Category: News

The riot Police have been deployed in Colombo as attempts have been made to disrupt an event organized to commemorate the Mullivaikkal Remembrance Day.

The Mullivaikkal Remembrance Day is a remembrance day observed to remember those who died in the final stages of the Sri Lankan Civil War.

A commemoration event had been organized in Borella, Colombo today during which a group of persons were seen protesting holding banners with slogans stating ‘No to LTTE commemorations’.

As a result of the protests, the riot Police have been deployed near the Borella Roundabout to contain the situation.

Police and Ravana Balaya disrupted the Mullivaikkal memorial event at Borella Cemetery roundabout this morning. The state is so afraid of its citizens memorialising the dead that they (the state) are responsible for. #lka #RememberMay2009 #Mullivaikkal #18May pic.twitter.com/aPC5xYuvWX

— Sarah Kellapatha (@saararrr) May 18, 2023

Sri Lanka has promised the European Union (EU), the country’s second largest trading partner, to present a plan by June to lift the import restrictions that came into place in 2020 as a measure to hold on to the fast-depleting foreign exchange reserves.

This was conveyed during the 25th session of Sri Lanka – EU Joint Commission that was held virtually on April 25.

Sri Lanka expressed its intention towards a gradual phasing out of the restrictions, factoring in the current economic conditions.

When the government took the unpopular decision to restrict certain imports towards the latter part of 2020, the EU did not hide its displeasure with the move and asserted time and again that “trade is not a one-way street”.

Since the restrictions came into place, the EU had been repeatedly urging Sri Lanka to steer away from the protectionist trade policies as they were unfair to its trading partners.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) in March said Sri Lanka was expected to phase out the import and exchange restrictions currently in place.

“Authorities will develop a plan for phased removal of import restrictions and exchange restrictions related to BOP. That plan is due by June 2023,” said IMF Mission Chief Masahiro Nozaki.

President and National Policies Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has issued an order to release the lands in the Northern and Eastern Provinces that have been acquired by the Department of Forest Conservation beyond the relevant limits demarcated as demarcated in maps prepared in 1985.

In Addition, the Department of Archaeology has expressed their consent to review certain mistakes that they have committed with regard to land acquisitions and correct them.

A series of meetings were held between Wickremesinghe and Tamil Parliamentarians representing the two Provinces to discuss matters related to communities living in the North and the East as well as in the Plantation sector.

When contacted by The Daily Morning to inquire about the progress of these discussions, the Thamil Makkal Thesiya Kuttani Leader and Jaffna District MP C.V. Wigneswaran said: “The President’s order benefits people of the North and East, considering the land grabbing in those Provinces happening now at the hands of Forest Conservation and Archeology Departments. He instructed the Forest Conservation Department officials to consider the maps of 1985 as the basis when deciding on releasing the land from their purview. Accordingly, any land that was grabbed by the Department beyond what was demarcated in those maps will have to be returned to the people. I don’t know to what extent the Department would implement it, but that was the President’s order,” he said.

When queried by The Daily Morning how the order would be applicable to lands under the purview of the Archeology Department, Wigneswaran said that it would not be in a similar manner. “The Director General of the Archeology Department, Prof. Anura Manatunga attended these discussions and admitted that they were aware that certain mistakes had been committed earlier by the department with regard to land acquisition. Further he assured to bring a solution following a review of past actions. I hope to discuss with him and sort out a few pertaining matters with regard to land acquisition,” he added.

President Wickremesinghe has been pledging to resolve issues faced by people living in the North and the East, in particular the frequently raised issues of private land occupation by the military forces and State Departments.

The President held several rounds of discussions with Tamil MPs regarding the issues faced by people of the North and the East, workers of the plantation sector and the non-implementation of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution.

President Ranil Wickramasinghe has signed an Extraordinary Gazette notification declaring services related to supply of electricity, distribution of petroleum products and health care as essential services with immediate effect, President’s Media Division said.

Extraordinary Gazette notification has been issued by the Secretary to the President Saman Ekanayake, by order of the President Wednesday.

President Wickremesinghe, considering it necessary that the services provided by any state institution which is engaged in provision of the specified services, is essential to the life of the community and is likely to be impeded or interrupted, declared the services specified below to be an essential public service.

1. All services connected to the supply of electricity,
2. The supply or distribution of petroleum products and fuel,
3. All service, work or labor, of any description whatsoever, necessary or required to be done in connection with the maintenance, and the reception, care feeding, and treatment, of patients in hospitals, nursing homes, dispensaries, and other similar institutions.

Links between former President Mahinda Rajapaksa and controversial preachers Ubert Angel and Jerome Fernando is likely to be looked into as part of ongoing investigations launched by the authorities.

Fernando is being investigated over controversial statements he had made on Buddhism and other religions.

Investigators said that links between former President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Ubert Angel and Jerome Fernando will be looked into.

A complaint was lodged with the criminal investigations department over Prophet Jerome Fernando.

He was accused of making statements against the Buddhist community in Sri Lanka.

There are concerns Jerome Fernando was being used to create instability in the country.

Uebert Angel, who was in Sri Lanka in 2020 and 2022, to meet Prophet Jerome Fernando, had been accused in Zimbabwe of offering to use his status to launder millions of dollars through a gold-smuggling scheme.

Angel, appointed ambassador-at-large and a presidential envoy by Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa in March 2021, told reporters he would be able to carry large volumes of dirty cash into the country using his diplomatic status.

An undercover operation by Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit (I-Unit) had said he would facilitate a scheme through which unaccounted cash could be exchanged for Zimbabwe’s gold. Recipients of the gold could then sell the precious metal for legitimate money, effectively turning their cash clean.

The 44-year-old, who claims to be a prophet and heads a congregation — the Good News Church — with branches in 15 countries, and his business partner Rikki Doolan also claimed that their laundering operations had the approval of Mnangagwa, who has been in power since November 2017, when Zimbabwe’s controversial former leader Robert Mugabe was ousted in a military coup.