Following days of protests, Tamil Nadu has passed a new bill allowing Jallikattu – a controversial bull-taming sport that is central to the harvest festival. In 2014, the Supreme Court banned Jallikattu on the grounds of animal cruelty. Animal rights activists say that the practice causes stress to the bulls as they are released into a crowd and try to fend off people that try to ride them. However, the government temporarily lifted the ban on Saturday. On Monday thousands of protestors remained in Chennai and refused to leave the city’s Marina beach. The state-wide demonstrations have been...
Relatives of missing persons and the forcibly disappeared have begun a hunger strike in Vavuniya. In an open letter to the Sri Lankan president, the signatories said they had exhausted all other avenues in the search for information about their missing loved ones, including countless domestic commissions and probes. The hunger strikers in the letter said, Are our relatives alive or not? If they are alive, which secret torture camps are they being held in? If they are not alive, what happened to them? Who killed them? How? Where were they buried after being murdered? If our missing and...
China’s Foreign Ministery urged the new US administration to adhere to the “one China” policy when dealing with Taiwan in a statement made on Monday. Speaking at a regular press briefing in Bejing, China’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying, said, “We urge the new administration to fully understand the high sensitivity of the Taiwan issue and to continue pursuing the one China policy.” The spokeswoman stressed that the policy was the “political foundation” of future relations between the United States and China, reports Reuters. The Spokeswoman added that the US government had the...
A United States navy vessel has departed from Colombo, following a five-day visit to the island, starting last week. The US Naval Ship 'Hopper' arrived in Sri Lanka on Thursday, where it was greeted by the Sri Lankan Navy. According to Sri Lanka’s ministry of defence , the American crew took part “in a number of programmes organized by their Sri Lankan counterparts during their stay here”.
A large scale grant-based Sinhalese settlement will be built on public land in Naavatkuli, Jaffna, despite local opposition. 250 Sinhalese beneficiaries have been chosen to receive houses built on land owned by the National Housing Development Authority in Naavatkuli. After the end of the war, Sinhalese people had settled with temporary buildings in Naavatkuli, and were later granted land permit documents by the Rajapaksa government. The foundation stone for the scheme will be laid by housing minister Sajith Premadasa at the end of the month, and the project is expected to be completed within...
The Right to Information Act will be enacted on February 3rd, the Sri Lankan government said last week, issuing a gazette notification. "Information officers are currently being trained and after they are stationed in government institutions, the general public will be able to access important information that affects their daily lives," the minister of parliamentary reforms and mass media, Gayantha Karunatileka was quoted by Ceylon Today as saying. Promising to provide as much information through the Act as possible the director general of the government's information department reportedly...
Indian officials have denied any interest in developing the Trincomalee port, reports the New Indian Express . Refuting the regional development minister, Sarath Fonseka’s claims that talks were ongoing for India to develop the port as a counter-balance to Chinese interests in Hambantota, Indian officials said they have no interest in a development project that would not yield profit for a long time. Reportedly India had rejected the chance to build the Hambantota for the same reason.
The head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Sri Lanka met with the Commander of Sri Lanka’s security forces in Jaffna last week. Sri Lanka’s military said Major General Mahesh Senanayaka “discussed military relations and the opportunities and challenges associated with the post-conflict environment” with Ms Claire Meytraud during the meeting, and “updated her with the present situation in Jaffna peninsula”. The commander went on to explain "the military endeavors on Reconciliation process (sic),” according to an official military website.
A former LTTE cadre was arrested in Kilinochchi by the Terrorism Investigation Department (TID) last week. Karalasingam Kulenthiran, from Thiruvaiyaru, Kilinochchi was reported missing by his family members on the 13th January. Relatives found out the following day that he had been arrested by the TID and was being held in Vavuniya. Mr Kulenthiran was working in an insurance company, having been through the Sri Lankan government's rehabilitation programme. His is the second reported arrest of a former cadre by the TID in 2017.
Sarath Fonseka, the former chief of the Sri Lankan army, has denied involvement in the murder of former Sunday Leader editor Lasantha Wickrematunge, after facing five hours of questioning on the subject on Friday. Mr Fonseka, who now was promoted to the rank of Field Marshal and appointed as Minister of Regional Development by the current Sri Lankan government, was questioned on the subject of operations carried out by the military on Friday by the Criminal Investigations Department (CID). “I was able to use that opportunity to clear my name,” said Mr Fonseka. “The former ruler was trying to...