Category: News

In the Northern and Eastern Provinces, several courts have turned down police requests seeking stay orders banning tomorrow’s commemorative events organised by the Tamil community to remember their war dead and those who were killed during the war period.

When the seven applications filed by Kilinochchi Division police stations came before the magistrate court on Friday, the court refused to grant an order under vague urgent public nuisance clauses while recognising the right of the people to remember their lost loved ones.

Police sought early stay orders from the magistrate under the Code of Criminal Procedure Section 106 (1), saying that these events were being organised to commemorate the terrorists who belonged to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a terrorist organisation banned in the country. The police argued that if allowed, it would cause enmity among communities and disrupt normalcy in the region.

Jaffna District Tamil National Alliance Parliamentarian M.A. Sumanthiran, who appeared in the cases in the Kilinochchi Magistrate’s Court, submitted that attempts by police to prevent these events were in bad faith since similar events were conducted annually for the past thirteen years.

He told the Court that under Article 14, clauses (a), (b), and (c) of the Constitution, the right of association and freedom of religion are fundamental rights of the citizens. These ceremonies are organised to bring solace to the departed souls in line with their religious beliefs, and that fundamental right could not be curtailed, he said.

When the police told the court that if the temporary sheds collapsed, they could pose a danger to the people, the court directed the police to submit a technical report on such instances since the police acknowledged that some sheds were yet to be put up.

Similarly, in Jaffna, Mallakam, Point Pedro, Kokkadicholai, and Vavunathivu, the magistrates’ courts shot down police requests for a ban on commemorative events. However, at Sampur in Trincomalee, the magistrate court issued a stay order, but moves are underway to move a motion to urge the court to reconsider its decision on Monday.

The annual Martyrs’ Day, known as “Maveerar Day,” was introduced by the LTTE to commemorate its fallen cadres in its dedicated cemeteries on November 27 as a major public event.

Following the end of the war, many such cemeteries were either destroyed or new buildings were put up by security authorities. Currently, family members, relatives, and those who lost their loved ones during the war assemble near those cemeteries to mark the day to remember their war dead.

Meanwhile, Senior DIG (North) K.P.M. Gunaratne told the Sunday Times that if there were any violations against the laws or illegal activities such as commemorating terrorists, the police would deal with the situation according to the law.

The Inspector General of Police (IGP) and the Director of the Terrorism Investigation Division (TID), meanwhile, gave an undertaking to the Court of Appeal (CA) this week that they would take action under common law and the Code of Criminal Procedure against any attempt to commemorate the LTTE. The undertaking was given by Senior State Counsel Shamindra Wickrama, who appeared for the IGP.

The IGP and TID Director gave the undertaking when the CA took up a writ petition filed by Ananda Jayamanna, a retired military intelligence officer, requesting an order to enforce the law against any event being held to commemorate the LTTE and its late leader Velupilai Prabhakaran.

Sri Lanka has refused to bow down to Indian pressure on China and will continue to allow Chinese military ships to dock in the country.

In an interview with Firstpost’s Palki Sharma, President Ranil Wickremesinghe said that Sri Lanka will continue to allow Chinese military ships to dock in Sri Lankan ports.

He said that there was no evidence that Chinese “spy ships” had entered Sri Lankan waters.

The President said that a Chinese research vessel and another ship had arrived in Sri Lanka recently.

Wickremesinghe, however, noted that Sri Lanka will not be used to pose any threat to India’s national security.

Sri Lanka has fallen well short of its obligations linked to the EU’s Generalised Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+), Human Rights Watch (HRW) said.

Sri Lanka’s economy has contracted every year since 2019, but exports to the European Union have increased, providing vital income in desperate economic times.

This has largely been due to the EU’s Generalised Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+), which grants Sri Lanka tariff-free access to the EU market so long as it complies with core human rights and labor rights treaties.

But, as the EU noted in a new report, the Sri Lankan Government is falling well short of the mark, HRW said.

The report identifies two bright spots for human rights in Sri Lanka: the “resilience” of civil society; and the 2022 Aragalaya (“struggle” in Sinhala) movement in which thousands protested for good governance “in the spirit of democracy and freedom of expression and assembly.”

Yet the report makes clear that civil society’s “resilience” is necessary in the face of government “harassment and intimidation.” Since President Ranil Wickremesinghe took office in July 2022, the government has adopted a “repressive response” to protests, arresting the movement’s leaders and employing “disproportionate use of force.”

This challenges the EU’s policy to assist Sri Lanka’s recovery from its economic, governance and human rights crises. As the report states, “The process of reform will be more sustainable and robust if Sri Lankan civil society is part of it and if the approach is truly inclusive.”

Notably, the Government has yet to repeal the abusive Prevention of Terrorism Act – a key commitment to the EU – and even broke a moratorium on its use. As the International Monetary Fund noted in September, civil society’s “oversight and monitoring” of government actions is “restricted … by broad application of counter-terrorism rules.”

Instead, the Government has proposed new counterterrorism legislation that does not meet rights standards, and an Online Safety Bill that the EU says “could lead to censorship.” Other rights concerns the EU highlighted include the “treatment of minorities … hate crimes … allegations of torture … decriminalising same sex relations … domestic violence and child abuse … [and] harassment and threats against human rights defenders, lawyers and journalists.”

These and other developments are incompatible with the GSP+ human rights requirements, and yet Sri Lanka’s government continues to benefit from the program, HRW said

For conditionality to be credible, the GSP regulation needs to be reformed to require clear, public, and timebound benchmarks for compliance. HRW says this is what EU lawmakers should focus on: making GSP more effective in fostering human rights progress in beneficiary countries.

Sri Lanka will likely approve on Monday a proposal from Chinese state refiner Sinopec to build a $4.5-billion-dollar refinery, the South Asian island nation’s energy minister said on Saturday.

“It’s on the agenda for Monday. Once the cabinet gives approval, we will invite them to sign the agreement,” Power and Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekera told Reuters.

Sri Lanka, trying to recover from its worst economic crisis in more than 70 years, is hungry for new investment and local fuel supplies.

Sinopec’s investment of at least $4.5 billion “will go up in value as and when they do additions, but they must first come and sign the agreement for us to give any more details,” Wijesekera said.

For Sinopec, the world’s top refinery by capacity and one of the largest petrochemical makers, the investment would mark a breakthrough in a long effort to expand beyond China’s borders. It owns refinery assets in Saudi Arabia and petrochemicals production in Russia.

The Sri Lanka investment follows state-run China Merchant Port Holdings’ 99-year lease at Hambantota port and a $392 million deal to build a logistics and storage hub in Colombo port, Chinese state media reported in April.

That fits into Beijing’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative, billed as recreating the ancient Silk Road to boost global trade infrastructure, experts say.

Sinopec will start basic engineering design, including finalising the size of the refinery and technical configuration, after getting official approval, a senior company official told Reuters this month.

The investment will add to Sinopec’s recently started fuel retailing business, the third international company with a foothold in Sri Lanka, with a license to operates 150 petrol stations.

In August Sinopec and commodities trader Vitol were shortlisted by the Sri Lankan government to bid for the refinery. Vitol subsequently dropped out, the Sinopec official said.

The refinery may target markets beyond Sri Lanka, where local fuel consumption is low, and use its partnership with China Merchants Port to expand bunker fuel supply at Hambantota, a deep-sea port near busy shipping lanes between Europe and Asia, analysts say.

Sinopec’s fuel oil division, which runs the retail business there, began in 2019 supplying marine bunker fuel at Hambantota, another Sinopec official said.

Sri Lanka’s refinery at Sapugaskanda, commissioned in 1969, can process 38,000 barrels of oil a day.

Source: Reuters

Sri Lanka is eying to earn $200 million annual income from foreign ships traversing in its water by developing Electronic Navigation Charts (ENCs), the State Defence Minister said as the island nation is in the process of coming out of an unprecedented economic crisis.

President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who is also the Defence Minister, has already issued a gazette for navy to start the creation of ENCs, State Defence Minister Premitha Bandara Tennakoon said.

“Sea of Sri Lanka is located in a very strategic location. This is the route where all ships travel. We have ignored the charts of these ships for decades. We have realized that through such charts, Sri Lanka can earn $200 million,” Tennakoon told reporters in Colombo at a media briefing.

He said out of 122 ENCs, only six have been created.

“We lose significant revenue because we don’t have ENCs. It’s a huge task. Within two years we should be able to chart all,” he said.

“Priority will be given for places where we can earn revenue,” he said, referring to yachts using charts when they travel for leisure purposes.

“We can even think of yacht hubs. Each should use at least two ENCs and one chart (ENC) could earn a revenue of $25.”

He said the move could be used to earn revenue from 350000-45000 ships traveling the main sea route near Sri Lanka.

“It is important for the economy, tourism, and national security.”

The existing nautical charts are managed by the British Hydrographic Office according to an agreement with the National Aquatic Resources Research and Development Agency (NARA) Institute.

At present, the NARA Institute has entered into an agreement with the British Hydrographical Office for the creation of nautical maps covering the ocean region belonging to Sri Lanka.