Ministry of Health on Tuesday (March 30) confirmed 37 more new cases of COVID-19 in Sri Lanka as the daily cases count reached 139.
The new development has brought the total number of COVID-19 confirmed in the country thus far to 92,442.
According to the Epidemiology Unit, 2,749 patients infected with the virus are currently under medical care at designated hospitals and treatment centres.
Total recoveries from the virus infection have reached 89,090 while the death toll stands at 566.
Colombo Magistrate’s Court today (30) acquitted and released Former Chief Justice Mohan Peiris and two others from a case filed by the Bribery Commission.
When the case was called before Colombo Chief Magistrate Buddhika Sri Ragala earlier today, Additional Director General of Bribery Commission Subhashini Senanayake informed the court of the complainant’s intent to withdraw the indictment against the suspects.
Accordingly, Former Chief Justice Mohan Peiris, Supreme Court Justice A.H.M.D. Nawaz and former Secretary to Ministry of Power and Energy M.M.C. Ferdinando who were named as defendants in the case were acquitted and released under the provisions of Section 189 of Criminal Code Procedure.
They were accused of committing an offence under the Bribery Act by failing to provide necessary instructions to take legal action against the purported irregularities which took place during the purchase of a plot of land by the Lanka Electricity Company (Pvt) Ltd (LECO) between 1st and 10th of December in 2010.
The Cabinet of Ministers has granted approval to construct four elevated railway tracks in the city of Colombo.
The project will be implemented as a private-public partnership covering the Colombo city, Cabinet Co-Spokesperson Minister Udaya Gammanpila said during the press briefing held this morning (March 30) to announce Cabinet decisions.
The four railway tracks have been named Raktha (Red), Neela (Blue), Haritha (Green) and Dham (Purple), according to the minister.
Raktha railway track, which is to be constructed from Ragama to Kottawa via Colombo Fort, is 42km in distance. Haritha railway track is 28km in distance and it is set to be elevated from Moratuwa to Kelaniya via Narahenpita.
Meanwhile, Neela railway track which is 23km long will be built from Kottawa to Hunupitiya through Irusupaya. The fourth elevated railway track, Dham, will be constructed from Port City to Athurugiriya via Borella.
I invite your immediate and very serious attention to
the following news item with the view to stop this right royal betrayal. There
is no use in closing the gate after the horse is gone
Indian
fishermen to be licensed to fish in Lankan waters
March 29, 2021
by Pamodi Waravita
Proposed as solution to illegal poaching
Local Fisheries
Association threatens union action
The Ministry of Fisheries is currently in
discussions with the Government of India for the implementation of a programme
that would permit Indian fishermen to fish in Sri Lankan waters, The Morning
learnt. There are two main problems we
face in our waters. Indian fishermen illegally crossing the border, and
engaging in bottom trawling. To settle these problems we have proposed that a
limited number of Indian boats be given licenses to fish here per week,” Minister
of Fisheries Douglas Devananda told The Morning yesterday (28). Devananda further said that this plan is
currently being discussed with the Indian government and would likely be
implemented within a few months.
However, he insisted that bottom trawlers would not be allowed to
venture into Sri Lankan waters since they ruin the wealth of the country’s
fisheries resources. In 2014, the
Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Act was amended to make bottom trawling an offence
with a maximum prison term of two years and a maximum fine of Rs. 50,000.
Bottom trawling is widely regarded as ecologically destructive since trawlers
drag heavy nets along the ocean floor, thus depleting aquatic resources. Speaking to The Morning, All Island Fisheries
Association Convenor Rathna Gamage claimed that issuing licenses to Indian
fishermen to fish in Sri Lankan waters is akin to handing over the country to
India. We would be engaging in strict
union action if this plan goes ahead as it would negatively affect our
sovereignty, our resources, and our marine environment, including the ocean
bed,” said Gamage. Gamage also alleged
that approximately 30,000 boats cross illegally into Sri Lankan waters per
month. Our leaders have no backbone.
Instead of protesting and stopping their illegal activities, they have decided
to assist them,” added Gamage. Last
Thursday, the day after the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) voted
on a resolution on Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka Navy arrested 54 Indian fishermen, the
largest at a given time since June 2014. It was reported that many in
diplomatic circles considered the arrests retaliation, following India’s
abstention from the vote. It was also
reported that 40 of the 54 fishermen were initially released due to
interventions by the Ministry of Fisheries. The following day, the Ministry
intervened to have the remaining 15 fishermen also released. Indian fishermen have allegedly been fishing
illegally in Sri Lankan waters for decades, especially during the height of the
war between the Sri Lankan Government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
(LTTE), reportedly with the blessings of the LTTE. However, the end of the
civil war in 2009 made the north eastern waters accessible to Sri Lankan
fishermen and set the fishermen of the two countries on a collision course.
Over a decade later, the issue is yet to be resolved.
March 29, 2021
by Pamodi Waravita 0 Comments”
My response
to this news
The first step in
this process of national betrayals to India by our post-1948 politicians was of
cause taken by JR Jayawarhana on 29th July 1987 for fear of his
life. Thereby JR has gone down in history as the first politician who started
this historic crime. As for him this is no wonder as he was the first Sri
Lankan politician who once proposed that this country should be a part of India
if we are going to develop as the days of Dutugemunu and Parakaramabahu are
gone and they are only dreams
JR ceded this
land that had been the traditional historic Motherland of the Sinhala Nation,
at least, for the past 2500 years, to India by his historic betrayal of 29th
July 1987 Rajiv/JR Accord as follows.
1 By accepting
the Northern and the Eastern Provinces, that is 1/3 of the Land area of the
country and 2/3 of our marine territory.as Traditional Homeland for Tamils domicile
here for them to form their dream EELAM, which Wardharja Perumal declared
unilaterally in 1990.
2 Gave
Citizenship on a letter signed by a JP to all Indians (contrary to all accepted
International covenants on awarding citizenship) who had been brought by the British to work on their
plantation estates and left behind as British citizens and all those Tamils who
had entered illegally and remained here
as illegal immigrants
3 He also made
Tamil an Official Language by abrogating Sec 18 of the Constitution that had declared
Sinhala the Official Language of the country
4 He also agreed
to merged the North and the East as one Province and laid the foundation for
the permanent division of the country in to two States a) A mono Tamil State in
the North and East with future provision to merge it with the central part of
the country (by including provision for the merger of more than two Provinces with
the covert strategy of annexing the Central, Sabaragamuwa and the Uva Provinces
where there is a large Tamil population
Is this going to be the grand finale of that process
of betrayal
Is this going to
be the grand finale of that process of betrayal that is going to be taken by
this Government by allowing legal rights, agreed upon bilaterally to ceding the
right for fishing in our waters for Indian Fishermen who were illegally
poaching in marine territory and robbing our national fish resources right
throughout history?
Isn’t it like
the owner of the house helping the burglars to carry the stuff robbed form his
house and giving them consent in writing
to loot his house as they like as and when they want.
I now pause the question, was it for this type
of governance that the 7 million Sinhala people the Bhoomiputras of this Island elected this President, the
Prime Minister and their followers and the government in to power in 2019 and
2020 respectively? Does the Government honestly think it is for this type of
Governance that nakedly betrays the
Sinhala Buddhist nation the 7 million people have elected them by
defeating the rogue Yahapalanaya anarchic Government? After all why should we
have a government at all if this is the way how they govern?
As I understand it, I don’t think anyone who
voted this regime in to power will ever and never approve this kind of disastrous
agreement with any country that concede to giving in to this kind of foreign
aggression. Even in 1987 India did this. First by invading our air space with
supersonic jets and dropping parippu” as they say it and thereafter
threatening old JR of the consequences and the price he has to pay if he says
no and got him to sign the Accord which even JR”s Minister of Defense Lalith
Atulathmudali boycotted in protest.
Are we going to
repeat the same folly again by signing another agreement this time to sell our
national resources to India by another Government that has got elected for five
years only?
As protecting the
country from foreign invasion, being one of the cardinal functions of any Government,
I sincerely and fervently hope and wish neither the President nor the Prime minister or any other man or
woman in the Parliament led by people like Sarath Weerasekara, Dinesh
Gunawardhana, Vidura Wikramanaayaka, Gammanpila and Wimal Weerawansaeve will allow
this tragic disaster to be inked.
One more final query before I wind up
Who is the two footed donkey adviser that made this
proposition to the Government? Doesn’t that open gates?
Firstly, to fish in all our waters right round the
Island using it as Indian version of legitimacy and
Secondly, to claim the right for sharing all our
resources even on the land as Kautilyan Indian bureaucrats and Taminadu
politicians would definitely argue based on the logic behind Rajiv/JR Accord of 1987 and historian turned legal eagle politicians
with their Sivalinga theory would cry.
Why can’t the Government of Sri Lanka go by the
International boundary between the two countries instead and confine fishing
strictly to one’s own waters accordingly an dapply the law ? On the other hand if
the GOSL agrees to give that right to Indian Fishermen then the same right
should be demanded for the Sri Lankan fishermen to fishing in Indian waters as
well by the same agreement ensuring that neither the Indian Government nor the
Tamilnadu Government or Tamilnadu fishermen will directly or indirectly
obstruct Sri Lankan fishermen
Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that exactly 144,000 faithful Christians from
Pentecost of 33 AD until the present day will be resurrected to heaven as immortal
spirit beings to spend eternity with God and Christ. They believe that these
people are anointed” by God to become part of the spiritual Israel of God”
.Based on their understanding of scriptures such as Revelation 14:1-4,
Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that exactly 144,000 faithful Christians go to
heaven to rule with Christ in the kingdom of God.
Colombo, March 29 (DailyFT): A Bill to provide for the establishment of the Colombo Port City (CPC) Special Economic Zone has been published in the Gazette and is slated to be presented to Parliament next month.
The 76-page Bill provides for the establishment of a Commission empowered to grant registrations, licences, authorisations, and other approvals to carry on businesses and other activities in the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) to be established within the Colombo Port City.
The five-seven-member Commission will oversee all activities within the SEZ, including identification of a single-window investment facilitator for the promotion of ease of doing business within the Zone, and determine and grant incentives and other exemptions for the promotion of businesses of strategic importance within the SEZ.
According to the Bill, the SEZ will be an international business and services hub with specialised infrastructure and other facilities for the promotion and facilitation of economic activity, including international trade, shipping logistic operations, offshore banking and financial services, information technology and business process outsourcing, corporate headquarters operations, regional distribution operations, tourism, and other ancillary services.
The objectives of the Commission will be to promote the CPC to be a leading Special Economic Zone in the region and an attractive investment destination to attract enhanced foreign direct investments into the country.
It will oversee the creation of a safe and conducive business environment and facilitate ease of doing business in and from the Area of Authority of the Colombo Port City and endeavour to ensure that the Ease of Doing Business Index in its area of authority is maintained at a level like other attractive economic zones in the region.
The Commission will also ensure ease of transacting its business operations and administration efficiently, reliably, and transparently to enhance investor confidence; promote tourism and ancillary services by facilitating duty-free shopping, entertainment, and other similar facilities; generate employment opportunities and promote sustainable development.
The Commission will consist of not less than five members and not more than seven members, and they will be appointed by the President, under whose purview the Colombo Port City functions.
The appointees will be drawn from among experts in the fields of investment, finance, law, information technology, engineering, business or accountancy. One member among them will be appointed as the Commission’s Chairperson.
The Commission, in consultation with and with the approval of the President, will appoint a suitable person as the Director-General of the Commission, who will function as its Chief Executive Officer.
The Commission will have its own fund with a sum of Rs. 400 million being the initial contribution payable by the project company to the fund of the Commission, on account of the Commission discharging inter alia the functions of the investment facilitator of the Colombo Port City.
This sum will be used by the Commission to defray initial setting up and operational expenditures, including international promotional expenditures for the Colombo Port City and Sri Lanka, and other expenses as may be incurred by the Commission in terms of this Act.
The Bill, titled the ‘Colombo Port City Economic Commission Act’, is slated to be presented to Parliament next month.
Colombo, March 29 (CGTN): Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday told Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa that China is willing to work with Sri Lanka to enhance Belt and Road Cooperation and contribute to the economic revival of Sri Lanka in post-pandemic era.
Xi said China will continue to provide necessary assistance to Sri Lanka, conduct cooperation in areas including aviation and education and explore other potential cooperation areas.
Xi said China will never forget Sri Lanka’s support for the restoration of China’s lawful seat in the UN, and is willing to continue working with Sri Lanka to support each other on issues of mutual concern, safeguard each other’s legitimate rights and promote global justice and fairness.
Rajapaksa congratulated China on the 100th founding anniversary of the Communist Party of China and spoke highly of China’s achievements in fighting the pandemic and its economic recovery.
Rajapaksa said Sri Lanka hopes to learn from China’s experience in poverty reduction and rural revitalization and is willing to expand cooperation in infrastructure construction, tourism and so on, so as to benefit Sri Lanka’s economic development and its people.(CGTN)
Colombo, March 29: As early as 2002, the UN correspondent of the Los Angeles Times, Maggie Farley, noted that more than a hundred UN resolutions were being violated, and that in many cases, enforcement of resolutions was blocked by the US or its allies.
She made this observation based on a 15-year review of compliance with UN resolutions done by the University of San Francisco Professor Stephen Zunes. Zunes had concluded that compliance depended on the influence of each State and its backers. The more powerful the backer, the less the chance of compliance, he said. Those countries which did comply were made to comply by a powerful country or a set of powerful countries through sheer coercion, economic or military or both.
For a start, UN resolutions are not binding, and if they are, as in the case of some Security Council resolutions, the powers-that-be might not enforce them for economic, political or geo-political reasons. Between 1967 and 2002, Israel had violated 31 resolutions. Twelve violations related to the Fourth Geneva Convention for Occupying Powers,” relating to deportations, demolitions of homes and seizure of property.
Among the resolutions violated was No: 487 of 1981 which had called upon Israel to place its nuclear facilities under the safeguard of the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency. While the US went to war with Iraq for violating UN resolutions, it would not envisage war against Israel to enforce a UN resolution. In fact, the US had used the veto several times to block resolutions on Israel. In 2018, the US quit the UNHRC complaining against its bias against Israel.
When Turkey was an ally of the US, it was able to defy UN Security Council resolutions on its troop deployment in Cyprus. Morocco flouted resolutions seeking withdrawal of its forces from Western Sahara and allow a referendum there on self-determination. The US invaded Iraq as per a UN mandate because it suited its interests.
Military Action
The UN Charter authorizes military action for the enforcement of Chapter 7 resolutions. But military interventions have proved to be difficult because of inadequate commitment from member states. The UN action in Bosnia-Herzegovina proved to be disastrous because of this.
Big Power hegemony is a major factor. The US would not allow its forces to be commanded by non-US citizens. Though the UN is a US institution essentially, no government in Washington has wanted it to be powerful, as stated by Daniel Moynihan, former US ambassador to the UN.
The Department of State desired that the United Nations prove utterly ineffective in whatever measures it undertook. The task was given to me, and I carried it forward with not inconsiderable success,” he wrote in his memoirs.
The UN has also shown its incompetence in implementing resolutions on North Korea. In their article in journal of the Institute for Science and international Security” in 2018, David Albright, Sarah Burkhard, Allison Lach, and Andrea Stricker say that 52 countries were involved in violating UNSC Resolutions on North Korea throughout most of 2017.
US President Donald Trump threatened to withhold billions” of dollars of US aid from countries voting in favor of a UN resolution rejecting his recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. But despite the warning, 128 members voted to maintain the longstanding international consensus that the status of Jerusalem (claimed as a capital by both Israel and Palestine) can only be settled as an agreed final issue in a peace deal, wrote. Nevertheless, despite the UN resolution, in May 2018, the US went ahead and reclassified its Jerusalem Consulate as the US Embassy in Jerusalem.
The US also vetoed a UN Security Council resolution that condemned Israel’s use of force against Palestinian civilians. At least 116 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in Gaza border protests since the end of March 2018.
UN Resolutions
Any UN body can pass a resolution. But they are generally not binding. But even those which are biding, are either imperfectly implemented or not implemented at all .The Security Council is charged with the maintenance of international peace and security. The UNSC comprises 15 members, five permanent (Russia, the UK, France, China and the US) and ten non-permanent members, elected on a regional basis to serve two- year terms. Permanent members can veto any substantive UNSC resolution.
Security Council Resolution 1373, which was adopted unanimously on September 28, 2001, was a counter-terrorism measure passed following the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers in New York. The resolution was adopted under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, and is therefore binding on all UN member states. If the US has been complying with this, it is because it is directly affected by terrorism since the 9/11 attack.
International Criminal Court
The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) has been unsuccessfully trying to extend the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka is not a signatory to the Rome Statute, which enables the ICC to exercise jurisdiction over the island nation. However, a Sri Lankan human rights violation case can be brought to the ICC if the UN Security Council resolves to do so. But in the UNSC, Sri Lanka is supported two veto wielding powers, China and Russia.
It is pointed that following the recent UNHRC resolution against Sri Lanka, any member State can file a case against a Sri Lankan national on human rights or war crimes grounds. But here again, it is argued that the political interests of nations will play a determining role.
It is noteworthy that most cases brought before the ICC relate to poor and backward countries which have no political influence in the world. Thus far, 45 individuals have been indicted in the ICC. The list includes Ugandan rebel leader Joseph Kony, former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, Ivor Coast President Laurent Gbagbo, and DR Congo Vice-President Jean-Pierre Bemba. The over-representation of Africa and the total absence of the developed countries in the ICC cases are noteworthy.
Western Laws to Protect Soldiers
While on the one hand, Western nations are itching to prosecute soldiers from the developing countries on war crimes charges, they themselves are enacting laws to prevent the prosecution of their soldiers for war crimes committed abroad.
The British House of Commons recently adopted a Bill to prevent ‘vexatious’ prosecutions of British military personnel and veterans over war crimes allegations. The prosecution of British soldiers for alleged past crimes in Northern Ireland, and more recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, has dogged the country’s military and government for years.
The new legislation proposes measures to reduce uncertainty arising from historical allegations and create a better legal framework to deal with claims from future overseas conflicts,” said the UK Defense Ministry. Defense Secretary Ben Wallace told the House of Commons that the Bill would deliver on the Conservative Government’s 2019 Election promise to protect service personnel and veterans from vexatious claims and endless investigations.”
Veterans Minister Johnny Mercer, a former Army Officer who served in Afghanistan, insisted that the legislation does not decriminalize torture” but strikes an appropriate balance between victims’ rights and access to justice.”
Sri Lanka is contemplating a similar protective law in view of the UNHRC’s bid to prosecute its soldiers, Education Minister and Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) spokesman, Prof. G.L.Peries, told the media recently.
The Sri Lankan President said ‘the government does not wish to be associated with the power struggles in the Indian Ocean region by the global giants’.
Sri Lanka will not allow other countries to achieve their geopolitical needs by introducing separatism under the guise of power devolution” in the island nation, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has said.
The government does not wish to be associated with the power struggles in the Indian Ocean region by the global giants,” Mr. Rajapaksa said, adding that the sovereignty of Sri Lanka would not be betrayed, a front-page report in the state-run Daily News said on Monday.
Speaking at a ‘Discussion with the Village’ event in the southern Matara district on Saturday, he appeared to be responding to India’s intervention at the United Nations Human Rights Council last week. Although India abstained from voting, it supported the international community’s call in the resolution for devolving political authority, holding of elections to provincial councils and implementation of the 13th Amendment that guarantees a measure of power devolution to the provinces.
The Council adopted the resolution — with 22 countries backing it — that called for greater scrutiny of human rights in the country, including through an international evidence gathering mechanism, while flagging possible recurrence of human rights violations, citing recent policy decisions impacting Sri Lanka’s Tamil and Muslim minorities.
In addition to pegging the international call for devolution, to the geopolitical needs of other countries”, Mr. Rajapaksa’s remarks also linked the demand for greater power devolution to separatism, although Sri Lanka’s Tamil political leadership has repeatedly underscored the need for enhanced powers for provinces within a united, undivided and indivisible” Sri Lanka.
The President said: We will face the Geneva challenge without fear. We will never succumb to pressures. We are a free nation. We will not be a victim of big power rivalry in the Indian Ocean,” a week after the U.N. Human Rights Council adopted a resolution.
The statement assumes significance in the wake of persisting calls from some within his government, including senior Ministers, for the abolition of the provincial council system and the 13th Amendment.
Provincial council elections
Less than a fornight before the vote on the Sri Lanka resolution in Geneva, amid Colombo’s hectic diplomatic outreach seeking support from members, Mr. Rajapaksa instructed the relevant parties to take steps to expedite the provincial council elections by either withdrawing the Provincial Council Amendment bill or rectifying its anomalies,” a statement issued by the Presidential Media division said on March 13.
According to local media reports, the holding of provincial council elections is likely to be discussed in Monday’s [March 29] weekly Cabinet meeting.
After being elected President in November 2019, Mr. Rajapaksa stated that he would focus more on development rather than devolution. In an interview to The Hindu on November 30, 2019, during his first visit to New Delhi after assuming office, Mr. Rajapaksa said the previous push for devolution, devolution, devolution” had not changed the situation in Sri Lanka.
Full devolution of powers as promised by the 13th Amendment to the Constitution in 1987 could not be implemented against the wishes and feeling of the majority [Sinhala] community,” he noted, while the legislation envisages power devolution to all provinces in the country, including those with a Sinhala-majority.
The Terrorism Investigation Division (TID) has arrested two persons including a female in Jaffna for maintaining a website and YouTube channel allegedly promoting LTTE terrorist propaganda.
Police Spokesman DIG Ajith Rohana said that the TID had conducted a special raid in respect of an office situated at Navalar Street in Jaffna this morning (29).
The raid has been conducted in order to trace a YouTube channel and a website that had been operated for months and those channels had promoted the LTTE ideology in the cyber space,” he said.
The Police Spokesman said that the YouTube channel and website had allegedly promoted the LTTE ideology, speeches of LTTE leader Velupillai Prabakaran and the symbols of the LTTE terrorist organization.
He said that the YouTube channel and website had created disharmony among the ethnic groups of Sri Lanka and that therefore a 35-year-old female and a 36-year-old male, who were running the office, have been arrested by the TID.
In addition to that 05 desktop computers and 05 laptop computers recovered from the said office have also been taken into custody, the DIG said.
In terms of the Gazette notification published in 2011related to the Prevention of Terrorism Act, the LTTE is a prescribed organization and promoting LTTE ideology and publishing articles in respect of LTTE terrorism or LTTE activities is strictly prohibited,” he added.
He said the arrested suspects are being brought to the TID’s Colombo office and that further investigations are underway.
Archdiocese of Colombo says that it makes them wonder as to whether there are external interferences that hamper the efficiency of investigations into the 2019 Easter Sunday terror attacks seeing as the culprits of this crime have not been identified even after 2 years.
As the Easter Sunday bombings were an attack on the entire Sri Lankan society, it is the responsibility of all citizens to pressurize those in power to mete out justice to the victims, the Archdiocese of Colombo stated.
Issuing a statement, the Archdiocese urges the government and the Opposition to refrain from any action that might hamper the independent and free implementation of the judicial process of the case.
They have also outlined four steps that need to be taken to bring justice regarding the terror attack.
– Expedite investigations on those directly or indirectly connected to this crime [planning, financial help, political patronage, etc.] and bring them before the law. – Thorough investigations into all those who had contacts or dealings with Zahran Hashim. – Prosecute all political leaders, officials who have been recommended in the report of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry for shirking their duty and not preventing the massacre despite prior intelligence warnings – Proscribe all extremist Islamic groups which are a threat to national security, and banish their foreign sponsors and local agents from the country.
The Archdiocese of Colombo also stated that action must be taken to implement or at least initiate the first steps to implement the aforementioned demands before April 21, 2021.
The full statement issued by the Archdiocese of Colombo:
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa assures his Chinese counterpart of strengthening mutual cooperation in all sectors and bilateral ties.
President Rajapaksa mentioned this to China President Xi Jinping over a telephone conversation held today (March 29), President’s Media Division stated.
Yet it remains the case that if Nigerian
public and private sector players doing business with the Chinese elephant
could improve their negotiating skills and be more ambitious about their
negotiating positions, making better use of Nigeria’s ‘superpower’ qualities to
minimise the drawbacks of its antlike ones, the future of Nigeria–China
relations could be brighter and more beneficial for Nigeria than their past –
South African Institute of International Affairs
Human rights violations allegedly committed by
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and the government of Sri Lanka are antlike
compared to the Elephantine violations committed by giants in the world
including the USA.
The UNHRC and the West so concerned about the
Ants, looks totally disinterested when the Military in Myanmar mows down
innocent civilians fighting for their human rights. They have not raised a
finger or even a finger nail to do anything tangible to halt the Military juggernaut
from killing more people and subjugating them to the power of guns and other
military hardware. Military might has replaced human rights and the world looks
on issuing useless statements from UN pulpits. The duplicity and differential
treatment being meted out is sickening.
Yet, these human rights champions are
concerned about internal matters of Sri Lanka, but not concerned about the
Muslim extremists who killed more than 300 people during the Easter bombings in
2019 and prior to that the marauding LTTE who killed hundreds and thousands of
innocent children, women, old men and women. The dark history of the LTTE has
been inconsequential for the UNHRC or the West.
Much has been written about the plight of the
poor in the US who have no rights if they are poor. The world knows how rights
are violated in Saudi Arabia, protected by the US. They know about the
violations in Israel, again protected by the US. Palestinians have been
trampled, walls built around them, and basic living conditions denied to them.
Some of the member countries of the UNHRC, who
voted against Sri Lanka have appalling human rights records. Some others who
sat on the fence too would not have a place to hide if their records are
exposed. Others who sat on the fence did not have the guts to either side with
the Elephants or support the Ant who was being trampled.
Sections of the Tamil Diaspora, the beggars
with the wound that will never heal, provided plenty of falsehoods to the Core
group and the US, and the world media big shots sponsored the case against Sri
Lanka basing their accusations on such falsehoods, and also infringing on Sri
Lanka’s sovereignty as if Sri Lanka was still one of their colonial outposts.
It is high time Sri Lankan Tamils who wish to
call Sri Lanka their home divorced themselves from the LTTE and their
supporters overseas, and also kicked out their politicians from their
electorates and elected a set of politicians who would help to develop their
areas and improved their lot.
They must ask themselves what these
politicians have done for them since independence. They must ask themselves
what development support the Tamil Diaspora, barring a handful, have done to
improve the economic wellbeing of Tamils in the North and the East by
investing, and creating jobs or improving agriculture and agri industries so
that people would have had more self-employment opportunities. Had they done
this, the private sector in the North and East would have been booming today.
Instead they contribute to fill the coffers of
the LTTE rump, who in turn puts money in the pockets of politicians in the West
to continue their fake allegations about their hopeless” fate in Sri Lanka. This
money goes to keep LTTE atrocities under the lid and make the world think that
the LTTE was a lily white set of freedom fighters without any blemish.
The current President Gotabaya Rajapaksa may
have his faults. After all he is human. But, few seem to remember that had it
not been for him and the service commanders at the time including Field Marshal
Sarath Fonseka, who led very brave Forces personnel, and the political
leadership provided by President Mahinda Rajapakse, the island of Sri Lanka would
have had two Nations by now. There are of course those with short memories, who
owe their freedom to talk, write and act because the LTTE were defeated militarily
in 2009, and others with an objective that is still uppermost in their minds,
and that is to create a separate nation in the North and the East.
Tamil people will have to make a decision
whether they wish to be in one nation called Sri Lanka, along with the
Sinhalese, Muslims and other ethnic groups, or whether they wish to live in a
separate Nation. Such a decision however cannot be just the decision of Tamil
people, it has to be a decision of all people of Sri Lanka including the
Sinhalese, Muslims and other races, as they all have ownership of the one
country and island where everyone lives.
If the Tamil people in the North and East and
others living in the rest of the country wish to advance and work towards the
concept of one country for all, they have to choose a different set of leaders
who would pursue such a concept and work towards addressing how the road blocks
that might be impeding the one country concept may be overcome. It has to be
clear to the Tamil people that their leadership has failed them, and they have
not benefited by the divisive politics practiced by their leadership. Solutions
lie in compromise and consensus decision making by all people as no group could
have aspirations that disadvantage another group. In particular, majority
groups need to compromise more than minority groups as majorities can and they
do create imbalances simply on account of their numerical strength.
Muslim people of Sri Lanka too need to make a
decision about their future in Sri Lanka and whether they wish to replicate
extremism practiced in countries like Saudi Arabia or whether they wish to
practice moderation as the Prophet himself articulated very well in his
teachings. Extremism cannot have a place in the country. Politicians who
advocate extremist ideologies should be rejected by the Muslim people.
The UNHRC vote gave a clear indication as to
who were with Sri Lanka and who had the self-respect to defend their
sovereignty as this resolution was clearly aimed at infringing on the sovereignty
of small, poor and developing nations by those powerful ones who had become the
pseudo defenders of human rights. In saying this, there is no inference
whatsoever that any violation of people’s human rights should not be opposed.
It must be. However, such a condemnation has to be proportionate to the alleged
or actual violations, and also dealt in equal measure irrespective of a
country’s wealth or power. This is not the case today as evidenced by how the
rich and the powerful treat some nations differently to others.
The Nigerian simile mentioned at the outset of
this article rings true when it comes to Sri Lanka too. China is the Elephant
in the room which has got the Western power block which includes India, to take
measures against Sri Lanka and corral it using a UNHRC resolution, hoping that
Sri Lanka will yield to such international pressure and cave into their
demands.
Despite the uphill task, Sri Lanka should not
cave in as that would be the end of the country’s sovereignty. Sri Lanka should
however very aggressively and purposefully pursue alliances with countries in
similar situations to counter the threats from not just the Western power
block, but even from China at a future point in time. A very aggressive China,
pursuing its own agenda of being the next super power of the world, could
potentially become the Elephant that tramples nations like Sri Lanka if it felt
that an Ant was standing in its way.
Sri Lanka no doubt wants and must have the
support of all nations to improve their economic and social wellbeing of their
people. It needs investments from all corners and not loans and handouts. Sri
Lanka’s development and self-sufficiency has to come from the confidence it
generates to attract investments. In this regard, many initiatives being taken
by the Rajapaksa government has to be lauded and encouraged, while those
opposed to the government should offer constructive criticism of government
policies and practices. A democratic opposition should not resort to spreading
fake news to pursue a genuine political agenda unless that agenda is also as
fake as the fake news.
Colombo, March 27 (Daily Mirror) – Sri Lanka yesterday said talks to purchase coronavirus vaccines from Pfizer-biontech have been successful and a final agreement is expected to be reached soon. State Minister of Production, Supply and Regulation of Pharmaceuticals, Prof. Channa Jayasumana said that the US based company has offered to supply vaccines in special storage equipment during transportation.
The Pfizer vaccine requires storage facilities with minus 70 degrees
refrigeration, a facility which the Sri Lanka Government does not have.
However, Prof. Channa Jayasumana said that the matter had been discussed with the manufacturer and the manufacturer has now offered asolution.
He said that the company is ready to provide facilities to transport the vaccines to storage facilities while maintaining the minus 70 degrees refrigeration.
Professor Channa Jayasumana also said that it has been found that vaccines manufactured by the company can be stored in normal refrigeration for approximately a week.
As a result, he said that steps will be taken to import the vaccines from Pfizer-biontech to Sri Lanka soon.
Meanwhile, Pfizer and Biontech announced a breakthrough yesterday
(Friday) saying that the European Medicines Agency (EMA) approved storage of the Pfizer manufactured COMIRNATY® vaccine at -25°C to -15°C for a total of two weeks based on data showing the stability at these temperatures in standard pharmaceutical freezers. COMIRNATY® is manufactured by Pfizer Europe and efficacy shown in clinical trials in participants with or without evidence of prior infection with SARS-COV-2 and who received the full series of vaccine (2 doses) was approximately 95% based on a median follow-up of two months.
Pfizer said the new data is a testament to the companies’ ongoing commitment to developing this vaccine further and collecting data in order to support broader and more flexible vaccine distribution and inoculation.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa accused the previous government led by Maithripala Sirisena of betraying the country’s sovereignty by co-sponsoring the UN rights resolution in 2015
Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Sunday stated that the recent UNHRC resolution against his country was the doing of local and foreign forces which do not want Sri Lanka to progress. He even vowed that his government would not succumb to such pressures.
On Tuesday last week, the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) adopted a resolution against Sri Lanka’s rights record, giving the UN body a mandate to collect evidence of crimes committed during the country’s brutal three decade-long civil war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
Speaking at a gathering in the southern rural district of Matara on Sunday, Rajapaksa said: We will never succumb to (such) pressures (UNHRC resolution); we are a free nation. We will not be a victim of big power rivalry in the Indian Ocean.”
The president said the UNHRC resolution was the doing of foreign and local forces” which cannot see his government making progress.
Rajapaksa accused the previous government led by Maithripala Sirisena of betraying Sri Lanka’s sovereignty by co-sponsoring the UN rights resolution in 2015.
The resolution titled Promotion of Reconciliation Accountability and Human Rights in Sri Lanka was passed despite heavy lobbying by Sri Lanka. India was among 14 countries which abstained from voting.
India has said its stand on the matter is governed by two considerations: support to the minority Tamils and stability and territorial integrity of Sri Lanka.
The resolution calls upon the Lankan government to ensure prompt thorough and impartial investigation, if warranted, prosecution of all alleged crimes relating to human rights violations and serious violations of international human rights law during the country’s three decade-long civil war. The Tamil minority has welcomed the resolution.
According to the Lankan government figures, over 20,000 people are missing due to various conflicts including the three-decade brutal war with Lankan Tamils in the north and east which claimed at least 100,000 lives.
The Tamils alleged that thousands were massacred during the final stages of the war that ended in 2009 when the government forces killed LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran.
The Sri Lankan Army denies the charge, claiming it as a humanitarian operation to rid the Tamils of LTTE’s control.
At the end of the civil war, the United Nations accused both sides of atrocities, especially during the conflict’s final stages.
International rights groups claim at least 40,000 ethnic Tamil civilians were killed in the final stages of the war, but the Sri Lankan government has disputed the figures.
The Epidemiology Unit of the Health Ministry says that another 69 persons have tested positive for COVID-19 increasing the total number of cases reported within the day to 237.
This brings the tally of coronavirus cases identified in the country to 92,088 thus far, while the total recoveries have reached 88,623.
Presently there are 2,906 patients who are being treated for Covid-19 at hospitals and treatment centers.
Sri Lanka has reported 02 more coronavirus-related deaths, the Director-General of Health Services confirmed today (March 28).
As per the Department of Government Information, the victims are two male patients from Colombo 15 and Mawanella areas.
The new deaths bring the number of COVID-19 related deaths witnessed in Sri Lanka to 561 in total.
01. The deceased is a 60-year-old male resident from Colombo 15. He died on 01.02.2021 on admission to Base Hospital Mawanella. The cause of death is mentioned as COVID-19 infection and chronic renal failure.
02. The deceased is a 35 old male resident from Mawanella. He died on 29.12.2020 on admission to Base Hospital Mawanella. The cause of death is mentioned as COVID-19 infection and acute diabetes.
An explosion ripped through a Roman Catholic cathedral compound in the eastern Indonesian city of Makassar on Sunday morning, shattering the calm of Palm Sunday, a holy day for Christians.
Unverified video said to have been taken at the Sacred Heart of Jesus Cathedral showed smoldering wreckage and palm fronds scattered on the ground.
Father Wilhelmus Tulak, a priest at the cathedral, told Metro TV, an Indonesian network, that a parking attendant had been burned as he tried to stop a suicide bomber. Ten people were injured, the priest said.
The cathedral was between Masses when two motorcyclists approached, looking suspicious, Father Wilhelmus told Metro TV.
Mohammad Ramadhan Pomanto, the mayor of Makassar, a multifaith port city of about 1.5 million people on the island of Sulawesi, told Metro TV that body parts were found as far as 200 meters away. He said no churchgoers had been killed.
South Sulawesi police chief told reporters that based on initial findings, one person died during the blast at the gate of the church compound. Five church staffers and four worshippers were injured and taken to nearby hospitals, he added.
What we can be sure of is that there is one body, allegedly the suicide bomber,” he said as quoted by Kompas TV. The body was attached to a motorbike, apparently (he) had yet to descend because he was stopped by a church officer.
He noted although the bombing was high explosive”, there was no significant damage at the church.
The police have set up a cordon around the church and a disaster victim identification team is investigating the incident. Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation, has a significant Christian minority. In recent years, Southeast Asian affiliates of the Islamic State have targeted Christian places of worship there and in the mostly Catholic Philippines.
In 2018, three Christian churches were bombed in Surabaya, the second-largest city in Indonesia, leaving a dozen bystanders dead. The suicide bombers were a married couple and their four children. Within days, members of two other families also set off bombs in Surabaya, blowing themselves up.
Last year, a Roman Catholic cathedral was bombed for the third time on the island of Jolo in the southern Philippines, killing at least 14 people. As with the Surabaya bombings, a local affiliate of the Islamic State claimed responsibility for that strike. A 2019 suicide attack on the same cathedral, which killed more than 20 people, was carried out by an Indonesian couple.
In a lofty speech delivered via video to the
75th General Assembly of UN (September 2020) – the first of its
kind initiated in the wake of the pandemic — Prime Minister Narendra Modi took
great pains to explain a range of issues from India ’s Neighbourhood
First Policy” to the new dimensions of the Indo-Pacific region. Among the
achievements he highlighted was this unusual factor peculiar to India
only: In the same period (i.e., within
4-5 years),” he said 600 million people have been freed from open defecation.
This was not an easy task. But India has achieved it,” he said with
pride.
The entire SAARC neighbourhood joins India in
celebrating this achievement. But what baffles the SAARC partners in the
region is why India continues to defecate in the neighbourhood so openly and
unashamedly? The biggest shock of being a SAARCian is that no one ever
knows when India would decide to defecate either in your front yard or
backyard. There isn’t a single SAARCian that is not working ceaselessly to keep
their patch free from India faeces. India’s do-as-I-say-and-not do-as-I-do
policy” has been a fundamental flaw in India’s foreign policy. The
failure of SAARC to progress as a regional bloc – the only regional bloc
to stagnate so far — is due solely to India’s pursuit of self-interest
at the expense of its neighbours. If there is a problem in SAARC you can be
sure that India is somewhere in it. And yet Prime Minister boasted in the same
speech: We have always worked for the interests of humankind and not
driven by our own self-interests.”
The Gandhi-Nehruvian idealism that inspired
the Non-Alignment Movement went out with India defecating in and around
its neighbourhood. Cleaning up India was long overdue and Modi deserves credit
for achieving this Herculean task. Which reminds me of the cynical story that
circulated after the visit of Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet Premier, to India
in 1960. An eye-sore to Khrushchev, the story went, was the Indians
defecating in public and on one of his long train rides he chided
Nehru for letting his people dirty both sides of the railway track.
Nehru’s pride was wounded and he remembered it well and on his return visit to
USSR (as Russia was known then) he was out to get even with his counterpart. He
thought he found one at last in one of his long train rides across
Siberia when he saw in the open distant a squatting man defecating. He quickly
summoned Khrushchev and pointed to the ugly scene which, naturally angered
Khrushchev. Immediately, he pulled the chain and stopped the train and got his
NKVD to bring the culprit before him. It was Nehru who was chagrined again
because they discovered that the defecator was none other than India’s
ambassador to Moscow!
Well, SAARCians are well aware that the South
Bloc in Delhi is a factory that produces these incontinent specimens who should
not have been let out of Indian toilets. J. N. Dixit, the noted Mr. Fix-it”
who was sent by Mrs. Indira Gandhi, to execute her excremental mission in Sri
Lanka, was full of regret later when he realised, rather late, that it was
India’s biggest mistake. The entire mission was undertaken on the assumption
that India could fix the domestic problem of Sri Lanka by using its superior
military, political and Big Brother muscles. In the end it was driven
away by the very forces that welcomed them as their saviours. And the LTTE
boasted that they had beaten the fourth largest Army in the world.
Each defeat diminishes India’s stature as a
reliable guide, partner and leader in the global competition for power and
influence. India’s rivals are asserting and making their presence felt with more
credible and viable use of power. In short India is losing its grip in
the neighbourhood – let alone the India Ocean Rim — by the day to its powerful
rival China. India is drifting away from its neighbourhood – its nearest and
vital mates needed for its defence – to depend on distant power blocs like the
QUAD. Consequently, India is forced to rely on the Pacific friends” with a
common interest in containing China, which questions the validity of India’s
Neighbourhood First Policy”. And the more it alienates its neighbours
the more it is compelled to rely on LOCs and LACs. How many frontiers
must it maintain just to survive in the neighbourhood, dissipating its military
energies on mini-wars and skirmishes from time to time, sometimes going
to the brink? Is India going to live on tenterhooks for the rest of its
life by hanging on to controversial legacies and self-serving
interventions?
India of course rushes into places where
angels fear to tread ( e.g., Sri Lanka) believing that it is a problem-solver.
But the records show that she ends up as a problem-exacerbator, not
knowing how to get out of it without exiting in body bags. Invariably,
India’s foreign forays boomerang on her blinkered bureaucrats in the South
Bloc. India has this penchant also to bite more than what it can chew. And, in
the process, she gets choked. That is what happened to her in Sri Lanka. Had
India allowed the Sri Lankan forces to finish off the LTTE in the Vadamarachchi
operation in the 70s the needless internal war would not have dragged on till
2009. It could have been nipped in the bud. But Big Brother India had to come
in and worsen the situation for all concerned – mostly to
India. Had India allowed Sri Lanka to solve its problems in their way India
could have saved face without having to experience the humiliation
of its forces being driven out with their tails between their
legs.
India’s latest diplomatic thrust at the UNHRC
against Sri Lanka is typical of India’s duplicitous diplomacy. It is the
absolute lack of moral finesse that makes India a despicable figure in the eyes
of those who know India’s role in sabotaging and destabilising her neighbour
and friend for thousands of years. It is the nearness that makes India both a
friend and an enemy. As a neighbour with thousands of years of relations with
Sri Lanka, we cannot remain untouched by developments in that country and will
continue to remain engaged in this matter,” said Dilip Sinha, India’s High
Commissioner in Geneva in 2013. In other words, India is saying that it will
not let Sri Lanka be independent and handle its domestic affairs or foreign
affairs according to its national interests. India gave a new meaning to
Neighbourhood First Policy” by imposing Article 370 and wiping out the
independent status of Kashmir violating international agreements and UN
resolutions and absorbing the Muslim state into Indian Hindustan. India would
not have hesitated by now to make Sri Lanka its 29th state if it
had the power to do so.
The Neighbourhood First Policy” is a rather
belated approach to mend broken fences. But India can’t live up to its own
commitments. India’s lobbying against Sri Lanka in Geneva, roping in Nepal, is
not the best way to pursue policy that gives priority and confidence to the
neighbourhood. Pakistan and Bangladesh, the two big neighbours, were not with
India. Isn’t this another sign that meddlesome and
interventionist India cannot coexist with its neighbours? Of course, the
Modi government was under pressure in Tamil Nadu to prove that they are with
the Tamils in Sri Lanka. Selling Sri Lanka is another way of
winning votes in the Tamil Nadu election due on April 6. Modi is boasting
that he is the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Jaffna. He is also claiming
blood relationship with the Tamils by and referring to them as his
brothers and sisters”. No doubt, this is electoral rhetoric. That is for
domestic consumption. But the consequences of this rhetoric go beyond the
borders to impact on Indo-Sri Lanka relations. India is literally pushing Sri
Lanka into the arms of China – the last thing that both sides want to happen.
Both sides are sensitive to possibility of Sri Lanka, swinging away from India.
India is openly wooing the Tamils partly to keep the pot boiling for it to intervene
and partly to keep them as the Fifth Column to provoke and pressure the GOSL.
Indian diplomats on the ground are stirring the pot, playing ball with the
Tamil parties. Driven by Indian funds, patronage and interventionist policies
the local Tamil parties too are only too happy to go along with Indian
manoeuvres. In doing this India is playing with fire again. Playing with
divisive politics is a risky gamble. Foreign powers tend to join with the
locals to exploit divisions to their advantage. But it doesn’t go according to
plan in the best of cases. Vietnam for USA and Sri Lanka for
Indians prove that it can go the other way.
India finds Tamil aspirations” a good excuse to
intervene. So it should not be surprised to find the Sri Lankan aspirations”
too compelling the Sri Lankan policy-makers to seek their comfort/security
zones abroad. So far, India’s handling of Tamil aspirations” has not satisfied
the Tamil aspirants. Velupillai Prabhakaran went against India because he
felt that India was pushing its own neo-colonial program more than that
of the Tamils. Right now India has moved into UNHRC to push its neo-colonial
interventions. Apart from power politics, what makes the Indian adventure in
Geneva so obnoxious is its blatant lies and immorality. Of course, India makes
a big issue of trying to present its role as neutral middle-man guaranteeing
territorial integrity to Sri Lanka and in the same breath guaranteeing Tamil
aspirations” which it says is in the interest of Sri Lanka. In other words,
India will follow the policy of rocking the cradle and pinching the
baby. But the sudden and arbitrary application of Article 370 to Kashmir – a
kind of final solution to the vexed issue since Pandit Nehru created it at
Independence – proves that India is not shy of redrawing the political maps
according to its whims and fancies. India is provocative. It is aggressive. And
threatening regional peace and stability with each big move. A
counterweight is needed to balance India’s arrogant approach to its neighbours.
If an alternative counterweight is not forthcoming, perhaps, an alliance
of non-Indians in the region to lock in India – if achievable — would be
the answer to put India in its place
In other words, somebody
must stop India running wild. Take the case of Sri Lanka. India exploited the
simmering internal stirrings in its very early stages to recruit derelict
Tamil youth to be India’s covert arm to destabilise Sri Lanka. It provided training,
finance, military equipment, political patronage, diplomatic cover, the
use of its territory to export terrorism to its thousand-year-old
friend and neighbour. Eventually it forced its way into Sri Lanka on the
promise of solving the problem. When the Tamils realised that the Indians had
come in to exploit them they turned against the IPKF. In response the
IPKF sprayed bullets indiscriminately targeting civilians. The Indian committed
the most heinous war crime by raiding the Jaffna Hospital and slaughtering
doctors, surgeons, nurses and patients and all others who stood in the way.
And it is this India – this hypocritical India — that is asking Sri
Lanka to give justice, dignity, equality and peace for Jaffna Tamils in
Geneva.
Three parties engaged
directly in finding a military solution and all the human rights issues
arose from the military engagements of the three forces : 1. The quasi-Tamil
state of the LTTE which came out of the declaration of war by the Tamil
leadership at Vadukoddai urging the Tamil youth to take up the gun in
pursuit of establishing a Tamil state.(2) the democratically elected state of
Sri Lanka which fought to defeat the Tamil Pol Pot and liberate the Tamils from
Tamil tyranny and 3. The state of India which intervened military to impose its
will assuming its power to find a solution. All parties violated human rights
and committed war crimes. The UN resolutions repeatedly refers to violations of
human rights by the GOSL and the LTTE but never by the state of India. Why? In
their reports to UNHRC all the High Commissioners have been quick to pick on
GOSL. But not a single report has ever dared to raise the violations of the
Indian forces in Sri Lanka. Why? Are they above the law? Or are the High
Commissioner, as usual playing the hidden games of exempting the powerful
and flaying only the powerless – and that too on flimsy excuses compared to
what India had done to Sri Lanka from the beginning? The scale of India’s
criminality in creating, promoting, financing, legitimising the killing machine
of its agents in Jaffna is unforgivable. India has no moral leg to stand on and
accuse Sri Lanka of anything after what it has done to its thousand-year
neighbour and friend. On the contrary, India should have accepted guilt for paving
the path to crimes that killed innocent lives in Sri Lanka and legally forced
to pay compensation to the victims. Apart from kick-starting the killing the
Tamil killing machine and exporting it to Sri Lanka it is India’s direct
military intervention that prolonged the war leading to thousands of deaths
and violations of human rights. After that, after committing those
inhuman crimes what right has India to pontificate to Sri Lanka on
dignity, peace and justice? After promising to restore peace and
reconciliation India departed disgracefully, leaving Sri Lanka in bloody
shambles.
Not only India, the entire
Core Group led by UK and the West should hang their heads in shame for hiding
the facts that undermines the veracity and the validity of their fake
resolution against Sri Lanka. Their secret files contain the truth and they
will not reveal them because it blasts their accusations to smithereens. Lord
Naseby’s revelations knock the bottom out of the resolution that was sponsored
by the Core Group. His tireless efforts to dig up the truth and expose
the concocted resolution, full of inaccuracies, exaggerations,
distortions and denials confirm that UN and its agencies are manipulated by
mendacious agents who have the least respect for basic and decent values needed
for delivery of justice. Michelle Bachelet has not failed to imitate
Colin Powell with deadly accuracy. Both should be awarded honorary degree for
deliberately lying to mislead and deceive the public.
Reading Lord Nasby’s
account of what happened in Geneva one is forced to conclude
that the whole episode was a farce enacted by liars, hypocrites,
conspirators and plain criminals presenting themselves as human rights
activists. It was UK that Chaired the Core Group and the evidence was with
Lord Ahamad, the Minister for Human Rights, who had purposely and consciously
withheld robust evidence” of utmost importance being sent to the
UNHR…. He should have sent them unredacted to create an informed Report. The
action is made even worse by UK Chairing the Core Group and is absolutely
reprehensible. It is unforgiveable and is a black day for my UK Government,”
said Lord Naseby.
He added: I find it
unacceptable that the senor UK Minister responsible for Human rights policy
should state that the UNHRC did not ask for these Dispatches. The
Minister knew how crucial the contents of these Dispatches are to the truth.”
One of the objectives of the UNHRC resolution is to find evidence
of the human rights violations in Sri Lanka. Shouldn’t the UN
begin with the office of the UK Minister for Human Rights and then
with Ms. Bachelet’s office? In failing to obtain the necessary information
before presenting her report to UNHRC isn’t she guilty of criminal neglect of
duty?
The emerging
evidence is exposing the calculated manipulation that had operated, with the
hidden plotters in the NGOs and officials in key places hiding evidence,
concocting evidence and distorting realities on the ground. For
instance, the UN produces accusations against Sri Lanka with evidence from
nameless, faceless accusers who will remain anonymous for the next thirty
years. And Sri Lanka is forced to face the consequences of mysterious evidence
kept hidden in the UN archives. India which was a prime conspirator in financing
and honing the Tamil killing machine turns up at UNHRC as a pious
preacher of humane values and lobbies against its victim demanding
justice. UK which presides over the Core Group hides the evidence that
goes against its own resolution. Ms. Bachelet who is the Chief Officer
responsible for coordinating and presenting the evidence for the
resolution goes along with the lies, deception and the conspiracy
to indict Sri Lanka. Put together all this adds to one big calculated
move to indict Sri Lanka no matter what the truth is. What chance had Sri Lanka
against such massive plotters?
DarshanaSanjeewaBalasuriya Courtesy The Daily Mirror
Sri Lanka will receive 600,000 doses of China’s Sinopharm vaccinations on March 31 and priority will be given for Sri Lankan citizens when administering the vaccines while only 1 percent of the total amount to be delivered will be for Chinese nationals residing here, an official from the Chinese Embassy in Sri Lanka said.
The Embassy official told the Daily Mirror that the vaccines were a donation to the Sri Lankan government from China and it was the Sri Lankan government who offered the vaccines to the Chinese nationals residing in the country.
China’s Sinopharm vaccine is produced by the China National Biotec Group (CNBG) – a subsidiary of China National Pharmaceutical Group Corporation. Clinical trials run by the Sinopharm showed that it had an efficacy rate of 79 percent.
However the Sinopharm has run into controversy in the country after State Minister of Production, Supply and Regulation of Pharmaceuticals Prof. Channa Jayasumana said recently that it had received approval for emergency use by the NMRA.
However this approval is yet to be officially conveyed to the State Pharmaceutical Corporation who is the main institution placing orders with countries to purchase the vaccines.
Ministry of Health on Saturday (March 27) confirmed 115 more new cases of the COVID-19 in Sri Lanka as the daily cases count reached 278.
The new development has brought the total number of COVID-19 confirmed in the country thus far to 91,839.
According to the Epidemiology Unit, 2,893 patients infected with the virus are currently under medical care at designated hospitals and treatment centres.
Total recoveries from the virus infection have reached 88,388 while the death toll stands at 558.
Sri Lanka has no intention of intervening in the power struggles of the giants in the Indian Ocean region, says President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
We have no desire to propagate the neoliberalism of some countries or to intervene in the power struggles of the superpowers in the Indian Ocean.”
He stressed the sovereignty of Sri Lanka will not be betrayed by allowing these countries to achieve their geopolitical needs by introducing separatism under the guise of power devolution.
The President made these observations addressing the ‘Gama Samaga Pilisandara’ programme held at Pitabeddara earlier today (March 27).
Government is prepared to face the international challenges, the President added.
Speaking on the government’s move to withdraw from the co-sponsored resolutions of the UNHRC, the President said the resolutions had adversely affected the sovereignty and freedom of the country.
The President also stated that his tenure in office so far was spent on righting the wrongs of the previous government which in turn cause various issues.
Ministry of Health on Saturday (March 27) confirmed another 163 fresh cases of the novel coronavirus in the country.
The new development has brought the total number of COVID-19 confirmed in the country thus far to 91,724.
According to the Epidemiology Unit, 2,778 patients infected with the virus are currently under medical care at designated hospitals and treatment centres.
Total recoveries from the virus infection have reached 88,388 while the death toll stands at 558.
Colombo, March 26 (Daily Mirror) – The State Pharmaceutical Corporation (SPC) has begun discussions with Britain to purchase the Astrazeneca doses from the UK, especially since authorities are doubtful if the Serum Institute in India can now supply the remaining 8.5 million vaccinations which had initially been requested, the Daily Mirror learns.
The SPC had initially requested Serum Institute in India for 10 million vaccination doses however the Institute had agreed to supply 1.5 million doses. While these doses will come in as scheduled, the SPC is doubtful if Serum Institute can supply the remaining 8.5 million doses with its new export restrictions on the dosages.
An official from the SPC said it had begun discussions to procure the remaining 8.5 million doses from Astrazeneca in the UK and had requested them to send the necessary documents for the approval of the National Medicines Regulatory Authority (NMRA).
Although it is the same company, it is manufactured from different companies in separate countries. Therefore, we need the approval of the NMRA to use it under emergency use in the country which is why we have requested for the necessary documents which will be sent to us,” the official said.
If emergency use approval is granted by the NMRA, the SPC will move fast to place an order as millions of citizens in the country are yet to be vaccinated.
The Astrazeneca doses would be purchased at $5.25 per dose from the UK, the same as India as the price for this vaccination is the same maintained globally.
The Daily Mirror learns that discussions are also ongoing with Johnson and Johnson to see the possibility of purchasing this vaccine if NMRA approval is granted.
The SPC has already requested for the necessary documents from Johnson and Johnson which once received will be forwarded to the NMRA.
Meanwhile, the official said in the immediate future, they also expect Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine to arrive in the country as cabinet approval had been granted to purchase 7 million doses. The Sputnik V will be purchased at $9.95 per dose. (Jamila Husain)
Colombo, March 26 (Daily Mirror) – Sri Lanka’s Health authorities have gone on alert after a new double mutant of the Coronavirus has been detected from some samples in India with scientists studying if this new strain is more infectious or less affected by the vaccines.
Sources from the Health Ministry said that Sri Lanka was randomly checking the samples of foreigners entering the country for all the new foreign variants of the COVID19 but authorities were now on alert for this new double mutant virus as well.
Randomly we check the samples of the foreigners. We have been doing this for some time as all foreigners are subjected to a PCR test upon arrival to the country. There are many new strains of the COVID19 globally so we are taking all the precautions. We are now on alert for the new variant detected in India as well,” Health Ministry sources said.
Several parts of India are facing a staggering rise in the number of COVID19 infections with India’s Health Ministry stating that this new double mutant variant of the virus had now spread to 18 states after it was first detected in Maharashtra’s Nagpur in December last year.
Cases have now been reported from Delhi, Gujarat and Punjab, among other places. (Jamila Husain)
