Monitor Memo

Shanakiyan Rasamanickam, the parliamentary group leader of the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK), called on Sri Lanka's government to disclose to Parliament how much civilian land remains under military control in the country's north and east, saying the administration had been too slow to fulfill its election pledge to return the land and reduce the military's presence in the region. Seventeen years after the end of Sri Lanka's civil war, Mr. Rasamanickam said, the continued occupation of pri

COLOMBO — Independent Jaffna District lawmaker Archchuna Ramanathan wore a black armband in Parliament on Wednesday in protest over the deadly violence at Negombo Prison, joining members of the opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya in demanding that the government accept responsibility for the deaths. Opposition lawmakers, including Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa, entered the parliamentary chamber wearing black armbands during Wednesday's sitting. Several other legislators also attended dressed

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — Families of Sri Lankan Tamils who vanished during decades of political violence said they would convene an international conference in Jaffna on Aug. 30, renewing their demand for international accountability and rejecting the government's efforts to address the issue through domestic mechanisms. The gathering will mark the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances. Organized by associations of relatives from the Northern and Eastern Provinces, it is expect

COLOMBO — The minister responsible for Sri Lanka’s mining sector conceded in Parliament that mineral-extraction projects had gone ahead without any environmental assessment, that companies had profited by trading and transferring their licenses, and that the country had no plan to add value to the raw minerals it exports — admissions a Tamil opposition leader said should force the cancellation of every permit issued under those conditions. The concessions by Sunil Handunnetti, the Minister of I

COLOMBO — Sri Lanka's government will fast-track legislation to allow courts to place some suspects under house arrest with electronic monitoring instead of remanding them in overcrowded prisons, Justice Minister Harshana Nanayakkara said on Tuesday, presenting the proposal as part of a broader effort to address chronic congestion in the country's prison system following the deadly violence at Negombo Prison. Speaking in Parliament, Mr. Nanayakkara said Sri Lanka's prisons were operating far be

COLOMBO — Prisoners' rights advocates escalated pressure on Sri Lanka's government on Monday, accusing it of concealing the scale of deadly violence at Negombo Prison and of neglecting the overcrowding, staff shortages, and inadequate medical care that they said had pushed the country's prison system beyond its capacity. At separate news conferences, the Prisoners' Rights Protection Association and Wasantha Mudalige, an activist with the People's Struggle Front, said the authorities had yet to

COLOMBO — Former Minister Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan, the one-time eastern commander of the Tamil Tigers better known as Karuna Amman, has reportedly told Sri Lanka's Criminal Investigation Department that the country's former intelligence chief helped arrange and finance safe houses used by a rival Tamil paramilitary group, according to a report published by a Sinhala-language news website. Jaffna Monitor could not independently verify the claims, as neither the Criminal Investigation Depart