Sri Lankan government attempts to dupe voters by delaying budget
November 10 2009 – wsws
In the lead up to elections early next year, the Sri Lankan government has delayed the 2010 budget. Last Thursday, it passed a Vote on Account, a mini-budget, in parliament to cover spending for the next four months.
While the government claimed that a mini-budget was routine before elections, the decision is a transparent attempt to avoid scrutiny of the government’s finances and the economy and to delay the implementation of savage International Monetary Fund (IMF) austerity measures until after the poll.
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IOM Works with Government of Sri Lanka, Partners to Return IDPs
November 10 2009 – iom.int
Sri Lanka – In close coordination with the government and the UN, IOM has scaled up its logistics and transport operations in the past month to help return some 90,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) from the Menik Farms displacement camp to their home districts across northern and eastern Sri Lanka.
The returns, in hundreds of IOM-chartered buses, were funded by the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) and Australia (AusAID), and at one point reached 4,000 people in a single day.
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Press Conference on Security Council’s November Work Programme
November 09 2009 – un.org
This month’s President of the Security Council, Thomas Mayr-Harting from Austria, today briefed correspondents on November’s programme of work, which will include a debate on protection of civilians in armed conflict chaired by Austria’s Minister for Foreign Affairs.
Mr. Mayr-Harting said speakers during that debate — to take place on 11 November — would include the Secretary-General and possibly the High Commissioner for Human Rights or her designee. His delegation was preparing a draft resolution that would address thematic matters, including the link between peacekeeping and protection of civilians.
On 25 November, the Council would consider the report of the Peacebuilding Commission, he said. It had become increasingly clear that peacekeeping and peacebuilding were complementary and did not necessarily need to take place sequentially. The Chairs of the three “terrorism” Committees (the 1267 Committee on the Taliban and Al-Qaida, the 1373 Committee on Counter-terrorism and the 1540 Committee regarding non-State actors’ acquiring weapons of mass destruction) would brief the Council on 13 November in an open debate.
Turning to African issues, he said that on 5 November, the Council would hear briefings on Guinea-Bissau by Joseph Mutaboba, Special Representative of the Secretary-General; Antonio Maria Costa, Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime; and Brazil’s representative in his capacity as the Chairman of the Guinea-Bissau specific configuration of the Peacebuilding Commission. On 9 November, the Council would be briefed on the Great Lakes Region by Special Representative Olusegun Obasanjo. The issue of Somalia and piracy would be taken up on 18 November. The Democratic Republic of the Congo sanctions regime would be addressed on 30 November.
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Sri Lanka steps up Tamil releases
November 3 2009 – BBC
Sri Lanka’s government appears to have markedly stepped up the release of Tamils from camps in the north.
Some 2,000-3,000 people a day are now leaving the camps, a BBC reporter in the area says.
The camps have been holding nearly 300,000 Tamils who were displaced in the final bloody weeks of the war with the Tamil Tigers earlier this year.
Sri Lanka’s government has come under criticism for detaining non-combatants, as well as for its handling of the war.
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Indonesia ‘might expel’ refugees
October 29 2009 – BBC
Indonesia says the 78 Sri Lankan asylum seekers moored in a boat off Sumatra must co-operate with authorities over identity checks or risk expulsion.
The Sri Lankans were intercepted in Indonesian waters eleven days ago while trying to reach Australia.
Australia and Indonesia agreed to a deal last week which in principle would see the asylum seekers moved to an Indonesian detention centre.
But the Sri Lankans, ethnic Tamils, are refusing to leave the ship.
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