{"id":104458,"date":"2020-07-13T16:26:53","date_gmt":"2020-07-13T23:26:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=104458"},"modified":"2020-07-13T16:26:53","modified_gmt":"2020-07-13T23:26:53","slug":"lssp-strongly-opposes-the-mcc-acsa-and-sofa-agreements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/07\/13\/lssp-strongly-opposes-the-mcc-acsa-and-sofa-agreements\/","title":{"rendered":"LSSP STRONGLY OPPOSES THE MCC, ACSA AND SOFA AGREEMENTS"},"content":{"rendered":"

PROF.TISSA VITARANA <\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

President\nGotabhaya Rajapakse had requested the Cabinet of Ministers to submit their\nopinions on the Prof.Lalithasiri Gunaruwan Report on the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) agreement<\/strong> with the USA. This\nhas now been extended for a further two weeks. Though not a Cabinet Minister, but\nas the leader of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP), which is a member of the\nSri Lanka Freedom Podujana Alliance (SLFPA), I wish to express the opinion of\nthe LSSP on this controversial proposal.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The LSSP\nviews the MCC agreement, and the two other related agreements (ACSA & SOFA), as totally opposed to the independence,\nsovereignty and territorial integrity of Sri Lanka and that the SLFPA\nGovernment should not sign any of them if it wishes to safeguard the real\ninterest of Sri Lanka and its people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Sri\nLanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) had correctly opposed the MCC agreement while in\nthe Opposition as it would divide the country and have other ill effects. Accordingly\nthe President had appointed the Gunaruwan Committee to submit a report. In this\nReport the Committee has pointed out the dangers of the MCC agreement to our\nsovereignty and territorial integrity and that it violates our Constitution and\nLaws. It also mentions the fact that the American company that would be\npreparing the digital register of all land holdings in the North and other\nareas would be able to get possession of a huge extent of land for foreign\nexploitation. The entire profits could be sent abroad. The Gunaruwan Committee\nis to be congratulated for producing a factual and comprehensive document which\nhighlights the dangers to the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The passing\nreference in the Committee Report to the fact that they had come across some\nreferences to USD 10 million in some documents which needed to be looked into,\nwas pounced upon by the US Embassy in Sri Lanka and by the USA\u2019s political\nagent in Sri Lanka, UNP leader Ranil Wickremasinghe, to be used as a red\nherring to discredit the report. Whether this sum was paid or received in\nadvance is irrelevant to the charges made by the Gunaruwan Report, which\nnevertheless retains it validity. There\nare several countries that have suffered badly as a result of MCC agreements.\nSome of these are also mentioned in the Gunaruwan Committee Report. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was a\nreport in the Daily News on 8th<\/sup> July 2020 of a study by a top\naccountancy firm Ernst & Young on the land and other subjects covered by\nthe MCC agreement. The report adds that, beside the privately owned or\ncultivated land, a significance portion of the land comes under the purview\nand protection of the Department of Wildlife Conservation and the Department of\nForestry of Sri Lanka\u201d. In this connection, another news report says that 500,000\nhectares (28% of the total forest land in the Island) is being considered for privatization\nin the North. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It must be\nmentioned that there is a report of an investigation into the activities of\nErnst & Young done in 2016 that describes how Ernst & Young, and three\nother major accountancy firms, had been used by the EU and IMF to use the\neconomic crisis to impose privatization of state owned assets on indebted\ncountries in Europe, despite mass resistance. They made huge profits and were\nalso able to acquire vast wealth by under-valuing assets and reselling them. The\npromised revenue to the indebted states was not realized. The wages and working\nconditions of the recruited staff was at reduced rates, thereby increasing income\ninequality in those countries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Therefore\nthe SLFPA Government should not under any circumstances sign the MCC agreement.\nAs this agreement has the unusual requirement that some of the conditions have\nto be implemented prior to signing the agreement, it would appear that these\nconditions are already being implemented. These should all be stopped and\nreversed forthwith in the interest of our country and our people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ACSA and SOFA agreements<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above\nagreements are military agreements that are thrust on our countries by the USA.\nThe Acquisition and Cross Services\nAgreement (ACSA) <\/strong>is an agreement which allows American troops coming from\noutside to make use of our airports, harbours and military facilities and also\nengage in joint maneuvers with the Sri Lankan forces. They can also engage in bilateral\nand multilateral military exercises.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Status of Forces Agreements<\/strong> (SOFA)<\/strong> has been signed periodically\nwith over 80 countries throughout the world by the USA. These can vary from\ncountry to country and from time to time. In response to a question asked by\nthe Mahanayaka of the Malwatte Chapter on 24th May 2019, referring to the ongoing\ndiscussion between the UNP and USA\nGovernments on the SOFA agreement, the US Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Ms.Teplitz,\nstated that it was to allow\nUS forces to tour the country and to conduct combined security operations\u201d. But\nin fact an unlimited number of US troops will be allowed to enter Sri Lanka\nwearing uniform with guns in hand and accompanied by heavy armaments at any\ntime they wish to come. They will be given all diplomatic privileges and\nwhatever they bring cannot be examined by Sri Lankan officials. They have to be\ngiven access to enter any institution or premises that they desire to enter at\nany time. If they commit any crime they cannot be tried by Sri Lankan Courts,\nbut only by Courts in the USA. They are not liable to pay any taxes or duty on\nanything they import or export. The American troops will be free to move to any\npart of the country, at any time without prior permission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With our\nsmall armed forces Sri Lanka will not be able to get rid of the US troops if\nthey wish to stay on in the country. The USA can make Sri Lanka a military base\nand the whole country a colony. If we agree to these terms we shall loose our independence,\nsovereignty and territorial integrity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus, it is\nextremely worrying when Cabinet spokesman, Minister Bandula Gunawardene, is\nreported to have stated at a media briefing, while denying signing the MCC agreement,\nthat the Government has entered into ACSA and SOFA agreements with the US\nGovernment. The situation is made more disturbing when newspapers report that\nBasil Rajapakse allegedly mentioned that if this has been stated by Bandula\nGunawardene then it could be correct. I earnestly request the President and the\nPrime Minister to make a categorical statement denying the above newspaper\nreports if they are not true, and to reassure the people that the Government\nhas no intension of signing or implementing the MCC, ACSA and SOFA agreements.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PROF.TISSA VITARANA President Gotabhaya Rajapakse had requested the Cabinet of Ministers to submit their opinions on the Prof.Lalithasiri Gunaruwan Report on the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) agreement with the USA. This has now been extended for a further two weeks. Though not a Cabinet Minister, but as the leader of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104458\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}