International   

SCO dialogue partner status for Sri Lanka

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka on Wednesday announced it had been granted the status of dialogue partner in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).

A statement by the Sri Lankan Presidential Secretariat here said Russian President Dmitry Medvedev announced the decision on Sri Lanka’s status at the conclusion of the SCO Summit in Yekaterinburg, Russia.

“The granting of the status of dialogue partner of this important international grouping concerned with security concerns, followed Sri Lanka’s successful defeat of the thirty-year war of terror waged by the LTTE last month. In their joint statement the SCO members have welcomed the end of ‘internal armed conflict’ in Sri Lanka,” it said.

Meanwhile, the military said the A 9 Highway, the only road link to Jaffna peninsula, hade been opened for regulated private traders. The military announced that “heralding a new era of North-South relations and a blueprint for the future of civil transport sector”, 25 lorries with consumer commodities bound for Jaffna crossed Omanthai on Wednesday escorted by an Army convoy.

Separately, Deputy Election Commissioner of Jaffna District P. Kuganathan told Internews that the voters’ registry would be sent to the camps for war displaced in Vavuniya and Puttalam districts to enable them to check whether their names were recorded and make arrangements to cast their votes. He said preparations were on for municipal elections in Jaffna and Vavuniya and of the 14.17 lakh people who were eligible to vote, 40 per cent were internally displaced persons.

Also, NGO’s working in the camps have reported high numbers of under-age marriages and teenage pregnancies. Easwara Kottegoda, who is in charge of health services for IDPs, stated that girls who were under nineteen were not prepared for pregnancy.

“We do not have proper statistics on early marriage and teenage pregnancies. However, it is high among the IDPs. We have observed that a few are pregnant for the second time and they are still only nineteen years old. It is really a big problem to us,” he said.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Obama readies financial reforms
China amends filtering software programme
EU-Pakistan summit held
Tussle between government and Mousavi intensifies
Russia, China to trade in national currencies
SCO dialogue partner status for Sri Lanka
Involve us in protecting Indians: FISA
Bangladesh parliamentary team to visit Tipaimukh dam site

Copyright © 2009, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu