Author: TELO Admin

Some members on the committee of Sri Lanka’s official creditors are pushing to reach a deal to restructure the nation’s debt without the participation of China, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday citing people familiar with the matter.

The members want the group of major creditors, including the US, Japan and India, to sign a memorandum of understanding with Sri Lanka around the time of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings scheduled for next month in Marrakesh, Morocco, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the discussions are private. China, which held about 10% of Sri Lanka’s external debt as of the end of last year, isn’t a part of the group and is pursuing separate bilateral talks.

Before the Marrakesh gathering, key debt holders excluding China are planning on putting together the draft outline and getting Sri Lanka’s consent, the people said, adding that some discord remains within the group.

An official at the Paris Club, one of the largest debt holders, said a timeline for the agreement could not be confirmed. Representatives at the IMF’s Colombo office weren’t immediately available for response.

“All creditors are engaging positively with us,” Shehan Semasinghe, Sri Lanka’s junior finance minister, said by phone when asked about the development.

It remains unclear whether the creditors have lost patience with China or if the move is a negotiating tactic to pressure Beijing to get on board. Although Sri Lanka is a relatively small economy, its debt restructuring is seen as a test case for Chinese participation in sovereign debt overhauls.

Proceeding without China — the world’s largest sovereign creditor — would mark a setback for global efforts to get President Xi Jinping’s government to join a new international system to provide relief to indebted countries that have already dragged on for almost two years. A combination of the debt hangover from the pandemic, a rising dollar and soaring US interest rates has left a growing number of poor countries without the means to pay off what they owe and in need of international help.

How China will react to the deal remains to be seen. In the past China has quietly negotiated its own opaque restructurings with its debtors, often without providing any meaningful long-term relief.

“I would re-emphasize that China supports domestic financial institutions to negotiate a settlement agreement with Sri Lanka,” Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Wang Wenbin said in Beijing on Tuesday.

Sri Lanka stands to benefit from any deal with creditors, even if China is excluded. The IMF’s first on-site review of the country’s $3 billion bailout program ends Wednesday, and an agreement on debt restructuring would give hope that the South Asian nation’s recovery from an unprecedented economic crisis will get a boost before the multilateral lender gives its conclusion later this year.

Among the creditors, Paris Club members accounted for $4.8 billion, or more than 10% of Sri Lanka’s external debt, according to IMF data as of year end. That’s slightly higher than China, which stands at $4.5 billion, while India is owed $1.8 billion.

The Paris Club is an informal group of official creditors that help coordinate repayments for struggling debtor nations, and is currently comprised of 22 members including France, Japan, the UK and the US.

Depending on how talks with official creditors progress, Sri Lanka could also make headway in its negotiations with private lenders. In July, Foreign Minister Ali Sabry said private creditors had “almost agreed” to a 30% haircut.

A successful restructuring will assist Sri Lanka in regaining a measure of investor confidence after the nation fell into default for the first time in its history last year. It would also help the island nation make its debt more sustainable as envisaged in the IMF bailout secured in March, and enable a flow of funding.

If the IMF’s review is favorable, it should pave the way toward Sri Lanka getting $330 million of disbursement from the IMF, the second installment from the bailout agreement.

Source: Bloomberg

Sri Lankan politicians are a surprising lot. At the height of the political crisis when the local economy collapsed and the country ran out of money, all political leaders appealed to the international community for help. And in goodwill many countries stepped forward to assist the nation, some with their own interests while others came forward in friendship.

While President Ranil Wickremesinghe to date maintains that the nation will maintain good relations with all countries and will take no sides, in an unexpected move it was surprising to see Foreign Minister Ali Sabry making a statement to the international media yesterday on the recently brewed Indo-Canada conflict which has no relevance to Sri Lanka whatsoever.

A statement which seems to have been made more in anger than being Sri Lanka’s official view, Sabry launched a scathing attack on Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for his allegations against India, which Sri Lanka has no relevance to.

Sabry said that some of the terrorists have found safe haven in Canada. “The Canadian PM has this way of just coming out with some outrageous allegations without any supporting proof. The same thing they did for Sri Lanka, a terrible, total lie about saying that Sri Lanka had a genocide. Everybody knows there was no genocide in our country. I saw yesterday he had gone and given a rousing welcome to somebody who has associated with the Nazis in the past during the Second World War. So this is questionable and we have dealt with it in the past. I am not surprised that sometimes PM Trudeau comes out with outrageous and substantiated allegations,” he said.

It is acceptable to see Sabry take on Trudeau when it comes to local affairs but what seems to be unwanted at this moment of time is to see Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister interfering in a conflict between India and Canada and further dampen relations over a matter which has no relevance to the nation.

It is also now to be seen if President Wickremesinghe also maintains the same view as Sabry considering that his Foreign Minister openly made this statement on a conflict which does not involve the state, or if he will get Sabry to straighten it by saying that Sri Lanka will not take sides with either India or Canada.

After all Sri Lanka has its own battles to cope with presently and can definitely do without interfering in conflicts which do not concern the government or the nation.

***SL has its own battles to cope with and can definitely do without interfering in conflicts which do not concern the government or the nation

International maritime traffic monitoring platforms revealed that the Chinese geophysical scientific research vessel Shi Yan 6 is engaged in either research or observation activities close to the Exclusive Economic Zone of India.

The vessel was reportedly moving close to the Nicobar Islands at a very slow pace.

The Chinese geophysical scientific research vessel Shi Yan 6 entered the Indian Ocean via the Malacca Strait and was observed close to the Nicobar Islands.

The vessel that was heading towards Sri Lanka yesterday, later turned to the Bay of Bengal and proceeded towards the Nicobar Islands, located close to the Exclusive Economic Zone of India, at a very slow pace.

When monitoring the route of this vessel, it was observed that the Shi Yan 6 was moving along the Ninety East Ridge, a one-dimensional structure situated on the floor of Indian Ocean.

The Yuan Wang 5 that reached Sri Lanka last year, and the Xiang Yang Hong, that reached the island over the past three years also engaged in operations in the area known as the Ninety East Ridge.

In the past two decades, India and the United States have engaged in multiple research projects in this area called the Ninety East Ridge.

Whistleblower Azad Moulana has offered to testify before an international probe into the Easter Sunday attacks.

Making a statement during a side event at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Moulana said that he will only bear witness before an
international independent investigation.

In the statement Moulana, the former spokesperson of the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pullikal (TMVP) said that the documentary “Sri Lanka’s Easter Bombings”, which was broadcast on 5 September by the British Channel 4 has created considerable interest in Sri Lanka.

“Various articles and editorials have been written, and while the documentary has generated some support for an international independent investigation, a lot of rumours and fake news have been published and even my wife and children have been slandered and their pictures have been published on social media,” he said.

Moulana said that while he worked for Shivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan, a Member of Parliament, State Minister of Rural Road Development, former Chief Minister of the Eastern Province and leader of the political party Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal, which
had earlier been a militant group, he was not a fighter.

“Indeed, I have never been trained to use arms. Because of my position I had access to important and secret information related to the Easter Sunday suicide attacks as well as many political killings that took place during the period of the government of Mahinda Rajapaksa,” he added.

Full statement:

The documentary “Sri Lanka’s Easter Bombings”, which was broadcast on 5 September by the British Channel 4 has created considerable interest in Sri Lanka. Various articles and editorials have been written, and while the documentary has generated some support for an international independent investigation, a lot of rumours and fake news have been published and even my wife and children have been slandered and their pictures have been published on social media.

I would therefore like to make the following statement.

From 2006 to February 2022 I have worked for Shivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan, a Member of Parliament, State Minister of Rural Road Development, former Chief Minister of the Eastern Province and leader of the political party Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP), which had earlier been a militant group. I was the Propaganda Secretary as well as the spokesperson of the TMVP. I was not a fighter. Indeed, I have never been trained to use arms. Because of my position I had access to important and secret information related to the Easter Sunday suicide attacks as well as many political killings that took place during the period of the government of Mahinda Rajapaksa.

On 21 April 2019 on Easter Sunday a terror attack killed 269 persons including 45 children, 40 foreigners and injured more than 500 others. Only when the media revealed the identity of the suicide bombers after the attack did I realize that I had strong evidence about the masterminds and other perpetrators and also the motivation for this terror attack. I have in no way been involved in preparing or carrying out these terrible and devastating attacks.

Following the defeat of the Mahinda Rajapaksa government in 2015, Pillayan was arrested and imprisoned in the Batticaloa prison under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) in connection with the murder of former Tamil National Alliance Member of Parliament Joseph Pararajasingham, who was shot dead on Christmas Day 2005 at the St. Mary’s Cathedral, Batticaloa. As a secretary to Pillayan, the court had granted me permission, along with his lawyers, to meet Pillayan to discuss legal matters. During a visit in September 2017 Pillayan told me that some Muslim prisoners from Kattankudy were with him in the same cell. A father, his son and six others had been remanded for extremist activities and attacks on another Muslim group in Kattankudy. They were from an organisation called National Thowheed Jamath (NTJ). On Pillayan’s request I met Sainy Moulavi.

Later, Pillayan asked me to contact the Military Intelligence (MI) to arrange funds for these prisoners’ relatives to pay their bail. They were released on 24th October 2017. At the end of January 2018, Pillayan told me to arrange a secret meeting between Suresh Salley, who was then a brigadier, and Sainy Moulavi’s group. Pillayan said that Suresh Salley would inform me about the meeting place and time. A few days later Suresh Salley contacted me and asked me to request Sainy Moulavi to come to the Puttalam Vanaththavillu area. The next day I traveled with an MI officer from Colombo to Puttalam, Sainy Moulavi’s group came from Kurunegala. Pillayan advised us not to use my own vehicle or driver for this meeting and said that the transport would be facilitated by the MI. The meeting took place in early February 2018 at a large coconut farm of 50 to 60 acres, located outside of Puttalam. Suresh Salley arrived in a grey colour Toyota car with a driver. Sainy Moulavi arrived 30 minutes later with a group of six persons in a white van. Sainy Moulavi introduced his elder brother Moulavi Zaharan as the leader of the group.

The meeting lasted for more than two hours. I did not participate in the meeting but waited outside. After the meeting I traveled to Batticaloa and on the next day updated Pillayan about the meeting. Pillayan said that Suresh Salley had a big plan and a deal with Zahran’s group like they the one with TMVP. He told me to keep the information about this meeting secret and to assist if they asked for any help. Besides the meeting with Sainy Moulavi in prison in September 2017 I met Zahran and his group only one time in February 2018 during the meeting with Suresh Sally. Apart from this

I had no connection or relationship with them. I was not aware of their terrorist intent or plan until after the terror attack.

On Easter Sunday, 21st April 2019, Suresh Salley contacted me at around 7 am and told me to go immediately to the Taj Samudra Hotel in Colombo, to pick up a person who was waiting there and take the person’s phone. I told him that I was currently in Batticaloa and not in Colombo. About an hour after this conversation simultaneous terrorist attacks took place across the country.

Immediately after the attacks Pillayan sent a message through a prison guard and asked me to meet him urgently. When I saw him in prison at about 11 am on Easter Sunday he told me that the mastermind behind the Easter attack was Suresh Salley and that he had assumed that an attack like this would happen. He asked me to call Sainy Moulavi to find out, there was, however, no response. It was only because of media reports in the evening that I realized that the participants in the meeting that I had organized on the request of Pillayan were indeed suicide bombers involved in the Easter attack. Through the President’s investigation commission and the inquiries of the CID I also learned that the person whom Suresh Sally had wanted me to meet was Jameel, the bomber who had been tasked to carry out a suicide attack at the Taj Samudra Hotel but then, in a last-minute change of plans, left the Taj and later exploded himself in a small hotel in Dehiwela.

Pillayan and the TMVP supported Gotabaya Rajapaksa in the last presidential election. After Gotabaya Rajapaksa became president, Suresh Salley returned to Sri Lanka and got promoted as Major General and appointed as Director of State Intelligence Service (SIS), a job he continues to hold. The government however did not take quick action to release Pillayan as promised because the former Attorney General refused to withdraw the charge sheet against Pillayan as there was conclusive evidence against him. During the General Election of 5th August 2020, when he was still in prison, Pillayan was elected Member of Parliament. After the election Pillayan asked me and his brother to meet Suresh Salley to tell him not to forget how Gotabaya Rajapaksa and the present government came into power and to warn him that he would have to pay a huge price if Pillayan were not released. A few days later the new Attorney General withdrew the case against Pillayan at the High Court of Batticaloa.

Besides my knowledge about the organisers of the Easter Sunday attacks, I have detailed information about many political murders and abductions which took place between 2005 and a large number of these killings were committed by the Tripoli Platoon, a killing squad operating undercover in the intelligence unit of the Sri Lankan Army. The unit was initially led by Major Prabath Bulathwatte and later by Colonel Shammi Kumararatne. It was under the direct command of Maj. Gen. Amal Karunasena, who then had been Director of MI and was later made Army Chief of Staff.

This platoon reported to Gotabaya Rajapaksa directly and received orders only from him, when he was Secretary of Defence.

This platoon and the TMVP were responsible for a number of major political assassinations during and after the war, including the assassinations and disappearances of journalists. They are particularly responsible for the assassinations of former parliamentarians Joseph Pararajasingam and Nadarajah Raviraj, the assassinations of the journalists Lasantha Wickrematunge, Sivaram and Nadesan as well as the disappearances of Professor Sivasubramaniam Raveendranath, Vice-Chancellor of the Eastern University and the cartoonist Prageeth Ekneligoda.

I also have information about many other human rights violations carried out jointly by the MI and the TMVP. Although I did not agree with what they were doing, I could not disassociate from them as I feared for my life.

Until today I fear that he Sri Lankan authorities would abduct, imprison, or even kill me. Compounding my fears, police visited my mother and my sister soon after the broadcast of Channel Four’s documentary, and two unknown persons checked with my sister’s son in an attempt to discover my telephone number and my address.

The President’s Commission and the Parliamentary Select Committee, which were both tasked to investigate the Easter Sunday bomb attack, failed to reveal the truth about the mastermind and the perpetrators of this tragedy. As mentioned in the fundamental rights petition filed in the Supreme Court on 18 February 2022 by Shani Abeysekera, the former director of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), the investigation team he led had uncovered important evidence of connections between the attackers and the Army, but were prevented by the Army from continuing their investigation.

Because of my knowledge, I have been severely threatened by the Sri Lankan government’s intelligence service. I fled to Europe seeking political asylum to save my life. As a witness to the planning of several terrorist attacks, political assassinations and kidnappings in Sri Lanka, I am willing to testify in investigations into these crimes. I do not believe, however, that the authorities in Sri Lanka have an interest in revealing the truth. I will therefore only bear witness before an international independent investigation.

Former rebel and current State Minister Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan says it is no secret that former President Mahinda Rajapaksa and former Army Commander Sarath Fonseka assisted the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pullikal (TMVP).

Speaking in Parliament today, Pillayan said that the TMVP obtained weapons and financial assistance from the Rajapaksa administration and the Army which was led by Fonseka during the final stages of the war.

The TMVP consisted of former LTTE members who assisted the Army to defeat the LTTE.

Pillayan reiterated that he is prepared to face an international investigation into the Easter Sunday attacks.

The State Minister also reiterated that the allegations linking him to the Easter attacks are false.

He was speaking in Parliament today during a debate initiated by the opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) on the Easter Sunday attacks.

The main Parliamentary Opposition Party, the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) claimed that there is enough evidence to suspect that the military intelligence services were involved in the Easter Sunday attacks that took place in 2019.

Speaking in the Parliament during the two-day adjournment debate on the Easter Sunday attacks and national security, which commenced yesterday (21), SJB Opposition Parliamentarian Nalin Bandara Jayamaha claimed that the SJB would raise its concerns over four major instances where it is clear that the military intelligence services had supported the Easter bombings, and had later intentionally hampered the ongoing investigations into the incident.

MP Jayamaha claimed that the investigations launched into an internet protocol address owned by a female officer at the Police intelligence service, who was allegedly the girlfriend of a military intelligence officer who had connections with the Easter Sunday bomber Zahran Hashim, had been dismissed by the authorities, and that such incidents clearly depict the relationship between the bombers and the military intelligence agencies.

He claimed that Jameel, who blasted himself at a rest house in Dehiwala, had received a phone call after which he had suddenly left the Taj Samudra Hotel. He further claimed that this particular incident coincided with the facts included in the testimony given by Azad Moulana, the whistleblower who appears in the controversial Channel 4 documentary, that the Chief of the State Intelligence Service, Major General Suresh Sallay had informed him to take Jameel out from the Taj Samudra Hotel. “When Jameel was going out, he was questioned by a security officer. Then, he called his wife and she said that two officers of the intelligence agencies had visited their house at that moment. Then again, those officers called that security officer and asked him not to let Jameel go. But, he went. After that, the security officer was questioned by the Wellawatta Police and those two military officers who had gone to Jameel’s house were reportedly at the Police station. This is the second incident,” he alleged.

Speaking further, he claimed that the military intelligence agencies and the Police intentionally blamed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) for killing two Policemen in Vavunathivu in 2018, which is now believed to be done by the team of Zahran. “When this incident happened, the military intelligence agencies announced five times that this was done by the LTTE to hamper the investigations launched by the Criminal Investigations Department (CID). They (military) had intentionally blamed a former LTTE cadre called Ajanthan to divert the attention to another side,” he alleged.

He alleged that when Sadique and Haq who were suspected for the Buddha statues vandalism incident in Mawanella, were arrested immediately after the Easter Sunday attacks, the military intelligence agencies had tried on two occasions to get those suspects into their custody by forcing the CID officers, claiming that the investigations must be done by them. He said that because of such incidents, suspicion could emerge regarding the revelations made by the documentary that the State military agencies were involved with the Easter attacks.

He also noted that an investigation must be launched into the person called Abu Hind, who could be the mastermind behind the Easter Sunday massacre, even though the Police Department claims that it is a “myth”. He added that no one can neglect that Abu Hind is involved in the attacks as a top level agent, since the testimony given by Zahran’s wife Haadiya revealed that the attacks were expedited according to his (Abu Hind) instructions.

The Parliamentary debate on the 2019 Easter attacks comes weeks after the controversial documentary titled Sri Lanka’s Easter Bombings – Dispatches was aired by the British television network Channel 4, in which startling accusations were made. It was based on the testimonies of highly-placed whistleblowers who alleged that senior governmental officials were complicit in this heinous act.

Against this backdrop, President Ranil Wickremesinghe, on 15 September, appointed a three-member committee to investigate the allegations in the documentary. The panel, chaired by retired Supreme Court Judge, Justice S.I. Imam, consists of retired Air Force Commander, Air Chief Marshal Jayalath Weerakkody and President’s Counsel Harsha A.J. Soza.