The Port of Trincomalee will carry out its first export shipment today, after a long lay off of 30 years, the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) said.
Accordingly, the first shipment of ilmenite a titanium-iron oxide mineral are scheduled to export to China today, the SLPA said.
Source: Daily Mirror Online
An Ambassadors’ Forum on debt restructuring and International Monetary Fund (IMF) program commenced a short while ago under the patronage of President Ranil Wickremesinghe.
A total of 16 Colombo-based missions are participating in the forum, the President’s Media Division (PMD).
Meanwhile, six other participants are taking part in the forum from New Delhi virtually, the PMD added.
Earlier this month Sri Lanka reached a preliminary deal with the IMF for a loan of about USD 2.9 billion contingent on it receiving financing assurances from official creditors and negotiations with private creditors.
Source: Adaderana
SLPP MP Prof. G.L. Peiris yesterday said that the government rebels in the opposition ranks were not given time to speak in Parliament.
Speaking to the media at the Parliament ground, Prof Peiris said that the government accused of suppressing the voices of people has now extended its grip of silencing the critics in Parliament by not allocating time to the opposition MPs to speak in debates.
Prof Peiris said that time in debates was not allocated to 13 SLPP MPs who joined the opposition ranks. “Today the debate in the House was on strategies to increase the national income. MPs of our group are not given time. This is deliberate silencing of the critics of the government.” he said.
It is useless to talk about the privileges of a Member of Parliament if the fundamental right to speak is violated. This is a total disruption of the Parliament democracy.
Prof Peiris said that the MPs who had been deprived of participating in the debates would write to the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, Inter-Parliamentary Union and the SAARC member nations of the unjust act.
Source: The Island Online
The World Broadcasting Unions – WBU, which is the co-ordinating body of broadcasting unions around the world, has condemned the vicious attack on journalists of MTV Channel (Pvt) Ltd by Sri Lanka Police and security personnel on the 9th of July.
The World Broadcasting Unions has among its membership the largest and most influential unions of broadcast journalists around the world. They include the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union, the Arab States Broadcasting Union, the African Union of Broadcasting, the Caribbean Broadcasting Union, the European Broadcasting Union, and International Association of Broadcasting, and the North American Broadcasters Association. The WBU was founded in 1922 and has its headquarters in Toronto, Canada.
The WBU, in an official statement, said that it is closely monitoring the Sri Lankan government’s response to attacks on journalists and attempts to intimidate media organizations.
The WBU called on the government to appoint an impartial body to investigate the incident on 9th July and to ensure that police and security personnel do not intimidate, harass or assault any journalists, or anyone associated with the companies which employ them.
The WBU noted that the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka has formally acknowledged the unjustified assault on media personnel by police and security personnel and confirmed that the journalists posed no threat to police and that the assault represented a gross violation of the rights of a free media.
It noted that several members of the senior management of MTV Channel (Pvt) Ltd were arbitrarily summoned by police for questioning with regard to the news report on that day and on the arson attack on the Prime Minister’s residence which took place shortly afterwards.
The WBU said that it is speaking out on these events in direct support of MTV’s parent company, the Capital Maharaja Group, which is a member of the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union.
Former Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) MP Sivasakthy Ananthan yesterday (20) said that around 1,200 war-affected children in the Northern Province are still bearing shrapnel in their bodies and are yet to receive adequate healthcare to cope with their conditions.
Back in 2016, when Ananthan was a MP, during the Budget debates, he pointed out to then-Prime Minister and incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe about the difficulties faced by these children and the lack of healthcare facilities for the children and adults bearing pieces of shrapnel. In response, Wickremesinghe had requested Ananthan to initiate a dialogue with the Minister of Health at the time and to submit a report of the numbers affected. Speaking to The Morning, Ananthan said that he had submitted a report including the details of 750 children out of 1,200 in 2016 as requested by Wickremesinghe, but that there was no action taken.
The affected persons had complained to Ananthan that the hospitals in the North were lacking facilities to treat their conditions.
“This situation remains the same. Some children who can obtain financial support have removed the shrapnel from their bodies with the help of Indian doctors, while most are still bearing the shards,” he added.
Ananthan noted that there are children with shrapnel in their heads and spinal areas. To some of them, the doctors have advised that removing such could be a threat to their lives, and therefore, they continue to live with the condition.
“I appeal to President Wickremesinghe to provide assistance to these children. Not everyone is financially stable enough to get the shrapnel removed; thus the Government should help them to survive,” he added.
He also noted that he would reach out to President Wickremesinghe through former Northern Province Chief Minister and incumbent Tamil Makkal Thesiya Kuttani (TMTK) MP C.V. Wigneswaran to highlight this matter.
Meanwhile, Northern Province Governor Jeevan Thiyagarajah, speaking to The Morning, said that the presence of shrapnel does not always translate to the need for removal.
“It is subject to medical advice on the necessity. However, the principal cost must not be a reason not to attend to any removal, particularly for those less resourced. We will revisit this subject and inquire from every healthcare facility on the needs of those they attended to previously,” he added.
(THE HINDU) – China has offered Pakistan’s visiting Army Chief technical help as the country deals with record floods but did not announce any substantial financial assistance that its “all-weather” ally has been seeking.
Both Pakistan and Sri Lanka, facing financial stress, have been engaged in long-running talks with Beijing for assistance, but with negotiations in both cases having made little headway, both countries have turned to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Their new IMF commitments are now likely to impact their owed payments to China, which has lent the two countries more than $26 billion in the past five years.
Following talks in Xi’an between Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa and China’s Defence Minister General Wei Fenghe, the Chinese side expressed willingness to provide technical assistance for flood relief work, Pakistan’s official Inter-Services Public Relations said.
Chinese State media quoted Gen. Wei as calling on both countries “to tide over difficulties together, fully trust each other, and unswervingly support each other’s core interests on the way forward” but did not detail any offers of assistance. Chinese media noted that Beijing had previously provided relief supplies worth $57 million.
Earlier this month, Pakistan’s government assured the IMF it would reduce capacity payments owed to Chinese projects or seek to restructure loans, with over $1.09 billion still owed to Chinese power producers.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka has been pressing Beijing for a $4 billion loan, but talks that have dragged on for several months appear to have not yielded an agreement. Rather than restructure Sri Lanka’s existing debt, Beijing has indicated it would prefer to instead extend new loans to an already heavily indebted economy.
On September 1, Sri Lanka and the IMF reached a staff-level agreement with the Fund set to support Sri Lanka with an Extended Fund Facility (EFF) of $2.9 billion, contingent upon Sri Lanka’s successful debt restructuring efforts, which will hinge in part on China’s agreeability. Sri Lanka’s creditors also include International Sovereign Bond (ISB) holders, multilateral lending agencies, and other bilateral partners such as Japan and India.
While Japan and India have been very supportive of the IMF process from the beginning, all eyes were on China to see if it would play ball, although some analysts in Sri Lanka expressed hope citing China’s willingness to work on a debt relief deal in Zambia.
In response to Sri Lanka’s IMF agreement, Beijing said as a “traditional friendly neighbor” of Sri Lanka and a “major shareholder” of the IMF, China has “always been encouraging” the IMF and other international financial institutions “to continue to play a positive role in supporting Sri Lanka’s response to current difficulties, efforts to ease debt burden and realize sustainable development.” Sri Lanka is currently in talks with its creditors, with the hope of qualifying for the Fund’s EFF.
Discussions are underway regarding the ‘Supreme Lanka Coalition’ working together with the independent group of MPs that quit the government including Dullas Alahapperuma, during upcoming elections, says MP Vasudeva Nanayakkara.
However, the MP claimed that he has no intention of joining ‘Samagi Jana Balavegaya’, the main opposition.
He stated this speaking to the media following a discussion held between the party leaders of the ‘Supreme Lanka Coalition’ yesterday (Sep 20).
In response to a question raised by a journalist, he said that they are not yet ready to contest an election.
Answering a question about whether Kumara Welgama will become a challenge for their coalition, he said: “Chandrika is also there, and Kumara Welgama too. You will see how it goes after we enter the contest. Have to be prepared for the match”.
Farmers in Thannimurippu alleged that the Department of Archaeology has earmarked 56 hectares of private land for acquisition out of 256 hectares identified as archaeological land in Mullaitivu.
Speaking to The Morning, Archaeology Department Director General (DG) Prof. Anura Manatunga said however that the department would never take such a step, but added that he would have to study the case before making any further comment.
Thannimurippu Farmers’ Association President S. Thavaseelan told the media on Monday (19) that this acquisition included his own land. According to him, the land included shared grassland, paddy fields, and a dam built in 1953.
Social media recently reported an attack by Vattuvakal residents in Mullaitivu against an attempt to seize 250 hectares of their land. However, according to reports, the residents were influenced by the politicians in the area. Blocking the officials from surveying the land, the residents of Vattuvakal and Mullivaikkal in Mullaitivu staged a protest demanding that their land be returned to them for resettlement and farming. It was said that the land would be acquired for security purposes following a directive from the Ministry of Defence, and that if there were any claims for the ownership of those lands, the officials needed to be presented with documents such as original deeds or permits from that time.
Located north of the Vattuvakal bridge, the land was abandoned by residents in the final phases of the war, according to media reports. They allege that the Navy took the land and set up a base called the Sri Lanka Naval Ship Gotabaya.
The Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) today announced that the parliamentarians of the party who have accepted ministerial positions in the current government have been removed from all party positions they held.
General Secretary of SLFP, Member of Parliament Dayasiri Jayasekara told media that the party has decided to remove those MPs who have taken government and state ministerial positions against the opinion of the party from their posts in the party.
The General Secretary also mentioned that party chairman and former president Maithripala Sirisena has informed them through letters that six people who have obtained positions in the government will be removed from all the positions they held in the party.
It is stated that those MPs have acted against the decision taken by the Sri Lanka Freedom Party Central Committee not to get any position in the current government.
Accordingly, senior vice presidents of the party, ministers Nimal Siripala de Silva and Mahinda Amaraweera, party treasurer Lasantha Alagiyawanna, deputy secretaries Ranjith Siyambalapitiya, Chamara Sampath Dasanayake, and Jagath Pushpakumara, who were appointed as state ministers have been removed from all posts of the party they held and from the membership of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party Central Committee, Jayasekara said.
He mentioned that this decision was taken as the first step against them and no decision has been taken to expel them from the party membership so far.
The General Secretary said the state ministers Shanta Bandara and Suren Raghavan, who got positions in the government, were also removed from the positions they held in the party earlier.
The first consignment from an Australian donation totaling AUD22 million (approximately USD15 million) has arrived in Sri Lanka and will soon be distributed to those most affected by the ongoing economic crisis.
The consignment, consisting of 600 metric tonnes of rice, forms part of a larger consignment of rice, pulses and cooking oil, due to arrive in the country soon, the World Food Programme (WFP) said.
“Australia and Sri Lanka share many decades of friendship, and this latest contribution is an extension of our goodwill during this unprecedented crisis,” said Paul Stephens, Australia’s High Commissioner to Sri Lanka. “We are supporting WFP to provide life-saving food to people who are struggling with price increases, job losses and reduced incomes”.
“Australia was the first to contribute to WFP’s emergency response, enabling us to kick-off much needed assistance to those hard-hit by the ongoing crisis,” said Abdur Rahim Siddiqui, WFP Sri Lanka’s Representative and Country Director. “Through Australia’s generous donation, we are providing cash and in-kind food to the most vulnerable, including pregnant and breastfeeding women and school children,” he added.
Sri Lanka’s economic crisis has increased the level of food insecurity and recent WFP surveys show the situation could deteriorate further in the coming months without urgent assistance. Launched in June, WFP’s emergency response aims to help 3.4 million of those most at risk.
