INDIA-SRILANKA-MALDIVES

Lanka needs to do more on rights: US

News Round Up July 22

By Easwaran Rutnam in The Daily Mirror
US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Robert Blake says Sri Lanka needs to take more steps to encourage greater reconciliation and greater democracy and also noted the need for improvements in media freedom.

Blake noted that achieving reconciliation will be a key element in peace and one part of achieving reconciliation will be to finish resettling all internally displaced personas as soon as possible.

“Another key part of reconciliation is to ensure accountability for past wrongs. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had recently told External Affairs minister G.L Peiris that Sri Lanka’s Lessons learnt and reconciliation commission holds promise and we hope and expect it will fulfill that promise. A last pillar of reconciliation will be to advance democracy and human rights. Minister Peiris affirmed during his visit to Washington that Sri Lanka wants to review and strengthen its institutions of democracy,” he said  

Blake added that progress in implementing greater power sharing with the provinces, implementing the 17th amendment to empower independent commissions such as the human rights, police and bribery commissions and efforts to safeguard media freedom will all be important steps in ensuring an important step of peace and prosperity for all Sri Lankans.

The US official, who met President Mahinda Rajapaksa during his visit to Sri Lanka today, said that the President understands the need for power sharing and wants to go forward.

Blake also said that there is some misunderstanding on the role of the UN panel appointed by UN secretary General Ban ki-moon to advice the UN Chief on Sri Lanka. Blake was of the view that the UN Secretary General appointed the panel to advice him about what might be done to help the Commission in Sri Lanka.

“The US believes the UN panel can play an important advisory role with Sri Lanka’s commission. The panel is only an advisory panel and does not have an investigative role. It can benefit Sri Lanka’s commission,” he said.

On the US decision to review GSP trade benefits for Sri Lanka Blake said that it is important to make a distinction on the US GSP process and the EU GSP plus process saying that while the US had initiated a process to look at human rights in Sri Lanka GSP will remain for Sri Lanka during the process.  (Daily Mirror online)

2. Upholding of SF’s rights, Fort Magistrate orders

By Lakmal Sooriyagoda in the Daily Mirror, July 22
The Colombo Fort Magistrate yesterday ordered the prisons authorities to ensure Gen.  (Rtd.) Sarath Fonseka’s right to his Parliamentary Privileges including attending Parliament sessions, party leader meetings, select committee meetings and consultative committee meetings. Accordingly, Magistrate Lanka Jayaratne directed the court registrar to send a written order to this effect to the Prisons Superintendent.Filing a motion in connection with the HiCorp case, counsel Nalin Ladduwahetty with Shiraz Noordeen complained to court the relevant authorities had prevented the General Fonseka from attending Parliamentary consultative committee meetings on July 16.

Defence counsel Nalin Ladduwahetti told Court that the Colombo Fort Magistrate and Colombo Chief Magistrate had already given order by allowing General Fonseka to attend to parliamentary meetings. The Counsel alleged the court order which was issued earlier too had been violated by the authorities by not allowing him to attend parliamentary consultative committee meetings over the Ministry of Health and Nutrition and Ministry of Public Administration and Home Affairs on July 16.

After having considered the submissions, the Magistrate observed that prison authorities should comply with previous Court orders. Accordingly, the Magistrate ordered the Prisons Superintendent to ensure General Fonseka’s Parliamentary Privileges by providing necessary arrangements to bring him parliament.

In this case, the Attorney General had indicted General Sarath Fonseka, Wellington Trenton De Hoedt and Dhanuna Tillekaratne the son-in-law of General Fonseka with 21 charges with regard to Hicorp military procurements. http://www.dailymirror.lk/print/index.php/news/front-page-news/16363.html

3. UNP asks whether Govt. is sincere about reforms
By Kelum Bandara in The Daily Mirror, July 22
The UNP said yesterday that the party had doubts whether the ruling party was genuine in engaging the opposition for talks on constitutional changes.

The party raised such concerns even after a few rounds of talks with the ruling party.  Addressing a press conference, UNP MP Lakshman Kiriella said that the government was acting in ‘precipitant haste’ to replace the executive presidency with an executive premiership despite the most immediate needs of the country being something different. MP Kiriella urged the government to implement the 17th Amendment as a measure to instil confidence in the Opposition about these efforts to introduce constitutional changes.

“People never asked for drastic changes to the Constitution. What they want is to implement the 17th Amendment. It was a pre-requisite for the extension of the GSP+ facility. The government was not interested in retaining this facility by adhering to the principles of good governance.  However, they are interested in extending the terms of the President. What a wonderful government!” he remarked.

The UNP MP said, “We do not know whether the government is adopting a delaying tactic. Or else, they are trying to distract the public attention from other burning issues. Once, we burnt our hands by having negotiations with the government. They engineered a split in the UNP, and subsequently 17 UNP MPs crossed over to the ruling party.”

He charged that the govt. had taken a double standard even on the implementation of the 13th Amendment.http://www.dailymirror.lk/print/index.php/news/front-page-news/16357.html

4. Sajith, Bandara to continue agitation:
By Kelum Bandara in The Daily Mirror, July 22
UNP MP for the Moneragala district Ranjith Madduma Bandara said yesterday that he, along with his colleague MP Sajith Premadasa, would agitate for the voting right to the party’s local government members in the election of five key office bearers including the leader.

Earlier, MP Premadasa, in his meeting with the members of the Reforms Committee, made this proposal. He opined that the party’s grassroots level members should have a say in the appointment of the party leader. However, the Committee has not included this proposal in its report submitted to the Working Committee recently. As things stand today, only the members of the Working Committee and the Parliamentary Group can participate in this ballot.

MP Bandara who agitates for a change in the leadership said yesterday that voting rights should be given to the local government members. “Most Working Committee members have been appointed by the present leader. Therefore, they will side him whenever his leadership is challenged at a secret ballot,” the Moneragala district MP said. However, a Reforms Committee member told Daily Mirror on condition of anonymity that there were 1500 local government members of the UNP, but around 400 of them had teamed up with the government now.   “We have a limited number of MPs. There are 1500 LG members. If the voting right is given to them, the clout of MPs will be reduced to a great extent in the appointment of office bearers. Therefore, most MPs do not like this idea,” he said.  http://www.dailymirror.lk/print/index.php/news/front-page-news/16358.html

5. Indo-Lanka talks to release fishermen

By Yohan Perera in the Daily Mirror, July 22
A Ministerial level talk is to take place between India and Sri Lanka to get Sri Lankan fishermen held in Orissa released.
An official from Caritas Sri Lanka SEDEC who had been working together with the Ministry to get the six fishermen released said Minister of Fisheries Dr. Rajitha Senaratne had sought an appoinment with his Indian counterpart.
Both the Ministry and Caritas have also been in touch with the authorities in Delhi through Caritas India to get the fishermen released.
According to the sources the case against these Sri Lankan fishermen was taken up on July 17 but it has been postponed to July 27.  http://www.dailymirror.lk/print/index.php/news/news/16342.html

Sharing:

Your comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *