Category: News

The military has been deployed again to maintain law and order, through a gazette notice issued by President Ranil Wickremesinghe.

The gazette notice issued by the President calls out with effect from today (September 22, 2022) all the members of the Armed Forces for the maintenance of public order in the country.

The security forces had been deployed every month over the past several months to maintain law and order in the entire country.

Human rights lawyer Ambika Satkunanathan tweeted saying that the President has once again used Section 12 of the Public Security Ordinance to call out the armed forces to maintain public order.

She said the President has to only issue a gazette every month to declare the de-facto state of emergency.

Source: Colombo Gazette

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.