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By Shamindra Ferdinando
Newly appointed Chairperson of the Human Rights Commission retired Supreme Court Justice Rohini Marasinghe has called for a meeting with the Director CID, Director TID and the head of the Police Legal Division today (29) to discuss cases of those who had been held under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA).
In addition to those who had been taken in during the war, under the PTA, several hundred arrests were made in the aftermath of the 2019 Easter Sunday carnage.
Sources said that PTA cases would be a priority for HRC Chief Marasinghe who received the appointment in the wake of former UPFA lawmaker Jagath Balasuriya quitting the post.
Government and civil society sources told The Island that they hadn’t been able to reach a consensus on the PTA as the latter was sharply divided over the issue. Authoritative government sources said that the PTA couldn’t be done away with as requested by a section of the international community and some civil society organisations. However, the government was ready to explore ways and means of addressing the concerns of those demanding the abolition of the PTA, they said.
The European Union and the Geneva-based Human Rights Council want Sri Lanka to abolish the PTA. Both have raised specific issues such as the detention of lawyer Hejaaz Hizbullah over his alleged involvement with the Easter Sunday attackers.
Dr. Balasuriya resigned in the wake of criticism of his appointment. Following his resignation, the HRCSL called for the appointment of what it called a distinguished person for the post. BASL President Saliya Peiris, in a letter addressed to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa stated: “Since its inception the HRCSL has been chaired by persons who have distinguished themselves in the fields of human rights and law. Prior to 2020, the Chairpersons of the Commission were Justice O.S.M. Seneviratne (retired Judge of the Supreme Court); Faisz Mustapha PC; Dr. Radhika Coomaraswamy; Justice P. Ramanathan (retired Judge of the Supreme Court); Justice S. Ananda Coomaraswamy (retired Judge of the Supreme Court); Justice Priyantha Perera (retired Judge of the Supreme Court) and Professor Deepika Udagama. As Your Excellency will note the Chair of the HRCSL has been held by either retired Judges of the Supreme Court or those who have been renown in Sri Lanka and internationally for their professional and academic work on human rights”.
In addition to Dr. Balasuriya, civil society activist and former head of Sevalanka Harsha Kumara Navaratne too resigned from HRCSL. The latter received appointment as Sri Lanka’s HC in Canada.
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By Ifham Nizam
Four turbines of the Sapugaskanda 72 MW power station A ceased to function due to a shortage of fuel yesterday. However, temporary measures were taken to run the power station B instead.
A senior management official of the Power Ministry said that Barge Mounted Power Plant at the Colombo Port too had failed to function due to a fuel shortage.
Plans are underway to go for emergency power purchases during the next six months, senior management of the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) said.
The Island learns that Power Minister Gamini Lokuge and Ministry Secretary Wasantha Perera had lengthy discussions on the issue, but CEB Chairman M.M.C. Ferdinando was not present.
CEB General Manager M.R. Ranatunga, contacted for comment, told The Island that coal stocks would be sufficient till September.
Fuel stocks are available only up till 10 January.
Ranatungha said the good news was that the demand had not increased unlike in the previous year, and the furnace fuel stock was sufficient until 24 January.
He said that if the CEB could not provide funds to make payments to the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation, it would face a serious issue where thermal power generation was concerned.
Over the past few weeks, the CEB had also battled with several breakdowns.
A senior official stressed that it would take around 45 days for oil tankers to arrive here. “Emergency power suppliers can generate electricity for a day or two with the available feul stocks, but beyond that the situation will become precarious” he added.
The CPC has increased the fuel prices –Heavy fuel from Rs. 70 to Rs. 110 and Nepatha from Rs. 74 to Rs. 84.
Energy Minister Udaya Gammanpila yesterday said that the Sapugaskanda Oil Refinery would be temporarily closed from 03 January, 2022, due to the shortage of foreign exchange to purchase crude oil.
Although the refinery is expected to resume its operations before 30 January, 2022, but 22222222222some claimed that it would take more time.
The Singapore-based energy and commodities company which was awarded the long-term contract to provide crude oil here is slated to commence supplying petroleum from 26 January, the Energy Ministry said.
During the procurement process, the relevant company should be informed 90 days in advance to purchase Murban Crude Oil used at Sapugaskanda refinery, the ministry explained.
It added that the shortage of foreign exchange had hampered the plan to buy alternative crude oil for emergency use.
Therefore, purchasing crude oil on credit had become difficult as Sri Lanka’s credit ratings were falling, a ministry official pointed out.
He, however, said there would not be a fuel shortage due to the refinery’s temporary closure, as it met only 14% of petrol and 29% of diesel requirements of the country.
The announcement came a month after Sri Lanka temporarily halted the operations at the Sapugaskanda Oil Refinery on 15 November in a bid to save foreign exchange.
However, the CPC has made it clear to the CEB that it cannot provide fuel on credit any further.
Ceylon Petroleum Corporation Chairman Sumith Wijesinghe said that the CEB was expected to pay Rs. 91 Billion to the CPC within two years.
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By Rathindra Kuruwita
Sri Lanka would lose its energy sovereignty in the coming months as it continued to sell energy assets to private entities owned by foreign countries, Education Secretary of the Frontline Socialist Party (FSP), Pubudu Jayagoda alleged yesterday.
Jayagoda said that on 26 December, Minister of Energy, Udaya Gammanpila had told The Hindu that an agreement would be signed with India within a month on the 99 oil tanks in Trincomalee. Gammanpila added that they had been having discussions with India on the agreement for 16 months.
“When Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla visited Sri Lanka recently, he posed for a photo near the oil tanks. When we saw the photo, we said that this was not a snap taken by a tourist and it was tantamount to a projection of power. Minister Gammanpila rejected our claim and said that Shringla was only on a sightseeing tour.
Gammanpila insisted, a few months ago, that they would take back some oil tanks from the IOC,” he said,
Jayagoda said that when Gammanpila, a few months back, said that they were trying to take back oil tanks from India, the Indian HC rejected the statement. The Indian HC insisted that there had been no discussion on returning the tanks to Sri Lanka.
“Ultimately, we know who was telling the truth. The Minister himself admits that they were talking to India for 16 months. There were 99 tanks built by the British and 15 tanks were given to IOC in 2003 for 35 years. There are 84 more tanks remaining, 16 can be used with minimal repairs. 20 are almost impossible to use. In 2017, the Yahapalana government tried to sign an agreement with India. It wanted to give 15 tanks to IOC forever and 10 tanks to the CPC. The remaining 74 were to be managed by a company jointly with IOC, but IOC has full decision-making powers,” he said.
The FSP Education Secretary said that the progressive forces had managed to thwart this plan in 2017. Now the Rajapaksa government has announced the establishment of Trinco Petroleum Terminals Ltd., to renovate the Trincomalee oil tank farm. Jayagoda said that while the government insisted that IOC would hold only 49% of the shares, it would have full operational control.
“Earlier this year, the Cabinet approved an amendment to the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation Act No. 28 of 1961. Before this act various multinationals had a monopoly in Sri Lanka and it was with this Act that the state took over and it needs to be amended to enable the privatisation of the sector. The Minister himself said that the changes to the laws would end the state’s refining monopoly. From what we hear the US and China are to build two refineries at a time when Sapugaskanda Oil Refinery is dying a natural death,” he said.
Jayagoda added that soon Sri Lanka would have to depend on private entities to purchase refined oil. The government was also planning to extend the agreement which transferred 33% of Sri Lanka’s petroleum infrastructure to the IOC, he said. “Once Trincomalee oil tanks are handed over to India, the import, refining and distribution and storage of petroleum will be privatised.”
“They will be able to control prices and there is nothing the government will be able to do. Moreover, these private companies will be owned by foreign countries. They are not investing only for profit but also for geopolitical reasons. Let’s take the Trincomalee oil tanks for example. They were built by the Brits to supply their troops and the capacity of these tanks exceeds our demand even now. India is investing and taking control of these tanks because this also gives them access to valuable strategic lands in Trincomalee. All of us are aware of the importance of Trincomalee to any maritime power,” he said.
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Ahmedabad, Dec 29 (PTI) Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner to India Asoka Milinda Moragoda on Wednesday said dialogue with New Delhi was important for the development of trust and understanding between the two countries on the Chinese presence in the island nation.
He said the two countries are trying to develop an understanding to the extent of having “red lines that the two sides will not cross”.
China does not have any security presence in Sri Lanka, and India has never told the island nation not to accept Chinese investment, he further said.
“Of course, given the nature of the power play in this region, Chinese presence can be looked at differently. In that context, I think our dialogue with India is what is important – to build trust and to understand each other. And, maybe, have some sort of red lines which both sides will not cross,” Moragona said through video link during an interactive session organised by Gandhinagar-based Rashtriya Raksha University.
“Those understandings are what we are trying to develop. I think as long as that is there, we should be able to move forward, because nobody has told us, definitely India has not, not to accept Chinese investment. China is one of the biggest investors in the world today. But as long as the investment does not create any strategic issue in India, we should be able to entertain that investment,” he said.
The envoy said better, transparent and candid dialogue between India and Sri Lanka will create less chances of misunderstanding.
In what was seen as a big jolt to New Delhi’s investment plans in Sri Lanka, the Rajapaksa government had unilaterally reneged on a tripartite deal with India and Japan to build a strategic deep-sea container port.
Sri Lanka, which had agreed in 2019 to develop the East Container Terminal (ECT) at the Colombo port with India and Japan, scrapped the deal and termed the ECT “a wholly-owned container terminal of the Sri Lanka Ports Authority.” Colombo said it would instead develop the port’s West Container Terminal (WCT) with investment from India and Japan. Much to India’s displeasure, China in November clinched the contract to develop ECT.
Moragoda said the development of Colombo port by a Chinese company is “a commercial proposition of investment,” even as 70 per cent of the 80 per cent of cargo coming to Sri Lanka being transshipped goes to India, adding that “in the economic sense, our basic business model is supply in India through trans-shipment”.
Sri Lanka’s main focus remains on how to get its economy right, and the visit of a delegation led by its Foreign Minister Basil Rajapaksa to the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit in January will be to facilitate Indian investments in the island nation, he said.
He said that India has a crucial role to play in helping Sri Lanka get its economy right.
Sri Lanka Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa, in New Delhi on a two-day visit, called on Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Minister of External Affairs Jaishankar where they discussed the four pillars of involvement potential for India to help Sri Lanka out of its economic crisis, the fourth one related to increasing Indian investment in different sectors in Sri Lanka, Moragoda said.
“In that context, on January 9, our Finance Minister Rajapasksa will be traveling to Gujarat for the Vibrant Gujarat (Global Summit) meeting, where we are having a private sector delegation going out there as well. We will also have tourism presence from Sri Lanka. And that will be the beginning of the activation of the fourth pillar to try to encourage investment to come in,” he said in a reply to a query.
The 10th Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit will be organised between January 10-12.
In a short address to the gathering on the issue of ‘Sri Lanka-India Relations: Way Forward’, Moragoda said, as far as economic relationship is concerned, his country is looking at ways to improve connections in infrastructure-related industry, more specifically ports.
The country is also looking at the energy sector, with a focus on sustainable energy, as some of its regions has a potential to produce up to 5,000 MW of renewable energy, he said.
The two countries also have possibilities in the petroleum sector, he added.
Tourism is a sector to help the country’s economy, and Indian tourism becomes important in this context, he said.
“Pre-COVID (pandemic), India accounted for 20-25 per cent of tourists coming to Sri Lanka. India is a main market …From Sri lanka, we have pilgrims who go out to Buddhist sites, we are looking at how we can broaden that, not only focusing on Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, but also other states like Odisha…We have also been looking at Gujarat,” he said.
Moragoda also emphasized the need for people-to-people and cultural relations, because the two countries come from “the same gene pool.” The need for exchange of students between the two countries will help build confidence, he said, adding that his country was working with Kerala for such exchange programmes.
He pointed out that Sri Lankan students are the single largest recipient of scholarships from India for military training institutes.
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