Amnesty seeks info on SL-IMF agreement

By Rathindra Kuruwita

Representatives of Amnesty International (AI) would meet International Monetary Fund (IMF) officials soon to ascertain information about the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) to Sri Lanka, AI Senior Director Deprose Muchena told yesterday.

Muchena arrived in Sri Lanka a few days ago to attend the regional launch of the organisation’s Annual Report 2023 on Tuesday in Colombo.

He said that there was no attempt to partner with the IMF on its programme in Sri Lanka. When asked about austerity measures that go hand in hand with IMF programmes, Muchena said they often affected welfare programmes of a country.

“We want the government of Sri Lanka and the IMF to be transparent about everything. The people have a right to know and the human rights of the people should not be violated,” he said.

Muchena also criticised the double standards of the West on Human Rights protection. “There is a selective deployment of human rights protection mechanisms. A lot of countries stood against the Russian aggression in Ukraine, but we can’t see the same when it comes to Israel’s aggression in Palestine or India’s or China’s measures against their Muslim minorities,” he said.

Muchena added that the robust response to the Ukrainian crisis in the West was in sharp contrast to a deplorable lack of meaningful action on plummeting rights in Afghanistan and intense crackdown on the right to protest in Palestine, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Maldives, India and Nepal.’

Muchena urged the Sri Lankan government to protect the right to protest and dissent. “If the government doesn’t want to anger the people more, it has to ensure transparency and human rights of the people,” he said.