Colombo (LNW): Public Security Minister Tiran Alles has instructed Inspector General of Police (IGP) C.D. Wickramarathne to immediately relieve Police personnel deployed for certain places and persons who do not require protection and reattach them to the respective Police stations.
That being said, the Minister has instructed the IGP to take the necessary steps after making a proper assessment on the said parties whether they actually require protection.
The Minister’s instructions come in upon considering the facts presented by a number of MPs at the Ministerial Advisory Working Committee on Public Security revealing that there is a shortcoming of duty at Police stations after deploying a huge number of Police officers for the protection of parties that do not require protection.
PMD: The Immigration and Emigration Controller General, Mr Harsha Ilukpitiya, announced that President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s initiative to digitize public services includes the implementation of an online passport application system in the coming days.
This new process aims to streamline the passport application process and ensure that passports are delivered to applicants’ residences within a span of three days.
During his appearance on the ‘101 Katha’ program produced by the Presidential Media Division, he highlighted the development of this procedure and its wide availability.
To facilitate the efficient delivery of passports, 50 regional secretariats across the island have been equipped with the necessary facilities. Once applicants submit their relevant applications to the nearest Regional Secretariat and complete the required procedures, the passport will be dispatched to their residence via a courier service within three days.
This initiative comes in response to reports of brokers causing disruptions in the passport issuance process. As a result, Minister of Public Security, Mr. Tiran Alas, issued instructions to the Immigration and Emigration Department to develop an innovative program to eliminate such interference. The department aims to popularize this newly designed program during the month of June, marking a significant milestone in its history. Achieving a successful execution of this program during the department’s 75th anniversary next year would be a remarkable accomplishment.
Under the new system, individuals can conveniently apply for passports from their homes by visiting www.immigration.gov.lk. By selecting the ‘Apply for passports’ option and validating the provided information, applicants will receive the necessary application form. Before uploading the soft copy of the form, applicants can specify whether they prefer the expedited ’03 day service’ or the standard ’02 week service.’
Following this, applicants must visit their Divisional Secretariat to provide their fingerprints and make the required payment via the online system offered by the Bank of Ceylon. For those unable to complete the process at home, they can visit an authorized photo studio under the Immigration and Emigration Department to obtain the necessary documents and fulfil the requirements.
In case individuals encounter difficulties making online payments after visiting the Divisional Secretariat and providing their fingerprints, alternative payment facilities are available. After submitting their fingerprints, the Divisional Secretariat will provide a designated number, which can be presented to the Bank of Ceylon. The amount due will then be transferred to the Immigration and Emigration Department.
To support these efforts, fingerprint scanners and cameras have been deployed in the 50 Divisional Secretariat Offices, and the Department of Posts has introduced a dedicated courier service.
Through a collaborative arrangement with the postal service, passports will be delivered to applicants’ residences using this courier service, ensuring a swift three-day turnaround.
Furthermore, comprehensive measures have been implemented to prevent any irregularities in the process, with the utilization of advanced technology to the fullest extent possible to maintain efficiency and integrity.
Colombo (LNW): Showers or thundershowers will occur at several places over the island during the evening or night, and showers may occur in Western and Sabaragamuwa provinces and in Galle and Matara districts in the morning too, announced the Department of Meteorology in its daily weather forecast today (31).
Fairly heavy showers about 75 mm are likely at some places in Central, Sabaragamuwa, Eastern and Uva provinces, it added.
General public is kindly requested to take adequate precautions to minimise damages caused by temporary localised strong winds and lightning during thundershowers.
Marine Weather:
Condition of Rain:
Showers or thundershowers will occur at several places in the sea areas off the coast extending from Puttalam to Matara via Colombo and Galle.
Winds:
Winds will be south-westerly over sea area around the island and speed will be (20-30) kmph. Wind speed may increase up to (40-45) kmph at times in the sea areasoff the coast extending from Puttalam to Kankasanthurai via Mannar and from Matara to Pottuvil via Hambantota.
State of Sea:
The sea areasoff the coast extending from Puttalam to Kankasanthurai via Mannar and from Matara to Pottuvil via Hambantota will be fairly rough at times. Temporarily strong gusty winds and very rough seas can be expected during thundershowers.
Executive Secretary of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) Dr. Robert Floyd will visit Sri Lanka from 31 May to 4 June 2023.
During the visit, Dr. Robert Floyd is scheduled to pay courtesy calls on the President, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Environment and meet with senior officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Defence and the Geological Survey and Mines Bureau (GSMB).
Sri Lanka signed the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) on 24 October 1996 and a Facility Agreement with the Organization in June 2000 which led the way for the establishment of an auxiliary seismological station in Pallekale, Kandy, as part of the International Monitoring System (IMS) to verify compliance with the CTBT.
The key objective of the CTBT is to bannu clear explosions by everyone, everywhere: above ground, under water and underground.
The visit is expected to further strengthen cooperation between Sri Lanka and the CTBTO.
Deputy High Commissioner of Sri Lanka Dr. D. Venkateshwaran met Padma Bhushan ‘Superstar’ Rajinikanth, a world renowned actor from South India, at his residence on 29 May 2023. During the meeting, DHC invited Mr. Rajinikanth to visit Sri Lanka as his presence will enhance cinema induced tourism as well as spiritual & wellness tourism.
DHC also personally invited him to explore the ‘Ramayana Trail’ that is exclusive to Sri Lanka and also other unique Buddhist sites in Sri Lanka.
Colombo (LNW): The ‘leave to appeal’ application lodged by former President Maithripala Sirisena over a court order to proceed with the cases filed against him by victims of the Katuwapitiya Church bombing in April, 2019 was dismissed by the Negombo Civil Appellate High Court today (30).
The cases were filed at the Negombo District Court against a number of state-affiliated individuals including Sirisena and current President Ranil Wickremesinghe by the victims of the blast, and the Negombo Civil Appellate High Court affirmed the Negombo District Court’s order, stating that the cases could proceed with the trial against the defendants except Mr. Wickremesinghe due to him being entitled to immunity as the current Head of State.
The Negombo Civil Appellate High Court bench comprised Justices Nishantha Hapuarachchi and Rashmi Singappuli. The cases were filed over the state’s negligence towards the Easter Sunday bombing.
The Negombo District Court in its order dated December 15, 2022 declared that Wickremesinghe be excluded from the list of defendants in terms of Article 35(1) of the Constitution, and rejected the objections raised by ex President Sirisena over being cited as a defendant.
Other defendants are former Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando, former Inspector General of Police (IGP) Pujith Jayasundara and former Head of the State Intelligence Service (SIS) Nilantha Jayawardena.
World (LNW): It was no secret that Uganda finds same-sex relations illegal, as in more than thirty other countries of the African region behind their so called “sanctity of the family”, but Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni brings his nation’s state-sponsored queerphobia into a whole new level by signing one of the world’s toughest anti-queer laws, including the death penalty for what it calls “aggravated homosexuality.”
Beyond being jaw-dropped, it drives Uganda’s public outcry for equality into a shriek of horror, as the new law was declared days ahead of the PRIDE month, whilst critics and human rights activists from all over the world condemn it to be one of the most “unscientific” and “inhuman” ones to date.
Museveni’s new law stipulates capital punishment for “serial offenders” against the law and transmission of a terminal medical condition like HIV through gay sex, whilst decreeing a twenty-year serving period for what it calls the “promotion of homosexuality.”
Needless to mention that the Ugandan President’s move risks sanctions from aid donors and would probably attract Western condemnation. US President Joe Biden already condemned the move calling it “a tragic violation” of human rights and asserted that Washington would evaluate the implications of the law “on all aspects” of US engagement with the African country, and the British Government has also condemned the law, calling it “appalling” and “deeply discriminatory”.
Museveni’s approach is wrong on all accounts!
Signing the law, the Ugandan President called homosexuality a “deviation from normal” and urged lawmakers to resist “imperialist” pressure, whilst Parliamentary speaker Anita Among welcomed the move by saying that they have always stood strong “to defend their culture, values and aspirations.” But the United Nations unravelled a bigger crisis repressed under the prejudice and ignorance of the Ugandan lawmakers that the African country’s progress in tackling HIV is in “grave jeopardy” in its validation of criminalising key populations associated with HIV, among whom are gay and bisexual men and transgender persons.
Uganda’s existing laws can imprison one up to 10 years maximum for “intentionally transmitting HIV,” but the law does not apply when the person who contracted the infection was aware of their sexual partner’s HIV status. Nonetheless, the new law makes no distinction between what is intentional and what is not and contains no exception based on awareness of HIV status.
Museveni’s most unscientific approach towards people of diverse sexual orientations, gender identities, gender expressions and sex characteristics (SOGIESC) by demonising terminal medical conditions such as HIV discourages an increasing number of people from seeking health services in their fear of being attacked or punished, especially in the backdrop where not only can HIV be virally supressed into an “undetectable” level equivalent to being sexually “untransmittable,” but also be prevented from being contracted via successful medication such as Post-Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP) and Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP), health professionals warned. According to Global Fund, as of 2021, 89 per cent of people living with HIV in Uganda knew their status, more than 92 per cent of them were receiving antiretroviral treatment (ART), and 95 per cent of those on treatment were virally suppressed, in the country’s manoeuvring for the 90:90:90 target, but the new law may simply reverse-gear the delicate process of HIV prevention.
In 1990, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declassified homosexuality from its list of mental disorders, which is the least of concerns of a majority of Ugandan lawmakers in their strong stance backed by the homophobic Head of State that it is “unnatural”. But the resemblance of their attitude towards people of diverse sexual identities inherited by the British colonists with those of homophobic tendencies in other former British colonies such as Sri Lanka is so uncanny, that even the logic of “protecting the culture and battling against imperialist powers” reminisces some of the publicly disowned Sri Lankan politicians who are grappling to regain popularity.
Museveni’s approach is wrong on all accounts. Why? The Ugandan Head of State simply forgets the examples set by African states like South Africa, Botswana and the Seychelles, which shed their own shackles of colonial era laws by decriminalising consensual same-sex sexual relationships through the valuation of the concept of ‘Ubuntu’ – or African humanism. The prejudice set by the Ugandan lawmakers in the name of culture wilfully avoids the true African values that recognise humanity, and the aforementioned African states embracing their cultural roots seem to negate Museveni’s argument. Homosexuality is not what is deemed “imperialist”; homophobia is.
As of March 2023, 62 member states of the United Nations still criminalise consensual same-sex relationships in law, with two states criminalising such conduct in practice, a report by the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex Association (ILGA) said. The Penal Codes of many African states (similar to those in many Asian countries) were influenced by the once infamous Indian Penal Code formulated by Lord Macaulay in 1860 reflecting Great Britain’s 16th century Buggery Act. The “buggery”, or “sodomy” laws introduced by the British during the colonial era aimed the so called “need to protect British soldiers from being led astray by the toxic and overly erotic oriental culture” of Asia and the Middle East.
How Africa and Asia repay the British
The colonists themselves had decriminalised same-sex acts between men in 1965 in their own territories following the recommendations of the Wolfenden Committee, which formulated the “Wolfenden Report of 1957.” In April 2018, former British Prime Minister Theresa May publicly apologised over Britain’s role in introducing such harmful laws to its former colonies and for their legacy of discrimination, violence and even death. May also called upon the Commonwealth States who still value such punitive laws to immediately decriminalise same-sex relationships.
REUTERS: Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni signed one of the world’s toughest anti-LGBTQ laws, including the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality”, drawing Western condemnation and risking sanctions from aid donors.
Same-sex relations were already illegal in Uganda, as in more than 30 African countries, but the new law goes further.
It stipulates capital punishment for “serial offenders” against the law and transmission of a terminal illness like HIV/AIDS through gay sex. It also decrees a 20-year sentence for “promoting” homosexuality.
“The Ugandan president has today legalised state-sponsored homophobia and transphobia,” said Clare Byarugaba, a Ugandan rights activist.
United States President Joe Biden called the move “a tragic violation” of human rights and said Washington would evaluate the implications of the law “on all aspects of U.S. engagement with Uganda.”
“We are considering additional steps, including the application of sanctions and restriction of entry into the United States against anyone involved in serious human rights abuses or corruption,” he said.
A presidency photo of Museveni showed him signing the law with a golden pen at his desk. The 78-year-old has called homosexuality a “deviation from normal” and urged lawmakers to resist “imperialist” pressure.
A local organisation, Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum, and 10 other individuals later filed a complaint against the law at the constitutional court, one of the petitioners, Busingye Kabumba, told Reuters.
Museveni had sent the original bill passed in March back, asking parliament to tone down some provisions. But his ultimate approval was not seen as in doubt in a conservative country where anti-LGBTQ attitudes have hardened in recent years, in part due to campaigning by Western evangelical church groups.
Uganda receives billions of dollars in foreign aid each year and could now face adverse measures from donors and investors, as happened with a similar bill nine years ago.
The bill’s sponsor, Asuman Basalirwa, told reporters that parliament speaker Anita Among’s U.S. visa was cancelled after the law was signed. Among and the U.S. embassy in Uganda did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
In a joint statement, the U.S.’s flagship HIV/AIDS programme PEPFAR, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) said the law put Uganda’s anti-HIV fight “in grave jeopardy”.
Dominic Arnall, chief executive of Open For Business, a coalition of companies that includes Google (GOOGL.O) and Microsoft (MSFT.O), said the group was deeply disappointed and the law ran counter to Ugandans’ economic interests.
The U.N. human rights body declared itself “appalled”.
Uganda’s move could encourage lawmakers in neighbouring Kenya and Tanzania seeking similar measures.
“What a leader we’ve in Africa!” tweeted George Kaluma, a Kenyan member of parliament who submitted an anti-LGBTQ bill in April.
“Kenya is following you in this endeavour to save humanity.”
The inclusion of the death penalty for offences like transmitting HIV has drawn particular outrage internationally.
Existing Ugandan law calls for a maximum 10-year sentence for intentionally transmitting HIV and does not apply when the person who contracted the infection was aware of their sexual partner’s HIV status.
By contrast, the new law makes no distinction between intentional and unintentional transmission and contains no exception based on awareness of HIV status.
The amended version of the bill, adopted earlier this month after Museveni returned it to parliament, stipulated that merely identifying as LGBTQ is not a crime and revised a measure that obliged people to report homosexual activity to only require reporting when a child is involved.
LGBTQ Ugandans called those changes useless, saying law enforcement regularly exceeds its legal authorities to harass them. They said passage of the bill in March unleashed a wave of arrests, evictions and mob attacks.
The issue has been a long-running one in Uganda.
A less restrictive 2014 anti-LGBTQ law was struck down by a Ugandan court on procedural grounds, after Western governments had initially suspended some aid, imposed visa restrictions and curtailed security cooperation.
In 2009, a bill dubbed “kill the gays” for initially proposing executing homosexuals was introduced after a conference in Kampala drew representatives from the United States including prominent anti-gay evangelical Scott Lively.
As well as religious campaigning, Africa’s anti-LGBTQ attitudes also have their roots in the colonial era, including an anti-sodomy section of Britain’s penal code. By the time the UK legalised same-sex acts in 1967, many former colonies were independent and did not inherit the legal change.
“To reduce any kind of human being, irrespective of their sexuality, to a death sentence based on who they identify as and how they choose to live their lives is something that we should all feel very ashamed about as a continent,” said South African filmmaker Lerato.
Colombo (LNW): Food security in Sri Lanka is improving across all provinces, according to the Crop and Food Security Assessment Mission (CFSAM) report jointly carried out in February/March 2023 by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP).
The report estimates 3.9 million people or 17 percent of the population is in moderate acute food insecurity which is nearly a 40 percent decrease from June/July last year. Nearly 10,000 people are severely acute food-insecure, down from 66,000 people last year.
The improvement in food security stems from better food consumption, which could be attributed to reduced food prices and improved incomes among farming communities during the harvesting period when the mission was carried out.
Despite this positive trend, food insecurity remains high in certain districts, especially Kilinochchi, Nuwara Eliya, Mannar, Batticaloa, Vavuniya, and Jaffna.
The highest level of acute food insecurity was found within the tea plantation communities in the Estate sector and among daily wage labourers and households who rely on social assistance programmes, such as Samurdhi, as their main source of income.
Production of cereal, including rice and maize, across the two main cropping seasons in 2022/23 is forecast at 4.1 million tonnes, 14 percent below the past five-year average, mainly due to poor plant nutrition caused by an inadequate supply of fertilizer and unaffordability of essential material inputs.
However, essential fertilizers distributed to smallholder farmers by the Government, facilitated by funds received from multilateral and bilateral donor agencies, has significantly impacted production, marking an improvement in the yield with productivity in the recently harvested 2022/23 “Maha” season, 12% higher than the 2022 “Yala” season.
Representative of FAO to Sri Lanka and the Maldives, Mr. Vimlendra Sharan speaking on CFSAM Report findings said,
“The Crop and Food Security Assessment Mission (CFSAM) report is an eye-opener on the continuing vulnerabilities and challenges that exist within the food systems of Sri Lanka.
This report and its findings will no doubt serve as a guiding light for policymakers and stakeholders to collectively work towards ensuring food security, strengthening agricultural resilience and mitigating risks faced by farmers and rural communities who have been disproportionately impacted by the economic crisis.
FAO remains committed to supporting Sri Lanka in their efforts towards achieving sustainable food systems, food security and zero hunger.”
Abdur Rahim Siddiqui, WFP Sri Lanka’s Representative and Country Director Said a high number of households — more than 60 percent — are adopting negative measures to put food on the table, including borrowing money and purchasing food on credit.
WFP will extend its emergency operation, which commenced last year, to provide food rations and cash assistance to people identified as food insecure, he added .
