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The batch of foreign tourists, who arrived on board a SkyUp Airlines flight, will be staying in the country for around 10-14 days, according to the Ministry of Tourism.

They are the first group of tourists to arrive in the island since March this year when airports were closed owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sri Lanka has reopened its airspace for commercial flights as the island nation looks to once again kick start the tourism industry which was on hold due to the coronavirus contagion.

Accordingly, the charter flight with 185 passengers from Ukraine which arrived yesterday, marked the first flight to arrive under the pilot project aiming to bring back foreign tourists to Sri Lanka.

Deputy Chairman of Airport and Aviation Sri Lanka Ltd, Rajiv Sooriyarachchi said that after this group of tourists reached the airport, they were subjected to all quarantine procedures.

The Civil Aviation Authority of Sri Lanka (CAASL) had announced earlier that it will resume international flights operations from December 26, eight months after they were closed in view of the COVID-19 outbreak.

However, a decision was taken to postpone the resumption of flights in the wake of the new coronavirus strain, which is spreading fast in the UK.

Due to the postponement, a flight carrying Russian tourists which was scheduled to arrive in Sri Lanka on Sunday had been cancelled.

Several countries across the world have already closed their land and sea borders and suspended commercial flights over fears about the new coronavirus strain.

He expressed the belief that local manufacturers have the potential to do this and they could produce some of these components saving much needed foreign exchange for the country.

A 6-member expert committee has been appointed by the Minister to find ways and means to promote this sector and make recommendations to launch the production of insulators locally for the power transmission sector.

The local manufacturers will have to produce insulators for the requirements of the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) and Lanka Electric Company (LECO) initially, a senior official of the ministry disclosed.

The committee comprises representatives with expert knowledge from the Ministries of Power, Industries, CEB, LECO and Lanka Ceramic Corporation.

Minister Alahapperuma has directed the committee to submit their report within a month, the official said.

The government has endorsed the budgetary support of the Treasury to this sector towards strategic growth in terms of technology, investments and employment generation.

It is well positioned to benefit from the industry’s steadily increasing levels of manufacturing in Asia, and can contribute to the diversification and technological upgrading of Sri Lanka’s exports, he added.

The ministry in collaboration with the Ministry of Industries will also be introducing a national-level framework for sector development, with focused product lines, and by encouraging investments into these product lines.

It will initiate a few electrical component manufacturing projects of national importance that will lead to improved and enhanced production in the sector, he disclosed.

Protesting against the forced cremation of covid-19 victims the father, Mohammed Fowze and his son clad in white carrying placards with slogans seeking burial of the dead Muslims started their protest walk from Kalmunai to Akkaraipattu which was stopped at Sainthamaruthu.

Based on a petition from Kalmunai police citing Covid-19 restrictions, potential damage to private and public property and disruption of traffic, the local magistrate issued a restraining order valid till first November next year.

The march was subsequently suspended and a petition urging the government to honour their civil and religious rights, which was read out in public before handing it over to the authorities.

The planned peace march started after rendering of Muslim religious prayers for the dead who were cremated and for the recovery of those who are infected.

On the same day, police provided security to Sinhala Buddhist hardliners led by monks who opposed the burial rights of Muslim COVID-19 victims.

The Sri Lankan government has ordered the cremation of all those dead due to the Corona virus which has been criticised by a section of senior Buddhist monks and political leaders. But an unrelenting government under President Gotabaya Rajapaksa went to the extent of requesting the Maldives to accept the remains of Muslims and bury them in their soil.

Human Rights organisations have condemned the government of brutally suppressing the religious rights of the minorities, in particular the Muslims, during the global pandemic crisis.

She said that any vaccine or cure introduced to combat COVID-19 must be properly tested by clinical trials and pointed out that failing to do so could create adverse effects.

While noting that this syrup was approved by the Department of Ayurveda, she insisted that the media refrain from asking questions about various Ayurvedic concoctions from her.

"We did not approve. It's too late to talk about this syrup now,”she said.

She added that it was due to cultural beliefs that people thought 'Kali Amma' could cure diseases and that although she did not want to discredit such claims, she would rather provide information based on medical science.

US financial support will be dependent on Sri Lanka asserting its sovereignty “against influence by China,” and improving human rights and promoting inter religious and ethnic reconciliation, a USD 900 billion spending bill before the congress stipulated.

The bill as amended by the US Senate mainly involves Coronavirus relief but also assistance to a number of foreign countries and other spending.

It was also revealed that future financial support for Sri Lanka will be available after the secretary of state certifies, among other things, that Sri Lanka acts to “assert its sovereignty against influence by the People’s Republic of China.”

The bill further stated that Sri Lanka should also promote reconciliation between ethnic and religious groups, increase transparency and accountability in governance, respect and uphold the rights and freedoms of the people of Sri Lanka regardless of ethnicity and religious belief” and bring perpetrators to justice.

US and Western interests have warned that China is getting developing countries into a ‘debt trap’ by giving loans without adequate feasibility to generate returns, unlike more seasoned multilateral lending agencies.

However, these conditions don't apply to any humanitarian or disaster relief, support to identify missing persons, improve human rights, promote fiscal transparency and sovereignty and international military education and training.

The US said it was also giving USD 15 million to refurbish a coast guard cutter and another half a million dollars to for programs to support humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, instruction in human rights and related curricula development, and maritime security and domain awareness, including professionalization and training for the navy and coast guard.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has come under intense pressure from the Chief Prelates of the three sects urging him to refrain from conducting the Provincial Council elections until a new Constitution is introduced as promised, internal government sources revealed.

The sources said that the Chief Prelates will take action against the government if they decide to conduct the Provincial Council elections under mounting pressure from Basil Rajapaksa.

It is reported that several monks who are loyal to the President have convened a special media briefing today to discuss this matter.

Meanwhile, the 'Anidda' newspaper, in its headline this week, stated that "Mahinda and Basil want to hold the PC election, Gotabaya is silent."

According to the news report, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and SLPP National Organiser Basil Rajapaksa are adamant that the Provincial Council elections should be held soon under the old electoral system.

In a letter today (28) to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the Chief Secretary of the Sanga Sabha of the Amarapura Maha Nikaya, Pallekande Ratanasara Anunayake Thero and the Chief Secretary of the Ramanna Maha Nikaya, Aththangane Sasanarathne Thero said Muslims and Christians follow the ritual of burying their dead, and noted that this is enshrined in the Constitution in Article 14 (1) as a fundamental right.

They further noted that though cremation of COVID-19 victims was made mandatory via a gazette notification on April 11, considerable research on the matter had been carried out over the past eight months.

The Amarapura and Ramanna Samagri Maha Sangha Sabha said that the burial of COVID-19 victims should be carried out subject to conditions and with research.

They urged President Rajapaksa to convene an emergency meeting with doctors, virologists, public health inspectors, religious leaders, and other stakeholders to discuss the matter.

"Sri Lanka’s mandatory cremation policy has caused major outrage and trauma for the Muslim and Christian minorities, whose beliefs require dead bodies should be buried. It is the Muslim community that has been disproportionately affected by COVID-19, and to force them to adopt practices that violate their fundamental religious beliefs is cruel and inhumane," the GTF said in a statement.

It has been reported that the abuse of this policy is widespread and several Muslims whose bodies were cremated had not been tested for coronavirus, and even tested negative.

"Another tragic manifestation of this policy is that several Muslim families have even disowned their dead because they did not want to be complicit in the cremation of their bodies which is believed to be a sinful act against their loved ones," the statement pointed out.

They said that there is no scientific justification for the government to adopt this policy and deny the dead the dignity they deserve in death. In fact, the guidelines from the World Health Organization state that the burial of victims posed no danger to public health, and almost all the countries allow for the burial of COVID-19 victims, making Sri Lanka an outlier among the world nations.

"Top government officials changed their original guidelines under pressure from influential Buddhist monks to mandatory cremations. The Supreme Court rejected fundamental rights petitions filed by fourteen affected families without giving reasons for its decision. Faced with mounting domestic and international pressure, the government made an extraordinary attempt to fly bodies to Maldives for burial to placate its extremist support base. All these unquestionably indicate the direction Sri Lanka is heading," they said.

They noted that the mandatory cremation policy is not an exception, but rather one more fitting element within the broader agenda of the Rajapaksa government.

"The deplorable initiatives it has taken within a year, such as enacting the autocratic 20th Amendment to the constitution; appointing Presidential Commissions and task forces to scuttle established governance procedures; militarising top levels of the bureaucracy (including some who are credibly implicated in serious human rights violations), resorting to surveillance, intimidation and detention without charge (a precursor for rampant media self-censorship), and withdrawing from the UNHRC resolution which Sri Lanka pledged for years as its ‘solemn commitment to accountability and reconciliation’ – are indicative of its gradual transition from democratic to an authoritarian regime," the GTF warned.

“Further investigations with regard to the 28 freight containers of Agricultural Plant Waste from Ukraine, are still ongoing,” Customs Spokesperson, Sunil Jayaratne revealed.  

The consignment was sent from AGRONIKA TRADE in Ukraine, in the guise of Coriander seeds.

“The investigation will specifically focus on an intermediary individual involved in the importation process, as all the eight importers connected to the incident have claimed they are victims of fraud and were deceived,” Sunil Jayaratne, the Customs Spokesperson further noted.

Meanwhile, according to Dr. Anil Jasinghe, the Secretary to the Ministry of Environment, it is possible to inform the Ukrainian Environmental Authority about the relevant containers since the consignment contained waste.

“A complaint will be lodged with the Basel Convention Secretariat located in Geneva as well,” Dr. Jasinghe further said.

According to the Basel Convention, the export of agricultural waste from one country to another is strictly prohibited and Sri Lanka is also a signatory to the Convention.

Sri Lanka’s transformation into a production orientated market economy with import restrictions will be leading the country towards the emergence of a separate domestic capitalist class.

Newly-appointed Elections Commission (EC) Chairman Nimal Punchihewa said the government would have to spend approximately LKR 4.5 billion to hold the Provincial Council (PC) election.

He said the Commission could proceed with the election once the required laws are passed in the legislature.

However, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, during a meeting with the new members of the Elections Commission, asked them to take necessary measures to hold the PC election soon.

The PC election has been delayed due to issues pertaining to the delimitation process related to the new electoral system passed under the previous government. However, the Chairman said the EC could hold the election under the old system, if the necessary laws are passed by Parliament.

The massive costs that would have to be incurred to conduct the PC election have become a cause for concern for many. Cash strapped government has sought LKR 10 billion  from international donors to purchase COVID-19 vaccines for the population.

“The Local Government election is scheduled in 2022. This election will also cost nearly LKR 3.6 billion. The total cost can be reduced if the PC and LG elections are held on the same day. But, the EC cannot make a decision in that regard. It is up to the lawmakers to make a final decision on this matter,” Punchihewa said.

Meanwhile, a section of the government is pushing for the abolition of the PC system saying it does not serve any purpose.