Monitor Memo

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

COLOMBO, 5 July 2026 India will transfer its visa, passport, and consular processing in Sri Lanka to a new outsourcing contractor on Monday, the High Commission of India in Colombo has announced, reviving an intermediary system that its diplomatic missions had run themselves for the past eight months. Alhind Global Services, an arm of a Kerala-based travel and services group, has been appointed the outsourcing service provider for visa, passport, Overseas Citizen of India (OCI), and attestatio

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — Douglas Devananda, secretary general of the Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP), said on Saturday that Sri Lanka's Tamil people should not expect any government in the country's south to voluntarily grant a political settlement, arguing instead that Tamils must create the conditions necessary to secure their own political rights. Mr. Devananda made the remarks during a meeting with key EPDP figures and party activists from the Nallur electorate. "No government that comes

COLOMBO — China's ambassador to Sri Lanka on Friday used a forum marking the release of the fifth volume of "Xi Jinping: The Governance of China" to press for deeper economic and political cooperation between the two countries, a year before they are to mark the 70th anniversary of diplomatic relations. Speaking at the China-Sri Lanka Readers Forum at the Hilton Colombo, Ambassador Qi Zhenhong described the volume as an authoritative compilation of President Xi Jinping's latest thinking and sai

By: Asela Kuruluwansha COLOMBO — Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa said on Saturday that the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) would choose its next presidential candidate based on public demand, adding that the party would not nominate his son, Namal Rajapaksa, unless the people wanted him to contest. "If the people do not ask for Namal, we are not prepared to make him the presidential candidate," Mr. Rajapaksa told reporters after paying homage at the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic in Ka

COLOMBO — The arrest on Friday of Admiral of the Fleet Wasantha Karannagoda on corruption allegations, followed by his release on bail later the same day, has renewed questions among many Sri Lankan Tamils, human rights advocates and families of the disappeared, not over the decision to arrest him in the corruption case, but over why he has never been taken into custody in connection with the long-running investigation into the disappearance of eleven civilians during the final stages of Sri Lan

VAVUNIYA, Sri Lanka — A Sri Lankan court has temporarily blocked the Northern Province governor from enforcing his decision to remove the elected mayor of Vavuniya, setting off a broader constitutional dispute over the powers of unelected governors in the absence of provincial councils. The Vavuniya High Court on Friday granted interim relief suspending a Gazette notification issued by Northern Province Governor Nagalingam Vethanayahan, removing Vavuniya Municipal Council Mayor Sundaralingam Ka