Author: TELO Admin

Proclamation on the state of emergency declared by the then Acting President under the Public Security Ordinance approved in Parliament of Sri Lanka by majority vote.

The Proclamation on the state of emergency declared by then Acting President under the Public Security Ordinance was approved in Parliament today (27) by a majority of 57 votes with 120 voting in favour and 63 voting against it.

Parliament convened today at 10.00 am and the debate started after the Leader of the House, Minister Susil Premajayantha, presented to the Parliament the resolution regarding the declaration of state of emergency announced by the Acting President under the Public Security Ordinance.

At the end of the debate, which continued until 5.20 pm, Chief Opposition Whip Lakshman Kiriella asked for a division and accordingly the voting was held.

Then Acting President Ranil Wickramasinghe had declared that the provisions of Part 2 of the Public Security Ordinance shall come into operation throughout Sri La:nka from July 18, 2022 through the Proclamation dated 17.07.2022 under Section 2 of the aforesaid Ordinance.

It further states that Parliament is duly informed in terms of Article 155(4) of the constitution that the purpose of the above Proclamation is to the protection of public order and the maintenance of supplies and services essential to the life of the community.

According to the Public Security Ordinance, this Proclamation will be valid for a period of one month if approved by the Parliament within 14 days. If the approval of the Parliament is not obtained within 14 days, it will be cancelled.

Also, the state of emergency can be extended once every 30 days with the approval of the Parliament.

It is stated in the gazette that this proclamation has been issued in accordance with the powers vested in the President in terms of the Public Security Ordinance to ensure public security and the protection of the public order and the maintenance supplies and services essential to the life of community.

Nine Sri Lanka Navy sailors who were among personnel expected to return on a vessel gifted by the United States have jumped ship, official sources said as the country reels from a monetary meltdown which has triggered a spike in boat people.

The nine sailors are aged between 27-36 years belonging to several ranks.

The incident comes as Sri Lanka is suffering the worse currency crisis in the history of the island’s intermediate regime central bank. Many people had been arrested by the authorities attempting to leave the country and heading to India and Australia in fishing boats.

“A big crew went to the USA to bring in a ship that was donated to the Sri Lanka Navy,” an official source said.

“From that crew 9 people have gone missing.”

The U.S. embassy said a group of Sri Lankan sailors traveled to the United States to train alongside their U.S. counterparts before returning to Sri Lanka on the P-627, a former U.S. Coast Guard cutter gifted to the Sri Lanka Navy.

“We understand that several sailors have absconded from the training, a matter that has been referred to U.S. law enforcement,” a US Embassy Spokesman told Economy Next.

“Individuals who break U.S. immigration laws can be subject to arrest, detention, and deportation, and those who accrue unlawful presence in the United States can be prevented from returning to the U.S. for up to 10 years.”

“The U.S. values our continued partnership with the government, military, and people of Sri Lanka, and will continue to provide generous humanitarian assistance, ongoing development assistance, and military training during this difficult time.”

The former U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Douglas Munro, re-named P-627 after its handover to Sri Lanka could house over 180 personnel on board. It was undergoing a re-fit before coming to Sri Lanka.

Sri Lankan military personnel had been travelling to the US with increased co-operation between the two countries.

The missing sailors were part of a 50-member Navy contingent to take part in the Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) Exercise 2022, hosted by the US Pacific Fleet and they left on June 4 for Australia from the Bandaranaike International Airport by a special flight arranged by Royal Australian Air Force, another defence source said.

In Australia they underwent underwent a two weeks acclimatization program before they left to the US, . The RIMPAC Exercise 2022 is being held from June 29 to August 04.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said Sri Lanka should kick off debt restructuring talks with its bilateral lender China, while the island state’s government seeks a financing loan from the Washington-based fund.

“China is a big creditor, and Sri Lanka has to engage proactively with it on a debt restructuring,” Krishna Srinivasan, director of the IMF’s Asia and Pacific Department, told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday.

The island of 22 million is currently engulfed by its most severe economic and political crisis in recent history.

Six-time prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was recently appointed as president after a popular uprising ousted his predecessor following months of severe shortages of fuel, food and medicines.

The government recently decided to restrict fuel imports for 12 months.

The country owes Beijing some $6.5 billion in financing including development bank loans and a central bank swap, according to data from the Institute of International Finance (IFF).

The world’s second-largest economy has invested in projects such as highways, a port, an airport and a coal power plant. Japan and India are also bilateral creditors to Sri Lanka.

“Sri Lanka has to engage with its creditors, both private and official bilateral, on a debt workout to ensure debt sustainability is restored,” Srinivasan said, as he pointed out that technical talks on a new IMF program are ongoing with both officials from the finance ministry and the central bank.

Sri Lanka’s foreign ministry and central bank did not immediately respond to a request for comment. China’s embassy in Sri Lanka did not immediately respond.

The South Asian nation has requested an IMF rescue plan to overcome its worst economic crisis since independence in 1948. The country defaulted on a bond payment debt earlier this year on its $12 billion overseas debt with private creditors, as it struggles to pay for imports of basic goods.

“There are some areas where we need to make further progress,” Srinivasan added, but declined to specify the top reforms Sri Lanka should address in other to reach an agreement.

An Extended Fund Facility (EFF) programme from the IMF, which would be the fund’s 17th plan for the nation, requires countries to make structural economic reforms.

Maldives and Laos are other examples of countries in the region that are facing onerous debt situations.

Srinivasan said the fund is advising countries to “spend more in alleviating the impact on the poor and vulnerable but keeping budget neutral by reducing expenditures elsewhere or raising revenues where feasible.”

“It’s not just public debt, but also corporate debt and household debt – and that has implications for policymaking,” he said. “The debt issue is very significant.”

Source: Reuters

United States Agency for International Development (USAID) chief Samantha Power on Wednesday lauded India for reacting swiftly to help Sri Lanka by providing humanitarian assistance and added that China had offered opaque deals to the island nation.

“Government of India has reacted swiftly with an absolute critical set of measures. The government of India has already supplied 16 million dollars in humanitarian aid to Sri Lanka. It has exported a hundred thousand tonnes of organic fertiliser to help farmers stave off future food shortages. It has supplied 3.5 billion dollars of a line of credit to the government of Sri Lanka as it attempts to steer the economy out of default,” Power said.

The USAID chief contrasted this to the People’s Republic of China which has been an eager creditor of the Sri Lankan government since the mid-2000s.

“Indeed in the past 2 decades, China became Sri Lanka’s biggest creditor often offering opaque loan deals at higher interest rates than other lenders and financing a raft of headline-grabbing infrastructure projects with often questionable practical use for Sri Lankans including a massive port that generator little income and was barely used by ships. Equally, a massive airport dubbed the emptiest in the world because it attracted so few passengers,” Power said at IIT Delhi.

She also hoped that the important question would be whether China will restructure its debt to Sri Lanka.

“As the economic condition has soured, Beijing has promised lines of credit and emergency loans, this is critical as Beijing is estimated to hold atleast 15 per cent of Sri Lanka’s foreign debt. The cause to provide significant relief has gone unanswered. The question is whether Beijing will restructure debt to the same same extent as other bilateral creditors,” she added.

Power also highlighted, “It is essential that Beijing participate in debt relief transparently and on equitable terms with all other creditors.” She mentioned in her speech that India has helped countries around the world in times of difficulty.

Power is on a visit to India from July 25 to 27. The USAID is one of the leading aid agencies globally.

Today we mark 39 th years from the horrors of the anti-Tamil pogrom of 1983, when Tamils were killed by Sinhala mobs backed by the then UNP government and state forces.

Sinhala rioters halt a minibus searching for Tamils Armed with electoral rolls, Sinhala mobs targeted Tamil homes and businesses looting and ransacking property. Driven from their homes, particularly in Colombo, over 3000 Tamils were massacred, whilst thousands more were effectively deported by the state to the North-East.

Eye witness reports described mobs chasing Tamils down the street with knives and setting them alight alive. Many hundreds of women were raped. Tamil political prisoners locked up in Welikada jail, deep within the island’s south, were also targeted as prison guards allowed Sinhala inmates to slaughter them.

We look back at events through international press coverage at the time: