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Upon the signing of the agreement by Dr. Amrith Rohan Perera, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations and Mr. Lang Yabou, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Republic of The Gambia to the United Nations on 10th May 2019 in New York, the Government of Sri Lanka and the Government of Gambia decided to establish Diplomatic Relations between the two countries with effect from 10th May 2019.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the establishment of diplomatic ties between Sri Lanka and Gambia would enhance the existing friendly relations and cooperation in the political, socio-economic and cultural fields for the mutual benefit of the two countries.

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, said that they are working closely with the Sri Lankan government to ensure the safety of all refugees and asylum seekers that have been forced to flee their temporary residences following the Easter Sunday attacks.

The agency is concerned both at the impact this has had on Sri Lankans themselves and for more than a thousand refugees and asylum seekers in the country.

"UNHCR is working closely with the government, UN and other partners, and local communities to ensure all refugees and asylum-seekers are safe and looked after. We are actively assisting the displaced while discussions are ongoing with the authorities to identify alternative accommodation until refugees are able to return to their residences. We have deployed additional staff to support the government’s efforts," a statement from UN refugee agency said.

Currently, 1,060 refugees and asylum seekers, including women and children, are staying in local mosques, police stations and community centres, having sought refuge for fear of possible reprisals and threats. Many fled persecution in their home countries due to their religion or political beliefs.

UNHCR is providing food, medicine, and shelter materials, while conducting assessments of additional needs. The authorities and local groups have been supportive and helpful, but these sites are not meant to accommodate large numbers of people over time. Families with small children are living without proper shelter, sanitation and access to health care. Quick responses are needed.

According to UNHCR, there are nearly 1,700 registered refugees and asylum seekers in Sri Lanka. Hundreds still live peacefully in their local communities. 

"Sri Lanka has long offered protection to refugees of diverse religions and nationalities, and UNHCR stands in support of the Government and people of Sri Lanka in these trying times," the statement said.

In the wake of political allegations against him in the aftermath of April 21 bombings, ACMC leader and Minister of Industry and Commerce , Resettlement of Protracted Displaced Persons, Cooperative Development, Skills Development & Vocational Training, Rishad Bathiudeen, has called for a Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) to clear his name. 

"The people who make allegations against me knowingly or unknowingly safeguard the real terrorists," Minister Bathiudeen said addressing the Parliament on last Friday.

In his address he said, “Various people made allegations against me saying I ran away from Sri Lanka when I was recently for official work.

Some people and media made these allegations. They made the allegations without checking the facts about this tour. With some other Ministers in Oman, we discussed about multi-billion rupee project for Sri Lanka  with Omani government officials. After I returned from Oman, they have stopped the allegations. “

"They also aimed other allegations against me and these allegations were so dangerous and insulting I had question back from certain media institutions as to why they are identifying myself with terrorists” said Minister Bathiudeen and added: "These allegations too were similar to the allegations that I ran away from Sri Lanka."

“These allegations had no basis, nor were they supported by facts. S.B. Dissanayake holding a press conference lied in this regard. I have taken legal action against him. Since I did not accept his invitation to join their government during the 52 day coup and he is taking revenge by playing cheap politics," The Minister said.

"However I want to stress that I have given my assets and liabilities statements since the day I entered politics. Anyone can inspect these statements. I am also ready face any investigation. Today, I call Hon. Speaker to appoint a Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) to probe on allegations made against me. Then we can find out who is lying and who is not. The people who make allegations against me knowingly or unknowingly safeguard the real terrorists and fundamentalists. Their actions result in myself highlighted while the attention on the real terrorists shifts," Bathiudeen said.

Chinese ambassador to Sri Lanka Cheng Xueyuan, presented a cheque for Rs. 17.84 million to Nimal Kumar, National Secretary of the Sri Lanka Red Cross Society(SLRCS) on behalf of the Red Cross Society of China. 

The donation will be specially used in the treatment of the injured in the Easter Sunday attacks. Ambassador Cheng reaffirmed that at the time of sorrow, Chinese government and people stand firmly with the Sri Lankan people and resolutely support Sri Lanka in safeguarding its national security and stability, and building a peaceful and prosperous country. 

Chinese government is intensively negotiating with Sri Lankan side and will provide all necessary assistance within its capacity according to the urgent requests extended by Sri Lanka.

Nimal Kumar briefed about the SLRCS’ work after the bomb blasts, highly appreciated the Red Cross Society of China for its helping hand in a difficult time of Sri Lanka, and promised to use all of the donation in the treatment of the injured.

President Maithripala Sirisena has left for China on a three day visit to attend the “Conference on Dialogue of Asian Civilisations.

"Sirisena left the Bandaranaike International Airport at 7.35 a.m. on flight UL - 302. It was reported that the delegation included 27 people.

It will be interesting to see whether Sirisena has left the island after appointing an acting Minister of Defence. Sirisena is due to return on Thursday.

Sri Lanka's Catholic Church on Thursday announced it will reopen its schools next week for the first time since Easter Sunday bombings killed 258 people.

Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith said the schools would open Tuesday after remaining shut following fears of a repeat of the April 21 attacks on three churches and three luxury hotels.

"We have decided to open all Catholic schools on May 14," Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith told reporters in Colombo following a meeting between the country's 12 bishops and President Maithripala Sirisena in Colombo on Thursday.

All state-run schools -- more than 10,000 in total -- had resumed classes on Monday after police and security forces deployed armed guards.

But attendance has been low despite a raft of new security measures, including parking restrictions near schools.

Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith also said regular Sunday services would resume at all Catholic churches in Colombo from Sunday while a special service will be held Thursday at Negombo, north of the capital.

St Sebastian's church in Negombo where over 100 people were killed will hold an open mass Thursday evening, for the first time since the attack, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith said.

The government has blamed a local group, the National Thowheeth Jama'ath (NTJ), for the bombings that also wounded nearly 500 people.

Sri Lanka is temporarily blocking some social media networks and messaging apps, including Facebook and WhatsApp, after attacks on mosques and Muslim-owned businesses in the worst unrest since Easter bombings by Islamist militants.

Several dozen people have thrown stones at mosques and Muslim-owned stores, and a man was beaten in the Christian-majority town of Chilaw on the west coast on Sunday in a dispute that started on Facebook.

Authorities said they arrested the author of a Facebook post, identified as 38-year-old Abdul Hameed Mohamed Hasmar, whose online comment "1 day u will cry" was interpreted by locals as threatening violence.

Later on Sunday and early on Monday, authorities arrested a group of men in the nearby Kurunegala district for allegedly attacking Muslim-owned businesses, a police source told Reuters.

Military spokesman Sumith Atapattu said people in the mostly Buddhist district then demanded the arrested men's release.

"To control the situation, a police curfew was imposed during the night," Atapattu said.

Several mosques and Muslim homes were damaged in the attack in the district, the Muslim Council of Sri Lanka said, but the precise extent of damage and the number of arrests was not immediately clear.

The flare-up is the worst violence in the three weeks since Sri Lankan Islamist bombers blew themselves up in four hotels and three churches, killing more than 250 people.

Since then, Muslim groups say they have received dozens of complaints about people being harassed.

Other communities say they fear the government, which failed to act on successive warnings about looming Islamist attacks, has not caught all potential militants.

Sri Lanka has used temporary bans on social media in a bid to deter misinformation and rumours.

"Social media blocked again as a temporary measure to maintain peace in the country," Nalaka Kaluwewa, director general of the government information department, told Reuters.

On Twitter, Sri Lanka's leading mobile phone operator Dialog said it had also received instructions to block the apps Viber, IMO, Snapchat, Instagram and Youtube until further notice.

A clash between Muslims and Christians erupted a week ago in Negombo after a traffic dispute.

The government also imposed a ban on social media after that clash.

27 year-old Farzana Hussain* from Wellampitiya, a town about 4kms east of Colombo, Sri Lanka, has been wearing the burqa since she was 11.

Following the deadly attacks that killed more than 250 people in the country’s capital on Easter Sunday, the Sri Lankan government banned the covering of face that “hinders the identification of individuals in a way that threatens national security.” This includes the burqa and the niqab, face coverings worn by several Muslim women.

Since the ban on April 29, Hussain hasn’t left her house.

A schoolteacher by profession, who teaches the Qur'an – the way of reading and memorizing it – she says the ban has made it ‘difficult’ for her to go out.

She says she’s lucky that the school holidays haven’t ended yet, but if the ban isn’t lifted by the time schools reopen for the new session, it will be hard for her to teach.

“We have been advised to stay at home unless there is a dire need to go out. If I’m not allowed to cover my face, I will stop going out to teach because I prefer covering to teaching,” Hussain says, hoping the ban is lifted soon.

Meanwhile, 18 year-old Zareen Rashid* from Colombo is scared that even if the ban is lifted, it will be hard to avoid the racism.

“The niqabis are still going to go through racial discrimination and will be asked to remove it in public places. Going out with the niqab after the ban being lifted will be equivalent to walking in hell because people will call you a terrorist. Staying indoors will be a better option than going out,” she says.

She may be right.

Back in 2016, after France banned the burkini – a swimming costume that adheres to the Islamic rule of dress that requires women to cover much of their body and heads – following a terror attack, photographs and videos emerged showing the police stripping women at the beaches.

Rashid hasn’t left her house since the ban. However, she knows she will have to remove her niqab as soon as college begins. Rashid started wearing the niqab at 14 after her father advised her to.

But, she says, wearing it has strengthened her connection with God; making her feel brave and confident, and it hasn’t stopped her from achieving anything she has wanted to. Without her niqab, she says she feels ‘naked’.

However, Mariam Wadood, a lawyer and activist who works with the Colombo-based NGO Women In Need, wants the ban to be imposed permanently.

She believes “everyone's rights and liberties must come with limitations. Freedom must stop at the beginning of someone else’s fear or discomfort.” 

Mariam, who herself does not cover her face, believes that the burqa and niqab are Wahabi influences and although they are not a symbol of terror, they are a symbol of radical Islam. “The burqa and niqab create disconnect and division in the country, among communities, and even within the community,” she says.

“We must now put our country first. National and public security is threatened, and if it is law that the niqab and burqa must be removed then we must adhere to it,” she says adding that the niqab is not compulsory is Islam. 

Kolkata-based women’s rights activist and researcher Mariya Salim agrees that the niqab is, in fact, not compulsory in Islam adding that the tradition is itself dictated by patriarchy. 

“But these are deeper questions and the state cannot impose these restrictions by force,” she says.

Mariya says that while banning the burqa and niqab might seem like a progressive thing to, the reasons for the ban are completely wrong. 

“It restricts the mobility of those women who use it to navigate spaces. They are anyway living under severe patriarchy in the name of religion, and now their movement will also be restricted, especially if they come from conservative families that require them to wear niqab. It will make life more difficult for women who are dictated by patriarchy in their everyday lives.” 

For 33 year-old Ayesha Muhsin in Colombo, wearing the niqab made her feel safe and secure, even if sometimes she felt she was being judged. 

“Travelling alone with the niqab is easy, as you don’t feel uncomfortable about the trishaw driver acting funny,” says Muhsin, who has given up wearing the niqab after the ban to make sure her face is very visible but is still faced with suspicious glares because she wears the hijab that covers only her head.

Burqa is a garment that covers the entire body from head to toe, while niqab covers only the face, leaving slits for eyes. The hijab, on the other hand, covers only the head and the face remains revealed. The burqa and niqab are banned in Sri Lanka, while the hijab isn’t.

But, she believes, not wearing the niqab is equally dangerous. “There’s a lot of hatred towards the Muslim community at the moment and wearing the niqab in public might result in the niqabi becoming a victim of some serious harassment.”

Women like Hussain, Wadood, and Muhsin believe that the ban will indeed help with “public protection”, a narrative the Sri Lankan government has sold to its citizens.

“I think the ban is a sensible move as it was taken due to security reasons and not for racial reasons,” says Muhsin, who has been wearing the niqab for twenty years.

Salim, the women’s rights activist and researcher, believes that by banning the burqa and niqab the Sri Lankan government is “clearly putting forth the ‘all terrorists are Muslim narrative’.”

“When an attack like the one in Sri Lanka happens, it affects the entire sub continent. Muslims across South Asia have been trying to prove that it is not ‘their Islam’ the kind that ISIS claims to be representing because they fear the backlash of this decision which is nothing but Islamophibic.”

Even 18 year-old Rashid is perplexed about how exactly banning the burqa and niqab might solve any security issues.

“It’s because they (government) think it’s only those that wear the burqa and niqab are terrorists,” she says. 

*Names have been changed to protect identities. (News18)

Catholics in the Sri Lankan cities of Colombo and Negombo, where churches were targeted by suicide bombers on Easter Sunday, have held their first Sunday morning masses since the attacks that killed more than 250 people.

Police stood guard at every entrance to St Lucia’s cathedral in Colombo, one of the country’s largest churches, which was full of worshippers, including many who lost relatives in the bombings on 21 April claimed by Islamic State.

Those attending underwent full-body searches and were banned from bringing bags, and the road outside was barricaded and guarded by soldiers. Troops wearing masks and camouflage clothing patrolled the surrounding area on motorbikes.

Soldiers stand guard at St Lucia’s cathedral. Photograph: Lakruwan Wanniarachchi/AFP/Getty 

Joshua Berney, eight, found it too much, and left partway through the mass. His aunt, an uncle and three cousins – one of whom was his best friend – were killed at St Anthony’s church in Colombo.

His mother, BJ, said: “We still haven’t found his body, so it’s difficult. My son finds it tough.”

At Mother of Seven Sorrows Mater Dolorosa church, two streets away from St Anthony’s, devotees trickled in until the building was full. Wall-mounted fans whirred at capacity to beat back the intense humidity.

Fr Fernando Marcelliar, who led the service, said: “The parishioners were really upset that we didn’t have a mass the last two weeks.” He held a private mass last Sunday, which about 50 people heard about and attended.

“Others found out later that there was a mass and they couldn’t come, and they were really upset – they even scolded me,” Marcelliar said.
A priest gives an emotional address to worshippers at St Theresa’s church. Photograph: Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters

More than a dozen children in the congregation were having counselling, he said. “One mother told me yesterday that her son of eight years gets excited even by the slightest noise and doesn’t sleep well at night,” Marcelliar said.

Stephan Fernando, 16, was apprehensive as he entered the mass. He was serving as an altar boy at St Anthony’s when a suicide bomber detonated a device inside. “I feel better now that I’ve received communion,” he said after the service.

His brother, Eugine, who was also serving the altar that Sunday, had decided to stay at home and had been avoiding public places.

In tears, their mother, Sharmila, said: “My children are OK, but [the victims] were also someone’s children, who were loved and cared for.

“I saw how my sons’ shirts were splattered with the flesh and blood of others when they were coming out. I didn’t see the church, but I could understand how bad the damage was.”

The masses in the two cities – services elsewhere in the country had restarted earlier – were small steps towards the resumption of normal life after the attacks that ended a decade of relative peace following the government’s brutal victory in the country’s 27-year civil war against Tamil militants.

Students at state-run schools resumed classes last week. Campuses were guarded by police, and parents asked to replace school bags with clear plastic sacks. Attendance remains low.

Catholic private schools, which have been shut since the attacks, are likely to reopen on Tuesday.

A heavy police and army presence is still visible in major cities and villages as security forces continue the hunt for accomplices of the terror cell that carried out the bombings.

The president of Sri Lanka, Maithripala Sirisena, told parliament most of the 150 people suspected to have been linked to the plot have died or been arrested. He said 56 had been arrested on suspicion of direct involvement in the plot, of which 12 were hardcore terrorists.

The precise involvement of Isis in the attacks is not clear. Sirisena said police had so far discovered 13 safe-houses, 41 bank accounts and 19 vehicles and motorcycles belonging to the bombers. Those who aided the terrorists had been paid cash rewards of up to 2 million rupees (£8,700), he added.

Police are continuing to issue specific warnings of possible attacks in Colombo.

Popular actor Ryan Van Rooyen, who was arrested with drug kingpin Makandure Madush in Dubai, was released after being fined Rs. 4000 by the Matara Chief Magistrate, Isuru Netticumara, today (09).

Rooyen was deported to Sri Lanka on April 4 and was detained at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) and interrogated by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

He was subsequently handed over to the Weligama Police the next day following the discovery of cannabis in one of the vehicles owned by him.

It is reported that President Maithripala Sirisena had intervened to provide scrap copper to a factory owned by Inshaf Ahmed who blew himself up at the Cinnamon Grand Hotel on Easter Sunday.

In a letter addressed to the Chairman of the Industrial Development Board (IDB) on 06 June 2018, the then Director General of Public Relations to the President, Shantha Bandara requests the IDB Chairman to provide 500 tonnes of scrap copper at concessionary rates to the company owned by Inshaf Ahmed.

The letter, printed on a Presidential Secretariat letterhead, also notes that the company brings in a large amount of foreign exchange to the country and that they have requested help from the President to expand their operations.

The Industrial Development Board is an institution falling under the purview of the Minister of Industry and Commerce Rishad Bathiudeen.
Bathiudeen had been subjected to suspicion in both mainstream and social media as the person who had provided scrap metal/copper to the Easter Sunday attackers. 

However, this letter proves that it was under Sirisena’s instructions that a factory owned by one of the suicide bombers got 500 tonnes of scrap copper.

Police believe the factory was used to build the suicide vests using explosive triacetone triperoxide.

On 22 April, nine employees of the factory were arrested by the Wellampitiya Police on April 22 and was remanded until May 6, after being produced before the Colombo Chief Magistrate. However, the Court had subsequently released the nine suspects on bail.

Political consultations between the Turkish and Sri Lankan Foreign Ministries will be held in Colombo, Sri Lanka’s commercial capital, on Friday.

The consultations will be chaired by Turkey’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sedat Onal and Sri Lankan Foreign Secretary Ravinatha Aryasinha, said a Turkish Foreign Ministry statement on Thursday.

“During the consultations, bilateral relations, regional and international issues as well as cooperation in the international organizations will be discussed,” it added.