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SRI LANKA
Economists ask for a debt moratorium to exit crisis
The leaders of eleven parties have asked President Rajapaksa for an interim government to adopt new policies to cope with a shortage of basic goods. Sirisena's Sri Lanka Freedom Party left the ruling coalition. Four main Buddhist groups call for the government to step aside.
Colombo (AsiaNews) – The leaders of an eleven-party alliance that has the majority in the Sri Lankan parliament have asked President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to form an interim government to adopt new policies as a first step to resolve the country's economic crisis. This follows the resignation of every cabinet minister in the wake of countrywide protests.
Political analysts agree that a new interim government should not follow the policies that have aggravated the current crisis, but implement concrete solutions to deal with high food prices, shortages of food as well as fuel, gas and electricity and essential medicines.
The main cause of the current crisis is the lack of dollars in the state's coffers, economic analysts told AsiaNews. Like most countries of the world facing similar economic crises, loans and interest payments should be delayed through a moratorium policy for a period of five years.
Had this been done instead of repaying a US$ 6 billion loan, money would have been used to obtain essential goods to alleviate the country’s suffering.
Some left-wing parties, including the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP), believe the government should not seek assistance from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), as this would only lead to further debt.
Recently, former Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe, leader of the United National Party (UNP), denied reports suggesting that he was asked to form a national unity government.
According to UNP sources, the only solution is a national consensus with a caretaker government of all parties under the Chief Justice to organise elections as soon as possible.
According to government sources, representatives from the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) led by former President Maithripala Sirisena met with President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Monday for urgent talks, but nothing came of them.
The SLFP has decided to leave the ruling coalition and its members now sit separately in Parliament.
For his part, President Rajapaksa, who discussed the crisis with 132 MPs from his coalition, asked all political parties in Parliament to offer their help in finding solutions to current economic challenges. He also appointed four ministers to conduct government business until a full cabinet is appointed.
The leaders of Sri Lanka's four major Buddhist groups also wrote to President Rajapaksa, presenting six proposals to resolve the economic crisis, including the formation of an interim government.
Meanwhile, protests continue in various parts of the country with larger crowds, which now include professionals, artists and students. In addition, protests are being reported among Sri Lanka communities around the world.
Sri Lankan lawyers hold massive protest as country in abyss of economic crisis
Colombo [Sri Lanka], April 5 (ANI): Sri Lanka is currently in the abyss of an economic crisis and amid this, a large number of lawyers staged a massive protest in front of the Attorney General’s Department on Tuesday in the Hultsdorph area in Colombo.
The demonstration, which commenced near the Aluthkade Magistrate’s Court, later proceeded towards the Attorney General’s Department, reported Colombo Times.
The lawyers are protesting the Attorney General’s move to withdraw certain lawsuits and also against the soaring prices of commodities that have gravely affected the day-to-day lives of the general public.
A protest letter with president Gotabaya Rajapaksa regarding the economic crisis in the country was officially lodged by the Bar Association of Sri Lanka, as per the news portal.
Amid the unprecedented economic crisis in Sri Lanka, the leader of the Opposition, Sajith Premadasa has called for abolishing the Executive Presidential system.
Sri Lanka is battling a severe economic crisis with food and fuel scarcity affecting a large number of the people in the island nation. The economy has been in a free-fall since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The country is also facing a foreign exchange shortage, which has, incidentally, affected its capacity to import food and fuel, leading to the power cuts in the country. The shortage of essential goods forced Sri Lanka to seek assistance from friendly countries.
On Sunday, 26-member Sri Lankan Cabinet Ministers submitted resignations amid rising public anger against the government over the economic crisis.
Meanwhile, the 36-hour long curfew that was imposed on Sri Lanka on Saturday evening at 6 pm was lifted on Monday morning at 6 am but the country is still under a state of emergency.
(ANI)
Sri Lankan flag does not 'protect' protesters from military, lawyers say
AFP Sri Lanka
As Sri Lankans protesting the island's economic crisis clashed with security forces, a message circulating widely on Facebook and WhatsApp claimed that military law prevented soldiers from shooting at demonstrators holding the national flag because it would be a "war crime". However, Sri Lankan legal experts warned that there was no law to protect protesters carrying the flag.
"Please have the national flag with you when participating in all protests in Sri Lanka," reads a Sinhala-language Facebook post from April 3 shared more than 700 times.
"If possible, take a photo of it and keep it with you. The Sri Lankan military cannot shoot at you while you carry the national flag."
"According to the Army Act and the oath they have taken, it's tantamount to betraying the nation. Furthermore, as per national and international military law, it's a war crime. This is on behalf of the safety of all those committed to dissent."
The post refers to "international military law", presumably meaning the Geneva Conventions, a set of rules ratified by 196 states that seek to reduce suffering in war.
Street protests have gripped Sri Lanka in recent weeks as demonstrators blocked main roads across the country over the worst economic crisis since independence from Britain in 1948.
Police fired tear gas and water cannon at hundreds of protesters trying to storm the home of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on March 31, demanding he resign over severe shortages of essentials, sharp price rises and crippling power cuts.
Rajapaksa later declared a state of emergency, giving sweeping powers to security forces to arrest and detain suspects for long periods without trial.
Facebook posts encouraging protesters to carry a national flag for "protection" were also shared here and here. AFP also found the claim circulating on WhatsApp.
Some social media users appeared to believe the posts shared genuine advice.
"Very good and valuable advice. Sharing for everyone's use," one person commented.
"Bless you for educating us, will spread the news so all those protesting or who are planning to participate can follow this great advice," another wrote.
'No extra protection'
However, legal experts said the claim was false.
Sri Lankan attorney-at-law Prabodha Rathnayake said there was no regulation in national or military law that said security forces could not shoot at a person holding the national flag.
"The few citations relating to the national flag are found in the Constitution and in trademark laws on the permitted commercial use of the flag," he told AFP.
"There are no clauses which prohibit the military from shooting at a person bearing the national flag, and none declaring it as an act tantamount to treason."
Luwie Niranjan, attorney-at-law and consultant at Sri Lanka's Center for Policy Alternatives, also said the advice was incorrect.
"The flag doesn't give you any additional protection," he told AFP. "But the military or police shooting an unarmed civilian who is engaged in a peaceful protest would be an offence under the normal law."
"Outside a war situation, the general law applies, and shooting unarmed civilians engaging in nonviolent protest would amount to murder," he said.
The right to protest peacefully is enshrined in Article 14 (1) (b) of Sri Lanka's Constitution, which says that "every citizen is entitled to the freedom of peaceful assembly".
AFP found no mention of the purported law mentioned in Facebook posts in the Sri Lankan Army, Navy and Air Force Acts.
AFP Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka opposition rejects unity offer, demands president resign
Demonstrators hold placards and shout slogan during a protest against the surge in prices and shortage of fuel and other essential commodities in Colombo on Monday.
AFP
- 04 Apr 2022
Sri Lanka's opposition on Monday dismissed the president's invitation to join a unity government as "nonsensical" and instead demanded he resign over the country's worsening shortages of food, fuel and medicines.
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's overture came as armed troops looked to quell more demonstrations over what the government acknowledges is the country's most severe economic crisis since independence from Britain in 1948.
Police fired tear gas and water cannon to disperse thousands of protesters trying to storm the private home of the prime minister — the president's elder brother and the head of the family political clan — in Tangalle, once a bastion of support for the Rajapaksas in the island's south.
The president asked opposition parties represented in parliament to "join the effort to seek solutions to the national crisis," after the late-night resignation of nearly all cabinet ministers to pave the way for a revamped administration.
"We will not be joining this government," Eran Wickramaratne of the main opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) party said. "The Rajapaksa family must step down."
It capped a day of rejections from political parties demanding the once popular and powerful ruling family relinquish power. "He really must be a lunatic to think that opposition MPs will prop up a government that is crumbling," lawmaker Anura Dissanayake of the leftist People's Liberation Front (JVP) told reporters in the capital Colombo.
And Abraham Sumanthiran of the Tamil National Alliance told AFP: "His offer to reconstitute the cabinet with opposition MPs is nonsensical and infuriates the people who have been demanding his resignation."
Every member of Sri Lanka's cabinet except the president and his elder brother, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, resigned late on Sunday.
The country's central bank governor Ajith Cabraal — who has long opposed the International Monetary Fund bailout now being sought by the country — also stepped down on Monday.
A day after en masse resignations, the president reappointed four of the outgoing ministers — three of them to their old jobs — while replacing brother Basil Rajapaksa as finance minister with the previous justice chief.
'Deck chairs on the Titanic'
Political analysts said the offer of a unity government did not go far enough to address the economic crisis or restore confidence in the Rajapaksa administration.
"This is like re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic," Bhavani Fonseka, political analyst and human rights lawyer, told AFP. "This is a joke."
Political columnist Victor Ivan told AFP that a cabinet reshuffle in the guise of a national government would not be acceptable to the public.
"What is needed is a serious reform programme, not just to revive the economy but address issues of governance," Ivan told AFP.
A critical lack of foreign currency has left Sri Lanka struggling to service its ballooning $51-billion foreign debt, with the pandemic torpedoing vital revenue from tourism and remittances.
The result has seen unprecedented food and fuel shortages along with record inflation and crippling power cuts, with no sign of an end to the economic woes.
Trading was halted on the country's stock exchange seconds after it opened Monday as shares plunged past the five percent threshold needed to trigger an automatic stop.
Economists say Sri Lanka's crisis has been exacerbated by government mismanagement, years of accumulated borrowing and ill-advised tax cuts.
The government plans to negotiate an IMF bailout, but talks are yet to begin.
'Step down Rajapaksa'
Noisy demonstrations have spread across the country since Sunday evening with thousands of people joining.
Thousands of young men and women dressed mostly in black and carrying hand-written posters and placards staged a noisy but peaceful demonstration at a busy roundabout in Colombo on Monday.
"Step down Rajapaksa," said one placard, while another read: "Return the funds stolen from the republic."
"Gota lunatic, go home Gota," crowds chanted elsewhere in the city, referring to the president, who imposed a state of emergency last week, the day after a crowd attempted to storm his residence.
The homes of several senior administration figures in various parts of the island were surrounded by protesters, with police firing tear gas to disperse the crowds.
Agence France-Presse
Crisis-hit Sri Lanka blocks social media platforms to contain protests
- 03 Apr 2022
Picture used for illustrative purposes only.
Sri Lanka has restricted access to major social media platforms including Facebook and Twitter, internet monitoring organisation NetBlocks said on Sunday, after the government imposed a curfew to tackle growing unrest amid an unprecedented economic crisis.
The South Asian nation is facing severe shortages of food, fuel and other essentials, along with sharp price rises and crippling power cuts, in its most painful downturn since independence from Britain in 1948.
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Sri Lankan president declares curfew to preempt protests
Street protests grip Sri Lanka as economic crisis escalates
"Real-time network data show Sri Lanka has imposed a nationwide social media blackout, restricting access to platforms including Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, YouTube, and Instagram as emergency is declared amid widespread protests," NetBlocks said in a tweet.
A protester shouts slogans near a bus on fire during a demonstration in Colombo, Sri Lanka. AFP
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa imposed a state of emergency on Friday, the day after a crowd attempted to storm his home in the capital Colombo, and a nationwide curfew is in effect until Monday morning.
Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and WhatsApp were among the platforms shut down by internet service providers on the orders of defence authorities, the pro-government Ada Derana news channel said.
"On the request of the defence ministry, service providers advised to temporarily restrict social media platforms," the broadcaster said, quoting Sri Lanka's media regulator.
Anonymous activists had called for mass protests on Sunday on social media before the order went into effect.
Emergency powers in the past have allowed the military to arrest and detain suspects without warrants, but the terms of the current powers are not yet clear.
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