Category: Featured Headlines

The Government wants to review different election laws in the country in a move that will recede prospects of any early Provincial Council polls.

When Parliament meets on April 6, House Leader and Foreign Minister Dinesh Gunawardena will introduce a motion for the appointment of a Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) for this purpose. Such a PSC, comprising government and opposition members, will examine election laws relating to presidential, parliamentary, provincial council and local council elections.

The exercise, government officials said, would be long drawn out since the proposed PSC would have to focus on different sets of polls laws. In addition, they said, public representations also would have to be called.

On Thursday, Minister Gunawardena told a party leaders meeting, chaired by Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena, of the government’s move to appoint a PSC.

The new move appears to be a climbdown from the Government’s earlier plan to hold PC elections, possibly by the third week of June. Towards this end, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa held talks with Election Commission members. He later announced the move at a March 3 meeting of former Provincial Council members and urged them to prepare for the polls. The matter also came up at last Monday’s meeting of the cabinet of ministers. The plans then were to move amendments to electoral laws governing PC polls.

This development comes after the UN Human Rights Council last Tuesday adopted a Resolution on Sri Lanka “promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights.” Among other matters, it also calls for the conduct of PC elections.

This is besides India which has re-iterated its call for PC elections after the visit to Sri Lanka by its External Affairs Minister, Dr Subramanyam Jaishanker. Two more calls were made thereafter, one by Indra Mani Pandey, India’s Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva, and the mission’s third secretary, just ahead of the voting on the Sri Lanka resolution.

The Sri Lanka Freedom Party says it has proposed for Buddhism to be given utmost priority in a proposal handed over to the committee appointed to seek opinions for clauses to be included in the new Constitution.

Speaking to media last evening after handing over the party’s proposals, Deputy Chairman of the Party Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva said they also tabled a proposal to strengthen articles on securing basic human rights.

Minister de Silva said they directed attention towards protecting the environment and strengthening laws to prevent animal cruelty.

He noted fundamental rights petitions could only be filed before the Supreme Court, adding that individuals in rural areas did not have funds to file petitions and table their grievances.

Therefore, the Minister suggested for the justice system to devolve power to District High Courts.

The SLFP has also suggested an opportunity to be granted for District Courts to file an appeal with the Supreme Court.

Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva added the SLFP tabled proposals to strengthen the Provincial Council system.

As a party he noted they were in favour of a further centralising power.

Minister de Silva called on the government to abolish the Preferential Voting system.

The Minister stressed; 25% female representation will be made mandatory at elections adding this too is one such proposal for the proposed new Constitution.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has said that the government will face international challenges fearlessly.

“We are unwilling to sacrifice the country’s sovereignty to fulfil one’s geopolitical needs by allowing separatism to emerge through power devolution,” the President said on Sunday.

He made these remarks during the 16th phase of the Discussion with the Village programme at the Darangala Maha Vidyalaya in Pitabaddara.

The President also expressed critical remarks on the resolution that was adopted on Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council.

“We are an independent country. We are capable of managing our own affairs,” Rajapaksa insisted.

Sri Lanka risked a showdown with New Delhi over the arrest of 54 Indian fishermen in what was widely seen in diplomatic circles as a retaliatory move over the censure motion against Colombo at the UN Human Rights Council.

India abstained from voting, but made a statement that supported the UK-led resolution despite Sri Lanka’s Foreign Secretary, Admiral Professor Jayanath Colombage, having indicated New Delhi would support Colombo at Tuesday’s vote in Geneva.

The resolution calling for the establishment of a mechanism to collect and preserve evidence of alleged war crimes in Sri Lanka was adopted with 22 voting in favour, the highest number of votes against Sri Lanka at the UNHRC.

A day after the vote, Sri Lanka’s navy carried out the arrests, the largest single since June 2014, causing alarm in New Delhi because of the implications in Tamil Nadu which is heading for assembly elections in two months.

Tamil Nadu fishermen poach in Sri Lankan waters, but their arrests are seen by them as “harassment” from the island’s navy.

The latest mass arrest triggered angry protests across the Palk Straits in Tamil Nadu where Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP party and its allies are facing stiff opposition at the upcoming elections.

Officials of the Ministry of External Affairs had made it clear that the arrest of fishermen coming on the heels of the UNHRC resolution was seen as a hostile move. With Delhi’s displeasure made plain to Colombo, local authorities switched to damage control mode.

However, local fisheries authorities in Jaffna dealing directly with the Sri Lanka navy had resisted moves to free the fishermen. They agreed to sending back only 40 fishermen on Friday while retaining 14 others along with their trawlers and fishing gear.

Even before the release of the 40 Indians, the Indian High Commission in Colombo made their displeasure clear.

“We reiterate that issues associated with Indian fishermen are to be dealt in a humanitarian manner… Bilateral mechanisms are in place to comprehensively address all matters related to fisheries,” the High Commission said in a statement indicating its displeasure over the navy action.

It is understood that the detention of the 14 had caused more anguish in New Delhi which was keen to avoid the arrest being exploited as a campaign issue in Tamil Nadu.

With high-level intervention on Saturday, the remaining 14 fishermen and their trawlers were released by the Jaffna magistrate with the intervention of the police.

It is understood that the police argued that the fishermen should be released to avoid a possible Covid-19 cluster from Indian fishermen at a time when the virus is rapidly spreading in India.

Thanks to the Covid-19 argument, Sri Lanka may have avoided a new cold war. Prime Minister Modi had attempted to address the issue of fishermen poaching in Sri Lankan waters and officials from both countries have been meeting to find a mutually acceptable solution when the latest arrest took place.

Sri Lanka’s navy had argued that they carried out the arrest as Indian fishermen had strayed too close to the Sri Lankan coast.

Bangladesh says it has learnt from Sri Lanka’s mistakes when dealing with China.

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Foreign Affairs Advisor, Gowher Rizvi, has said that Dhaka would take a very balanced, calibrated investment policy when dealing with China.

The statement has come at a time when China is luring the developing and underdeveloped countries with its ‘debt trap’ strategy, IB Times reported.

Rizvi said that the country has taken lessons from Sri Lanka and Djibouti which were forced to give control of their assets after they were unable to pay Chinese debt.

Djibouti’s debt to China is said to have risen to more than 70% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).

As per the China Global Investment Tracker, Chinese investments and contracts in Djibouti totalled $1.02 billion from 2013 to 2020, with the majority of them in the transportation sector.

Furthermore, in 2004, DP World, a logistics corporation headquartered in the United Arab Emirates, signed a 25-year contract to run the Doraleh Container Terminal. But Djibouti unexpectedly terminated the arrangement in January 2018, nationalized the terminal, and transferred a stake of over 20% to China Merchant Holdings.

Similarly, citing difficulty to pay loans taken to build the project at the southern port of Hambantota, the Srilankan government agreed to lease the port for 99 years to a venture led by China Merchants Port Holdings Co. in return for $1.1 billion.

Meanwhile, Rizvi dismissed any fears of China building Bangladesh’s deep seaport and added, “There was a huge concern that China will build Bangladesh’s deep seaport Are you hearing anything of that sort?” He also said, “We know how to guard our sovereignty. We became an Independent State through a war of liberation. We very carefully monitor our borrowings. We are in a very healthy position insofar as our foreign repayment debt repayment is concerned.”

Calling New Delhi an important ally of Dhaka, Rizvi said that Bangladesh has given importance to its relationship with India.

Responding to the passage of the UN Human Rights Council resolution on Sri Lanka, the British Tamil Conservatives welcomed the passage of the resolution but called for further legal action on Sri Lanka officials implicated in war crimes as well as trade sanctions against Sri Lanka.

Their statement is supported by a number of MPs from across the political spectrum who have raised concerns over Sri Lanka’s human rights record and have called for Magnitsky sanctions on senior Sri Lankan officials implicated in war crimes such as Shavendra Silva and Kamal Gunaratne. A number of human rights organisations, such as Human Rights Watch, have also called for targeted sanctions on Sri Lankan officials.

In their statement, they highlighted the resolution’s recognition of the failure of domestic mechanism in Sri Lanka to deliver accountability and justice as well as the deteriorating human rights conditions. The resolution mandates the setting up of an evidence collection mechanism under the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and keeps Sri Lanka firmly on the UNHRC agenda.

Their statement concludes by maintaining:

“It is now time for the member states, including the United Kingdom to take on board the recommendations of her excellency Michelle Bachelet, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and take legal action based on Universal Jurisdiction, apply travel bans against Sri Lankan officials and trade sanctions against Sri Lanka”.