President Ranil Wickremesinghe says former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has made no indication that he would return to Sri Lanka soon. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Wickremesinghe admitted he is in contact with Rajapaksa to deal with administrative handover issues and other government business and said the former President had not told him he would return to Sri Lanka in the near future. 

This is contrary to the statement by Cabinet Spokesman Bandula Gunawardena recently where he said it is likely that Rajapaksa would return to Sri Lanka soon. Rajapaksa is currently in Singapore on a visit visa after fleeing the country on July 13 amidst widespread protests calling for his resignation.  

In his interview, Wickremesinghe also opined it is not the right time for Rajapaksa to return as it would give rise to more political tensions in the country. Wickremesinghe also said he believes Sri Lanka has already hit rock bottom and the staff level agreement with the IMF will likely be finalised at the end of August. He also added it will be months before Sri Lankans see any improvement in the economy and their circumstances. 

At a meeting chaired by the President and the Prime Minister it was decided that an initial 98 would receive houses beginning tomorrow.

Over 150 houses were destroyed in the incident that took place on Friday (14), when a section of the Meethotamulla garbage dump collapsed on residents.

Thirty-two were killed in the incident; several more are missing and unaccounted for.

President Sirisena had also instructed officials to strengthen the process of providing infrastructure facilities to the affected people.

He asked that priority is given to evacuate people who are in the danger zone around the Meethotamulla disaster area.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, Ministers Anura Priyadarshana Yapa, Susil Premajayantha, Sagala Rathnayaka, Vajira Abeywardena, A. H. M. Fowzie, Chief Minister of Western Province Isura Dewapriya, Commanders of Tri Forces and the Inspector General of Police joined the discussion.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who arrived in Sri Lanka this morning, promised residents of Meethotamulla that each would receive a house from the government.

The residents of over 150 homes were evacuated from the Meethotamulla area after the National Building Research Organization (NBRO) yesterday declared the site a danger zone.

The Meethotamulla residents are temporarily housed in camps while troops continue to dig through mounds of garbage for bodies.

Over 32 people died and several more are still unaccounted for, after a section of the garbage dumped at Meethotamulla collapsed on residents on Friday (14).

Several ministers have requested the Prime Minister to inquire if the military was attempting to incite communal differences using the incident involving the Eastern Province Chief Minister and a naval officer, at a time when the President was not in the country.

The Prime Minister responded by saying that only the President could have banned the CM from entering military camps.

Eastern Province CM Nazeer Ahamad publicly reprimanded a naval officer at Sampur Maha Vidyalaya on May 20.

As a result, the tri-forces decided to ban the CM from entering military camps and also to boycott any events attended by him.

However, the tri-forces later revoked the ban it imposed on the CM. Ahamed visited the Trincomalee naval base for lunch yesterday.

The Democratic Party signed a Collective Agreement with the UNP a short while ago at the Temple Trees.

Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe signed the agreement for the DP and the UNP respectively.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe lashed out at the critics of the proposed agreement with India on IT sector, pointing out that the government will definitely sign a MoU with the northern neighbor within the year.

He made this announcement at the Invest-in-East Forum in Colombo a short while ago.

The decision to include IT sector in the proposed goods and services agreement with India created considerable protest in the country, especially among the IT professionals. However, the government argued that the local IT sector will not be endangered by this move.

The Chief Ministry of Eastern Province in collaboration with other government ministries are hosting the Invest-in-East Forum, with the aim of creating a conducive environment for investment and employment creation in Eastern Sri Lanka.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe contradicted President Maithripala Sirisena on the international involvement in a war crimes investigation mechanism, adding that “we have not ruled that out”.

In a recent interview with Channel 4 News, Wickremesinghe said that “We have not ruled that out. We are standing by our commitment in the Geneva resolution. We are putting together a mechanism for accountability and reconciliation by May.”

Meanwhile, he also stated that those that surrendered at the end of the war and are still missing in Sri Lanka are ‘most probably dead’.

“This is why the missing persons office and the TRC are there. We have to find out what happened”, he said.

“There are no detention centres in the north or the south. There are 292 in detention are known to the government no others”, the Prime Minister added, commenting on the reports of detention centres.

However, Wickremesinghe went on to dispute UN estimates that 40,000 civilian deaths, saying that a further investigation would be required.

Commenting on the number of civilian casualties, “We have a question mark as whether it is 40,000 but we are interested in finding out the actual number. We know there were casualties there had to be casualties in that type of fight. But we are interested in standing with the international community to determine the final numbers.”

(With inputs from The Tamil Guardian)

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe is to make a special statement this morning from the Temple Trees.

Wickremesinghe, who recently returned from a private visit to the UK, is to make the statement after a low-key new year event at the Temple Trees.

It will be only his second special statement from the Temple Trees following the election in August.

An Economic Management Committee will be appointed to ascertain the increment of expenditure and the reduction of the revenue due to the recent amendments to the budget proposals, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said.

Addressing the Parliament this morning, Wickremesinghe said that the committee members will be appointed from the Cabinet of Ministers.

The Prime Minister also said that the amendments to the budget were introduce after discussions with all political parties.

The government yesterday agreed to make several key amendments to the budget yesteray during a meeting between the Prime Minister and the SLFP MPs.

On January 9 when Sri Lanka’s President Maithripala Sirisena will begin his second year in office, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe will move a resolution in Parliament for converting the House into a Constitutional Assembly, marking the formal inauguration of the process of making a new Constitution in the place of the 1978 Constitution.

As per the draft text of the resolution that has been hosted on the website of Prime Minister’s Office, the proposed Assembly, comprising all Members of Parliament, would seek the views and advice of the people on a fresh Constitution and prepare a draft one.  Once the Parliament adopts the draft Constitution Bill with two-thirds majority, the Bill will be sent to Provincial Councils for opinion and eventually, tested through referendum for the approval of people.

Asked how long it would take for the new Constitution to be adopted, Rajitha Senaratne, Cabinet spokesperson, replied that “we have promised that the present system [Constitution] will continue till the present President is there [in office]. Before he exits, we have to change the Constitution.”  To a query whether this meant that the process would go on for four years?  Dr. Senaratne’s answer was: “You can’t say that. If people respond positively, then there is no problem.”

Panel of 24 to get submissions

He added that the Cabinet, at its meeting on Wednesday, decided to have a committee of 24 persons to get submissions from the people all over the country.  The committee would be split into eight teams of three persons so that each team visited three districts. There would be another committee for obtaining the views of the public, using the print and electronic media.

Public consultation

The Cabinet spokesperson added that “for the first time [in Sri Lanka], a Constitution is going to be framed with the consultation of people.”

Though the country adopted Constitutions twice — 1972 and 1978 — many experts including Jayampathy Wickramaratne are of the view that the public participation was negligible on both occasions. Dr. Wickramaratne, in his talk on the occasion of Constitution Day of India recently, said the 1972 and 1978 Constitutions were “imposed” by the political formation in power. While the Sri Lanka Freedom Party-led United Front had two-thirds majority in the Parliament in 1972, the United National Party had five-sixths majority six years later, he added.

Growing clamour

A survey taken by the Centre for Policy Alternatives among during October-December revealed that 53.4 per cent of Sri Lankans agreed that the Constitution should be changed to produce a political solution to the country’s ethnic problem. Two years ago, only 39.9 per cent of the people favoured the change.

(The Hindu)