JM Exclusive

LONDON — British Labour lawmaker Gareth Thomas has launched a campaign for direct flights between London and Jaffna, calling on the British and Sri Lankan governments, airlines and airport operators to explore establishing a route aimed largely at serving Britain’s substantial Tamil diaspora. Mr. Thomas, the member of Parliament for Harrow West, has launched a petition titled “Bring Direct Flights to Jaffna,” arguing that the absence of a direct connection places an unnecessary burden on Britis

GENEVA — Nearly two years after Sri Lankans elected a government that promised to dismantle the machinery of impunity, the United Nations human rights office said Thursday that the opening for change was closing. In a report to the Human Rights Council, the office credited the government with moving against corruption and reopening several political killings and disappearances. But it found that Colombo has gone on detaining people under the counterterrorism law it pledged to abolish, has made

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — Dharmalingam Siddharthan, the leader of the People’s Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE), has publicly accused TELO, a fellow Tamil political group, of killing his father 41 years ago, saying there was no uncertainty over who was responsible. “There is no confusion whatsoever,” Mr. Siddharthan said Wednesday at a memorial for his father, V. Dharmalingam, a former member of Parliament. “Those responsible for his death were members of the TELO. Everyone knows that.”

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Transport Minister Bimal Rathnayake said Wednesday that Sri Lanka would not pursue development projects that failed to benefit ordinary people, remarks likely to renew scrutiny of the government’s approach to two Indian-backed gateways in the Tamil-majority north: Jaffna International Airport at Palaly and Kankesanthurai Port. “Economic development projects must be connected to the everyday lives of the people,” Mr. Rathnayake said. “We will not pursue development projects

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — A monument honoring S.J.V. Chelvanayakam, the founder of the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kadchi and one of the most consequential figures in Sri Lankan Tamil politics, has been damaged at his family’s ancestral burial ground in Tellippalai, in what people familiar with the site said appeared to be a case of theft rather than a politically motivated attack. The monument stands in the Church of South India cemetery along the Vallai-Araly Road, within the Tellippalai Police Division, w