The International Monetary Fund has warned Sri Lanka that its move towards self-sufficiency, through import substitutions and other trade restrictions may damage the country’s economy.

Sri Lanka's 2014 budget has seen several tax rises on imports, for example, on boats, allowing local boat makers to target fishermen with impunity and earn rents, but also pharmaceutical firms who target the sick and the old, said LBO.

Export taxes were also imposed on primary goods makers such as rubber and cinnamon, in effect penalising efficient producers who are exporting at less than global market prices.

The body’s representative in Colombo Koshy Mathai told reporters that economic autarky has consistently failed elsewhere.

"It is not a matter of opinion. It is not a matter of IMF doctrine," Mathai said.

"It is simply a matter of fact. So I think we have to be very careful when it comes to import tariffs meant to protect a whole number of different industries. The increase in export and import taxes, we think will go against the direction of trade liberalisation and competitiveness,

Sri Lanka’s Public Administration and Home Affairs Minister W.D.J. Seneviratne complained that the ‘LTTE diaspora’ misled some of the country delegates in attendance at last month’s Commonwealth summit in the country.

Major General Jagath Dias of the Sri Lankan Army has been refused a visa to Australia, media reports said. He had applied to participate in an International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) project being held there this month.

 

"TAG welcomes this reiteration of a commitment to an international investigation into crimes against humanity by the Shadow Foreign Secretary"

"We were happy to have the opportunity to discuss systemic issues of ethnic cleansing via forced demographic change and the impact of systematic gender-based violence in destroying Tamil communities in Sri Lanka, the militarisation of the economy in the Tamil North and East that is depriving local communities of livelihood, all of these being elements in the state sponsored destruction of the Tamil people on the island."

"We have agreed to continue our positive engagement on these issues." 

A new hospital, built with the support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), has been inaugurated by a US official in Palai, Jaffna district.

USAID Mission Director Sherry Carlin and with Dr. P. Sathiyalingan, Minister of Health and Indigenous Medicine for the Northern Provincial Council, openend the $525,000 facility on Tuesday.

45 Tamil women that have been enlisted into the Sri Lankan army were taken on tour of ‘key’ places in the south of Sri Lanka.

The Defence Ministry described the process of introducing the Tamil women to ‘key places’ as part of reconciliation with the Tamil community.

The Sri Lankan government has rejected accusations by Action Contre la Faim (ACF) that the military was responsible for the massacre of 17 aid workers in Muttur.

In a statement, released by the army, the government questioned the motives behind ACF’s report, asking why the organisation had withheld evidence from the government.

"This is another instance of a pattern which has emerged since the end of the conflict where certain organizations level allegations against the GoSL without providing sufficient details to enable an investigation. These accusations are then repeated in several other documents, by different agencies, thereby contributing to forming an opinion which is then propagated, without substantiation.

A report by the US embassy concluded that members of Sri Lanka's Special Task Force, and the Muslim Home Guard, were the likely perpetrators.

“For instance because one of the provisions of our declaration is that there will be no amnesty in peace agreements for crimes of sexual violence and that there will be real accountability for what happened in the past. It is easy to see why the Sri Lankan government do not want to embrace those issues, but we will keep on raising them with them.”