Sri Lanka on Saturday sealed a billion-dollar deal to let a Chinese state firm take over a loss-making port in a move that has been opposed by unions and worries the island’s neighbours. The long-delayed sale $1.1 billion sale of a 70 percent stake in Hambantota port, which straddles the world’s busiest east-west shipping route, … Read more
Sri Lanka has failed to deliver on its international commitments to prosecute government troops and Tamil rebels for atrocities committed during its ethnic war, a UN expert said Friday. Ben Emmerson said Colombo’s efforts at transitional justice were at a “virtual standstill” eight years after the end of its ethnic war which had claimed over … Read more
Former Sri Lanka skipper Arjuna Ranatunga on Friday demanded an investigation into the country’s 2011 World Cup final defeat by India amid allegations of match fixing. Ranatunga, 53, in a video posted on his Facebook page, said he was shocked by Sri Lanka’s six-wicket defeat in the final at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai. “I … Read more
Sri Lanka announced Thursday a long-awaited investigation into the massacre of 27 prisoners that became a symbol of the rights abuses allegedly perpetrated by the war-era regime. Inspector-General of Police Pujith Jayasundara ordered the investigation into the 2012 bloodshed, when security forces allegedly gunned down inmates in cold blood. Trouble erupted inside the maximum security … Read more
Sri Lanka’s hardline monks on Monday broadened a growing campaign by the Buddhist clergy against the government, threatening street protests if the island’s Tamil minority is granted greater autonomy. Radical monk Maagalkande Sudaththa said hardline Buddhists were mobilising Sri Lankans from the majority Sinhalese ethnic group to resist a new power-sharing arrangement being drafted by … Read more
Sri Lanka vowed Wednesday to grant greater autonomy to its Tamil minority in a new constitution after an influential Buddhist monk said the clergy opposed the plan. President Maithripala Sirisena has said the new constitution will grant extensive autonomy to Tamils concentrated in the island’s northern and eastern regions. He has said he wants to … Read more
Sri Lanka’s military said Tuesday it has ended its occupation of a major fishing harbour after 27 years and allowed Tamil civilians in the former war zone to take back their land. Security forces withdrew from the Mayliddy harbour in the Jaffna peninsula on Monday, bowing to the long-standing demands of fishermen and their families … Read more
Sri Lanka’s justice minister faced calls for his resignation Tuesday after accusing a human rights lawyer of misleading the public about a spate of crimes against Christian places of worship. Minister Wijayadasa Rajapakse threatened to disbar Lakshan Dias after Dias said nearly 200 Christian holy sites had been vandalised since a new government took office … Read more
India joined Sri Lanka’s relief operation Saturday as 230,000 people were driven from their homes after an intense monsoon deluge killed at least 103 people. Rainfall on Friday triggered the worst flooding and landslides in 14 years in the southern and western parts of the island, authorities said. The Disaster Management Centre (DMC) said 103 … Read more
Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena announced his first cabinet reshuffle Monday, switching his finance and foreign ministers as he resists mounting pressure from a breakaway faction in his own party. Sirisena swapped the portfolios held by Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake and Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera in a shake up aimed at quelling dissent within the … Read more
Sri Lanka’s President announced Saturday new investigations into alleged secret detention centres as part of a drive to find tens of thousands of people still missing after the country’s decades-long war. Maithripala Sirisena said he would establish a mechanism to search locations where there are reports that people may still be incarcerated after the war, … Read more
Men in Sri Lanka are being raped in custody nearly a decade after the civil war, when sexual assault was routinely used to torture detained Tamils, a report said Wednesday. The rape of men and boys remains widespread but unreported, with victims unwilling to come forward due to social stigma and laws criminalising same-sex relations, … Read more
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared Friday his desire for a “quantum jump” in relations with Sri Lanka, as New Delhi jostles with regional rival Beijing for influence in the island nation. India had always considered its smaller neighbour to be within its sphere of influence but watched Sri Lanka drift closer to China under … Read more
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi heads to Sri Lanka on Thursday on a charm offensive as New Delhi seeks to reassert its influence on the island amid signs of a Chinese comeback. Sri Lanka’s President Maithripala Sirisena came to power in January 2015 promising to loosen ties with China after a decade of hefty funding … Read more
Hopes of finding anyone alive under a collapsed mountain of garbage in Sri Lanka’s capital faded Sunday as the death toll reached 21, police said. Hundreds of soldiers were digging through the rubbish and the wreckage of some 145 homes that were destroyed when a side of the 300-foot (90-metre) high dump crashed on Friday. … Read more
At least six people were killed and 10 others injured in Sri Lanka’s capital Friday after a massive rubbish dump buried an estimated 40 homes during the traditional new year. A 12-year-old boy and two teenaged girls died at the Colombo National hospital where 10 others were being treated after they were rescued, hospital spokeswoman … Read more
A Sri Lankan baby elephant gifted to New Zealand has been prevented from leaving the South Asian island after animal activists said it was cruel to separate her from her family. Six-year-old Nandi was bequeathed to former New Zealand Prime Minister John Key by President Maithripala Sirisena at a meeting in Colombo in February 2016 … Read more
Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena said Wednesday he would not protect anyone guilty of murder during the civil war, flagging arrests for a spate of high-profile crimes allegedly perpetrated by security forces. Sirisena, who has been criticised for failing to establish credible investigations into war-era abuses, said he would not stand by murderers but would … Read more
As many as 40,000 Tamil civilians may have died in the last few months of the fighting The United Nations has condemned Sri Lanka’s government for failing to investigate civil war-era atrocities, suggesting the government was afraid of punishing soldiers who committed abuses during the conflict. The world body had previously accused the Sri Lankan … Read more
The UN rights chief on Wednesday condemned Sri Lanka’s persistent failure to probe war-era atrocities, suggesting the government was afraid of punishing soldiers who committed abuses during the conflict. The criticism from Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein is the latest volley in an escalating war of words between the United Nations and Sri Lanka over impunity … Read more