Courtesy NDTV

Sri Lanka was hit by a catastrophic financial crisis in 2022, the worst since its independence from Britain in 1948, due to a severe paucity of foreign exchange reserves.

Colombo: 

Describing New Delhi as a “close associate” and a “trustworthy friend” of Colombo, Sri Lanka’s Parliament Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena on Friday thanked India for the financial assistance it extended to the island nation when it reeled under an unprecedented economic crisis last year.

Sri Lanka was hit by a catastrophic financial crisis in 2022, the worst since its independence from Britain in 1948, due to a severe paucity of foreign exchange reserves.  As the country struggled, locked in the throes of the crisis, India extended multi-pronged assistance of about USD 4 billion to it last year, through multiple credit lines and currency support, in line with India’s ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy.

In his address at the gala dinner reception hosted for delegates of the Indian Travel Congress here, Abeywardena said that India “saved us” during the financial crisis otherwise, there would have been “another bloodbath for all of us”.

At the evening reception, the Speaker thanked India for the help extended to the cash-strapped nation and recalled the civilisational ties and similarities between the two countries and their cultures.

“Sri Lanka and India are very, very closely interconnected countries, culturally, nationally, and policy-wise, and above all, India has been a very close associate and trustworthy friend of Sri Lanka,” Abeywardena said, adding that when “we were in trouble”, India always helped out. “And, even this time, today, I heard that India is willing to extend our restructuring of loans for 12 years. Never expected, and never in the history, not a single country has extended that kind of assistance,” he said.

He recalled the helping hand lent by India during the period of trouble last year that devastated the Sri Lankan economy, pushing it into a debt crisis.

“I must tell you, during the trouble that we had last year, you (India) saved us, India saved us otherwise, there would have been another bloodbath for all of us. So, that is how India came to help us,” Abeywardena said.

He made the remarks in the presence of the Indian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, Gopal Baglay, Sri Lanka’s Tourism and Lands Minister, Harin Fernando, and other senior officials of the Sri Lankan government.

“Your ambassador here, (a) very close friend of ours. We love and respect him,” the Speaker said, referring to Baglay.

Noting the similarity between the Indian surname Singh and the Sri Lankan surname Singhe, Abeywardena claimed that “it shows we are genetically connected to India”.

“That way, India is not a new country to us. It’s part of the ethos of our country, part of our life, part of our heart,” he said, adding, “We are here to receive you, respect you, join with you.”  “Together, we (Sri Lanka) can join with you (India), without any difficulty or hesitation, with great trust,” the Speaker said.

n his address, Fernando pitched Sri Lanka — Pearl of the Indian Ocean — as a unique destination for India and the rest of the world, saying, “One island nation offers so many different tourist experiences, without travelling far from one location to another.”

Courtesy Pakistan Observer

Sri Lankan inflation will drop to 7 percent in July, an official of the country’s central bank told journalists in Colombo on Thursday.

The central bank’s Director of Economic Research P. K. G. Harischandra, while addressing a press conference, said the headline inflation will stabilize around mid-single-digit level in the medium term.

Harischandra said that the core inflation for June was reported at 9.8 percent and this is the first time inflation has gone below 10 percent in a few years.

In September 2022, Sri Lanka’s headline, core, food and non-food inflation were 69.8 percent, 50.2 percent, 94.9 percent and 57.6 percent, respectively.—Xinhua

Courtesy Oman Observer

The man charged with clawing Sri Lanka out of bankruptcy says he had warned about economic calamity years before it hit — and was pressed into retirement for his troubles.

Central bank chief Nandalal Weerasinghe was asked to return to the island nation last year to help steer it through a financial collapse that triggered months of food shortages, petrol queues, and nightly blackouts.

The 63-year-old says his mandate coincides with Sri Lanka’s one final opportunity to rescue itself from a cycle of economic shocks that stretches back decades.

There’s no excuse this time, no second chance, we have to get it right this time, he said at his Colombo office this week. This is where I think the crisis is an opportunity.

Weerasinghe was the Central Bank of Sri Lanka’s number two when Gotabaya Rajapaksa was elected president in 2019 on populist promises of generous tax cuts.

Government debt soared as Rajapaksa pursued an unorthodox policy of printing exorbitant amounts of money while holding down exchange and interest rates to spur growth.

As the senior deputy governor, I always raised concerns, Weerasinghe said. But with Rajapaksa's administration steamrolling objections from him and other senior central bankers, Weerasinghe said he felt he had no option but to take early retirement.

Obviously, I saw if those policies continued in that way… we’ll end up in a situation that I said at that time was exactly what happened, he added. Weerasinghe had decamped for a quiet life in Australia, spending time with his children and hitting the golf course five days a week, when Rajapaksa asked him to come back and helm the central bank.

He returned to a country in chaos, its currency in freefall and the government days from defaulting on its $46 billion foreign debt.

The Covid-19 pandemic had dealt a hammer blow to already precarious public finances, as the island's lucrative tourism industry shuttered and remittances from Sri Lankans working abroad dried up.

Foreign exchange reserves had almost been exhausted, leaving importers unable to buy goods necessary to keep the economy functioning.

Supermarket shelves were empty, long lines snaked from fuel stations, and thermal power stations were forced to ration electricity for 13 hours each day. By July, Rajapaksa had fled the country after months of protests demanding his resignation for mismanaging the crisis.Rajapaksa's successor, Ranil Wickremesinghe, has sought to repair the nation's finances through a $2.9 billion International Monetary Fund bailout.

The rescue package commits Sri Lanka to an austerity regime of steep tax hikes and an end to generous consumer utility subsidies, both of which have proven deeply unpopular. Its passage was reportedly held up for months when China, Sri Lanka's largest bilateral creditor, resisted agreeing to a haircut on its loans.

Chinese debt has been controversial politically, with Rajapaksa and his elder brother Mahinda — himself a former president — accused of taking Beijing's money to finance costly vanity projects.

Weerasinghe said the delays to the IMF package were understandable because Beijing was a relatively “new player” to bilateral lending. China is fully on board, and agreed to support Sri Lanka and help Sri Lanka to come out of this crisis, he said.

Last year brought Sri Lanka's worst economic downturn in its 75-year history as an independent nation, with GDP contracting 7.8 percent and inflation hitting 70 percent at its peak.

But the island's tea- and tourism-dependent economy is no stranger to shocks, with foreign exchange shortages triggering recessions and government rationing of consumer goods numerous times in prior decades.

Sri Lanka had already gone to the IMF cap in hand 16 times before last year, but failed to stick with agreed-upon reforms, giving it a serious credibility gap.

Weerasinghe said the country had two choices this time around: if it sticks to its current IMF programme, its economy would return to normal within two to four years If it did not, Sri Lanka would no longer be indulged if it fell off the wagon and returned to its spendthrift ways at the first sign of stability, he warned."This time, the 17th time with the IMF, is different," he said. If you are trying to go back to another programme, that will be the most difficult, and I think that will be the end of the story. – AFP

Courtesy Adaderana

President Ranil Wickremesinghe has expressed his belief that Sri Lanka’ tourism industry would significantly contribute to the country’s foreign exchange earnings in the coming decade.

Speaking at the Transcending Borders – Transforming Lives” program organized by the Indian Tourism Federation at the Bandaranaike International Memorial Conference Hall (BMICH) in Colombo on Thursday (06 July), the President highlighted that comprehensive plans have already been formulated to enhance Sri Lanka’s appeal as a tourist destination and stressed that promoting tourism could lead to an increase in per capita income.

President Wickremesinghe also emphasized the importance of collaborative efforts among all the BIMSTEC countries to develop the BIMSTEC region into a thriving tourism hub, transcending national borders.

Addressing the event, Indian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka Gopal Baglay announced the expansion of flights between Chennai and Jaffna, which now operates only four times a week, to begin daily operations basis starting from 16 July. 

He further mentioned ongoing efforts to resume the long-discontinued ferry service between the two nations, which had remained inactive for several decades.

Following is the speech delivered by President Ranil Wickremesinghe;
We’ll assure you that Sri Lanka’s tourism, the new plans that our Minister Harin is going to implement, will certainly make it a good stay, a wonderful stay, an incredible stay. Now many of you, some of you, will, after this conference, be visiting different parts of Sri Lanka.

I would like to tell you there are things that you should not miss. Go to Trincomalee and see the Dakshinakailash. Come to Kataragama and see the shrine of Lord Vellamurugan. It’s over 2000 years old, one of the oldest standing Hindu shrines in the region. 

I was there for the festival a few days ago, and there were over 200,000 people there. Or visit Nallur in Jaffna to see the festival that’s starting there. This is a part of our culture, and it’s worth a trip to see some of these, just as much as you’ve gone and seen the hill country and others.

High Commissioner Gopal, yes, you’ve seen Ella, but I’ve got to show you something else. The impact of the Ukraine war in Sri Lanka, where a Russian Chef is running a Japanese restaurant in Weligama. 

There’s something more we are going to add, as I talk with the Minister, there will be a military tattoo in August together with the Nallur festival and the Kandy Perahera, not the normal arms but something like the Edinburgh tattoo which will be full of dance and music. And in January, we have the Galle Literary Festival. 

This time it’s going to be a gala one. Every town in Galle, in the southern province, will have its own festival. Hirikatiya will have a beach discotheque, and there will be modern jazz and modern art. In Matara, there will be a number of classical music events, and in addition to that, in January, you can also listen to Andrea Bocelli singing in Colombo. 

So that’s what we are adding on. We are trying to make tourism new and make more use of the potential.
When we faced bankruptcy in Sri Lanka, now that we are getting out of it and debt restructuring is taking place, we still have to remember that the balance of trade is not in our favour. So we have to ensure a positive balance of trade in time to come. 

And one of the means of raising funds which is not debt-creating, is tourism. 

So exploit it to the full. Use it, and we are looking at new tourism from the 2.5 million we have to go to 5 million to start with. Look at the upper end of the markets. Why not have $500 a night to $1,000 a night? 

We have got to learn from Maldives, the smallest of the South Asian countries. We are trying to put 7 more golf courses in, make Nuwara Eliya the centre of golf.

We want to have large resorts. We have identified one next to Dedduwa, over 1000 acres with water, good for very environmentally friendly tourism. Another one is next to Horton Plains, another 900 acres which will be another forest reserve where you can have 5-star luxury accommodation. 

There are many other places where yachts and yachting will start, with Mannar as one of the headquarters, throughout the Jaffna Lagoon, down into Trincomalee and further down. We will exploit the railway in different ways, just like you have gone up to Ella. Moreover, we want to hand over a large number of plantation bungalows for boutique hotels. So there are going to be more and more items that we will add on to it. 

Food items, dance items, to make Sri Lanka truly known as a worthwhile tourist destination. We expect to attract many visitors from Asia, including India, East Asia, South Asia, and West Asia, because it is easier for them to travel. We will open up the Eastern Province, and there will be apartments available for purchase where you can directly stay near the beaches of the Eastern Province. 

Why not? If you want to have a villa, we will make arrangements for that too, for buying and holding. Why not? Come here, this is the place.
The laws will be changed to accommodate our plans. So I thought this is the way we should proceed. And I was thinking to myself, why didn’t we do it earlier? And I looked at what we are doing in the region. 

Of the three regions in Asia, of our size, East Asia, Southeast Asia has far more tourists than us. South Asia together may not have as many tourists as one or two of the East Asian or Southeast Asian countries or Western Europe. Why is it? India is good with domestic tourism. Are you going to rely solely on domestic tourism? 

When you can earn so much money and foreign exchange, more than what you target for, if you attract international travellers. In the next 10 years, per capita income will increase, people will travel around, and look for eco-friendly tourism. Why don’t we have it?

So why don’t we make our whole BIMSTEC area one borderless tourist area? Is that what you want? Transcending borders? Not just Sri Lankans traveling to India or Indians traveling to Bangladesh. No. It’s one tourist area for anyone who wants to come from outside. We have so much to offer. I have seen some of your assets. 

I have driven from Srinagar to Ladakh, to Leh. Staying in Kargil was not the best of accommodations, but the potential you have for development. I have been to many other areas of India as well.

What is Biryani? You might think of it as just one dish, but I think of it in terms of 60-70 dishes. Each area has its own Biryani. And if you go to Batticaloa, you can have a 24-egg Biryani. Now, why don’t we market it? All of us here.

The Biryani is a dish. When you come here, there are so many dishes to try. Look at how Thais have marketed their food. A country of 70 million. Why can’t we do the same? All you have done is market Chicken Tikka Masala, which is not even from India. Let’s make Biryani the signature dish for our region. People who want to come and taste it will have enough Biryani restaurants around the world. Why don’t we have Michelin-star chefs specializing in Biryani? Look at the potential we have.

We are looking at a cruise, a ship that has come from India to Sri Lanka. Why don’t we open up to BIMSTEC? Why don’t we use the Bay of Bengal for cruises? We are bigger than the Caribbean. Look at the potential. If people from East Asia, India, Southeast Asia, West Asia, and Africa come together, why travel all that way? 

Look at how we can develop and showcase the places in Sri Lanka. Look at Mahabalipuram. See Odisha. These are the places Europeans and others must see. Look at Cox’s Bazar. Explore the Andaman Islands. They are already popular among Indians. When this happens, prices in the Andaman Islands will go up. Look at Myanmar. They can travel down to the Andaman seas, all the way down to Singapore. If we start now and plan ahead, in 10 years’ time, we will have a completely new industry.

Why don’t we have travel arrangements? We can arrange it. You can go to Lumbini, and the next flight can bring you to Buddhagaya. See those places, and the next flight can bring you to Colombo, so you can visit the Temple of the Tooth and the Bo-tree. We need to arrange our connectivity in such a way. 

Why not climb up to the base camp and then come down to an island in the Maldives? These are the unique holidays that no one else can offer. We can think of so many other holiday options. Look at all the different dance forms we have. 

The various dancers in different regions. This is the potential we have to attract millions of tourists every year to our region. Why not utilize it? And this is my idea, that BIMSTEC should be one big tourist area. We can also showcase Biryani and other cuisines.

Look at cricket. When we were small, everything was decided at the MCC. Today, cricket is identified with India. If we have achieved such a big success in cricket, why can’t we come together and make tourism equally successful? 

Let’s go upmarket and charge more. It means our rural people will have a better income. Let’s all work towards it. Let’s think about it. Maybe all of you here from the Sri Lankan industry and from India can learn something. There’s something we can learn from the Maldives, and we can talk to Nepal. Let’s look at it and develop a thriving tourist industry. A place where millions of people visit our region, making it prosperous for the people in our countries.”

Addressing the gathering Indian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka Gopal Baglay said;
I am inspired by the presence of the Honourable President, and if I may mention, it was on his visit last weekend that the diplomatic envoys embarked on an unforgettable train journey through some of the most beautiful parts of Sri Lanka, aboard a vintage train called the Viceroy Special.

I mentioned this not just to reminisce about the beautiful journey through the misty forests, plantation areas, and picturesque landscapes of Sri Lanka, but because it reminded me of two things. One is the resemblance of the area to Vasuri and Nilgiris, which some of you might be familiar with, especially those who have come from India. 

The altitude is roughly the same as Visuri, but due to the tea plantations on both sides of the railway tracks, it gives the impression of passing through Nilgiri. However, this is not the reason I am mentioning it. 

When we reached our destination, a place called Ella, which is famous for, among other things, the world-renowned nine arches bridge, I couldn’t believe my eyes. Just six months ago, when I visited, there were hundreds of tourists on either side of the railway track and all over the place.

There were tourists from India, Sri Lanka, and other countries. For some of us on the train, it was a stark reminder of how different that moment was from about a year ago.

Mr. President, your presence here is, to me, a vote of confidence in the present and the potential, as well as a reiteration of the partnership between the people of India and Sri Lanka for progress. It signifies a step towards even closer cooperation for the prosperity of both nations.

The theme Transcending Borders, Transforming Lives,” is precisely the spirit of the India-Sri Lanka relationship that has brought these two countries together as civilizational twins. We are all aware of the geographical proximity of India and Sri Lanka, but over the course of millennia, this proximity has been layered with history, culture, civilization, religions, languages, music, films, cricket, democracy, diversity, plurality, respect, peace, and harmony.

When you visit Sri Lanka, it also reflects the values that we cherish and share, as demonstrated by Buddha and Mahatma Gandhi.
I express my gratitude to the Minister of Tourism and the invaluable guidance and leadership of President Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Over the past few months, we have not only resumed the Chennai-Jaffna flights, which used to operate four times a week, but these flights will now operate every day starting from July 16th. We are also working on resuming the ferry services, which have been inactive for decades, and the idea of an international cruise from India to Sri Lanka is no longer just a concept.

The use of Indian currency in Sri Lanka is a boost to tourism, as Indian tourists can now conveniently use their currency for payments. Additionally, efforts are underway to enable digital payments between the two countries. This will not only facilitate transcending borders and transforming lives but also build upon the legacies that form our common heritage.”

The Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau extended an invitation to host the Conference of Travel Agents of India 2023 in Colombo, from the 6th to the 9th of July. This prestigious event is particularly noteworthy as it marks the 67th time that the Indian Tourism Federation, in collaboration with the Sri Lanka Domestic Tour Operators Association, organizing the conference and exhibition.

The Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) has appointed its members as tourism ambassadors, and their involvement in previous summits has consistently led to a significant four-fold increase in tourist arrivals to the host destinations. In light of this success, the conference features a two-day business session and buyer-seller meetings, at the Cinnamon Grand and Shangri-La hotels.

With a strong turnout, 500 members of the Indian Tourism Federation participating in this highly anticipated event. The promotion of Sri Lanka’s tourism industry has been a focal point of discussions throughout the conference. Additionally, 50 Indian journalists have joined the gathering to cover the proceedings, highlighting the significance of this occasion.

In conjunction with the conference, the Sri Lanka Inland Tourism Operators Association (SLAITO) and its member associations have meticulously organized a post-summit tour encompassing popular tourist destinations such as Bentota, Galle, and Kandy. This initiative aims to showcase the beauty and diversity of Sri Lanka’s attractions to the attendees.

The Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) Colombo Summit has garnered support from four major airlines, namely SriLankan Airlines, Air India, IndiGo, and Vistara. These partnerships will facilitate seamless travel arrangements for the participants and further enhance the success of the summit.

Dignitaries and key figures attending the event included Nimal Siripala de Silva, Minister of Ports and Maritime Affairs, Harin Fernando, Minister of Tourism and Lands, and Ms Jyoti Mayal, President of the Indian Travel Agents Association, among others

Courtesy Adaderana

A special meeting was convened at the Presidential Secretariat this afternoon (07 July), under the patronage of Sagala Ratnayaka, Senior Advisor to the President on National Security and Chief of the Presidential Staff, with the aim of swiftly resolving issues plaguing the health sector.

Accordingly, concerns pertaining to the shortage of medicines and medical equipment, the quality of medicines, and challenges in the procurement process, were discussed at the meeting, for which Minister of Health Keheliya Rambukwella, President’s Secretary Saman Ekanayake, Secretary of the Ministry of Finance, Secretary of the Ministry of Health, and a group of senior officials were present.

Emphasising the need to tend to the urgent matters of concern within the country’s health sector, Sagala Ratnayaka instructed all relevant officials to thoroughly investigate the accuracy of media reports concerning the health sector crises. 

In the event any such allegations are found to be true, he said immediate intervention and relief measures should be taken to assist the affected individuals.

He further stressed that any negligence on the part of the Ministry of Health resulting in harm to patients should not be excused. Instead, he urged that necessary measures be promptly implemented to ensure the comfort and well-being of the affected patients.

Meanwhile, acknowledging the economic challenges faced, and its impact on the payment of funds to suppliers of the Ministry of Health since the beginning of this year, it was decided during the meeting in question discussion to explore negotiations with international organizations to alleviate the financial difficulties faced by the Ministry.

Courtesy Adaderana

India plans to allow Sri Lanka up to 12 years to repay its debt to help ease the financial burden on the island nation, India’s Export Credit Guarantee Corporation (ECGC) Ltd’s chairman-cum-managing director M. Senthilnathan said.

Sri Lanka, facing its worst economic and political crisis in over seven decades, owes $7.1 billion to bilateral creditors— $3 billion owed to China, $2.4 billion to the Paris Club and $1.6 billion to India.

Sri Lanka’s negotiations with the IMF are going on. After that restructuring package will come, we will recover [our] money over a period of time. What we are supposed to get in 3-4 years, may get extended to 10-12 years,” Senthilnathan said.

But the interest rate will come down. This is a situation induced by inflation and because of the fallout of (Ukraine) war. You accommodate them for the next 5-6 years and later the markets will open up,” Senthilnathan added.

Earlier this year, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved a $3 billion loan programme for Sri Lanka to help stabilize its economy and begin restructuring its debt. The island nation received an immediate disbursement of about $333 million under the 48-month programme approved by the IMF.

Senthilnathan added that the National Export Insurance Account, managed by the ECGC, has received close to ₹4,500 crore worth of claims from exporters facing default in countries such as Sri Lanka, Zambia, Suriname and Ghana which faced extreme economic hardships after covid-19 and the Ukraine war.

Notably, Sri Lanka’s financial situation is improving as it has lifted import restrictions on 286 items. Originally, its government had limited imports of more than 3,200 items, including seafood, electronics and even musical instruments.

Besides, its reserves have grown 26% to a 17-month high of $3.5 billion in May, helped by stronger remittances and tourism earnings.

India had earlier extended a $1 billion credit line for Sri Lanka by a year.

The credit line, part of a $4 billion emergency assistance extended by India during the peak of Sri Lanka’s financial crisis early last year, was scheduled to end in March.

Source: Live Mint

Shenali D Waduge

In France, a teenager is accused of being killed by French police. Yet, can  riots, burning vehicles, stealing goods, burning libraries, damaging public property bring justice?  In 2022, Sri Lanka experienced shortages in essential goods that other nations also went through but the reaction was to illegally occupy state land, cause mayhem, damage, steal & burn property while chasing out an elected leader & allowing an unelected leader to take the helm. How did this become the solution? When essential goods suddenly became available, it does raise questions of whether the scarcity” was part of the plot as many of those who controlled the supply chain were involved in the 2022 people’s protest. Eventually, the damage has to be borne by the People and this is a wastage of public money which could have been utilized for health, education & welfare.

1 April to 10 August 2022 Galle Face Green was illegally occupied. Damage to Galle Face Green is estimated to be Rs.5million – which again will have to be paid by the Tax Payers.

https://www.newsfirst.lk/2022/05/10/sri-lanka-police-release-details-of-fatalities-property-damage-from-mondays-9-clashes/ (10 May 2022)

https://www.newsfirst.lk/2022/05/11/sri-lanka-9-dead-41-vehicles-torched-in-mondays-9-violence-defence-secretary/ (11 May 2022)

The Presidents House, official residence of the President is over 200 years old.

The present President’s House was brought under British Colonial Administration in 1804 and became the official residence of the Governor of Ceylon.

In 1948 it became the official residence of the Governor General of Ceylon. 

Queen Elizabeth 2 stayed in it during her visit to Ceylon in 1954.

It became known as the Queens House & became the residence of Sir Oliver Goonetilleke who was appointed Governor General. William Gopallawa took residence when he became Governor General in 1962. After Sri Lanka became a republic in 1972, Queens House became Presidents House.

People’s Protestors” Damage People’s Property

In 2022 tens of thousands of protestors stormed & invaded several state buildings.

Their illegal occupation left a trail of unprecedented & irreversible damage that every aragala participant will have to should culpability for the damage, destruction & theft that ensued.

More than 1000 valuable artefacts including vintage & antiques missing from Presidents Palace & Prime Minister’s Official Residence – Temple Trees.

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Damage to the PM’s official residence in Temple Trees

• Vandalized
• Colonial carpet beyond repair
• Chairs belonging to the Dutch period & cutlery/crockery sets removed from racks & either broken or stolen
• Windows shattered.
• Graffiti drawn on walls
• Walls & floor damaged as a result of people looking for secret rooms

Damage to the Presidential Secretariat

• Colonial carpet beyond repair
• Windows shattered
• Graffiti drawn on walls
• Walls & floor damaged as a result of people looking for secret rooms
• State files missing & papers scrambled everywhere

The present President Ranil Wickremasinghe’s private residence at 5^th Lane also came under attack on 9 July when it was torched 

• A 125 year old piano was destroyed
• More than 4000 books (some centuries old) were destroyed
• Sedan damaged
• Paintings & artwork strewn across the house

Inspite of the alarming damage done some of which is irreversible and that which money cannot replace, the European Union & its 27 Member States were only bothered about allowing the peaceful protestors” to behave as they liked. Their statement condemned the recent vicious attack against peaceful protesters”.

Even French TV commentary clearly showed a biased stand & end objective to change government.

Now let us move to the riots in France.

Reason: killing of a 17 year old Lebanese boy driving a Mercedes by police in Nanterre on 27 June 2023. Police claim he attempted to drive away when asked to stop. Rioters were even using firearms. Ironically the 2005 French riots also was triggered after the death of 2 Muslim teenagers, electrocuted while hiding from police. The protests lasted 3 weeks and more than 4000 were arrested.

Protest outside police headquarters escalated into riots – setting cars ablaze, destroying buses, even a school was set on fire.

27 June – Town Hall set ablaze in Mantes-la-Jolie

Riots spread: Toulouse, Lille, Asnieres, Colombes, Suresnes Aubervilliers, Clichy-sous-Bois and Mantes-la-Jolie

20 policemen injured

31 arrested

28 June – riots around Greater Paris region. Over 100 protestors clashed with police

13 arrested

20 vehicles burned.

27 national police stations / 4 gendarmerie barracks / 14 municipal police stations attacked

8 town halls, 6 schools, 6 public buildings attacked

More than 90 public buildings were attacked.

170 policemen injured

609 vehicles damaged

109 buildings damaged

29 June – 6200 people participate in march in solidarity with family of deceased

150 arrested / 24 policemen injured / 40 cars torched / Interior Minister deployed 1200 riot police & gendarmes in & around Paris. This number increased to 40,000 nationwide.

30 June – Orders given to stop bus & tram services by 9p.m. / prohibit sale & transport of fireworks mortars, petrol cans & other dangerous substances

President Macron cancels visit to Germany but is criticized for attending concert.

Bibliotheque l’Alcazar in Marseille, city’s largest public library is set on fire.

Holocaust memorial defaced & Nanterre.

2 July – Mayor of L’Hay-les-Roses home attacked / Town Hall repeatedly attacked over several nights. Attackers rammed car into front gate of Mayors home where his wife & 2 children were asleep. Wife suffered a broken leg & one child was injured. Attempted murder investigation is commenced.

4 July – 4 policemen in Rhone were shot by rioters with a shotgun. A gun store was also looted.

Riots had spread to other parts of Europe too – Belgium (29 June) & Switzerland as well as Canada.

The world is bothered about misinformation in France but not about misinformation in Sri Lanka.

A British party shared a 2020 video claiming that to be armed rioters n France.

A 2022 video of a robbery in California was shown as a jewellery robbery in France.

Not too many are up in arms over President Macron blaming parents for the behavior of youth & his critic of social media & video games intoxicating teens. How would the world react if Sri Lankan President made a similar statement?

https://www.shenaliwaduge.com/media-reports-on-aragalaya-peoples-protestors-storming-presidents-house-presidents-secretariat-temple-trees-state-media/ media coverage of Sri Lanka’s aragalaya” is compiled 

Surprisingly the UNHRC issued a statement on 30 June urging France to ‘seriously address” the deep-rooted issues of racism & racial discrimination” within its law enforcement agencies.

Surprisingly too, US, UK, Norway, Turkey, Canada & even some European countries cautioned their citizens from visiting France and issued warnings for tourists.

When Sri Lanka banned social media in view of certain media (local & international) fueling people’s minds with 24×7 commentary, Sri Lanka was accused of stifling media freedom” and freedom of speech”. That freedom of speech” Sweden is promoting is to allow to even burn the Holy Quran. What kind of freedom” is this? No one should be allowed to desecrate any religious book.

The same situation has boomeranged on France. The hypocrisy of their reaction is what needs to be highlighted. While it is not ok for Sri Lanka to censor media, France & West considers it is quite acceptable. What kind of international law & order is this?

After 1 week of riots in France

• 320 towns & cities have been affected by the riots & more than $3.2 billion worth of damage.
• More than 10,000 cars burned & more than 3000 businesses & buildings were damaged, some of which were reduced to rubble.
• more than 700 supermarkets, banks, and stores, some of which were reduced to rubble.
• 100s of upscale stores vandalized & robbed.

Coincidentally, police have made over 3300 arrests but no FRENCH BLACK COATS came to courts to clap or release the arrested FREE OF CHARGE or even clapped for them or help posters on behalf of the rioters & we did not see any French Bar Association come forward siding the protestors either!

Shenali D Waduge

Shripal Nishshanka Fernando

Dear Hon. President Ranil Wickramasinghe,

Highly appreciate you restoring Law and order in Sri Lanka and your wise appointment of a great PM Hon. Dinesh Gunawardane. You better have educated and patriotic advisors without having your party henchmen.

Think about Sri Lanka first.

You helped LTTE merely because you were afraid of your life and wanted to become the president with LTTE help.

By sacrificing his position and without massacring own Sri Lankans ex-President and who spearheaded the victory over heinous and most brutal terrorist organization with his brother’s leadership as the president Hon. Gotabaya Rajapaksa allowed you the President-ship. He may have committed some wrong doings earlier.

Whatever the deal you may have with anybody you better act patriotically and courageously or you would be in the jail for a long, long period for treasury bond scams and many others.

Do not merely implement the LRT project again without getting advice from educated and patriotic engineers, accountants and relevant professionals.

Never sell profitable state owned sectors.

Good luck!

Thank you,

Shripal Nishshanka Fernando

Tilottama Rani Charulata.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have built a new history of bilateral relations between India and Bangladesh. Both countries have undertaken a number of successful programs for the development of their countrymen. India granted a record number of visas last year in compliance with Bangladesh’s long-standing demand. Appropriate infrastructure for issuing more visas is being developed in Bangladesh. The top leadership of both countries understood that we complement each other. Development is not possible without neighbors. Therefore, Bangladesh Bridges Minister and Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader rightly said, “Bangladesh cannot move forward if we stop communication with India.” India is also determined to advance friendship with Bangladesh. Prannoy Verma, the Indian High Commissioner appointed in Dhaka, said that India is determined to build better relations with neighboring Bangladesh. He said that last year, India has set a new record by giving visas to one and a half crore Bangladeshis.

India and Bangladesh are always trying to develop relations between each other. Both countries are bound by kinship ties since the liberation war. The anti-independence forces wanted to destroy Bangladesh by killing Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the father of the nation of Bangladesh. Even later, that power led Bangladesh in the wrong direction. But Bangladesh today is on the highway of development under the leadership of Bangabandhu’s privileged daughter, leader Sheikh Hasina. Bangabandhu’s dream of building a golden Bengal is about to succeed. For some time, due to the influence of anti-independence groups in the internal politics of the country, the relationship with Delhi has deteriorated somewhat, but since the Awami League government led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina came to power, India has stood by Bangladesh in its perils. Dhaka received a lot of help from Delhi even during the Corona epidemic. Apart from people-to-people contact, both countries are now giving importance to economic development. Bilateral trade is also increasing. The two countries are also making sincere efforts for the sake of more economic development.

More recently, India gifted 20 more rail engines to Bangladesh. Bangladesh Railway has adopted this diesel-powered broad gauge line engine to improve the country’s rail traffic. Despite India’s domestic demand, Delhi Railways did not hesitate to deliver the engine at Dhaka’s request. Last May, Bangladesh Railway Minister Nurul Islam Sujan and India’s Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnab mentioned the good relations between the two countries. The Indian Railway Minister assured that India will support the development of railway infrastructure in Bangladesh in the coming days as well. The Railway Minister of Bangladesh thanked the Government of India and the Indian people for this. In Bangladesh, the demand for trains is increasing in line with the number of passengers on the railways. So India has come forward to help Bangladesh. Earlier also in 2020, India gave 10 locomotive diesel engines as a gift. Railway official Asim Kumar Halder was present on behalf of Bangladesh during the handing over of the engine. He also highly praised Indian Railway Engines.

India and Bangladesh are really good friends. Therefore, both countries are interested in advancing the relationship for the sake of their own countrymen. There is no lack of sincerity on the part of Delhi and Dhaka to solve all the problems through discussion. So many bilateral problems have been solved by the hands of Narendra Modi and Sheikh Hasina. As terrorism has reduced on the border, the border guards of both the countries have a very good relationship today. BSF and BGB are solving all problems through regular meetings.

India is the closest neighbor of Bangladesh. Not only a neighbor, India has always stood by Bangladesh’s development since the liberation war of 1971. The relationship between the two countries has risen to the level of real friendship tested in the context of different situations at different times. Therefore, Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader has rightly said that Bangladesh will not be able to advance even a step if communication with India is stopped. Recently, at the virtual inauguration of the Basarhat-Hiako-Ramgarh road development project, this Awami League leader also explained how important it is to strengthen this friendship for the development of the two countries. He also said how much India needs Bangladesh for the country’s economic development. He said, “If the neighboring country India invests more in Bangladesh, we will not have to go far to find investors.” He also reminded that it was possible to end the border problem of the two countries through the discussion along with the financial development. Obaidul Quader said, “Due to Bangladesh’s friendly relationship with India, the border problem between the two countries has been resolved through discussion.” He said that this relationship should be taken further.

According to Indian High Commissioner in Dhaka, Prannoy Verma, the golden era of bilateral relations is going on today due to the sincere efforts of the Prime Ministers of the two countries. Human to human contact has increased. In this context, he said, last year, a new record was created by granting Indian visas to one and a half crore Bangladeshis. No country in the world gives so many visas to citizens of other countries. According to him, the visa procedure has been made so easy because India considers Bangladesh as its friend. He said that work is going on to establish more visa centers. According to the Indian Ambassador, many problems have been resolved due to the sincere efforts of the Prime Ministers of the two countries. Dhaka and Delhi will be able to reach agreement on many issues through discussions in the coming days. Recently, the Indian ambassador also participated in the meeting of the Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Gulshan. He said that the relationship between the two countries is improving even in the economic field. Today, the economy of both countries is standing on a solid foundation. Bilateral trade volume has doubled in the last five years. The Indian ambassador also said that with the sincere efforts of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Prime Minister Modi, Indian investors are coming to Bangladesh.

The top leaders of both countries want economic development through bilateral relations for the sake of the common people of their own countries. Therefore, besides increasing the trade fleet, India is also taking initiative in setting up industries. Efforts are also underway to make various Indian companies more interested in investing in Bangladesh. Both the countries are also keen to use the good bilateral relations for economic growth.

There are many positive and negative discussions about the strong relationship between Bangladesh and India. As a result of all the research and analysis on the relationship between these two countries, three things have come forward. And that is – trust, faith and tradition.

The words trust and faith are complementary in any relationship. A positive relationship is impossible where there is no trust and confidence. This relationship of trust between India and Bangladesh has been going on for a long time. The anti-British movement started from this Bangladesh and the anti-British movement continued all over India from Calcutta in the then undivided Bengal. And for this reason, since then, the people of these two regions have shared many things, including British exploitation, oppression, and agitation.

In this bond of friendship of trust, faith and tradition, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina gave mangoes as a gift to Indian President Draupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi and to the Chief Ministers of the states of the northeastern region known as the Seven Sisters of India. This ‘Mango Diplomacy’ carries considerable importance from the diplomatic arena. ‘Mango’ is a specific seasonal fruit. This sending of mangoes bears the symbol that the two countries always want to share all the joys and sorrows between them. Diplomatic analysts hope that the two countries will hold each other’s hands to set a new record of development.

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය.

බෞද්ධ සිද්ධස්ථානයක් වන ලුම්බිණිය වෙත  පැමිණෙන බැතිමතුන්ට පහසුකම් සැලසීම සඳහා බෞද්ධ රටවල් විසින් ලුම්බිණි ජාත්‍යන්තර ගුවන්තොටුපළට ඍජු ගුවන් ගමන් හඳුන්වා දිය යුතු බව නේපාලයේ හිටපු අගමැති සහ  නේපාල කොමියුනිස්ට් පක්ෂ සභාපති වන මාධව් කුමාර් නේපාල් මහතා පැවසුවේය.

කත්මණ්ඩු සිට කොළඹ දක්වා සෘජු ගුවන් ගමන් දැනටමත් ක්‍රියාත්මක වන අතර   ශ්‍රී ලංකා බලධාරීන්ට එය ලුම්බිණියේ සිට කොළඹ දක්වා දීර්ඝ කළ හැකි බවත්  එමගින් බුදුන් උපන් දේශය වන්දනා කරන  සංචාරකයින් විශාල සංඛ්‍යාවකට පහසුකම් සැලසීමට හැකි බවත් 2023.07.05 දින  අරලියගහ මන්දිරයේ දී අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය දිනේෂ් ගුණවර්ධන මහතා සමඟ පැවති සාකච්ඡාවේදී මාධව් කුමාර් (Madhav Kumar) මහතා  සදහන් කළේය.

 කෘෂි කාර්මික ක්ෂේත්‍රයේ ද්විපාර්ශ්වික සහයෝගීතාව පුළුල් කිරීම හා කර්මාන්ත සහ ජල විදුලිය වැනි නව ක්‍ෂේත්‍රයන්හි  එකිනෙකාගේ විශේෂඥ දැනුම හුවමාරු කරගැනීම වැනි කරුණු  පිළිබඳව මෙම සාකච්ඡාවලදී වැඩි අවධානයක් යොමු කෙරිණි.   

 මාධව් කුමාර් නේපාල්  මහතා ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට පැමිණ සිටින්නේ ශ්‍රී ලංකා කොමියුනිස්ට් පක්ෂය පිහිටුවා වසර 80ක් පිරීම නිමිත්තෙන් සංවිධානය කරන ලද සමුළුවට සහභාගී වීමටය.

පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී යදාමිණි ගුණවර්ධන සහ නේපාල තානාපති බාෂු දේව් මිශ්‍රා (Bashu Dev Mishra ) යන අය මෙම හමුවට සහභාගි වූහ.

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය.   

Manusha Media

• නූතන වැඩ ලෝකයට ගැලපෙන කම්කරු නීති පද්ධතියක් සකස් කිරීම සදහා වන දළ කෙටුම්පත කම්කරු උපදේශක සභාවට ඉදිරිපත් කිරිමෙන් පසුව කම්කරු හා විදේශ රැකියා අමාත්‍ය මනුෂ නානායක්කාර මහතා මාධ්‍යයට අදහස් දැක්වූ අතර ඔහු දැක්වූ අදහස් මෙසේය. 

• සේවයට බඳවා ගැනීමේ දී හෝ සේවා ස්ථානය තුළ හෝ සේවා නියුක්තිකයෙකු වෙනස් කොට සැළකීම (Discrimination) වැළැක්වීමේ නීතිමය ප්‍රතිපාදන හඳුන්වා දීම.
• රැකියා ස්ථානයේ සියළු ආකාරයේ හිරිහැර කිරීම් හා ලිංගික හිංසනය වැළැක්වීමට අදාළ නීතිමය ප්‍රතිපාදන හඳුන්වා දීම. 

(ප්‍රචණ්ඩත්වය හා හිංසනය පිළිබඳ අංක 190 දරන ජාත්‍යන්තර සම්මුතිය අපරානුමත කිරිමට මෙම ප්‍රතිපාදන ඇතුළත් කිරීම මඟින් හැකියාව ලැබීම)

• සේවා නියුක්තිකයිගේ වෘත්තීය ආරක්ෂාව, සෞඛ්‍ය, සුබසාධනය පිළිබඳ නව නෛතික ප්‍රතිපාදන හඳුන්වා දීම (OSH)

(වෘත්තීය ආරක්ෂාව, සෞඛ්‍ය, සුබසාධනය පිළිබඳ අංක 155 දරන ජාත්‍යන්තර සම්මුතිය අපරානුමත කිරිමට මෙම ප්‍රතිපාදන ඇතුළත් කිරීම මඟින් හැකියාව ලැබීම)

• පාරිතෝෂික ගෙවීමේ දී දැනට පවතින අවුරුදු 5ක සේවා කාලය සහ සේවකයින් 15ක් සිටීමේ සීමාව ඉවත් කර වර්ෂයකට දින 180ක් සේවය කරනු ලබන සෑම සේවා නියුක්තිකයෙකුටම මාස ½ක පාරිතෝෂිකයක් ගෙවීමට නීතිමය ප්‍රතිපාදන හඳුන්වා දීම.
• කර්මාන්තශාලාවක හෝ කාර්මික ව්‍යාපාරයක රාත්‍රී සේවයේ නියුක්ත වන කාන්තාවන්ට පමණක් නොව සෑම සේවා නියුක්තිකයෙකුටම පැයට ගෙවන ගෙවීම මෙන් පැය එකහමාරක ගුණයක ගෙවීමක් කර සේවයේ යෙදවීම සඳහා නීතිමය ප්‍රතිපාදන හඳුන්වා දීම.
• පඩිපාලක සභා ආඥා පනතේ හා සාප්පු හා කාර්යාල පනතේ සේවා තත්ත්වයන් හා කොන්දේසි පිළිබඳව සඳහන් විධිවිධාන අතර ඇති විෂමතාවයන් ඉවත් කර සෑම සේවා නියුක්තිකයෙකුටම සමාන ආකාරයේ විධිවිධාන ඇති කිරීම.
• අනියම් ස්වභාවයේ රැකියාවක නියුක්ත සේවා නියුක්තිකයින් හැර අනෙකුත් සියළුම සේවා නියුක්තිකයින් සඳහා සේවයට බඳවා ගන්නා අවස්ථාවේ දී සේවා තත්ත්වයන් හා සේවා කොන්දේසි ඇතුළත් කර පත් වීමේ ලිපියක් ලිඛිතව ලබා දීමට සේවායෝජකයෙකුට අනිවාර්යය කිරීම. 
• සේවා නියුක්තිකයින්ගේ කැමැත්ත අනුව දින 05 සතියක් හා නම්‍යශීලී වැඩ කරන වේලාවන් හඳුන්වා දීම.
• යම් කොන්දේසි වලට යටත්ව කාන්තා සේවා නියුක්තිකයින් රාත්‍රී සේවයේ යෙදවීම සඳහා දැනට පවතින නීතියේ සඳහන් නෛතික ප්‍රතිපාදන ලිහිල් කිරීම.
• අතිකාල වැඩ කරන පැය ප්‍රමාණය හා ගෙවිය යුතු ගණනයන් සම්බන්ධ ඒකාකාර ක්‍රමයක් හඳුන්වා දීම.
• අර්ධ කාලීන (Part time) රැකියා වල නියුක්ත වීමට අදාල නීතිමය ප්‍රතිපාදන හඳුන්වා දීම.
• පුහුණුවන්නන්, ආධුනිකයන් හා අධ්‍යාපනික ආයතන වල ඉගෙනුම ලබන ගමන් වැඩ කරන තැනැත්තන්ට අදාළ නීතිමය ප්‍රතිපාදන හඳුන්වා දීම.
• පිතෘ නිවාඩු සම්බන්ධව නීතිමය ප්‍රතිපාදන ඇති කිරීම.
• නිවසේ සිට වැඩ කරන සේවා නියුක්තිකයින්‌ගේ (Work from home) අයිතිවාසිකම් හා යුතුකම් පිළිබඳ නීතිමය ප්‍රතිපාදන හඳුන්වා දීම.
• විදේශික සේවා නියුක්තිකයෙකු ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ සේවය කිරීමේ දී අනුගමනය කළ යුතු ක්‍රියාපටිපාටියක් හඳුන්වා දීම.
• ගෘහ සේවය කම්කරු නීතියේ ආවරණයට ඇතුළත් කිරීම.
• පඩිපාලක සභා තීරණ මඟින් හා ව්‍යවස්ථාපිත නීතිය මඟින් අවම වැටුප් තීරණය කරන ක්‍රමය වෙනුවට ජාතික වේතන කවුන්සිලයක් හඳුන්වා දී එම ආයතනයට කාලීනව හා පිළිගත් නිර්ණායකයන් මත අවම වැටුප් තීරණය කිරීමට බලය පැවරීම.
• සේවා නියුක්තිකයින් විසින් සිදු කරනු ලබන විෂමාචාර ක්‍රියාවන්ට අදාළ අවසාන විනය තීරණයන් නිශ්චිත කාලසීමාවක් තුළ ලබා දීමට සේවායෝජකයින්ට නීතිමය බැඳීමක් ඇති කිරීම.
• සේවායෝජකයන් සිදු කරන අසාධාරණ කම්කරු පිළිවෙත් දැනට නීතියෙන් තහනම් කර ඇති ආකාරයට වෘත්තිය සමිති මඟින් සිදු කරන අසාධාරණ කම්කරු පිළිවෙත් ද නීතියෙන් තහනම් කල යුතු බවට ප්‍රතිපාදන හඳුන්වා දීම.
• අසාධාරණ කම්කරු පිළිවෙත් පිළිබඳ ප්‍රතිපාදන උල්ලංගණය කිරීමේ දී දෙපාර්ශ්වයටම නඩු පැවරීමට අවස්ථාව ලබා දීම.    
• වැටුපෙන් සාමාජික මුදල් අඩු කර වෘත්තීය සමිති වලට යැවීම සඳහා සේවායෝජකට අනිවාර්යය කිරීම. 
• වෘත්තීය සමිතියක් පිහිටුවීම සඳහා දැනට අවශ්‍ය අවම සාමාජික සංඛ්‍යාව 07 සිට 100 දක්වා  ඉහළ දැමීම.
• වෘත්තීය සමිතියක විධායක සභාව සඳහා යම් 25% ප්‍රතිශතයක් කාන්තාවන්ගේ නියෝජනය අනිවාර්යය කිරීම.
• වැඩ වර්ජනයක් ආරම්භ කිරීමට පෙර සේවායෝජකව දැනුවත් කිරීම හා වැඩ වර්ජනය කිරීම සඳහා සාමාජිකයිනගේ බහුතර කැමැත්ත ලබා ගැනීම පිළිබඳ ප්‍රතිපාදන.
• යම් මාර්ගෝපදේශයන්ට යටත්ව සේවායෝජකට සේවා ස්ථාන රීති හඳුන්වා දීමට සහ එම සේවා ස්ථාන රීති සඳහා නෛතික බලයක් ලබා දීම.
• දුර්වල කාර්යසාධනය, තාක්ෂණික දියුණුව ප්‍රතිව්‍යුහගත කිරීම හෝ ව්‍යාපාර ප්‍රතිසංවිධානය හේතුවෙන් රැකියා අතිරික්ත වන විට වන්දි ගෙවා සේවය අවසන් කිරීමට පවතින ක්‍රියාවලිය වඩා වේගවත් හා සරල කිරීම.
• අමුද්‍රව්‍ය නොමැති කම, ඇණවුම් නොමැති කම, යන්ත්‍ර සූත්‍ර බිඳ වැටීම හෝ සේවායෝජකයාගේ පාලනයෙන් ඔබ්බට ගිය හේතු මත කෙටිකාලීනව සේවය නතර කිරීමට (Lay off) කම්කරු කොමසාරිස් ජනරාල්ගේ අවසරය ලබා ගැනීම. 
• සේවා නියුක්තිකයෙකු ස්වේච්ඡාවෙන් සේවයෙන් ඉවත්ව යෑමේ දි මාසයකට කලින් සේවායෝජකව දැනුවත් කර සේවයෙන් ඉවත් වීමට අදාල ප්‍රතිපාදන ඇති කිරීම.
• විශ්‍රාම යාමේ වයස නැවත සමාලෝචනය කිරීම.
• සෑම වෘත්තියකට හෝ රැකියාවකට ගරුත්වයක් ඇති කිරීම සඳහා ඒ ඒ රැකියාවන් සඳහා අනුගමනය කළ යුතු ප්‍රමිතීන් හා සම්මතයන් හඳුන්වා දීම. 
• සමාජ ආරක්ෂණ රක්ෂණ අරමුදලක් මඟින් මාතෘ ප්‍රතිලාභ, සේවක සෞඛ්‍ය සහ විරැකියාවක දී වන්දි ලබා දෙන සමාජ ආරක්ෂණ පද්ධතියක් සැකසීම.
• සේවා නියුක්තිකයෙකුගේ කාර්යය සාධනය මැන බැලීම සඳහා සේවායෝජකට නෛතික බලයක් ලබා දීම.  
• මිනිස්බල සැපයුම් ආයතන හා රැකියා නියෝජිත ආයතන නියමානුකූල කිරීම සඳහා ප්‍රතිපාදන හඳුන්වා දීම.
• ඉලෙක්ට්‍රොනික මාධ්‍යයෙන් වේතන (E- Wages System) ගෙවීමේ ක්‍රමයක් හඳුන්වා දීම.

Professor Sunil J. Wimalawansa

Eradication of CKDu (CKD-CTN) is straightforward and costs less than 10% of what the health department spends annually to manage CKDu!  Yet new patents and deaths are continuing.   

Authorities have hardly any interest in preventing CKDu, partly due to those affected having little voice and thus being ignored by politicians.  Besides, there is a significant conflict of interest at several levels, indulging health department officials. 

Eradicate CKDu is by “preventing” it, NOT by treating end-stage renal diseases, expanding renal clinics/dialysis, and transplants.

Wimalawansa & Dissanayake. Nanocrystal-induced chronic tubular-nephropathy [CKD-CTN]:
Euro J Med Res (July 2023).
DOI: 10.1186/s40001-023-01162-y

— Sunil Wimalawansa (@SJWimalawansa) July 5, 2023

CKDu has no relation to agrochemicals or heavy metals. It is caused by natural Geo-Bio causes leading to the precipitation of calcium‒phosphate and other crystal growth in kidney tissues causing renal failure. Detailed descriptions are in the following Springer-Nature journal on July 5^th, 2023. 

Wimalawansa and Dissanayake European Journal of Medical Research (2023) 28:221 

Nanocrystal-induced chronic tubular-nephropathy in tropical countries: diagnosis, mitigation, and eradication. European Journal of Medical Research, 28, 221, 2023.    https://rdcu.be/dgagf 

https://doi.org/10.1186/s40001-023-01162-y

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1186/s40001-023-01162-y.pdf.

On eLanka: 

Courtesy GB News

US president Joe Biden has pushed to make Ursula von der Leyen Nato’s secretary general after Britain revealed plans to train Ukrainian pilots on F-16s without his approval.

The role is up for grabs until Autumn 2024 when Jens Stoltenberg, who has been secretary general since October 2014, steps down as head the alliance.

Ben Wallace, the UK Defence Secretary, had been a front-runner but has failed to back support from the US.

It has emerged that the lack of US backing is due to tensions over Britain’s ambitious military support for Ukraine.

Lanka Lead News

නතාෂා එදිරිසූරියට කොළඹ කොටුව මහේස්ත්‍රාත් අධිකරණයෙන් ඇප නියම වී තිබේ.

ඒ, දණ්ඩ නීති සංග්‍රහය සහ පරිගණක අපරාධ පනත යටතේ ගොනු කර තිබූ චෝදනාවලට අදාළව ය.

ආගමික සහජීවනයට බාධා කළ හා බෞද්ධ ආගමට අපහාස වන ලෙස ප්‍රකාශ නිකුත් කළ බව කියන නතාෂා එදිරිසූරිය තවදුරට ත් රක්ෂිත බන්ධනාගාරගත කරන ලෙස ඊයේ (ජූලි 5) කොටුව මහේස්ත්‍රාත් අධිකරණය නියම කර තිබිණි.

මෝඩාභිමානය” නමින් වැඩසටහනක් සංවිධානය කර එම වැඩසටහන අතරතුරදී බෞද්ධ ආගමට අපහාසයක් සිදුවන අයුරින් ප්‍රකාශයක් සිදුකිරීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් නතාෂා එදිරිසූරිය යන අයට එරෙහිව අපරාධ පරීක්ෂණ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව මෙම නඩුව කොටුව මහේස්ත්‍රාත් අධිකරණය හමුවේ ගොනු කර තිබිණි.

කෙසේ වෙතත්, ඇයට එරෙහිව සිවිල් හා දේශපාලන අයිතිවාසිකම් පිළිබදව ජාත්‍යන්තර සම්මුති පනත (ICCPR) යටතේ ගැනෙන චෝදනා සම්බන්ධයෙන් වන නඩුව ඊයේ (ජූලි 5) දහවල් කොළඹ අංක 4 මහාධිකරණයේදී විභාගයට ගැනුණු අවස්ථාවේදී ඇය ඇප මත මුදාහැරිණි.

ඇය වෙනුවෙන් ඉදිරිපත් කළ ඇප පෙත්සමක් සලකා බැලීමෙන් අනතුරුව කොළඹ මහාධිකරණය විනිසුරු ආදිත්‍ය පටබැඳිගේ මෙම නියෝගය නිකුත් කර තිබිණි.

සැකකාරිය විසින් කරන ලද ප්‍රකාශය සම්බන්ධයෙන් ඇය කනගාටුවට පත්වන බව ප්‍රකාශ කිරීම ද යම්කිසි අයෙකුට හෝ යම්කිසි කණ්ඩායමකට අපහසුතාවක් සිදු වූයේ නම් ඇය ඕනෑ ම අවස්ථාවකදී ඕනෑ ම තැනකට පැමිණ සමාව අයැදීමට සූදානම් වන බවට අධිකරණය ඉදිරියේ පොරොන්දු වීම ද නීතිපතිවරයා සැකකාරියගේ ඇප ඉල්ලීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් විරෝධතාවක් නොදැක්වීම යන කරුණු සලකා බැලීමෙන් අනතුරුව මෙලෙස ඇප නියම කරන බව විනිසුරුවරයා දැනුම් දී තිබිණි.

ඒ අනුව, අදාළ නියෝගය මහේස්ත්‍රාත් අධිකරණය වෙත යොමු කරන ලෙස විනිසුරුවරයා අධිකරණ රෙජිස්ට්‍රාර්වරයා වෙත නියම කරන තිබිණි.

සමාජය කැළඹීමට තරම් චරිතයක් අදාළ වගඋත්තරකාරිය සතුව තිබුණේ ද යන්න ප්‍රශ්නය මතු කරමින් මෙම ප්‍රකාශය සමාජ මාධ්‍ය හරහා පළ වන තෙක් වගඋත්තරකාරිය පිළිබඳව සමාජය දැන නොසිටි බව ද ඇයගේ ම ප්‍රකාශය සම්බන්ධයෙන් කිසියම් ප්‍රචණ්ඩත්වයක් ඇතිවීම පිළිබඳවද කරුණු ඉදිරිපත්ව නොමැති බව ද විනිසුරුවරයා සිය ඇප නියෝගය ප්‍රකාශයට පත් කරමින් සඳහන් කර තිබිණි.

ඇගේ ප්‍රකාශයෙන් කිසිදු ප්‍රචණ්ඩත්වයක් පිළිබඳව අධිකරණයට කරුණු ඉදිරිපත් වී නොමැති අවස්ථාවක මෙවැනි අත්අඩංගුවට ගැනීමක් පිළිබඳව දණ්ඩනීති සංග්‍රහ පනත යටතේ සලකා බැලිය යුතු බව ද පෙන්වා දී තිබුණු විනිසුරුවරයා අන්තර්ජාතික සිවිල් හා දේශපාලන අයිතිවාසිකම් සම්මුති පනත මානව හිමිකම් තහවුරු කිරීම සඳහා ස්ථාපනය කර ඇති බැවින් කිසියම් ප්‍රබල පුද්ගලයෙකු පැමිණිලි කළ පමණින් අත්අඩංගුවට ගැනීමක් කරන්නේ ද යන්න සිය නියෝගය ප්‍රකාශයට පත් කරමින් අධිකරණය හමුවේ ප්‍රශ්න කෙරිණි.

වගඋත්තරකාර නතාෂා එදිරිසූරිය වෙනුවෙන් ජනාධිපති නීතිඥ අනුජ ප්‍රේමරත්න අධිකරණය හමුවේ පෙනී සිටි අතර නීතිපතිවරයා වෙනුවෙන් රජයේ ජ්‍යෙෂ්ඨ නියෝජ්‍ය සොලිසිටර් ජනරාල් දිලීප පීරිස් අධිකරණය හමුවේ පෙනී සිට තිබිණි.

මෙහිදී නීතිපතිවරයා වෙනුවෙන් පෙනීසිටි ජ්‍යෙෂ්ඨ නියෝජ්‍ය සොලිසිටර් ජනරාල් දිලීප පීරිස් මහතා කරුණු දක්වමින් පවසා ඇත්තේ මෙම තැනැත්තිය මෝඩාභිමානය නමින් වැඩසටහන් 3ක් පවත්වා ඇති බවත්, තුන් වෙනි වැඩසටහන ඇය යොදාගෙන ඇත්තේ බුදු දහමට අපහාස කිරීම සඳහා බවත්ය.

ඇය ආගම ඉලක්ක කරගෙන මෙම ප්‍රහාරය එල්ලකර ඇති බවත්, කුරුණෑගල මලියදේව බාලිකා විද්‍යාලයේ ඉගෙනුම ලැබූ ඇය 2017 වසරේ සිට විෂාදය නමැති රෝගයට ප්‍රතිකාර ගෙන අති බව හා සියදිවි නසාගැනීමේ ප්‍රවණතාවකින් පෙලී ඇති බව පරීක්ෂණවලින් පෙනීගොස් ඇති බවද දිලීප පීරිස් මහතා මෙහිදී පවසා තිබේ.

මෙවැනි තැනැත්තියක් ප්‍රහසන වැඩසටහන් ඉදිරිපත් කිරීම තෙරම් භයානක දැයි ඒ මහතා අධිකරණය හමුවේ පෙන්වා දී ඇත.

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

The controversial Malwana mansion is a property of the State now and it was set on fire during the Aragalaya time without knowing that it is a State property, Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe said today.

He told Parliament that Cabinet approval was granted to take over the Malwana property by the Justice Ministry and the process is now underway.

“When I learnt through the newspapers that no party has claimed ownership of the Malwana property, I submitted a Cabinet Paper the following day to take it over to the Justice Ministry. It was approved by the Cabinet. The process is moving foward slowly. It will be taken over by the Justice Ministry. Unfortunately, the Aragalaya activists set it on fire, may be while being unaware that it is a State property now,” he said.

The Minister said this while responding to a statement on the Malwana mansion by NPP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake. (Ajith Siriwardana and Yohan Perera)

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

The second reading of the proposed Anti Corruption Bill was approved unanimously in Parliament today while the Commitee Stage was postponed to July 19 when the ammendments will be approved.

The initial proposal made by Leader of the House Susil Premajayantha to postpone the vote on the Bill came under fire by the Opposition while Justice Minister Wijedasa Rajapaksha also questioned the move. 

“I have worked hard to prepare the Bill with amendments and have not put in so much effort to get other legislations enacted. I cannot understand why the enacting of the Anti Corruption Bill should be postponed,” Minister Rajapaksha said.

Earlier, Leader of the Opposition Sajith Premadasa, Lakshman Kiriella, MPs Chandima Weerakkody, Rajitha Senaratne and Weerasumana Weerasinghe wanted the Bill passed in the House.

“There is a hidden agenda behind the decision to postpone the vote. One wonders whether this is a proposal by Kaputa,” Mr. Premadasa said.

MP Weerasinghe also made the same allegation. 

The arguments became tense after which the Leader of the House suggested that the second reading be passed now and the ammendments enacted on 19th. 

“We don’t intend to postpone the enacting of the Bill permernantly,” he said

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

The Central Bank today said action will be taken against banks if they do not reduce interest rates in line with the reduction in policy interest rates.

The Central Bank today reduced policy interest rates by 2 percent after reducing them by 2.5 percent in June. Now the policy interest rates remain at 11 percent (deposit) and 12 percent (lending).

The Central Bank Governor Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe said the average weighted lending rate has come down from 29 percent to about 20 percent in response to the June policy rate cut and other positive developments in the economy.

But with yesterday’s relaxation in the monetary policy, market interest rates should further come down, he pointed out.

Dr. Weerasinghe said banks have been given time to adjust the interest rates on their own to reflect the policy interest rates. If not, the Central Bank will have to take administrative measures to bring down market interest rates, he averred.

Courtesy Adaderana

The Monetary Board of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) has decided to reduce the Standing Deposit Facility Rate (SDFR) and the Standing Lending Facility Rate (SLFR) of the Central Bank by 200 basis points (bps) to 11.00 per cent and 12.00 per cent, respectively. 

The Board arrived at this decision, at its meeting held on Wednesday (05 July), following a careful analysis of the current and expected developments, including the faster-than-envisaged disinflation process and benign inflation expectations in the domestic economy, with the aim of enabling the economy to reach its potential and stabilising inflation at mid-single digit levels in the medium term, while easing pressures in the financial markets, the CBSL said. 

The Board expects that, with this reduction of policy interest rates by 200 bps, and the reduction of policy interest rates by 250 bps in early June 2023, along with the significant reduction of risk premia on government securities witnessed recently, the market interest rates, particularly lending rates, will adjust downwards adequately and swiftly. 

Therefore, the banking and financial sector is urged to pass on the benefits of this significant easing of monetary policy by the Central Bank to individuals and businesses, thereby supporting economic activity to rebound in the period ahead,” the statement said.

Courtesy Adaderana

Emphasising the importance of the recently-approved Domestic Debt Optimising (DDO) strategy, the Sri Lanka Banks’ Association has highlighted the risk of funds, including the Employees’ Provident Fund, being compromised if such optimization measures were not taken.

Speaking during the ‘101 Katha’ programme hosted by the President’s Media Division (PMD), Mr. Russel Fonseka, the Chief Executive Officer of the Bank of Ceylon and SLBA member, expressed the importance of the DDO strategy, highlighting that the need for such a programme is not a recent development.

I want to emphasize that there will be no reduction in treasury bonds. Instead, alternative solutions such as interest rate reductions and debt deferment are being employed. These measures ensure the security of employees’ funds in EPF/ETF and other similar funds,” he said. 

Moreover, the Bank of Ceylon CEO said that the government has guaranteed an interest rate of 12% for these funds until 2025, followed by a guaranteed interest rate of 9% until the maturity date. 

It is true that some may argue that the expected interest income might not be attained. However, the current trend indicates a significant decrease in market interest rates.” 

We hope that the market interest rates align with the government-guaranteed rates for employee funds,” he said. 

He stressed that considering the decrease in inflation, the interest income provided by the government for employee funds is quite substantial. 

Mr. Fonseka said it is important to note that this interest income issue pertains only to contributory funds, and the reduced amount for other funds will be addressed by the relevant institutions.

Therefore, employees will not suffer any loss,” he said, adding that it is indeed a positive outcome to receive substantial interest on the right amount of money through domestic credit optimization, rather than losing all the funds.

Expressing his views further, Mr. Russel Fonseka said;

The need for domestic debt restructuring in Sri Lanka is not a recent development. As a nation, we have been grappling with a substantial gap between our import and export sectors for quite some time. With the exception of a few years after gaining independence, there has been a significant disparity between the money we spend on imports and the revenue generated from exports. 

To provide some context, in recent years, our annual imports have amounted to approximately twenty billion dollars, while our exports have only yielded twelve billion dollars. As a result, our successive governments resorted to borrowing to cover the deficit. 

However, due to the continuous cycle of borrowing and the burden of interest payments surpassing our trade balance each year, the country found itself plunged into a severe crisis. 

Furthermore, loans were also obtained for development activities.

As a nation, we borrowed more than our capacity could sustain. The consequences began to manifest by April 2022 when the Governor of the Central Bank had to declare that Sri Lanka was unable to meet its debt obligations.

We simply did not possess the required amount of US dollars, and foreign countries were unwilling to provide us with further loans. Consequently, the credit crunch had a profound impact on our economy.

In the aftermath, the country’s business owners and industrialists faced a challenging situation, with some even losing their jobs. This predicament eventually evolved into a social problem, leading to widespread protests and civil unrest. Ultimately, the government sought assistance from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to alleviate the crisis.

To be clear, we lack the necessary income to repay our debts. Therefore, before we can begin the process of repaying the loans, we must establish a suitable arrangement. 

This is where the restructuring of domestic debt comes into play. As part of this process, a debt burden of 84 billion US dollars, encompassing both domestic and foreign loans, has been addressed. 

However, Sri Lanka’s economic capacity was insufficient to repay this colossal sum of 84 billion dollars. The interest on these loans continued to accumulate each year, further exacerbating the economic crisis we faced.

Consequently, we had to devise a viable solution to tackle this 84 billion dollar debt burden. 

In restructuring our foreign loans, it is imperative to reach agreements with the countries that provided those loans, potentially leading to a partial write-off of the debt. 

During this debt write-off process, the significance of restructuring our domestic debt became evident. 

Foreign creditors express the need for restructuring not only their loans but also our domestic debt, emphasizing that they are willing to bear their own losses but expect us to bear comparable losses as well.

It brings me great satisfaction to see the government, the Ministry of Finance, and the International Monetary Fund supporting the restructuring of domestic debt in a manner that safeguards the interests of bank depositors in Sri Lanka. I want to assure everyone that the restructuring of domestic debt will not result in any loss or impact to the depositors. 

Additionally, the interest rates offered by banks will remain unaffected. Banks are committed to paying the applicable interest on fixed deposits for the entire duration. 

If fixed deposits were to be affected, we would undoubtedly witness widespread protests on the streets. However, such a situation is not permissible.

A significant number of bonds were issued to cover pension and provident funds, and the government has received the necessary funds while providing subsidized interest rates. I want to emphasize that there will be no reduction in treasury bonds. 

Instead, alternative solutions such as interest rate reductions and debt deferment are being employed. These measures ensure the security of employees’ funds in EPF/ETF and other similar funds. 

Moreover, the government has guaranteed an interest rate of 12% for these funds until 2025, followed by a guaranteed interest rate of 9% until the maturity date. It is true that some may argue that the expected interest income might not be attained. 

However, the current trend indicates a significant decrease in market interest rates. 

We hope that the market interest rates align with the government-guaranteed rates for employee funds. 

Considering the decrease in inflation, the interest income provided by the government for employee funds is quite substantial. It is important to note that this interest income issue pertains only to contributory funds, and the reduced amount for other funds will be addressed by the relevant institutions.

Therefore, employees will not suffer any loss. It is indeed a positive outcome to receive substantial interest on the right amount of money through domestic credit optimization, rather than losing all the funds.

Once this economic crisis is resolved, the country will witness the creation of new job opportunities and a decrease in inflation. 

This program will bring numerous economic benefits to our nation. We will have easy access to essential goods and medicines, new businesses will emerge, and the gross domestic product will increase. 

Achieving this situation requires some sacrifices. Without them, we cannot prevent the country from falling into an economic crisis once again.

The banking association and local banks have agreed to support the President’s program, which includes a planned reduction in bank interest rates. We can expect to see this rate cut within the next two months. 

Lower interest rates will enable small and medium-sized businesses, export-oriented enterprises, and major business ventures to flourish. Banks are fully prepared to provide the necessary support for this endeavour. 

I firmly believe that with the support of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka and the unity of banks, we will be able to overcome this financial crisis.

As bankers, we possess the ability to contribute to President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s vision of nation-building. We hold significant power to make a difference. 

Moving forward, we will be able to offer loans to our customers at lower interest rates, supporting their various financial needs.

Lanka Lead News

කෘතහස්ත ලේඛක සේන තෝරදෙනිය මහතා විසින් ඊනියා ගෝල්ෆේස් අරගලයේ ඇතුලාන්තය සම්බන්ධයෙන් විශ්ලේෂණාත්මකව ලියන ලද GALLE FACE PROTEST: SYSTEMS CHANGE OR ANARCHY? Politics, Religion & Culture in a Time of Terror in Sri Lanka” ග්‍රන්ථය 2023 ජූලි මස 04 වෙනි දින කොළඹ 7 නිදහස් මාවතේ පිහිටි පුස්තකාල හා ප්‍රලේඛන සේවා මණ්ඩල ශ්‍රවණාගාරයේදී එළි දැක්විනි.

සාහිත්‍යසූරී ආචාර්ය ගුණදාස අමරසේකර මහතා මුලසුන දැරූ මෙම උත්සවයේදී, දේශ හිතෛෂී ජාතික ව්‍යාපාරයේ මහලේකම් වෛද්‍ය වසන්ත බණ්ඩාර මහතා පිළිගැනීමේ කතාව කරනු ලැබීය. ප්‍රවීණ මාධ්‍යවේදී මොහාන් සමරනායක මහතා ප්‍රධාන දෙසුම පවත්වනු ලැබූ මෙම උත්සවයේදී මහාචාර්ය පූජ්‍ය මැදගොඩ අභයතිස්ස හිමියෝ විශේෂ සමාලෝචනයක් සිදු කරනු ලැබූහ.

මෙහිදී ග්‍රන්ථයේ කර්තෘ සේන තෝරදෙනිය මහතා සිය ග්‍රන්ථය හඳුන්වාදීමේ දේශනය පවත්වමින් ඊනියා ගෝල්ෆේස් අරගලය පිළිබදවත්, මෙරට අමෙරිකානු තානාපතිනි ජූලි චූන් ගේ ක්‍රියාකලාපය මෙන්ම ජාත්‍යන්තර මාධ්‍ය මෙය ප්‍රචාරය කළ ආකාරය පිළිබඳවත් හෙළිදරව් රාශියක් සිදුකරන ලදී.

රටේ පැවැතියේ අරාජිකත්වයක් මිස අරාජිකවාදයක් නොවන බවත් ඒ මහතා මෙහිදී පෙන්වා දෙන ලද අතර, හිටපු ජනාධිපති ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ මහතා රජය ගෙනගිය ආකාරය පිළිබඳවත් විස්තර කරන ලදී.

ඊනියා අරගලකරුවන් විසින් බණ්ඩාරනායක පිළිරුවේ දෑස් බැඳ ඇති ආකාරය දැක්වෙන ඡායාරූපය මෙම කෘතිය සඳහා යොදාගත්තේ මෙම අරගලයේ සත්‍ය කතාව දිගහැරීම සඳහා බවද, නිදහස් අධ්‍යාපනය හා මධ්‍ය මහා විද්‍යාල සංකල්පය මෙරට තුළ බිහිනොවුනා නම් දුප්පතුන් වෙනුවෙන් මෙරට අධ්‍යාපන අයිතිය සුරක්ෂිත නොවනු ඇති බවද, එසේ වූවා නම් බණ්ඩාරනායක පිළිරුවේ දෑස් බැඳින්නට කිසිවෙකුට නොහැකි වන බවද ඒ මහතා මෙහිදී පැවසීය.

ගෝල්ෆේස් ඊනියා අරගලයේ දී මෙරටට පැමිණ වැඩමුළු පැවැත් වූ රියලටි කොමියුනි නම් සංවිධානයේ සුලෙයිමාන් නම් කාන්තාව ජනාධිපති කාර්යාලය ගිණිගෙන දැවෙන අයුරු චිත්‍රයට නගා එහි ප්‍රථිමා බිඳ හෙළිය යුතු බව මතය වැපුරූ බව ද , ටැමිල් නෙට් වෙබ් අඩවිය බණ්ඩාරනායක ප්‍රථිමාව බිඳනොහෙලන්නේ මන්දැයි ප්‍රශ්න කර සිටි බවද, ඊට දින කිහිපයකට පසු බණ්ඩාරනායක ප්‍රථිමාවේ දෑස් බැඳ තිබූ බවද ඒ මහතා හෙළිකරයි.

සවිස්තරාත්මක වීඩියෝව නරඹන්න…

By Gunadasa Amarasekera Courtesy The Island

(Introduction to Sena Thoradeniya’ s book- Galle Face Protest: System Change or Anarchy?)

(Introduction to Sena Thoradeniya’ s book- Galle Face Protest: System Change or Anarchy?)

‘US foot prints at GF protest site’ deals with the international players involved in the Aragalaya. In the article ‘Who were most afraid of Galle Face protesters?”, he deals with the main group and sub groups of local players in the Aragalaya.

The sub-groups involved were so diverse and numerous it is almost impossible to keep track of their composition. They ranged from altruistic youth to tele drama actresses, criminals, terrorists, rapists, perverts, and drug peddlers. They were all well-looked after by the benefactor. One such actress admitted to having earned seven lakhs.

The main groups were easy to be identified. ST had been able to identify twenty such groups. They ranged from the Anti-Rajapaksa group, to differently abled youth, ex- servicemen, LGBTO activists. I do not want to reproduce them here.

Sena Thoradeniya’ s article on Wimal Weerawansa’s speech at the SLFI is a panegyric full of praise for the valiant task he had performed. I too cannot think of anyone in the opposition ranks who would have had the guts to perform that task.

Quoting Mao, Thoradeniya refers to it as a cyclone. It was certainly a cyclone which by now has swept many off their feet. Julie Chang has been hit by it so hard, she has not only been swept off her feet but has also lost her balance.

Within twenty-four hours, she without even reading the script or the book has concluded it as fiction. Apparently, she does not seem to realise that good fiction is based on facts. Probably she is influenced by the fiction that is manufactured today in the West and served globally bolstered with such prizes as the Booker. They are certainly not based on facts or reality. They are based on fantasies of alienated sick minds far removed from reality and a sense of social awareness. The recent Booker prize for a novel by a Sri Lankan living abroad is a good example. Obviously, there is an undisclosed pro-Western, anti-nationalist ideology that guides the selection of these works.

While praising Wimal for his valiant revelation ST refers to two events that mired the occasion.

The introductory speech by the professor was a distraction.

ST calls it a ‘hotch-potch of sterile theory which has no practical value’. Apart from being hotch-potch it was a distraction for many in the audience who were eagerly waiting to listen to Wimal Weerawansa.

The other event that mired the occasion was trying to make a hero of that protester who belonged to the Aragalaya fraternity. He was shot by the Police when he attempted to set fire to the petrol bowser. The following observation by ST is valid.

The author makes the fallen protester a hero also dedicating the book to the wife and children of the dead person. The author fails to see that the protesters countrywide were looking for blood, a dead body and how this death caused to stage funeral proceedings, dirges and wailing at the Galle Face Protest site.

(Nine; The Hidden Story Wimal Weerawansa’s valiant Revelations, May 1st 2023)

In spite of these minor shortcomings, we should be indebted to Wimal Weerawansa for exposing the truth contained within that Golden Bowl which deceives many even today.

In concluding this fragmentary review of ST’s articles I wish to bring into focus an aspect of Aragalaya of which there is hardly any awareness among many, including some Buddhists who were ardent supporters of the Aragalaya. ST has made brief references but has not delved deeply into it.

According to what I observed it was obvious that within the Aragalaya there was a well- planned strategy to denigrate the Buddhist Civilisation of this country. To do it successfully they knew that the younger generation, the generation after ’77, had to be mobilised, for they are the heirs and bearers of that civilisation.

The Colonisers who came here realised that it was the Sinhala Buddhist Civilisation that had kept this country intact for millennia. And they knew once that civilisational base was destroyed, the edifice was bound to crumble.

Prior to Independence this was done with the Bible and the sword. After Independence more subtle methods were used. Those methods were too numerous and diverse to be enumerated. I will provide a bare outline since it would take me pages to provide an exhaustive account.

Bandaranaike founded the SLFP in 1952 to resuscitate the Sinhala Buddhists Civilization that was in decay. In 1956 people put SWRD in power to bring back the Sinhala Buddhist society that was there prior to the advent of the coloniser.

According to the US State Department papers released recently, US State Secretary Foster Dulles had spent five million dollars to defeat Bandaranaike at the elections. Bandaranaike was assassinated in 1956.That the hidden hand of the CIA was there behind this assassination came out at the Commission investigating this assassination. Sirima Bandaranaike who came to continue the Bandaranaike legacy had to face a military coup- to dislodge her, by anti-Sinhala and anti -Buddhist elements. The Rajapaksas were put in power by the people to carry on this Bandaranaike legacy. With the help of the Sinhala nationalist Buddhist forces Mahinda Rajapaksa was able to destroy Prabhakaran and his terrorist outfit. This was an unbearable humiliation for the Western powers (Defensce Ministers of the UK and France flew down to take away Prabhakaran). In 2015 Mahinda Rajapaksa was defeated at the elections for which 30 million dollars were spent as admitted by John Kerry.

In 2019 when the entire Sinhala Buddhist people voted to bring Gotabhaya back to power; it would have been a shock to these Western powers. The only way to prevent a repetition in the future was to alienate the youth who were destined to continue the traditional role as bearers of that civilisation, and also, to get them to despise and disown their inheritance.

Some of them were for a secular multi-religious, multi- cultural multi-ethnic State, some others went further. They were for a completely secular materialist state. With that end in view, the eyes of the Bandaranaike statue were covered with a black cloth. Religious symbols were desecrated. The Tooth relic was called a labba. A female named Tirikkale of a city university, donned the cassock of a catholic nun. Many drug peddlers were put in saffron robes. Catholic nuns were offering dana to sarwaagamika priests. Then there was that bizarre spectacle- Wesak was celebrated with the lighting of black Wesak lanterns, probably to indicate what is in store for the Buddhist civilisation in this country. No doubt Jerome and Natasha (activist at Aragalaya) would have been emboldened to contribute their share to the campaign.

That this campaign was a total success was announced by no lesser a person than Omalpe Sobhitha thero, one of the God fathers of the Aragalaya when he made the following pronouncement jubilantly. Aragalaya has destroyed the Sinhala Buddhist supremacy’. That is exactly what Uncle Sam wants. Omalpe Sobhitha thero should congratulate himself for achieving what was not possible during the last two thousand years!

This aspect of the Aragalaya should draw the attention of the Sinhala Buddhists who get agitated by the slightest insinuation as an insult to Buddhism.

I am honoured to have been invited to write this introduction to Sena Thoradeniya and his contribution.

Sena Thoradeniya needs no introduction by me. He is far more knowledgeable on these matters than I am.

Reading these dispatches by Sena Thoradeniya (ST) to the Lanka web, I was reminded of a Vedic stanza I came across many years ago -I quote from memory.

Hiranmena patrena
Sathyasapi hithang mukang
Tathvam pushanna pavunu
Sathya dharmaya dushtiye

It is an admonition given to the seeker of truth. Do not be dazzled by the glitter of the gold outside. Open the lid and there you will see the truth concealed within it.What Thoradeniya has dared to do, is to open that lid with these dispatches. He is probably the only intellectual who has dared to do so. He and Shenali Waduge were the two individuals to have initiated this truth-seeking process.

Now he has made those dispatches into a book so that they will reach a wider public.There is no doubt that these dispatches will be invaluable in understanding the true nature, the truth, contained in the Golden Bowl.

The promoters of the Golden Bowl –Aragalaya – were the so-called intellectuals, professors, professionals, media wizards and their mentors abroad. They presented the Aragalaya as a microcosm of the Utopian state that is to be. The Aragalaya protesters were made out to be some rare selfless ethereal species imbued with the highest of human values striving to bring about the fulfilment of Human Rights, Individual Rights, Democracy and Humanism. The Galle Face Green was turned into ‘an Adara Gedara’ – an abode overflowing with love, compassion and tolerance.

That was the façade that was needed to get the moral sanction – public approval and to conceal the diabolical plan within it. To see it in terms of an innocent phase, initially, and a violent phase, latterly, due to high jacking by external forces is too simplistic and naive. It cannot be phased out in that way. There was a holistic approach, right from the beginning.

I remember how a senior journalist, writing to a Weekly, labelled it as a unique instance in the history of world revolutions where a regime change – chasing away a President and a Prime Minister – was achieved without any blood shed and by mere protests!

Those protests and slogans were by no means innocuous. ‘Gota Go Home’ was no request as interpreted by that ‘know-all’ scribe. It was a threat – a life threatening – one as such to be carried out if the ‘request’ was not acceded to.

Surely that journalist cannot be so naïve as to have bestowed such adulation unless he was being brainwashed by Julie Chang at one of the garden parties.The adulators of the Aragalaya appear to have taken a step back now and are attempting to rationalize their behaviour by resorting to esoteric theories while ridiculing Wimal Weerawansa ‘for concocting conspiracy theories; and warning the general public of a possibility of a repetition of the Aragalaya. Their tone suggests that they are looking forward to such a repetition.

Julie Chang is the guiding spirit behind the Aragalaya; she is really a remarkable woman, an ambassador, the like of whom we have never witnessed before. She not only gives garden parties, but also advises both Gotabaya Rajapakse and the Aragalaya protesters. She patronizes the JVP. She gives hope and succor to the Red Sahodarayas in their pursuit of the armed struggle, knowing too well that it would provide an opportunity for Ranil Wickremasinghe to accede to the fourth request of the CIA chief to bring in his troops to the country.

She is truly a remarkable diplomat, with acumen, a vision, well aware of the shape of things to come. You can’t help having the highest admiration for her.What triggered the Aragalaya? According to our so-called intellectuals, and their foreign mentors, it was the economic hardships, non-availability of essentials, economic deprivations that brought about those massive protests at the Galle Face Green. (Strangely the most deprived class – the rural farmers – were not there).

They seem to assume that all of us have short memories. It is not the first time we faced such economic hardships. Between ’70-’77, long queues were a daily feature. We had to wait in a queue for hours to obtain anything. The bread queues started before dawn and we had to wait for hours to get a loaf of bread. There was no sugar or flour. In addition, we had to undergo much harassment at the ‘hal polu’ and ‘miris polu’.

People suffered in silence and did not rush on to the streets. There were no violent protests. To explain this difference in behaviour one may adduce many factors. Things have changed over the years. The present generation is aware of their rights and not prepared to take things lying down.

The insurrections (the JVP and the LTTE) have made violence and terrorism a part of our dally existence, morally sanctioned by us, the Marxism of the earlier period has given way to Bakunininism. There may be an element of truth in these observations.

But can they explain the creation of a mini city overnight – a city with all those attractions, such as theatres, cinema halls, eating houses, restaurants, salons replete with song and dance? Hundreds of protesters were housed day and night within them.

Who provided the funds and finances for such a massive project? It is only reasonable to assume that there would have been a great benefactor with enough funds to keep this city going.Who that great benefactor is disclosed by Thoradeniya in his article ‘US foot prints at the Galle Face protest site’.At the beginning of his article, ST refers to Wimal Weerawansa’s speech made on 27th July in the parliamentary debate on emergency regulations.

M.P. Wimal Weerawansa, participating in the debate on Emergency Regulations on 27th July said that the CIA, through USAIAD and NED (National Endowment for Democracy), have funded various Sri Lankan Non-Governmental Organizations aiming regime change and protesters were attempting to destroy the State with the aid of external forces. He disclosed the amount spent by NED in Sri Lanka from 2016 to 2020 and named some recipient organizations and the number of projects funded by it.

He further stated that the script of the present protest was written by foreign powers, how YouTubers were paid by their foreign masters and how the US Ambassador in Sri Lanka pressurized GR, on a daily basis, not to take any action against the protesters. He tabled a document to support his arguments.’ (US Footprints at the Galle Face Protest Site -August 20th 2022)

ST, in his article, elaborates on the institutions and agencies that Wimal had referred to in his speech.ST makes use of two articles Sonali Waduge had written ‘Regime change – Role of International Republican Institute (IRI) in Sri Lanka’ and ‘Who is NED and what is its role in Sri Lanka?’

NED and IRI are two main institutions with global reach that are operating in Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Middle East and Eurasia. NED’s local version NDI was created by the CIA in Sri Lanka in 1983.At the end of his long article, ST gives a brief account of the activities conducted by the NED.

The list of countries that had suffered by NED’s intervention is too long to mention. Suffice to state that it happened all over the globe. Following are some activities conducted by NED all over the world: Funding pro-US political parties, including media, training and unifying opposition parties, insurrection training and instigating riots, influencing social media for political campaigns and generating anti-government slogans, promoting hate campaigns under different themes, tasking NGOs and civil society to do these work, funding disruptive news, building networks of academics, professional groups, artists and writers, dig up corruption and abuse of power, labelling rulers as dictators and autocrats, organizing protest marches and occupy movements and providing campaign skills – in Sri Lanka, in general, and at Galle Face, in particular, we saw all of these taking part simultaneously”(US Footprints at the Galle Face Protest Site – August 20th 2022)

The article written by ST is so comprehensive that it should be compulsory reading for anyone who is out to seek the truth contained in that Golden Bowl which has misled many an innocent onlooker.

‘US foot prints at GF protest site’ deals with the international players involved in the Aragalaya. In the article ‘Who were most afraid of Galle Face protesters?’, he deals with the main group and sub groups of local players in the Aragalaya.

To be continued…

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය.

 අග්‍රාමාත්‍යවරයා මේ බව සඳහන් කළේ භාෂා පරිවර්තක සේවයේ විභාගවලින් සමත්වූවන්ට රජයේ භාෂා පරිවර්තක සේවයේ පත්වීම්  ප්‍රදානෝත්සවය 2023.07.05 දින අරලියගහ මන්දිරයේදී පැවති අවස්ථාවේදීය.

    එහිදී අදහස් දැක්වූ අග්‍රාමාත්‍යවරයා-

‟අපේ රට මව් භාෂා දෙකම භාවිතා කරන ජනතාව ඉන්න රටක් නිසා භාෂා පරිවර්තනයේ දී සැලකිලිමත්විය යුතුයි. ආර්ථිකයට, සේවාවට සහ ජන ජීවිතයට භාෂා පරිවර්තනය වැදගත් නිසා එය  වඩාත් පහසු කිරීමට ඔබ මෙලෙස දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව විසින් පවත්වන විභාගයක් පවත්වා අදාල පුහුණු කිරීම් වලට යටත්ව  එලෙස පරිවර්තනය කිරීමේ කර්තව්‍යයට එක්වෙනවා. ලිඛිත භාෂාව වගේම අපි කතා කරන භාෂාවන්  විවිධ ප්‍රදේශ අනුව උච්චාරණය වෙනස්. එවැනි අත්දැකීම් විවිධ ප්‍රදේශ කරා ගමන් කරන ඔබට ලැබයි.

සිංහල බස වුණත් සරලව කතාකරොත් දකුණු පළාතට ගියාම උච්චාරණය වෙනස්. ඈත ගමකට ගියාම උච්චාරණය වෙනස්. තරුණ ළමයි මේක වැඩි අවධානයක් ගන්නේ නැතුව ඇති. ඒ වගේම තමයි දෙමළ භාෂා ප්‍රදේශ අනුව නැගෙනහිර පළාත, උතුරු පළාත, කන්ද උඩරට යම් යම් ප්‍රදේශවල  උච්චාරණය වෙනස්.ක්‍රමානුකූලව තුනී වෙමින් එක ලෙස භාෂාව උච්චාරණය කිරීමේ කාල පරිච්ඡේදයකට අප පැමිණෙමින් තිබෙනවා. රාජ්‍ය සේවයේ හැම කාර්යාලයකම භාෂා පරිවර්තනය කිරීමේ හැකියාව ඇති අය සිටිය යුතුයි. එහි අඩුවක් තිබෙනවා නම් එය සම්පුර්ණ කිරීමට අපි රාජ්‍ය පරිපාලන අමාත්‍යංශය හැටියට බැඳී සිටිනවා. නමුත් රජයේ විභාග වල ලකුණු වෙනස් කරන්න ඇමතිතුමාට බැහැ. ඒක මම නිහතමානීව ප්‍රකාශ කරන්නට ඕනේ.  ලකුණු කඩඉම කොතැනද එතැන සිට පහතට ගමන් කිරීම තමයි ඉතුරු වෙන අය ඇතුළත් කිරීමේ ප්‍රතිපත්තිමය වශයෙන් පිළිගැනීම.”

 රාජ්‍ය අමාත්‍ය ජානක වක්කුඹුර මහතා ද මෙහිදී අදහස් දැක් වූ අතර , ඒකාබද්ධ සේවා අධ්‍යක්ෂ ජනරාල් එස්, ආලෝක බණ්ඩාර,  අතිරේක ලේකම්වරු සහ පත්වීම්ලාභිහු මෙම අවස්ථාවට එක්වූහ.

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය.   

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මාධ්‍ය අංශය

අග්‍රාමාත්‍යවරයා මේ බව පැවසුවේ වරිපනම් ඇතුළු අනෙකුත් ගෙවීම් අන්තර්ජාලය ඔස්සේ සිදුකිරීමට පහසුකම් සැලසීම හදුන්වා දීමට 2023.07.05 මහරගම නගර සභාවේදී පැවැති වැඩසටහනට එක්වෙමිනි.  
එහිදී වැඩිදුරටත් අදහස් දැක්වූ අග්‍රාමාත්‍යවරයා
අද සිට වරිපනම් ගෙවීම ඔන් ලයින් තාක්ෂණය භාවිතයෙන් කර ගැනීමට හැකියාව ලැබෙනවා වගේම, ඉදිරියේදී මහජනතාවට අවශ්‍ය සේවාවන්,  පහසුවෙන් හා ඵලදායි ලෙස ලබා දීමට අනෙකුත් මහජන සේවාවන් ද මේ ආකාරයෙන් තාක්ෂණික ක්‍රමවේද යොදා ගැනීම වැදගත්.
මහරගම ආශ්‍රීතව ශ්‍රී ජයවර්ධනපුර විශ්වවිද්‍යාලය, අපේක්ෂා රෝහල,  ජයවර්ධනපුර රෝහල වැනි සුවිශේෂී ආයතන පිහිටා තිබෙනවා. කුඩා හා මහා පරිමාණ ඇඟලුම් ව්‍යාපාර කේන්ද්‍රස්ථානයක්. ඒ වගේම විරල, තියුණු වටිනා වෙළඳ ව්‍යාපාරවල තෝතැන්නක්. අපි ඒවා ආරක්ෂා කරමින්, එම ව්‍යාපාර දියුණු කිරීමට අවශ්‍ය පරිවර්තනය කළ යුතුයි. නගර සභාවක කර්තව්‍ය එයයි.
අපේ බල ප්‍රදේශයේ භූමිභාගය වැඩි වෙන්නෑ. භූමිය ක්‍රමවත්ව සැලසුම් කොට උපරිම දියුණුව ගෙනයාමට හැකි විය යුතුයි. ඒ තුළින් මහරගම කෙරෙහි විවිධ ක්ෂේත්‍රවල ව්‍යාපාරික ආකර්ෂණය ඇති වෙනවා. විද්‍යාකර, ජනාධිපති, ධර්මපාල, බුවනෙකබා වගේ පාසල්වලට මහරගමින් පිටපළාත්වල ළමයිනුත් ඉගෙන ගන්න එනවා. බොහෝවිට ඒ ළමයි පසුව මහරගම බල ප්‍රදේශයේම ජීවිකාව ආරම්භ කරනවා. ඒ තුළින් පෝෂණය වෙන්නේ අපේ නගරයයි.
ජාතික ඉතිරිකිරීමේ බැංකුව තමයි මහරගමට ආපු පළවෙනි බැංකුව. බැංකු ක්‍රමය දියුණු වෙනවා. අද වෙනකොට තවත් රාජ්‍ය පුද්ගලික බැංකු රාශියක් මේ නගරයට පමණක් නොවෙයි. දෙවෙනි උප නගරය වන කොට්ටාව නගරයටත් පැමිණ තිබෙනවා.
කුඩා වෙළඳපොළක් ලෙස වසර 75ක් තිබුණ මහරගම මංසන්ධිය  නගරයක් ලෙස දියුණු කළේ අපේ වෙළෙඳ ව්‍යාපාරික පැලැන්තිය. ඔවුන්ගේ  අදහස්, පෝෂණය, පුද්ගලික ආයෝජන, තමයි මහරගම දියුණු කිරිමේ ප්‍රධානතම ආයෝජනය.
පළාත් සභා විසුරුවා හැරලා. පළාත් පාලන ආයතන ඡන්දය නාමයෝජනා ගත්තත් තවම ඡන්ද තියලා නැහැ. ඒ නිසයි පළාත් පාලන ආයතන ප්‍රාදේශිය ලේකම් කාර්යාල සමඟ සභාව ඒකාබද්ධව සංවර්ධනය මෙහෙයවීමේ වැඩපිළිවෙළක් ක්‍රියාත්මක ව තිබෙන්නේ. ඒ අනුව  අපි රැස්වී සාකච්ඡා කොට තීරණ ගනිමින් ඉදිරියට ගමන් කිරීමට බලාපොරොත්තු වෙනවා.
පළාත් පාලන ආයතනවල තවමත් ස්ථීර නොවූ සේවකයින් විශාල ප්‍රමාණයක් ඉන්නවා. ඒ අය ක්‍රමයෙන් ස්ථිර කරන බව මම මේ අවස්ථාවේ විශේෂයෙන් ප්‍රකාශ කරනවා.
දැන් අපේ ආර්ථිකය යන්ත්‍රය ක්‍රමවත් වෙමින් තිබෙනවා. අපිට නැවත හිස ඔසවන්න පුළුවන් බව ලෝකයේ අනෙකුත් රටවල් පිළිගෙන තිබෙනවා. ඔවුන් ඒ සදහා අපට සහයෝගය දක්වනවා.
මෙම අවස්ථාවට ෙනිකපොත චන්ද්‍රජෝති හිමි ඇතුළු සංඝරත්නය, පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී සරත් වීරසේකර, බස්නාහිර පළාත් ප්‍රධාන ලේකම් ප්‍රදීප් යසරත්න, හිටපු බස්නාහිර පළාත් ප්‍රධාන අමාත්‍ය ඉසුර දේවප්‍රිය, හිටපු පළාත් සභා මන්ත්‍රීවරුන් වන  සලෝචන ගමගේ, උපාලි කොඩිකාර, මහරගම නගර සභා ලේකම් අරුන් ඩී. ඩයස් ඇතුළු පිරිස එක් වූහ.

by Neville Ladduwahetty Courtesy The Island

Addressing the 51st Session of the Human Rights Council, the UN Acting High Commissioner stated: Thirteen years since the end of the war, tens of thousands of survivors and their families continue to seek justice and to know the truth about the fate of their loved ones. They remain in need of reparations. The Sri Lankan State has repeatedly failed to pursue an effective transnational justice process and uphold victims right to truth, justice and reparations. Rather, as described in our previous reports, successive governments have created political obstacles to accountability, actively promoted and incorporated some military and former paramilitary officials credibly implicated in alleged war crimes into the higher levels of government, and have failed to present a shared understanding of the conflict and its root cause”.

Continuing, the Acting High Commissioner stated: It is the hope of this office that the Government will now seize the opportunity offered by the changed circumstances in the country to re-embark on these fundamental processes that promote national reconciliation by ensuring accountability for past human rights violations and abuses. In the absence of current and effective accountability options in Sri Lanka, the High Commissioner has called on States to pursue alternate strategies to advance the accountability at the international level, including through consideration of targeted sanctions against alleged perpetrators as well as cooperation to initiate prosecutions on the basis of extraterritorial and universal jurisdiction.

The focus of this article is on the comment that The Sri Lankan State has repeatedly failed to pursue an effective transnational justice process and uphold victims right to truth, justice and reparations”.

EXPERIENCES of TRUTH and JUSTICE

MECHANISMS

If Sri Lanka is to seize the opportunity offered by the changed circumstances”, a significant contribution towards this endeavour could be made by the UNHRC by clearly outlining what it means by an effective transitional process” and propose a suitable framework for Sri Lanka to seize the opportunity, instead of repeatedly referring to the failure of the Sri Lankan State. Judging from the variety of processes adopted by other countries and their experiences, no country has succeeded in developing an effective transitional process”, least of all the much hyped TRC of South Africa that focused on a restorative process of healing the nation” and therefore not on a retributive process of prosecution. Therefore, for the sake of all concerned, the Acting High Commissioner should at this juncture outline whether Sri Lanka should adopt a restorative process with reconciliation in mind, or adopt a retributive process and resort to prosecutions, bearing in mind the inevitable consequences that are associated with each choice.

A word of caution to the Acting High Commissioner is not to expect transitional justice processes for Sri Lanka to be similar to the processes adopted by South Africa, Sierra Leone, East Timor, Cambodia and Bosnia and Herzegovina because they were all internal armed conflicts, while the conflict in Sri Lanka was a Non-International Armed Conflict, as provided in Common Article 3 of all the Geneva Conventions. This difference was recognized by the UNHRC in their OISL Report (OHCHR Investigation on Sri Lanka – OISL).

As for the internationally recognized TRC of South Africa, its legacy, according to Dr. Desmond Tutu, was: The TRC was confronted by a number of challenges, as it was not accepted by all parties to the conflict. The top echelons of the military did not cooperate with the commission. It was mainly the foot soldiers in the security forces and those who were already imprisoned or were facing charges who applied for amnesty. Senior politicians in the former government and senior leaders in the security forces did not apply. In the case of the liberation movements, the members argued that as they had conducted a just war,” they were not required to apply for amnesty because their actions did not constitute gross violations of human rights”.

Unlike in the case of domestic settings where human rights violations are addressed through criminal investigations, prosecution and possible conviction, the experience of countries that have attempted to establish Truth and Justice Mechanisms following serious crimes in the context of internal armed conflicts is to prosecute only those believed to be most responsible while for the rest the Mechanism only serves as an opportunity to present their narrative as the truth”.

An article that confirms such outcomes titled Retribution and Reconciliation: War Crimes Tribunals and Truth Commissions – can they work together?” By Howard Varney, in Our Freedoms states: At an international level the global community has reacted to massive human rights atrocities in the former Yugoslavia and in Rwanda with the establishment of international criminal tribunals. Smaller hybrid courts, involving both local and foreign judges, prosecutors and investigators have been set up in Sierra Leone, East Timor, Cambodia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. In most of these cases the attempts to deliver justice have been confined to the prosecution of only those regarded to be most responsible for the violation of human rights. This strategy is born out of necessity”.

If this is the outcome of Truth and Justice Mechanisms, as far as the victims in Sri Lanka are concerned, the several Presidential Commissions provided the opportunity for them to convey their truth” in the form of their narratives, and the justice that followed is in the form of ongoing reparations paid to them. As for prosecution of those responsible for serious violations of human rights and/or humanitarian law is concerned, existing legal provisions are in place through High Courts and Courts of Appeal assisted by the Human Rights Council of Sri Lanka for anyone who has access to credible evidence to avail themselves of this legal framework. This approach conforms with the procedures adopted under provisions of Individual Penal liability”. This topic was dealt at length in a book titled Our Fundamental Rights of Personal Security and Physical Liberty” (Justice A.R.B. Amerasinghe).

However, such prosecutions invariably polarize communities as has been the case in other countries, thus ending up being a deterrent to reconciliation. It is for this reason that many authorities find retributive approaches to address violations being incompatible with reconciliation; which incidentally, is the end goal following serious conflicts.

RECOMMENDATIONS of OISL REPORT of the OHCHR

Whether or not the approach as stated in the Report of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights reaches the threshold of effective transitional justice”, they have advocated that Article 3 common to all Geneva Conventions is applicable to the armed conflict that took place in Sri Lanka.

Furthermore, Paragraph 182 of the above Report states: Article 3 common to the four Geneva Conventions relating to conflicts not of an international character is applicable to the situation in Sri Lanka, with all parties to the conflict being bound to respect the guarantees pertaining to the treatment of civilians and persons hors de combat contained therein. Common article 3 binds all parties to the conflict to respect as a minimum, that persons taking no direct part in hostilities as well as those placed hors de combat shall be treated humanely”.

Paragraph 183 states: In addition, the Government and armed groups that are parties to the conflict are bound alike by the relevant rules of customary international law applicable in non-international armed conflict”.

Therefore, even if Sri Lanka has not ratified Additional Protocol II of 1977, Sri Lanka and the LTTE are bound alike by customary law, and taking civilians hostage and using them as a human shield, is a war crime and therefore a violation of customary law; a fact incorporated in Article 13 (6) of Sri Lanka’s Constitution that states: Nothing in this Article shall prejudice the trial and punishment of any person for any act or omission which, at the time when it was committed, was criminal according to general principles of law recognized by the community of nations”.

RELEVANCE of PARAGRAPH 183

If, as Paragraph 183 states the Government and armed groups that are parties to the conflict are bound alike” by customary international law applicable to non-international armed conflict”, it must then follow that the act by the LTTE of taking of tens of thousands hostage and using them as a human shield is a war-crime for which they must be held accountable. Furthermore, by doing so the LTTE not only violated the provisions codified in Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions […] relating to the Protection of Victims of Non-International Armed Conflict, but is also responsible for being the cause for the disproportionately high number of deaths in the conflict zone.

This makes all the difference between internal armed conflicts as in the countries cited above, and those as in Sri Lanka that come within the purview of Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions relating to Non-International Armed Conflicts. This cardinal fact makes the intention of the Government to appoint a Truth and Reconciliation Commission modelled on South Africa’s TRC, totally inappropriate. Furthermore, the fact that Paragraph 183 binds the Government and the LTTE alike, the accountability for the deaths in the conflict zone and the reparations for the victims should be a shared responsibility and not entirely the responsibility of the Government, as conveyed repeatedly in UNHRC Resolutions.

CONCLUSION

The position being consistently taken by the Acting High Commissioner and her predecessors is that the Government of Sri Lanka is solely responsible for the human rights and humanitarian law violations. This is because they have categorised the conflict in Sri Lanka as an internal armed conflict, similar to conflicts that occurred in countries such as South Africa, Sierra Leone, East Timor, Cambodia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, as stated above, this is NOT the case with the armed conflict in Sri Lanka; a fact that is recognised and acknowledged in the OISL Report of the OHCHR – a part of the very Institution that the Acting High Commissioner represents. Furthermore, if political obstacles to accountability are not to be created, the UNHRC should caution the Government about setting up a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, modelled on South Africa’s TRC.

Therefore, instead of continuing to sing the same old refrain of Transitional Justice as being appropriate, it is about time that the UNHRC accepted the procedures laid out to address Accountability in the Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions as being the most appropriate as recommended in the OISL Report of the OHCRC. Furthermore, it should be acknowledged that the most serious violation, amounting to a war crime, was committed by the LTTE when they took hundreds of thousands of civilians, in the conflict zone, hostage and used them as a human shield for which there is no parallel.

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– ජනාධිපති මාධ්‍ය ඒකකය

බොරු තර්ක ඉදිරිපත් කරමින් තවදුරටත් අසාර්ථක වනවා වෙනුවට දැන්වත් රටේ ජනතාවගේ ප්‍රශ්න විසඳීමට ආණ්ඩුව සමඟ එක්වන ලෙස තමා විපක්ෂනායකවරයා ප්‍රමුඛ සමස්ත විපක්ෂයට ආරාධනා කරන බව ජනාධිපති රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතා සඳහන් කළේය.

දේශීය ණය ප්‍රශස්තකරණය සම්බන්ධයෙන් විපක්ෂය නැගූ සියලු චෝදනා මේ වන විට අසත්‍ය වී ඇති බව පෙන්වා දුන් ජනාධිපතිවරයා දැන්වත් ජනතාව වෙනුවෙන් වගකීම් ඉටුකර රට ගොඩනැඟීමේ වැඩපිළිවෙළට තමන් ද දායක වූ බව පවසමින් ඉදිරි ජනාධිපතිවරණයට ඉදිරිපත් වීමේ අවස්ථාව උදාකර ගන්නා ලෙස ද විපක්ෂයට පැවසීය.

අවශ්‍ය නම් කථානායකවරයා සමඟ සාකච්ඡා කර ඔවුන්ට පාර්ලිමේන්තුව තුළ තවත් වගකීම් පවරාදීමට හැකි බව ද ජනාධිපතිවරයා පෙන්වා දුන්නේය.

ජනාධිපති රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතා මේ බව සඳහන් කළේ කෘෂිකර්ම අමාත්‍ය මහින්ද අමරවීර මහතාගේ දේශපාලන දිවියට වසර 32ක් සපිරීම නිමිත්තෙන් ඒ මහතා වෙත හම්බන්තොට දිස්ත්‍රික්කයේ ජනතාවගේ උපහාරය පුද කරමින් (03) හම්බන්තොට මාගම් රුහුණු ජාත්‍යන්තර සම්මන්ත්‍රණ ශාලාවේ පැවති අමරවිරු අභිමන් 32” උපහාර උත්සවය අමතමිනි.

අමරවිරු අභිමන් 32” සමරු කලාපය ද මෙහිදි ජනාධිපතිවරයා වෙත පිළිගැන්විණි.

දිස්ත්‍රික්කයේ කෘෂිකර්මාන්තය නංවාලීම උදෙසා සහාය ලබාදුන් අයට සහ ගොවි ජනතාවට උපහාර තිළිණ පිළිගැන්වීම, ශිෂ්‍යත්ව විභාගයෙන්, අ.පො.ස සාමාන්‍ය පෙළ විභාගයෙන් සහ උසස් පෙළ විභාගයෙන් විශිෂ්ට ලෙස සමත් වූ සහ විශිෂ්ට ක්‍රීඩා කුසලතා දැක්වූ හම්බන්තොට දිස්ත්‍රික්කයේ සිසු සිසුවියන් වෙනුවෙන් තිළිණ ප්‍රදානය කිරීම ද ජනාධිපතිවරයා අතින් සංකේතාත්මකව සිදු විය.

ජනාධිපති රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතා වෙත හම්බන්තොට දිස්ත්‍රික්කයේ ජනතාවගේ උපහාරය පිළිගන්වමින් අමාත්‍ය මහින්ද අමරවීර මහතා විසින් ජනාධිපතිවරයා වෙත සිහිවටන තිළිණයක් පිළිගැන්වූ අතර අමාත්‍ය මහින්ද අමරවීර මහතා හම්බන්තොට දිස්ත්‍රික්කයේ ජනතාව වෙනුවෙන් ඉටු කරන මෙහෙවර අගයමින් ජනාධිපතිවරයා අතින් ඒ මහතා වෙත ද උපහාර තිළිණක් පිළිගැන්විණි.

මෙහිදී වැඩිදුරටත් අදහස් දැක්වූ ජනාධිපති රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතා මෙසේ ද පැවසීය

සිය දේශපාලන ජීවිතයෙහි වසර 32 ක් සහ වසර 28 ක පාර්ලිමේන්තු දිවිය තුළ මහින්ද අමරවීර මහතා මේ රටේ ජනතාව වෙනුවෙන් සුවිශේෂි සේවාවක් ඉටු කරමින් සිටිනවා. පළමුව අප එතුමාට ප්‍රශංසාව පිරිනැමිය යුතුයි. එතුමා අත්දැකීම් රැසක් ඇති පරිණත දේශපාලනඥයෙක්. එක් එක් යුගවල පක්ෂයේ, සහ විපක්ෂයේ සාමාජිකයන් ලෙස අප එක්ව කටයුතු කළ අතර මෛත්‍රීපාල සිරිසේන ජනාධිපතිවරයාගේ සමයේ එක ආණ්ඩුවක කටයුතු කිරීමට අපට අවස්ථාව ලැබුණා.

ඉන්පසුව ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ ජනාධිපතිවරයාගේ ආණ්ඩුවේ අගැමති ධූරය දරණ සමයේ ද මම ප්‍රකාශ කළේ මේ සියලුදෙනා එක්කරගෙන ඉදිරියට යා යුතු බවයි.

ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ මහතා 2022 වසරේදී පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ සියලු පක්ෂ නායකයන්ට ජනාධිපති මන්දිරයට ආරාධනා කළා.

අවාසනාවකට සමගි ජන බලවේගය සහ ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණ එය වර්ජනය කළා. මමත්, ආර්. සම්බන්ධනන් මහතා සහ මෛත්‍රීපාල සිරිසේන මහතා ඒ සඳහා සහභාගී වූ අතර මෙම ප්‍රශ්නය විසදන්නේ කෙසේද කියා අප සාකච්ඡා කළා.

කෙසේ වෙතත් මැයි 09දා සිදුවීමෙන් පසු අප මේ සියලුදෙනා එක් කර ගැනීමට උත්සාහ කළා. අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය ධූරය භාර නොගත්තත් මේ වැඩකටයුතු සඳහා සමගි ජන බලවේගය සම්බන්ධවෙයි කියා අප බලාපොරොත්තු වුවත් ඔවුන් ඊට එක් වුණේ නැහැ. එතැන් සිට තමයි මේ ආණ්ඩුව හදාගෙන අප වැඩකටයුතු ආරම්භ කළේ.

මම ජනාධිපතිවරයා ලෙසත්, දිනේෂ් ගුණවර්ධන මහතා අගමැතිවරයා ලෙසත් පත්කරගත් කැබිනට් මණ්ඩලයේ කෘෂිකර්ම අමාත්‍ය ධූරයේ වගකීම මහින්ද අමරවීර මහතාට ලබා දුන්නා. එතුමා කෘෂිකර්ම ඇමති වුණේ කෘෂිකර්මයක් සහ ආර්ථිකයක් නැති රටක. නමුත් එතුමා සමග මේ රටේ කෘෂිකර්මාන්ත නැවත ඉදිරියට ගෙන ඒමට අපට හැකියාව ලැබුණා.

2023 සිංහල අවුරුද්දට පෙර හොඳ අස්වැන්නක් ලබාගැනීමේ වැඩපිළිවෙළ අප ආරම්භ කළා. ආහාර සුරක්ෂිතතාවය සඳහා කමිටු පත් කළා. ආණ්ඩු පක්ෂයේ සහ විපක්ෂයේ සියලුදෙනාට ඊට සහභාගී වන ලෙස ආරාධනා කළා. නමුත් විපක්ෂය ඊට සහභාගී වුනේ නැහැ. අවසානයේ අස්වැන්නේ අතිරික්තයක් ලැබුණු විට අදාළ කමිටුවල සභාපතිවරුන් ජනතාවට සහල් බෙදාදීමට පටන් ගත්තා. එවිට තමයි තමන්ට මීට සහභාගීවීමට අවස්ථාව නොලැබීම පිළිබඳ විපක්ෂයේ මන්ත්‍රීවරු කණගාටු වුණේ.

එම කටයුතු වෙනුවෙන් කැපවී කටයුතු කළ මහින්ද අමරවීර මැතිතුමාට සහ එම නිලධාරීන්ට ස්තූතිවන්ත විය යුතුයි. අපි කඩිනමින් ගොවි ජනතාවට අවශ්‍ය පොහොර සම්පාදනය කරගත්තා. එදා අපි කිව්වේ ගෙනෙන පොහොර, නැවෙන් කුඹුරට කියලා. පොහොර ටික ලැබුණු ගමන් ඒවා ගොවි ජනතාවට බෙදා දුන්නා. මේ තුළින් ආහාර සුරක්ෂිතතාව ඇති කර දිළිදු ජනතාවට සහන ලබාදීමට අපට හැකිවුණා.

අප දැන් කෘෂිකර්මාන්තය දියුණු කළ යුතු අතර විශේෂයෙන්ම අපනයන ඉලක්ක කරගත් කෘෂිකර්මාන්තයක් රට තුළ ගොඩනැගිය යුතුයි. අප මෙතෙක් කටයුතු කළේ අපට අවශ්‍ය ආහාර බෝග වගා කිරීමටයි. අප දැන් ලෝකයට අවශ්‍ය ආහාර වගා කළයුතුයි. ඒ සඳහා කෘෂිකර්මාන්තය නවීකරණය කිරීමේ විශාල වැඩසටහනක් ආරම්භ කර තිබෙනවා.

ඒ වගේම පශු සම්පත් සංවර්ධනය පිළිබඳ පුළුල් වැපිළිවෙළක් ක්‍රියාවට නංවා තිබෙනවා. මෙරට තිබෙන හොදම පශු සම්පත් සමාගම වන අඹේවෙල සමාගම අපෙන් ඉල්ලීමක් කර තිබෙනවා රිදීගම ගොවිපොළ ලබා දෙන ලෙස. මෙම ප්‍රදේශයේ තිබෙන පශු සම්පත් තවත් දියුණු කිරීමට අප එම කටයුත්ත සිදු කිරීමට බලාපොරොත්තු වෙනවා.

ඉන්දියාවේ ප්‍රධානම සමාගමක් වන අමුල් සමාගම අපේ පශු සම්පත් සංවර්ධන මණ්ඩලය සමඟ සහයෝගීතා වැඩපිළිවෙළක් ක්‍රියාවට නංවා තිබෙනවා. තවත් සමාගම් කිහිපයක් මේ සඳහා ඉදිරිපත්වී සිටිනවා. අප පිටරටින් සත්තු ගේන්නේ නැහැ. ගෙනාපු 25,000ම නැති වුණා. ඒ නිසා අපි සමාගම්වලට කියනවා මෙය භාරගෙන දියුණු කරන්න කියලා. එවිට මේ ප්‍රදේශවල කිරි කර්මාන්තය ඇතුළු ක්ෂේත්‍ර රැසක් දියුණු වෙනවා.

ඒ වගේම බිත්තර සහ කුකුල් මස් අපනයනය කළයුතුයි. අපට මෙය තනිව සිදු කළ නොහැකියි. එසේනම් රජය සහ පුද්ගලික අංශය එක්ව මේ වැඩසටහන් ඉදිරියට ගෙන යා යුතුයි.

මේ සියල්ල කරන්නේ මේ රට දියුණු කරන්න. රටේ මූල්‍ය ස්ථාවරත්වයක් ඇති කිරීමට අපි පියවර ගණනාවක් ගෙන තිබෙනවා. පසුගිය සැප්තැම්බර් මාසයේ ජාත්‍යන්තර මූල්‍ය අරමුදල සමග මාණ්ඩලික මට්ටමේ ගිවිසුමක් අප ඇති කර ගත්තා. එය ක්‍රියාත්මක කිරීමට 2023 අය වැය යෝජනා පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට ඉදිරිපත් කළා.

අපට බදු වැඩිකරන්න සිදු වණා. මම කිව්වා අපි සියලුදෙනා එකතුවෙලා මේ වැඩ කරමු කියලා. ඒ අවස්ථාවේ විපක්ෂය කියා සිටියේ අපිට අත්සන් කළ ගිවිසුම පෙන්වන්න, ආණ්ඩුව බොරු කරන්නේ, මේ මුදල් ලබා ගන්නේ දූෂණයට යෙදවීමට” කියලයි නමුත් ජනවාරි, පෙබරවාරි මාස වන විට එම කටයුතු ක්‍රියාත්මක කිරීමෙන් පසු අපට තවත් පියවර ගණනාවක් ගැනීමට තිබුණා. ඒ සෑම අවස්ථාවකම උද්ඝෝෂණවලින් එම කටයුතු නතර කිරීමට උත්සාහ කළා. අපි ඒවට බය නැතිව ඉදිරියට ගියා. අවසානයේ අප්‍රේල් මාසයේ දී ජාත්‍යන්තර මූල්‍ය අරමුදලේ විධායක මණ්ඩලය මෙම ගිවිසුම අනුමත කළා. එහිදී එක කොන්දේසියක් වු‍ණේ පැරිස් සමාජය සහ ඉන්දීයාව හා චීනය සමඟ ණය ප්‍රතිව්‍යුහගත කිරීමට එකඟතාවකට පැමිණිය යුතු බවයි.එවිට විපක්ෂය කිව්වා චීනය ඒ සඳහා එකඟ වෙන්නේ නැහැ කියලා. අවසානයේ මාර්තු මාසය වන විට චීනය එකඟතාවය පළ කළා.

පසුව අපි කිව්වා මේ ගිවිසුම පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට ගේනවා කියලා. පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ දී එය අනුමත කර ගැනීමට අප සියලුදෙනා එකට එක්ව කටයුතු කරමු කියලා. විපක්ෂය පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේදී මොකක්ද කළේ? ඔවුන් එයට සහයෝගය ලබා දුන්නේ නැහැ.

ඉන් අනතුරුව අපට තිබුණේ ණය හිමියන් සමග සාකච්ඡා කිරීමටයි. අපේ නිලධාරීන්ට මම එය භාර දුන්නා. ඒ වන විට මහබැංකු අධිපතිතුමා සඳහන් කළා අපේ ණය ඩොලර් බිලියන 83ක් තිබෙනවා කියා. එය අපේ දළ දේශීය නිෂ්පාදිතයට සමානයි. මෙය වසර 10-15 ගියත් අපට ගෙවා අවසන් කරන්න පුළුන්කමක් නැහැ. ඒ නිසා විදෙස් ණය හිමියන්ට අප දැනුම් දුන්නා අපට ඩොලර් බිලයන 17ක සහනයක් අවශ්‍යයි කියා. එම සහනය ලබා දෙන්න, නැතිනම් ගෙවන කාලය දීර්ඝ කරන්න, එසේත් නොමැතිනම් පොළිය අඩු කරන ලෙස ඉල්ලා සිටියා.

අපි එම සාකච්ඡා සිදු කරද්දි ඔවුන් පෙන්වා දුන්නේ විදෙස් ණය අඩු කරන්නම් නමුත් විදේශීය ණය පමණක් නොවෙයි දේශීය ණයත් තිබෙන බවයි. දේශීය ණය අඩු නොකළහොත් විදේශීය ණය ගෙවන්න මුදල් නැහැ. මොකද දේශීය මුදල්වලින් තමයි අපට ඩොලර් ගන්න තිබෙන්නේ. ඒ නිසා කිව්වා දේශීය ණයත් අඩු කරන්න කියලා.

ඉන් පසුව මහබැංකුවේ අධිපතිතුමා සහ මගේ උපදේශකවරයා ඇතුළු පිරිස සාකච්ඡා කර දැනුම් දුන්නා මේ රටේ බැංකු තැන්පතුවලටත්, අර්ථ සාධක අරමුදලටත් අත තියන්නේ නැතිව මේ වැඩකටයුත්ත සිදු කළ හැකි බව. ඒ නිසා මේ යෝජනාව ගෙනාවා. මෙය පළමුවෙන් රාජ්‍ය මුදල් කමිටුවට යවන්න අපි කටුතු කළා. මේක දේශපාලනඥයන් කථා කළ දෙයක් නොවෙයි, රාජ්‍ය මුදල් කමිටුව අදාළ නිලධාරීන් ගෙන්වා ප්‍රශ්න කළා. අනතුරුව ඔවුන් මෙම යෝජනාවට එකඟ වුණා.

නමුත් පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට ගිය විට එම සහයෝගය ලැබුණේ නැහැ. මෙම යෝජනාවට විරුද්ධව මන්ත්‍රීවරු 62ක් ඡන්දය ප්‍රකාශ කළා.

පළමුවෙනි කාරණය ලෙස ඔවුන් දක්වන්නේ අර්ථ සාධක අරමුදලට අත් තබන්න එපා කියලා. අපි ඊට අත තබා නැහැ. අර්ථ සාධක අරමුදලේ පොළිය 10%-9% දක්වා අඩු කෙරුණේ මම ජනාධිපතිවරයා වීමට පෙරයි. ඇත්ත වශයෙන්ම රටේ තිබු තත්ත්වය අනුව 10%ක් ලබාදීමට හැකියාවක් තිබුණෙ නැහැ. ඒත් එදා විපක්ෂය ඒ සම්බන්ධයෙන් විරෝධය දැක්වුවේ නැහැ.

කැබිනට් මණ්ඩලය තීරණය කළා අවම පොළිය 9%ක් තමයි දිය යුත්තේ කියලා. අවම පොළිය 9% නම් හොද කාලයක් ආ විට 10% කරන්න පුළුවන්. එසේනම් අපි අර්ථ සාධක අරමුදලට අත තබා නැහැ. අපි අවම පොලියක් නියම කරමින් නීතියෙන්ම එය ආරක්ෂා කළා.

දෙවනුව ඔවුන් සඳහන් කළා බැංකු පොළිය 24%යි, අපි ඔවුන්ගෙන් බදු අය කරන්නේ නැහැ කියලා. දැන් පොලිය 24%ක් වුණත් ඒ පොළිය ඉදිරියේ දී තවත් අඩු වෙන්න යනවා. මහ බැංකු අධිපතිතුමා කියලා තිබෙනවා උද්ධමනය 9%කට ගෙන එනවා කියා. එහෙම වුණොත් පොලිය 12% – 13%ක් වෙනවා. විපක්ෂය කියනවා නම් මේ තත්ත්වය තුළත් බදු පනවන්න අවශ්‍යයි කියා බදු අය කිරීමට අවශ්‍ය ප්‍රමාණය අපට කියන්න. අපි සූදානම් කැබිනට් මණ්ඩලයෙන් එය සලකා බැලීමට.

තෙවනුව තවත් චෝදනාවක් කරනවා. බැංකුවලට ආදායම් බදු වැඩි කරන්නේ නැහැ කියලා. අපට පුළුවන් බැංකුවලින් අය කරන බදු ප්‍රමාණය වැඩිකරන්න. එවිට මොකක්ද බැංකුව සිදු කරන්නේ, ඔවුන් එම වැඩිවන බදු මුදල පොලියෙන් අය කරගන්නවා. එතකොට පොලියට 12%ක් වුණත් මේ නිසා එය 13%- 14%ක් වෙනවා. එතකොට පොලිය වැඩිකරන්නද අපට කියන්නේ. ඒක කොහොමද කරන්නේ. ඒ නිසයි මෙම කරුණු 03 අපේ කතිකයන් ප්‍රතික්ෂේප කළේ.

ජනතාව හෙට බැංකුවට ගිය විට තමන්ගේ මුදල් තිබෙනවා. තමන්ගේ අර්ථ සාධක අරමුදල තිබෙනවා. එතකොට විපක්ෂය මොකක්ද මේ කළේ කියලා අහන්න වෙනවා. අපිට රට පුරා කියන්න පුළුවන් විපක්ෂය පළමු පාරත් බොරු කිව්වා, දෙවනි පාරත් බොරු කිව්වා. විපක්ෂය මේ වැඩපිළිවෙළට එකතු වෙන්නේ නැහැ කියලා. නමුත් මම එහෙම කියන්නේ නැහැ. මම මෙහිදී සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස මැතිතුමා ප්‍රමුඛ සම්පූර්ණ විපක්ෂයෙන් ඉල්ලීමක් කරනවා දැන් හරි මේ රටේ ජනතාවගේ ප්‍රශ්න විසඳන්න අපත් සමග එක්වන්න කියලා. ඊට පසුව ඔවුන්ට ජනාධිපතිවරණයට ඉදිරිපත් වෙන්න පුළුවන් අපිත් රට ගොඩනඟන්න උදව් කළා කියලා.

ආණ්ඩු පක්ෂයේ හිටියත්, විපක්ෂයේ හිටියත් අපි එකතුවෙලා රට ගොඩනගමු. දැන් ඒ අවස්ථාව උදා වෙලා තිබෙනවා. ඒ නිසා මම නැවත ඉල්ලනවා, මේ රටේ ජනතාවට සහනයක් දෙන්න කරුණකරලා අපත් සමග එක්වන්න කියලා. මේ විදියට බොරු තර්ක ඉදිරිපත් කරලා හරියන්නේ නැහැ. විපක්ෂය දිගටම එයින් අසාර්ථක වී තිබෙනවා.

අවශ්‍ය නම් මම සූදානම් කතානායකතුමා සමඟ සාකච්ඡා කර විපක්ෂයේ මන්ත්‍රීවරුන්ට තවත් වගකීම් දෙන්න. දැනටත් ඔවුන් උපදේශක කාරක සභා ආදියෙහි වගකීම් දරනවා. ඉදිරියේ දී පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ අය වැය කාර්යාලය විවෘත කිරීම ඇතුළු තවත් වැඩකටයුතු සිදු වෙනවා. ඒ නිසා තවත් අවශ්‍ය නම් වගකීම් දෙනන් අපි සූදානම්. කරුණාකර ආණ්ඩුවට සහාය දෙන්න. විපක්ෂනායක කමට කිසිදු තර්ජනයක් වීමට අප ඉඩ දෙන්නේ නැහැ කියලත් මම කියන්න කැමතියි.

මෙහිදී අදහස් දැක්වූ කෘෂිකර්ම අමාත්‍ය මහින්ද අමරවීර මහතා

කිසිවෙකු රටේ වගකීම භාර නොගත් අභියෝගාත්මක අවස්ථාවක එම වගකීම භාර ගනු ලැබුවේ වත්මන් ජනාධිපති රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතායි. පෝළිම්වල ජනතාව මිය ගිය, ගොවි ජනතාවට අවශ්‍ය පොහොර ටික සපයා දිය නොහැකිව තිබු මේ රට යළි කිසිවෙකුට ගොඩගන්න බැහැ කියා එදා ඇතැමුන් ප්‍රකාශ කළා.

නමුත් රට වෙනුවෙන් එම වගකිම භාරගත් නායකයාට එම අභියෝගය ජය ගැනීමට අප සියලුදෙනා සහාය දිය යුතුයි යන චේතනාවෙන් යුතුව මම කෘෂිකර්ම අමාත්‍ය ධුරය භාරගත්තා. ඒ වන විටත් ගොවි බිමෙන් ඈත්ව සිටී ගොවියා යළිත් කෙටි කලක් තුළ ගොවිබිමට සමීප කරවීමට ජනාධිපතිවරයාගේ නායකත්වයෙන් ගෙන ගිය වැඩපිළිවෙළ හේතු වූ බව කිවයුතුයි.

ගොවි ජනතාවට ප්‍රමාදයකින් තොරව අවශ්‍ය පරිදි පොහොර ලබාදීමට අප කටයුතු කර තිබෙනවා. ඉදිරි කන්නයේ දී අවශ්‍ය පොහොර වර්ග 03ම නිසි වේලාවට ලබාදීමට කටයුතු සැලසුම් කර තිබෙන අතර සෑම ප්‍රදේශයකම ඉහළ අස්වැන්නක් ලබා ගැනිමට එමඟින් හැකියාව ලැබෙනවා. ඒ වගේම කෘෂිකර්මාන්තය නවීකරණය කිරීමට අවශ්‍ය වැඩපිළිවෙළ මේ වන විටත් ආරම්භ කර තිබෙනවා. ඒ අනුව ඉතා කෙටි කළත් තුළ මෙරට කෘෂිකර්මාන්තයේ නවෝදයක් ඇති කිරීමට හැකියාව ලැබෙනවා.

මීට වසරකට පෙර මේ රටේ ජනතාව පැවසුවේ පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ 225 දෙනාම එපා කියලයි. මන්ත්‍රීවරුන්ට පාරට බහින්න හැකියාවක් තිබුනේ නැහැ. නමුත් අද ඇතැමුන්ට මෙය අමතක් වී තිබෙනවා. ඒ නිසා නැවත රට තුළ එවන් තත්ත්වයක් ඇති නොවීමට නම් ජනාධිපතිවරයා ගෙන යන වැඩපිළිවෙළට සියලුදෙනා සහාය දිය යුතු බව අවධාරණය කළයුතුයි.

වසරක් තුළ රට මේ තත්ත්වයට ගෙන ඒමට ජනාධිපතිවරයාට හැකියාව ලැබුණා නම් මේ රට සංවර්ධනය කර ඉදිරියට ගෙන යා හැකි එකම නායකත්වය වත්මන් ජනාධිපති රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතා බව මේ රටේ ජනතාව මේ වන විට සහතික කර අවසන් බව කිවයුතුයි.

වරාය, නාවික හා ගුවන් සේවා අමාත්‍ය නිමල් සිරිපාල ද මහතා

මහින්ද අමරවීර මහතා හම්බන්තොට දිස්ත්‍රික්කයේ ජනතාව වෙනුවෙන් සුවිශේෂී වැඩ කොටසක් ඉටුකළා. එතුමාගේ දේශපාලන දිවියට වසර 32ක් සම්පුර්ණ වන මේ මොහොතේ සුබපැතීමට අවස්ථාව ලැබීම ගැන සතුටු වෙනවා.

වත්මන් ජනාධිපතිතුමාට අපි සියලු දෙනා සහය ලබා දුන්නේ රට සහ ජනතාව ගැන හිත හිතලා. එහිදී කෘෂිකර්ම විෂය පැවරුණේ මහින්ද අමරවීර මැතිතුමාටයි. එලෙස අරාජිකත්වයෙන් රට ගොඩනැගීමට අපි සහාය ලබා දුන්නා. අප අපේ පක්ෂ සාමාජිකත්වය පවා අහිමි කරගත්තා. මහින්ද අමරවීර එහි පුරෝගාමියෙක් ලෙස කටයුතු කළා. නිසි වෙලාවට අප නිසි තීරණ ගත යුතුයි. එසේ නොවුණහොත් රටටත් ජනතාවටත් සෙතක් වන්නේ නැහැ.

කථානායක මහින්ද යාපා අබේවර්ධන මහතා ප්‍රමුඛ කැබිනට් අමාත්‍යවරු, රාජ්‍ය අමාත්‍යවරු, නියෝජ්‍ය අමාත්‍යවරු, පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රීවරුන් ද, දකුණු පළාත් ආණ්ඩුකාර විලී ගමගේ මහතා ඇතුළු පළාතේ දේශපාලන නියෝජිතයන් සහ රාජ්‍ය නිලධාරීහු ද, හම්බන්තොට දිස්ත්‍රික්කයේ ජනතාව විශාල පිරිසක් ද මෙම අවස්ථාවට එක්ව සිටියහ.

– ජනාධිපති මාධ්‍ය ඒකකය

lanka C news

බෞද්ධාගමට අපහාස කළේ යැයි රක්ෂිත බන්ධනාගාර ගත කර සිටි නටාෂා එදිරිසූරිය අද කොළඹ මහාධිකරණය විසින් ඇප මත නිදහස් කරන ලදී.

රුපියල් ලක්ෂයක පුද්ගලික ඇපයක් මත ඇයට මෙම නියෝගය නිකුත් කර තිබේ.

අධිකරණයේදී අදහස් පළ කරමින් තිපතිවරයා වෙනුවෙන් පෙනී සිටි ජ්‍යෙෂ්ඨ නියෝජ්‍ය සොලිස්ටර් ජෙනරාල් දිලීප පිරිස් මහතා සඳහන් කර සිටියේ මෙම සැකකාරිය 2017 වසරේ සිට විශාදිය නම් රෝගී තත්වයට ප්‍රතිකාර ලබා ගනිමින් සිටින බවයි.

එමෙන්ම ඇය සියදිවි නසා ගැනීමේ ප්‍රවණතායෙන් පෙලී සිට පෙනී ඇති බවට පරීක්ෂණවලින් පෙනී ගොස් ඇති බවද ඔහු සඳහන් කලේය.

එවැනි තැනැත්තියක් ප්‍රහසන වැඩසටහන් ඉදිරිපත් කිරීමට යාම අතිශය භයානක බවත් ඔහු අධිකරණය හමුවේ කියා සිටියේය.

ඇප නියෝගය දෙමින් මහාධිකරණ විනිසුරු විද්‍යාව ගැන තරයේ විශ්වාස කරන අයෙකුට ආගම් වල තිබෙන ඇතැම් කාරණා ප්‍රායෝගික දැයි ප්‍රශ්න කළ හැකි බවත් එය වෛරී සහගත ප්‍රකාශයක් වන්නේ කෙසේ දැයි ප්‍රශ්න කළේය.

ඒ අනුව සැකකාරිය තවදුරටත් රක්ෂිත බන්ධනාගාර ගත කිරීමට උවමනාවක් නැති බව සඳහන් කරමින් ඇප නියෝගය නිකුත් කරන ලදී.

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

The Belgium Government expressed consent to provide modern European technology required to develop Sri Lanka’s ports.

The decision was announced during a special discussion held between Belgium Ambassador to Sri Lanka Didier Vanderhasselt and Ports, Shipping and Aviation Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva this morning.

The Minister requested Belgium’s support in the development of the ports of Trincomalee and Galle, while also extending lucrative opportunities for Belgian investors to actively participate in these undertakings.

Discussions were also held seeking possibilities to train local youth at the Belgium yacht  boatyard in southern Sri Lanka aiming at providing employment and also to establish a yacht  marina at the Galle Port. 

The minister said discussions were taking place for plans to strengthen maritime development activities between Sri Lanka and Belgium and expressed gratitude to the Belgium Ambassador for all the support and assistance extended to make such efforts successful. (Chaturanga Pradeep Samarawickrama)

Courtesy Adaderana

Courtesy Adaderana

The Colombo Stock Exchange’s All-Share Price Index (ASPI) continued its upward momentum today (July 05), gaining 99.49 points at the end of trading today to close at 10,176.13 points.

This is an increase of 0.99 per cent.

Meanwhile, the S&P SL20 index also moved up by 35.97 points to close at 3,009.09 points at the end of today’s trading, recording an increase of 1.21 per cent. 

The market generated a turnover of more than Rs. 4.945 billion today.