Students at the University of Jaffna today remembered the day Lt Col Thileepan commenced his fast unto death in Nallur on September 30, 1987. Laying flowers in his memory, many students and members of staff gathered on the campus grounds to recall his sacrifice 30 years on. The grounds were cleared and decorated, and a temporary monument set up, by the university's Student Union. The event was watched by intelligence personnel, which student union leaders said they had grown accustomed to.
The Kanagapuram LTTE cemetery can be restored with the Divisional Secretariat’s permission, the Kilinochchi Magistrate Court has ruled. Judge A. A. Anantharajah made the ruling on Thursday in the case filed by families of fallen cadres who were stopped from restoring the cemetery by police.
The International Movement Against all forms of Discrimination and Racism (IMADR) called on the United Nations to “tighten its grip on Sri Lanka” to ensure it fulfills commitments laid out in a resolution passed in 2015. In a statement delivered at the 36th session of the Human Rights Council said it shared “growing concerns on the slow progress of the Government in fulfilling its promises in Resolution 30/1”. “Although the Government is cooperating with the UN human rights mechanisms, the political will to implement their recommendations is missing. Instead of taking action to restore the...
Preparations have been underway to commemorate the hunger strike of Thileepan, whose fast began 30 years ago on Friday.
Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Defence will see the largest portion of budget allocation in 2018 reports dailymirror.lk The 2018 budget bill will be presented by Sri Lanka’s Finance and Mass Media minister Mangala Samaraweera on November 9. The former foreign affairs minister Mangala Samraweera, briefed Sri Lanka’s cabinet ministers on an Appropriation Bill outlining preliminary budget allocations for 2018. “Based on the Medium Term Budgetary Framework 2018-2020 and the policy framework of the government, the General Treasury has conducted budget discussions with the line ministries and other...
Another Catholic roadside shrine in Mannar has been attacked and destroyed.
Sri Lanka is one of Asia's most undernourished countries a study commissioned by the Asia Development Bank has found. Twenty-two percent of Sri Lanka's population is undernourished, putting it on a par with Pakistan, third only to Afghanistan (26.8%) and Timor Leste (26.9%). Just over 15% of India's and 16% of Bangladesh's populations were undernourished. See here for more.
The head of the National Freedom Front, Wimal Weerawansa warned the government's Bill on on the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances would "endanger the lives of security forces". “If the convention was passed in Parliament, the government is bound to hand over even General (Rtd) Jagath Jayasuriya, who had a case filed against him, in a foreign country,” he was quoted by the Daily Mirror as saying. "The then foreign minister Mangala Samaraweera who signed the convention secretly is now planning to authorise it in parliament,’ he said, adding...
Five police officers arrested in connection with the killing of two Jaffna university students have been granted bail. Sri Lankan police shot dead two Tamil students from Jaffna University, 23 year old Nadarasa Kajan and 24 year old Pavunraj Sulaxan, in October 2016. The five officers who have been in custody for eleven months in connection with the killings were granted bail by the Jaffna High Court with the conditions that they sign in with the Criminal Investigation Department in Colombo every Sunday morning. The officers are also prohibited from leaving the country and were ordered to...
The United States Marine Corps Forces Pacific has begun a program for Sri Lankan troops on Preventive Medicine and Casualty Care this week.