Category: News

While raising concerns regarding the continued lack of progress on accountability and regret that there have been setbacks in several emblematic human rights cases, the United Kingdom called on the Government of Sri Lanka to engage constructively with the recommendations in resolution 46/1 and to co-operate with your Office.

The UK’s Global Ambassador for Human Rights, Rita French delivering her statement during the Interactive Dialogue on the OHCHR report on Sri Lanka, said they welcomed recent releases on bail of Ahnaf Jazeem and Hejaaz Hizbullah as a positive first step. Whilst we acknowledge initial reforms of the Prevention of Terrorism Act, these do not go far enough.

“Madam High Commissioner, The United Kingdom welcomes your update. We share your concerns regarding the continued lack of progress on accountability and regret that there have been setbacks in several emblematic human rights cases.

We welcome recent releases on bail of Ahnaf Jazeem and Hejaaz Hizbullah as a positive first step. Whilst we acknowledge initial reforms of the Prevention of Terrorism Act, these do not go far enough.

Whilst we acknowledge the NGO Secretariat move to the Foreign Ministry, we have concerns around surveillance and harassment of civil society, and militarisation of civilian governmental functions. The appointment of an individual, named in a key emblematic case, to the post of Provincial Governor, is particularly worrying.

Whilst we acknowledge ongoing work in Government institutions on reparations and missing persons, it is crucial this is accompanied by a comprehensive reconciliation and accountability process.

We note with concern that minority communities are facing increased marginalisation, with allegations of land grabs in the North and East of the country.

We call on the Government of Sri Lanka to engage constructively with the recommendations in resolution 46/1 and to co-operate with your Office,” she said.

Eleven constituent parties of Sri Lanka’s ruling coalition will contest a future election as a new alliance without the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) but it will likely not be under the leadership of former president Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga contrary to some media reports, State Minister Dayasiri Jayasekara said.

The Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) general secretary told EconnomyNext Monday evening that the question of who will lead the alliance is not of concern at present.

“We don’t know who the leader will be. Former President Maithripala Sirisena also [figures in that discussion]. So let’s see what happens,” said Jayasekara.

Asked if the SLFP, a party increasingly at odds with the SLPP, are discussing possibilities with the recently ousted ministers Wimal Weerawansa and Udaya Gammanpila, the state minister simply said the 11 partner parties have come together.

In the event of a snap election, said Jayasekara, the parties will form an alliance and contest together.

“Definitely without the SLPP,” he said.

“There is no need to contest with them again. You know what the situation is now after contesting with them.”

The popularity of Sri Lanka’s ruling coalition, of which Jayasekara’s SLFP is a major partner, has dwindled to an all time low, as the public continues to endure severe hardships in the face of rising cost of living on top of an ongoing energy crisis.

The energy crisis in turn has been caused by a severe forex shortage brought about by excess money printing to keep interest rates low in a pegged exchange rate regime. Queues for essential items including milk powder, fuel, cooking gas, among other things, has eroded the SLPP’s popularity which secured a two-thirds majority at the 2020 parliamentary elections.

The SLFP has been critical of the government from within, though no firm decision has yet been made about quitting the alliance and sitting in the opposition. Other constituent parties in the ruling coalition have also expressed their dissatisfaction with the status quo.

Asked if the party can continue to work with the government in the midst of rising tensions, Jayasekara said: “Let’s see. That’s a decision the party has to make. I can’t make it on my own.”

A large meeting will be held soon in Vatican City with the participation of His Holiness Pope Francis, Archbishop of Colombo His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith, and Sri Lankans living in European countries, where bringing justice to the victims of the Easter Sunday terror attacks of 21 April 2019 will be discussed.

Well-placed sources who spoke to The Morning yesterday (6) said that this meeting would not take place during the Archbishop’s ongoing visit to Vatican City, but will probably be scheduled after April and that Sri Lankans of all faiths in Italy and nearby countries are expected to attend the meeting.

“During the Cardinal’s recent visit to the Vatican, a group of Sri Lankans there had organised a discussion, but he did not attend. Instead, he plans to meet Sri Lankans with the Pope in the near future. The exact date of the meeting is yet to be determined, but it would most likely be after April,” the sources said.

The Colombo Archbishop met with Pope Francis on 28 February at the Vatican, and the Easter Sunday terror attacks and related investigations were discussed during the said meeting.

“We have exhausted all options within Sri Lanka to find justice. Now we are discussing all avenues through which we can find justice internationally. Our last remaining solution was to seek assistance from the international community. This is not because we do not love our country. The Archbishop is meeting the Pope after two years and he is especially focusing on informing him that we need help from the international community to seek justice for the victims of the Easter Sunday terror attacks,” National Catholic Social Communication Centre Director Rev. Cyril Gamini Fernando said at a press conference held on the same day.

Following the meeting with the Pope, Cardinal Ranjith met United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet in Geneva, Switzerland and discussed revealing the truth behind the Easter Sunday terror attacks and bringing justice to the victims on 2 March in an approximately 45-minute discussion.

“As we have informed earlier, we have tried all possible options to reveal the truth behind the Easter Sunday terror attacks and failing that, we have gone to the international community to request help from them to reveal the truth. Therefore, as a first step, the Archbishop met with the Pope and told him all about the attacks. He requested him to mediate in order to get the truth revealed. As a second step, the Archbishop met Bachelet and held discussions on revealing the truth behind the terror attacks and bringing justice to the victims,” Colombo Archdiocese Auxiliary Bishop Rev. J.D. Anthony said in a statement issued on 2 March.

Claiming that all attempts made by the Catholic church to obtain justice for Easter Sunday terror attacks within the country have failed, Cardinal Ranjith last month said that they were currently exploring the possibilities to reach out to the international community, including the UN, seeking justice for the said terror attacks.

Pointing out that they, as the Catholic church, have links all over the world, the Archbishop said that they would also try to influence some pertinent and powerful countries that are in contact with the church. In addition, he said that in case they would be reaching out to the international community, such efforts would also be supported by his fellow cardinals around the world.

On 21 April 2019, Easter Sunday, three churches (St. Sebastian’s Church in Katuwapitiya, St. Anthony’s Church in Kochchikade, and Zion Church in Batticaloa) and three luxury hotels in Colombo (Cinnamon Grand Colombo, The Kingsbury Colombo, and Shangri-La Colombo) were targeted in a series of co-ordinated suicide bombings. Later that day, another two bomb explosions took place at a house in Dematagoda and the Tropical Inn Lodge in Dehiwala. A total of 269 people excluding the bombers were killed in the bombings, including about 45 foreign nationals, while at least 500 were injured.

India has called for a road map from Sri Lanka on how it is going to overcome its economic crisis in the long term as well as to clear the decks for a long list of its economic cum strategic demands for implementation in the North and the East of Sri Lanka.

Till then the future of the one billion dollar emergency loan from India seems uncertain.

Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa’s twice cancelled visit to India after securng a USD 500 million loan in December last year to clinch a further one billion dollar loan for emergency supplies of food, fuel and medicines to overcome the ongoing economic crisis in Sri Lanka is yet to be rescheduled. The December loan taken by Sri Lanka was also to be repaid this week.

The Sunday Times learns that the Indian Government is awaiting the green light from the Colombo Government on both fronts, i.e. the economic action plan aimed at long term recovery from the country’s foreign exchange and debt repayment crisis and to the Indian list of demands to start economic projects in Sri Lanka. Neither Colombo nor New Delhi has officially mentioned either so far.

The Indian demands involve a string of maritime security agreements that will strengthen India’s strategic interests, particularly around the eastern Trincomalee harbour. These include Donier surveillance aircraft for the Sri Lanka Air Force, a ship repair dock for the Sri Lanka Navy in Trincomalee and posting of a Sri Lankan Navy officer at the Intelligence Fusion Centre, a Bahrain-based intelligence sharing office which is a US Navy initiative to combat international terrorism, the narcotics trade and ensure safe maritime passage for commercial vessels in the region.

One of the key pressure-points from the Indian Government is to start a renewable energy (solar power) project in and around Sampur near Trincomalee. An earlier plan by India to begin a coal power project in joint partnership with Japan has now been abandoned as Sri Lanka announced a move away from coal plants as part of its futuristic energy policy.

The reopening of the Palay airport for commercial operations and several cultural projects in the Jaffna peninsula are also among items on the list already made public.

The Indian Government also wants to enter into the renewable energy field in the Delft islet after it scuttled a Chinese company securing the project following an Asian Development Bank ((ADB) tender procedure.

The one billion US dollar loan from India agreed to earlier in principle by the Indian Finance Ministry remains suspended for now, until guarantees are given from the Sri Lankan side, it is learnt.

The Indian High Commission said it did not want to comment on Finance Minister Rajapaksa’s visit as it was not formally announced that he was to visit New Delhi for a one billion dollar loan facility. Last week, however, the mission stated that the visit fixed for last week was rescheduled as Foreign Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar had to urgently visit Paris on official business.

Mr. Jaishankar was earlier due in Colombo on March 18, but the high commission remained tight-lipped on the visit taking place.

The ‘interactive dialogue’ on Sri Lanka at the Human Rights Council in Geneva will end on Monday and the focus will then shift to its sessions in September when a new resolution is likely.

Monday’s continuation for less than an hour is the result of the Council making provision for an urgent debate on the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

UN Human Rights High Commissioner Michele Bachelet, who commented on her report on Sri Lanka that was released earlier, said “the past year has seen further obstruction and setbacks to accountability. Victims and their families continue to be denied truth and justice.”

The session on Sri Lanka was delayed and resultantly shortened. It was the because of the Council conducting an urgent debate on the situation in Ukraine.

Foreign Minister, G.L. Peiris, made a scathing attack saying that

the “so called evidence gathering mechanism” is deeply flawed procedure and unacceptable. He said that the Report on Sri Lanka is “intolerably intrusive character, impinging as it does no core functions and responsibilities of organs of Sri Lankan state, overwhelmingly mandated by the people at successive elections.”

In making those highly critical remarks, Foreign Minister Peiris has overlooked the fact that the Human Rights High Commissioner is only carrying out a mandate given to her by the Human Rights Council.

Diplomats from countries friendly with Sri Lanka said that the opportunity could have been better used to brief member, observer countries and NGOs who are drivers of the action against Sri Lanka. “This approach will make it difficult to help Sri Lanka. For instance, the EU countries awaited a briefing on amendments to the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) with the future of GSP plus hanging in the balance,” said one diplomat.

A statement on behalf of the core group was made by Rita French, United Kingdom’s Global Ambassador for Human Rights and Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations. She expressed concern that surveillance and intimidation of civil society members and journalists continues.

The core group is made up of Canada, Germany, North Montenegro, Malawi, Montenegro, United Kingdom, and the United States.

India tells Lanka: Address “legitimate aspirations of Tamils”

India’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva this week called on Sri Lanka to address the “legitimate aspirations of the Tamil community” in Sri Lanka.

The envoy, Indra Mani Pandey, did not elaborate what they were, except to say they included carrying forward the process of reconciliation and implementing the 13th Amendment to the Constitution.

“India believes it is in Sri Lanka’s own interest that the expectations of Tamils in Sri Lanka for equality, justice, peace and dignity, within a united Sri Lanka are fulfilled,” Mr. Pandey added.

The Indian delegation supported the UN High Commissioner’s report saying; “The report raises important concerns on promoting, reconciliation, accountability, and human rights in Sri Lanka”. India also called for early Provincial Council elections in Sri Lanka.