The European Union (EU) has reminded Sri Lanka on the need to work in full compliance with its GSP+ commitments.

Issuing a statement, the EU said that following Sri Lanka’s Parliament swift action to elect Ranil Wickremesinghe as new President of the country in the wake of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s resignation, the EU underlines the need of upholding freedom of opinion and expression and individual rights of Sri Lankan citizens in the process of a democratic, peaceful and orderly transition.

In the light of reports of unnecessary violence against protestors, the EU stressed the importance of the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association and condemns the unwarranted use of force against peaceful demonstrators.

The EU said that the urgency of the domestic situation requires the swift establishment and implementation of a structured plan of reforms in order to return the country’s economy back onto a sustainable path.

In this context, it is essential to safeguard human rights and the rule of law while fostering good and inclusive governance and promoting reconciliation efforts.

The EU will continue to support all efforts in favour of Sri Lankan people, aimed at returning to more stability and economic recovery and advancing reconciliation agenda, in full respect of democratic values.

Over the years, the EU and its member states have provided more than EUR 1billion in assistance to the Sri Lankan people.

The re-introduction in 2017 of preferential access to the European Single Market under the GSP+ scheme has been essential for Sri Lanka’s economic development.

The EU expects the new Government to work in full compliance with its GSP+ commitments. Current and future cooperation programmes (EUR 70 million) are being aligned with Sri Lanka’s most pressing needs.

In addition to delivering medicines through the EU’s Joint Civil Protection Mechanism, member states and the EU are closely monitoring food security on the island in order to fund actions targeting the most vulnerable communities.

Official authorities reported that nearly 1,000 special items, including items of antique value plus files with important documents, computers, laptops and rare books have gone missing from places including the Presidential Palace and Temple Trees, which were taken over by the protesters.

According to police sources, special investigations have been started to find those items.

Information has been revealed to the investigation teams that some people have concealed and taken away parts of some antiques out of these places.

Meanwhile, it is reported that the Department of Archeology does not have any specific recorded information about the antiques, even though the Presidential Palace has been declared as a historic place through a gazette notification.

A senior official of the Department of Archeology told Sunday Lankadeepa that it will be difficult to get specific and clear information about the destroyed and missing antiques.

As the Presidential Palace had been maintained as a high-security special zone for a long time, due to the practical problems of visiting the place and gathering information, no such gathering of information has taken place.

But the archeological officials admit that there were many articles of ancient value in the Presidential Palace.

Officials of the Criminal Investigation Department said that various criminals and drug addicts have infiltrated the state buildings including the President’s House, Temple Trees, under the guise of protesters, and that these people have done most of the thefts.

Meanwhile, the government has already decided to strictly implement the law against the people who occupied government buildings under the guise of struggle.

Forensic experts and Criminal Investigations Department detectives recently moved in to investigate the damage. Police said they would make use of the CCTV footage available.

As the protestors took control, large crowds queued up to enter the building, but it is learnt that along with them several unscrupulous elements, too, had entered. With no one in control, they were a law unto themselves.

Some took pictures and selfies. But there were others who crossed the line. They slept on the beds, couches, and sofas and used the washrooms and the gymnasium.

Some people were seen pulling and touching the paintings which had remained untouched and were not even on display for the public, officials said.

The Archeology Department also expressed concern over the damage caused to the colonial-era buildings that were occupied by protesters and opened to public view.

Pointing out that archeologically important items, antiques, and cultural artifacts had been damaged in the President’s House and other state buildings that were stormed by the protesters, Archeology Department Director General Anura Manathunga called for speedy and effective measures to protect them from further damage and theft.

When the building came to be occupied, Prof Manathunga appealed to the public not to remove or damage archeologically valued objects. He warned that under the Archeology Ordinance, the department had powers to take legal action against miscreants.

However, it appears that the appeal has gone unheeded, as some valuable items have gone missing. Even the railings of a sidewalk had not been spared.

Also vandalized was the Prime Minister’s official residence Temple Trees, a British colonial-era building that was used by a colonial secretary and later by two presidents.

Senior Archeology Department officials who visited the President’s House, the Presidential Secretariat and Temple Trees said the protesters who stormed the buildings had failed to take care of the buildings and their belongings.

They said these buildings of historical value and national importance should not be subjected to vandalism.

One official said they only made observations but believed that a thorough investigation should be done to assess the full value of the damage.

Speaking on anonymity, he said the President’s House red carpet was one of the oldest red carpets and an archaeological treasure dating back to the colonial era.

He said the carpet would be beyond repair if it continued to be trampled by thousands of people. The carpets at both the Secretariat and Temple Trees, too, have similar values.

The official said chairs belonging to the Dutch period and plates and cutlery sets belonging to different colonial periods had been taken out, frames of paintings broken, windows shattered and graffiti drawn on walls.

He said in some areas walls and the floor had been damaged by people looking for hidden passageways and secret rooms.

Protesters, however, said some furniture, vases and other items were damaged because the crowd was overwhelming.

Sri Lanka is seeking US$ 5 billion emergency loan facility from China during the past several months but to no avail up to now although Chinese President Xi Jinping has pledged support the country’s new President Ranil Wickremasighe,foreign affairs analysts claimed.

They noted that the latest Chinese pledge of support extended to the island nation following US intelligence agency expert ‘s claim of of high-debt Chinese investment as a factor in Sri Lanka’s economic collapse.

CIA chief Bill Burns has said that high-debt Chinese investment was a factor in Sri Lanka’s economic collapse, saying it should serve as a warning to other nations.

Sri Lanka will need $5 billion over the next six months to ensure basic living standards, and is renegotiating the terms of a yuan-denominated swap worth $1.5 billion with China so as to fund essential imports, President Ranil Wickremasighe disclosed recently .

The island nation’s worst economic crisis in seven decades led to a shortage of foreign exchange that stalled imports of essential items such as fuel, medicine and fertiliser, provoking devaluation, street protests and a change of government.

Chinese President Xi Jinping says he is hopeful that Sri Lanka and China will carry forward the traditional friendship, consolidate political mutual trust and push forward the strategi cooperative partnership of sincere assistance and ever-lasting friendship.

He conveyed this in a letter to Sri Lanka’s new President Ranil Wickremesinghe to extend congratulations and best wishes on his new appointment.

In his letter, the Chinese President said he believes that under the leadership of his Sri Lankan counterpart, the island nation will be able to overcome temporary difficulties and advance the process of economic and social recovery.

He said “he attaches great importance to the development of China-Sri Lanka relations, and am willing to provide support and assistance to the best of my ability for you and the Sri Lankan people in your efforts.”

Meanwhile US CIA chief Bill Burns on Wednesday blamed “dumb bets” on high-debt Chinese investment as a factor in Sri Lanka’s economic collapse, saying it should serve as a warning to other nations.“

The Chinese have a lot of weight to throw around and they can make a very appealing case for their investments,” Burns said at the Aspen Security Forum.

But nations should look at “a place like Sri Lanka today — heavily indebted to China — which has made some really dumb bets about their economic future and are suffering pretty catastrophic, both economic and political, consequences as a result.

China has invested heavily in Sri Lanka — strategically located in the Indian Ocean and off India, often seen as a rival of Beijing — and worked closely with former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

Rajapaksa fled the country and resigned last week in the face of mass protests over dire economic conditions, with the island nearly exhausting its supply of food and fuel.

Sri Lanka has borrowed heavily from China for infrastructure projects, some of which ended up as white elephants.

In 2017, Sri Lanka was unable to repay a $1.4 billion loan for a port construction in the south of the country and was forced to lease out the facility to a Chinese company for 99 years.

Near the port is the Rajapaksa Airport, built with a $200 million loan for China, that was so sparingly used that at one point it was unable to cover its electricity bill.

The new Sri Lankan President must immediately stop the shameful, brutal assault on peaceful protestors, Amnesty International said today after the military carried out a pre-dawn attack on the peaceful protest site outside the Presidential Secretariat, ‘GotaGoGama’, hours before the protestors were due to vacate the area in Colombo.

In the early hours on Friday, a massive joint operation by the military, police and special forces forcefully removed protestors sleeping in tents at a peaceful protest site established in Colombo in April this year. Protestors were beaten and assaulted. The area was blocked, preventing access to media, lawyers and activists. According to reports, more than 50 were injured and 9 people have been arrested.

“Amnesty International strongly condemns the pre-dawn attack by security forces on peaceful protestors at the iconic protest site ‘GotaGoGama’ at Galle Face. It was the main anti-government demonstration site and had drawn global attention to the dire situation faced by the people of Sri Lanka following the economic crisis in the country. It is shameful that the new government resorted to such violent tactics within hours of coming to power. The people’s right to protest needs to be respected. Any pending charges against those arrested for peacefully exercising their right must be immediately dropped,” said Kyle Ward, Amnesty International’s Deputy Secretary General.

“The protesters have a right to demonstrate peacefully. Excessive use of force, intimidation and unlawful arrests seem to be an endlessly repetitive pattern in which the Sri Lankan authorities respond to dissent and peaceful assembly. These repressive actions clearly do not meet Sri Lanka’s obligations under international human rights law including with regard to people’s freedom of expression.”

Assault and ill treatment of protestors

At around 01:00 local time (19:30 GMT Thursday), the military and police armed with riot gear violently descended on the protest camps, indiscriminately beating and assaulting everyone and everything in their way, dismantling the tents in which protestors had been sleeping for over three months.

All access points to the protest site were blocked ahead of the raid. Eyewitness accounts and media reports say that the military attacked many protesters, especially those trying to film the developments. Soldiers broke apart ‘one tent after the other’ in the stretch leading to Presidential Secretariat and dismantled the protest site.

An eyewitness interviewed by Amnesty International early morning of Friday at the attack site recounted, “There were about 200-300 demonstrators at that time, I would say. Suddenly (the forces) came out from (behind) the barricades and totally destroyed and broke down the tents. There were enough police and military to swamp the area. The police and especially the army beat up peaceful protesters.”

“(The military) did these acts in anger. We saw some of the demonstrators (who had been) engaged in (the protest) had brought their guitars. We saw them take those and smash it on iron fences. We saw them beat up people… The crackdown was brutal.”

Video footage shared by media also shows unarmed individuals/protesters being assaulted by security forces.

No warning given

Eyewitness accounts suggest that the attack on protestors and their tents came as a complete surprise, even though there had been some rumours that there may be an attack. Protesters had been caught off-guard as they could not understand the reasons behind such an attack. There was no warning given to vacate the area by the military and police personnel before the use of brute force against the protestors.

Another female eyewitness, who had been asleep at the protest site when it was raided, told Amnesty International, “At around 1.30 a.m. there was shouting (from other protestors) saying ‘they have surrounded us, they have surrounded us, get up, get up.’ When I went outside, I saw a large group of army people coming towards us. Some of them had covered their faces so I don’t know who they are… There was no announcement… They hadn’t told (us) to move out. Suddenly, they had started hitting the tents around us. They hit the youth the same way they hit the tents.”

Amnesty International calls for an independent and impartial investigation into the incident. The perpetuators of the violence, and those who commanded the attack, must be identified and held accountable for their actions.

Denial of access to lawyers and media

The newspaper The Hindu reported that around 3.00 a.m. as news of the attack spread, media and activists reached the spot but were denied access as raids were ongoing. A security personnel stationed on Galle Road leading to the protest site reportedly said, “No one can go. Not even the media or lawyers.”

A BBC video journalist was reportedly beaten by the military and his phone snatched by a solider and videos deleted.

Lawyers who sought to intervene in their professional capacity were also reportedly prevented from doing so by security forces. At least two were reportedly assaulted.

Several journalists and at least one lawyer has reportedly been detained.

“Sri Lankan authorities must refrain from arresting people for exercising their right to peaceful assembly within sight and sound of the intended target of the protest’s claims. In addition any arrest must follow due process safeguards such as prompt access to legal counsel. We are very concerned by the human rights violations currently taking place in Sri Lanka as the authorities are using unlawful force and restrictions on movement in an attempt to quell dissent,” said Kyle Ward.

Tents of monks, deaf and mute demonstrators’ and soldiers with disabilities attacked

The security personnel aggressively dismantled protesters’ tents put up at the demonstration site, including those of the deaf and mute community and soldiers with disabilities who had been part of the peaceful protests since April.

‘I saw them hitting people on both sides and coming towards us. We ran the other way since they were chasing us… The deaf and mute demonstrators’ group had a very young translator with them. That group is usually in that area. No one knows what happened to them… no one could find them. At the ‘war heroes’ tent there was a small group of soldiers with disabilities, there were some monks in front as well… they had hit them also,” recounted an eyewitness to Amnesty International.

Widespread anger and fear

Ranil Wickremesinghe was sworn in as President on Thursday after ex-president Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country last week. A new Prime minister took oath today. After a 100 days of protest, there was a pledge by the protestors to vacate parts of the protest site on Friday. But the military’s aggressive takeover of the protest site under cover of darkness less than 24 hours after the change in regime, is shocking.

“We think what the government did, attacking a peaceful struggle was wrong,” said a protestor and an eyewitness to the Friday morning incident.

Amidst appeals to the international community to assist Sri Lanka, Amnesty International calls on the authorities to take action immediately to protect the rights of those peacefully protesting at GotaGoGama in Colombo and in other places in Sri Lanka. The charges against all the protesters must be dropped as they were detained solely for peacefully exercising their human rights.

“Justice and accountability from the Sri Lankan authorities is the need of the hour as Sri Lanka looks towards stability ahead of an IMF bailout to address the economic crisis. Amnesty has repeatedly called for restraint from security forces amidst the emergency regulations enforced in the country. Using them as a pretext for more human rights violations is deeply concerning and reflects poorly on the new administration in Sri Lanka. They must not lose their chance to start afresh and break off from the cycle of repression of people’s rights which further compounds the mistrust and fear in the people of Sri Lanka. Their right to peaceful protest must be protected,” said Kyle Ward.

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

PRESS RELEASE