EU opens $70 million credit for tsunami-hit Sri Lanka

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EU opens $70 million credit for tsunami-hit Sri Lanka



COLOMBO: Sri Lanka received Friday a 70 million euro credit line from the European Investment Bank to rebuild- small and medium-sized industries affected by the 2004 killer tsunami.

The loan covers all nine districts hit by the December 2004 disaster, financing projects such as infrastructure, tourism, energy and telecommunications related sectors, said Julian Wilson, head of delegation, European Commission Sri Lanka and Maldives.

“Businesses outside tsunami areas, but whose turnover was affected by the disaster, also qualify under this special tsunami loan,” Wilson told reporters.

The tailor-made tsunami credit line for Sri Lanka can finance up to 75 percent of the cost of individual projects, with repayments spread over a five-year period.

“The challenge is to re-establish the local economy, maintain employment and create new job opportunities,” said Jean-Louis Biancarelli of the European Investment Bank. Sri Lanka ‘s Central Bank will pick up between 20-25 million euros of the credit line for its ongoing subsidies under a tsunami loan scheme while the balance will help shore up small- and medium-scale industries.

Nearly 31,000 people died and a million were left homeless when the giant waves struck south, east and northern coastal areas. It left the government with a 3.2 billion dollar repair bill and international donors have pledged 2.2 billion dollars towards relief efforts.

Wilson said the European Union had pledged over 200 million euros to Sri Lanka. Friday’s credit line, which forms part of the funds pledged, is in addition to around 130 million euros given earlier as grants. AFP

 

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Sri Lanka Tamil activist 'killed'


Unidentified gunmen have shot dead the head of a Tamil activist group in eastern Sri Lanka, police say.
Vanniasingham Vigneswaran was killed while entering a bank in the eastern city of Trincomalee, they said.

Mr Vigneswaran was the president of the Trincomalee District Tamil People's Forum and is believed to be a supporter of the Tamil Tiger rebels.

In a separate incident, two Muslim guards have been killed in eastern Sri Lanka, police say.

The pro-rebel TamilNet website says Mr Vigneswaran was going to be named as the replacement candidate for a pro-rebel parliamentarian, Joseph Pararajasingham, who was killed last December.

The killing of the two Muslim guards took place at Welikanda some 250km (150 miles) north-east of the capital Colombo, after they completed a night shift.

Following Friday's killings, Norwegian peace envoys said they hoped that both sides would adhere to the ceasefire and take steps to lower the violence.

"All such incidents make the situation more complicated," Norway's International Development Minister, Erik Solheim, told journalists in the Indian capital, Delhi.

Mr Solheim and Norway's special envoy Jon Hanssen-Bauer were briefing Indian officials after their visit to Sri Lanka.

Peace moves

Mr Hanssen-Bauer, who took over from Mr Solheim as Norway's main peace broker in Sri Lanka, will head to London to meet the Tamil Tiger rebel negotiator Anton Balasingham.

On Thursday the Norwegians urged the government and the Tamil Tiger rebels to implement pledges made during recent peace talks in Geneva.

Both sides had agreed to take steps to curb violence following the talks.

The rebels promised to stop attacks on the security forces whereas the government pledged to take necessary steps to act against armed groups that the Tigers say are working with the government security forces against the Tigers.

But Mr Solheim said armed groups hostile to the Tamil Tigers were still being allowed to operate in government-controlled areas.

The Tamil Tigers were also engaged in acts of violence, he said, blaming them for a recent suicide bombing in which eight sailors were lost at sea.

The two sides are due to hold further talks in Geneva later this month.

More than 60,000 people have died during two decades of conflict in Sri Lanka.