Thich Minh Tue, who departed on a multi-nation journey from Vietnam four months ago, was stopped in his tracks by Sri Lankan police last week who cited a letter from Vietnam’s state-sanctioned Buddhist sangha – or Buddhist religious association – describing him as posing a threat to public order.

His group, which also includes 10 volunteers, has since been provided temporary accommodation at a temple. They were given permission only to meet and receive food from visitors and well-wishers outside the temple, northeast of the capital Colombo, but were barred from continuing their hike, the source, who requested anonymity to discuss the sensitive issue, told RFA.

When it became clear that the group would not be allowed to continue their walk in Sri Lanka, the group decided to immediately leave for India instead, he said.

“They don’t give us a green light to resume walking … on the road,” said Phuoc Nghiem, a close associate of Thich Minh Tue, during a YouTube livestream on Wednesday.

The source said Thich Minh Tue is expected to arrive in India’s capital New Delhi by flight from Sri Lanka at around 5:00 a.m. on Friday. From there, he is expected to fly to Bodh Gaya, the place where Buddha attained enlightenment, and will continue his walk there.

(RFA)

Thich Minh Tue became an unlikely internet sensation last year in Vietnam where his simple lifestyle has struck a chord. He undertook barefoot walks that went viral and well-wishers came out in droves. But authorities treat him with some suspicion as he is not officially recognized as a monk.

Last December, he set out from his homeland on what was meant to be a 2,700-kilometer (1,600 mile) journey by foot through several Asian nations.

Since leaving Vietnam, he and his companions have traveled through Laos and Thailand, and then took a detour to Malaysia after he ran into problems trying to enter Myanmar. He had intended to cross that war-torn country to get to India. After Malaysia he went to Sri Lanka and had intended to walk to the north of the South Asian nation and take a ferry to India.

A copy of the letter from a representative of the Vietnamese sangha that was cited by Sri Lankan police has been viewed by RFA. It accuses Thich Minh Tue of impersonating a Buddhist monk, attempting to establish a dissident sect, and posing threat to public order and national reputation.

Edited by Tenzin Pema and Mat Pennington.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Vietnamese.

A witness told Radio Free Asia that when the Vietnamese monk Thich Minh Tue and his entourage were about to go to a local Hindu temple to rest, a local monk, claiming to be from the Sri Lankan Buddhist Sangha, came to the temple and asked that he not stay.

Local Sri Lankans objected, taking sides with their Vietnamese visitor.

The Sri Lankan monk then took out his phone and read the contents of a letter allegedly sent by Thich Nhat Tu, a representative of the state-backed Vietnam Buddhist Sangha – or religious association - to the Sri Lankan Sangha, to justify his demand that Thich Minh Tue leave the leafy temple compound in Giriulla, a town about 30 miles northeast of the capital Colombo.

“He pointed to the letter and read the content to prove that this group of monks are a fake monks and were violating the law,” said Nguyen Minh Chi, a Vietnamese filmmaker who witnessed the exchange.

The letter is visible in video and photos of the incident, filmed by YouTubers accompanying Thich Minh Tue.

RFA has not been able to verify the authenticity of the letter. It bears a signature and the name of Thich Nhat Tu, along with the seal of the International Buddhist Council of the Vietnamese sangha, for which he serves as deputy head.

Thich Minh Tue was eventually able to enter the temple.

He became an unlikely internet sensation last year in Vietnam, where his simple lifestyle has struck a chord. His barefoot walks went viral and well-wishers came out in droves.

Last December, he left Vietnam on a journey by foot to India, the birthplace of Buddhism. After crossing Laos, he entered Thailand with a plan to hike across conflict-wracked Myanmar, but ran into logistical and visa problems. He has since traveled to Malaysia, and a week ago arrived in Sri Lanka, a predominantly Buddhist nation. He still hopes to make it to India.

His expedition is not without controversy. Vietnam’s state-sanctioned Buddhist sangha has not officially recognized him as a monk. At one point, before his international wanderings began, authorities in communist Vietnam, leery of his popularity, announced he had “voluntarily retired.”

A statement was posted Wednesday on two Facebook pages linked to Thich Nhat Tu, the representative of the Vietnamese sangha, denying he wrote the letter.

It includes a section calling for close cooperation between the Vietnamese and Sri Lankan sanghas on the issue of Thich Minh Tue, saying that it is a matter related to “national order and security.”

One follower of Thich Minh Tue voiced exasperation about the controversy.

“Why do people who practice Buddhism together constantly fight each other?” asked Phuoc Nghiem in a video he posted Wednesday. “We’re only practicing (religion), but they keep filing complaints.”

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Vietnamese.

The Singapore cargo ship Dali chartered by Maersk, which collapsed the Baltimore bridge in the United States last month, was carrying 764 tonnes of hazardous materials to Sri Lanka, reports Colombo’s Daily Mirror.

The materials were mostly corrosives, flammables, miscellaneous hazardous materials, and Class-9 hazardous materials — including explosives and lithium-ion batteries — in 56 containers.

According to the Mirror, the US National Transportation Safety Board was still “analysing the ship’s manifest to determine what was onboard” in its other 4644 containers when the ship collided with Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, collapsing it, on March 26.

• READ MORE: Baltimore Key Bridge collapse investigation begins

The e-Con e-News (ee) news agency reports that prior to Baltimore, the Dali had called at New York and Norfolk, Virginia, which has the world’s largest naval base.

Colombo was to be its next scheduled call, going around South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope, taking 27 days.

According to ee, Denmark’s Maersk, transporter for the US Department of War, is integral to US military logistics, carrying up to 20 percent of the world’s merchandise trade annually on a fleet of about 600 vessels, including some of the world’s largest ships.

The US Department of Homeland Security has also now deemed the waters near the crash site as “unsafe for divers”.

13 damaged containers
An “unclassified memo” from the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said a US Coast Guard team was examining 13 damaged containers, “some with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC] and/or hazardous materials [HAZMAT] contents.

The team was also analysing the ship’s manifest to determine if any materials could “pose a health risk”.

CISA officials are also monitoring about 6.8 million litres of fuel inside the Dali for its “spill potential”.

Where exactly the toxic materials and fuel were destined for in Sri Lanka was not being reported.

Also, it is a rather long way for such Hazmat, let alone fuel, to be exported, “at least given all the media blather about ‘carbon footprint’, ‘green sustainability’ and so on”, said the Daily Mirror.

“We can expect only squeaky silence from the usual eco-freaks, who are heavily funded by the US and EU,” the newspaper commented.

“It also adds to the intrigue of how Sri Lanka was so easily blocked in 2022 from receiving more neighbourly fuel, which led to the present ‘regime change’ machinations.”

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

On the evening of March 5, officers with the Sri Lanka police service’s Criminal Investigation Department arrested G.P. Nissanka, owner and editor of the news site Ravana Lanka News, from his home in the Pallebedda area of the southern Sabaragamuwa Province, according to news reports and the Media Organizations Collective, a group of Sri Lankan organizations advocating for press freedom and freedom of expression.

Amila Egodamahawatta, Nissanka’s lawyer, told CPJ that the journalist was held in police remand until he was released on bail March 20. His mobile phone, seized during his arrest, remains in police custody as of Friday, Egodamahawatta said.

Nissanka’s arrest followed a complaint by Vikum Liyanage, commander of the Sri Lankan army, after Ravana Lanka News published an article accusing the commander of corruption and malfeasance.

Separately, on March 6, police arrested freelance journalist Bimal Ruhunage from his home in the Kurunegala district of North Western Province, according to the Media Organizations Collective statement, as well as the journalist and his lawyer Keerthi Dunusinghe, who spoke to CPJ.

Police also seized Ruhunage’s mobile phone and wallet, which were returned to his wife later that day, the journalist said.

Ruhunage said he arrived at a local bus station four days prior, wearing his press identification card, to interview a mother seeking to give her child up for adoption. However, a police officer attempted to stop the journalist from filming them. Ruhunage continued to film as the officer took the mother and child to a police station in a three-wheeler taxi, footage of which was published by the U.S.-based news website Boston Lanka.

Following his arrest, Ruhunage was held in police remand until March 11, when he was released on bail, according to the journalist and his lawyer. Ruhunage has been ordered to appear in court on May 13.

“The arrests and criminal investigations launched into Sri Lankan journalists G.P. Nissanka and Bimal Ruhunage are unacceptable reactions by authorities and could create a chilling effect on the media,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna. “Sri Lankan journalists should not fear detention, seizure of their devices, or criminal cases for their work ahead of presidential and parliamentary elections to be held later this year.”

Egodamahawatta and Dunusinghe told CPJ that their clients were remanded into police custody despite being investigated for bailable offenses.

Nissanka stands accused of violating section 6 of the Computer Crime Act related to offenses committed against national security and a section of the police ordinance related to spreading false reports to create alarm and panic, Egodamahawatta said.

Separately, Ruhunage said that police informed him at the time of his arrest that he was being investigated for obstruction of police duties. However, the police complaint filed in court cited a section of the penal code pertaining to the use of criminal force to deter a public officer from discharge of duty, according to the journalist and his lawyer.

Ruhunage told CPJ that a police source informed him that the journalist was suspected of authoring a Voice of Sri Lanka report alleging that a senior police official did not disclose his ownership of a hotel in what may be an ethics violation.

Ministry of Defense spokesperson Nalin Herath did not respond to CPJ’s emailed request for comment. CPJ also called and messaged police spokesperson Nihal Thalduwa for comment but did not receive any response.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

Photograph Source: AntanO – CC BY-SA 4.0

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced on March 21, 2024, that it has reached a staff-level agreement with Sri Lanka regarding the next phase of financial assistance, granting access to $337 million from the previously approved $3 billion bailout allocated in 2023 for the financially strained nation. A staff-level agreement represents an initial consensus achieved between the personnel of the IMF and the governing authorities of a member nation concerning economic policies and reforms.

Over two weeks starting from March 7, a team from the IMF, led by senior mission chief Peter Breuer and deputy mission chief Katsiaryna Svirydzenka, conducted the second review of the bailout program in Colombo. The initial bailout, totaling $2.9 billion and spanning four years, was approved in March 2023. Two tranches of $330 million each were disbursed in March and December 2023.

Upon approval by IMF management and subsequent completion by the IMF executive board, Sri Lanka will now gain access to SDR 254 million (approximately $337 million) in financial assistance.

Sri Lanka had declared its first-ever sovereign default since gaining independence from Britain in 1948 in April 2022.

The Sri Lankan Uprising of 2022

The 2022 protests in Sri Lanka, popularly referred to as Aragalaya (The Struggle), began in March of that year as a response to the government’s policies. Criticisms were aimed at the government’s handling of the country’s economy, which had plunged into a severe crisis. The crisis, which sparked widespread unrest, was fueled by a combination of factors, including rampant inflation, frequent power cuts, and shortages of essential goods like fuel and domestic gas.

Massive protests culminated in a governmental collapse in Sri Lanka on July 13, 2022. A significant number of demonstrators had marched toward President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s residence asking for his resignation. Rajapaksa left the country for the Maldives, leaving Ranil Wickremesinghe to assume the role of acting president due to his position as prime minister. By evening, Prime Minister Wickremesinghe too had resigned, paving the way for the establishment of an all-party government.

Wickremesinghe, who had previously held the position of Prime Minister on six occasions and was serving as acting President, was elected as the eighth executive President of Sri Lanka following a parliamentary vote on July 20, 2022.

Crisis in the Sri Lankan Economy

Sri Lanka finds itself embroiled in a severe economic crisis, exacerbating the already pressing issue of food insecurity within the nation. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reports that 6.2 million individuals, constituting 28 percent of the population, are somewhat food insecure, with an additional 66,000 facing severe food insecurity.

The crisis, fueled by soaring inflation and prolonged political turmoil, has reshaped the landscape of governance in Sri Lanka, disproportionately affecting its impoverished communities. Once spending 32 percent of their income on food in 2019, in 2022, the same figure was a staggering 75 percent. The brunt of this crisis is borne most acutely by informal sector workers, with 86 percent of households reducing food intake, and some even skipping meals.

The food security challenge in Sri Lanka has been compounded by a significant decline in food production, impacting the 26.41 percent of the population dependent on agriculture. The United Nations Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs’s (OCHA) Needs Assessment Reporthighlighted a serious decline in domestic agricultural output stemming from an unsuccessful transition to organic farming. In April 2021, the former government had imposed a ban on importing chemical fertilizers, which, even after being lifted in November, led to a 40 to 50 percent reduction in agricultural outputs for both Maha and Yala monsoon seasons.

Two in three households adjusted their children’s eating habits during the crisis: over half of all children (54 percent) had to eat cheaper or lower quality food; over one-third (35 percent) had to reduce the quantity their children were eating; and about one in ten children (12 percent) had to reduce the frequency of their children’s food intake.

In 2022, the youth unemployment rate in Sri Lanka reached a staggering 24 percent, reflecting a concerning trend in the labor force ages 15 to 24. Poverty levels have been on the rise since 2019, increasing from 11.3 percent to 12.7 percent in 2020, which equates to over 300,000 new individuals falling below the poverty line during that period. This trend continued into 2021, with poverty rates doubling between 2021 and 2022, soaring from 13.1 percent to 25.0 percent. This sharp increase has pushed an additional 2.5 million people into poverty in 2022 alone. Households have been profoundly affected by this economic turmoil, facing multiple challenges such as a 46 percent increase in prices, a contraction in service and industry jobs (forcing workers into lower-paying agricultural roles), a decline in remittances, and negative impacts on agricultural incomes due to the ban on chemical fertilizers implemented in 2021.

Austerity Measures and the IMF

IMF packages in Sri Lanka have negatively impacted the people. Austerity measures and structural reforms have led to cuts in public spending, increased unemployment, and reduced access to essential services. Privatization and deregulation have resulted in higher costs of necessities, exacerbating poverty and inequality. While these packages offer short-term financial aid, their long-term effects deepen social hardships for the most vulnerable communities in Sri Lanka.

With the imposition of various bailout packages, the Sri Lankan government has also implemented a series of austerity measures, increasing the challenges faced by its citizens amidst the country’s severe economic crisis. These measures entail significant reductions in government expenditures across different sectors, including critical areas such as social protection measures, and essential public services like healthcare and education, further undermining the well-being of the population. Notably, each ministry’s annual budget has been slashed by 5 percent.

In addition to these detrimental cuts, Sri Lanka’s tax system has come under scrutiny for its regressive nature, characterized by a disproportionate reliance on indirect taxes such as the value-added tax (VAT), which accounts for 80 percent of tax revenue. This disproportionately affects lower-income individuals, who end up paying a larger share of their income in taxes compared to their higher-income counterparts.

Furthermore, the government’s decision to privatize state-owned enterprises as part of its austerity measures has had negative consequences for both employees and consumers, leading to job losses and reduced access to essential services. Similarly, recent economic policy initiatives promoting labor “flexibility” have resulted in the erosion of workers’ rights and welfare, exacerbating income disparities and labor exploitation.

Changes in pension regulations, such as the gradual reduction of pension gratuities for retirees, have further increased the financial insecurity faced by vulnerable segments of the population, particularly retirees relying on fixed incomes for their livelihoods.

The Central Bank of Sri Lanka’s adoption of a significantly tighter monetary policy stance, characterized by successive increases in policy interest rates has had adverse effects on borrowing costs of both industries and citizens and economic activity in terms of production and consumer expenditure.

This article was produced by Globetrotter.

The post Sri Lanka: Govt-IMF Reach Agreement but Basic Question Remains appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Pranjal Pandey.

The latest version of the bill empowers a five-member commission appointed by the president to direct the blocking of social media accounts or an “online location which contains a prohibited statement,” which could include news websites. An amended version of the bill is to be tabled in parliament later this month.

Read the full letter:

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

In parliament on October 3, Public Security Minister Tiran Alles tabled the Online Safety Bill, which would empower a five-member commission appointed by the president to direct internet service providers or social media platforms to block access to “an online location which contains a prohibited statement,” which could include news websites or accounts of journalists and media outlets.

The bill would also allow the proposed commission to prosecute journalists for publishing such content, and potentially order a prison term of up to five years and an unspecified fine.

Sri Lankan human rights lawyer Ambika Satkunanathan told CPJ that the term “prohibited statement” lacks a clear definition in the bill, and would be contingent on subjective interpretation, opening the door for state actors to suppress dissent.

Separately, on September 15, the Sri Lankan Ministry of Justice published a revised version of the Anti-Terrorism Bill after public and diplomatic pressure following the first draft in March. The bill would replace and repeal the Prevention of Terrorism Act, which has been repeatedly used to jail and harass journalists for their work.

While the revised bill includes some welcome amendments, including removing the death penalty as punishment, it retains a vague and overbroad definition of terrorism and “could potentially criminalize nearly all forms of legitimate expression,” according to a statement by a spokesperson for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

“Sri Lanka’s proposed Online Safety Bill and Anti-Terrorism Bill are ripe for abuse against the media and would allow authorities to continue cracking down on press freedom and freedom of expression,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna. “We urge the government to reconsider the bills in their entirety or engage in a thorough consultation process with journalists and civil society to ensure the provisions adhere to international human rights law.”

Satkunanathan, who filed petitions challenging the constitutionality of both bills in the Supreme Court, said that she believes the government should withdraw the legislation and address the relevant offenses within the country’s existent criminal laws.

On Wednesday, October 18, the Attorney General told the Supreme Court that the government would make unspecified amendments to the Online Safety Bill.

The U.N. statement also expressed concern that the Anti-Terrorism Bill grants wide powers to the police and military to question, search, and arrest people without adequate judicial oversight.

Clause 9 of the Anti-Terrorism Bill prohibits supplying “confidential information,” defined as that which is “likely to have an adverse effect on national or public security,” to another person while “knowing or having reasonable grounds to believe” that it will be used to commit an offense under the law.

“Journalists gathering information on activities the government does not wish to be publicized are vulnerable to being targeted through this provision,” Satkunanathan said.

CPJ’s calls and messages to Alles did not receive any replies. When reached by phone, Sri Lankan Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe told CPJ he was unable to comment immediately. Rajapakshe did not respond to CPJ’s follow-up messages.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

Around 12:30 p.m. on August 22, approximately 50 Sinhalese men led by a Buddhist monk surrounded vehicles holding the three journalists after they reported on alleged state-backed encroachments on Tamil cattle farmers’ land in the Mylathamadu area of the eastern district of Batticaloa, according to news reports, the rights group Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka, and the three journalists, who spoke to CPJ.

The men—some armed with knives and swords—moved the three journalists and around 17 others, including farmers and members of an accompanying interfaith group, to an open area and held them in the presence of officers from a local government development authority. 

Although the interfaith group leaders immediately called the police, officers only arrived five hours later, after Tamil lawmakers raised the issue on the parliament floor.

As of August 30, police have not opened an investigation into the incident, the three journalists told CPJ. CPJ’s messages to the officer-in-charge of the Karadiyanaru Police Station, which oversees Mylathamadu, and Sri Lankan police spokesperson Nihal Thalduwa did not receive any replies. 

“Sri Lankan authorities must thoroughly and impartially investigate the recent harassment of Selvakumar Nilanthan, Valasingham Krishnakumar, and Antony Christopher Christiraj by a mob in Batticaloa, and work to end the pattern of impunity relating to attacks on Tamil reporters,” said Carlos Martinez de la Serna, CPJ’s program director. “Tamil journalists have a right to report on issues affecting their community without interference or fear of reprisal.”

Ethnic tensions persist between the Sinhalese people, the country’s majority ethnic group, and Tamils following the country’s 26-year civil war that ended in 2009.

Nilanthan, secretary of the Batticaloa District Tamil Journalists Association, was wearing a press jacket and reporting for the privately owned U.K.-based broadcaster IBC Tamil. While he was held, several of the men forced him to delete photos and videos of farmers’ testimonies and the mob setting fire to the land. 

He said they also forced him to sign two letters in Sinhala and Tamil stating that he would not report on the incident.

Christiraj, a freelance reporter, and Krishnakumar, a freelancer and the head of the Batticaloa District Tamil Journalists Association, were not wearing press jackets, hid their cameras, and did not inform the mob that they were reporters, they told CPJ.

When Christiraj and Krishnakumar later told police at the scene that they were members of the press, the Buddhist monk asked a police official to order all three journalists to delete their photos and videos, the reporters told CPJ, adding that the official did not comply with the request.

Members of the mob also pressured Krishnakumar to delete photos and videos after learning he was a journalist, which he refused to do, he said.

Although the mob assaulted a Hindu priest, the three journalists were not physically harmed, they told CPJ, adding that they felt traumatized and feared for their safety if they continued to report on the farmers’ plight.

In November 2020, police questioned Nilanthan at his home after reporting on Tamil farmers’ concerns following the growth of military-backed Sinhalese settlements in the district, including Mylathamadu.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

The post Sri Lanka 2023: Anniversaries of Struggle      appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Quincy Saul.

Alt News has received multiple requests on our WhatsApp helpline (76000 11160) to verify the authenticity of this claim.

It must be noted that the timeline of the alleged statements is not clear. Several users claim that Dr Sen’s statements date back to one year (1, 2), while several others claim two years (1,2,3,4). Twitter user @AreyBangdu shared a graphic in question and claimed that these statements were made two years ago.

A screenshot of @AreyBangdu’s tweet has been widely shared on social media. Facebook page Kashmiri Pundit posted the screenshot and garnered over 1000 likes and 345 shares. Another page called Pradhanmantri Meme Yojana posted this screenshot and garnered 1500 likes and almost 300 shares.

Some tweets have also cited Dr Sen’s 2013 book ‘An Uncertain Glory: India and its Contradictions’ which he had co-authored with welfare economist Dr Jean Drèze. (Archived link)

@NobelPeaceOslo @NobelPrize
In 2013, Dr.Amartya Sen said:
Sri Lanka is ahead of India in Happiness index, doing far better in Hunger Index & has done better in GDP index too.
*Ref*: An Uncertain Glory: India and its Contradictions (2013).
May be considered for a 2nd Nobel Prize.

— Sanjeev Goel (@sanjeevg30) July 14, 2022

The earliest tweet claiming this information is dated July 11, 2022.

“Sri Lanka is ahead of India in Happiness index

Sri Lanka is doing far better than India in Hunger Index

Sri Lanka has done better than India in GDP index too”

Economist Amartya Sen & Koushik Basu. https://t.co/nR6HVSlivp

— Bangladeshi Hindu : बांग्लादेशी हिन्दू : হিন্দু (@bdHinduUpdates) July 10, 2022

The Sri Lankan Economic Crisis

According to a BBC report, many experts blamed the current crisis on former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his failed attempt at providing for the domestic markets. At the end of its civil war in 2009, Sri Lanka imported more and exported less, which led to an increase in import bills while the exports remained low. Consequently, Sri Lanka ran out of foreign currency. Mr Rajapaksa was also criticized for introducing tax cuts, which led to a massive decline in government revenue.

On the other hand, the government blames major events like the 2019 bombings and the COVID-19 pandemic for the decline in tourism trade- one of Sri Lanka’s biggest foreign earners.

Rajapaksa fled the country on July 13 as his presidency was met with huge protests. Ranil Wickremesinghe has been sworn in as acting president.

Analyzing the indices mentioned in the viral claim

An index is a sign or a measure that something else can be judged by. The viral claims involve three indices, namely – the Happiness Index, the Hunger Index, and the GDP Index.

The happiness index or the World Happiness Index is based on The World Happiness Report which is a publication of the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network. Nations are ranked according to happiness which is also correlated with various life factors. According to the World Happiness Reports, India ranked higher than Sri Lanka in 2013 and 2015, while Sri Lanka took the lead in the subsequent years of 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021.

The official index related to hunger is the Global Hunger Index which tracks hunger globally, nationally and regionally. It is prepared by European NGOs of Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe. India has ranked lower than Sri Lanka over nine consecutive years from 2013 to 2021.

The first two indices mentioned in the viral claims turn out to be true. Both World Happiness Index and Global Hunger Index have put Sri Lanka ahead of India for many years, including the latest reports (2021).

As for the GDP Index, there are various ways of comparing the GDPs of two countries and Alt News could not ascertain which index had been used in the claim. We reached out to welfare economist, Dr Jean Drèze for a clarification, wherein he said, “This is a red herring. I don’t even know what the term GDP Index intends to refer to in these alleged statements. What matters is GDP or GDP per capita, depending on the context.” It must be noted that neither GDP nor GDP per capita is clearly mentioned in the viral claims.

Fact-check

We did a Google keyword search but could not find a single credible report on Dr Sen’s alleged comparative statements on Sri Lanka and India’s rank in terms of the World Happiness Index, Global Hunger Index, or the GDP Index.

Analyzing ‘An Uncertain Glory: India and its Contradictions’ in context of viral claims

Dr Sen has not made any detailed comparisons between Sri Lanka and India recently. Some of the viral tweets cited the 2013 book An Uncertain Glory: India and its Contradictions, co-authored by Dr Sen and Dr Jean Dreze as the source of the claims. In this section, we have highlighted some of the comparisons made in the book.

Alt News searched the book for relevant keywords. The book analyses India’s attempt at addressing the post-independence challenges faced in the areas of healthcare, education, and rising inequality, among many others. It draws several comparisons between the countries in the Indian subcontinent looking at various social indicators.

It must also be noted that on page 47, the authors do make comparisons in terms of per capita GDP. Although not a direct measure of GDP, the per capita GDP breaks down a country’s economic output per person.

On pages 48-49 of the book, the authors compare education in Sri Lanka and India. They state that, in comparison to the increasing interest in private education in India, private schools in Sri Lanka (which is much ahead of India in terms of social indicators) have been prohibited since the 1960s. They also compare the two countries’ planning in terms of access to immediate healthcare.

The authors also rank the South Asian and East Asian countries in terms of Adult Literacy Rate and Youth Female Literacy Rate.

The authors then highlight India’s abysmally low expenditure on public health as a percentage of GDP compared to Sri Lanka, China, and Brazil at the time.

The authors have also listed the growth rates of the Gross Domestic Product and State Domestic Product of several countries including India and Sri Lanka. Contrary to the viral claims, India had higher growth rates than Sri Lanka during 1980-81 to 1990-91 (Sri Lanka- 2.4 and India-3.1), and from 2000-01 to 2010-11 (Sri Lanka- 4.5 and India-5.9). The two countries had the same value (3.9) during 1990-91 to 2000-01.

Sen and Drèze also published a paper named Putting Growth in its Place in 2011. The paper contains the same comment on India’s performance in terms of social indicators among South Asia’s six major countries (including Sri Lanka) as the aforementioned book.

Analyzing comments made at the 2018 book launch

In 2018, at the launch of ‘Bharat Aur Uske Virodhabhas’, the Hindi edition of his 2013 book, Sen reportedly said that 20 years ago among India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan, India was the second best after Sri Lanka in terms of various social indicators. Times Of India quoted Sen, “Now, it is the second worst. Pakistan has managed to shield us from being the worst.” The comments made by Sen during the event can be viewed at the 25:00 mark on the YouTube channel Rajkamal Books. Barring this, he made no other comparison between India and Sri Lanka.

Within a week of Dr Sen’s comments at the launch, NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar told PTI, “I wish Professor Amartya Sen would spend some time within India and actually look at conditions on the ground. And at least review all work that has been done in the last four years by the Modi government before making such statements,” Kumar told PTI in an interview.

Amartya Sen on viral claims

Alt News reached out to Sen via email along with the screenshot of Twitter user @AreyBangdu. He responded, “Thank you for your letter, I have not made any comparative statement between Sri Lanka and India for many decades (not to mention two years), and I can only conclude that Mr Bangdu, whom you quote, likes propagating false statements. It is interesting that some alleged loudspeakers prefer lying rather than looking for truthful statements!”

Hence, it is quite evident that Dr Amartya Sen has not made any comparative comment between Sri Lanka and India based on their respective World Happiness Index, Global Hunger Index and “GDP Index”. In his book, ‘An Uncertain Glory: India and its Contradictions’, Sen, along with co-author Drèze, compared the per capita GDP and the growth rates of the per capita GDP of the two countries (which are not direct measures of the GDP). Contrary to the viral claims, the book states that the growth rate of the per capita GDP of India is, in fact, higher than that of Sri Lanka. Thus the quotes that are being attributed to Dr Sen are false.

The post Fact-Check: Did Amartya Sen claim that Sri Lanka is ahead of India in terms of global indices? appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Shinjinee Majumder.

This content originally appeared on openDemocracy RSS and was authored by Rashmee Roshan Lall.

Thousands of protesters in Sri Lanka have stormed the homes of the president and prime minister and are refusing to leave until the president officially resigns, as he faces accusations of corruption that bankrupted the country and led to a massive economic crisis. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is set to formally step down Wednesday and has reportedly tried to flee the country. We go to the capital Colombo to speak with Bhavani Fonseka, a human rights lawyer and a senior researcher at the Centre for Policy Alternatives, who has been participating in the protest. She describes the months of peaceful protest that led to this moment. “Considering the crisis and considering the demands of the people that there has to be a change, we need to look to general elections as soon as the environment is conducive,” notes Fonseka.

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

On the evening of Saturday, July 9, members of the paramilitary police Special Task Force assaulted a reporting team with the privately owned broadcaster News First covering a protest outside Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s residence in the capital city of Colombo, according to a report by CNN and multiple reports by News First.

That evening, demonstrators broke into Wickremesinghe’s residence and set it on fire amid protests over the country’s economic crisis, according to those reports.

On Monday, Special Task Force Senior Superintendent Romesh Liyanage, who ordered police to attack the journalists, was suspended and is facing disciplinary action over the assaults, according to News First and other news reports, which said that authorities are investigating the incident.

“Using paramilitary police to violently prevent journalists from reporting on protests is a crude form of censorship,” said CPJ Executive Director Robert Mahoney. “Sri Lankans have a right to be informed on the political and economic upheaval shaking their country. The security forces must respect that right.”

Police used batons to beat anchors Sarasi Peiris and Judin Sinthujan, camera operator Warun Sampath, and digital correspondent Janith Mendis, according to those reports by News First.

Peiris suffered injuries to her head and back, while Sinthujan, Sampath, and Mendis sustained unspecified “serious” injuries, the broadcaster said. CPJ was unable to immediately determine the extent of their injuries.

The outlet also reported that police fired tear gas at its employees Kalimuttu Chandran, Imesh Sutherland, Chanuka Weerakoon, and Banidu Lokuruge, and attacked them when they attempted to help their injured colleagues. CPJ was unable to immediately determine those employees’ roles at the broadcaster or the extent of any injures they sustained.

CPJ messaged police spokesperson Nihal Thalduwa and emailed the deputy inspector-general of the Colombo police for comment, but did not receive any replies.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Erik Crouch.

Fuel shortages in Sri Lanka have triggered a wave of protests calling for the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. This comes as Sri Lanka’s government has forced the closure of all schools and announced plans to cut electricity by up to three hours a day, as well as stop printing currency to quell inflation. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka is also facing a dire shortage of food and medicine, and doctors say the country’s entire health system could collapse. “There is no discussion on the part of the government on how we as Sri Lankans are going to come out of this crisis,” says Ahilan Kadirgamar, political economist and senior lecturer at the University of Jaffna, who explains how the government’s doubling down on austerity measures has devastated the working class.

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

The post Election Gambit: Australia, Sri Lanka and Politicising Asylum appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Binoy Kampmark.

The post Election Gambit: Australia, Sri Lanka and Politicising Asylum appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Binoy Kampmark.

When it comes to policy Down Under, the United Nations Refugee Convention is barely worth a mention.  Politicians are proudly ignorant of it; the courts pay lip service to the idea while preferring rigid domestic interpretations of the Migration Act; and the United Nations is simply that foreign body which makes an occasional noise about such nasties as indefinite detention.

It should therefore have come as no surprise that, in the dying days of the Morrison government, another chance to stir the electorate by demonising refugees arose – somewhat conveniently.  As voters were, quite literally, heading to the polls, the commander of the Joint Agency Task Force Operation Sovereign Borders, Rear Admiral Justin Jones, revealed that a vessel had “been intercepted in a likely attempt to illegally enter Australia from Sri Lanka.”

The Rear Admiral’s statement insisted that Australian policy on such arrivals had not changed.  “We will intercept any vessel seeking to reach Australia illegally and to safely return those on board to their point of departure or country of origin.” Shallow formalities are observed: the implausible observance of international laws, consideration of safety of all those involved “including potential illegal immigrants”.  Nothing else is deemed worthy of mention.  “In line with long standing practice, we will make no further comment.”

With only a few more hours left being Australia’s most jingoistic Defence Minister in a generation, Peter Dutton tweeted a warning, referring to the statement from Jones: “Don’t risk Australia’s national security with Labor.”  In another comment, Dutton decided to peer into the minds of those aiding the asylum process.  “People smugglers have obviously decided who is going to win the election and the boats have already started.”

The Minister for Home Affairs, Karen Andrews, was also mining the message for its demagogic potential, raising the spectre of emboldened people smugglers.  They, she squeaked, “are targeting Australia.”  The “people smuggling vessel” had been intercepted “off Christmas Island.”

Andrews might as well have been using the same language to condemn drug traffickers and their commodities which, in terms of analogy, Australian politicians have implicitly done for decades. But for the occasion, the obvious target was the opposition vying for government.  “Labor’s flip flopping on border protection risks our border security.  You can’t trust them.”

The Liberal Party’s electioneering machinery picked up on the Sri Lankan connection, bombarding voters in marginal seats with text messages about this newfound discovery.  “Keep our borders secure by voting Liberal today,” came the prompt.  As things transpired, the entire operation, from Cabinet to the distribution of phone messages, had the full approval of Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

Revealing the existence of ships moving on mysteriously convenient schedules (another, according to the Saturday Newspaper, was also intercepted by Sri Lankan authorities) raised two burning questions.  The first goes to the troubling relationship with Sri Lanka, which the Australian government had gone some ways to promoting as a safeguard against asylum seekers.  Canberra has tended to skirt over issues of human rights, not least those associated with that country’s long civil war.  In fact, Australian officials have done their best to encourage Colombo to prevent individuals leaving Sri Lanka with a view of heading to Australia by boat.  In 2013, 2014 and 2017, Bay-class naval vessels were gifted to the Sri Lankan Navy to aid the interception of smuggling operations.

During his time in office, Dutton has made more than the odd trip to Colombo.  In May 2015, he made a visit as then Minister for Immigration and Border Protection to discuss “continued cooperation regarding people smuggling and to further strengthen ties between our two countries.”  He duly rubbished people smugglers – they had been “cowardly and malicious” for aiding individuals to pursue their right to asylum – and praised the success of Operation Sovereign Borders.  “Since we started turning back boats there have been no known deaths at sea.”

In June 2019, he paid another visit to shore up the commitment.  It was prompted by a report that a vessel carrying 20 Sri Lankan asylum seekers had been intercepted off Australia’s north-west coast, with the possibility of six others on route.  Then, as now, Dutton could only blame his Labor opponents for somehow encouraging such journeys while reiterating the standard, draconian line.  “People are not coming here [to Australia] by boat and regardless of what people smugglers tell you, the Morrison government, under the Prime Minister and myself, will not allow those people to arrive by boat.”

The second question goes to the supposed success of Operation Sovereign Borders.  This military grade, secretive policy had supposedly “stopped the boats” and remains a favourite Coalition mantra.  But why reveal a chink in the armour, a breach in the fortress unless it was manufactured with the aid of the Sri Lankan authorities or a failure to being with?  As comedian and political commentator Dan Ilic observed in a pointed remark to Dutton: “This happened on your watch dude.”  The Sri Lankan revelation demonstrated, when it comes to such matters, mendacity oils the machine of border protection.

No side in Australian politics has been able to avoid politicising the issue of refugee and asylum arrivals via boat.  The moment Australia’s Labor government made the arrival of individuals without formal authorisation a breach of law warranting mandatory detention, the issue became a political matter.  It took the Liberal National Coalition led by Prime Minister John Howard to turn the issue into a form of feral, gonzo politics.

That form remains unforgettably marked by the use of SAS personnel against 400 individuals, rescued at sea by the Norwegian vessel, the MV Tampa, in August 2001.  In defiance of maritime conventions and in blatant disregard for human safety, the Howard government held the asylum seekers at sea off Christmas Island for almost ten days.  Those on the vessel were accused of piracy and economic opportunism.  From this barbarism issued the Pacific Solution, a tropical concentration camp system which has had a few iterations since.

Governments, both Coalition and Labor, have drawn political capital from harsh policies against unwanted naval arrivals, smearing the merits of asylum and ignoring the obligations of international refugee law.  The new Albanese government has the chance, however unlikely it is to pursue it, to extract the political and replace it with the humanitarian.

This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Binoy Kampmark.

Srilanka Rajpaksha son’s had the collection of Rolls Royce, Lamborghini and other luxury cars, later public frustrated with Rajapaksa’s Polarization strategy and.. see what happened yesterday!!

Never divide own country citizens!

@RahulGandhi @bhupeshbaghel @JsharmaINC @IYC pic.twitter.com/EWLyRycBBY

— AK_CHANDRAKAR_IYC (@A_K_Chandra_IYC) May 12, 2022

The video has multiple shares on Twitter. One of the tweets received more than 32,000 retweets.

Sri Lanka PM Rajapaksa’s sons had Rolls Royce, Lamborghini, Ferrari, Mclaren etc. See what happened to them yesterday.. pic.twitter.com/aPZr10XNCN

— JSP (@JsPalani) May 11, 2022

The video has several reshares on Facebook as well.

We also received requests on our official Whatsapp number (+91 76000 11160) to verify if the claim was true.

Fact-check

On performing a keyword search, we found out that the video of the cars burning is from the Avenra Garden Hotel located in Negombo, Sri Lanka. A recent report by Newswire confirms the same.

Newswire also tweeted the video with the same information.

Several vehicles including a Lamborghini destroyed in Avenra Garden hotel attack in Negombo pic.twitter.com/NdRZZrBlMv

— NewsWire (@NewsWireLK) May 9, 2022

Furthermore, we found a YouTube video that shows the same luxury cars at the Avenra Garden Hotel. The parking area and colours of the models also match. The parked cars in the YouTube video are the same as the cars that are seen parked in the first few seconds of the viral video.

According to sundaytimes.lk, the cars were torched during the anti-government protests in Sri Lanka. Newswire.lk reported that four other properties belonging to the hotel chain were attacked in Negombo. The hotel issued a statement that it has no links to politicians and has remained an “independent” business.

Therefore, while the video is from Sri Lanka, it was not taken at the residence of ex-PM Mahinda Rajapaksa’s son.

The post This video of cars torched in Sri Lanka is not from ex-PM Rajapaksa’s son’s house appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Aritraa Dey.

This content originally appeared on openDemocracy RSS and was authored by Rashmee Roshan Lall.

On Friday, April 1, the Sri Lankan government declared the emergency, which allows authorities to conduct warrantless arrests, and imposed a curfew to contain protests after violent demonstrations over the country’s economic crisis erupted last week, according to news reports.

On the evening of March 31, Sri Lankan police and security forces arrested at least six journalists covering a protest outside President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s private residence in the Mirihana district of the capital Colombo, according to a report by Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka (JDS), a local press freedom group; a statement by the Federation of Media Employees Trade Union (FMETU), a local network of trade unions for journalists and media workers; news reports; and a JDS representative, who spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity due to fear of government reprisal.

Police arrested over 50 people at the protest, used tear gas and water cannons to disperse the demonstrators, and filed a complaint against over 50 individuals, including the six journalists. According to the JDS representative, the six have been accused of violating Section 120 of the penal code, which makes it an offense to “excite feelings of disaffection” against the president or government. If convicted, the journalists could face up to two years in prison.

“Sri Lanka must not use the state of emergency as a pretext to muzzle press freedom during this critical moment in the country’s history, when access to information is vital for all citizens,” said Steven Butler, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator, in Washington, D.C. “Authorities must cease detaining and harassing journalists, allow the media to report safely and independently, and ensure unrestricted access to social media and communication platforms.”

The Gangodawila Magistrates’ Court in the Nugegoda municipality, a suburb of Colombo, granted bail for the six journalists on April 1, according to the JDS representative.

On Sunday, April 3, authorities restricted access to a number of social media and communication platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Viber, and YouTube, which was largely restored after 16 hours, according to NetBlocks, a watchdog organization that monitors internet censorship.

CPJ was unable to immediately identify contact details for the six journalists and confirm their exact job titles due to country-wide power shortages caused by the ongoing economic turmoil. CPJ is continuing to investigate the circumstances surrounding the arrests and detention of the six journalists.

The following six journalists were detained while covering the protest, according to the FMETU and JDS:

1. Chatura Deshan, who was reporting for the privately owned Sinhala-language television network Sirasa TV.
2. Sumedha Sanjeewa Gallage, who was reporting for the privately owned Sinhala-language television network Derana TV, was seen being escorted into a police vehicle in a Facebook Live video taken by a bystander circulated on social media on April 1. Gallage told Sri Lanka’s  Sunday Times that he was assaulted by officers with the Special Task Force, an elite paramilitary unit of the Sri Lankan police, at the protest after repeatedly identifying himself as a journalist and showing his media identification card. He appeared to have sustained significant bruising to his face and his shirt appeared to be covered in blood in a photo circulated on social media. Gallage said he was assaulted by another unidentified individual before he was taken to the Mirihana police station and received medical treatment at a hospital after he was released on bail, according to The Sunday Times. Gallage says he lost partial vision in his right eye due to the assault and will require further medical treatment.
3. Awanka Kumara, who was reporting for Sirasa TV. Kumara’s video camera was smashed during a police baton charge, according to JDS. “I never thought that journalists would be assaulted in such a manner because they know us. We have been reporting on these events for a long time,” Kumara told LankaFiles.
4. Waruna Wanniarachchi, who was reporting for the privately owned Sinhala-language daily newspaper Lankādeepa.
5. Nishshanka Werapitiya, who was reporting for Derana TV, appeared to have sustained bruising to his face in a photo shared by JDS on Twitter.
6. Pradeep Wickramasinghe, who was reporting for Derana TV, appeared to have sustained several bruises to his right arm in a photo shared by JDS on Twitter.

CPJ is investigating reports that Nisal Baduge, who was reporting for the privately owned English-language daily newspaper Daily Mirror, and Lahiru Chamara, who was reporting for Derana TV, were also assaulted while covering the March 31 protest.

On Sunday, April 3, 2022, the Tamil National People’s Front, a political alliance representing the ethnic Tamil minority, reported that police stopped journalists from entering its office in the Kokkuvil suburb of the northern city of Jaffna, where they arrived to cover its media conference, harassed them, and turned them away after registering their names. CPJ was unable to immediately confirm the identities of those journalists.

CPJ is also investigating reports that a group of individuals who presented themselves as members of the president’s media division threatened and intimidated Tharindu Jayawardena, editor-in-chief of the privately owned news website medialk.com. Jayawardena lodged a complaint at the Mirihana police station in response to the incident, according to the FMETU.

In July 2021, a collective of media organizations wrote a letter to Chandana Wickramaratne, inspector-general of the Sri Lankan Police, after Deshabandu Tennakoon, senior deputy inspector-general of the western province of Sri Lanka, threatened Jayawardena for “publishing fabricated news items” after the journalist shared a medialk.com article on Facebook, which reported that Tennakoon had received a salary increase following the 2019 Easter bombings.

Sri Lanka police spokesperson Nihal Thalduwa did not respond to CPJ’s request for comment sent via messaging app. The office of President Rajapaksa did not respond to CPJ’s emailed request for comment.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

Two CID officers had visited Nilanthan’s home on February 7 and February 8 and demanded that he appear at the Eravur police station for questioning, according to those sources. Nilanthan told CPJ that he believes authorities have subjected him to repeated harassment in retaliation for his journalism and his association with the Batticaloa District Tamil Journalists Association.

During the questioning, three officers asked Nilanthan about his biographical history; connections to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a banned group in Sri Lanka; his relationship with diaspora news organizations; and his work with the Batticaloa District Tamil Journalists Association, according to those sources.

Nilanthan was questioned about similar topics on July 12, 2021, when officers with the Batticaloa District’s Terrorism Investigation Division, another branch of the Sri Lanka police, demanded the login details of his Facebook, WhatsApp, email, and bank accounts, as CPJ documented at the time.

Separately, at around 6 a.m. on February 4, 2022, police visited the home of freelance Tamil journalist Punniyamoorthy Sasikaran in Batticaloa city and presented a court order banning an non-existent protest march, according to a report by Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka, a copy of the order, and the journalist, who spoke to CPJ by phone.

Police told his parents, who had opened the door, that the journalist could be arrested without providing further details, in what Sasikaran told CPJ he believed to be an intimidation tactic. Sasikaran also serves as treasurer of the Batticaloa District Tamil Journalists Association.

According to the copy of the order, which was issued by the Batticaloa magistrate court, police received “credible intelligence” that Tamil political parties and local organizations would hold a protest march opposing the celebration of the national Independence Day.

Sasikaran said that he told the police that no such protest would occur and asked why he was receiving the order, as he is a journalist. The officers said that the information was based on “credible intelligence,” and that the head of the Batticaloa police had requested the order, according to Sasikaran.

Previously, police visited Sasikaran’s home on February 1 and 2, 2021, and served him a court order restraining organizers from moving forward with a Tamil-led protest march, which he said he planned to cover as a reporter, as CPJ documented.

On August 23, 2021, officers from the Batticaloa police’s Special Crime Branch questioned Sasikaran and accused him of organizing a January 2021 ceremony that paid tribute to Indian fishermen who died in Sri Lanka waters, which he said he merely covered as a journalist, as CPJ documented at the time.

In January 2020, unidentified people circulated leaflets in Batticaloa that said Nilanthan, Sasikaran, and five other journalists would be “given death punishment” for writing critically about the Sri Lankan government, according to Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka. Nilanthan and Sasikaran told CPJ that police did not take steps to protect their safety, and failed to identify who was behind the threats.

Sri Lanka police spokesperson Nihal Thalduwa did not respond to CPJ’s request for comment sent via messaging app.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.