The Iranian government has offered Sri Lanka the opportunity to purchase crude oil without opening Letters of Credit as a means of bypassing American sanctions on Iran, reported the Island.

Quoting the Iranian Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Mohammed Nabi Hassanipour, it was reported that the arrangement was part of a package proposed to Sri Lanka to overcome the embargoes imposed by "insensitive global policemen".

The Ambassador reportedly stated that the Ceylon Petroleum Company could write directly to the Iranian Embassy in Colombo with their purchase requirements, who would then forward the request to Tehran.

The offer came as Petroleum Industries Minister reassured the public that there would be no shortage of crude oil, as they were seeking imports from both Oman and Saudi Arabia.

The country’s only crude oil refinery has been shut down due to the lack of crude oil supply being imported into the country, after sanctions were placed on Sri Lanka’s largest supplier of crude oil, Iran.

Sri Lanka has reportedly stated that they will bring up the matter with the United Nations, the United States and the European Union, with the crisis said to be costing the country an estimated additional cost of US$ 1.2 billion for importing refined fuel.

A church in Trincomalee was vandalised and mosque in Anuradhapura were both damaged and vandalised by unidentified persons on Friday and Satruday night respectively, reported TamilNet.

A statue at the church, located in Paazhaiyoottu in the Trincomalee district, was defaced with its hands destroyed and lights decorating the statue removed on Friday night.

A mosque in Anuradhapura was set alight, in a case of arson, forcing the Muslim clergy to shift prayers for the Hajji festival to a nearby house.

See the report from TamilNet here.

Minister Keheliya Rambukwella has said that the US should "compensate" Sri Lanka, due to the adverse effects its sanctions on Iran are having on Sri Lanka, reported the Daily Mirror.

Petroleum Minister Susil Premjayant said that the US sanctions on Iran had cost Sri Lanka an extra $1.2 billion, for importing crude and refined oil from other countries.

Premjayant added that Sri Lanka's oil bill had now reached a total of $5 billion.

The US Coast Guard conducted training exercises for the Sri Lankan Coast Guard in Trincomalee recently, reports Colombo Page.

The training initiative, said to strengthen maritime security, was part of the Export Control and Related Border Security Program.

Addressing the closing ceremony the US ambassador to Colombo, Michele J Sison, said,

"It draws on expertise from the Departments of State, Homeland Security, Commerce, Energy, and Defence in order to provide a range of legal, licensing, and enforcement training and equipment for countries around the globe. We are pleased to be conducting this first of its kind training here with the Sri Lankan Coast Guard."

Training topics included: international law, smuggling trends, high risk search techniques, use of non-lethal force, ship boarding procedures, and drug identification and testing.

Sri Lanka’s Minister for Industry and Commerce, Rishad Bathiyutheen, said the country is taking measures to minimise the impact of the global financial crisis and will look towards India and China to increase their export market, reported ColomboPage.

The country’s exports to its traditional markets in the West have been declining recently and the minister said the government would take efforts to open Asian markets for their products.

"We are not going to remain passive at a time when our export markets around the world turn more challenging due to the decline in leading segments and the downward revision of GDP projections for India and China.

"We are under no illusions that our exports will continue to be easy as the markets become increasingly difficult. In fact, we are taking active steps to safeguard our exports," the Minister said at an event promoting Sri Lanka's cinnamon exports.

The EU and the US make up 60% of Sri Lanka’s export market, but the global financial crisis has caused Sri Lanka’s export’s to drop by nearly 6% in the first eight months of this year, compared to last year.

In August alone exports earnings decreased by 13% and the income from the food sector shrunk by a massive 45%.

As the 14th Universal Periodic Review (UPR) session gets under way at the UN Human Rights Council this week, the spotlight will once again fall on Sri Lanka and its human rights record - but just how meaningful a process will it be?

Last time Sri Lanka faced a review at the Council was in 2008, when Mahinda Rajapaksa, who had been elected on a tidal wave of popular Sinhala support for a renewed war effort, was intensifying his military offensive against the LTTE. Whilst the reports of paramilitaries, torture, abductions, killings, and the targeting of human rights defenders, journalists and humanitarian workers were acknowledged in the recommendations, the scale of human rights abuses, war crimes and genocide that Sri Lanka unleashed less than a year later, made a mockery of the entire process. Re-visiting the 2008 recommendations, in light of what has happened and continues to take place, should be a sobering read to any within the UPR Working Group.

Recommendations included: to 'strengthen the human rights machinery within national institutions' (Algeria, China), ensure the 'protection of witnesses and victims' (Austria, Czech Rep.), take 'necessary measures to safeguard the human rights of IDPs in accordance with applicable international standards' (Austria), 'safeguard freedom of expression and protect human rights defenders, and effectively investigate allegations of attacks on journalists, media personnel and human rights defenders and prosecute those responsible' (Ireland), eliminate 'all forms of ill treatment or torture in the prisons and detention centres' (Iran), 'take steps to verifiably disarm all paramilitary groups' (UK), and 'ensure the return and restitution of housing and lands in conformity with international standards for internally displaced persons' (Belgium).

Notably, recommendations that involved any international or UN monitoring of human rights on the ground were invariably rejected by Sri Lanka, such as 'invite the United Nations to establish a presence in Sri Lanka, the mandate of which would include protection, monitoring, investigation and reporting' (Slovenia), accept 'independent international monitoring be taken up as recommendations' (Sweden) and 're-engage with international human rights monitoring and assistance mechanisms by agreeing to establish an OHCHR field presence, whose mandate would allow unfettered access to monitor, investigate and report human rights violations and promote remedial measures, including criminal investigation, prosecution and capacity-building of domestic human rights mechanisms' (United States).

The context in which Sri Lanka will face UPR has no doubt markedly altered since 2008. The international community's willingness to support the state's 'war on terror' has now significantly shifted to criticism of its conduct during the armed conflict and its aftermath. The fact that this criticism has not been translated into any affirmative action however, is a festering wound in any future prospects of stability on the island - and Sri Lanka's UPR is unlikely to make amends.  

The mechanism of UPR, constructed of self-serving layers of procedures and diplomatic niceties, dictates that the benchmark against which Sri Lanka will be measured, is the recommendations that came of its first session – and even then, only the recommendations Sri Lanka agreed to accept. Adding to the obvious absurdity of this glorified self-appraisal, the scathing report by the UN Panel of Experts and the resolution adopted by the very same Council earlier this year will almost invariably be sidelined, at best.

Yet, even through this impotent prism, it is immediately apparent that the key concerns of 2008 are of heightened concern today. In the time that has elapsed, Sri Lanka is said to have made a transition from 'war on terror' to 'peace and reconciliation'. However, instead of a steady progression towards its self-assigned benchmark, Sri Lanka has obliterated any regard for human rights, and continues to do so with increasingly emboldened impunity.

Sri Lanka's defence is, as ever, predictable. Whilst at the last session the situation was blamed on the LTTE, this session will no doubt include lamentations about the lack of time and space. Sri Lanka has had ample time. To grant it more, with a dutiful slap on the wrist, would once again allow the state to make a mockery of the Working Group, and ensure that the outcome of the 2016 UPR is a foregone conclusion.

Ultimately, an in-house appraisal with states systematically alternating between the role of examiner and that of the examined, can be of little value. However, the one saving grace in this mechanised saga, would be for key member states to begin asking themselves the most pertinent question – not how bad is the human rights situation in Sri Lanka, but why? Why, over three years later and despite much talk of 'reconciliation' and 'development', has the human rights situation not only regressed, but continues to do so with ever increasing brazenness? It is only in questioning Sri Lanka's seeming delinquency that the UPR process and the member states that enact it, can gain any meaningful credibility.

Sri Lanka’s Minister of Mass Media and Information, Keheliya Rambukwella, said the government will discuss the effects of sanctions on Iran with the US government, reported the Sunday Times.

The Sapugaskanda oil refinery is due to close on Friday, as the supply of Iranian crude runs out.

The minister said the US sanctions on Iran caused complications for Sri Lanka and alternate sources like Oman and Saudi Arabia are being looked in to.

Just after the defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa warned the 13th Amendment in the constitution was a "time bomb", the Media Minister and Cabinet Spokesperson, Keheliya Rambukwella, told the media that the government had not decided about the 13th Amendment, and that the President had reiterated the government's intention to implement the 13th plus.

Rambukwella said, "by the reference of 'Plus' it is envisaged to converge all minority groups in the provinces in a Senate."

Responding to questions about the recent calls to abolish the amendment, the Colombo Page quoted the minister as saying, 'the Amendment is part of the Constitution and the Members of Parliament are obliged to protect the Constitution'.

Accusing the TNA of seeking helpful from outside forces that "cannot do anything", Rambukwella asserted it was their "vacillating stance" that was the sole reason for delay in devolution.

“The President pointed out that certain groups sympathizing with terrorists are trying to paint a wrong picture about Sri Lanka through the Internet and stressed that people using the Internet facilities should beware of such machinations.”

Supreme court sanctions Media Ministry's authoritarianism (03 Dec 2011)

Media Ministry has "full authority" to act against websites (17 Nov 2011)

EU express ‘concern’ over website bans (08 Nov 2011)

Sri Lanka bans opposition website (07 Nov 2011)

A day after a UK High Court halted the deportation of a number of Tamil asylum seekers over fears of torture on return, a Tamil asylum seeker in Australia was issued with a deportation notice.

The Tamil male, held in Melbourne, was told that he will be deported on 31st October. The notice states he will be liable for the cost of the deportation and will be invoiced before the set deportation.

In July, Dayan Anthony, was deported to Sri Lanka by Australian immigration authorities, despite a last minute appeal to the UN.

“I am waiting for a signal from the government to begin talks for a permanent resolution to the national issue. I was surprised on learning that the government plans to undertake talks with the Diaspora, facilitated by Kumaran Pathmanathan, former arms procurer of the LTTE. He is not a representative of the Tamil people.”

“We are prepared to come to the table and to select delegates for the Parliamentary Select Committee once the government puts forward a program to commence talks which is acceptable to the TNA. The government’s current claim that the TNA are to talk is just a ploy to trick the international community.”

“We are not hoping for empty words from the government. We expect an honest approach and sincere engagement in initiating talks.”

“We condemn calls from the Defence Secretary,

“KP faces criminal charges in Sri Lanka and India. He is wanted by Interpol. We do not understand the logic of using him as a tool to talk to the Tamil Diaspora as he has neither the authority nor qualification to do this. He is not a spokesman for the Tamil people.”

Gotabaya Rajapakse, and the JHU to repeal the 13th Amendment. Such statements will only serve to complicate issues further.”

Speaking to The Island, the GTF spokesperson, Suren Surendiran and the president of NCET, Panchakulasingam Kandiah, reiterated the absurdity of the government's claims of dialogue with the diaspora, and warned the government 'not to engage in futile propaganda exercises to deceive the international community ahead of the forthcoming UPR'.

Kandiah said it was a 'deceptive move timed for UPR process on Nov 1 in Geneva and four months before the UNHRC was due to review progress on the US sponsored resolution that was passed last March targeting Sri Lanka'.

Surendiran said that the government had 'no option but to engage in a genuine dialogue with the Tamil National Alliance (TNA)', and stressed that the diaspora 'wouldn’t quit their ongoing campaign for war crimes inquiry in return for resumption of political negotiations or some sort of understanding with the GoSL [government of Sri Lanka]'.

See full interview here.