August 2026

A Colombo Tamil Family Looks Back at the Country It Lost

A Colombo Tamil Family Looks Back at the Country It Lost

By M.R. Narayan Swamy “For every Sinhalese soldier killed, we will kill a thousand Tamils!” This was the war cry echoing on the streets of strife-hit Colombo in July 1983 as Sharmala Kanagasundram and her family sped to safety in a car while vicious anti-Tamil violence swept the Sri Lankan capital. Sharmala, her husband Ajit, and their three young boys were part of the Colombo elite and led an idyllic life. They were sure they could be happy in the country until Ajit retired from the Central
Book Review August 2026
M.R. Narayan Swamy

M.R. Narayan Swamy
Final Tributes Paid to Journalist Arumugam Sabeswaran in Jaffna

Final Tributes Paid to Journalist Arumugam Sabeswaran in Jaffna

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — The remains of Arumugam Sabeswaran, a Tamil journalist, editor and journalism lecturer who worked for years in northern Sri Lanka’s media, were brought to the Jaffna Press Club on Tuesday night, where journalists, academics and civil society representatives gathered to pay their final respects. Mr. Sabeswaran, known widely among colleagues as Sabes, died in Canada on July 29 after a period of ill health. He was 47. His death brought tributes from a journalistic community in
August 2026 Obituary
Our Reporter

Our Reporter
12,861 Acres on Paper. How Much Land Does Sri Lanka’s Military Really Hold in the North?

12,861 Acres on Paper. How Much Land Does Sri Lanka’s Military Really Hold in the North?

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — Sri Lankan security forces continue to occupy at least 12,861 acres of state and privately owned land across the five districts of the Northern Province, according to written responses from district authorities obtained under the country’s Right to Information law. But that figure captures only part of the military’s land footprint in the former war zone. The District Secretariats supplied figures for land classified as state or privately owned. The tally does not include t
August 2026 Monitor Memo
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Opposition Accuses Government of Concealing Buddhist Prelates’ Letter on Judges’ Retirement Age

Opposition Accuses Government of Concealing Buddhist Prelates’ Letter on Judges’ Retirement Age

COLOMBO — Sri Lanka’s dispute over a government proposal to extend the retirement age of senior judges widened this week after an opposition leader accused the administration of concealing a letter from the country’s most senior Buddhist prelates expressing concern over the plan. Patali Champika Ranawaka, a former cabinet minister and leader of the United Republican Front, said the Mahanayake Theras had written to President Anura Kumara Dissanayake setting out their position on the proposed con
Monitor Memo August 2026
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Sri Lanka Weighs Executions for Drug Offenders, 50 Years After Its Last Hanging

Sri Lanka Weighs Executions for Drug Offenders, 50 Years After Its Last Hanging

COLOMBO — President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s anti-narcotics council took up the question of executing drug offenders on Monday, reopening a debate that has surfaced twice in three decades and collapsed both times. The President’s Media Division said the “Ratama Ekata,” or A Nation United, National Operations Council met at the Presidential Secretariat and concluded that trafficking now threatens the economy, the tourism industry, and the country’s social values, and that harsher laws were nee
August 2026 Article
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In Shenzhen, APEC Finds a Laboratory for People-First Technology
Eduardo Pedrosa (R), executive director of the APEC Secretariat, tries a pair of smart glasses at Inno100 in Nanshan District on May 6. Zhen Jianhong

In Shenzhen, APEC Finds a Laboratory for People-First Technology

By: Sun Jin, Zhang Yu SHENZHEN — The drone hovered a moment above his open palm, then settled onto it. “Wow,” said Eduardo Pedrosa. The reaction was not on the schedule. The executive director of the APEC Secretariat was at Shenzhen Bay Culture Square on May 5, midway through the first of two working visits to the city that will host the 33rd APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting in November. The following day, onstage at the “Tech for People” Nanshan Day event, he waved his spectacles at the audienc
Economics August 2026
Jaffna Monitor

Jaffna Monitor
Sallay’s Counsel Questions Political and Religious Influence Over Easter Sunday Investigation

Sallay’s Counsel Questions Political and Religious Influence Over Easter Sunday Investigation

COLOMBO — A lawyer for Sri Lanka’s former intelligence chief Suresh Sallay has questioned the independence of the continuing investigation into the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings, arguing before the Court of Appeal that criminal investigations should remain free from political and religious influence. President’s Counsel Sanjeewa Jayawardena, appearing for Maj. Gen. Sallay, made the submissions on Monday, Aug. 10, as the court considered applications by several parties seeking to intervene in Sall
JM COURTS August 2026
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Sri Lanka’s Judicial Age Fight Is About More Than Age

Sri Lanka’s Judicial Age Fight Is About More Than Age

COLOMBO — There were men in the hall on the morning of 29 July who have spent much of the past decade attacking one another in public. Ali Sabry, justice and then foreign minister under Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Udaya Gammanpila, a minister of the same period who has fought much of Colombo’s political class in court and on air. M.A. Sumanthiran of the Ilankai Thamil Arasu Katchi, who spent a career litigating against the governments the other two sat in. And Lal Wijenayake, of the National People’s Po
Opinion & Analysis Exclusive
Jaffna Monitor

Jaffna Monitor