News
UN: Sri Lanka threats on basic freedoms ‘concerning’
(AFP)The United Nations Human Rights Office on Thursday said basic freedoms in Sri Lanka were under threat, as the country gears up to elect a new president in September.
A report published Thursday by the UN agency stressed that Sri Lanka, which will hold its first presidential vote since recovering from a deep economic crisis, has not reformed its human rights protection system despite vowing to do so.
Instead, laws and bills introduced since 2023 have given “broad powers to the security forces” and expanded “restrictions on freedom of expression and opinion and association,” OHCHR said.
“This trend is particularly concerning as the country is in an important pre-election period,” UN Human Rights Chief Volker Turk said in a statement.
OHCHR also highlighted the “erosion of democratic checks and balances, ongoing threats and intimidation against civil society and journalists, and recurrence” of past rights violations.
The state has continued to arbitrarily arrest and detain people, the report said, citing recent cases including “torture and deaths in custody.”
Sri Lanka has maintained a large military relative to its population of 22 million since the end in 2009 of a decades-long civil war against the separatist Tamil Tigers.
Turk urged the South Asian country to “recognize victims’ suffering” and “acknowledge security forces’ role” in committing “gross human rights violations” as the report blamed impunity and a persisting lack of accountability.
A lightning military offensive killed at least 40,000 civilians in the final months of the fighting, according to UN estimates. Sri Lankan forces were accused of indiscriminately shelling civilians.
“Crimes and violations committed during and after the civil war… must not go unpunished,” the High Commissioner said.
Sri Lanka has been cash-strapped and in April 2022 defaulted on its $46-billion foreign debt when it ran out of foreign exchange for essential imports.
An unprecedented economic crisis in 2022 caused months of food, fuel and medicine shortages across the island nation, spurring widespread unrest.
Austerity measures followed, heavily impacting women and the poor, in particular, the report noted.
Local elections were due to be held last year but were postponed indefinitely after the government insisted it had no money to conduct a nationwide vote.
COPF final report on USD 2.5 mn cyber fraud recommends action against all responsible
The US$2.5 million loss incurred during Sri Lanka’s foreign debt repayment to Australia was a clear case of a cybercrime and theft, Committee on Public Finance (COPF) Chairman Dr. Harsha de Silva told Parliament yesterday.
Presenting the COPF final report on the cyber fraud, Dr. de Silva said the incident amounted to a serious financial crime and called for a comprehensive investigation, by law enforcement authorities, to identify and prosecute all those responsible.
The report revealed serious governance, procedural and operational failures that enabled the fraudulent transfer of public funds, while recommending sweeping reforms to strengthen cybersecurity, financial controls and public debt management systems.
According to the report, officials of the Treasury and the Central Bank bore responsibility for governance lapses that contributed to the failures. It also highlighted the fact that the Ministry of Finance was operating an outdated Microsoft Exchange Server after security support had ended, while basic safeguards, such as multi-factor authentication, had not been implemented.
The COPF said suspicious payment instructions linked to debt repayments involving India, the United Kingdom, Germany and Belgium had also been detected, preventing further losses. However, the US$ 2.5 million fraud materialised only in the repayment transaction involving Australia.
The report has noted that officials had failed to verify lender email domains, relied on unverified email communications and lacked adequate internal controls, allowing the fraud to continue for months.
Although the investigation uncovered system-wide weaknesses across several institutions, only four mid-level Finance Ministry officials had been suspended so far, the report said.
The COPF has recommended a special audit of the foreign debt repayment process, strengthened cybersecurity measures across state institutions, updated financial regulations and improvements to public debt management systems.
by Saman Indrajith
News
Opposition signs no-confidence motion against Justice Minister for dereliction of duty over Negombo Prison deaths
Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa, together with Opposition MPs, yesterday signed a No-Confidence Motion (NCM) in Parliament against Justice Minister Harshana Nanayakkara.The move comes in response to the unrest at the Negombo Prison, where both prison officers and inmates were killed.
Opposition members said the Minister had failed to fulfill his responsibility and accountability regarding their safety.According to the Opposition group, the NCM seeks to hold the Minister directly accountable for lapses in ensuring protection within the prison system.
The Attorney General yesterday informed the Supreme Court that the government has decided to review the legality of agreements entered into by the previous administration to hand over the country’s electronic visa issuance operations to private companies.
Additional Solicitor General Viveka Siriwardena, appearing for the Attorney General, made the submission when the Supreme Court took up the fundamental rights petitions filed by former MPs President’s Counsel M.A. Sumanthiran, Patali Champika Ranawaka, and Rauff Hakeem, challenging the previous Cabinet’s decision to outsource the e-visa system.
The petitions were heard before a three-judge bench, comprising Chief Justice Preethi Padman Surasena and Justices Achala Wengappuli and Arjuna Obeyesekere.
The Additional Solicitor General informed court that the current Cabinet had appointed a subcommittee to examine the legality of the agreements with the private companies and requested time to report on its findings, stating that the review was still underway.
President’s Counsel Sumanthiran, appearing as one of the petitioners, told the court that although the present government had indicated its intention to cancel the transaction, the petitioners wished to proceed with the case.
He noted that members of the current Cabinet had been named as respondents in the petitions.The Supreme Court directed the petitioners to issue notice on the members of the current Cabinet, named as respondents, and fixed September 29 for further proceedings.
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Showers will occur in the Sabaragamuwa, Western and North-western provinces and in Galle, Matara, Kandy and Nuwara-Eliya districts
US$ 2.5 mn cyber heist exposes system failures
Opposition signs no-confidence motion against Justice Minister for dereliction of duty over Negombo Prison deaths
AG informs SC of e-visa agreement review
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