Author: TELO Admin

Sri Lanka rejects core recommendations of UN Human Rights Council

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Sri Lanka has rejected key recommendations made by the UN member states at the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the island nation placed before the 53rd session of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC).

The recommendations included credible transnational justice and reconciliation, accountability, implementing the Council’s recommendations, and ending the culture of impunity.

The reply of the Sri Lankan government is expected to be discussed on July 10 at the UNHRC. The UPR on Sri Lanka was led by the troika of Algeria, the United Kingdom, and Qatar.

Sri Lanka has acknowledged the UPR as a helpful voluntary peer-review process that fosters the sharing of good practices by UN member states in the implementation of human rights commitments and obligations and also facilitates a cooperative approach for countries to domestically fulfill human rights obligations that have been voluntarily undertaken.

While most recommendations are just formal in nature, important ones pertaining to human rights and accountability have been outrightly rejected by the Ranil Wickremesinghe-led government.

The recommendation from its close neighbour India does not speak about accountability for alleged war crimes. Even so, its recommendation to “continue to take measures to ensure that the fundamental freedoms and human rights of all its citizens, in particular all Tamil-speaking citizens, are fully protected” has only been partially accepted.

Most Western nations have called for tougher actions on the human rights front. The recommendations put forward by Australia, Netherlands, Germany, Norway, New Zealand, and the United States of America calling for such tougher actions were outrightly rejected by the Sri Lankan government in its response to the UNHRC.

The United States of America has put forward what is apparently the strongest of all the recommendations. It calls for ending the culture of impunity. “End impunity for human rights violations, abuses, and harassment, especially against members of ethnic and religious minority communities, by holding those responsible to account, including security forces and government officials, and implementing commitments under Human Rights Council resolutions”.

Australia, Norway, Netherlands, and New Zealand have called for the full implementation under the UNHRC resolution 51/1 which calls upon the Government of Sri Lanka in addressing the underlying causes of the crisis, including impunity for human rights violations and economic crimes.

“The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights urges the new Government to embark on a national dialogue that would advance human rights and reconciliation and to carry out the deeper institutional and security sector reforms needed to prevent the recurrence of violations of the past”.

Australia in its recommendation has called to “Fully implement a credible transitional justice and reconciliation mechanism consistent with Human Rights Council resolution 51/1 and renew commitments made under Council resolution 30/1”.

Apart from promoting reconciliation, accountability, and human rights in Sri Lanka the Kingdom of Netherlands has not only recommended implementing UNHRC resolution 51/1 but also 30/1 and 46/1.

Germany wants to ensure the independent work of the Office of Missing Persons (OMP) and the Office for Reparations (OR).

“Implement fully the recommendations in Human Rights Council resolution 51/1 and take steps to implement an inclusive transitional justice process in the country” Norway said in its recommendation.

New Zealand in its recommendation called upon Sri Lanka to act in “accordance with resolution 51/1, constructively promote post-conflict reconciliation, domestic accountability, and human rights”.

Sri Lanka in its reply to the oral observations of the Deputy High Commissioner of the UNHRC Nada Al-Nashid in ensuring accountability and in particular the role of the OMP said, it has provided responses to 159 cases in the last two years “brought to its attention by the UN Working Group on Enforced Disappearances (WGEID)”.

However, the government has not responded to thousands of cases reported to the OMP, which has not even found a single person who surrendered, handed over, or went missing.

“Any allegation of disappearance reported to the Police is duly investigated and information on such cases was provided in the National Report of Sri Lanka. The Government has taken measures to investigate all reported cases of alleged disappearances including those related to the last phase of the conflict,” had been the government’s response.

Victims of those who have disappeared or gone missing after being handed over to the state security forces during and after the war have found no tangible investigations over their complaints and none have either been found or the families given a convincing answer.

Four Human Rights organisations recently released a report on mass graves in Sri Lanka and the state’s complicity in hampering investigations into those. War-affected Tamils fear for the life and safety of their near and dear ones who have gone missing at the end of the war 14 years back.

The government has now announced the establishment of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), instead of setting up a transitional justice mechanism with international participation which had been the longstanding demand of Tamil war victims.

Sri Lanka’s longest ongoing protest led by women, mostly elderly mothers in search of their kith and kin, is continuing beyond 2300 days.

Human rights activists point out that the Sri Lankan government lacks the political will to investigate allegations of war crimes as the state security forces are the prime accused.

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Over 150,000 Sri Lankans leave for overseas jobs in 2023

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Over 150,000 Sri Lankans have left for overseas job this year so far.

Deputy Deputy General Manager of the Foreign Employment Bureau Gamini Senarath Yapa says that most of those who left for overseas employment, booked their flights to the Middle-East.

He also believes that by the end of this year over 300,000 will leave for job overseas.

He says that these statistics are only of those registered in the Foreign Employment Bureau.

Sri Lankan mother pleads with Australian PM to stop son’s deportation

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A Tamil mother has called on Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to intervene to stop her son being deported to Sri Lanka where she fears he could be slain.

Reeta Arulruban arrived in Australia from Sri Lanka by boat in 2012 and was granted permanent residency after more than a decade on temporary protection visas.

She tried to sponsor her son Dixtan but the Immigration Department refused his application in 2016.

Three years later, he managed to seek asylum in Australia arriving by plane but has been detained in Melbourne ever since.

The department last month issued a removal notice for Mr Arulruban, ordering he be deported.

As a member of the Tamil minority group, his mother fears he could be tortured or killed in Sri Lanka.

“Please prime minister, please reunite my son with me, who is the only remaining family member I have,” Ms Arulruban told AAP through an interpreter.

“The prime minister was brought up by a single mother – I hope he understands the bond between a mother and a son.”

Ms Arulruban said no one in the government was listening.

“Please help me and other refugees,” she said.

“I want all the people (refugees) to be given permanent residency.”

Her husband was killed in a massacre in 2009, when tens of thousands of civilians were caught between government troops and Tamil Tiger armed rebels during civil war.

Ms Arulruban, 55, experienced sexual assault at a military camp in 2012.

Her 26-year-old son’s Australian protection application was refused and he has exhausted all avenues for appeal.

Ms Arulruban’s appeal to the prime minister is her last real hope.

“I went through a lot of trauma, I went through sexual assault, I escaped and came to Australia,” she said.

“I was hoping to reunite with my son and they are trying to take him away from me.”

The department said it would not comment on individual cases.

“Individuals who no longer hold a valid visa are expected to depart Australia,” a spokesperson told AAP.

Nina Merlino, a lawyer acting for Mr Arulruban, confirmed she was filing an injunction against the department’s removal notice.

The Tamil Refugee Council said the community was devastated by the looming separation.

“Reeta and Dixtan have yearned for more than a decade to reunite and rebuild their lives in peace after such a traumatic past,” the council’s Renuga Inkapumar said.

(Courtesy AAP)

‘No second chance’ to save Sri Lanka, central banker warns

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The man charged with clawing Sri Lanka out of bankruptcy says he had warned about economic calamity years before it hit — and was pressed into retirement for his troubles.

Central bank chief Nandalal Weerasinghe was asked to return to the island nation last year to help steer it through a financial collapse that triggered months of food shortages, petrol queues and nightly blackouts.

The 63-year-old says his mandate coincides with Sri Lanka’s one final opportunity to rescue itself from a cycle of economic shocks that stretches back decades.

“There’s no excuse this time, no second chance, we have to get it right this time,” he told AFP at his Colombo office this week.

“This is where I think crisis is an opportunity.”

Weerasinghe was the Central Bank of Sri Lanka’s number two when Gotabaya Rajapaksa was elected president in 2019 on populist promises of generous tax cuts.

Government debt soared as Rajapaksa pursued an unorthodox policy of printing exorbitant amounts of money while holding down exchange and interest rates to spur growth.

“As the senior deputy governor, I always raised concerns,” Weerasinghe said.

But with Rajapaksa’s administration steamrolling objections from him and other senior central bankers, Weerasinghe said he felt he had no option but to take early retirement.

“Obviously I saw if those policies continued in that way… we’ll end up in a situation that I said at that time was exactly what happened,” he added.

Weerasinghe had decamped for a quiet life in Australia, spending time with his children and hitting the golf course five days a week, when Rajapaksa asked him to come back and helm the central bank.

He returned to a country in chaos, its currency in freefall and the government days from defaulting on its $46 billion foreign debt.

The Covid-19 pandemic had dealt a hammer blow to already precarious public finances, as the island’s lucrative tourism industry shuttered and remittances from Sri Lankans working abroad dried up.

Foreign exchange reserves had almost been exhausted, leaving importers unable to buy goods necessary to keep the economy functioning.

Supermarket shelves were empty, long lines snaked from fuel stations, and thermal power stations were forced to ration electricity for 13 hours each day.

By July, Rajapaksa had fled the country after months of protests demanding his resignation for mismanaging the crisis.

– ‘China on board’ –

Rajapaksa’s successor, Ranil Wickremesinghe, has sought to repair the nation’s finances through a $2.9 billion International Monetary Fund bailout.

The rescue package commits Sri Lanka to an austerity regime of steep tax hikes and an end to generous consumer utility subsidies, both of which have proven deeply unpopular.

Its passage was reportedly held up for months when China — Sri Lanka’s largest bilateral creditor — resisted agreeing to a haircut on its loans.

Chinese debt has been controversial politically, with Rajapaksa and his elder brother Mahinda — himself a former president — accused of taking Beijing’s money to finance costly vanity projects.

Weerasinghe said the delays to the IMF package were understandable because Beijing was a relatively “new player” to bilateral lending.

“China is fully on board, and agreed to support Sri Lanka and help Sri Lanka to come out of this crisis,” he said.

– ‘End of the story’ –

Last year brought Sri Lanka’s worst economic downturn in its 75-year history as an independent nation, with GDP contracting 7.8 percent and inflation hitting 70 percent at its peak.

But the island’s tea- and tourism-dependent economy is no stranger to shocks, with foreign exchange shortages triggering recessions and government rationing of consumer goods numerous times in prior decades.

Sri Lanka had already gone to the IMF cap in hand 16 times before last year, but failed to stick with agreed-upon reforms, giving it a serious credibility gap.

Weerasinghe said the country had two choices this time around: if it sticks to its current IMF programme, its economy would return to normal within “two to four years”.

If it did not, Sri Lanka would no longer be indulged if it fell off the wagon and returned to its spendthrift ways at the first sign of stability, he warned.

“This time, the 17th time with the IMF, is different,” he said.

“If you are trying to go back to another programme, that will be most difficult, and I think that will be the end of the story.”

Jaffna – Chennai flights to resume from July 16

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During the “Transcending Borders – Transforming Lives” programme organized by the Indian Tourism Federation at the Bandaranaike International Memorial Conference Hall in Colombo yesterday, President Ranil Wickremesinghe expressed his belief that the tourism industry would significantly contribute to the country’s foreign exchange earnings in the coming decade.

The President highlighted that comprehensive plans had already been formulated to enhance Sri Lanka’s appeal as a tourist destination and stressed that promoting tourism could lead to an increase in per capita income.

President Ranil Wickremesinghe also emphasized the importance of collaborative efforts among all the BIMSTEC countries to develop the BIMSTEC region into a thriving tourism hub, transcending national borders.

Addressing the event, Indian High Commissioner Gopal Bagle announced the expansion of flights between Chennai and Jaffna, which now operates only four times a week, to begin operations on a daily basis starting from July 16. He further mentioned ongoing efforts to resume the long-discontinued ferry service between the two nations, which had remained inactive for several decades.

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Probe into Mullaitivu ‘mass grave’ begins

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The Mullaitivu Magistrate and the Police conducted a visit to the suspected mass grave site in the Kokkuthoduvai village, Mullaitivu yesterday (6). This visit marked the resumption of an investigation into the human skeletons discovered on 29 June 2023, during the digging of the ground to install a pipeline for a drinking water project.

The area was tightly secured, preventing access to the public, as the Magistrate conducted an inquiry into the mass grave.

When news of the detection of human skeletons broke on 29 June, villagers quickly gathered at the site. The excavation work was immediately halted and the matter was reported to the Magistrate’s Court by the Police.

The Mullaitivu Magistrate yesterday (6), in the presence of a Judicial Medical Officer (JOM), Police, lawyers, officials from the forensic department, water supply board, department of archaeology, telecom, and the Ceylon Electricity Board, visited the area. The main road in the Mullaitivu-Jaffna Route was closed off for excavation, as the site was located by the Main Road.

Several NGOs have recently raised concerns that approximately 20 identified mass graves have been left unattended.

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President-toppling Sri Lanka activist girds for new revolt

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Student leader Wasantha Mudalige remains lionised by many for channelling public anger at an unprecedented economic crisis into a movement that shook the foundations of Sri Lanka’s political system.

At the height of last summer’s unrest, he helped spearhead a siege of government buildings in Colombo that saw once-loved premier Gotabaya Rajapaksa chased into a humiliating exile.

The 29-year-old, whose cherubic face belies his history of fierce confrontations with riot police, spent months behind bars on terror charges for his efforts.

“We had a very warm welcome,” Mudalige told AFP outside a court appearance in June, while recounting his arrival at jail alongside two confederates.

“Even the prison guards were very supportive. They saw us as the heroes who got rid of Gota.”

Mudalige said his incarceration was a necessary “sacrifice” in the unfinished battle to reform Sri Lanka’s political system.

Now free on bail, he said lingering economic woes have left Sri Lanka bristling with discontent, frustrated with its new president — and ready for another revolt.

“Although we got rid of Gota, we have not been able to win the ‘system change’ that we demanded,” Mudalige said.

“We don’t think the government can go on for long,” he added. “When you analyse the situation, there is no way the government can continue.”

‘They had no alternative’
As head of the Inter-University Students’ Federation (IUSF) at the time, Mudalige stood at the forefront of last year’s street protests.

Alongside him was a broad coalition of saffron-robed Buddhist monks, minority activists and ordinary citizens outraged by government corruption and mismanagement of the island’s worsening economic tailspin.

“They had no alternative but to take to the streets because they had no fuel, no food, no electricity… people were dying in petrol queues,” Mudalige said.

In July the IUSF and its allies laid siege to the Presidential Palace in Colombo.

Rajapaksa, once lauded by the island’s Sinhalese majority for helping crush a decades-long Tamil separatist insurgency, was forced to evacuate the residence through a secret backdoor and temporarily fled the country.

Protesters streamed through the compound, gaping at its opulent furnishings and frolicked in its pool in the revelry that followed.

Rajapaksa’s successor, Ranil Wickremesinghe, quickly sought to restore order by directing police to arrest the movement’s leaders.

Mudalige was caught in the dragnet the following month when police snatched him off the street as he left a demonstration against the crackdown.

He spent 167 days in custody, the longest stretch of detention of all those who participated in last year’s revolt.

The most serious charges against him were eventually dropped after Amnesty International and other rights groups condemned his jailing.

‘Anarchist political forces’
Wickremesinghe has sought to restore Sri Lanka’s ruined finances with an International Monetary Fund bailout that commits his administration to an austerity programme.

The chronic food and fuel shortages that inflamed public anger last year have since ended as the government reined in public spending.

But steep tax hikes, and the end of generous subsidies on electricity and fuel, have been deeply unpopular.

Wickremesinghe says the reforms are necessary to bring Sri Lanka out of bankruptcy and restore economic growth.

He pledged in February to press ahead “regardless of the obstacles that anarchist political forces seek to create”.

His administration has maintained a tough line against protests, with periodic demonstrations quickly dispersed by tear gas and water cannon trucks.

Mudalige said his detention and that of other protest leaders was an effort by the government to forestall a repeat of last year’s unrest.

But he warned the public’s frustrations over the spiralling cost of living would inevitably bring people back to the streets, unbowed by the threat of violence.

“The government is using the police and the military to suppress any dissent. It is like pressing down a rubber ball in a basin of water,” he said.

“You can’t do it for long. It will inevitably bounce to the top.”

Source:France24.com

Sri Lanka drops to 107th from 90th in the Global Peace Index

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Sri Lanka has been ranked 107th in world based on the 2023 Global Peace Index published by the Institute for Economics and Peace.

Sri Lanka was ranked 90th in the 2022 Index and due to a number of factors, the country has dropped down in the rankings.

Published by the Institute for Economics and Peace, the international study measures the safety and peacefulness of a country using an index of 23 qualitative and quantitative factors.

These include the country’s crime rate, levels of violence and demonstrations, access to weapons, political stability, military expenditure, relationship with neighboring countries, and more.

Iceland has remained the most peaceful country in the world since the study was first released in 2008.

It also ranks as the third happiest country in the world, after Finland and Denmark.

More than 60% of the country’s population lives in the capital city of Reykjavik, according to National Geographic.

In Iceland, school is free for all Icelanders through college, and every student is taught to speak Danish and English.

Meanwhile, Denmark has been ranked the second most peaceful country in the world.

Denmark’s capital, Copenhagen, is home to institutions such as the Copenhagen Stock Exchange and serves as a hub connecting Northern Europe with the rest of the world, according to U.S. News and World Report.

Although people living in Denmark pay some of the world’s highest taxes, up to half of their income, it is for a reason.

Due to the high taxes, Denmark can offer its citizens most healthcare options with no fee, university students pay no tuition and receive a grant to help cover expenses while studying, childcare is subsidized, and the elderly receive pensions and are provided with care helpers who visit them at home, according to the country’s website.

Ireland rounds out the top three. Ireland is known for its lush, green fields hence its nickname, Emerald Isle, according to National Geographic.

Ireland’s population has increased by 10 percent in the last decade, according to a report released by the Central Statistics Office.

According to the index, Bhutan is the most peaceful country in the South Asian region.

Sri Lanka’s neighbor India is ranked 126th while Pakistan is in 146th on the list.

Afghanistan is the least peaceful nation according to the index.

Ukraine and Russia are ranked 157th and 158th respectively on the 2023 Global Peace Index published by the Institute for Economics and Peace.

Bandula confident of resuming suspended projects in September

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Cabinet Spokesman Minister Bandula Gunawardena says he is hopeful that a large number of projects that are suspended at present will resume in September.

Speaking during the weekly Cabinet media briefing at the Department of Government Information this morning, Minister Gunawardena said all foreign funding was suspended after Sri Lanka declared bankruptcy last year.

He said that resulted in the suspension of projects in various sectors.

The Minister noted that with the implementation of the programme initiated by the President and the government, the economy is gradually stabilizing.

He said discussions with the International Monetary Board were also successful which resulted in the government securing a USD 2.9 billion deal, despite skepticism from the opposition.

Minister Bandula Gunawardena said the government has unveiled the domestic debt optimization plan and is in the process of discussing the comprehensive debt restructuring programme with local and international partners.

He said they are hopeful that an agreement can be reached on the debt restructuring programme by September which will take Sri Lanka out of bankruptcy and open doors for massive eternal funding.

He said once external funding starts flowing in addition to budgetary support from multilateral organizations, the suspended projects can resume.

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Colombo High Court grants bail to Nathasha Edirisooriya

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The Colombo High Court today granted bail to stand-up comedian Nathasha Edirisooriya.

However, the Colombo Fort Magistrate’s Court had earlier today ordered that she be remanded further until 12 July.

Edirisooriya was arrested in May for allegedly making comments disrespectful to Buddhism.

The Criminal Investigations Department (CID) had received a complaint against Nathasha Edirisooriya, accusing her of insulting Buddhism, and Christianity during a stand-up comedy show.

The owner of the YouTube channel SL VLOG, Bruno Divakara, was also arrested and remanded in May for publishing and promoting a video by Nathasha Edirisooriya.

Police Spokesman Nihal Thalduwa said that Bruno Divakara was arrested for aiding and abetting an illegal act committed by Edirisooriya.

Divakara was however granted bail last month.