August 2026


EU Sets Reform Terms as Sri Lanka Faces Fresh Application for Trade Preferences

EU Sets Reform Terms as Sri Lanka Faces Fresh Application for Trade Preferences

COLOMBO — The European Union has set out the legal and human rights reforms it expects Sri Lanka to carry out to keep preferential access to the European market, weeks before new rules require Colombo to apply again for the concessions. The reforms are set out in an assessment by the European Commission and the European External Action Service of Sri Lanka's performance under the Generalised Scheme of Preferences Plus, or GSP+, covering 2023 to 2025. The document, SWD(2026) 192 final, was submi


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Sri Lanka Opens a Legal Route Home for Tamil Refugees in India. The Security Check Remains.
Sri Lankan Tamil refugees arrive in India by boat after crossing the Palk Strait.

Sri Lanka Opens a Legal Route Home for Tamil Refugees in India. The Security Check Remains.

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — In May 2025, a 75-year-old Sri Lankan Tamil man landed at Palaly airport after decades as a refugee in Tamil Nadu. He had returned with the help of the United Nations refugee agency and carried the clearances his journey required. Immigration officials arrested him at the airport. The Criminal Investigation Department produced him before the Mallakam Magistrate's Court, which remanded him after objections to bail. His alleged offense was that he had left Sri Lanka decades e


Our Special Correspondent

Our Special Correspondent

‘Cry for Justice’: Tamils Rally as Chemmani Mass Grave Excavations Pass 100 Days

‘Cry for Justice’: Tamils Rally as Chemmani Mass Grave Excavations Pass 100 Days

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — Tamil civil society activists in northern Sri Lanka are beginning a four-day campaign on Friday to demand international justice and accountability for alleged wartime atrocities, as excavations at the Chemmani mass grave continue to uncover human remains. The campaign, called “Cry for Justice — 2,” is being organise by the Homeland Task Force and will run from Aug. 14 through Aug. 17, culminating in a demonstration near the Chemmani mass grave site outside Jaffna. The organ


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Sri Lanka’s Envoy to India Remembers Lakshman Kadirgamar, 21 Years After His Assassination
Lakshman Kadirgamar

Sri Lanka’s Envoy to India Remembers Lakshman Kadirgamar, 21 Years After His Assassination

By: Aruliniyan Mahalingam Twenty-one years after Lakshman Kadirgamar was assassinated in Colombo, Sri Lanka’s high commissioner to India has remembered the former foreign minister as the man who helped inspire her to join the diplomatic service and set a standard that continued to shape her career. Mahishini Colonne, herself widely regarded in Sri Lankan diplomatic circles as one of the country’s most accomplished career diplomats, said Wednesday that Kadirgamar was foreign minister when she e


Aruliniyan Mahalingam

Aruliniyan Mahalingam

Remembering Lakshman Kadirgamar: A Personal Account

Remembering Lakshman Kadirgamar: A Personal Account

In response to “Sri Lanka’s Envoy to India Remembers Lakshman Kadirgamar, 21 Years After His Assassination” (Jaffna Monitor, 13 August 2026, by Aruliniyan Mahalingam) To the Editor, I read with great interest your report marking the twenty-first anniversary of Lakshman Kadirgamar’s assassination, and High Commissioner Mahishini Colonne’s moving tribute to the standards he set for a generation of Sri Lankan diplomats. Her recollection of his insistence that “every word has meaning” in diplomacy


Jeevan Thiyagaraja

Jeevan Thiyagaraja

Malwatte Mahanayake Says President Did Not Reply to Letter

Malwatte Mahanayake Says President Did Not Reply to Letter

KANDY, Sri Lanka — One of Sri Lanka’s most senior Buddhist prelates said President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has not responded to a letter from the country’s chief Buddhist monks concerning the government’s proposal to extend the retirement age of senior judges. The Most Venerable Thibbatuwawe Sri Siddhartha Sumangala Thera, the Mahanayake of the Malwatte Chapter, said the chief prelates had not received even an acknowledgment that their letter had reached the President. “When the Mahanayake Th


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Former Student Sues University of Colombo, Seeking Rs. 5 Million Over Alleged Exam Irregularities

Former Student Sues University of Colombo, Seeking Rs. 5 Million Over Alleged Exam Irregularities

COLOMBO — A former diploma student at the University of Colombo has filed a lawsuit seeking Rs. 5 million in damages, alleging examination irregularities, arbitrary marking and retaliation by lecturers. Sanath Kumara Athukorala filed the action in the Nugegoda District Court, naming several current and former university officials and lecturers as defendants. Athukorala was enrolled in the 2022/23 Advanced Diploma in Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management programme offered by the univer


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Group Says Tamil Police Officer Dismissed Over Alleged Pro-LTTE Posts

Group Says Tamil Police Officer Dismissed Over Alleged Pro-LTTE Posts

NEGOMBO, Sri Lanka — A Tamil police officer attached to the Negombo Police Station has been removed from the force over social media posts said to be supportive of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, according to the group that campaigned for action against him. The group, The Sri COM, said this week that the officer, Jenistran Coonghe, was dismissed after an investigation. Sri Lanka Police has made no public announcement of any dismissal, and Jaffna Monitor could not independently verify the


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