Sri Lanka’s government has ordered the Security Forces Headquarters in Jaffna to facilitate the visit of a high level delegation from the Buddhist Maha Sangha to Jaffna reports island.lk. Sources from the military said that they wanted to assure the Buddhist delegation that the security forces and government were "firmly in control" of the situation in Jaffna. The visiting Buddhist delegation is expected to meet senior armed forces deployed in Jaffna at their army headquarters in Pallaly. The Buddhist Monks will also be participating in a conference at the Jaffna District Secretariat Office...
Civilian lands in Trincomalee occupied by the Sri Lankan Port Authority for decades, should be returned immediately to its owners, an Eastern Provincial Council member has stressed. The Minister for Ports and Shipping, Arjuna Ranatunga, had promised that lends held by the authority would be released quickly, the EPC representative for Trincomalee, Jegatheesan Jenarthanan highlighted during a public meeting at the District Secretariat. “That promise is yet to be fulfilled,” Mr Jenarthanan said. Around 5000 acres of coastal land in Trincomalee was seized by gazette by Lalith Athulathmudali, the...
A 14-year-old Tamil boy from Mannar has been missing since Thursday. Sebastian Saliyan Mark of Vankalai, did not return home on Thursday after going for class at a private tutorial centre. His father filed a report with Vankalai police and said he was last wearing a white shirt with blue sleeves and denim jeans.
Young Tamil artists from across Europe last month remembered the 1983 pogrom against the Tamils, Black July with an exhibition at the City University in London. The exhibition, which was organised by the Tamil Youth Organisation UK, featured artists from the UK, France, Germany, Switzerland and Denmark.
The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) worked alongside the Sri Lankan navy on an environmental project in the south this week, reports official military media.
The PHU leader, Udaya Gammanpila filed a petition in the Supreme Court on Friday against the proposed 20th Amendment to the constitution. Mr Gammanpila said the Amendment should only be passed following a public referendum. "The Constitution clearly says a referendum should be held if presidential elections or the general election is being postponed. Though it doesn’t mention about the provincial council elections, people practice their franchise through elections. Therefore, the Constitution says any amendment related to people's franchise should receive the consent of the people at a...
Sri Lanka's new navy commander, visited Kandy on Friday to pay homage to Buddhism's Sacred Tooth Relic and seek the blessings of senior Buddhist clergy from the Mahanayakes of the Malwatte and Asgiriya Chapters. Vice Admiral Travis Sinniah was the senior most naval officer in active combat operations at sea during Sri Lanka’s war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Following Former Army Chief Sarath Fonseka’s imprisonment in 2010, Rear Admiral Sinniah left the Navy and worked for the US Embassy as a security specialist. Upon initial request by the US Embassy in Colombo to hire...
For months relatives of the forcibly disappeared have been protesting on the streets across the North-East, demanding to know the whereabouts of their loved ones. Despite years, sometimes decades, of various government mechanisms and pledges, their search for answers continues. In this series of interviews conducted since May 2017, Tamil Guardian goes behind the protest to the individual stories that make up this unyielding movement of Tamil families of the disappeared.
Sri Lanka's National Polls Observation Centre criticised the government's proposed 20th Amendment to the constitution, stating that it could lead to "a pool of blood". "The 20th Amendment to the Constitution, that seeks to give parliament the powers of Provincial Councils, when they are dissolved and to decide on the date of the dissolution of Provincial Councils, is undemocratic," National Coordinator of NPOC Rasanga Harischandra was quoted by Ceylon Today as saying. "When such undemocratic Bills have been passed, the country has ended up in a pool of blood," he added. His comments came...
The UNP MP Thalatha Atukorale has been appointed as Sri Lanka's new justice minister, after Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe was forced to resign over allegations of corruption. His portfolio has been divided between Ms Atukorale and Gamini Jayawickrama who has been appointed the new minister of Buddha Sasana. Ms Atukorale came into politics in 2004, following the death of her brother, the UNP MP and assistant party leader. In March 2014, the Colombo Page reported as a then UNP MP she was to accompany the then government's delegation to the UN Human Rights council along side fellow UNP MP Lakshman...