{"id":90757,"date":"2019-06-25T15:30:40","date_gmt":"2019-06-25T22:30:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=90757"},"modified":"2019-06-25T15:30:40","modified_gmt":"2019-06-25T22:30:40","slug":"movement-to-stop-usa-wants-sofa-and-acsa-stopped-in-their-tracks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/06\/25\/movement-to-stop-usa-wants-sofa-and-acsa-stopped-in-their-tracks\/","title":{"rendered":"Movement to \u2018STOP USA\u2019 wants SOFA and ACSA stopped in their tracks"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0Ranmini Gunasekara Courtesy Ceylon Today<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

If Sri Lanka does not take a stand against the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) and the Acquisition and Cross Services Agreement (ACSA) immediately, there will be no turning back, claimed Parliamentarian Wimal Weerawansa today (25).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was speaking at a Media conference organised by the STOP United States of America (USA) organisation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we speak, the United States Military ship and Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis is anchored near the Trincomalee harbour. This vessel belongs to the US Indo-Pacific Command. This Indo-Pacific Command is responsible for Military operations in an area which encompasses 52 per cent of the Earth\u2019s surface. We know that 26,000 of the soldiers of the Indo-Pacific Command are stationed in Japan whilst 24,000 are stationed in South Korea. Currently, Task Force 73, a US Navy task force of the US Seventh Fleet is stationed in this vessel off the Trincomalee harbour,\u201d he claimed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He further alleged that this Military task force was biding its time until the Sri Lankan Government signs the SOFA and the ACSA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They\u2019re all waiting for us to sign those Agreements. But none of these agreements have even been presented to the Parliament nor has the Government made the citizens aware of it. Even Ministers haven\u2019t been given a proper briefing as to what these two entail,\u201d he further claimed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Weerawansa also said the US Government has aided in the construction of four buildings that can house up to 4,000 people in Batticaloa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We don\u2019t know whether this is to house people who are displaced from a disaster. But what is this disaster that only affects Batticaloa that only the US knows about?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also alleged that the US Company Trimble has now taken over the Survey Department of Sri Lanka, and that even the American Bar Association has asked to set up office in Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

China hasn\u2019t asked us to open up an office here for their Bar Association, neither has India, so why does America want one so badly? This is to make sure that their contractors, officials and Military officers, receive immunity from Sri Lankan law. Even if they were to assault a Sri Lankan woman, they will not be taken to Court. On the one off chance that they are arrested, the American Bar Association will intervene,\u201d claimed Weerawansa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, also speaking at the Media conference, MP Udaya Gammanpila said that the time has arrived for Sri Lanka to find friends in countries that will not intervene in Sri Lanka\u2019s internal affairs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The time has come for us to find allies that will not intervene in our internal affairs. Even if this agreement was for a certain time period, what happens when the time period is over and if the US refuses to leave? If this was the Maldives, Bangladesh or Nepal coming into our country and refusing to leave, we can chase them out. But are we strong enough to do the same with the US?\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He further said if these Agreements are signed, even a change in Government at the next Elections will not stop the US.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If we are to stop this, we need to do it now. This is not something that can be accomplished by just politicians. All of us need to lay aside our religious or racial biases and stand together to support the movement to \u2018STOP USA\u2019,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0Ranmini Gunasekara Courtesy Ceylon Today If Sri Lanka does not take a stand against the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) and the Acquisition and Cross Services Agreement (ACSA) immediately, there will be no turning back, claimed Parliamentarian Wimal Weerawansa today (25). He was speaking at a Media conference organised by the STOP United States of […]<\/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-90757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90757","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=90757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90757\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}