Iran becomes Sri Lanka's top lender

Iran has emerged as Sri Lanka's biggest donor this year, knocking Japan from the position of being the war-torn island's main benefactor, the finance ministry said on Monday.

In the five months to May this year, the war-torn island has received USD 1.05 billion in foreign aid, of which project loans accounted for 959 million and grants for 90 million, the treasury said in its mid-year fiscal report.

Western donors have been threatening to cut aid to Sri Lanka because of worsening human rights abuses and escalating violence in the civil war with separatist Tamil Tiger rebels.

The treasury said foreign aid would have almost halved if Iran had not chipped in with USD 450 million to build a hydro power project and upgrade the island's sole oil refinery.

Other key donors included Denmark (USD 155.2 million), India (USD 109.2 million), the Asian Development Bank (USD 90 million), World Bank (USD 43.1 million) and Japan (USD 42.2 million).

Japan and the Manila-based Asian Development Bank have in the past been the biggest lenders to the island.

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http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News

Japan may export rice to Sri Lanka

Japan is mulling a request from Sri Lanka to export up to 200,000 tonnes of its imported rice supplies to help Colombo ease acute food shortages, a Japanese foreign ministry official said Monday.

"We are considering their request," said the official, who declined to be named.

"It is still unknown in what form we can provide foreign rice, for example, as grant in aid or by selling it at reasonable prices," the official said.

The World Bank said last week it was considering giving Sri Lanka a crisis loan to tackle galloping food prices as the island battles 30 percent inflation and over three decades of separatist war with Tamil Tiger rebels.

Japan is also considering selling 200,000 tonnes from its 1.5 million tonnes of imported rice to the Philippines, officials have said previously.

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http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryId=120383

Japan not to suspend aid to Sri Lanka

Japan has told Sri Lanka that it has no plans to suspend development aid to the island nation as reported in the international media.

Japan's special envoy Yasushi Akashi told Sri Lankan Foreign Secretary Palitha Kohona over the phone Friday that his country had not changed its aid policy vis-a-vis Sri Lanka and it would stick to the commitments it had made.

Akashi said that Japan welcomed the proposals made by the Sri Lankan all party panel on devolution of power and commended President Mahinda Rajapaksa for his efforts to find a peaceful solution to the ethnic conflict.

The international media had reported from Tokyo Thursday that Akashi had warned that Japan would cut off aid to Sri Lanka if the latter continued with its military operations against the Tamil Tiger rebels.

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Akashi wants military action to cease to give aid!

Yasushi Akashi, Japan's special peace envoy has warned that Japan would cut off aid if military action against tiger terrorists continued.

"We could be forced to review our aid policy if military action keeps escalating, although Sri Lanka wants Japan to continue it," Yasushi Akashi had told the media in Tokyo.

He had said the S.L. Government and the LTTE should choose peace indicating that GoSL have talks with tiger terrorists. Yasushi Akashi was in Sri Lanka from the 13th to 15th of this month when he met several political leaders including the President, Ranil Wickremasinghe and JVP Leader Somawansa Amarasinghe.

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http://www.lankatruth.com/full_story/2008/January/31/20080131_10.htm

Japan not demanding anything from Lanka – Akashi

Japan does not consider it its business to impose its will on other countries. " But we have the right to express apprehnsion over humanitarian and other consequent issues," Japanes Peace Envoy Yasushi Akashi told the media yesterday.

He said the Japanese government does not believe that it should go public on whatever had been achieved as one of the co-chairs. "We feel our efforts have been worthwhile and appreciated by many people in this country. Our genuine efforts are to help in achieving ethnic harmony so that its great potential for growth and harmony could be realised by Sri Lankans."

He also said that when he met President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Monday evening, he conveyed the serious concerns of the Japanese Government, and emphasised that a political solution to the problem would be indispensable.

"And in that context, a devolution package, on which the Government of Sri Lanka had been exerting considerable efforts, must be drafted as soon as possible."

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http://www.island.lk/2008/01/16/news1.html

Japanese peace envoy arrives in Sri Lanka

Japan's special peace envoy Yasushi Akashi has arrived in Sri Lanka among escalating violence in the island country, diplomatic sources said Wednesday.

Akashi arrived at the Colombo International Airport at around 10:50 p.m. local time (1720 GMT) on Tuesday, officials added.

He is to visit Sri Lanka's northern town of Jaffna on Thursday to attend a two-day inter-religious summit and make a special address.

The two-day event is aimed at finding ways to settle Sri Lanka's increasingly violent conflict through peaceful means, officials said.

Akashi, a former U.N. Under-Secretary General was appointed by the Japanese government in October 2002 to underwrite Sri Lanka's Norwegian backed peace process between the government and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

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http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-12/12/content_7234887.htm

Sri Lankan president to visit Japan

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa will pay a three-day official visit to Japan on the invitation of Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda from Dec. 9 to 11, the Daily News reported Saturday.

The visit will widen existing bilateral relations between the two countries in the economic, political, social, cultural and religious fields, said the government's official newspaper.

Rajapaksa will hold bilateral talks with Fukuda and other Japanese leaders during his visit, the newspaper added.

The Japanese government appointed Yasushi Akashi as a special peace envoy in November 2002 to facilitate the peace process between the Sri Lankan government and Tamil Tiger rebels.

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http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-12/08/content_7218331.htm