Registered in the Department of Posts of Sri Lanka under No: QD/146/News/2020

TUESDAYMAY 05, 2020VOL: 4 - ISSUE 355

30.

GLOBAL BACKLASH BUILDS AGAINST CHINA

OVER CORONAVIRUS

PAGE 02 HOT TOPICS PAGE 03 GLOCAL

TNA SAYS PM’S MEETING NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR RECONVENING

PARLIAMENTPAGE 04 REALITY CHECK

CORONA AND CURTAILED

HUMAN RIGHTS

Trending News Quote for TodayThe earth is the very quintessence of the human condition.

Word for TodayJedi [jedahy] –noun –a person who has an unexplainable power over people or things, or who seems to enjoy unusual luck

Today in History1981 - After 66 days on hunger strike, 26yearold Provisional IRA member and British MP Bobby Sands dies in the Maze Prison. Nine more hunger strikers die in the next three months

Today is...International Midwives’ DayA day that reminds us the female body is perfectly capable of giving birth and carrying a child to term without some of the invasive methods employed by Obstetricians and other practitioners

China: The country’s state broadcaster CCTV attacks US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's "insane and evasive remarks" over the origins of the coronavi-rus pandemic.-An internal report warns that Beijing faces a rising wave of hos-tility in the wake of the coronavi-rus outbreak that could tip rela-tions with the United States into confrontation.Iran: The health ministry says the coronavirus death toll in one of the hardest hit countries in the Middle East, rose by 74 in the past

24 hours to 6,277, as mosques are due to reopen in many cities.USA: The Food and Drug Ad-ministration (FDA) tightens its oversight of coronavirus antibody tests after the market was flooded with dubious tests.- The Senate returns to business with new coronavirus guidelines in place, amid anxiety about a pandemic that has killed more than 67,000 Americans and left tens of millions out of work.Italy: New official data show the country recorded almost 50% more fatalities in March than

usual, indicating that the real coronavirus death toll could be far higher than the 29,000 re-ported.Japan: Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says the government will extend the state of emergency due to the coronavirus pandemic until May 31, as it is still seeing hundreds of new infection cases daily.Syria: President Bashar al-As-sad warns the country could face a “real catastrophe” if coronavi-rus cases spike and overwhelm health services.

UK: The British government rec-ommends a wide range of chang-es to show people how to organ-ize their working lives when the coronavirus lockdown is gradu-ally loosened.Somalia: A security official says a plane carrying aid sup-plies crashed in the southern Bay region, killing seven people on board.Bahrain: After turning a car park into an intensive care unit for coronavirus patients, the country sets up its second field hospital -- on a man-made island.

Internally displaced families wait to receive free aid during the Holy month of Ramadan in a refugee camp on the outskirts of Mazar-i-Sha-rif, Afghanistan yesterday (4). Clashes between Taliban fighters and Afghan forces intensified in northern Balkh and southern Logar province as warring sides fought to control checkpoints amid an increase in the number of coronavirus cases in Afghanistan. In recent weeks, the Taliban has at-tacked several provinces, ignoring a pledge to re-duce violence as part of a peace deal signed with

the US government on February 29. The fight-ing also defies an appeal from international aid agencies for a ceasefire on humanitarian grounds to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus. Health officials believe the contagious virus may be circulating undetected in the country after a random sample of residents in the capital found nearly a third were infected with the disease. The prospect of widespread infection in a country where the health system has been shattered by war and low funding has alarmed health officials.

Afghanistan, a country of 37 million people, has recorded just 2,900 cases of COVID-19 and 90 deaths but these low numbers are thought to be a reflection of low testing. Ongoing war, poverty, poor healthcare and a large number of internal refugees all add up to make it one of the most ex-posed countries to the virus on the planet. The country has only 400-odd ventilators. Afghani-stan has imposed bans on movement and gather-ings to try to stop the spread of COVID-19, but the measures are being widely flouted

-FARSHAD USYAN / AFP

BRUSSELS - World leaders called yesterday (4) for cooperation not competition in the quest for a coro-navirus vaccine, as they pledged 7.4 billion euros ($8.1 billion) at a fun-draising telethon snubbed by the United States.

COVID-19 has killed nearly a quar-ter of a million people around the world - 140,000 of them in Europe - and Ursula von der Leyen, head of the European Commission and the host of the videoconference, said a vaccine is the best chance of beating the disease.

World Health Organization (WHO) chief TedrosAdhanom Ghe-breyesus hailed the fundraising as a

powerful show of "global solidarity." Major European powers, along with Japan and Canada, made the biggest pledges from around 40 countries, but there was no official US repre-sentation, weakening the event and raising the prospect of an uncoor-dinated competition to develop and produce a vaccine.

Some wealthy American individu-als did take part, and pop star Ma-donna's million-dollar contribution was feted by EU officials.

The conference narrowly missed its target of 7.5 billion euros - al-though a handful of contributors did not put a sum on their pledges - but UN chief Antonio Guterres warned

much more would be needed, putting the final sum required near 38 bil-lion euros. "These funds are a kind of down payment for the development of new tools at the speed needed," Guterres told the conference. "But to reach everyone everywhere we likely need five times that amount."

In total around 40 countries, along with UN and philanthropic bodies - including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation - and research institutes made donations.

But the initiative was undermined by the absence of the United States, with President Donald Trump in open warfare with the WHO over its handling of the pandemic. Trump

- fighting for re-election in Novem-ber - said Sunday (3) that the United States will have a coronavirus vac-cine ready by the end of the year.

His prediction was met with scep-ticism in some quarters, with Ger-many's Health Minister Jens Spahn warning it could take years for any-one to develop a vaccine.

While putting an upbeat gloss on the event in public, privately EU of-ficials were disappointed the US did not take part.

"The EU responded favourably to a call for global action, the US refused. They are the ones who are isolating themselves," one official said.

-AFP

World leaders urge cooperation in vaccine hunt, raise $8 billion

COVID-19 and curfew in Sri Lanka • Sri Lanka recorded its eighth COVID-19 death yester-day (4). The health ministry identified the deceased as a 72-year-old woman from the Polpithigama area in the Kurunegala District who had been receiving treatment at the Homagama hospital. The body was cremated at the Kotikawatta Crematorium following COVID-19 death pro-cedure.• Forteen people were confirmed as COVID-19 positive yesterday (4), taking Sri Lanka’s tally of the novel corona-virus infection to 732. 530 individuals are receiving treat-ment, 194 have been deemed completely recovered. • Police curfew in the districts of Colombo, Gampaha, Kal-utara and Puttalam to continue until further notice.• Curfew relaxed from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. in other dis-tricts to be re-imposed fully from 8:00 p.m. Wednesday (6) until 5:00 a.m. Monday (11).• Civilian life in the districts of Colombo, Gampaha, Kalu-tara and Puttalam to resume on Monday• The National Identity Card (NIC) numerical system, in-troduced for the public to be adhered whilst stepping out of the house for essential purpose, to effect from Monday. The system is to be applicable only for areas where the cur-few is in force.• Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa has said the govern-ment had not received any financial aid from foreign coun-tries for its COVID-19 campaign. • Dambulla police launch an investigation into the sudden death of a 23-year-old soldier from Pallepola at the Dam-bulla Bus Terminal. The soldier, attached to the Sri Lanka Army Volunteer Force at Kosgama, is purported to have been hospitalized and undergone treatment for epilepsy from April 16 to 30.• Those with suspected COVID-19 symptoms are urged to call 1390 - emergency hotline- set up for free medical ad-vice and assistance, and to facilitate hospital admissions.

Coronavirus toll

Brazil urged to save Amazon tribes from COVID-19

Trump administration models predicts

PARIS - The novel coronavirus has killed at least 247,503 people since the outbreak first emerged in China last De-cember, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP at 1100 GMT yesterday (4).

More than 3,521,600 cases were registered in 195 coun-tries and territories. Of these, at least 1,073,568 are now considered recovered. The tallies, using data collected by AFP from national authorities and information from the World Health Organization (WHO), probably reflect only a fraction of the actual number of infections.

Many countries are testing only the most serious cases.The United States has the highest number of total deaths

with 67,682 out of 1,158,041 cases. At least 180,152 have been declared recovered.

Italy has the second highest toll with 28,884 deaths out of 210,717 cases, followed by Britain with 28,446 deaths from 186,599 cases, Spain 25,428 deaths and 218,011 cas-es and France with 24,895 deaths and 168,693 cases.

China - excluding Hong Kong and Macau - has to date declared 4,633 deaths and 82,880 cases. It has 77,766 re-covered cases. Europe has a total of 143,981 deaths from 1,562,776 cases, the United States and Canada have 71,456 deaths and 1,217,515 cases, Latin America and the Car-ibbean have 13,877 deaths and 257,988 cases, Asia has 9,235 deaths and 244,381 cases, the Middle East has 7,025 deaths and 186,403 cases, Africa has 1,806 deaths from 44,391 cases, and Oceania 123 deaths from 8,153 cases.

-AFP

247,503 deaths at 1100 GMT yesterday

RIO DE JANEIRO - Brazil’s leaders must take immediate action to save the country’s indigenous peoples from a COVID-19 “genocide,” a global coali-tion of artists, celebrities, scientists and intellectuals has said.

In an open letter to the Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, figures in-cluding Madonna, Oprah Winfrey, Brad Pitt, David Hockney and Paul McCa-rtney warned the pandemic meant in-digenous communities in the Amazon faced “an extreme threat to their very survival.”

“Five centuries ago, these ethnic groups were decimated by diseases brought by European colonizers … Now, with this new scourge spreading rapidly across Brazil … [they] may disappear completely since they have no means of combating COVID-19,” they wrote.

The organizer of the petition, the Brazilian photojournalist Sebastião Sal-gado, said trespassers including wildcat gold miners and illegal loggers must be expelled immediately from indigenous

lands to stop them importing an illness that has killed more than 240,000 peo-ple around the world, including 6,750 in Brazil.

“We are on the eve of a genocide,” Salgado, who has spent nearly four dec-ades documenting the Amazon and its inhabitants, told the Guardian.

Even before COVID-19, Brazil’s in-digenous peoples were locked in what activists call a historic struggle for sur-vival. Critics accuse Bolsonaro, a far-right populist in power since January 2019, of stimulating the invasion of in-digenous reserves and dismantling the government agencies supposed to pro-tect them.

“Indigenous communities have never been so under attack … The government has no respect at all for the indigenous territories,” Salgado said, pointing to crippling budget cuts and the recent sacking of several of top environmental officials who had targeted illegal pros-pectors and loggers.

-The Guardian

We are on the eve of a genocide’

NEW DELHI - The Indian government has been criticized for charging stranded migrants, travelling by special trains to their home states, for the journey.

Millions of workers in the informal sector were rendered job-less after businesses across the country were closed following the implementation of a nationwide lockdown on March 25 in an at-tempt to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus.

The first batch of migrants left the southern city of Hyderabad on May 1 for the eastern state of Jharkhand after the government last week allowed special interstate trains and buses to transport those who wanted to return to their villages in other states.

But it emerged that migrants were charged as much as 800 In-dian rupees ($10.58) for the journey. A daily wage worker earns between 200 rupees and 400 rupees ($2.6-$5.3) a day.

Migrants were also asked to pay a surcharge of 50 rupees ($0.66) as buses run by the Karnataka government charged hefty ticket prices, according to reports in local media.

Yesterday (4), India's main opposition party Congress an-nounced it will pay the migrants' fare after Indians took to social media criticizing the government's move, with hashtags #PM-CaresFund and #Railways becoming top Twitter trends.

"Our workers and labourers are the ambassadors of our nation's growth," said Congress president Sonia Gandhi in a statement.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has faced criticism for creating a new coronavirus relief fund, PM CARES, when about $500m was lying unspent in an older fund.

-Agencies/Al Jazeera

WASHINGTON - As Presi-dent Donald Trump presses for states to reopen their econo-mies, his administration is privately projecting a steady rise in the number of cases and deaths from the coronavirus over the next several weeks, reaching about 3,000 daily deaths by June 1, according to an internal document obtained by The New York Times, nearly double from the current level of about 1,750.

The projections, based on modelling by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and pulled together in chart form by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, forecast about 200,000 new cases each day by the end of the month, up from about 25,000 cases now.

The numbers underscore a sobering reality: While the United States has been hun-kered down for the past seven weeks, not much has changed. And the reopening to the econ-omy will make matters worse.

“There remains a large num-ber of counties whose burden continues to grow,” the CDC warned.

The projections confirm the primary fear of public health experts: that a reopening of the economy will put the nation right back where it was in mid-March, when cases were rising so rapidly in some parts of the country that patients were dy-ing on gurneys in hospital hall-ways as the health care system grew overloaded.

-NYT

Outrage after India asks migrants to pay for train journey Near doubling of daily death

toll by June

-Hannah Arendt

2 TUESDAY, MAY 05, 2020 DAILY EXPRESS

By Hannah Beech, Alissa J. Rubin, Anatoly Kurmanaev and Ruth Maclean

By Peter Baker

By Steven Erlanger

HOT TOPICS

BRUSSELS — Australia has called for an inquiry into the origin of the corona-virus. Germany and Britain are hesitat-ing anew about inviting in Chinese tech giant Huawei. President Donald Trump has blamed China for the contagion and is seeking to punish it. Some govern-ments want to sue Beijing for damages and reparations.

Across the globe a backlash is build-ing against China for its initial mishan-dling of the crisis that helped loose the coronavirus on the world, creating a deeply polarizing battle of narratives and setting back China’s ambition to fill the leadership vacuum left by the United States.

China, never receptive to outside crit-icism and wary of damage to its domes-tic control and long economic reach, has responded aggressively, combin-ing medical aid to other countries with harsh nationalist rhetoric and mixing demands for gratitude with economic threats.

The result has only added momen-tum to the blowback and the growing mistrust of China in Europe and Africa, undermining China’s desired image as a generous global actor.

Even before the virus, Beijing dis-played a fierce approach to public rela-tions, an aggressive style called “Wolf Warrior” diplomacy, named after two ultrapatriotic Chinese films featuring the evil plots and fiery demise of Amer-ican-led foreign mercenaries.

With clear encouragement from President Xi Jinping and the powerful propaganda department of the Chinese Communist Party, a younger genera-tion of Chinese diplomats have been proving their loyalty with defiantly nationalist and sometimes threatening messages in the countries where they are based.

“You have a new brand of Chinese diplomats who seem to compete with each other to be more radical and even-tually insulting to the country where they happen to be posted,” said Fran-çois Godement, a senior adviser for Asia at the Paris-based Institut Mont-aigne. “They’ve gotten into fights with every northern European country with whom they should have an interest, and they’ve alienated every one of them.”

Since the virus, the tone has only toughened, a measure of just how seri-ous a danger China’s leaders consider the virus to their standing at home, where it has fuelled anger and de-stroyed economic growth, as well as abroad. In the past several weeks, at least seven Chinese ambassadors — to France, Kazakhstan, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Ghana and the African Union — have been summoned by their hosts to answer accusations ranging from spreading misinformation to the “rac-ist mistreatment” of Africans in Guang-zhou, China.

Just last week, China threatened to withhold medical aid from the Neth-erlands for changing the name of its representative office in Taiwan to in-clude the word Taipei. And before that, the Chinese Embassy in Berlin sparred publicly with the German newspaper Bild after the tabloid demanded $160 billion in compensation from China for damages to Germany from the virus.

Trump said last week that his admin-istration was conducting “serious in-vestigations” into Beijing’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak.

He has pressed US intelligence agen-cies to find the source of the virus, suggesting it might have emerged ac-cidentally from a Wuhan weapons lab, although most intelligence agencies remain sceptical. And he has expressed interest in trying to sue Beijing for dam-ages, with the United States seeking $10 million for every American death.

Republicans in the United States have moved to support Trump’s attacks on China. Missouri’s attorney general, Eric Schmitt, filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking to hold Beijing responsi-ble for the outbreak.

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokes-man, GengShuang, called the suit “frivolous,” adding that it had “no fac-tual and legal basis” and “only invites ridicule.”

The suit seems to aim less at securing victory in court, which is unlikely, than at prodding Congress to pass legislation to make it easier for US citizens to sue foreign states for damages.

“From Beijing’s point of view, this contemporary call is a historic echo of the reparations paid after the Boxer

Rebellion,” said Theresa Fallon, direc-tor of the Centre for Russia Europe Asia Studies, referring to the anti-imperial-ist, anti-Christian and ultranationalist uprising around 1899-1901 in China that ended in defeat, with huge repa-rations for eight nations over the next decades. “The party’s cultivation of the humiliation narrative makes it politi-cally impossible for Xi to ever agree to pay any reparations.”

Instead, it has been imperative for Xi to turn the narrative around, steer-ing it from a story of incompetence and failure — including the suppression of early warnings about the virus — into one of victory over the illness, a victory achieved through the unity of the party.

In the latest iteration of the new Chi-nese narrative, the enemy — the virus — did not even come from China, but from the US military, an unsubstanti-ated accusation made by China’s com-bative Foreign Ministry spokesman, Zhao Lijian.

Chinese diplomats are encouraged to be combative by Beijing, said Susan Shirk, a China scholar and director of the 21st Century China Centre at the University of California, San Diego. The promotion of Zhao to spokesman and his statement about the U.S. Army “sig-nals to everyone in China that this is the official line, so you get this megaphone effect,” she said, adding that it makes any negotiations more difficult.

But in the longer run, China is seed-ing mistrust and damaging its own in-terests, said Shirk, who is working on a book called “Overreach,” about how China’s domestic politics have derailed its ambitions for a peaceful rise as a global superpower.

“As China started getting control over the virus and started this health diplo-macy, it could have been the opportu-nity for China to emphasize its compas-sionate side and rebuild trust and its reputation as a responsible global pow-er,” she said. “But that diplomatic effort got hijacked by the propaganda depart-ment of the party, with a much more assertive effort to leverage their assis-tance to get praise for China as a coun-try and a system and its performance in stopping the spread of the virus.”

-New York Times

The COVID-19 riddle

The coronavirus has killed so many people in Iran that the country has resorted to mass burials, but in neighbouring Iraq, the body count is fewer than 100.

The Dominican Republic has reported nearly 7,600 cases of the virus. Just across the border, Haiti has recorded about 85.

In Indonesia, thousands are believed to have died of the coronavirus. In nearby Malaysia, a strict lockdown has kept fatalities to about 100.

The coronavirus has touched almost every country on earth, but its impact has seemed ca-pricious. Global metropolises like New York, Paris and London have been devastated, while teeming cities like Bangkok, Baghdad, New Delhi and La-gos have, so far, largely been spared.

The question of why the virus has overwhelmed some places and left others relatively untouched is a puzzle that has spawned numerous theories and speculations but no definitive answers. That knowledge could have profound implications for how countries respond to the virus, for determin-ing who is at risk and for knowing when it’s safe to go out again. There are already hundreds of stud-ies underway around the world looking into how demographics, pre-existing conditions and genet-ics might affect the wide variation in impact.

Many developing nations with hot climates and young populations have escaped the worst, sug-gesting that temperature and demographics could be factors. But countries like Peru, Indonesia and Brazil, tropical countries in the throes of growing epidemics, throw cold water on that idea.

Draconian social distancing and early lockdown measures have clearly been effective, but Myan-mar and Cambodia did neither and have reported few cases.

One theory that is unproven but impossible to refute: Maybe the virus just hasn’t gotten to those countries yet. Russia and Turkey appeared to be fine until, suddenly, they were not.

“We are really early in this disease,” said Dr. Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Research Institute.

Interviews with more than two dozen infectious disease experts, health officials, epidemiologists and academics around the globe suggest four main factors that could help explain where the virus thrives and where it doesn’t: demographics, culture, environment and the speed of govern-ment responses.

Each possible explanation comes with consider-able caveats and confounding counterevidence. If an ageing population is the most vulnerable, for instance, Japan should be at the top of the list. It is far from it. Nonetheless, these are the factors that experts find the most persuasive.The power of youth

Many countries that have escaped mass epi-demics have relatively younger populations.

Young people are more likely to contract mild or asymptomatic cases that are less transmissible to others, said Robert Bollinger, a professor of in-fectious diseases at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. And they are less likely to have certain health problems that can make COVID-19, the dis-ease caused by the coronavirus, particularly dead-ly, according to the World Health Organization.

Africa — with about 45,000 reported cases, a tiny fraction of its 1.3 billion people — is the world’s youngest continent, with more than 60% of its population under age 25. In Thailand and Najaf, Iraq, local health officials found that the 20-to-29 age group had the highest rate of infection but often showed few symptoms.

By contrast, the national median age in Italy, one of the hardest-hit countries, is more than 45. The average age of those who died of COVID-19 there was around 80.Cultural Distance

Cultural factors, like the social distancing that is built into certain societies, may give some coun-tries more protection, epidemiologists said.

In Thailand and India, where virus numbers are relatively low, people greet each other at a dis-tance, with palms joined together as in prayer. In Japan and South Korea, people bow, and long be-fore the coronavirus arrived, they tended to wear face masks when feeling unwell.

In much of the developing world, the custom of caring for the elderly at home leads to fewer nurs-ing homes, which have been tinder for tragic out-breaks in the West.

However, there are notable exceptions to the cultural-distancing theory. In many parts of the Middle East, such as Iraq and the Persian Gulf countries, men often embrace or shake hands on meeting, yet most are not getting sick.Heat and Light

The geography of the outbreak — which spread rapidly during the winter in temperate-zone coun-tries like Italy and the United States and was vir-tually unseen in warmer countries such as Chad or Guyana — seemed to suggest that the virus did not take well to heat. But researchers say the idea that hot weather alone can repel the virus is wish-ful thinking. Some of the worst outbreaks in the developing world have been in places like the Am-azonas region of Brazil, as tropical a place as any.

The virus that causes COVID-19 appears to be so contagious as to mitigate any beneficial effect of heat and humidity, said Dr. Raul Rabadan, a com-putational biologist at Columbia University.

But other aspects of warm climates, like people spending more time outside, could help.

“People living indoors within enclosed environ-ments may promote virus recirculation, increas-ing the chance of contracting the disease,” said Car of Nanyang Technological University.Early and strict lockdowns

Countries that locked down early, like Vietnam and Greece, have been able to avoid out-of-control contagions, evidence of the power of strict social distancing and quarantines to contain the virus.

In Africa, countries with bitter experience with killers like HIV, drug-resistant tuberculosis and Ebola knew the drill and reacted quickly.Roll of the dice

Finally, most experts agree that there may be no single reason for some countries to be hit and oth-ers missed. The answer is likely to be some com-bination of the above factors as well as one other mentioned by researchers: sheer luck.

-New York Time

Chinese President Xi Jinping appears on a video screen with army officers and other officials, Beijing, March 19, 2020. Across the globe a backlash is building against China for its initial mishandling of the crisis that helped loose the coronavirus on the world, creating a deeply polarizing battle of narratives and setting back China’s ambition to fill the leadership vacuum left by the United States

-Gilles Sabrie/ The New York Times

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump predicted Sunday (3) night that the death toll from the coronavirus pandemic ravaging the country may reach as high as 100,000 in the United States, far worse than he had forecast just weeks ago, even as he pressed states to reo-pen the shuttered economy.

Trump, who last month forecast that fatali-ties from the outbreak could be kept “substan-tially below the 100,000” mark and probably around 60,000, acknowledged that the virus has proved more devastating than expected. But nonetheless, he said parks, beaches and some businesses should begin reopening now and that schools should resume classes in person by this fall. “We’re going to lose anywhere from 75, 80 to 100,000 people,” the president said in a virtual ‘town hall’ meeting at the Lincoln Me-morial hosted by Fox News. “That’s a horrible thing. We shouldn’t lose one person over this.” But he credited himself with preventing the toll from being worse. “If we didn’t do it, the mini-mum we would have lost was a million two, a million four, a million five, that’s the minimum. We would have lost probably higher, its possible higher than 2.2” million.

The death toll passed 67,000 Sunday, more than the total American deaths in the Vietnam War and already higher than the president’s earlier prediction. More than 1,000 additional deaths have been announced every day since April 2 and while the rate appears to have peaked, it has not begun to fall in a significant, sustained way. The model embraced by the White House a month ago had assumed the death rate would begin to fall substantially by mid-April. Despite that, Trump indicated again that he favoured lifting stay-at-home orders and other restrictions that have cratered the economy and put more than 30 million people out of work, arguing that the government had armed itself enough against the virus to be pre-pared to curb any additional outbreak even after people begin emerging from their homes to re-enter workplaces and other public spaces. “At some point we have to open our country,” the president said. “And people are going to be safe. We’ve learned a lot. We’ve learned about the tremendous contagion. But we have no choice. We can’t stay closed as a country. We’re not go-ing to have a country left.”

Trump asserted again that the virus would eventually fade. “This virus will pass,” he said. “It will go. Will it come back? It might. It could. Some people say yes. But it will pass.” While he has previously expressed doubt about a second wave in the fall anticipated by public health ex-perts, he conceded that it could happen. “We may have to put out a fire,” he said.

The president’s appearance on Fox, in which he sat at a distance from the hosts at the foot of the Abraham Lincoln statue and took questions sent by video from around the country, came in the middle of a furious debate in the United States about how and when the states should be-gin restoring a semblance of everyday life. The program was titled ‘America Together: Return-ing to Work.’ As of Friday, more than a dozen states had begun to reopen their economies and public life while many others had set plans to do so under certain conditions and with certain precautions, in some cases over the warnings of public health specialists who feared that moving too quickly would reignite a wave of infections.

Trump predicted that a vaccine would be developed by the end of 2020, which would be sooner than some public health experts antici-pate and much faster than any other vaccine for such a major virus. “We are very confident that we’re going to have a vaccine at the end of the year, by the end of the year,” he said. Even if it is developed that soon, though, he did not say whether it could be approved and produced in sufficient quantities for widespread use by then. The president confirmed that he was warned about the virus, which originated in China, in an intelligence briefing in January, but asserted that it was characterized as if “it was not a big deal.” He said intelligence agencies would re-lease information about his briefings as early as yesterday (4).

-New York Times

Global backlash builds against China over coronavirus

Why does the virus wallop some places and spare others?

As top court debates Israel coalition deal

In the United Sates

Former Pope Benedict complains of attempts to ‘silence' him

By Anatoly Kurmanaev

TEL AVIV - Israel's top court resumed de-bate yesterday (4) about controversial clauses in the coalition deal struck late last month between caretaker right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his main rival, cen-trist leader Benny Gantz.

On Sunday (3), 11 Supreme Court judges debated whether indicted lawmakers may form a government, as Netanyahu seeks to hold on to the office of prime minister despite criminal charges against him.

The panel heard petitions by anti-corrup-tion groups and opposition politicians, who want the court to strike down the April 22 emergency unity government deal, under which Netanyahu would serve as prime min-ister for the first 18 months, followed by Gantz for another 18 months.

Under the rotation agreement, Gantz is to serve as vice prime minister during the 18 months that Netanyahu is prime minister, af-ter which they would switch roles for a further 18 months.

Israeli law and jurisdiction mention only that ministers are banned from serving un-der indictments, as they are not elected by the people. Netanyahu's lawyers have argued it would be undemocratic for judges to inter-vene in the people's choice of prime minister. The question is also whether the new position of vice, or "alternative" prime minister" as de-fined in the April 22 coalition agreement, is exempt from the ban against ministers with indictments.

-dpa

BERLIN - Traditionalist former Pope Benedict XVI accuses op-ponents of wanting to "silence" him while attacking gay marriage in vehement terms in a new authorised biography published in Ger-many yesterday (4).

The 93-year-old, whose original name is Joseph Ratzinger, claims in ‘Benedict XVI - A Life’ that he has fallen victim to a "malignant distortion of reality" in reactions to his interventions in theologi-cal debates, according to passages published by German media and news agency DPA.

"The spectacle of reactions coming from German theology is so misguided and ill-willed that I would prefer not to speak of it," he says.

"I would rather not analyse the actual reasons why people want to silence my voice," Benedict added.

The German branch of the Catholic Church has for years been led by clergy more disposed to reform than the stringent traditionalism associated with Ratzinger.

In office from 2005-13, he has frequently been criticized for his attitudes to Islam or to social questions, and is accused of attempt-ing to undermine the modernization drive of his successor Pope Francis.

Ratzinger attempts to counter such claims in the biography, say-ing his "personal friendship with Pope Francis has not only en-dured, but grown."

In February, Benedict XVI was drawn into a Vatican intrigue when his private secretary was removed from Francis' entourage.

Some observers had accused the former pope of back-seat driving when a book defending the hot topic of priestly celibacy appeared, bearing his name alongside that of arch-conservative Guinean car-dinal Robert Sarah.

After 48 hours of controversy, Benedict XVI asked that his name be removed from the book's cover, introduction and jointly signed conclusion.

But he has not given up intervening in social debates, offering a fresh blast against gay marriage in the new biography.

"A century ago, anyone would have thought it absurd to talk about homosexual marriage. Today those who oppose it are excom-municated from society," Benedict XVI says.

"It's the same thing with abortion and creating human life in the laboratory," he believes, adding that it's "only natural" for people to "fear the spiritual power of the Antichrist."

-Agence France-Presse

‘Operation Gedeon’ foiledVenezuelan officials claim they stopped an armed invasion

Trump foresees virus death toll as high as 100,000

Netanyahu's future at stake

CARACAS — The Venezuelan government said se-curity forces foiled an armed incursion Sunday (3) morning near the capital, Caracas, killing eight men and capturing the remaining two.

NéstorReverol, the interior minister, said the group of “mercenary terrorists” had come from Co-lombia by speedboat, intending to invade Venezue-la and overthrow the government, but that it was stopped at the port of La Guaira, near Caracas.

Responsibility for the attack was claimed by a re-tired American Green Beret, Jordan Goudreau, and a retired Venezuelan army captain, Javier Nieto. In a video posted on social media, the two men said that ‘Operation Gedeon’ had been successfully launched “deep into the heart of Caracas” and that other armed cells had been activated throughout the country.

“It is obvious that the electoral measures, the democratic and political ones of all kinds, have been exhausted,” Nieto said in the video, defending the decision to try to topple the Venezuelan government with arms.

There was no evidence of fighting in Caracas or elsewhere in the country, but Venezuela’s Defence Minister, Vladimir PadrinoLópez, announced a sweep operation in the capital shortly after authori-ties said they repulsed the raid.

President Nicolás Maduro and his officials have denounced dozens of what they said were coup and assassination attempts in recent years as the econ-omy has sunk deeper into crisis. Some of the asser-tions proved to be true, while others were never in-dependently verified.

The uprisings denounced by the government often have their roots in real discontent among Venezue-lan officials and military officers but are almost al-ways exaggerated to create a siege mentality among government supporters and to garner international sympathy, analysts say.

-New York Times

E ress e s a ers ey Pvt. td.,185, Grandpass Road, Colombo 14, Sri LankaTelephone: 0117 322 705 (Editorial) 0117 322 731 (Advertising)0117 322 789 (Circulation)Email – editor.dailyexpress@encl.lk/weekendexpress@encl.lk Epaper - http://epaper.newsexpress.lkFacebook –News Express Sri Lanka

3 DAILY EXPRESS

GLOCALTUESDAY, MAY 05, 2020

COLOMBO – The Tamil National Alli-ance (TNA) has stated that although it has attended the meeting called by Prime Min-ister Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday (4), the meeting is not and cannot be a substi-tute for the convening of Parliament.

A statement signed by TNA leader R Sampanthan said the party is of “the firm view that the Parliament must be con-vened as stated in our joint statement to deal with several constitutional and legal issues that have arisen, which Parliament alone can deal with.”

The TNA was the only opposition party present in the meeting at Temple Trees yesterday, as the JanathaVimukthiPera-muna (JVP) and the two factions of the United National Party (UNP) boycotted

the gathering which was attended by the constituent parties of the alliance led by the ruling Sri Lanka NidahasPodujana-Peramuna (SLNPP).

Independent former MPs such as AthureliyeRathanaThera and a number of former MPs who are currently out of ac-tive politics were also present.

Among the attendees was former presi-dent Maithripala Sirisena, now an alliance partner of the SLNPP.

Sampanthan, who come under fire for being the only major opposition party to attend a meeting, in his letter presented to the prime minister at the meeting and released to the media said an appeal was made to the president by the TNA and other opposition political parties for Par-

liament to be reconvened and up to now the response has been negative.

It was in this background that the prime minister invited all Members of the dis-solved Parliament to a meeting at Temple Trees yesterday.

The TNA pointed out that the country and the people were facing a “grave crisis” because of the escalating COVID -19 pan-demic. “There is a legitimate fear amongst the people that it could further escalate with grave consequences, and the Coun-try’s united efforts are needed in this re-gard,” the TNA said.

Sampanthan recalled that over the past 25 years the people in successive elec-tions have rejected the 1978 Constitution and in 2015, Parliament resolved to form

a constitutional assembly and amend the Constitution. “All political parties were represented in the several committees established, there was substantial consen-sus, reports of the committees were filed in the Constitutional Assembly, the process reached its final stages, when it stalled un-til the dissolution of Parliament,” he said.

“We have decided that we need to attend the meeting with the prime minister, be-cause all these issues outlined above need to be addressed and to clearly indicate that we are prepared to extend our co-opera-tion to the resolution of these issues in a reasonable and acceptable manner in the interests of the country and all its people,” Sampanthan said.

-economynext.com/ENCL

TNA says PM’s meeting not a substitute for reconvening Parliament

COLOMBO – There appears to be some confusion regarding the COVID-19 curfew in Colombo and other districts, as an unex-pectedly high turnout of foot and vehicular traffic was observed yesterday (4) morning in many areas still considered high risk.

A last-minute announcement from the president’s office Sunday (3) night sought to clarify the previously announced stag-gered relaxation of lockdown measures us-ing National Identity Card (NIC) numbers. It said the last digit of the NIC as a curfew pass only applies to areas where curfew is in effect and not where curfew has been re-laxed.

Travel to and from villages and towns under strict lockdown due to high inci-dence of infection remains banned, the statement said.

Previously it was announced curfew would be relaxed starting yesterday with movement under NIC system would come into effect. This decision was then changed with curfew relaxation to begin next Mon-day (11).

According to the latest update, people whose NIC numbers end in digits 1 or 2 were permitted leave their homes only to purchase essential items and medicine from stores and pharmacies located within walking distance.

However, residents of Colombo said many vehicles and people could be seen freely roaming about with no police pres-ence visible in their local areas. On Twitter, too, Sri Lankans were commenting on the sudden and unexpected vehicle movement in the city.

Spokespersons for the president’s office were unavailable for comment.

Meanwhile, adding to the confusion, the Police Media Division said that curfew will continue till May 11 all over the island ex-cept during the hours it will be temporar-ily lifted in districts other than Colombo, Gampaha, Kalutara and Puttalam. The NIC system, police said, is no longer applicable once curfew is lifted.

-economynext.com

COLOMBO – A group of Sri Lankans who returned to the country yesterday (4) got themselves checked-in at luxury quaran-tine centres across the country paying a budget rate of Rs 7500 day, inclusive of food.

Several including upmarket Jetwing group have started providing premium quarantine services at budget rates as for-eign returnees are decreed quarantine and centres run by the military are filling up with domestic contacts of infected persons.

Jetwing Blue, a hotel near the main inter-national airport in Katunayake has already been turned into a quarantine centre.

The hotel was given over to quarantine at the request of the military and the group was ready to offer more hotels if required Chairman HiranCooray said.

The hotel is also providing food.Citrus hotel has also been offered for

quarantine work.Army Commander Lt. General Shaven-

dra Silva said the Sri Lanka Army’s own fa-cilities were full with large number of new contacts being taken in.

Colombo’s Mt Lavinia hotel has also been offered for quarantine, he said.

Sri Lanka saw a surge in infections after a navy base had a high number of infec-tions because Sri Lanka was not testing high risk groups. Military personnel were given leave to travel between districts at a time when ordinary citizens were banned from going out of their houses in a strict curfew.

But public health inspectors and military intelligence swiftly rounded up most con-tacts of infected military personnel and all leave was cancelled. Several thousand con-tacts have been found.

General Silva said hotel quarantine at a fee was provided in line with requests from Sri Lankan citizens abroad who had said they were willing to pay for quarantine. The hotels were charging rates which are a quarter or less of their normal rates, he said.

The rooms are charged Rs 7,500 per per-son double sharing or about US$ 38 a day with food.

The prices are in line with Vietnam, probably the world’s most successful coun-try in battling coronavirus, which started premium quarantine in March for anyone who did not want free accommodation and food at military run centres.

-ENCL/economynext.com

Confusion over latest COVID-19 curfew update

Returnees check-in at luxury quarantine centres

Positive doesn’t mean infectedDirector General, Health Services, Dr. Anil

Jasinghe commenting on the COVID-19 pa-tient from Ja-Ela who was tested positive for the second time after being discharged from hospital, said it could be inferred that the virus could be living inside one’s body with minimal activity and wouldn’t show symp-toms, but that doesn’t mean the carriers of the virus are infected or could be spreading the virus.Naval officer recovers

A Navy officer, who was tested COVID-19 positive after seeking treatment at the govern-ment hospital in Ratanpura on April 25, and was later transferred to the National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Angoda, is reported to have recovered yesterday (4) becoming the first naval officer to recover from the novel coronavirus.

Sri Lankans repatriated from UKAnother group of 208 Sri Lankan students,

stranded in the UK following the COVID-19 outbreak, arrived at the Bandaranaike Inter-national Airport in Katunayake yesterday (4). The students were brought back on a special flight chartered by the national carrier, SriLan-kan Airlines. The Ministry of Foreign Relations said it was bringing down Sri Lankans stranded overseas based on requests to be repatriated.Rs 5,000 allowance for May

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has instructed those affected by the novel coronavirus outbreak be paid a Rs 5,000 allowance for the month of May as well. In a Facebook post he said the pay-ment of the allowance started yesterday (4) and will be paid before the Vesak Full Moon Poya Day. The payment of government pension for the month of May was also set to commence yester-day and be completed before the Vesak Poya Day.

In Brief

Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa gestures as he presides over a meeting of former legislators at his official residence in Colombo yesterday (4). The country's main opposition boycotted the meeting called by Prime Minister Rajapaksa to discuss the coronavirus pandemic after rejecting their calls to reinstate the national Parliament that was dissolved in March by Sri Lanka's President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

-Ishara S. KODIKARA / AFP

COLOMBO – The Ministry of Health yesterday (4) announced the eighth COVID-19 death in Sri Lanka, iden-tifying the deceased as a 72-year-old woman from Polpithigama in Kurune-gala, who had been receiving treat-ment at the government hospital in Homagama.

The last COVID-19 death was re-ported in Sri Lanka nearly a month ago on April 7.

Meanwhile, Air Force Spokesman Group Captain Dushan Wijesinghe said the two men who died at the Mul-laitivu quarantine centre last week had died of other causes and not COV-ID-19.

Captain Wijesinghe said it was found that one of them had died due to ischemic heart disease and the other due to epilepsy and aspiration pneumonia. The two individuals aged of 81 and 83 were hospitalized after falling ill at the Mullaitivu quarantine

centre which is managed by the Sri Lanka Air Force. The deceased were among a group of homeless men who were moved to quarantine after they were found around the central bus stand in Pettah some weeks ago. The entire area went into lockdown after a COVID-19 cluster was discovered in the BandaranayakeMawatha area in Kotehena.

The destitute people in the area were given fresh clothing, food and shelter by the police in the area.

Thereafter they were taken to the quarantine centre as they were sus-pected to have been exposed to COV-ID-19 positive cases in the area.

A total of 72 people in the Kotehena, Keselwatte and Gunasinghepura areas were infected from members of a fam-ily that had returned from a pilgrim-age to India in March.

ENCL/economynext.com

COLOMBO - The Attorney Gen-eral (AG) has advised the National Election Commission to follow the procedure established by law for the conduct of the 2020 parliamentary elections.

AG’s directive to the Election Com-mission comes in the wake of advice sought by the Commission with re-

gard to elections, yesterday (4). Par-liamentary polls were scheduled to be held on April 25, but were put on hold due to the COVID-19 outbreak in Sri Lanka and were later scheduled for June 20 amid strong opposition from several political parties, including the former opposition.

-ENCL

8th COVID-19 death reported in Sri Lanka Gunesinghepura men died of other causes

COLOMBO– Sri Lanka’s rupee strength-ened to 188.25/188.75 to the greenback in one week forwards yesterday (4), helped by some bank and exporter selling, dealers said.

There was no spot trading but there is hardly any premium for forwards in the market with low rupee rates and tight dol-lar liquidity pushing interbank rate up, the implied spot rate was also around the same levels, dealers said. The rupee closed around 190.50/191.00 in the one week for-ward market on Thursday (April 30). Fri-day (May 1) was a market holiday.

Sri Lanka’s imports have reduced with most shops closed and private credit is also generally weak.

Any pressure on the currency would come from money printed to pay state sec-tor salaries and spending analysts say.

The rupee fell steeply partly due to a so-called one sided ‘DCM’ rule amid money printing.

When large volumes of money are print-ed, the rupee’s peg to the US dollar will break unless it is defended with reserve sales.

Last Friday excess liquidity in money markets dropped to Rs 137 billion from Rs 164 billion, or about 13% of the monetary base, with all banks chocked to the gills with excess liquidity.

Sri Lanka’s central bank is targeting a call money rate at 6.45%.

Since targeting-call-money-rate-with-excess-liquidity began the monetary au-thority has lost control of the reserve mon-ey, analysts point out, leading to monetary instability.

Combined with the one sided ‘DCM’ rule where no intervention is made when the rupee falls, but heavy interventions are made when it appreciates, the excess liquidity leads to collapses of the exchange peg even when private credit is weak ana-lysts have said.

On Thursday at least one bank borrowed at 7.0% from the overnight window.

Yesterday, short banks borrowed Rs 17.73 billion from the window at 7.0% while plus banks deposited Rs 163 billion in excess cash at the central bank.

Amid uncertainty in money markets, money printing and downgrades, inter-bank lending has reduced with counter-party risk perceptions rising.

Liquidity in the overnight money market was Rs 137.56 billion yesterday.

Banks deposited Rs163.29 billion in Central bank’s excess liquidity window.

In the secondary bond market yields were flat in moderate trading, dealers said with liquidity centered on 2024 maturities.

-economynext.com

Rupee extend gains against greenbacks in one week forwards

AG advises EC to follow existing laws

COLOMBO– Sri Lanka’s Brandix, an ap-parel group with operations in India and Bangladesh is turning its factories into making personal protective equipment (PPE) in the battle against the novel coro-navirus, as orders for regular clothes dry up, an official said.

In Sri Lanka its factories are making cotton masks for an international brand.

About 9,000 out of over 30,000 work-ers in its factories in Sri Lanka are al-ready involved in making PPE and will be ramped up to around 16,000 shortly, Ha-sithaPremaratne, Group Finance Director of Brandix who also heads India opera-tions of the group said.

In India where Brandix has over 20,000 workers, the group has started making protective clothing for domestic needs. Material for hazmat style suits is produced in India itself. India has banned the export of most PPEs. In a knee jerk reaction Sri Lanka’s National Medical Regulatory Authority banned exports of masks and also slammed on price con-trols, triggering shortages island-wide and blocking domestic manufacturers from producing masks.

The controls, which make any crisis worse, have since been lifted.

In Sri Lanka Brandix is making masks out of material made at its Teejay Lanka

weft knit plant which is now running at almost full steam.

“It is almost fully loaded,” Premaratne said.

Brandix has also taken orders for PPE and is making arrangements to farm out production to Sri Lanka’s small and me-dium apparel exporters who are unable to pay salaries of workers and are about to collapse.

“We want to help the entire industry as much as possible,” he said. The masks are made to comply with US and European regulations.

At Brandix and other factories new health regulations mean that workers

have to be spaced out, and much less than the usual staff can work.

Premaratne said space that was earlier allocated to other activities such as sort-ing rooms is being re-jigged as factory space.

RanelPathirana, Director of Sri Lan-ka’s Hirdramani group, which also has overseas operations said many factories around the world are now turning to PPEs and margins will rapidly decline.

Sri Lanka’s US$ 5000 billion apparel export business is expecting to lose US$ 1.5 billion of business in the March to June quarter.

-economynext.com

Brandix plants in Sri Lanka, India making PPE in COVID-19 battle

Another group of Pakistanis repatriated from Sri Lanka

COLOMBO- A second group of 40 stranded Pakistani nationals were repatriated to Pakistan via Sri Lan-kan Airlines flight UL-1185 yesterday (4). The repatriation was facilitated by the Pakistani High Commission in Colombo, in co-ordination with Sri Lankan authorities and Government of Pakistan.

The first group of 50 stranded Pakistani nationals was repatriated on April 28. Second Secretary (Po-litical), Ayesha Abubakar Fahad was

present on behalf of the High Com-missioner to see off the departing Pakistanis at Bandaranaike Inter-national Airport (BIA), Colombo, yesterday. The Pakistan High Com-mission in Colombo, in a statement yesterday, said the returning Paki-stanis acknowledged the efforts of High Commission for the support and assistance rendered to them during their stay in Sri Lanka in this difficult time.

-ENCL

4 DAILY EXPRESSTUESDAY, MAY 05, 2020

By Ruki ernando

By Ra i Krishna

REALITY CHECK

The will to right the wrongs

– J

Su

jee

wa

kum

ar/

EN

CL

Touched to the quick by a critical report by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) on the rights situation in the country in 2019, the Pakistan Ministry of Human Rights (MOHR) has accused the HRCP of “overlooking several major milestones towards securing and safeguarding the rights of vulnerable groups that were reached in the past year in Pakistan.”

The MOHR said in its statement last week that “although the process of changing mind-sets, laws and institutions is one that is long and slow, it is critical to keep sight and track of all the steps and progress along the way.”

In other words, it would not do to simply deny progress, given the challenges facing Pakistan to-day as a result of decades of neglect, the MOHR argued.

“While the report accurately cites an alarmingly high number of cases of violence against women and children, it does not account for the important institutional as well as legislative measures that have been taken in the last year to safeguard and promote their rights,” it said, noting that with re-gard to the right to freedom of press and curbs on political dissent, a very important new legislation on the Protection of Journalists and Media Profes-sionals had been discussed with journalists and media professionals in 2019 and approved in prin-ciple by the Cabinet in early 2020.

The bill is now in the process of being finalized through the relevant process before being tabled in the National Assembly, MOHR said, elaborat-ing that the bill features several unprecedented protections for journalists and media professional in Pakistan – and could play an important role in improving the freedom of press and information in the country.

While acknowledging that violence against reli-gious minorities continues to run rampant in the country, MOHR pointed out several measures tak-en by the State in 2019 have the potential to lead to a shift in societal attitudes and mind-sets in the long run.

It highlighted the opening of the Kartarpur Cor-ridor (between Pakistan and India to enable Indian Sikhs to visit a historic shrine in Pakistan); laying the foundation for Pakistan’s first Sikh university; and the reopening and renovation of Hindu tem-ples as some of the measures, and also noted that the government has taken steps to address educa-tional material with discriminatory content against religious minorities and was in the process of bring-ing 30,000 madrasahs under government control to mainstream them in the field of education. It also noted that the acquittal of several high profile blasphemy cases such as Aasia Bibi and Wajih-ul-Hassan, had established an important precedent.

MOHR claims notwithstanding, Dr. Mehdi Hasan, Chairperson of the HRCP, in his remarks in the report pointed out that a basic flaw in the Pakistani human rights protection system is not so much absence of legislation but the non-implemen-tation of legislation and the crippling of existing in-stitutions.

Despite the apparent willingness of provincial governments to enact legislation that upholds the fundamental rights of citizens. “None of them has demonstrated any understanding of how to put such legislation into practice,” Hasan said.

The National Commission of Human Rights (NCHR) has been non-functional since June 2019 simply because it is waiting for the appointment of a new chairperson and six of its seven members. The neglect could be because the NCHR had been looking into the National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) alleged misuse of powers. The post of chair-person of the National Commission on the Status of Women has been vacant since February 2018.

Harris Khalique, HRCP Secretary General, in his remarks has Pakistan continued to bear a dismal human rights record in terms of complying with the constitutional guarantees to its own citizens and the international obligations to which it is a State party. “There were no significant developments during the year in the administration of justice, maintaining law and order, criminalizing enforced disappear-ances, improving the status of women, transgender persons and sexual minorities, ending child abuse, ceasing the shabby treatment of citizens from mi-nority faiths, or addressing the dire socioeconomic problems faced by labourers, miners, farmers, san-itation workers, media persons, nurses, teachers, and fisher folk,” he has noted, stating that 2019 will be remembered for the systematic curbing of political dissent by various means, constraints to the freedom of the mainstream media, digital sur-veillance, and the over-regulation of social media spaces. He has also charged that several thousand journalists, photographers and other categories of media persons had lost their jobs, and a number of newspapers and magazines had ceased to publish because government advertisements were blocked and dues to media houses remained unpaid.

The HRCP report points out that allegations of indulging in ‘anti-state’ activities are levelled against civil society and the media, and arrests on such grounds are commonplace. “No differen-tiation is made between legitimate expressions of opinion or factual reporting and actual incitement to hate and violence,” it said.

The report draws attention to the “shockingly high acquittal rates in cases of gender-based vio-lence, which point to poor implementation of legis-lation and lack of effective prosecution.”

It also points out that the National Account-ability Bureau (NAB) is seen as being selective and high handed in dealing with cases pursued against members of the political opposition, and requests for country visits from UN Special Rapporteurs on extrajudicial executions; the situation of human rights defenders; the promotion and protection of human rights while countering terrorism; freedom of religion or belief; and torture and other cruel , inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment are pending.

The report also notes that ‘honour’ killings con-tinued unabated, with Punjab accounting for the highest proportion reported overall, that inves-tigations had revealed that 629 women had been trafficked as brides to China between 2018 and early 2019, and most significantly Pakistan is yet to criminalize enforced disappearances even after a commitment to this effect made by the incumbent government on several occasions.

-ENCL

As fears and concerns persist about the spread of COVID-19 in Sri Lanka, there are rising fears and concerns about declining democracy and rising threats to rule of law and rights violations. Rights are being re-stricted, powers of the executive, police, military, and government officials are increasing and checks and balances and possibilities of legal remedies for victims are decreasing.

Governments, some media, and others with vested interests are seeking to propagate that these must be tolerated at the time of crisis. In any crisis, the politi-cally, economically and socially vulnerable and margin-alized become even more vulnerable and marginalized. In Sri Lanka, they include COVID-19 patients and their families, families of those who died, survivors and fam-ilies of past victims of past rights violations, ethnic and religious minorities, those with disabilities, women, children, elderly, refugees, prisoners, farmers, fisher folk, factory workers, estate workers and workers in the informal sector. Below are some significant rights con-cerns amidst the fight against COVID-19 in Sri Lanka.1. Stigmatizing and degrading treatment to the deceased, patients and the poor

The first Sri Lankan COVID-19 infected person was identified on March 11. Since then some TV stations and social media had publicized false information about the patients, suspected patients, and even the dead. They had invaded the privacy of patients and sus-pected patients, those being quarantined, often in the presence police and military, and with their tacit sup-port. It was only after around six weeks of this drama that the Secretary to the Ministry of defence appealed to stop this violation of privacy after about 250 mili-tary personnel were confirmed as having contracted the novel coronavirus. On April 17, police lined up over 300 beggars in Colombo and compelled them to have a bath in the open air without any privacy, with media being allowed to film and take photographs, resulting in this being splashed on national TV stations newspapers and social media. Photos and videos indicated some men having collective showers, without maintaining physi-cal distance. Disinfecting of both men and women was also done in public, in front of cameras. Some media used the term ‘watte’to describe an area in Colombo where large numbers of COVID-19 infected patients were found. This term implies low-income areas with small and basic houses close to each other with basic facilities, such as shared toilets. The lady who was be-lieved to be the first patient from this community was particularly targeted, being referred to as the ‘Corona lady,’ thereby setting the area on ‘COVID fire.’2. Hostility towards Muslims and Christians

Muslims have been blamed for being responsible for COVID-19 and were the target of hate speech. Much of this was based on false news. On two occasions, po-lice had arrested some persons, but most seemed to get away with hate speech and false news. The World Health Organization’s (WHO) guidelines pertaining to the disposal of bodies of those who die of COVID-19 pro-vide for both cremation and burial, which was reflected in Sri Lankan Health Ministry guidelines of March 27. But officials hurriedly cremated the first Muslim in Sri Lanka who died of COVID-19, being indifferent to the wishes of the family and the Muslim community and its leaders and then amended the guidelines to allow only cremations, without any explanation for the changes. On one occasion, constant reference by many media, especially Tamil media, to religion and occupation of one infected person as a ‘Pastor’ created an environ-ment where there could be hate and hostility towards the Christian community of that person or to Christians more broadly.3. Prisoners and refugees

Even before COVID-19 deaths in Sri Lanka, two pris-oners died of shooting, in COVID-19 related tensions in a prison. Sri Lankan prisons have a capacity to accom-modate 10,000 people but are overcrowded, with about 26,000 inmates at present, making them high-risk places for the spread of the novel coronavirus, with no possibility for social distancing and hygienic practices. The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) and civil society groups have been demanding the re-lease of prisoners. The government had released about 3000 by early April, and the Attorney General had ad-vised the police on schemes of releasing more prison-ers. However, some inmates, such as those detained for long periods under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), without having been charged and trials being completed are not included in these schemes. Detain-ees who were released last month had reported of beat-ings, severe overcrowding, and unhygienic conditions, and lack of adequate medical facilities in detention fa-cilities. As visits by families and well-wishers have been stopped, detainees are unable to get even their basic needs from outside.

Refugees and asylum seekers living in Sri Lanka tem-porarily are not included in assistance schemes by the government and various UN agencies. In the context of curfews in the country and lockdowns across the world, they also find it difficult to receive money from their

friends and relatives, which had been crucial for their survival. Amidst widespread stigmatization of Sri Lan-kan Muslims, refugees also fear being perceived as be-ing Muslims and being targeted, similar to the way they faced physical attacks and evictions after the Easter Sunday bombings. And in the long term, they fear that their already delayed resettlement to a third countries such as the USA and Canada may be further delayed.4. Right to food, emergency assistance and workers

With the imposition of island-wide curfew over one month, food has become a major concern, particular-ly for the poorer sections of society. The government announced a relief package of Rs 5000 per family, focusing on daily wage owners and other low-income earners, but there have been widespread allegations of officials charging money for applications, long lines of people to collect the Rs 5,000, allegations of being left out unfairly and tensions between beneficiaries and of-ficials. The assistance scheme is said to also favour gov-ernment supporters. Many migrant workers from far away districts had been stranded, without income or food, but had not received any government assistance. Calls to designated numbers and meetings with local officials and police had not brought any relief.

In the North and East, there were allegations that the Governors (representative of the president) were not approving the use of emergency funds by local government officials and local government officials had sought the help of civil society groups to provide humanitarian assistance to people in need. There have been several reports of those distributing humanitar-ian assistance being obstructed, facing intimidation, threats from politicians, police, and military, and some being arrested. Some workers had not received wages for work done before the sudden imposition of curfew and some employees are demanding amendment of la-bour laws that provide protection to workers from arbi-trary termination.5. Repression of free expression and impunity for hate speech, false and misleading news

One of the biggest blows to free expression was when online activist RamzyRazeek was arrested on April 9 for a Facebook post calling for an ideological struggle using a pen and keyboard and media. He has been a consistent advocate of ethnic harmony and challenged extremism within the Muslim community and against Muslims. He has been remanded till May 14 and the police have implied intentions to charge him under the ICCPR Act. Ramzy had received death threats online and had complained to the police about these before his arrest, but no one has been arrested for death threats made against him.

On April 1, the police announced that those criticiz-ing and pointing out shortcomings of government of-ficials would be arrested and have legal actions taken against them. Several people who had criticized the government were reported to have been arrested, faced intimidation and discrediting online. The media re-ported that Police were seeking to arrest 40 persons for spreading false information and there had been other reports that 17 had been arrested by April 17.

However, the process of such arrests appears to be discriminatory targeting individuals who seem to be critical of the government with small outreach, whereas persons and media institutions supporting the govern-ment with massive outreach such as some TV stations and newspapers, seem to enjoy impunity for publishing false and misleading information.

The Sunday Observer, a State-owned and controlled newspaper reported the Health Minister saying that “by April 19 all possible COVID-19 patients in Sri Lanka will disappear and the people who had it without any symptoms or with mild symptoms will completely re-cover.” Another leading newspaper, Lankadeepa, pub-lished headlines on its front page quoting the Director-General of Health Services as saying the risk of corona was over. This was corrected and an apology offered two days later, but with less prominence than the false headline. The media group Ada Derana published a hugely misleading graph about numbers of COVID-19 patients in Sri Lanka. In early April, the Sri Lanka Tea Board reported that they had devised a plan to pro-mote Ceylon black tea as a drink that could prevent COVID-19, but the Director of the Sri Lanka Medical Research Institute was reported to have confirmed that there is no research on the benefits of drinking tea for COVID-19 patient and that it cannot be touted as a pre-ventive measure or a treatment in the case of COVID-19. On March 21, the former Governor of Western Province and National List candidate for upcoming Parliament elections from the president’s Sri Lanka PodujanaPera-muna, Dr. Seetha Arambepola, was quoted as having said that the State Pharmaceutical Corporation had ample stocks of a secret medication for Corona, and that it could be used after approval from specialist doc-tors.6. Militarization

The response to COVI-19 in Sri Lanka is excessively militarized, with the Army Commander being appoint-

ed as the head of the National Operations Centre on COVID-19. The Secretary to the Ministry of Defence, a retired senior army officer, features prominently and regularly on national media on matters relating to COVID-19 than any other ministry secretary. A Presi-dential Task Force in charge of Economic Revival and Poverty Eradication is also packed with military offic-ers. The military has been involved in running a large number of quarantine centres and in the heavily milita-rized war-ravaged north, the military is also involved in curfew pass issuing activities.

This militarization is in context of the military person-nel in Sri Lanka having been convicted and still stand-ing accused in pending cases for massacres, killings and abductions by Sri Lankan courts and facing allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity from the UN and international human rights groups, with the present Army Commander having been banned from entering the United States of America earlier this year.

On one occasion, soldiers had removed a family from a village facing a high risk of COVID-19 without the knowledge of the health authorities.

People in the North protested in fear about schools in the North being used for quarantining military person-nel, and later, the Secretary to the Ministry of Defence said schools will be used to accommodate soldiers and not as quarantine centres. Surveillance of activists and journalists by intelligence agents, which was common in Sri Lanka during and after the war, may expand dur-ing and post COVID-19 operations by the military, with the Secretary to Ministry of Defence claiming that he has details of all COVID-19 victims in his mobile phone.7. Rule of Law and political crisis

While accepting the need for curfew, at least one sen-ior lawyer and others have pointed out the lack of legal basis for the curfew the government had announced since March 20. More than 42,000 people have been arrested and more than 10,000 vehicles were taken into custody, and legality of this is also not clear. In Co-lombo and Jaffna, there have been allegations of people having been beaten up by police and the army for being on the street.

The Coast Conservation Department has been criti-cized for lack of environmental and social considera-tions in its Mount Lavinia beach development project and un-democratic, not-transparent action while the country was under lockdown due to COVID-19.

There has also been widespread condemnation about the lack of due process in the arrest of prominent law-yer HejaazHizbullah on April 14. He had very limited access to family and lawyers, the specific reasons for his arrest are not clear and the Attorney General and the police failed to turn up in courts when a habeas cor-pus application by his family was taken up in courts on April 30. The curfew had also restricted people’s access to courts to seek remedies for violations and imminent violations, particularly for those from poorer sections of society, for whom access to lawyers and legal reme-dies have always been limited, even prior to COVID-19. Due to the limited number of court staff, it had become difficult for lawyers to obtain court proceedings and confer with detained clients, both of which can affect the preparation for court hearings.

In the early stages of curfew, the president granted a pardon to a soldier convicted of the massacre of eight Tamil civilians, including children. There has also been a report that the soldier had been paid back wages for the time he had been imprisoned and that the army had accompanied him back home from prison.

On March 2, the president dissolved Parliament ad-vancing parliamentary elections six months ahead of the schedule. However, the Election Commission post-poned the elections and subsequently rescheduled it for June 20. This will mean Sri Lanka will be without a Par-liament for more than the constitutionally allowed pe-riod of three months. This has led to some lawyers and politicians stating that the dissolution of Parliament is invalid and the old Parliament has sprung back to life, as the presidential power to dissolve Parliament early are subject to a condition of the House re-convening within three months. Opposition politicians have also claimed the Parliament needs to approve expenditure from May 1 onwards, but the government has insisted the president has constitutional powers to draw from the consolidated fund.Conclusion

The number of COVID-19 infected persons and deaths has been relatively less in Sri Lanka than many other countries, including in Asia. But the numbers of patients are rising, and so are fears, uncertainties, and economic woes, including food security, livelihoods, and unemployment. Reducing militarization and po-liticization and respect for rule of law, human rights, especially freedom of expression, rights of minorities, workers, and environmental justice will be crucial in determining Sri Lanka’s post COVID-19 progress. Re-viving long term struggles for justice, such as by com-munities whose lands were occupied by the military and families of those who disappeared will also pose a challenge.

-This article was originally featured on commonviews.org

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Security personnel check the body temperature of a motor cyclist during a government-imposed nationwide lockdown as a preventive measure against the COVID-19 coronavirus, in Colombo on April 23

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