Direct flights connecting Chennai and Jaffna will be launched as a new international airport opens in the region, reports The Hindu, with a test flight scheduled from Palaly later this week.
Sri Lankan presidential election candidate and former defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa has vowed to increase powers given to military intelligence, as candidates vie for nationalist Sinhala Buddhist votes.
<p>A Fundamental Rights application was filed in Sri Lanka's Supreme Court, seeking the government to withdraw from the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) resolution 30/1 that it co-sponsored in 2015.</p>
<p>The application was filed by the Truth Seekers Movement, who claim that by co-sponsoring resolution 30/1, Sri Lanka has allowed for several activities to take place which are inconsistent with the Constitution. </p>
On the morning of September 16th 2008, Benjamin Dix was part of a United Nations convoy that was driving out of Kilinochchi. “Civilians were protesting outside our offices begging us not to leave,” he recalls. “As we drove out that morning a Kfir - a government fighter jet - flew over the top of us and into the Vanni… It almost haunts me”.
Former UN staffer Benjamin Dix released his first graphic novel this month, exploring the story of Tamil families trapped in the Vanni in 2009, as the Sri Lankan military launches an ominous offensive that kills tens of thousands civilians.
Malaysian security forces arrested five more men today, including two Democratic Action Party (DAP) assemblyman, claiming that they were linked to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which remains a proscribed organisation in the country.
Officers from Sri Lanka’s Special Task Force arrested a former LTTE cadre last week, a year after the same cadre and his children were attacked by a Sri Lankan police officer.
Sri Lankan police allege that they found 4 grams of heroin inside P Vasanthakumar’s house, following a search and raid operation. He is currently on remand over the drug charges.
<p>A family in Jaffna have filed complaints against Koppay police, accusing the department of helping and protecting a violent attacker in their neighbourhood.</p>
<p>The family from Kokuvil East registered complaints with the Human Rights Commission (HRCSL) and the National Police Commission, claiming they felt threatened as they were being attacked by a neighbour who had the support of the police.</p>
The European Union (EU) is providing EUR 40 million to Sri Lanka to co-finance the "Strengthening Transformation, Reconciliation and Inclusibe Democratic Engagement (STRIDE) project.
Dr R.H.S. Samaratunga, Secretary to the Treasury at the Ministry of Finance, signed the financing agreement on behalf of the Government of Sri Lanka on 9 October 2019.
The Sri Lankan army carried out a military exercise with international troops in the Tamil homeland last month, with senior commanders accused of war crimes overseeing operations.
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) held a ceremony in Kilinochchi to commemorate thirty-two years since the death of the first female fighter of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
Hundreds of asylum seekers have fled Sri Lanka, across the Indian Ocean to the islands of La Réunion and Mayotte off the coast of Madagascar, only to be deported back to Colombo according to figures released by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
A Sri Lankan court has acquitted four soldiers over the gang rape of a Tamil woman, after they had been found guilty and sentenced for the crime in 2015.
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