militarisation

The state-run Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation (SLRC) was brought under the purview of the Ministry of Defence yesterday evening (9). A gazette notification signed by President Maithripala Sirisena, who also holds the Defence portfolio, was issued a short while ago announcing the takeover. Veteran media personality Kalum Palitha Maheeratne was appointed SLRC Chairman on 6 […]

Introduction On the late evening of 20 February 2009, two diminutive aircrafts swiftly approached Sri Lanka’s capital with the intention of launching an attack against the military’s defense base in Colombo. The Zlin Z-143 airplanes were flown by ferocious Air Tigers; the air-wing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), fueled with determination to […]

Image: General Shavendra Silva is seen at the Ampara Air Force camp in eastern Sri Lanka August 24, 2009.  © 2009 Reuters/Stringer/Files. Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia Director, HRW. Sri Lanka’s President Maithripala Sirisena has appointed a general whose forces have been credibly accused of war crimes as the commander of the national army. The move would seem to confirm the […]

Image: Sri Lankan chief editor of the privately-owned Rivira weekly Upali Tennakoon (L) is rushed to the Colombo national hospital after he was attacked in 2009 (AFP Photo/Ishara S. KODIKARA) (AFP) Sri Lanka on Wednesday charged two army spies for a decade-old serious assault of a newspaper editor in the wake of the shock assassination of […]

Image: Political prisoner Thevathasan Kanagasabai . Early this week, Tamil political prisoner Thevathasan Kanagasabai (62) alias Nadan incarcerated in the high-security Welikada Prison agreed to suspend his fast unto death protest following the intervention of Minister Mano Ganesan. Kanagasabai was into the ninth day of a hunger strike demanding that he be granted bail to […]

By Ana Pararajasingham. In view of its strategic location in the Indian Ocean, Sri Lanka is of interest to both Washington and Beijing as they seek to increase their presence in the Indian Ocean. Washington’s latest attempt to improve its position in Sri Lanka involves renegotiating the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) originally signed in mid-1995 when […]

The Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) said yesterday President Maithripala Sirisena should not have exercised his executive powers arbitrarily when pardoning Galagodaaththe Gnanasara Thera, who was jailed after being found guilty of contempt of court charges. It said it was an act based on irrelevant consideration. In a statement, the BASL said it was […]

The reinstatement of an army intelligence official implicated in attacks on journalists has given rise to serious concerns for the safety of media personnel and witnesses who testified against the officer and his platoon. Army Intelligence Major Prabath Bulathwatte has been back in the spotlight after Army Commander Mahesh Senanayake stunned civil society in a […]

Image: Relatives of people who went missing during Sri Lanka’s civil war taking part in a candle light vigil. File   | Photo Credit: Getty images. Meera Srinivasan. Some of the lands of survivors are yet to be released, relatives are still missing and reconciliation is afar. Given a choice between living in a camp for displaced […]

“A Monk lives in the area known as “Arisimalai” area within the Pulmoddai Grama Sevaka Division, and within the Kuchchaveli Divisional Secretary’s – Division in the Trincomalee District. He has in recent times been claiming that various lands within the Kuchchaveli Divisional Secretary’s Division belong to various Viharas and should be surveyed and brought under his […]

President promulgates PTA (Proscription of Extremist Organisations) Regulations. Will apply to three groups proscribed under Emergency Regulations. Regulations prohibit all links to groups including funding & espousing their cause. Maximum of 20 years imprisonment for violators of new regulations. By Chandani Kirinde. Along with the proscription of three organisations linked to the Easter Sunday bomb […]

MoD received final warning on Saturday night, directed IGP to act. SIS usually briefs President first: MoD officials. IGP, Hemasiri testify before board of inquiry on security lapses. President Sirisena has denied knowledge of the intelligence reports. Questions are being raised about how much President Maithripala Sirisena knew about warnings provided by foreign intelligence agencies […]

Image: Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena speaks to the media April 1. (Photo by EPA/M.A.Pushpa Kumara/MaxPPP) Kingsley Karunaratne, Colombo. Sri Lanka still has many mountains to climb before it can close this painful chapter in its modern history regarding a slew of as-yet unresolved cases of enforced disappearances and other human rights abuses that occurred during […]

Image: Sudanese celebrate after officials said the military had forced longtime autocratic President Omar al-Bashir to step down after 30 years in power in Khartoum, Sudan, Thursday, April 11, 2019. © 2019 AP Images. (Nairobi) – The end of Omar al-Bashir’s 30-year rule provides a momentous opportunity for Sudan to put respect for human rights […]

Image: Sri Lanka’s Secretary of Defense Gotabaya Rajapaksa listens during a news conference in Colombo January 24, 2013. The Sri Lankan military should be given more training opportunities by the United States, Rajapaksa said on Thursday according to local media. REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte . Shihar Aneez. COLOMBO (Reuters) – Sri Lanka’s former defense secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who […]

Is President Maithripala Sirisena’s anti-narcotic campaign an opportunistic farce to lure voters to his bid for a second term in the office- or a genuine mission guided by a political will unseen in his predecessors? Public opinion seems to be mixed, not unsurprisingly in the partisan politics in the country and also due to the […]

(Maneshka Borham/ Sunday Observer) The Criminal Investigations Department (CID) this week further strengthen its case against Sri Lanka’s top military chief, Admiral Ravindra Wijegunaratne after he was linked to the now famous case of 11 missing youth believed to have been abducted by a ‘Navy abduction for ransom gang’between 2008 – 2009. Arrested by the […]

On March 15, Muslims, grouping in their dozens, protested in front of the Sri Lanka Navy Camp in Silavathurai- home to the highest number of Muslims in Northern Province-demanding the Navy to move out of their residential area. Their mission behind this long-standing protest is to reclaim the 36 acre land; the home for many […]

Photo:Rear Admiral A. Guruge, The now famous CID investigation into the abduction and murder of 11 youth by a Navy extortion gang, helped sleuths to break open a secondary racket involving a separate group of naval personnel, including high ranking officers, to abduct businessmen for ransom In June 2010 the gang robbery unit of the […]

The press in Sri Lanka, especially the Sinhala press has been avidly following the progress of the proposed alliance between the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) quite closely. The center piece of this attraction has been the choice of its presidential candidate, seemingly a choice between incumbent President […]

Photo: An aerial shot of Colombo, Sri Lanka | Credit: Flickr, Creative Commons . After persistent allegations of mass atrocities committed during the long running civil war, a new Sri Lankan Government in 2015 pledged to the international community that it would establish an ambitious reform and transitional justice programme. Four years later, many victims in the country […]

The controversial ‘MiG Deal’ remains in the public spotlight as evidence continues to surface of the Rajapaksa Government’s complicity in engineering the dubious 2006 arms deal, and of scandalous attempts to hide the truth of the deal from the public. Sunday Times Defence Correspondent, Iqbal Athas, who first exposed the alleged scam in December 2006, […]

“We want to sleep, cook, eat in our own house and farm our own land” 700 days is a long time for a day and night protest outside an Army camp. Since March 1, 2017, the people of Keppapulavu, located in the Mullaitheevu district in Northern Sri Lanka, have been doing just that. They have […]

The Westminster Magistrate’s Court has issued an arrest warrant for Brigadier Priyanka Fernando of the Sri Lankan army earlier today, having found him guilty of violating the Public Order Act. Fernando was found guilty of violating sections 5 and 4A of the act, with the court stating that his actions were threatening, caused harassment, and […]

“We haven’t finished excavating yet. We will continue until we get to what we call a bone-free margin, to rule out any more bones,” says W.R.A.S. Rajapaksa (Below), Consultant Judicial Medical Officer at Mannar District General Hospital.   | Photo Credit: Picasa Meera Srinivasan . The recent discovery of a mass grave in Mannar town in Sri […]

In addition to the ongoing process of releasing private and state lands in the North and East, hitherto being used by the Army with no impact on national security needs, HE the President has directed further to release state lands, being used as Army farms in those provinces without delay. Accordingly, 1099 acres of state […]

The UK Foreign Office responding to the petition “Refer Sri Lanka to International Criminal Court, if it continues to fail to implement its commitment made to the UNHRC Res. [A/HRC/RES/30/1] by March 2019”. signed by over 10,000 British citizens said that the UK is committed to supporting the Sri Lankan Government’s efforts to improve the […]

This reading list examines Mahinda Rajapaksa’s tenure as Sri Lankan President from 2005 to 2015. On 26 October 2018, Mahinda Rajapaksa was sworn in as Prime Minister, triggering a political crisis. Sri Lankan member of Parliament, Anura Kumara Dissanayaka, termed his appointment “unconstitutional.” Rajapaksa is currently unable to muster a majority in Parliament, and the removal of […]

Sri Lankan experts say a mass grave found earlier this year in the north-western town of Mannar has turned out to be the country’s biggest such site. More than 230 skeletons have now been found at the grave in the former war zone, up from about 90 in August. Human rights groups say at least […]

Mahinda Rajapaksa, one of Sri Lanka’s two dueling prime ministers.  Paula Bronstein/Getty Images. By Jen Kirbyjen.kirby@vox.com     Two prime ministers are claiming power in Sri Lanka in a bizarre political struggle that has flung the country’s democracy into crisis. Violence erupted Friday in Sri Lanka’s Parliament after supporters of one prime minister reportedly flung chairs, books, and chili paste at the […]