News

 sweet smell of a land like no other

According to an order of the Supreme Court,  garbage piled up in
the city has to be cleared within three days.  Picture shows
students as well pedestrians passing the garbage heap in the city
holding their noses in disgust unable to bear the stench. 

SriLankan to wet-lease Airbus A320 to Mihin Lanka

SriLankan Airlines is to wet lease an Airbus A320 aircraft to Mihin Lanka on commercial terms.

The lease for this twin-engined aircraft that will be in effect from April 8, 2009 will run until December this year. The wet-lease includes the services of SriLankan's pilots.

SriLankan CEO Manoj Gunawardena said: "The agreement is on normal wet lease conditions. The terms are strictly commercial and the transaction is done at commercial rates for which we have received funds upfront. SriLankan at present has excess aircraft capacity due to our ongoing re-fleeting programme, having acquired two A320s in the last four months, with a third due shortly."

Mihin Lanka's CEO Kapila Chandrasena said: "The leasing of an aircraft from SriLankan assures long-term stability and continuity in Mihin Lanka's operations. Up to now we have been at a disadvantage in leasing aircraft on short term contracts. Mihin will have the advantage of leasing an aircraft which is already in Sri Lanka, which will assist us to achieve our low cost carrier model."

The Sunday Leader in February this year broke this story pointing out that Sri Lankan Airlines has been coerced by the government into providing a bail-out package which will give Mihin Lanka another fresh lease of life - despite the budget carrier having recorded a Rs. 3.2 billion loss.

At the time when we spoke with Acting Chairman, Mihin Lanka, Kapila Chandrasena he claimed he knew nothing of the deal.

Solheim discusses Wanni situation with LTTE

Norwegian International Development Minister Erik Solheim has in a telephone conversation with LTTE's Political Wing Leader B. Nadesan on Wednesday, April 2 discussed the plight of the civilians in the Wanni and a possible ceasefire to resume negotiations with the Sri Lankan Government.

LTTE Peace Secretariat Head, S. Pulidevan has told Tamilnet the telephone conversation that had lasted for about 30 minutes was based on the plight of the civilians in the Wanni.

Pulidevan has said Solheim had conveyed to Nadesan the recent developments in the International arena regarding the Tamil conflict, especially with regards to the latest briefings at the UN Security Council. Solheim had in turn been briefed by Nadeson on the grave humanitarian catastrophe caused by the military aggression of the Sri Lankan armed forces.

According to Pulidevan, Nadesan had explained that Sri Lanka was waging a genocidal war on Tamil civilians. "Our political head categorically told Solheim that a serious responsibility rests on the international community to put an immediate stop to the attacks on Tamil civilians," Pulidevan reportedly said.

"Nadesan pointed out that around 100 Tamil civilians, including children, pregnant mothers, and elderly are being killed or maimed every day inside a narrow strip of coastal land by the Sri Lankan armed forces. This is a grave violation of all norms of humanitarian law and the conventions of warfare." Nadesan had also reiterated the Tiger position on an immediate ceasefire and resumption of negotiations to achieve a lasting solution to the conflict.

Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama and Foreign Secretary Dr. Palitha Kohona were not available for comment.

Second Secretary, Norwegian Embassy in Sri Lanka, Rannveig Skofteland when contacted by The Sunday Leader confirmed that the telephone conversation between Solheim and Nadesan, indeed took place on Wednesday April 2. When asked if the Sri Lankan government had been informed of the telephone conversation and its contents Skofteland declined comment.

IMF loan tied to conditions 

By Mandana Ismail Abeywickrema 

Sri Lanka's request for a $1.9 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which is still under consideration will be tied to specific conditions, it is learnt.

The executive board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has in a meeting in Washington last month arrived at a consensus that any IMF programme in Sri Lanka would only be successful in the country by 'deep cutting measures in fiscal and currency policy.'

Despite the government insisting that the multi billion dollar loan is not tied to any conditions, a high level IMF delegation in the country last week said otherwise.

Executive directors from industrial, threshold and developing countries were all skeptical whether the Sri Lankan government would have the political will for such change.

This skepticism was fuelled by recent remarks of President Mahinda Rajapakse that he expects any IMF loan being given to come without conditions.

Any kind of assistance to Sri Lanka would be recommended after seeing "ownership" of the programme demonstrated by prior actions.

The IMF committee on March 18 had informed the executive directorate of a possible stand-by arrangement for Sri Lanka. According to the committee the loans asked for should be US$2.4 billion for a period of 20 months.

During the informal and confidential meeting the committee had made it absolutely clear that an economic crisis in the island could only be avoided by steep cutting measures in fiscal and currency policy.

Referring to fiscal policy, the committee has stated that the budget deficit of about 8% in 2008 must be reduced to 5% till 2011, making it unavoidable to raise income taxes and VAT in the so called non-productive sectors - i.e. Military.

The budget deficit for 2008 was estimated to be between 7-7.5% by the Central Bank. The actual figure would be known on Wednesday (8) when the bank releases its annual report for 2008.

The need to stop the outflow of the country's foreign exchange (declined to four import weeks at present) had also been noted by the committee. According to the IMF committee, the reserves have to be refilled to three to four import months.

The committee had also noted that the rupee was clearly above a theoretically balanced rate and that a sharp depreciation would endanger the banking system because of their high debts in foreign currencies.

Prior to the executive board meeting, several NGOs have requested the IMF to include a fundamental improvement in the human rights situation in Sri Lanka as a condition to provide assistance. The IMF committee had responded that IMF money can only be used to stock up money reserves and cannot be used for military expenditure.

The six-member IMF team led by IMF's Deputy Director, Asia Division, Kalpana Kochar left the country last week after holding a series of discussions with the government.

Deputy Finance Minister Dr. Sarath Amunugama when queried about the IMF conditions told The Sunday Leader that the Fund had not laid down any drastic conditions on the government. The government expects a positive response to its request from the IMF response by late April, he said.

IMF sources in Washington added that negotiations are still ongoing both in Washington and Colombo.  A board decision could come by the end of April at the earliest.

Let People Live And Speak!

Attack on Sirasa - Killing of Lasantha - three months passed! No progress in investigations! Platform for Freedom will hold a public meeting to highlight issues of:

Right to Live and Freedom of Expression in Sri Lanka with the participation of the leaders and members of civil society, media organisations, trade unions and political parties.

The meeting will be held on Tuesday, April 7 from 3.30 p.m to 5.30 p.m at J.R.Jayewardene Centre, Colombo 7. At the end of the meeting a vigil will be held in front of the Vihara Maha Devi Park.

All are welcome!

Asanga issues notice

Subsequent to two interviews done last week with both Nayantara Fonseka (Taru) and Asanga Seneviratne The Sunday Leader learns that Taruvillas Pvt. Ltd., has filed for a court order to stop both Taru and Errol Cumaravel (the owner of the property called Taprobanas at Bentota) from interfering with the day to day functions of the company at Taprobanas and all its other properties. Notices have been served on both parties despite Seneviratne in his interview with The Sunday Leader asserting that he has no quarrel with Cumaravel. Taru confirmed she had indeed received such notice. Cumaravel refused to confirm or deny such notice saying only "I am on my way to see my lawyer."