.
“I’m not a supporter of any political party, I’m a supporter of democracy. This is also not good for us internationally. There will be less of respect for Sri Lanka abroad.”
Critics of Mr Rajapaska accuse him of rights abuses, corruption, a crackdown on essential freedoms and saddling the country with billions of dollars of debt to China during his time in power.
Mr Sujith believes Mr Rajapaksa’s return will divide the country.
“It is a nightmare. Mr Rajapaksa is respected for winning the war but people forget the reality that he has taken a lot of money from Sri Lanka and given this to China. He is dividing the people and the country. He is creating this tension to sustain himself.”
Criticism has also been laid at the door of the ousted Mr Wickremesinghe for being soft on the Tamil separatists and too eager to please Western powers such as America and leading European nations.
A UAE resident for the past 25 years, Ajantha Premarathne, 55, believes the return of Mr Rajapaska can unite the country.
“We want peace. The previous Rajapaksa government brought peace when it wiped out Tamil separatists and stabilised the country,” he said.
“If Mr Wickremesinghe stayed in power, the country would be sold to the separatists. The way he worked was creating division and ethnic tension between communities.
“Western powers have tried to safeguard him because he is pro-West. I want to go back to a Sri Lanka that is not a divided or economically hampered.”
The Wickremesinghe government came under attack last year by opposition groups and trade unions for after handing over operations of a southern port to a Chinese company.
Under Mr Wickremesinghe’s rule, Sri Lanka’s parliament last month approved legislation to pay reparations to civil war victims. Opponents have argued that it also amounted to compensating separatist rebels.
“Wickremesinghe’s government tried to sell our land and ports to China. The turning point was when he gave compensation to the Tamil separatists,” said Mr Premarathne.
“The move to appoint Mr Rajapaksa is good because the previous government did unpatriotic things,” said Mr Premarathne, whose family were in a plane that landed in Colombo airport when it came under attack from in July 2011 by the LTTE group.
“It was traumatic for my kids. We heard the gunshots, bombs, thousands of people ran away, it was chaotic.”
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Read more:
Sri Lanka crisis: everything you need to know
Sri Lanka’s new foreign minister: crisis was a case of who reached for the gun first
War-weary Sri Lanka needs leadership for the sake of its people
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Yasas Dharmadasa, 55, said the removed government had ignored the security forces and urged people not to forget the lessons of the past.
The Dubai resident lost a relative, an officer in the Sri Lankan army, during the bloodshed of the civil war in 2000.
“People tend to forget the past but there are so many things we cannot forget about our history,” he said.
“The person in power should protect the rights of the people and soldiers who sacrificed their lives.
“So many people died when the LTTE planted bombs and sent out suicide bombers every day.
“But Mr Rajapaksa eradicated LTTE terrorism and after 2009 the attacks stopped. We were afraid to freely move in parts of our country so people are happy that the country is with a person who can run the country in a correct manner.”
The immediate impact on the country worries 42-year-old Ranil de Silva.
“We are concerned that the economy is falling apart. Any direct investment in to the country is held up.
“A general election will come through sooner than later. The people will then have a choice to elect cleaner politicians. We are hopeful.”
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
Water waste
In the UAE’s arid climate, small shrubs, bushes and flower beds usually require about six litres of water per square metre, daily. That increases to 12 litres per square metre a day for small trees, and 300 litres for palm trees.
Horticulturists suggest the best time for watering is before 8am or after 6pm, when water won't be dried up by the sun.
A global report published by the Water Resources Institute in August, ranked the UAE 10th out of 164 nations where water supplies are most stretched.
The Emirates is the world’s third largest per capita water consumer after the US and Canada.
Fitness problems in men's tennis
Andy Murray - hip
Novak Djokovic - elbow
Roger Federer - back
Stan Wawrinka - knee
Kei Nishikori - wrist
Marin Cilic - adductor
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The past winners
2009 - Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull)
2010 - Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull)
2011 - Lewis Hamilton (McLaren)
2012 - Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus)
2013 - Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull)
2014 - Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
2015 - Nico Rosberg (Mercedes)
2016 - Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
2017 - Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes)
ELIO
Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett
Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina
Rating: 4/5
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League final:
Who: Real Madrid v Liverpool
Where: NSC Olimpiyskiy Stadium, Kiev, Ukraine
When: Saturday, May 26, 10.45pm (UAE)
TV: Match on BeIN Sports
What can you do?
Document everything immediately; including dates, times, locations and witnesses
Seek professional advice from a legal expert
You can report an incident to HR or an immediate supervisor
You can use the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation’s dedicated hotline
In criminal cases, you can contact the police for additional support
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The Matrix Resurrections
Director: Lana Wachowski
Stars: Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Jessica Henwick
Rating:****
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The biog
Favourite colour: Brown
Favourite Movie: Resident Evil
Hobbies: Painting, Cooking, Imitating Voices
Favourite food: Pizza
Trivia: Was the voice of three characters in the Emirati animation, Shaabiyat Al Cartoon
MATCH INFO
Red Star Belgrade v Tottenham Hotspur, midnight (Thursday), UAE
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Yemen's Bahais and the charges they often face
The Baha'i faith was made known in Yemen in the 19th century, first introduced by an Iranian man named Ali Muhammad Al Shirazi, considered the Herald of the Baha'i faith in 1844.
The Baha'i faith has had a growing number of followers in recent years despite persecution in Yemen and Iran.
Today, some 2,000 Baha'is reside in Yemen, according to Insaf.
"The 24 defendants represented by the House of Justice, which has intelligence outfits from the uS and the UK working to carry out an espionage scheme in Yemen under the guise of religion.. aimed to impant and found the Bahai sect on Yemeni soil by bringing foreign Bahais from abroad and homing them in Yemen," the charge sheet said.
Baha'Ullah, the founder of the Bahai faith, was exiled by the Ottoman Empire in 1868 from Iran to what is now Israel. Now, the Bahai faith's highest governing body, known as the Universal House of Justice, is based in the Israeli city of Haifa, which the Bahais turn towards during prayer.
The Houthis cite this as collective "evidence" of Bahai "links" to Israel - which the Houthis consider their enemy.
Brief scores:
Manchester City 3
Aguero 1', 44', 61'
Arsenal 1
Koscielny 11'
Man of the match: Sergio Aguero (Manchester City)
RESULT
Everton 2 Huddersfield Town 0
Everton: Sigurdsson (47'), Calvert-Lewin (73')
Man of the Match: Dominic Calvert-Lewin (Everton)
The specs
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Brief scoreline:
Manchester United 2
Rashford 28', Martial 72'
Watford 1
Doucoure 90'
What is graphene?
Graphene is a single layer of carbon atoms arranged like honeycomb.
It was discovered in 2004, when Russian-born Manchester scientists Andrei Geim and Kostya Novoselov were "playing about" with sticky tape and graphite - the material used as "lead" in pencils.
Placing the tape on the graphite and peeling it, they managed to rip off thin flakes of carbon. In the beginning they got flakes consisting of many layers of graphene. But as they repeated the process many times, the flakes got thinner.
By separating the graphite fragments repeatedly, they managed to create flakes that were just one atom thick. Their experiment had led to graphene being isolated for the very first time.
At the time, many believed it was impossible for such thin crystalline materials to be stable. But examined under a microscope, the material remained stable, and when tested was found to have incredible properties.
It is many times times stronger than steel, yet incredibly lightweight and flexible. It is electrically and thermally conductive but also transparent. The world's first 2D material, it is one million times thinner than the diameter of a single human hair.
But the 'sticky tape' method would not work on an industrial scale. Since then, scientists have been working on manufacturing graphene, to make use of its incredible properties.
In 2010, Geim and Novoselov were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics. Their discovery meant physicists could study a new class of two-dimensional materials with unique properties.
How Alia's experiment will help humans get to Mars
Alia’s winning experiment examined how genes might change under the stresses caused by being in space, such as cosmic radiation and microgravity.
Her samples were placed in a machine on board the International Space Station. called a miniPCR thermal cycler, which can copy DNA multiple times.
After the samples were examined on return to Earth, scientists were able to successfully detect changes caused by being in space in the way DNA transmits instructions through proteins and other molecules in living organisms.
Although Alia’s samples were taken from nematode worms, the results have much bigger long term applications, especially for human space flight and long term missions, such as to Mars.
It also means that the first DNA experiments using human genomes can now be carried out on the ISS.
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
ESSENTIALS
The flights
Emirates flies from Dubai to Phnom Penh via Yangon from Dh2,700 return including taxes. Cambodia Bayon Airlines and Cambodia Angkor Air offer return flights from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap from Dh250 return including taxes. The flight takes about 45 minutes.
The hotels
Rooms at the Raffles Le Royal in Phnom Penh cost from $225 (Dh826) per night including taxes. Rooms at the Grand Hotel d'Angkor cost from $261 (Dh960) per night including taxes.
The tours
A cyclo architecture tour of Phnom Penh costs from $20 (Dh75) per person for about three hours, with Khmer Architecture Tours. Tailor-made tours of all of Cambodia, or sites like Angkor alone, can be arranged by About Asia Travel. Emirates Holidays also offers packages.
KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
