Sri Lanka's finance minister, Ravi Karunanayake is to attend the International Monetary Fund (IMF) annual meeting which is to take place in Peru from October 9 to 11. Mr Karunanayake who will be joining the prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe on his visit to Japan, will leave from Japan on October 7, reports the government's official news site .
The British Tamils Forum said that it is “paramount” for “victims, their representatives and civil society organisations” to be involved “in the design, implementation and monitoring stages” of an accountability mechanism to deal with mass atrocities committed during the armed conflict. In a statement released on Monday, the British organisation said “We urge the International Community to ensure that the ensuing processes are not compromised or hijacked by a Sri Lankan domestic process in which the victims will have no faith”. “Consultation with victims, their representatives and civil society organisations is paramount in the design, implementation and monitoring stages of the process formulation,” it said. “A robust witness protection system for the victims and witnesses within and outside Sri Lanka is extremely important for them to come forward and their protection from persecution by Sri Lanka.” The statement went on to “express concern at the sentiment of Sri Lanka’s domestic statements on the passing of the consensus resolution at the UNHRC”. “It must be noted that the ground realities for the victims in the North-East are yet to change,” said BTF.
The UN Human Rights Council resolution in Sri Lanka brings “great expectations” for reconciliation, truth-seeking, non-recurrence and an opportunity for a political solution, said The Hindu in an editorial on Monday. Stating that Sri Lanka’s “democratic institutions and instruments of governance require a systemic overhaul after having been undermined by the previous regime”, The Hindu said the UN resolution “emphasises justice and accountability for excesses committed by both sides, especially in the last phase of the civil war; on a political process to devolve power to the ethnic minorities; and an overall commitment to strengthen governance and democracy and end what many thought was an atmosphere of impunity”. Noting that “for some, the idea of a judicial mechanism that includes foreign judges to investigate and prosecute perpetrators of war crimes and other offences may seem to fall short of the international inquiry of the sort they favour,” it added “an investigation process that inspires the confidence of victims to come forward and depose will have to be put in place”. “Fixing command responsibility for the bombing of civilians and the execution of those who surrendered, especially on political functionaries and their family members, is not going to be easy and must be marked by due process,” said the editorial.
Sri Lanka would support Japan's bid to obtain a seat at the UN Security Council, the prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told Japan's foreign affairs minister Fumio Kishida on Monday. Meeting Mr Kishida in Tokyo as he visited Japan, Mr Wickremesinghe "appreciated the support given by Japan at this year's UNHRC sessions and recalled that Japan was among the five countries which fully backed Sri Lanka at these sessions", the Daily Mirror reported. See more here .
The Sri Lankan president, Maithripala Sirisena distributed land deeds for 613 acres of land in Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu which had been occupied by the military, to "their original owners and to the relevant institutions", the government's official news site reported . Visiting Kilinochchi on Monday, Mr Sirisena inaugurated an event by the National Food Production Program as well as the Aquaculture Development Centre at Iranamadu.
Sri Lanka will apply for the EU trade concession, GSP+ before the end of this year, the country's deputy minister of foreign affairs, Harsha De Silva, said when addressing the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce on Monday. “Before the end of the year we will make formal application and regain GSP Plus by the middle of 2016,” he was quoted by Economy Next as saying, adding that the consensus resolution adopted at the UN Human Rights Council had "helped repair strained foreign relations".
The World Bank says Sri Lanka must manage pressure on its currency and raise revenue to reduce its fiscal deficit, in a new report on South Asia. “Structural challenges include increasing fiscal revenue and narrowing a persistent current account deficit linked to structural competitiveness issues in the export sector,” the bank said in its bi-annual South Asia Economic Focus report. The report further said that access to cheap funds is dwindling with the country approaching upper middle income status, so borrowing terms are seen as becoming more commercial, which means with its limited...
Sri Lankan ministers met with senior officials of the ministry of defence this week and reassured them that they would protect the army against war crimes charges. The acting defence minister, Ruwan Wijewardene was quoted by the country's Sunday Times newspaper as saying, "it was the full responsibility of this government to protect the army and the good reputation it had maintained." "Nowhere in the OISL report was it said that the Sri Lanka Army as a whole was responsible for committing alleged war crimes," he added. Minister Champika Ranawaka echoed his views, stating, "the army was a national institution and it was the responsibility of the Government to protect it." He reportedly added, "the army had engaged in anti-terrorist operations which was a legitimate exercise the world over."
Sri Lanka's prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe met with his Japanese counterpart on Sunday, Shinzo Abe, in Kyoto during a five day visit to Japan. Bilateral talks took place on trade. Mr Wickremesinghe is expected to sign several bilateral agreements with Japan, the Sri Lankan government's official news site reported . Mr Wickremesinghe was accompanied by Sri Lanka's ambassador to Japan, Dhammika Dissanayake and the minister for technology, technical education and employment, Susil Premajayantha. On Monday, Mr Wickremesinghe is expected to address Japan's parliament.
An Indian national was arrested by Sri Lankan police this week, accused of violating her visa conditions by engaging in commercial activity, reported Ceylon Today . The 46 year old woman was arrested by the Ilavalai police division. She was produced before court and charged with Rs 50,000 fine.