{"id":108700,"date":"2020-11-15T16:09:34","date_gmt":"2020-11-15T23:09:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=108700"},"modified":"2020-11-15T16:09:34","modified_gmt":"2020-11-15T23:09:34","slug":"the-pohottuwa-government-of-sri-lanka-part-2-c8i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/11\/15\/the-pohottuwa-government-of-sri-lanka-part-2-c8i\/","title":{"rendered":"THE POHOTTUWA GOVERNMENT OF SRI LANKA Part 2 C8I"},"content":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Those supporting USA defended the Agreements. The Colombo-Trincomalee railway link<\/strong>   which the public associate\nwith the MCC, would not be dividing the country, it would be linking it more\nstrongly, they said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 In Japan, there is a\nhigh-speed railway line between Tokyo\nand Nigata. The bullet train takes less than two\nhours to complete the journey and no one has access to the bullet train track. This train track has not divided the country or the people, but\nactually connected them with a fast and safe mode of transport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 A high-speed railway link\nbetween Colombo and Trincomalee would  \nalso connect the two places. It will accelerate income growth and job\ncreation, bringing about economic benefits to people, as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Critics flatly rejected this.  Firstly, the Trincomalee \u2013Colombo transport\ncorridor is viewed with suspicion because it is suggested by the USA.  The Compact is designed to meet specific\nnational interests of the USA. This is going to be Sri Lanka\u2019s first electric\nrail link. It will be useful to USA, but no one else they said. It has a clear military importance to USA. USA\nbrought in military items by plane to Katunayake and then transported them by\nroad to their ships in the Trincomalee sea.  A high speed train will be better. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harim Pieris pointed out that the MCC<\/strong> grant is non-repayable. A half a billion dollar grant is no\njoke.  A significant part of the MCC grant\nwas for improving inter-provincial roads, improving access to markets, reducing\ntransportation related losses on agriculture and lowering transport time and\nhence costs for industry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The MCC grant would also   help the government to compile a complete\ninventory of all state lands and to improve the evaluation system of all lands.\nAlso, to build on the government\u2019s e-Land Registry and to improve the Deeds\nRegistry by digitizing existing records. In addition, MCC   would improve\ntenure security for all land holders by moving properties from the archaic\ndeeds system to a title registration system. These\nare all international best practice in   land administration of land. The reality is we have looked a gift horse\nin the mouth. MCC is a gift not a loan, concluded Harim. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ranil Wickremesinghe   said\nin Parliament that SOFA <\/strong>was not an\nagreement but an exchange of letters signed between the US Embassy and our\nForeign Ministry. These agreements generally establish the framework under\nwhich US military personnel operate in a foreign country. SOFA provides for\nrights and privileges of covered individuals while in foreign jurisdictions and\nhow the laws of foreign jurisdictions apply to US personnel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This has been going on from 1995, he said. Such letters were\nexchanged in May, 1995 during the Presidency of Chandrika Kumaratunga. One of\nthe letters is as follows: The (Foreign) Ministry is pleased to inform the\nabove-mentioned personnel that US military personnel, civil employees of the\nDepartment of Defence will be accorded the same status as provided to technical\nand administrative staff of the Embassy of the United States. The Ministry also\nwishes to inform that this reply shall be considered an agreement effective May\n16, 1995. This shows that diplomatic privileges\nare already accorded to US military personnel and civil employees of the\nDepartment of Defence, he concluded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since there was so much opposition to SOFA, the USA changed SOFA\u2019s\nname to \u2018Visiting Forces Agreement.\u2019 Lasanda Kurukulasuriya pointed out that Philippines\nPresident Duterte threatened to abrogate the VFA the Philippines had with the\nUS, but found that the treaty can only be repealed by an Act of the US\nCongress. From the little that is known about the SOFA, its terms will reduce\nthe host state to the level of a neo-colony, she observed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A draft copy of the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), under\nnegotiation between the US and Sri Lanka, was obtained by the Sunday Times. <\/em>Although\nthe full details of the proposed SOFA pact still remain largely confidential\nwhat is now known should surely ring alarm bells among those in this country\nconcerned about its sovereignty and security, said Sunday Times<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The agreement said The US is seeking\nthat aircraft and vessels of the US Government to be free from boarding and\ninspection.\u201d This means none of the state security arms, like the Navy, Coast\nGuard or the Customs can board any US military vessel or aircraft when it is in\na Sri Lankan airport or sea port – or even vehicles on land and helicopters, an\ninternationally accepted sovereign right of a country. The US wants exemption\nfrom licence, Customs duties, taxes and any other charges within Sri Lanka. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The US is also seeking authorization\nfor its troops to wear uniforms whilst \u2018on duty\u2019 in any part of Sri Lanka,\ncarrying arms and radio communications equipment. Both in terms of the Sri\nLanka Constitution and normal laws, only the armed forces and the Police are\nempowered to carry out this task. The only exceptions are Sri Lankans who are\nauthorized by licence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 In addition, Washington wants US troops and\ncontractors to be allowed to enter and leave Sri Lanka, individually or\ncollectively, with the use of only their US identification. This will mean they\nwill carry no passports or visas.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the privileges that the US has asked for, is the right of US\nmilitary personnel to carry weapons and be subject not to Sri Lankan\njurisdiction but to US law in the event of some crime or criminal activity.\nThey will be beyond Sri Lanka\u2019s jurisdiction even if one of them kills or\nwounds a local person with his weapon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those stationed in Sri Lanka will be using their US driving\nlicences which need not be produced before any local authority. Nor would their\npassports or other travel documents be inspected. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their vehicles on Sri Lankan roads cannot be inspected or boarded.\nThey could kill anybody and get away with it as they would just wave their\ndiplomatic papers. There is also a clause that exempts US vessels and aircraft\nbeing boarded and inspected by Sri Lankan authorities. It also exempts\nequipment and other articles and material being used under this agreement, from\ninspection within Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The proposed SOFAwould\nallow US military personnel to operate in any part of Sri Lanka, without\nrestriction. Sri Lankans fear that SOFA would make the whole island a US-controlled\nsuper state<\/a> operating above\nthe Sri Lankan laws and state<\/a> said Asoka Bandarage.\u201d  (Continued.)\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS Those supporting USA defended the Agreements. The Colombo-Trincomalee railway link   which the public associate with the MCC, would not be dividing the country, it would be linking it more strongly, they said.  In Japan, there is a high-speed railway line between Tokyo and Nigata. The bullet train takes less than two hours to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-108700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kamalika-pieris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108700","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=108700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108700\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}