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Sri Lanka’s most powerful political dynasty ends as Rajapaksa quits

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Demonstrators celebrate in Colombo after Parliament Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena officially announced the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. (Reuters)
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Demonstrators sleep at the Presidential Secretariat after Parliament Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena officially announced the resignation of president Gotabaya Rajapaksa in Colombo, Sri Lanka, July 15, 2022. (REUTERS)
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Updated 16 July 2022
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Sri Lanka’s most powerful political dynasty ends as Rajapaksa quits

  • Gotabaya Rajapaksa had ruled alongside his brothers, who resigned in recent months as nationwide protests grew
  • Protesters say they will continue their ‘struggle’ until PM Ranil Wickremesinghe, who was sworn in as interim president, is out too
Updated 16 July 2022
Mohammed Rasooldeen

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s parliament accepted on Friday the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, officially ending the rule of the country’s most powerful political dynasty that held power for nearly two decades.

Rajapaksa fled to the Maldives on Wednesday to escape a popular uprising over the role his family played in the country’s worst economic meltdown since independence from Britain in 1948.

For months the island nation of 22 million people has been struggling with daily power cuts and shortages of basic commodities such as fuel, food and medicines, as foreign currency reserves have run out, making Sri Lanka unable to pay for imports.

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The Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna party, which has a majority in parliament and is led by Mahinda Rajapaksa, has already announced its support for Ranil Wickremesinghe becoming the country’s leader in the parliamentary election.

Protests flared up in Colombo in March and have grown since, spreading across the country.

They culminated last week, when thousands of demonstrators stormed parliament and government buildings. The protesters continued to occupy the buildings until Thursday afternoon.

Rajapaksa submitted his resignation as he left the Maldives for Singapore.

The formal announcement of him quitting was made in a televised address by Parliament Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena on Friday morning.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who was sworn in as interim president, said that lawmakers would choose the country’s new leader and amend the constitution to reduce presidential powers.

“Measures are being taken for the new president who will be elected next week to present the 19th amendment to parliament,” Wickremesinghe said.

The amendment, which made parliament stronger in 2015, was scrapped when Rajapaksa became president in 2019.

The fall of Rajapaksa as president marks the formal ousting of his family from government.

The political dynasty began with the former president’s elder brother, Mahinda Rajapaksa, who was president in 2005-15. During his presidential term, he was credited in 2009 with ending the country’s 30-year-long civil war with the rebels known as the Tamil Tigers.

Mahinda’s three brothers were involved in politics at that time too: Gotabaya led the Defense Ministry, Chamal — the eldest of Rajapaksa siblings — was speaker of the parliament, and the youngest, Basil, was a Cabinet minister.

After Mahinda’s presidential term ended, he was out of the top leadership for three years until he became prime minister in 2018.

When Gotabaya won the presidency in 2019, the family’s grip on power strengthened: Chamal Rajapaksa was soon named the minister of irrigation and the state minister of home affairs and of national security and disaster management, while Basil was appointed finance minister. Mahinda’s son, Namal Rajapaksa, became minister of youth and sports.

While all of them have resigned in the past few months as protests — dubbed “aragalaya” (struggle) — swept the country, opinion is divided about whether the Rajapaksa era has come to an end with the president’s ousting.

“The ‘aragalaya’ of the hungry angry youths of Sri Lanka has successfully eliminated the Rajapaksa family rule in a manner that none of them will dare to return to any political role in the country for decades to come,” Supreme Court lawyer and former diplomat M. M. Zuhair told Arab News.

He said that those who led the popular uprising would now have to prevent the re-emergence of junior Rajapaksas in power.

But the family’s grip may be restored through its ally, the current interim president, according to Dr. Dayan Jayatillake, Sri Lanka’s former envoy to the UN in Geneva.

The Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna party, which has a majority in parliament and is led by Mahinda Rajapaksa, has already announced its support for Wickremesinghe becoming the country’s leader in the parliamentary election.

“If Ranil comes back as president, definitely, Rajapaksa’s influence will be in full force,” Jayatillake said.

The Wickremesinghe scenario is what protesters say they will try to prevent as well.

Senaka Perera, a prominent lawyer representing the protesters, said that they wanted Wickremesinghe out too.

“The goal is not achieved yet,” he told Arab News.

Wickremesinghe “is a stooge of Rajapaksa, his presence in the government is as good as one of the Rajapaksas.”

Parliament is expected to convene on Saturday to begin the process of electing the country’s new leader, who will serve until the end of Rajapaksa’s term in 2024.

Topics: Sri Lanka politics Gotabaya Rajapaksa

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Kyiv urges ‘decisive action’ after report on banned chemical weapons

Updated 3 sec ago
AFP
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Kyiv urges ‘decisive action’ after report on banned chemical weapons

Updated 3 sec ago
AFP
Kyiv: Kyiv on Tuesday blamed Russia and urged action after the international chemical weapons watchdog said banned riot control gas had been found in Ukrainian soil samples from the front line.
Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of using chemical weapons in the conflict, with Kyiv’s Western allies claiming Moscow has employed banned weapons.
“We call on our partners to take decisive action to stop the aggressor and bring those responsible for crimes to justice. True peace can only be achieved through strength, not appeasement,” the foreign ministry said.
“Russia’s use of banned chemicals on the battlefield once again demonstrates Russia’s chronic disregard for international law,” a statement added.
Russia is yet to react to the report by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which brought the first confirmation of the use of riot control gas in areas where active fighting is taking place in Ukraine.
The OPCW’s Chemical Weapons Convention strictly bans the use of riot control agents including CS, a type of tear gas, outside riot control situations when it is used as “a method of warfare.”
CS gas is non-lethal but causes sensory irritation including to the lungs, skin and eyes.
The evidence handed over by Ukraine to the OPCW enabled it to “corroborate... the chain of custody of the three samples collected from a trench in Ukraine located along the confrontation lines with the opposing troops, had been maintained,” the organization said.
It stressed however that the report did “not seek to identify the source or origin of the toxic chemical.”
OPCW director-general Fernando Arias “expressed grave concern” over the findings.
“All 193 OPCW Member States, including the Russian Federation and Ukraine, have committed never to develop, produce, acquire, stockpile, transfer or use chemical weapons,” he said in a statement.

India to send 5,000 extra troops to quell Manipur unrest

Updated 24 min 29 sec ago
AFP
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India to send 5,000 extra troops to quell Manipur unrest

  • Fresh periodic clashes of troubled state located in country’s northeast have killed 16 people so far
  • Manipur rocked by clashes since 18 months between Hindu majority and Christian Kuki community
Updated 24 min 29 sec ago
AFP

NEW DELHI: India will deploy an extra 5,000 paramilitary troops to quell unrest in Manipur, authorities said Tuesday, a week after 16 people were killed in fresh clashes in the troubled state.
Manipur in India’s northeast has been rocked by periodic clashes for more than 18 months between the predominantly Hindu Meitei majority and the mainly Christian Kuki community, dividing the state into ethnic enclaves.
Ten Kuki militants were killed when they attempted to assault police last week, prompting the apparent reprisal killing of six Meitei civilians, whose bodies were found in Jiribam district days later.
New Delhi has “ordered 50 additional companies of paramilitary forces to go to Manipur,” a government source in New Delhi with knowledge of the matter told AFP on condition of anonymity, as they were not authorized to speak with media.
Each company of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF), a paramilitary unit overseen by the home ministry and responsible for internal security, has 100 troops.
The Business Standard newspaper reported that the additional forces would be deployed in the state by the end of the week.
India already has thousands of troops attempting to keep the peace in the conflict that has killed at least 200 people since it began 18 months ago.
Manipur has been subject to periodic Internet shutdowns and curfews since the violence began last year.
Both were reimposed in the state capital Imphal on Saturday after the discovery of the six bodies prompted violent protests by the Meitei community.
The ethnic strife has also displaced tens of thousands of people in the state, which borders war-torn Myanmar. Incensed crowds in the city had attempted to storm the homes of several local politicians.
Local media reports said several homes of lawmakers from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which governs the state, were damaged in arson attacks during the unrest.
Long-standing tensions between the Meitei and Kuki communities revolve around competition for land and jobs. Rights groups have accused local leaders of exacerbating ethnic divisions for political gain.

Topics: Manipur kuki

Canada foiled Iran plot to assassinate former minister

Updated 44 min 31 sec ago
AFP
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Canada foiled Iran plot to assassinate former minister

  • The Globe and Mail newspaper reported that he was informed on October 26 that he faced an imminent threat
  • The 84-year-old was justice minister and attorney general from 2003 to 2006
Updated 44 min 31 sec ago
AFP

Ottawa: Canadian authorities recently foiled an alleged Iranian plot to assassinate Irwin Cotler, a former justice minister who has been a strong critic of Tehran, Cotler’s organization said Monday.
The 84-year-old was justice minister and attorney general from 2003 to 2006. He retired from politics in 2015 but has remained active with many associations that campaign for human rights around the world.
The Globe and Mail newspaper reported that he was informed on October 26 that he faced an imminent threat — within 48 hours — of assassination from Iranian agents.
Authorities tracked two suspects in the plot, the paper said, citing an unnamed source.
In an email to AFP, the Raoul Wallenberg Center for Human Rights, where Cotler is international chair, confirmed the Globe and Mail report.
Cotler “has no knowledge or details regarding any arrests made,” said Brandon Golfman, an organization spokesman.
Tehran late on Monday denied what it described as “the claim of Canadian media that Iran tried to assassinate a Canadian person,” the official IRNA news agency reported, citing Issa Kameli, the director general for the Americas at the foreign ministry.
The Iranian diplomat denounced the report as “ridiculous storytelling and in line with the misinformation campaign against Iran.”
A spokesperson for Canadian Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc declined to comment, telling AFP: “We cannot comment on, nor confirm specific RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) operations due to security reasons.”
Another senior government minister, Francois-Philippe Champagne, called the plot “very concerning.”
Jean-Yves Duclos, the government’s senior minister in Quebec province, where Cotler lives, said it was likely “very difficult for (Cotler), in particular, and his family and friends to hear” about it.
The House of Commons, meanwhile, passed a unanimous motion praising Cotler’s work in defense of human rights and “condemning the death threats against him orchestrated by agents of a foreign regime.”
Cotler had already been receiving police protection for more than a year after the October 7, 2023 attack in Israel by Hamas gunmen.
Cotler, who is Jewish and a strong backer of Israel, has advocated globally to have Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps listed as a terrorist entity.
His name reportedly also came up in an FBI probe of a 2022 Iranian murder-for-hire operation in New York that targeted American human rights activist Masih Alinejad.
Ottawa, which severed diplomatic ties with Iran more than a decade ago, listed the Revolutionary Guard as a banned terror group in June.
It said at the time that Iranian authorities displayed a consistent “disregard for human rights both inside and outside of Iran, as well as a willingness to destabilize the international rules-based order.”
As a lawyer, Cotler also represented Iranian political prisoners and dissidents.
His daughter, Michal Cotler-Wunsh, is an Israeli politician and diplomat who previously served as a member of Israel’s parliament.

Topics: Canada

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Toxic smog persists over India’s north, Delhi pollution remains severe

Updated 19 November 2024
Reuters
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Toxic smog persists over India’s north, Delhi pollution remains severe

  • On Tuesday, Delhi’s 24-hour air quality index (AQI) reading was at 488 on a scale of 500
  • India battles air pollution every winter as heavy air traps dust, emissions from farm fires
Updated 19 November 2024
Reuters

NEW DELHI: Residents in India’s northern states woke up to another day of poor air quality on Tuesday, as a layer of dense fog shrouded most of the region, and pollution in the capital Delhi remained severe.
India battles air pollution every winter as cold, heavy air traps dust, emissions, and smoke from farm fires started illegally in the adjoining, farming states of Punjab and Haryana.
The air quality index (AQI) touched a peak of 491 in Delhi on Monday, forcing the government to introduce restrictions on vehicle movement and construction activities, and schools to conduct classes online.
On Tuesday, Delhi’s 24-hour air quality index (AQI) reading was at 488 on a scale of 500, India’s Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) said, and at least five stations in the capital reported an AQI of 500.
CPCB defines an AQI reading of 0-50 as “good” and above 401 as “severe,” which it says is a risk to healthy people and “seriously impacts” those with existing diseases.
Swiss group IQAir ranked New Delhi as the world’s most polluted city with air quality at a “hazardous” 489, although that was a significant improvement from Monday’s 1,081 reading.
Experts say the scores vary because of a difference in the scale countries adopt to convert pollutant concentrations into AQI, and so the same quantity of a specific pollutant may be translated as different AQI scores in different countries.
India’s weather department said a shift in the fog layer toward the northern state of Uttar Pradesh had helped improve visibility over Delhi.
Visibility dropped to zero meters in Uttar Pradesh’s capital Agra, which lies southeast of Delhi. The Taj Mahal, India’s famed monument of love, has been obscured by toxic smog for nearly a week.
The strict measures to mitigate the impact of high pollution have hurt production at more than 3.4 million micro, small and medium enterprises in the nearby states of Punjab, Haryana and Delhi, local media reported.

Topics: Delhi smog

Floods strike thousands of houses in northern Philippines

Updated 19 November 2024
AFP
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Floods strike thousands of houses in northern Philippines

  • Typhoon Man-yi drenched swaths of the Philippines over the weekend
  • Man-yi was the sixth major storm in a month to strike the Philippines
Updated 19 November 2024
AFP

Manila: Floodwaters reaching more than four meters high swamped thousands of houses in the storm-battered northern Philippines on Tuesday after rivers overflowed following heavy rain and a dam release.
Typhoon Man-yi drenched swaths of the Philippines over the weekend, swelling the Cagayan river and tributaries, and forcing the release of water from Magat Dam.
The Cagayan broke its banks, spilling water over already sodden farmland and communities, affecting tens of thousands of people.
Buildings, lamp posts and trees poked through a lake of brown water in Tuguegarao city in Cagayan province where provincial disaster official Ian Valdepenas said floodwaters reached more than four meters (14 feet) in some places.
“We experienced very heavy rains two days ago, but the flood just started to rise when Magat Dam started releasing huge volumes of water,” Valdepenas told AFP.
“Plus, our land is already saturated because of the consecutive typhoons hitting the area.”
Man-yi was the sixth major storm in a month to strike the Philippines, which have left at least 171 people dead and thousands homeless, as well as wiped out crops and livestock.
About 20 big storms and typhoons hit the Southeast Asian nation or its surrounding waters each year, killing scores of people, but it is rare for multiple such weather events to take place in a small window.
Roofs of houses
In the neighboring province of Isabela, Jun Montereal of the Ilagan city disaster preparedness committee said 30,000 people were still affected by flooding.
But the situation was slowly improving.
“The flood is subsiding now little by little, it’s slower because the land is already saturated but we are way past the worst,” Montereal told AFP.
“We are really hoping that the weather will continue to be fair so the water can go down. I think the water will completely subside in three days,” he said.
“I can now see the roofs of houses that I wasn’t able to see before because of the floods.”
Carlo Ablan, who helps oversee operations at Magat Dam, said three gates were open as of Tuesday morning to release water from the dam.
“If the weather continues to be good, we are expecting that we will only have one gate open this afternoon,” Ablan said.
Ablan said flooding in Tuguegarao city was not only caused by water from Magat Dam — other tributaries of the Cagayan river were also likely to blame.
Valdepenas said authorities in Tuguegarao were waiting for floodwaters to subside more before sending people back to their homes.
“This might start subsiding within today,” he said.
More than a million people fled their homes ahead of Man-yi, which struck the Philippines as a super typhoon before significantly weakening as it swept over the mountains of the main island of Luzon.
Man-yi dumped heavy rain, smashed flimsy buildings, knocked out power and claimed at least eight lives.
Climate change is increasing the intensity of storms, leading to heavier rains, flash floods and stronger gusts.

Topics: Philippines

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