Lankan Tamils on hunger strike in London
Monday, July 23,2007 COLOMBO:

Twenty nine Sri Lankan Tamil nationals are on hunger strike at a controversial detention centre in London opposing moves by the British authorities to deport them back to Sri Lanka Tuesday, sources from London said. Earlier on July 9, two Tamil Jaffna residents, Subramaniam Aloysias Jude Christy and Kobalasamy Illayarajah who had sought refugee status in Britain after fleeing the conflict in the North started a fast unto death as their applications had been turned down and they were subsequently placed at the Harmondsworth refugee detention centre in London. However by Saturday a further 27 Sri Lankan Tamils at the same detention centre joined in the strike further complicating the issue for the British authorities."The two Sri Lankans who started the hunger strike on July 9 have not had water or food and their health is deteriorating. They are insisting they will not return to Sri Lanka because of the conflict and fear of maybe being arrested by Sri Lankan authorities once they return," a civilian source in London said after speaking to Jude Christy via telephone.Relatives and friends are permitted to speak to and even visit the detainees at the centre. The two Sri Lankan Tamils were earlier scheduled to be deported on June 24 but after stiff opposition from the two, the deportation was postponed for Tuesday, it is learnt.It is also learnt that another Tamil refugee who was deported from London last week was arrested in Sri Lanka and is being detained in Negombo. CID sources at the Katunayake international airport confirmed that the immigrant was arrested on the 18th of this month and placed under detention in Negombo.The Harmondsworth Detention Centre has been the sight of several protest campaigns against the detention process carried out by the British government. The London based rights group, 'No Borders' in a statement following a protest late last year said the British immigration policies violated the basic principles of the Refugee Convention which Britain had signed."By ignoring the Convention, the Government refuses to protect people's lives that are in danger, whether politically or economically. Migrants have been degraded and abused and are being treated as criminals, when their only 'crime' is to come to the UK on their own terms. The UK government's immigration policies favour locking up people without trial. Refugees are treated like 'terrorists' and perceived as a threat to national security and are held in detention for many months," it said. Meanwhile the ‘Asian Tribune’ reported that immigration authorities in Thailand continued to remain tight lipped about the plight of a group of Sri Lankans languishing at an immigration detention centre and in other prisons in Thailand.According to informed sources the Thai Government had refused access to diplomats from asylum giving countries to meet the Sri Lankan detainees and interview them to assess whether they were eligible for resettlement in their countries under humanitarian laws, the website said., The Bangkok based UNHCR's Public Relations and Information Officer for Asia, Kitty McKinsey told Asian Tribune, that they had no access to those Sri Lankans detained in the detention centres.Those arrested are Tamils and are already registered with the UNHCR in Bangkok and their status has been approved as refugees under the Geneva Convention. Normally similar cases are referred to asylum giving countries for consideration for resettlement, the officer said.

Govt. to restore fishing industry in East.
Monday, 23 July 2007

With the liberation of entire east from the clutches of the LTTE the Government has allocated a large sum of funds for the development of East. Accordingly under the swift restoration process a sum of Rs.980 million will be utilized for the upliftment of the fishing industry in the area.
East has been identified as one of the best coastal region in the country that could contribute a large harvest of fish with the added nutritional and environmental factors optimum for fish cultivation.
Initially the Government will launch the development projects in Trincomalee, Ampara and Batticaloa and later expand to the other areas respectively. The Ministry of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, Asian Development Bank, International Agriculture Development Organisations and Iceland Development Bank will fund this project.
Ministry of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources will establish fishing harbours in Muttur, Pottuvil, Manmune, Vakarai and Kucharweli under the development programme ‘Thotupola Aruna’ with an estimated cost of 7.8 million for the construction of each harbour.
Funds have been allocated for the construction of the Valachchen harbour and Puduwakattu harbours with $2.1 million and $2.8 million respectively.
Project will also be extended to facilitate the fishermen with ice for packing, installation of refrigerator systems close to many fishing harbours including Batticaloa, Vakarai, Kalmunai, Savintha-marutha and Trincomalee.
The Government has also paid a special attention on costal conservation methodologies inline with the above development of the industry.

Last Updated ( Monday, 23 July 2007 ) Tue, 24 July 2007 4:23:56 LBO >> Economy
Sri Lanka central bank warns of higher inflation in July

July 23, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka's central bank has warned of higher inflation in July as authorities started to apply brakes on rising interest rates by expanding domestic assets of the banking system. Sri Lanka's inflation fell in the first half of the year as the central bank tightened monetary policy, but monthly inflation rose 3.0 percent in May and 3.2 percent in June which analysts have pointed out is higher than the annual inflation rate in most countries.
Inflation Risk
But the 12-month point to point-to-point rate continued to move down to 13.0 percent from 13.7 percent in June.
But in its July monetary policy statement the Central Bank warned that "there is a risk that the point-to-point inflation in July may increase temporarily" indicating that the Colombo Consumer Price Index, Sri Lanka's most widely watched index, is set spike again in this month.
Inflation data is released on the last working day of the month.
The Central Bank says a downward trend in inflation "is expected to continue thereafter", and the tight monetary policy stance adopted by the Central Bank has slowed money supply growth to targeted levels up to now.
Rate Break
The monetary authority which also runs the country's public debt office has been putting the breaks on gilt yields in recent weeks, raising fears that its earlier resolve not to print money to finance the budget deficit was breaking down.
"The sharp volatility in interest rates experienced in the past has been reducing and Treasury bill rates have stabilised," the bank said Monday which is viewed as a confirmation of the fears.
"A further decline in Treasury bill rates is expected."
Though the monetary authority came in for praise from many of its critics for its firm stand on printing money and refusing to intervene in primary Treasury bill markets, some doubted whether it could be continued in the face of a deteriorating fiscal outlook and rising defence costs.
The bank's policy interest rates, the reverse repo rate at 12.00 percent is largely irrelevant as access to the liquidity window has been severely restricted. The monetary policy statement made no mention of policy rates.
Fiscal Risk
Central Bank's Treasury bill stock - an indication of how much it finances the government - is now at 56 billion rupees after printing 3.7 billion rupees to buy bills at last week's gilt auction, to keep 3-month yields at 17.40 percent.
At the turn of the month two Treasury bill auctions were cancelled, and domestic assets of the system rose by about 20 billion rupees as foreign reserves fell.
However the government is planning to raise 400 million dollars in international markets, which analysts say is essential to prevent a further slide in the monetary system in which domestic assets have been climbing steadily in the past four weeks due to a reserve outflow.
"The debut issue of the international bond during September 2007 is expected to create a further inflow of foreign currency, thereby boosting the external reserves position and easing the pressure for the government to borrow from domestic sources to accelerate the implementation of planned infrastructure," the Central Bank said.
If gilt rates are to be held down till September analysts say further money printing may be inevitable which will in turn stoke inflation in the months ahead.
The bank said exports increased by 14.4 percent and imports by 7.5 percent and the trade deficit has narrowed by 4.1 percent up to May.
The bank said the balance of payments was still in surplus by 192 million dollars in June, though lower than the May figure of 250 million, and gross official reserves were at 2,719 million or 3.1 months of imports.
Analysts say the reserve outflow, which is believed to be fiscally induced, picked up pace further in early July.