Former Sri Lanka president Mahinda Rajapakse’s brother Gotabhaya directed a top-secret death squad which targeted journalists and dissidents, a court was told Monday. Criminal Investigations Department (CID) told the Mount Lavinia magistrate’s court that Gotabhaya Rajapakse, who was Sri Lanka’s defence secretary during his brother’s rule, directed a secret unit which is accused of assassinating … Read more
President Maithripala Sirisena came to power in Sri Lanka promising justice for war crimes, breaking from his hawkish predecessor and presenting the island with its first real shot at a lasting peace. But that optimism has been sorely tested as Sirisena, having missed a two-year deadline to investigate war-era abuses, declared he would never prosecute … Read more
Cash-strapped Sri Lanka is to scale back a profitable but controversial deal to sell a deep-sea port to a Chinese company after widespread protests, the ports minister said Thursday. Arjuna Ranatunga said the government was renegotiating the sale of the debt-laden but strategically-located Hambantota port. It had hoped to transfer an 80 percent stake to … Read more
Sri Lanka Monday vowed to honour government bonds of up to 1,780 billion rupees ($11.86 billion) even as the central bank admitted “procedural shortcomings” in state-issued securities. Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake hastily summoned reporters to announce that Sri Lanka will meet its domestic debt repayment commitments despite legal issues uncovered during a recent insider trading … Read more
Several people have been injured in southern Sri Lanka during a protest against allowing China to build a port and industrial zone. The plan envisages the eviction of thousands of villagers around Hambantota port, 240km (150 miles) south-east of the capital Colombo. Police used tear gas as the protest delayed a ceremony being attended by … Read more