• Fonseka to contest in Sri Lanka's parliamentary elections

    Jan 16

    The former head of Sri Lanka's army, Sarath Fonseka, will contest parliamentary elections later this year, according to officials from his Democratic Party.

    Senior party officials are discussing procedures in order to enable Fonseka to become a member of parliament. The party leader was previously blocked from contesting after his failed attempt to unseat former president Mahinda Rajapaksa.

  • Mervyn says Gotabaya responsible for white van abductions

    Former minister Mervyn Silva has filed a complaint to the CID against Gotabaya and Basil Rajapaksa, over criminal activities, including white van abductions and the killing of a journalist.

    Mr Silva said former defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa was behind the notorious white van abductions, which were used to devastating effect, especially against Tamils.

    “I do not want to take revenge from anyone. They are the ones who took revenge from me. I was not given a proper ministry to work. I came to the CID to complain over all the murders such as Bharatha Laksman Premachandra, Lasantha Wikrametunge and the attacks on several private media institutions. It is Gotabaya Rajapaksa who was behind the white van culture in the country,” he said.

  • Ranil promises China continued cooperation

    Sri Lanka's prime minister, Ranil Wickremasinghe reassured China's ambassador to the country on Wednesday, that cooperation would continue despite the defeat of the former president Mahinda Rajapaksa.

    "Sri Lanka attaches great importance to developing relations with China, and is willing to further strengthen bilateral pragmatic cooperation in various fields for mutual benefits and win-win results," Mr Wickremasinghe said following his meeting with Ambassador Wu Jianghao, reports China's state news agency Xinhua.

  • SLFP appoints Maithripala as chairman

    The Sri Lanka Freedom Party’s central committee today appointed President Maithripala Sirisena as the chairman of the party at a meeting at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute earlier today.

    The unanimous decision came after former president Mahinda Rajapaksa told the UPFA coalition, of which the SLFP is the main constituent party, that he is prepared to hand over chairmanship to the new president.

  • Sri Lanka releases Indian fishermen ahead of foreign ministers' meet
    Sri Lanka had released all Indian fishermen in its custody, a spokesperson for India's Ministry of External Affairs said on Friday.

    "All free.With release of 15 Indian fishermen today. No more Indian fishermen in Sri Lankan custody. Arrangement being made for early return," the spokesperson, Syed Akbaruddin, tweeted.

  • EU suspends fish imports from Sri Lanka

    The European Union (EU) has suspended all fish imports from Sri Lanka, putting in place a ban that could cost Sri Lanka as much as $200 million.

    The ban on Sri Lankan imports was announced in October 2014, in response to Sri Lanka failing to deal with illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU), a move praised by environmental non-governmental organisations, such as Greenpeace.

    The EU alone had €74 million of imports in 2013, but Sri Lanka Seafood Association spokesperson Channa Weeratunge estimated that Sri Lanka could stand to lose as much as $200 million.

  • Troop numbers will stay the same – Army spokesperson

    A spokesperson for Sri Lanka’s army has said no decision has been taken to reduce the number of troops in the military, noting instead that over 20,000 people had been recruited into the armed forces for "development projects".

  • Reality Check: Sri Lanka's New Government
    Sustained international pressure is needed to ensure that the new Sri Lankan government works towards accountability, justice and reconciliation on the island, said a lecturer in International Conflict Analysis at the University of Kent, Madurika Rasaratnam, and author of a forthcoming book, Tamils and the Nation: India and Sri Lanka compared.

    "In broad terms the election merely saw the replacement of one avowed Sinhala nationalist leader with another equally committed to maintaining a unitary and majoritarian Sinhala Buddhist order. It is this dynamic that has fed the ethnic conflict over the past several decades, and continues to drive the militarised repression and exclusion that characterises relations between the state and the Tamils," she writes, in a article published by The Hurst publishers.

  • Ending military occupation of North can begin 'right away' says Solheim
    The former Norwegian special envoy to Sri Lanka, Erik Solheim, urged Sri Lanka's new president Maithripala Sirisena to resolve the Tamil national question, stating that some issues such as restoring Tamil language rights and removal of military from areas it occupies in the North could begin "right away".

    "A lot can be done right away — language rights of the Tamils can be restored and the army can be removed from some of the lands it occupies in the north," said Solheim, writing in The Hindu newspaper on Thursday.

    Stressing "the international community will and should continue to pressure for accountability for the unspeakable atrocities during the war: brutal murders, rapes and killing of innocent civilians", he warned that the "the global human rights community and the Tamil diaspora will keep these issues alive."

  • UK will 'exert pressure on Sri Lanka' regarding human rights abuses
    The British government will continue to push Sri Lanka on addressing human rights abuses said Lord Wallace, a spokesperson for the Foreign Office this week, calling on newly elected president Maithripala Sirisena to facilitate the ongoing United Nations investigation into mass atrocities.

    During a House of Lords debate on Wednesday, Lord Bach had questioned whether the UK would “encourage  [Sri Lanka] to review, seriously and as a matter of urgency, the allegations that have been made about human rights abuses”, as well as “to sign up to the End Sexual Violence in Conflict initiative - "something that the previous Sri Lankan Administration singularly failed to do.”
     
    In response, Lord Wallace of Saltaire, Government Whip acting as government spokesperson on the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, said Britain was in “regular dialogue with Sri Lanka”. He further added,
    “Members of this House may not be aware how closely the British Government and their representatives work with our colleagues in the European Union on issues such as this—in Sri Lanka as in Georgia—to exert pressure and bring it to bear. There is of course the UN human rights investigation, which will continue. The UN Human Rights Council will discuss that at its forthcoming meeting in March.”
  • Rajapaksa says he will hand over SLFP to Sirisena
    Sri Lanka's former president Mahinda Rajapaksa said that he is ready to hand over the Sri Lankan Freedom Party chairmanship to his successor, the new president Maithripala Sirisena, according to reports in local newspapers.

    Rajapaksa reportedly made this announcement to leaders of the SLFP dominated coalition, the UPFA, on Wednesday evening.

    According to the Daily Mirror, Wimal Weerawansa, a Rajapaksa ally and leader of the NFF, urged Rajapaksa not to resign.

  • Jaffna Uni students celebrate Thai Pongal
    Photograph Pathivu


    Students at the University of Jaffna celebrated the traditional Tamil harvest festival, Thai Pongal, on Thursday.



  • Thai Pongal celebrated in Batticaloa
    Photographs BattiNews

    Tamils in Batticaloa celebrated the traditional harvest festival of 'Thai Pongal' on Thursday.



    Making the sweet rice dish of pongal over open fires in their homes and businesses, many visited temples and churches for blessings of prosperity for the year ahead.

  • TNA joins National Executive Committee to discuss drugs policy and other issues
    The National Executive Committee met on Thursday to discuss issues including constitutional changes.

    The committee included president Maithripala Sirisena, prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, JVP Anura Kumara Dissanayake, minister Champika Ranawaka, Sarath Fonseka and Tamil National Alliance leader R Sampanthan.
  • India jails asylum seekers fleeing from Sri Lanka

    A court in Tamil Nadu has sentenced five Eelam Tamil asylum seekers to two years imprisonment for illegally entering India, after the group fled Sri Lanka with their five children last year.

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