Category: News

The Core Group on Sri Lanka led by the United Kingdom has expressed concern over the attack on peaceful protesters, during the 50th UN human rights council sessions in Geneva.

The delegation in presence noted that protesters have exercised their right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association, and freedom of expression in recent months.

They further stated that the core group has become deeply concerned over the attacks on peaceful protesters and subsequent violence against government allied politicians and supporters.

They emphasized that those responsible for this violence must be held to account.

A woman from the Northern Sri Lankan town of Puvarasankulam who was abducted by four men for a ransom of 500,000 rupees was rescued and her captivators taken into police custody on Tuesday (14), police said.

Police had received a complaint on Monday (13) that the woman had gone missing and was being held in a house against her will, the police media division said.

The abductors had telephoned the victim’s daughter and demanded 500,000 rupees in order to release the woman. They had then threatened to kill the woman if the ransom was not paid.

Police who had gone in under the guise of people known to the woman to pay the ransom managed to rescue the woman, and her four abductors – aged between 26 and 49 and all residents of the northern province – were arrested, police said.

The suspects were produced in the High Court of Vavuniya on Tuesday.

Sri Lanka is going through its worst economic crisis since independence and analysts have expressed fears of an increase in crime as living costs soar.

The United Nations (UN) has urged Sri Lanka to advance reconciliation and justice for all communities.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet told the UN Human Rights Council at its 50th Session today that the Sri Lanka Government must ensure immediate relief for the most marginalized and vulnerable groups and prioritise social protection as it negotiates a recovery plan.

“I hope efforts will focus on deeper institutional reforms to ensure greater transparency and accountability in governance, reduce inequalities and advance reconciliation and justice for all communities,” she told the UNHRC in Geneva.

She also said that the war in Ukraine continues to destroy the lives of many, causing havoc and destruction.

“The horrors inflicted on the civilian population will leave their indelible mark, including on generations to come,” Bachelet said.

She noted that the social, economic and political ramifications of the war in Ukraine ripple across the region and globally, with no end in sight.

A global food, fuel and finance crisis now risks plunging millions into food insecurity and poverty. 1.2 billion people live in countries that are severely exposed and vulnerable to all three dimensions of finance, food, and energy, simultaneously.

The World Food Programme estimates that the number of severely food insecure people is expected to grow from 276 million at the start of 2022 to 323 million in the course of the year.

According to the UN Global Crisis and Response Group the combination of higher food and energy prices, growing inflation, export restrictions, and tightening financial conditions will be devastating, in particular on the most vulnerable.

Inequalities between and within countries are skyrocketing, threatening COVID-19 recoveries, undermining progress in the implementation of the SDGs and slowing down climate action.

Representatives from the financial and legal advisory firms Lazard and Clifford Chance, hired by Sri Lanka to help manage its debt restructuring efforts, arrived on the island yesterday (14), Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe stated.

Sri Lanka hired the heavyweight financial and legal advisors, France-based financial services provider Lazard, and UK-based law firm Clifford Chance LLP, as it prepares for the difficult task of restructuring its debts.

The Cabinet of Ministers approved the hiring of these two firms for Sri Lanka’s debt restructuring process last month. Lazard is to act as Sri Lanka’s financial advisor to restructure debt, at a cost of $ 5.6 million for its services over four quarters, while Clifford Chance LLP has been appointed as the expert legal advisor for the debt restructuring process.

Sri Lanka has sought assistance from Iran to import medical items, the Tehran Times reported.

The assistance was sought when the Ambassador of Sri Lanka to Iran, Wishwanath Aponsu, met Pir Hossein Kolivand, head of the Iranian Red Crescent Society.

At the meeting he called for importing medical items and equipment from Iran to ease the crisis of medicine shortage in his country.

Aponsu also said that Sri Lanka’s economic situation today is extremely critical, especially in the fields of oil, fuel, medicine, etc., and the poor situation in Sri Lankan hospitals is due to the shortage of medicines for cancer patients, diabetics, and medicines for pediatric diseases.

Pointing to Iran as a manufacturer of medicine and medical equipment, he called for cooperation with the IRCS, because Sri Lanka not only has problems in supplying medicine but also with medical equipment.

Financial and legal advisors appointed to help Sri Lanka with debt re-structuring are in Sri Lanka and a team from the International Monetary Fund will be in Colombo from June 20 to negotiate a program, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said.

Wickremesinghe said he had talked with IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva on June 07 and she promised to expedite the program and would send a team by June 20.

Sri Lanka has to re-structure its foreign debt, or make substantial progress before the IMF lends money.

“Because of that we have taken the advisors Clifford Chance and Lazard,” Wickremesinghe said in a video statement.

“By now they have come to Sri Lanka. We hope to conclude these matter by end June.”

Sri Lanka is printing money to finance some state expenditure and also to finance imports (sterilizing after giving dollars for imports mainly from deferred payments by India) creating forex shortages.

Wickremesinghe said money was also printed to pay for a fuel ship.

However the government had raised some taxes to finance state spending.

“We do not have rupee income,” Wickremesinghe said. “That is why we are introducing taxes. There are a few more taxes. By the end of the year we hope to end the problem with rupees.”

Approving the proposed 21st Amendment to the Constitution has been further postponed by the Cabinet of Ministers.

According to Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, the weekly meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers convened yesterday has not green-lighted the constitutional amendments as it was decided that further educating the political party leaders in this regard is necessary.

Thereby, several political party leaders will be informed of the 21st Amendment to the Constitution at a discussion scheduled for next Thursday.

Subsequently, the 21st Amendment to the Constitution is expected to be approved at the meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers next Monday.

The 21st Amendment was tabled in the Cabinet last week and the discussion on it was adjourned until this week.