August 2026

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka’s justice minister pledged Tuesday that the government would pursue the truth about the fate of people who disappeared during decades of conflict and political violence, telling a government-organized commemoration here that answers for the families of the missing were a matter of right, not politics. “A family’s right to know what happened to its loved one is not a political demand,” said Harshana Nanayakkara, the minister of justice and national integration, at t

By M.R. Narayan Swamy Jeyavanitha Kasipillai was crouched in the crowded camp for war-hit civilians at Omanthai when some Sri Lankan soldiers showed up and rudely snatched away her eldest daughter, Jeromi. Jeyavanitha still remembers screaming her head off as she desperately tried to ward off the armed intruders to save and retain the 16-year-old girl, who too was shouting and wailing. One of the heartless soldiers told the distraught mother in half Sinhala, half Tamil: “We believe your daugh

COLOMBO — Sri Lanka is considering barring anyone under the age of 40 from entering the three-wheeler passenger transport trade, a deputy minister said Sunday, reviving a proposal that a previous government abandoned as unlawful and unfair. Nalin Hewage, the deputy minister of vocational education, said the measure was intended to stop school-leavers from going directly into tuk-tuk driving and push them toward further study and skills training. “We expect to increase the age for entering the

By: Sidhartha Thamby Part I: The Phenomenon of Disappearances What Counts as a Disappearance The legal meaning of "enforced disappearance" is narrower than everyday usage. The main treaty — the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance — applies only when the state is involved: an arrest, detention, or kidnapping by state agents or with state approval. Disappearances by non-state groups like the LTTE or JVP fall outside this legal definition, tho