Author: TELO Admin

The Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) has said that even if the Seiyo Explorer vessel, formerly known as Hippo Spirit, which is carrying tonnes of Chinese fertiliser that have failed quality tests, has entered Sri Lanka’s territorial waters, it is not illegal.

“Several vessels pass through our waters for the purpose of innocent passage, this is not illegal,” Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SPLA) Harbour Master Capt. K.M. Nirmal P. Silva told The Morning last (31 October) night.

He also stated that the Sri Lanka Navy does monitor Sri Lankan waters, but only for illegal activities, and not for the purpose of innocent passage.

Despite media reports which claimed that the ship had entered Sri Lanka’s sea and was situated near the Hambantota Port, he stated that as of yesterday, no information about the vessel’s position or whether it has entered Sri Lankan waters or ports has been communicated to Sri Lankan authorities.

When asked if the SLPA was aware of the vessels which are currently in Sri Lankan waters, Capt. Silva stated that it is “nobody’s responsibility” to know such details, and that the SLPA’s jurisdiction is only limited to vessels that enter any port in the country.

Indian media outlet WION (World Is One News) reported that the ship changed its name from “Hippo Spirit” to “Seiyo Explorer” last week, adding that the “Hippo Spirit” and the “Seiyo Explorer” appear to have the same IMO number, 9135523, according to a ship-tracking website.

Despite several attempts to Contact Sri Lanka Navy Media Spokesperson Capt. Indika De Silva for comments on the same, our efforts proved to be futile.

Last week, when contacted by The Morning, the Agriculture Ministry Secretary Prof. Udith K. Jayasinghe said that he is not aware as to whether the ship has arrived in the close seas of Sri Lanka. However, he said that the fertiliser stock will not be allowed to be unloaded in the country.

“Whether it has arrived or not, we have clearly asked not to unload it. The arrival of a ship does not come under me or the Director General (DG) of the Department of Agriculture, but if any ship brings unwanted things for agriculture purposes which were not permitted by the relevant authorities or for which the necessary licences have not been issued, we have asked very clearly not to unload them,” he said.

Prof. Jayasinghe further said that the Department of Agriculture DG Dr. Ajantha de Silva has sent a letter to the SLPA through which the SLPA was informed not to allow the said consignment of fertiliser to be unloaded. “Dr. de Silva has issued a very clear letter and it was accepted by the SLPA.”

Speaking further, he went on to say: “This has been dealt with by the NPQS, the Agriculture DG, Promoting the Production and Regulating the Supply of Organic Fertiliser, and Paddy and Grains, Organic Foods, Vegetables, Fruits, Chilies, Onion, and Potato Cultivation Promoting, Seed Production, and Advanced Technology Agriculture State Ministry Secretary Nihal Ranasinghe, and myself. If any fertiliser meets the prescribed standards set out by the relevant authorities, then we have no issue, but these fertilisers were not in accordance with such standards, due to which we have made it clear that they should not be brought into the country.”

In response to a question as to whether Sri Lanka would have to pay any compensation to said Chinese company in the event of this ship having to be sent back, he said: “No. Why should we pay? If somebody drops something at your home without asking and if you do not need it, are you going to pay for it? When the relevant standards are not met, this cannot be considered a fertiliser.”

The Colombo Port Harbour Master has, on 23 October, told the media that he was unaware of the said ship’s whereabouts, but had issued instructions to prevent it from entering the harbour.

Furthermore, when contacted last evening, the Ports and Shipping Ministry Secretary U.D.C. Jayalal confirmed to The Morning that the ship had not entered the port and that the Port Master had instructed the relevant parties to prevent it from entering.

Following tests carried out by local testing agencies, including the National Plant Quarantine Service (NPQS), on the second set of samples of organic fertiliser made in China that have confirmed the presence of harmful bacteria in said samples, the Agriculture Ministry recently decided not to import organic fertiliser from the said company.

However, following requests from China, the Government has agreed to send the organic fertiliser samples from the China-based Qingdao Seawin Biotech Group Co. Ltd., which have been found to contain harmful bacteria on two previous occasions, to a third party and to retest their quality.

Promoting the Production and Regulating the Supply of Organic Fertiliser, and Paddy and Grains, Organic Foods, Vegetables, Fruits, Chillies, Onion, and Potato Cultivation Promoting, Seed Production, and Advanced Technology Agriculture State Minister Shasheendra Rajapaksa told the media last Tuesday (26 October) that China had refused to accept the results of the tests conducted so far.

“They (China) said that the tests carried out on these fertiliser samples by the local agencies could not be accepted as they were not accredited laboratories. They said that this company in question manufactures fertilisers for about 16 countries, including Australia, Canada, and the US, and therefore asked us to understand the quality of these fertilisers.”

Accordingly, Rajapaksa said that the Government had agreed to refer these fertiliser samples to a third party laboratory in order to ascertain their quality.

However, the National Plant Quarantine Service (NPQS) told The Morning last week that it has sole authority to carry out testing on fertilisers that may contain live organisms to be imported into Sri Lanka, and that no such fertiliser can be imported based on the tests carried out by any other institution.

Chinese company Qingdao Seawin Biotech Group Co., Ltd., which is in the midst of a controversy over a twice rejected shipment of organic fertiliser, would have to submit a fresh sample of the fertiliser stock to the authorities if the quality of the fertiliser was to be retested, according to the Department of Agriculture.

This came in the backdrop of the Economic and Commercial Office of the Chinese Embassy in Colombo blacklisting state-run People’s Bank over its failure to honour terms of a Letter of Credit (LC) that was opened to import organic fertiliser from China.

“A new sample must be sent by the Chinese company to be tested once again,” Department of Agriculture Director General Dr. Ajantha De Silva told The Sunday Morning.

He said the sample must be up to the standards set by the National Plant Quarantine (NPQ) tests.

“The fertiliser sample must pass the SLS (Sri Lanka Standards) tests and the tests carried out by the National Plant Quarantine Service,” he added.

When questioned on the claim by the Chinese that a German company had found no harmful substance in the Chinese fertiliser, Dr. De Silva asserted that third party testing was not considered by Sri Lanka.

“We don’t take into consideration any third party testing. We go by the tests of our National Plant Quarantine Service as well as that of the SLS, which are all in line with international standards,” he said.

Furthermore, De Silva said there was a court order banning the importation of the said fertiliser: “There is a court order in place stopping the importation of this fertiliser.”

Nevertheless, the Chinese Embassy in Sri Lanka claimed that both Chinese tests as well as a German company’s third party test found no harmful substances in the fertiliser.

“The key and only issue is the NPQ SL’s report. M/s Seawin complained that according to experts in China and the German third party inspection agency, no harmful substance was found in the fertiliser,” Chinese Embassy Spokesperson Lou Chong told The Sunday Morning.

He added that the Chinese fertiliser company and the German testing company had questioned the NPQ report.

“Sri Lanka’s report is very suspicious; (they) even did their tests in (the) wrong temperature against the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) standards,” Chong stated.

People’s Bank, in a press statement regarding the move by the Chinese Embassy in Colombo, denied that it defaulted a payment relating to a LC, and pointed out that delay in payments was due to an enjoining order issued by the Colombo Commercial High Court.

Minister of Finance Basil Rajapaksa, responding to a question by a journalist during a visit to the Dalada Maligawa yesterday (30), said that he was not aware of the Chinese Embassy in Colombo blacklisting People’s Bank.

The Government had also alerted the port authorities to not allow the vessel carrying the controversial shipment of fertiliser to dock in Sri Lanka.

The Minister of Finance Basil Rajapaksa says that he has not been informed of the People’s Bank being blacklisted by the Economic and Commercial Office of the Chinese Embassy in Sri Lanka.

He made these remarks while speaking to media after visiting the Temple of the Tooth today (30).

The Minister of Finance, speaking to media said that he visited the temple to obtain the blessings of the Sacred Tooth Relic before presenting the budget on behalf of the people of the country.

However, when inquired whether the Minister was aware of People’s Bank being blacklisted by the Chinese Embassy, Minister Rajapaksa said that he has not been informed of such an event.

The People’s Bank of Sri Lanka was blacklisted yesterday (29) by the Economic and Commercial Office of the Chinese Embassy in Sri Lanka for failing to make the payment according to the Letter of Credit and the contracts between two parties.

The decision has also been submitted to the Ministry of Commerce of China.

Accordingly, all Chinese enterprises were reminded to tighten risk control and avoid accepting L/C issued by the People’s Bank of Sri Lanka in international trade with Sri Lanka, said the Embassy.

Recently, the Chinese fertilizer enterprise Qingdao Seawin Biotech Group Co., Ltd requested to get the payment of L/C by People’s Bank of Sri Lanka according to the contracts.

Disregarding the contract obligation, the business rules and international trade customs, the People’s Bank of Sri Lanka defaulted the payment of L/C and caused huge losses to the Chinese enterprise, said the Chinese Embassy.

However, People’s Bank said that is it bound by an enjoining order issued by the Commercial High Courts of Sri Lanka with regard to the trade transaction in question, which precludes the bank from processing the payment.

People’s Bank also said that the temporary delay in processing the said payment pertaining to the LC is solely due to the bank’s obligation to be bound by the legal directions of the country, as a responsible corporate citizen.

It added that once the legal barriers in effect are removed, the LC payment will be effected promptly a per the usual trade practices.

Imagine walking in the streets of your hometown. You hear the breaks of an unlicenced white van screech behind you. You turn around to see what is happening and, before you know it, you are bundled into the vehicle.

You are blindfolded, handcuffed, gagged and driven for hours to an unknown location, where in a dark room you will be tortured and interrogated for months and for crimes that are little more than the fertile imaginings of the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL). When you escape to the UK, your torturers continue to harass and brutalise you and those who you left behind.

This is the fate suffered by tens of thousands of Tamil nationals of Sri Lanka since the beginning of the armed conflict between the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE – an armed group which used to fight for an independent Tamil state in Sri Lanka) in 1983.

The war ended in 2009 with the defeat and humiliation of the LTTE and the suffering of hundreds of thousands of ordinary Tamils in Sri Lanka.

The Sri Lankan Police (SLP) and the Sri Lankan Army (SLA) are chief amongst those systematically abducting, unlawfully detaining and torturing any Tamil individuals suspected as being in any way associated with the LTTE or espousing separatist ideas. Those who were lucky enough to successfully escape the country face years of surveillance, threats, and collective punishment as their families bear the continued wrath of the GoSL.

They have lost safety and security and their home. As their UK status as refugees confirm, they cannot return – the risk of persecution is too great.

200 of those Tamils who found refuge in the United Kingdom are now seeking justice for these ongoing crimes against humanity.

On 27 October 2021, we, as Global Rights Compliance LLP, filed a complaint with the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague and the Metropolitan Police in the UK against a number of GoSL officials implicated in these crimes.

The President of Sri Lanka Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the Secretary of Defence Kamal Gunaratne and a number of individuals who held command positions within the SLP and SLA over the last two decades must be held to account. Countless Tamils were abducted, detained, tortured, deported and persecuted for decades with impunity under their watch.

But instead President Gotabaya plays the role of distinguished statesman, soon to arrive in the UK for the upcoming UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow between 31 October and 12 November 2021.

Since they will be arriving in Glasgow, the Scottish police are in a unique position to ensure that those among the Sri Lankan delegation credibly suspected of these heinous crimes are brought to justice. Rather than training the Sri Lankan police, they should be arresting them.

The SLP and its sub-branches Criminal Investigation Division, Terrorism Investigation Division and Special Task Force have been credibly accused of being involved in the abduction, detention and torture of Tamils by the United Nations as well as reputable non-governmental organisations such as the Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. Two hundred victims of their cruelty have now provided cogent evidence in support.

While the Scottish police have defended the training programme on the basis that it is designed to enhance the SLP’s respect for human rights, the fish rots from the head down.

As aptly put by Human Rights Watch, the “assistance risks appearing to endorse or lend legitimacy to agencies that are unwilling to improve their respect for human rights.” Of course, the training falls on deaf ears. Of course, international human rights organisations calling for the cancelling of the program are right.

Of course, the training programme should be “paused” until the UK Government reviews its appropriateness.

The Convention against Torture (CAT) requires its States Parties to take into custody and investigate persons within their territory who are suspected of committing torture. Under the principle of universal jurisdiction, the UK should investigate, arrest and prosecute perpetrators of crimes against humanity.

In the face of such criminality, the UK government should understand that this and nothing else is appropriate.

Authors: Wayne Jordash QC and Uzay Yasar Aysev of Global Rights Compliance.

Source:heraldscotland.

The Sri Lanka Muslim community expressed shock and dismay over the establishment of the ‘Presidential Task Force for One Country, One Law’ under the leadership of a controversial monk.

The All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama (ACJU) said that the Muslim community, as citizens of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, have been living for many centuries as one country and one Nation, with their individual, cultural, religious laws and identities under the protection of one Sri Lankan Constitution.

“We express our disappointment on the appointment of a controversial individual for a responsible position, who is known for inciting disharmony within different religious and ethnic communities, especially hurting the religious sentiments of the Muslim community, in spite of the presence of many legal and religious leaders who are working day and night for the establishment of peace, harmony and coexistence in our country,” ACJU said.

The ACJU said the appointment is a setback for all counter-radicalization efforts and peace and harmony initiatives.

The All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama further believes that the appointment tarnishes the reputation of the country in the international arena.