BBC – China to build new international airport in Sri Lanka
AFP – China lends S.Lanka cash for new airport, railways
The Hindu – India, Sri Lanka sign $67.4 m Line of Credit
Ceylon Daily News -India gives US$ 67.4 m to upgrade Southern railway line
Reuters – UPDATE 1-China to loan Sri Lanka $290 mln for airport, railways
The Hindu – Sri Lanka to amend law on NGOs
The Sri Lankan Government is to amend the Act which deals with Non Governmental Organisations (NGO) with the objective to enable the concerned agencies to probe their activities and take appropriate action against them, Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayaka told the Daily Mirror online.
It quoted the Premier as saying that a Ministerial Committee appointed to propose amendments to the Act has already put forward a draft document which will be taken up for discussion and later implemented after the parliamentary election due on April 8.
“The draft document has already been sent to the Attorney General for his advice and it includes a proposal to give the government all the powers to take action against Non Governmental Organisations”, it said.
Further, Sri Lanka Prime Minister noted that several NGOs and International NGOs were found to have acted against the sovereignty of Sri Lanka in recent times but appropriate action cannot be taken against them as the existing laws under the NGO Act are weak.
The Website quoted the Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Internal Administration which deals with NGOs, R.D. Newton Perera as saying that the Government also wants to probe the financial accounts of several NGOs.
He told the Website that the government will seek to obtain details of the monthly expenditure of some NGOs as, according to him, most of the money obtained by some organisations is being used for their personal welfare and not the displaced people.
Last week Sri Lankan Foreign Affairs Minister Rohitha Bogollagama complained to two visiting envoys that some countries were channelling funds via INGOs and local Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) to destabilise democracy in the island-nation.
A statement by the Foreign Ministry quoted Mr. Bogollagama as saying, “An amazing amount of assets have been found by the same authorities and it is a proven fact now that these funds have reached Sri Lanka via some International INGOs and local NGOs. He expressed his highest dissatisfaction for channelling such funds to destabilise democracy in Sri Lanka.”
Though the Minister has not named any particular country, his remarks assume significance against the backdrop of the February 10 interview of Gothabaya Rajapaksa, Sri Lanka Defence Secretary, with the Singapore-based Straits Times where he had talked about the alleged coup plans of the former Army chief, retired General Sarath Fonseka.
“We are 100 per cent convinced that western countries with vested interests were backing him. Even the U.S., and countries like Norway, spent lots of money on his campaign. More
All articles from 25/02
The Hindu – Fonseka to face more charges
The Sri Lankan government on Thursday made it known that fresh charges would be framed against the defeated opposition common consensus presidential candidate, retired General Sarath Fonseka, in civil courts under the Penal Code and Exchange Control Act in two weeks.
Minister of Export Development and International Trade G.L. Peiris told a news conference here that the former Army Chief would be charged on counts of fraud, condoning fraud, plotting against the government, creating unrest within the Army and keeping army deserters under his protection.
General (retired) Fonseka is in the custody of the military on a number of charges including treason.
The commander-turned-politician was picked up on the night of February 8 after a raid on his election office by a group of military personnel. The raid and the subsequent detention triggered a furore within and outside Sri Lanka.
One of the allegations faced by General Fonseka is that he had favoured the company partly owned by his son-in-law in award of contracts for defence supplies to the Army.
The CID had informed the local courts that when he was the Army Chief, the General had approved of four suspicious tenders to a firm allegedly run by his son-in-law Dhanuna Tilekeratne.
Hindustan Times – More charges against Fonseka
Indian Express – Charges to be framed against Fonseka in civil courts
Business Week – Sri Lanka Says General Fonseka to Face Civilian Court
Reuters – Sri Lanka opposition coalition splits ahead of polls
BBC – General Sarath Fonseka to stand in Sri Lanka election
Washington Post – Detained ex-army chief to contest Sri Lanka vote
Reuters – IMF delays third tranche of $2.6 bln Sri Lanka loan
By Shihar Aneez
The International Monetary Fund said on Thursday it is delaying the third tranche of a $2.6 billion loan to Sri Lanka after the government missed its 2009 deficit reduction targets.
IMF officials told a news conference that Sri Lanka’s domestic budget borrowing — consistent with a budget deficit target of 7 percent of gross domestic production — was exceeded by a substantial amount.
“It would be more than 1.5-1.75 percent than the target, but we haven’t seen the final number yet,” said Brian Aitken, the IMF mission head to Sri Lanka. “The third tranche will be delayed and completed when the budget is formulated after the election.”
The central bank had earlier said that the $40 billion economy likely missed 2009 budget deficit goal of 7 percent set by the IMF as a condition for the loan.
The third tranche is worth around $318 million of the remaining loan of around $2 billion and was planned to be approved this month after considering the island nation’s commitment to the IMF targets.
Sri Lanka has not presented its full year budget for this year due to two national elections in the first four months. The parliamentary polls are scheduled on April 8 after President Mahinda Rajapaksa won his re-election on Jan. 26.
“We agreed with the government under these circumstances, it makes sense for us to re-engage in a more comprehensive way following the elections and formation of new cabinet, in the context of a new budget,” Aitken said.
The third tranche review will be completed in May, he said. More
Reuters – EU to halt Sri Lanka trade preferences amid human rights concern
The European Union said on Monday it planned to withdraw preferential trade benefits to Sri Lanka because of concerns about the south Asian island’s human rights record.
The European Commission, which oversees the 27-nation bloc’s trade policy, said an investigation had revealed significant shortcomings in Sri Lanka’s implementation of three UN human rights conventions linked to preferential trade tariffs.
The trade benefits, worth about 100 million euros ($136.1 million) a year to Sri Lanka, will be withdrawn in six months’ time unless EU concerns are addressed, the Commission said.
“I hope Sri Lanka will sit with us over the next six months in order to agree upon a set of measures that will result in rapid… progress in relation to the human rights shortcomings we have identified,” EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht said in a statement.
Sri Lanka benefits from concession in the EU’s Generalised System of Preferences Plus (GSP+), an incentive scheme tied to the improvement of human rights and good governance.
The scheme offers tariff cuts to support vulnerable developing countries.
Brussels has consistently warned Sri Lanka it must meet 27 international human rights conventions to retain its GSP Plus status.
The country came under pressure last year from Western nations, including those in Europe with large Tamil populations, because of civilian deaths in the final phase of the war against the Tamil Tigers, which ended with the separatists’ defeat.
Suspension of the preferential tariffs could hit Sri Lanka’s booming textile industry hard. The country earned a record $3.47 billion from exports of clothing to EU markets in 2008, the largest source of its foreign currency earnings.
(Reporting by Bate Felix; Editing by Susan Fenton)
2010-11 itinerary – Sri Lanka in Australia
Tour match v Queensland, 22 October, Brisbane
Tour match v New South Wales, 24 October, Sydney
T20 tour match v New South Wales, 27 October, Sydney
Twenty20 international, 31 October, Perth
1st ODI, 3 November, Melbourne
2nd ODI, 5 November, Sydney
3rd ODI, 7 November, Brisbane
Times of India – Free Fonseka, Lanka monks appeal to Rajapaksa
AP -Sri Lankan Buddhists: Release opposition leader
Senior Sri Lankan Buddhist monks urged the president on Sunday to release his main rival in last month’s presidential election, who was detained on allegations of conspiring to overthrow the government while serving as army chief.
AFP – Sri Lanka monks back arrested ex-army chief
Hindustan Times – Army unmoved by growing support for Fonseka
Reuters Canada – Sri Lankans, police clash again over detained general
ABC TV Foreign Correspondent – Sri Lanka : Hell or High Water?
Reporter: Eric Campbell
If they stay they face intimidation, violence even death. If they go they put their lives and life savings in the hands of people smugglers, run the gauntlet of naval patrols and the perils of the sea itself. They are the Tamils of Sri Lanka and many of them are choosing to take the high water over the hell at home. For some it’s a case of if at first you don’t succeed, try again.
AFP - Sri Lanka president sacks parliament: spokesman
Times of India – Sri Lankan parliament dissolved
The Hindu -Rajapaksa dissolves Parliament
CBC.ca – Sri Lankan parliament dissolved amid controversy
Indian Express – Rajapaksa dissolves Lanka Parliament
Telegraph.co.uk - China’s malign influence in Sri Lanka
by Peter Foster
The democratically elected Government of Sri Lanka has once again displayed its intolerance of any opposition by arresting Sarath Fonseka, the retired army general who stood against the incumbent president Mahinda Rajapakse at the recent election.
My colleague Dean Nelson gives a graphic account today of the violent detention of Gen Fonseka (retd) by a group of soldiers who dragged him off to an unknown place of detention.
This is the latest in a series of ugly developments in Sri Lanka which, over the last three or four years as the country has slid ever closer to becoming an authoritarian state under the chauvinist Rajapakse presidency.
Dissent against the government is increasingly not tolerated. Sri Lanka is now one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists, as was graphically demonstrated a year ago with the murder of Lasantha Wickrematunge whose letter from “beyond the grave” I posted at the time. If you have not read it before, I urge you to do so.
What does any of this have to do with China? Well, a lot really since the People’s Democratic Dictatorship of China is actively bankrolling the emergence of a new “People’s dictatorship” in Colombo that highlights the increasingly malign influence of China in global affairs.
Sri Lanka might be too small to “matter” but to see a South Asian democracy like Sri Lanka morphing into a corrupt, self-serving authoritarian state with the support of the Chinese state is a legitimate cause for concern. More
