Saturday, February 2, 2013

Sri Lanka blocks international impeachment probe
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| Feb 2, 2013

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka has blocked entry of a London-based group of lawyers who planned to probe the controversial impeachment of the island's chief justice, the International Bar Association said on Saturday.

The group expressed "serious concern" over the withdrawal of visas for the Human Rights Institute lawyers, who were due to visit Colombo for 10 days starting Friday. The institute is a branch of the bar association.

The delegation was going to "consult a wide diversity of stakeholders" about "the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary in Sri Lanka", the association said. It did not say how many lawyers who were to travel to Colombo.

The panel was going to study Sri Lanka's sacking of chief justice Shirani Bandaranayake, the first woman to hold the nation's highest judicial office.

The government dismissed Bandaranayake despite two Sri Lankan court rulings that the impeachment was illegal and unconstitutional.

There was no immediate comment from Colombo on the association's statements.

Sri Lanka insists it followed proper legal procedures in firing Bandaranayake, 54, on charges of professional and personal misconduct.

Bandaranayake was dismissed by President Mahinda Rajapakse on January 13 - two days afterSri Lanka's parliament voted to impeach her, despite a chorus of international criticism.

The United States has led international calls objecting to the impeachment as an assault on judicial independence and rule of law in the island.

Bandaranayake has been replaced by former attorney general Mohan Peiris who had been serving as the government's chief legal adviser.

The impeachment process was launched in November after court decisions went against the regime of Rajapakse, who has tightened his hold on power since crushing Tamil Tiger rebels in May 2009 to end a decades-long ethnic war.

Lawmakers found Bandaranayake guilty of tampering with a case involving a firm from which her sister bought an apartment, of failing to declare dormant bank accounts and of staying in office while her husband faced a bribery charge.

She has said the charges were politically motivated and that she was denied a fair trial.

Uniformed men assault two boys. Incident occurred at Paranthan

Saturday , 02 February 2013

Two boys were beaten and tormented by uniformed men at Kilinochchi Paranthan locality. This incident occurred at Kilinochchi Paranthan area.

A 8 years old and 10 years old boys were returning after fulfiling religious obligations from a Amman temple located at Kilinochchi Paranthan A35 road. Some uniformed men A trishaw carrying uniformed men followed the boys and had threatened them in front of their house, that they have robbed a mobile phone.

However the boys had informed that they did not steal, but they left, but again at 10.30 a.m had taken the boys to a nearby camp.

Boys informed that they were interrogated and were locked inside a room, and was assaulted with a plastic pipe.

Nanthakumar Pavusigan aged 10 years and his brother Nanthakumar Dinesh aged 8 years residents of Paranthan Kilinochchi were assaulted. Currently the two boys are admitted to the Kilinochchi hospital and seeking treatment.

The Case Against Mohan Pieris’s Misconduct; Dismissed With Cost Awarded To The Respondents !

Sathya Hettige

By Mudliyar -February 1, 2013

In a display of the route the highest court is taking since the impeachment, the Supreme Court today refused to grant leave to proceed in a Fundamental Rights application challenging the misconduct of Mohan Pieris during his tenure as Attorney General. Two judges of the Supreme Court refused to consider the submissions by the petitioner, upheld the objections by the Additional Solicitor General and dismissed the Application with costs awarded to the respondents.

The case was taken up before a Supreme Court bench headed by Justice P.A. Ratnayake and comprising Justice Eva Wanasundera and Justice Sathya Hettige at Court Room No 403.

At the outset, Justice P.A. Ratnayake declined to hear the case citing personal reasons. Counsel for the petitioner, Nagananda Kodituwakku objected to Justice Hettige hearing the case on grounds that he was biased towardsPieris.

Justice Hettige refused to consider the submissions made by the Counsel Nagananda Kodituwakku, including a submission referring to his own disqualification from hearing the case. Justice Hettige simply went on to uphold the preliminary objections raised by the Additional Solicitor General and dismissed the Application with Cost awarded to the Respondents. The awarding of cost to Respondents had never been done before by the Supreme Court, especially in the Fundamental Rights Applications filed by the Citizens of this country.

“The decision in this case, amply demonstrates to which direction the Supreme Court is heading today. It seems that the era of the independent judiciary has come to an end in this country and is now replaced with an absolutely dependent ‘Executive Judiciary’, headed by a disqualified person appointed to the Office of the Chief Justice. All this time the people of this country had faith in the Judiciary that it would exercise the ‘peoples’ judicial power’ faithfully and independently and honor the trust placed in it by the people,.” a senior lawyer told Colombo Telegraph.

After Justice Ratnayake refused to hear the case on ‘personal grounds’ and then an application was made by the Additional Solicitor General Shavindra Fernando to hear the case by the other two judges. Then the Counsel for the Petitioner, Nagananda Kodituwakku, objected ‘Hettige J taking part in the hearing’ and made an application to re-fix the case for an earlier date. The said objection was raised on the basis that Hettige J was biased towards Mohan Pieris, as he had disregarded a motion filed by the Petitioner on 04th July 2012, seeking an early date (11th 12th or 13th July 2012) to support the application and instead fixed the case for support for 06th September 2012. It was further submitted to Court that the Petitioner filed the said Motion, since the case which was due to support on 02nd July 2012 had been called in Court with no notice to the Petitioner on 21st of June 2012, and had been postponed for support on 06th Sep 2012.

It was further submitted, that Justice Hettige’s conduct was reported to the CJ Shirani Bandaranayake by the Petitioner by way of an affidavit dated 04th July 2012 and as a result CJ intervened and Hettige J was compelled to reverse his order allowing the petitioner to support the matter on 05th July 2012.

The Additional Solicitor General, Shavendra Fernando then took a preliminary objection to the hearing, on the basis that the original Petition, filed by the Petitioner dated 24th September 2010, does allege that the Supreme Court was responsible for the right violation, which is not an executive action and hence that the application dated 24th September 2010 should be dismissed and the Petitioner should not be allowed to support any amended application thereafter filed in Court.

In response to these submissions the Counsel for the Petitioner, Nagananda Kodituwakku submitted to the Court that the Petitioner does not rely on the Petition dated 24th September 2010, which was amended with the permission of the Court (comprised of Marsoof J, Imam J and Suresh Chandra J), on 05th December 2011, after the Counsel Nagananda Kodituwakku was retained by the Petitioner, in place of Upul Jayasooriya. The Petitioner had reported Counsel Upul Jayasooriya to the CJ by way of an affidavit (22nd November 2011) for his professional misconduct of withdrawing the affidavit filed by the Director General of Customs (seeking the disenrollment of Mohan Pieris for his professional misconduct) and also citing Mohan Pieris only in his official capacity and thereafter abandoning the Petitioner. It was further submitted by the Counsel Nagananda Kodituwakku that the bench chaired by Marsoof J, on 05th December 2011 had allowed the Petitioner to amend the application with ‘specific permission’ to include amendments the Petitioner wished to make, ‘reflecting the allege misconduct and dishonesty of Mohan Peiris’ as reported by the Director General of Customs. And accordingly the Petition dated 23rd December 2011 was filed in Court and the Petitioner only relied on that Petition.

Justice Hettige refused to consider the said submissions made by the Counsel Nagananda Kodituwakku, including the one referring to his disqualification from hearing the case.

International delegation to assess the rule of law and independence of the judiciary barred from entering country

SATURDAY, 02 FEBRUARY 2013

An International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI) delegation has been not allowed to enter the country say reports. The high level delegation from the Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI) of the International Bar Association forced to postpone a planned visit to Sri Lanka to assess the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary due to the last minute withdrawal of permission to enter the country.

The IBAHRI delegation consisted of distinguished jurists that was to be led by former Indian Chief Justice J.S. Verma and was scheduled to arrive in Colombo yesterday (1st) for a 10 day visit.

A visa that had been issued to one member of the delegation on 18th January 2013 was revoked on 29th January 2013, while approval to enter the country was suspended in the cases of other delegates on 29th and 30th January 2013 an announcement by the IBAHRI press office said.

It said the Institute had expressed its serious concern to the Sri Lankan High Commission in London regarding the revocation and suspension of entry approval for its delegation.

The IBAHRI delegation had intended to conduct meetings and consult a wide diversity of stakeholders in regard to the development of the legal profession, the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary in Sri Lanka, including members of the legal profession, government, media and civil society.

The delegation was to be headed by Justice Verma, and comprise UK House of Lords Member Baroness Usha Prashar, IBA Human Rights Institute Programme Lawyer, Shane Keenan and a British Barrister working with the IBA’s Human Rights Institute, Sadakat Kadri.

Fate Or Fait Accompli ?

By Dr Reeza Hameed -February 2, 2013

Omar Khayyam

In a speech made at the ceremony to welcome him, the new appointee to the Chief Justice’s post had quoted ‘the moving finger’ verse from Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyyat and had said that Providence had brought him to the temple of justice.

Khayyam was a brilliant mathematician, a philosopher and a poet. Khayyam comes out as a fatalist – as well as a hedonist and an agnostic- at least in Fitzgerald’s translation, and it is in Fitzgerald’s translation that Khayyam’s fame has endured. Other translators such as Swami Govinda Thirtha have recognised the spirituality in Khayyam’s poetry and there is much more to his poetry than fatalism even in Fitzgerald.

For instance, Khayyam was conscious of the evanescence of earthly glory, an idea that he conveyed in the following verse.

They say the Lion and the Lizard keep
The courts where Jamshyd gloried and drank deep;
And Bahram, that great Hunter – the Wild Ass
Stamps over his Head, but cannot break his sleep.

The ‘moving finger’ verse from Khayyam reads:

The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.

In this verse Khayyam speaks of the inevitability of fate, and the inability of man to change it. He repeated this idea in another of his famous verses.

‘Tis all a Chequer-board of Nights and Days
Where Destiny with Men for Pieces plays:
Hither and thither moves, and mates, and slays,
And one by one back in the Closet lays.

It is quite unlikely that the new appointee would have intended to say that the post had been thrust upon him by Providence and that he had no choice but to accept it. If Providence, indeed, had a hand in his appointment, then what role did Fate play in the ousting of its previous occupant?

In this connection the story of the Jurist Abu Haniffa comes to mind. Abu Haniffa was the founder of aschool of Islamic Jurisprudence and was known for his independent views which did not go down well with the Caliph of his day. The Caliph offered to make Abu Haniffa his Chief Judge in the hope that he could control Abu Haniffa. Rather than accepting the offer as one that Providence had sent him, Abu Haniffa refused because he did not wish to compromise his independence.

Servants of the people

In his welcome speech, the current occupant had assured that he would serve the people as their servant and that justice would not be a cloistered virtue under his dispensation. Judges are servants of the people like those elected to parliament are.

The veteran British MP Tony Benn once referred to a member of parliament as an employee of the people having about 60,000 people as his employers. Tony Benn was making a point about the accountability of members of parliament and their relationship to their electors.

He did not consider himself superior to his voters and believed in the sovereignty of the people rather than in the sovereignty of parliament. To him, the sovereignty of the people represented “a higher order of sovereignty because the people can lend power to Parliament for a period and then take it back again.” To emphasise his point he continued: “I think it is always worth remembering that Parliament is a derivative of popular sovereignty and not its superior.”

Justice is not a cloistered virtue

The phrase ‘cloistered virtue’ was first employed by Lord Atkin in a leading case involving contempt of court. He said: “Justice is not a cloistered virtue; she must suffer the scrutiny and respectful, even outspoken criticism, comments by ordinary men.”

It is right that justice should suffer the scrutiny of right thinking men but it is equally important that there is no interference with the judiciary and that judges do not give in to interference, especially from those in power. Power must be exercised to serve justice but judges must not court power but act as a check on it.

Speaking of the independence of the judiciary, Winston Churchill said that it provides

“the guarantee of freedom and the equal rule of law… It must, therefore, be the first concern of the citizens of a free country to preserve and maintain the independence of the courts of justice, however inconvenient that independence may be, on occasion, to the government of the day.”

Detachment is a necessary and unavoidable condition of the judges’ existence because of the nature of their work. Again, it was Churchill who said: “A form of life and conduct far more severe and restricted than that of ordinary people is required from judges and, though unwritten, has been most strictly observed. They are at once privileged and restricted. They have to present a continuous aspect of dignity and conduct.”

Judges do not have to be divorced from reality or lose touch with the people but judges cannot be guided by the opinion of the public or their representatives. As was said in a South African case, there would be no need for constitutional adjudication if public opinion were to be decisive. “The protection of rights could then be left to Parliament, which has a mandate from the public, and is answerable to the public for the way its mandate is exercised … The very reason for establishing the new legal order … was to protect the rights of minorities and others who cannot protect their rights adequately through the democratic process. Those who are entitled to claim this protection include the social outcasts and marginalised people of our society. It is only if there is a willingness to protect the worst and weakest among us that all of us can be secure that our own rights will be protected.”

Justice as fair trial

Judges dispense justice. It is not for nothing that the place where justice is dispensed is referred to as ‘a temple of justice’.

Justice is much more than mere ruminations about philosophical and ethical questions on right and wrong. The English common lawyers formulated justice as fair trial. Lord Denning identified the essential principles of a fair trial, and declared that the first of those principles is the requirement that a judge should be absolutely independent of government.

An entire chapter of the Dhammapada is devoted to explaining the essence of justice. For instance, it says that:

Not by passing arbitrary judgments does a man become just; a wise man is he who investigates both right and wrong.

He who does not judge others arbitrarily, but passes judgment impartially according to the truth, that sagacious man is a guardian of law and is called just.

Conclusion

One needs to ponder the intervention of Fate and Providence in the administration of justice. Fate seems to have played a cruel joke in the ousting of the previous Chief Justice, creating a fait accompli for Providence to elevate the present occupant to that prized position. In so doing did these forces allow themselves to deviate from the just path laid by the Dhamma?

Friday, February 1, 2013

Retired Tamil Justice compares between own and occupied rule in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 January 2013, 15:32 GMT]
When I came here [Jaffna] at the beginning of this century, I was told that even at midnight women could move around without any fear or concern about security. But now, there is fear and apprehension even when one is confined to houses. Rather than saying that only those who have come from the outside commit acts causing fear, it is more appropriate to say that it is the sons of Jaffna who largely commit such acts, without any shame or concern. A careful scrutiny would show how some one of us was there operating and is still operating, behind every wrong committed by the outsiders. We should build unity and an internal mechanism so that our people don’t turn into pimps and servants to the outsiders, said Trincomalee-based retired Tamil Justice C.V. Wigneswaran, while addressing the Vaddukkoaddai YMHA on the Pongkal day.

Former SC Judge CV Wigneswaran [Photo courtesy: Daily Mirror]

The spirit in which Justice Wigneswaran has made his comparison and comments in fact exposes a section that with a ‘revisionist’ agenda chooses to harp on the deteriorating social conditions under an occupying and colonial military to attack and weaken the liberation aspirations of the Eezham Tamil nation, to absolve the occupying Sinhala military and to ultimately buttress the genocidal State and regime of Sri Lanka, commented alternative political activists in Jaffna.

Further comments from the activists:

The deteriorating social conditions are clearly a manifestation of the militarized outside rule.

Only those who knowingly work for deviatory agendas would argue that the outsider of proven genocidal intent is not engineering or is not elated at the social deterioration in the country of Eezham Tamils.

People like Justice Wigneswaran cite at the social deterioration with a sense of sane concern to prepare the oppressed nation of Eezham Tamils towards mobilisation and liberation.

However, there is another section that cites the deterioration to detract the Tamil struggle and to detract the efforts of Tamils to rule themselves. But this section ultimately shows extraordinary care in protecting the Rajapaksa regime and in upholding the genocidal ‘unity and integrity’ of the State in the island.

This section also chooses to use the opportunity to attack the foundations of Eezham Tamil nation formation, especially the Jaffna social formation and the pro-imperialist or bourgeoisie attitude of Tamil elite as responsible for the social evils.

There may be some truth in it, but the attackers are not outsiders. They are part of the same society, even though they may be now waging the attacks by living in Colombo or in the cities of the capitalist West, but receiving guidelines from somewhere else.

For ages, they were good only in alienating the credibility of their claimed ideology from the mainstream Tamil society by choosing to work for the agenda of others; whatever unjustifiable it was for their own people.

Informed senior media sources in Colombo say that international media funds are provided to this section by a power making inroads into the island, in order to protect the regime and State.

It is time that this section first thinks of its own soul searching – why it was never able to identify itself with the righteous aspirations of the masses; why it was never unable to make any positive impact among its own people if it really cares for their society?

The genocidal war and the unfolding aftermath have created an unprecedented awareness among Tamils on the designs of the powers and their imperialism. But divided between competing powers and lured by them, opportunistic and spineless elite among Tamils muffles and hijacks the awareness of the grassroot.

When Tamils are at a historic junction needing a fresh polity and leadership in facing the world Establishments, serving for the survival of a criminal Establishment at Colombo or serving another one of the powers in competition doesn’t differentiate the section under question from the opportunistic elite.

At least at this stage, if this section could not able to identify itself with the aspirations of the Tamil mainstream and through that could not able to win their confidence in effecting positive social transformation, then it is only heading for remaining a confounded negative element in the times to come, commented the alternative political activists in Jaffna.
* * *

Justice Wigneswaran, in his address at the opening function of the new YMHA office in Vaddukkoaddai, was repeatedly touching on the issue of forced or ineluctable prostitution in Jaffna.

The former Justice of the SL Supreme Court was citing the case of a mother of a baby and widow of a slain LTTE fighter, who when went seeking job was abducted and gang-raped by eight ‘armed personnel.’ The women now live the life of ineluctable prostitute to bring up the child, Justice Wigneswaran said.

The cultural deterioration in the Jaffna Peninsula is a planned one, Wigneswaran said, adding that women are taken to the South to engage in prostitution, and rape, robbery, abduction and hired assassination take place at a hitherto unheard scale.

Talking on drug abuse, the Justice said that exposure of school children to drugs, pornography, sexual abuse, late night carnivals etc., that go on in Jaffna are aimed at changing the life attitude of young men and women so that they would never think of seeking their rights in future.

The thrust of his address was rebuke at the Tamil society with the intention of developing community movement, which seriously lack at the moment.

Commenting, alternative political activists in Jaffna said that the Tamil polity, political parties, activists and the elite both in the island and in the diaspora are deliberately detracted from mobilising community movement of Tamil’s own.

They are expected to speak and act only what the powers say. Others would do ‘Development’ for them. It is enough if they from time to time appreciate that ‘development’ and donations such as bicycles, sewing machines etc.

Thinking of any community movement of their own is ‘extremism, separatism and might even be terrorism’. Such politics is sitting even on the so-called free diaspora, preventing it from thinking of own and independent community movements. The Eezham Tamil diaspora is particularly kept away from operating independent community movements and interacting with its people in the island, the alternative activists said.

Keynote Address at Judges’ Conference by Justice Wigneswaran

23 Dec, 2012

Photo courtesy Lanka Standard

Keynote Address at Judges’ Conference on 22nd December 2012 by Justice Wigneswaran. For an in-depth interview with Justice Wigneswaran, conducted one year ago, click here.

Download the speech as a PDF here.

Judicial Service Association of Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka: Human Rights Failings Detailed

A member of an equal rights movement shouts slogans during a protest against the government in Colombo on December 18, 2012.

(London) – The Sri Lankan government continued its assault on civil society and failed to take meaningful steps towards accountability for war crimes during the country’s armed conflict that ended in 2009, Human Rights Watch said in itsWorld Report 2013 released today.

In its 665-page report, Human Rights Watch assessed progress on human rights during the past year in more than 90 countries, including an analysis of the aftermath of the Arab Spring.

There was no fundamental progress on key human rights issues in Sri Lanka over the past year, Human Rights Watch said. Overly broad detention powers remained in place under various laws and regulations, leaving several thousand people detained without charge. State security forces committed arbitrary arrests and torture, including sexual assault, against ethnic minority Tamils. Repatriated Tamils allegedly linked to the defeated Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were at particular risk, Human Rights Watch research found. While the Tamil population in the north benefitted from greater access by humanitarian groups, the military presence kept living conditions from being normalized.

“The Sri Lankan government needs to address the many problems that undermine basic rights for people in the war-torn North and East,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Justice and accountability for abuses, an end to torture in detention, and ending constraints on basic liberties continue to prove elusive for the Tamil population.”

The UN Human Rights Council, responding to the government’s prolonged failure to investigate alleged laws of war violations, adopted a resolution in March 2012 calling on Sri Lanka to take all necessary steps to ensure justice and accountability. It requested that the government expeditiously present a comprehensive plan detailing the steps it had taken to implement the recommendations of its own Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission and address accountability. The government replied with an ambiguous “action plan” that presents unrealistic timetables and flawed processes for it to probe civilian deaths and prosecute alleged perpetrators. The government has yet to publicly release any information about concrete steps it has taken towards implementing the recommendations set out in the Human Rights Council resolution.

The government demonstrated further disregard for human rights protections when, during its Universal Periodic Review before the Human Rights Council in November 2012, it rejected 100 recommendations from member states, including some that have a direct impact on accountability.

“UN member states have made it clear through the Human Rights Council resolution in March and the Universal Periodic Review hearings in November that Sri Lanka needs to make fast and meaningful progress on its rights commitments,” Adams said. “The Sri Lankan government should recognize that its past stalling tactics have run their course and that it will need to take real action.”

President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his brothers continued the trend of recent years to accumulate power at the expense of democratic institutions, including the judiciary, and constrict free speech and association. The government targeted civil society through threats and surveillance. Statements by government officials and government-controlled media named and threatened human rights defenders who called for accountability for wartime abuses or criticized other government policies.

“There is ample evidence that Sri Lanka’s current government acts to serve its own interests at great cost to democratic institutions and equal treatment of all communities,” said Adams.

Local activists expressed deep concern about the security of their staff and the people they assist. The government shut down at least five news websites critical of the government in 2012 and put in place onerous registration requirements and fees for all web-based media services. The former editor of theSunday Leader newspaper reported being threatened by Defence SecretaryGotabaya Rajapaksa for publishing an article critical of him.

“When a government fails to protect the rights of its citizens, the need for international action increases,” Adams said. “The international community in 2012 focused renewed attention on Sri Lanka, and given the lack of progress on accountability and the shrinking political space, should continue to do so.”

Murukandi:New schools and hospitals are fast coming up,, and 10,000 houses built for Military families

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2013

People protest militarisation

A new housing project by the name of ‘War Housing Project’ is coming up in the new Murikandy area which has been acquired by the security forces.
Thousands of soldier families from the South are to be settled in this housing scheme on the 11th of February, according to news reaching GTN.
New schools and hospitals are fast coming up in this area where the housing project is constructed.

Efforts to confirm this shocking news was made, but of no avail.

The people of Murikandy fought back violently when their lands were invaded and acquired by force. Each family who resided there was given ¼ of an acre and the land adjoining the jungle in the back was taken for the above housing project.

Orders for this distribution of this and was made by the Governor of the Northern Province G.A Chandrasiri. The Governor is said to have used the funds allocated for the development of Tamil schools and the hospitals for the above housing scheme.

An housing scheme was constructed in the area for the last three years with the help of the Chinese government. For whom, are these houses? Was a question that was asked in every circle, but with no answer? But now it has become known that the new scheme coming up in the name of ‘War housing scheme’ was meant for the families of the soldiers

About 10 thousand houses have been constructed in the housing scheme fast coming up and road ways leading to the scheme have also come up.

A new road that has been constructed in that area connects with Weli-oya and a road from Murikandy town leads to the above scheme as well.

The families of the soldiers are to construct farms in the fertile soil of the area, while the people who were living there have been chased away and are now found refuge in camps and in friends’ houses.

When the army forced the people to roam about for more than three years, people rallied against. These people were brought up from the refugee camps in the guise of resettlement and their lands were forcibly acquired and the people were sent to Manic farm.

The army promised that the lands will be given back to the people but that never happened and instead more areas were acquired and a Sinhala settlement was constructed.

The people were shocked at what had happened and demanded the authorities to stop the Sinhala settlement coming up in their area.

In the meantime sources from the defense circle say that the President Mahinda Rajapakse and the Secretary of the Defense Ministry Gothabaya Rajapaske are due to visit the Northern Province to declare open the above ‘War housing scheme’ in the near future, reports GTN.
GTN

Top British official calls for more transparency in Sri Lanka for investment

2013-02-01

COLOMBO, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- Visiting Foreign and Commonwealth Office Minister for South Asia Alistair Burt has called on the Sri Lankan government to improve economic transparency to attract investment, a statement from the British embassy said here on Friday.

Burt, who is on a two-day visit to the island to assess its post-war development, had told a reception hosted by British Ambassador John Rankin and attended by the local business community that all countries should concentrate on improving their governance to remain competitive in a challenging global environment.

Over 100 UK companies are active in Sri Lanka, particularly in the areas of education, construction and garment manufacturing, and there was a 12 percent increase in Sri Lankan exports to the UK in 2012.

"Today, more than ever, we need our companies to compete in what the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, has called the global race, where competition is becoming ever fiercer between emerging and emerged economies," the statement quoted him as saying.

He emphasised that it is up to all countries to ensure their economies are transparent, fair and straightforward for potential investors.

Burt's comments come after the United States announced that it would table a second resolution on Sri Lanka at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) sessions beginning later this month.

The U.S. has reiterated that the government's reconciliation efforts are not being implemented fast enough and governance issues would impact Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).

However, Sri Lankan government has consistently denied this claim.

Media Minister Keheliya Rambukwella told media on Thursday that the Cabinet was confident of attracting investment and insisted human rights issue was not the reason for the country's lackluster FDI figures.

According to initial projections by the Central Bank, Sri Lanka managed to attract only half of the expected 2 billion U.S. dollars earmarked for 2012.

Opposition parties have consistently criticised the government for failing to improve transparency and governance to attract investment.

Sri Lanka emerged from a three-decade war in 2009 and since then has embarked on an ambitious development path aiming to double its per capita income to 4,000 U.S. dollars by 2016.

Firefox Moves from Sri Lanka to Bangladesh

SALES & TRENDS

ANTI-CIRCUMVENTION

IMPORT DUTY

GENERALIZED SYSTEM OF PREFERENCES

COLOMBO-

31 Jan 2013 -COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - Firefox in Sri Lanka is setting-up a new plant in Bangladesh. This comes after Sri Lanka lost its GSP+ (import) duty free access to the EU market in August 2010. Also, the EU is currently conducting an anti-circumvention investigation into imports of bicycles from Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Tunisia. Meanwhile, Bangladesh retains its 0% import duty and remains attractive for investors targeting the EU market.

Firefox is said to close its facility in Sri Lanka. - Photo: Bike Europe

Firefox is said to close its facility in Sri Lanka. Although the exact timing of the closure is not known, the plan to close down the Sri Lanka plant began about a year ago.

Partial production continued for some time to clear the pending orders but it eventually closed down about a month ago, according to industry sources in Sri Lanka.

Denies of an all-out closure
However, Firefox Lanka denies an all-out closure of the Sri Lanka plant. But after contacting the plant in Colombo, it was confirmed by a source that the plant has closed and that the company is looking for buyers among the Sri Lankan bicycle makers to sell machinery. This was confirmed by one of the local bicycle producers.

Advantages of Bangladesh
With Sri Lanka's 0% duty status gone for imports in Europe after allegations of human rights violations while ending the civil war in the country, Sri Lanka made bikes apparently are no more an attractive proposition. Moreover, the European Union is conducting an anti-circumvention investigation into imports of bicycles from Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Tunisia.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh retains its 0% import duty and remains attractive for investors targeting the EU market. "The advantages Bangladesh had to offer made the move necessary," said Firefox owner Pradeep Mehrotra in an email response. Next to Firefox a few more companies from the Far East are planning to move to the Bangladesh port city of Chittagong.

Production and capacity
Firefox' new factory is being set-up in the Chittagong Export Processing Zone (CEPZ) of the port city of Chittagong. Pradeep Mehrotra said, "The Bangladesh plant has been in the making for one year." Production is to start in the first quarter of 2013 while the capacity is said to be bigger than the Sri Lankan plant.