Construction work has been suspended on a Buddhist temple being built on illegally appropriated Tamil land in Mullaitivu. The Buddhist vihara was being built with military support on land privately owned by Tamils in Kokkilay, Mullaitivu. Provincial land authorities ordered construction work to be suspended pending a decision on the property dispute. Three of the land’s owners were arrested for staging a protest against the construction earlier in the month.
Sri Lanka's finance minister Ravi Karunanayake dismissed claims that the government was facing a financial crisis, instead blaming the former regime for excessive spending and causing a “nightmare”. Mr Karunanayake denied Sri Lanka was in crisis, however admitted that financial problems persist because of the previous government. "What to do?" asked the minister. "It’s not really a headache, it’s really a nightmare.” The minister continued to say "it’s not just a repair job but a resuscitation”. “I come from the private sector as a chartered accountant, and, coming into this office, I never knew that countries could be run in such a mess,” he continued. "Even a betel nut shop in the street has an accounting system, but not here. I don’t want to run down my own country but I must put it in context.”
Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena thanked a delegation of Buddhist monks from Korea for their contribution to Buddhism this week, whilst meeting them in Colombo. The delegation of Korean Bhikkhus, including the Chief Incumbent of the Yeorae Yaksasa Temple in Korea, met with Mr Sirisena in Temple Trees. According to the Official Government News Portal of Sri Lanka : “The President Sirisena also commended the enormous religious service done by the Bhikkhus of the both countries for the development of Buddhism.”
The Sri Lankan military marked 6 years since the capture of Mullaitivu last week, with a military ceremony and Buddhist ceremony at its Mullaitivu headquarters last week. The Ministry of Defence reported that a Buddhist “All-Night Pirith chanting ceremony” was held, overseen by 18 Buddhist monks and Major General Sudantha Ranasinghe. Mr Ranasinghe can be seen below in the photo on the left, dressed in white receiving blessings from Buddhist monk Panwila Gunarathana Nayaka. Meanwhile prayer sessions were also reportedly held at a Hindu temple, a mosque and church in Mullaitivu, which the Major General attended in full military uniform.
Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said the former defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa should not have been charge of the Sri Lanka’s national security as he was a US citizen who had “renounced any allegiance to Sri Lanka”, in a speech to parliament last week. Speaking in Sinhala, Mr Wickremesinghe told lawmakers that Mr Rajapaksa “was in-charge of people who were bearing arms for the republic of Sri Lanka, while he under law, was obliged to bear arms for the United States of America”. The Prime Minister went on to state that if the United States had gone to war with Sri Lanka, then Mr Rajapaksa would have fought alongside the Americans against Sri Lanka.
Former president Mahinda Rajapaksa alleged that Sri Lanka’s national security and economy was at risk under the new regimes governance. Mahinda Rajapaksa makes short appearance at 'Arise with Mahinda' UPFA rally The former president made these warnings in a letter addressed to a UPFA rally organised to call for the SLFP leadership to field Rajapaksa as the prime ministerial candidate in the upcoming parliamentary elections. Rajapaksa also alleged that a ‘separatist Eelamist’ flag had been raised in the North-East reports Daily Mirror . Alleging that the new government had removed over 59 army...
A representative of the US State Department met with the chairman of the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation Chairman to discuss Sri Lanka’s potential violation of its commitment to US sanctions on Iran’s crude oil. The US economic counsellor Mathew Lower met Ranjith Wickremasingha to discuss an alleged attempt to unload one million barrels of Iranian crude oil in Colombo, reports dailymirror.lk. In a statement made after the meeting on Friday, Mr Wickremasingha, said, “I explained in detail the circumstances surrounding the oil tanker and the CPC’s action to strictly adhere to the accepted...
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) will not be supporting the 20th Amendment, which has recently been approved by the Sri Lankan cabinet, as it will reduce the number of parliamentary seats in Jaffna from 11 to 6, said spokesperson Suresh Premachandran. The Sri Lankan cabinet approved the amendment on Friday, which will see the number of seats in parliament increase from 225 to 237, reports Adaderana . The new system will also see 125 MPs elected by the first past the post system, 75 by proportional representation system and the remaining 25 members from the National List. TNA members,...
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott refused to comment on reports that the Australian government has been paying people smugglers to turn back boats packed with asylum seekers, saying that he would “stop the boats by hook or by crook”. In an interview with radio 3AW on Friday, Mr Abbott said Australia would do “whatever we need to do” to stop asylum seeker boats from reaching the country, adding that Australian border protection officials had been “incredibly creative” in devising strategies. When pushed to comment on whether Australian authorities had paid people smugglers, Me Abbott responded, “I just don’t want to go into the details of how it’s done because, like a lot of things that law enforcement agencies have to do, it’s necessary, it’s difficult, and at times I suppose it’s dangerous work but we do it and we’ve stopped the boats.”
The SLFP opposition leader Nimal Siripala de Silva on Wednesday questioned Foreigm Minister Mangala Samaraweera over the meeting with the Global Tamil Forum and the TNA which occurred in London last weekend. Mr de Silva said in a statement to parliament, GTF had been acting against the national interests of Sri Lanka, by promoting a “separatist agenda and destroying Sri Lanka’s image at international forums”. "There were further reports that the meeting had been facilitated by some non-governmental organisations based in South Africa, several Norwegian organisations and was attended by representatives of a political party in Sri Lanka and an MP of that party [TNA MP MA Sumanthiran],” he said. The opposition leader said the meeting was reported to have been aimed at lifting the ban on Tamil diaspora groups, including the GTF, as terrorist entities.