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Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka has called for a thorough and impartial investigation in to the reported abduction of a Swiss embassy employee to find out information on Sri Lankans who have sought protection through the embassy. The letter sent to acting IGP follows:

Image: The employee had been abducted on Monday and allegedly questioned about a police officer who reportedly sought Swiss asylum [File: Lakruwan Wanniarachchi/AFP] On 25 November 2019, a serious security incident involving a local employee of the Embassy of Switzerland in Colombo occurred. The employee was detained against their will in the street, forced to […]

Speaking at the press conference today held in New Delhi on the visit of Sri Lanka President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Prime minster of India has said that ” I am confident that the Government of Sri Lanka will carry forward the process of reconciliation, to fulfill the aspirations of the Tamils for equality, justice, peace and […]

Image: Thushara Vitharana, a journalist of Voice Tube were summoned by police for interrogation . 2019-11-29/ Media Release/FMM. Sri Lanka Police and Security Forces Must Maintain Openness on Public Peace. Free Media Movement of Sri Lanka expresses its concerns on calling two journalists to the Criminal Investigation Department, for questioning the information regarding the investigations […]

Image: Sri Lanka President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. (AP/ File) In Sri Lanka, with the longest history of universal suffrage in Asia, every election excites the nation, and that will be the case with the upcoming parliamentary polls. Less than a fortnight after Sri Lanka’s November 16 presidential elections, the country is faced with two realities. One, a […]

Image: The Swiss embassy in Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka. (Keystone / Anthony Anex) A local employee of the Swiss embassy in Sri Lanka has been temporarily kidnapped and threatened by unknown assailants in what the foreign ministry has called a “serious and unacceptable attack”. According to the Sri Lanka news website lankanewsweb.netexternal link, the woman […]

Image: Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Sri Lanka’s newly elected president, center, greeting supporters after his swearing-in ceremony in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka, this month.Credit…Eranga Jayawardena/Associated Press. A Swiss Embassy employee is abducted and asked about asylum applications an.d investigators are banned from leaving just days after Gotabaya Rajapaksa is elected. By Maria Abi-Habib and Sameer Yasir. Fears of a potential crackdown on […]

COLOMBO, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) — Sri Lanka’s new government will make a fresh presentation to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), explaining all the atrocities and war crimes committed by the Tamil Tiger rebels who were militarily defeated by government forces after a 30-year war in 2009, local media reports said Tuesday. President’s Spokesperson, […]

Image: This is a media suppression – Danushka Ramanayake. A Police team from the Mirihana Police searched the newsroom of Newshub.lk this morning, investigating a complaint that there was material that could be classified as hate-speech the Police Spokesman SSP Ruwan Gunesekara  has told RepublicNext today (26). He said police had obtained a search warrant from […]

social media users erroneously believe that Katuwapitiya is a part of the Negombo electorate These messages were not only degrading the people of Negombo, but were also an insult to those who had been killed These hate mongers went as far as to say that those voters who voted for Sajith were terrorists. Any Sri […]

Indicating that the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) resolution was a priority for President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s administration, Foreign Affairs Minister Dinesh Gunawardena yesterday said the key agreement would soon be revisited. Speaking after formally assuming duties, Gunawardena said that they were focused on “revisiting” agreements signed under the previous Government. He also noted that […]

Sri Lanka government under president Gotabaya Rajapaksa has placed Over 700 officers of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) under a watch list at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA), reports Colombo Gazette. Daily Lankadeepa reports that 704 CID officers have been barred from leaving the country. This order has been issued by the ministry of defence, which […]

Sri Lanka Brief Presidential Election Update No 02. Polarised vote The president elect Gotabaya Rajapaksa (GR) of SLPP and Sajith Premadasa (SP) of NDF respectively received 52.25% & 41.99 of the total votes polled in the presidential election held on 16 November 2019.  This numbers could be misleading. The result shows unprecedented level of polarisation […]

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has openly crticised the police officers who investigated and provided necessary information to  the Attorney General department to file cases. He has targeted SSP Shani Abeysekera & I.P. Nishantha Silva  for such crimes. Former director Criminal Investigation Department SSP Shani Abeysekara has been  transferred to lower level. I.P. Nishantha de Silve has left the […]

Gotabhaya Rajapakse [Credit: AP Photo] The international messages of congratulations sent to Sri Lanka’s newly-elected president, Gotabhaya Rajapakse, all underscore the fact that the strategically-located island is enmeshed in geo-political rivalries, centred above all on Washington’s determination to undermine Chinese influence throughout the region and prepare for war. Rajapakse, an ex-military officer and defence secretary […]

Author’s note: On the invitation of the Editor, I’ve written to the Sunday Island newspaper every week since late 2015. Not a single column since then was rejected or even significantly edited, until this one. As I noted on Twitter, the Editor citing “orders from above” said that my column would not be published. This isn’t the first time content […]

Gotabaya Rajapaksa is Sri Lanka’s new president. The former defense minister bested Sajith Premadasa, a serving Cabinet minister who focuses on domestic affairs, in elections last Saturday, riding a nationalist tide that backed his “law and order” platform. The return to power of the Rajapaksa clan could redirect the country’s geopolitical orientation toward China, a […]

Image: European Union (EU) election observers look on as election officials carry ballot boxes to be transferred to a main counting centre after the presidential election voting centres closed, in Colombo (AFP) Sri Lanka’s eighth presidential election, with a record number of 35 candidates vying for the highest office of the state, concluded on Sunday. While […]

Image: Gotabaya Rajapaksa met with  India’s external affairs minister S. Jaishankar on 20 Nov 2019. The Indian government expects Sri Lanka’s new government led by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to take forward the process of national reconciliation in order to meet the aspirations of the Tamil minority for “equality, justice, peace and dignity”. This was the […]

(Press Release 23.11.19) Regarding the removal of the Director of the Criminal Investigation Department, SSP Shani Abeysekara As Sri Lanka Young Journalists’ Association (YJA), we are displeased that National Police Commission; an independent commission established by the 19th Amendment to the Constitution has made a decision to transfer the CID Director SSP Shani Abeysekara as the […]

The appointment of Mahinda Rajapaksa as Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister consolidates the hold of the Rajapaksa family on power. The change was entirely on expected lines, after his younger brother, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, won decisively in the presidential election. Outgoing Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, whose party’s candidate lost the election, submitted his resignation, thus enabling the […]

Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Director SSP Shani Abeysekara has been granted a transfer by the National Police Commission today (Nov 21). Accordingly, SSP Abeysekara will now serve as the Personal Assistant of the Deputy Inspector General (DIG) in charge of the Galle District. The move would see SSP W. Thilakaratna taking over as the Director […]

In his inaugural speech the newly elected President Gotabaya Rajapaksa gave an assurance that he will be the president of all, including all ethnicities and religions and those who did not vote for him.  This assurance is especially important as the recently concluded presidential election was divisive and along communal lines.  The National Peace Council […]

(AFP) Sri Lanka is set to have its first ever government run by siblings when President Gotabaya Rajapaksa appoints older brother Mahinda as prime minister on Thursday, giving the powerful clan its second taste of power. Mahinda was president for a decade until 2015, during which time the family controlled more than two thirds of […]

The Parliament of Sri Lanka has 225 member seats. The 22 electoral districts elect 196 seats. Each party receives seats in proportion to the votes it received in that district. The remaining 29 seats are the “national list”. Each party receives national list seats, in proportion to the votes it receives islandwide. At first glance, […]

Image: Sri Lanka’s President-elect Gotabaya Rajapaksa waves at his supporters as he leaves, after the presidential swearing-in ceremony in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka November 18, 2019. Photo: Reuters/Dinuka Liyanawatte. As was widely predicted, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), decisively won Sri Lanka’s presidential election on November 16. His opponent, Sajith Premadasa, of the United National Party […]

Image: Sri Lanka’s new president, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, gestures after addressing the nation during his swearing-in ceremony at the Ruwanwelisaya temple in Anuradhapura on Nov. 18. LAKRUWAN WANNIARACHCHI/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES. Gotabaya Rajapaksa of the Sri Lanka People’s Front was sworn in as president of Sri Lanka on Monday, after defeating Sajith Premadasa of the United National Party […]

“Accepting our request and rejecting the call to boycott or to vote for a Tamil candidate and by voting for Mr. Sajith Premadasa the Tamil people have sent a clear message to the leaders of our country and to the international community, that the Tamil people are firm in achieving their rights, within a united […]

The Universal Children’s Day, celebrated on the 20th of November every year, is dedicated to recognizing the joys and innocence of childhood, and improving and protecting the lives of children. It calls for International corporation to strengthen and acknowledge the rights of every child in the world. The significance of the Universal Children’s Day of […]

ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka constitution has to be changed and a 19th amendment should be abolished, Basil Rajapaksa, brother of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa said in a television interview. “It is my view that the 19th amendment should be completely abolished,” Rajapaksa, who formed the Sri Lanka Podujana Party of the new President said in an […]