The UN Special Rapporteur on minority issues Rita Izsák-Ndiaye met with the leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), R Sampanthan on Wednesday in the parliament complex in Colombo.
The President of the European Council has backed the return of the GSP+ trade concessions for Sri Lanka, said Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. Following a meeting with European Council President Donald Tusk in Brussels, Mr Wickremesinghe tweeted that Mr Tusk “greatly admired the sacrifices made by the government of Sri Lanka… to make Sri Lanka a democratic state, despite undergoing dictatorships, corruption and terror in the past”. He went on to state that Mr Tusk “would give his fullest support to help Sri Lanka revive the GSP+ relief once more”. Since Sri Lanka was stripped...
Sri Lanka’s former defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has praised the current Sri Lankan president for speaking out against corrupt investigations into former military personnel. “I am happy that the truth has finally dawned on the President about these things,” said Mr Rajapaksa in an interview to BBC Sinhala last week. Mr Sirisena slammed government commissions investigating former military figures on charges of corruption as political stating "military commanders who led the successful campaign to crush separatist Tamil Tiger rebels in 2009 should not be humiliated in such a way". “Now...
The Director General of Sri Lanka’s Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption has told Sri Lanka’s president that she intends to resign reports the New Indian Express. Ms Dirukshi Wickremesinghe’s resignation comes as Sri Lanka’s president Maithripala Sirisena , last week, accused the Bribery Commission of following a political agenda. The president’s criticism of the Bribery Commission came after the commission started investigating former high ranking Navy Chiefs and the former defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
Sri Lankan authorities ruled that the use of ‘Sinhale’ flags was not illegal and have returned all seized items to their owners, reports The Island. The Sri Lankan police had initially seized ‘Sinhale’ flags from an event in Colombo earlier this year. After ruling that the use of these flags, which depict a lion holding a sword, was not illegal, the flags have since been returned to the Swarnahansa Foundation, which organised the event. ‘Sinhale’, which means “lions’ blood” in Sinhala, has been part of a racist campaign, which has seen the slogan appear on public buses, police motorbikes and...
Photograph: ColomboPage The head of Myanmar’s government Aung San Suu Kyi met with Maithripala Sirisena on Sunday, where she praised the “democratic transformation” on the island according to the official President’s Media Division . Ms Suu Kyi, the Nobel Prizne winning State Counsellor of Myanmar and leader of the National League for Democracy, met with the Sri Lankan president on the side lines of the BRICS Outreach Summit, currently underway in Goa, India. She also reportedly “expressed her satisfaction over the political journey of President Sirisena” and called for a strengthening of...
The mass rally in Jaffna last month that drew tens of thousands of protestors, was a move by the people of the North-East to “show their resistance” to acts such as Sinhala Buddhist colonisation to the international community, said Batticaloa District Tamil National Alliance Parliamentarian Gnanamuttu Srinesan. In an interview with Ceylon Today, Mr Srinesan said the change of government last year had led to the people of the North-East hoping the Sri Lankan state would “fulfil their demands”. “They expected the government of good governance to release the political prisoners,” he said. “The...
Chief Minister of the Northern Provincial Council C V Wigneswaran revealed details of plans to assassinate both him and Tamil National Alliance leader R Sampanthan, reports Ceylon Today . Justice Wigneswaran said he received an email in Sinhala and a phone call from a man in Balapitiya, who detailed an assassination plot to hire a contract killer to assassinate Mr Sampanthan for a sum of Rs 25 million. The LTTE was to be blamed for the killing. "I told him that I will look into it and send a complaint to IGP with a copy of the email and would also give the President a copy of what I send the...
Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian M A Sumanthiran said that he was “confident of success” in changing a proposed draft counter terror law, which has been approved by Sri Lanka’s cabinet. Speaking to The New Indian Express, Mr Sumanthiran said he would ensure the bill is discussed at Parliamentary Oversight Committees for Justice and National Security at the end of October, where he would work to ensure the law is changed. “I am a member of both and am confident of success,” said the MP. His comments come just hours after a draft of the legislation was being circulated. “There are...
A confidential draft of Sri Lanka’s proposed anti-terror legislation has been circulated across the internet, days after it had been approved by the Sri Lankan cabinet. The new legislation, known as the Counter Terrorism Act, has incorporated a broader range of offenses which the government has determined will amount to terrorism. In particular, and highlighted repeatedly throughout the text are “acts” or “words” that challenge Sri Lanka’s sovereignty or unity according to the draft. Definitions of terrorism by Sri Lanka include “any act… threatening, attacking, changing or adversely...