Monitor Memo

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — M.S. Abdul Wahid, a National List lawmaker from the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, resigned from Parliament on Monday, creating a vacancy in the party’s sole National List seat and setting up another change in a position that has already changed hands since the 2024 general election. Hansa Abeyratne, the acting secretary-general of Parliament, wrote to the chairman of the Election Commission confirming that Abdul Wahid had submitted his resignation as a member of Parliament. Th

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Three university research teams in Sri Lanka have received grants totaling 110,000 euros to trace how single-use plastics move through food and beverage supply chains in the Colombo and Galle districts, part of a European Union-funded effort to cut plastic waste in the country's food sector. The teams are drawn from the Faculty of Agriculture at the University of Ruhuna and the faculties of Medicine and Computing at the University of Kelaniya. The grants were awarded under

BUDAPEST — Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage of Sri Lanka won the men's javelin at the inaugural World Athletics Ultimate Championship on Sunday, throwing 91.09 metres in the fourth round to beat a field that included the reigning world, Olympic and European champions. Pathirage, 23, opened poorly with 75.89 metres, then found his range with 85.69 in the second round. His third throw of 87.11 metres put him in front. The fourth ended the contest. Anderson Peters of Grenada, a two-time world champion,

OSLO — Kamzy Gunaratnam, who arrived in Norway as a 3-year-old refugee from Sri Lanka's civil war, was appointed the country's transport minister on Friday, taking charge of a ministry that oversees Norway's roads, railways, aviation and sea transport. Ms. Gunaratnam, 38, a Labour Party member of Parliament from Oslo, was appointed in a cabinet meeting on Sept. 11 and took office at noon the same day. She succeeds Jon-Ivar Nygård, who had led the ministry since October 2021. The change was par

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — A Tamil opposition leader challenged the Sri Lankan government in Parliament on Friday to produce the studies behind a senior minister’s comparison of the north’s main airport and seaport with two costly infrastructure projects built during the rule of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Bimal Rathnayake, the Leader of the House and minister of transport and highways, said at a recent news conference in Jaffna that the government would decide when and how to develop Jaffna I

By Asela Kuruluwansha KANDY, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka’s new political leadership cannot distance itself from the country’s unresolved human rights record simply because the abuses occurred under previous governments, Tamil lawmaker Shanakiyan Rasamanickam said, warning that international scrutiny would persist until the underlying issues were addressed. Changes in the presidency, Cabinet or governing party do not erase the state’s responsibility to confront past violations or act on international

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — On the morning of May 18, 2009, Sellamma walked her two sons and her son-in-law across the Vattuvakal bridge and handed them to Sri Lankan soldiers. She had been assured that men who surrendered would be rehabilitated and returned, her family has said. She spent the next 17 years on roadside protests asking where they were, and died in May without an answer. Gen. Shavendra Silva commanded the division that held the ground on the far side of that bridge. In an extensive inte

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — The People’s Struggle Alliance has accused the government of introducing Sri Lanka’s proposed 22nd Amendment to the Constitution to benefit particular individuals and groups, saying the measure offers no meaningful benefit to the country or its people. Nuwan Bopage, a lawyer and national executive committee member of the alliance, made the accusation at a news conference at the group’s office in Nugegoda on Friday. “The 22nd Amendment is being brought for the benefit of in