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Even though President Maithripala Sirisena has openly said that he was unaware of the bomb attacks carried out by Islamic extremists, many facts suggest otherwise.

Both the National Intelligence Service and State Intelligence Service (SIS) are directly answerable to the President as he acts as the Commander and also the Defense Minister. The President not being aware of what the Defense Secretary and IGP knew is problematic.

The President directly works with State Intelligence Service director Nilantha Jayawardena, and according to reports, the President has been obtaining information pertaining to the national security from the director of State Intelligence Unit. As a matter of fact, they have worked very closely.

Not only the State Intelligence Service director but also the head of National Intelligence Service Sisira Mendis, on April 4, also informed the President and Defense Secretary about the terror attacks. (according to a foreign intelligence report)

On April 9, Mr. Mendis had informed the IGP of this matter, and subsequently, the latter had conveyed the information to four Senior DIGs. Senior DIG Priyalal Dasanayake had taken necessary action according to the information he received. The letter circulated through social media after the Easter Sunday bombings on April 21 was issued by Priyalal Dasanayake.

Bother the National Intelligence Service and the State Intelligence Service report to the Defense Minister and the President is in charge of the Defense Ministry.

The President, as the Defense Minister, not being aware of warnings about the Easter Sunday attacks, when other officials of the Defense Ministry knew it, is in a way a joke.

After the political crisis in last October, Prime Minister and State Minister of Defense had been excluded from the Security Council. The IGP had not been invited to the Security Council.   

However, MPs representing the opposition, who are not members of the Security Council, had been invited to the meeting.

Usually, the President, Prime Minister, State or Deputy Defense Minister, IGP, ministry secretaries,  Chief of Defense Staff, Commanders of Tri-forces and heads of State and National Intelligence Units, attend Security Council meetings. But the President inviting MPs of the opposition for Security Council meetings is not permissible.

President’s anti-drug programs and Maudush mania

Even though the Security Council should predominantly pay attention to the national security, the President has reportedly paid more attention to eradicating the drug menace and catching underworld leader Makandure Madush. Eradicating the drug menace is undeniably important. But, when it comes to national security, it’s not only about the war on drugs.  

Five minutes to talk about national security

The President, who gives priority to talk about the drug menace, usually gives only a short period of time for the Defense Secretary to discuss other matters; usually it is limited to five-six minutes. The President had reportedly said the Defense Secretary that the former is receiving information about the national security from Nilantha Jayawardena.

In this context, the fact that the President got to know about the Easter Sunday attacks via Facebook, is completely unacceptable.

When it comes to resolving national level crisis, leaders having personal grudges with each other is unacceptable; but we have become so unlucky to witness leaders’ political drama.

One week on from the deadliest terror attacks perpetrated in the country since the end of the civil war, Officials at Sri Lanka Tourism discussed measures taken to ensure the safety and security of tourists and outlines strategic plans to rebuild tourism stakeholder confidence to ensure the vital recovery of the tourism industry that supports one in 10 families in Sri Lanka.

"The Sri Lanka tourism industry stands united with the rest of the world against terrorism; as we mourn this horrific tragedy, we must move forward with our enduring Sri Lankan resilience to restore the worlds faith in our beautiful island home and our hospitality which is the heart of the Sri Lankan way of life", Sri Lanka Tourism said.

"Sri Lankan’s are among the most warm and nurturing people on earth, when guests arrive on our shore’s they become family," noted Kishu Gomes, Chairman Sri Lanka Tourism. 

"And when family is hurt the entire community comes together to protect, nurture, mourn and grieve and heal together…this is our way and it has been our way from the beginning of time," Gomes said.

Gomes explained that it is important to review emergency response protocol in the immediate aftermath of the attacks; 

"Sri Lanka Tourism was focused on organizing our response in emergency care and assistance, providing access to clear and accurate information and working with all national and local law enforcement agencies and foreign missions to ensure the safety and security of tourists. In the immediate aftermath of the attack’s we rolled out our emergency response protocol; trained teams were deployed to the affected hotels, all hospitals and the airport to ensure that all tourists directly affected by the attacks received the all the care, attention and assistance they needed."Tourists already in country and those scheduled to arrive in the hours and days following the attacks were also an immediate priority. In addition to the help desks at hotels, airports and tourist information centers Sri Lanka Tourism set up an emergency hotline to ensure tourists and their loved ones back home had access to accurate information and the entire suite of emergency services; updated information continues to be issued via local and global media, social media, and foreign missions on a regular basis.

‘Addressing security issues is a prerequisite for the revival of tourism and we continue working closely with all relevant authorities to support all foreign nationals in the country. Sri Lankan police and Tri forces are working tirelessly to ensure the safety and security of all tourists currently in Sri Lanka. This is absolutely our first priority’ said Gomes.

Custodians of a key industry

With one in every ten Sri Lankan families depending on tourism for their livelihood both directly and indirectly, Sri Lanka Tourism is focused on ensuring that the right groundwork is laid to drive an effective and efficient recovery for this critical industry.

‘We cannot allow ourselves to become paralyzed by fear, nearly half a million families across the island depend on us for their daily living; the impact on our economy must be mitigated. We are working to regain the confidence of global travelers and operators by demonstrating that Sri Lanka’s response to the incident is effective while reassuring future tourists that all appropriate steps are being taken by the Sri Lanka Government to prevent any future incidents and ensure the continued safety and security tourists within the country’ said Gomes.

Several high-level cross industry working sessions that included both the public and private sector stakeholders have been conducted with the objective of outlining the strategic framework of the recovery strategy accompanied by a phased out action plan with the clear objective of minimizing the financial impact of cancellations and to maintain and rebuild the country brand and manage the long term impact of this tragic incident.

A task force is in place and having worked diligently over the course of the last week we are confident that a clear and actionable process is in place, resources allocated and global expertise procured to support the industry in its recovery.

Demonstrating resilience

We are grateful and humbled by the resilience and generosity of all the tourists who have chosen to continue with their holiday in Sri Lanka and we are privileged to continue to welcome hundreds of new tourists every day since the attack. We must ensure wider global tourism communities have renewed confidence in our destination by persevering and so to this end all planned promotion activity will continue to ensure that our critical tourism industry is protected.

Sri Lanka Tourism will continue with its presence ATM in Dubai from 28th April to 1st May 2019. The Sri Lanka delegation will begin on day one of the event by observing two minutes silence in honor of the innocent victims and a book of condolence placed at the Sri Lanka pavilion for visitors to sign and write messages of sympathy to the victims and their families. Our purpose throughout this event is very clear - Sri Lanka will not be beaten by terror. We will take this opportunity to demonstrate to the global media, tour operators, airlines and the world that Sri Lanka is committed to security.

Similarly, Sri Lanka Tourism will address the tourism community at the prestigious 5th UNWTO World Forum on Gastronomy Tourism in San Sabastian, Spain from 1-2nd of May, where the focus this year is on job creation and entrepreneurship as a means to advance tourism´s contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In this regard, Sri Lanka Tourism will seek means to create favorable frameworks to stimulate jobs and entrepreneurship along the gastronomy tourism value chain as well as develop knowledge on more relevant skills for gastronomy tourism.

Sri Lanka Convention Bureau will also be present at IMEX in Frankfurt from the 21st to the 23rd of May. IMEX is a worldwide Exhibition for Incentive Travel, Meetings and Events, incorporating Meetings made in Germany. The show is patronized by nearly 160 countries representing national and regional tourist offices, major hotel groups, airlines, destination management companies, service providers, trade associations and more. Over 3962 hosted buyers from more than 86 world markets visit IMEX. The MICE sector is a major growth driver for the Sri Lanka market.

The only tourism and travel fair in Sri Lanka, Sancharaka Udawa, will be held on 7 and 8 June. This unique exhibition, now in its ninth edition is open to all businesses within the local tourism ecosystem and is organised by Sri Lanka Association of Tour Operators (SLAITO) in collaboration with the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB). The main objective of the exhibition is to create a platform for small and medium service providers in the industry to network and build vital links with tour operators and enter the wider tourism industry.

The 14th edition of The Lanka Challenge which flagged off on the 20th of April successfully concluded on the 27th of April at Suriya Resort Waikkaka. This event was organized by Large Minority in association with Connaissance de Ceylan and sponsored by the Ministry of Tourism and SriLankan Airlines. This unique rally saw 53 International participants ride in 20 tuk tuks across a 1000km route that track through Sri Lanka. The participants came from Britain, Australia, Germany, New Zealand, Singapore, Ireland, Denmark and Switzerland, and give the world a wonderfully immersive experience of our island’s natural beauty, authentic charm and welcoming spirit.

Bitcoin played a role in staging the Easter Sunday suicide bombing in Sri Lanka that killed 253 civilians, according to Israeli blockchain intelligence firm Whitestream.

The agency revealed that the ISIS used Canada-based payment gateway CoinPayments to convert bitcoins to fiat money. The firm identified large scale transactions between the wallets that ISIS used to raise contributions and the bitcoin accounts held by CoinPayments.

Whitestream found that the balances in the payment company’s wallets surged from $500,000 to $4.5 million just one day before the Easter attacks. The firm added that the CoinPayments’ balances dropped back to $500,000 right after the deadly attacks took place. The payment company in question admitted that they had processed high-volume transactions. However, it denied having any knowledge about the money’s links with terrorist groups.

“CoinPayments admits that their wallet was involved but denied that it is connected to ISIS,” Whitestream said. “It’s possible that the company is not aware of the usage of their wallets, perhaps because ISIS uses straw companies [to] transfer the money.”

The ISIS-Bitcoin ConnectionWhitestream, founded by Itsik Levy and Uri Bornstein, confirmed that it was monitoring ISIS-linked bitcoin wallets from the past two years. The firm eventually maximized its focus on one bitcoin wallet that was receiving donations actively over different periods. It succeeded in verifying two transactions originated from the bitcoin wallet address listed on the ISIS fundraising website.

Levy said they were able to trace the transactions back to CoinPayments, indicating that the payment processing company knowingly/unknowingly was facilitating the ISIS funding campaign.

“Our assumption is that the terrorist organization probably possesses many bitcoin addresses through CoinPayments, with every donation sent to a different address,” Levy told Globes. “On the day before the Sri Lanka terror attacks, we identified two relatively big transactions at this address with bitcoins worth about $9,800.”

Whitestream in February had named CoinPayments for facilitating bitcoin-enabled donation campaigns for Hamas, a Palestine-based Sunni-Islamist fundamentalist group. Meanwhile, the firm believed that cryptocurrency-based payment and exchange companies were working in a largely unregulated environment. It was making it easier for terrorist organizations to exploit them for financing their attacks around the globe.

Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera called on SAARC nations to collaborate and coordinate efforts to eradicate global terrorism.

"The threat of terrorism in one of our countries is no doubt a threat to the entire region. It is therefore in all of our interest to collaborate and coordinate our efforts and measures to eradicate global terrorism. I am confident that if we work together, we will succeed in bringing peace, stability and prosperity to the entire SAARC region,” Samaraweera said.

The Minister made these remarks at the SAARC Finance Ministers Meeting held on the on the sidelines of the 52nd Annual Meeting of the Asian Development Bank in Nadi, Fiji today. 

Sri Lanka pledges support to mitigate climate change

The Minister met with Ciarán Cannon, Ireland's Minister for International Trade and pledged Sri Lanka's support for the Ireland Trust Fund for Building Climate Change and Disaster Resilience in Small Island Developing States (SIDS). 

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Government of Ireland signed agreements on May 01 establishing the Trust Fund which committed to an initial 6-year program of funding of €12 million ($13.4 million) for the period 2019 to 2024. 

The overall objective of the fund is to increase the preparedness and resilience of SIDS to disasters caused by natural hazards and to the impact of climate change. The expected outcome of the fund is an increased number of investments in climate change and disaster resilience.

The final rites of the sixteen people who died during explosions which took place inside a house in Sainthamaruthu, Kalmunai was held without religious rituals on Wednesday under Police intervention.

The final rites of these persons were conducted in this manner in accordance to appeals put forward by the Muslim priests in the area.

A special joint search operation was carried out by the Sri Lanka army, police and the special task force on April 26 in the Sainthamaruthu area.

They had to engage in a fierce gun battle with a group of militants who barricaded themselves inside a house and later killed themselves using explosives, which resulted in the death of six children.

One of the six terrorists found dead was identified as Mohamed Niyas, known to the authorities as a prominent member of the National Tawheed Jamath. He was later identified by the Army as the brother-in-law of the alleged ringleader of the Easter Sunday attacks, Zahran Hashim.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said yesterday that all countries should share information with each other to effectively face the threat of global terrorism.

“We need the support of international intelligence agencies to deal with global terrorism,” the Prime Minister said. He said the country requires cutting edge technology to deal with this issue." The Premier made these remarks while addressing civil society activists on the current situation in the country at Temple Trees yesterday (01).

The Prime Minister said the Security Forces have succeeded in apprehending those who were involved in the attacks while stressing the importance of taking steps to prevent a recurrence of these type tragic incidents.

Prime Minister Wickremesinghe said that all parties should get together to bring normalcy to the country following the Easter Sunday attacks that killed over 250 people.

“Our Security Forces and the Police took swift action to unravel key information in connection with the attacks by April 21st evening (Sunday) and much more information will be unearthed in connection with these attacks in the future.

He said he discussed about the situation with the President who was in Singapore, following the attacks.

He believed that religious activities at mosques will resume by next Friday. He also believed that the Masses at Catholic churches will also be held from next Sunday.

Prime Minister Wickremesinghe said the Education Minister has taken steps to start the next school term by May 6.

The Premier was confident that the tourism industry will recover by August or September after foreign countries lift the travel advisories issued on Sri Lanka following the deadly attacks.

“We faced the scourge of terrorism for over three decades. Now we are facing the challenge of global terrorism, a new form of terrorism,” the Prime Minister said.

The case filed under the Money Laundering Act against Parliamentarian Namal Rajapaksa and five others was fixed for further trial on June 7 by Colombo High Court Judge Pradeep Hettiarachchi.

Counsels appearing on behalf of the eldest son of the former president had sought a further date for the trial citing Namal Rajapaksa’s need to attend Parliament.

The Attorney General had filed indictments against six accused for their alleged involvement in laundering money amounting to Rs. 30 million through Gowers Corporate Services (Pvt) Limited.

Sujani Bogollagama, Nithya Senani Samaranayake and Iresha Silva who functioned as the Directors of Gowers Corporation Pvt Ltd., were also present in court when the case was taken up before Colombo High Court.

Marking the first visit by any high-level United Nations (UN) official to Sri Lanka since the heinous terrorist attacks on Easter Sunday that targeted three Catholic Churches and three hotels, Miguel Moratinos, on behalf of the UN Secretary General and in his capacity as the High Representative for the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) visited Sri Lanka on April 30.

Moratinos visited Sri Lanka to pay his respects to the people and the Sri Lankan government, and express the support of the United Nations for the government’s efforts in its fight against terrorism and violent extremism.

During his one-day visit, the High Representative met with the political leadership, religious leaders, representatives of the civil society. In his meeting with President Maithripala Sirisena, the High Representative conveyed to the President the condolences and solidarity of the UN Secretary-General and his personal deepest sympathies.

“You are not alone”, Moratinos said to the President Sirisena. On his part, President Sirisena expressed his gratitude and appreciation for the visit and support of the High-Representative.
The plight of refugees

The High-Representative re-iterated that the UN stands ready to support those efforts to help in restoring harmony, unity and social cohesion and in this context, drew the President’s attention towards the urgent need to find an agreeable long-term solution to the problem of the asylum seekers and refugees in Sri Lanka to ensure their safety and well-being.

Many asylum seekers and refugees who have been temporarily placed in Sri Lanka have sought shelter at police stations after they were reportedly evicted by landlords under pressure from local communities who have turned their backs on them, local media reported.

It is also reported that some groups of migrants have been forced to return to mosques while others have either fled their homes under duress and threats, or been unable to leave their houses for fear of being attacked, according to media reports.

In this context, it is both timely and imperative to look into the refugee issue that has suddenly gained traction in local media as well as in social media platforms.

UNHCR in Sri Lanka

The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has been operating in Sri Lanka since 1987. As per the mandate of UNHCR, it is bound to provide international protection and humanitarian assistance to refugees, asylum seekers and IDPs.

An asylum-seeker is someone who says he or she is a refugee, but whose claim has not yet been definitively evaluated. A refugee is someone “who owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to, or owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country”.

Under its mandate, UNHCR decides which asylum-seekers in Sri Lanka qualify for international protection and should be granted refugee status.

Sri Lanka is not a State Party to the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees. State Parties to the Convention are required to provide “most favoured” or “national treatment” to refugees under various sectors in providing humanitarian facilities (i.e. housing, education, social security etc.).

However, Sri Lanka has signed an Agreement with the UNHCR on 7th December 2005, during the Rajapaksa administration, facilitating UNHCR (within its mandate) to carry out its international protection and humanitarian functions in Sri Lanka.

The status of the asylum seekers and refugees in Sri Lanka

The UNHCR shares a Monthly Report on ‘Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Sri Lanka” with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and other relevant line Ministries. The Report contains interalia, a list of detailed information and statistics on all refugees and asylum seekers in the country as at the end of each respective month.

Whenever the UNHCR Country office registers Asylum Seekers, their information is conveyed to the Controller General of the Department of Immigration and Emigration with copies to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, upon receiving the copies of such notifications, shares the same with the Ministry of Defence and Department of Law and Order (previously it used to share with the Ministry of Defence and with the Ministry of Law & Order). UNHCR, as per requirements, requests GOSL to inform UNHCR of any objections to the Asylum claims submitted by applicants, within 15 days of receiving notification from UNHCR.

In addition, the UN Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, from time to time, convene stakeholder meetings between the relevant authorities/officials from the Department of Immigration and Emigration and UNHCR and other departments as required, to discuss issues that require attention.

Foreign Ministry sources added that in July 2017, a meeting was facilitated between the Department of Immigration and Emigration and UNHCR in order to develop a digital database of asylum seekers and refugees, where UNHCR agreed to provide necessary technical assistance, and to share the digital database they already use.

Islamic terrorism myth?

A common misconception, especially with the flawed view of Islam in some Western circles is to link terrorism and religion with damaging terms such as "Islamic terrorism." Such cowardly and inhumane perpetrators of violence and terror should not be used to tarnish any religion. Often overlooked is the fact that the biggest victims of terror attacks are Muslim themselves.

Quite simply, terror has no religion.

Sri Lanka will consider a tax amnesty programme for the tourism industry in a bid to help companies recover from the Easter Sunday terrorist attacks that killed more than 250 people, Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera said. 

The industry has requested tax waivers, including on the importation of security gear in the aftermath of the blasts that targeted foreigners and churchgoers, Samaraweera told Bloomberg Television’s Haslinda Amin on the sidelines of Asian Development Bank annual meetings in Fiji. 

“With the right kind of action, I would say tourism could bounce back to normalcy within a short period of one to one and a half years,” he said.

That’s been the experience in destinations such as Tunisia and Bali which faced similar attacks in the past, he added.The terror attacks are poised to hit tourism, which accounts for 5 percent of the $87 billion economy, as visitors flee from the nation famous for the Temple of Tooth, Dambulla Caves and coconut-fringed beaches. Sri Lanka has been struggling to revive growth following a three-decade long civil conflict that ended in 2009 and political turmoil last year. Arrivals have increased more than fivefold since the war ended and revenue from the industry is near a record.

Central bank Governor Indrajit Coomaraswamy earlier said it was still too early to quantify the effect the decline in tourism will have on economic growth, which slowed to 1.8 percent in the fourth quarter, the weakest pace since the start of 2014.

“The biggest risk would be continuation of such attacks,” Samaraweera said. “We think we can manage it, hoping it would not recur again. Sri Lanka’s economy is moving slowly, but soundly.”

The British High Commission (BHC) in Colombo yesterday reiterated that the British Government is firmly determined to fight the scourge of terrorism in the United Kingdom and help others to fight it on theirs.

The High Commission’s statement came in the wake of newspaper reports suggesting Colombo Archbishop Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith might have questioned the UK’s commitment to fight against terrorism.The statement said the UK reconfirmed the UK’s readiness to support Sri Lanka during a conversation between Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and British Prime Minister Theresa May.

“The British High Commission is issuing this statement following reports in several newspapers on May 1 that suggest that Archbishop of Colombo, His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith, might have questioned UK’s commitment to the fight against terrorism.

“The British Government has consistently made clear its unreserved determination to fight the scourge of terrorism on the United Kingdom’s own soil, and to help others to fight it on theirs. It has also made very clear its view that the international community must remain firm in its determination to counter and defeat poisonous ideologies that lie behind terrorist attacks around the world," the statement said.

Sri Lankan police arrested a Reuters news agency journalist on Thursday while he was covering the aftermath of Easter bombings and remanded him in custody for two weeks on a charge of trespassing, officials said.

New Delhi-based photographer Danish Siddiqui was taken into custody in Katana, Ja-ela, an official said.

He said they took him before a local magistrate who remanded him in custody until May 15. 

"Police acted on a complaint from a school in the area where the journalist was visiting," the official in Colombo said. "He is accused of trespassing."

Reuters declined to comment.

The Sri Lanka government said that maximum security will be provided for schools which are scheduled to be re-opened on Monday (May 6).

The Tri-forces and Police have been vested with providing adequate protection to schools while several measures have been taken to ensure the security of the students, the government said. 

As part of the security measures, vehicles will not be allowed to be parked in the vicinity of schools after the schools reopen. Any vehicles that are found parked in such locations will be removed by the Police to a safe location and subjected to strict security checking.