Sri Lanka President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s decision to implement a “Presidential Task Force for Archaeological Heritage Management in the Eastern Province” is a move that “threatens minorities” and puts their “inclusive democratic rights into question,” said Rev. Fr. Rajan Rohan, the secretary of Inter-Religious Forum in Batticaloa.

The all Sinhala task force is the latest move that the government authorities have sanctioned that aids the building of the “huge gap between Sinhala Buddhist majorities and the Tamil Muslim minorities,” he stated.

Sri Lankan police have been registering the details of occupants in households across Colombo according to reports emerging from the city, with at least some forms also asking for the ethnicity and religion of any occupants.

The security forces have reportedly said the move is part of a crackdown on illegal drug dealing as militarisation continues across the island. Hundreds of people have reportedly been arrested in the Colombo district in relation to drug dealing in the past week alone.

Sri Lanka’s Elections Commission has announced parliamentary elections will be held on August 5, 2020, after at least two delays due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Mahinda Deshapriya, chairman of Sri Lanka’s Elections Commission, said members had reached a unanimous decision on the scheduled date.

The UN has awarded Sri Lanka’s peacekeeping force, Sri Lanka Army Medical Corps (SLMAC), for their service in South Sudan, despite its history of human rights violations.

The award was presented on 27 May and commended SLMAC on its “medical standards, and commitment of strong contribution to hospital services”.

Updated 1430 GMT

^{File photograph: Arulingam with the then British High Commissioner to Sri Lanka in 2016.}

Sri Lankan police have released a Tamil lawyer who was arrested as she attempted to enquire into the detention of Black Lives Matter protestors, as clashes broke out in Colombo yesterday.

Swasthika Arulingam was reportedly detained by Sri Lankan police, though it remains unclear as to the grounds on which she was held and if charges are to be pursued.

The Sri Lankan security forces have stepped up their presence outside a Buddhist centre in Jaffna, after stones were reportedly thrown at an enclosure around a Buddha statue earlier.

<p>In response to Sri Lankan President, Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s announcement of a task force, which Rajapaksa claims will ensure a “secure country” and a “disciplined, virtuous and lawful society”, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) has requested that he rescind this order, describing the task force as a threat to the rule of law.</p> <p>The ICJ has specific concerns over the legality of this taskforce, its broad and ambiguous mandates, as well as the fact that the task force is dominated by Sri Lanka’s security forces.</p> <p><strong>Military encroachment</strong></p>

Former Sri Lankan minister announced his decision of not contesting in Sri Lanka’s upcoming parliamentary elections, after expressing “deep regret at the division” of the United National Party (UNP).

In a statement released this week, Samaraweera said he had informed UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe and Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) leader Sajith Premadasa of his decision and claimed he “succeeded in achieving progress for Matara as well as the country at large, yet a lot more still remains to be done”. 

The families of the disappeared in Mullaitivu have urged for support from the international community after being “continuously abandoned” by the Sri Lankan government to provide answers and justice for their missing loved ones.

Sri Lanka’s opposition party, the Samagi Jana Balavegaya, has accused the government’s intelligence agencies of collecting data on civilians as part of a larger surveillance project, which will also see military intelligence officers in every polling station across the island at upcoming parliamentary elections.