October 2026

Can Two Export Zones Revive Sri Lanka’s War-Battered North?

Can Two Export Zones Revive Sri Lanka’s War-Battered North?

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka’s Board of Investment said this week it would begin taking land reservations from investors at a planned export processing zone in Paranthan, Northern Province, by the end of November, and start building infrastructure there and at a second zone in Kankesanthurai in early January. The board announced the schedule in a statement on Wednesday after its chairman, Duminda Hulangamuwa, and its director general, Sulakshana Jayawardena, visited the province. In Kilinochch
October 2026
Our Reporter

Our Reporter
Buddhist Monks March on Colombo to Demand Release of Jailed Hard-Line Cleric

Buddhist Monks March on Colombo to Demand Release of Jailed Hard-Line Cleric

By Asela Kuruluwansa KANDY, Sri Lanka — More than 100 Buddhist monks set out from Kandy on Saturday on a six-day march to Colombo, the capital, to demand the release of Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara Thero, a hard-line Sinhala Buddhist nationalist cleric who was returned to prison this week to serve the rest of a sentence for contempt of court. The march has exposed a division within Sri Lanka’s Buddhist clergy. On Thursday, the leaders of the country’s main monastic orders met President Anura Kuma
October 2026
Asela Kuruluwansha.

Asela Kuruluwansha.
Sri Lankan Facing Execution in Saudi Arabia May Convert to Islam, Newspaper Reports

Sri Lankan Facing Execution in Saudi Arabia May Convert to Islam, Newspaper Reports

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sivarasa Anojan, the Sri Lankan migrant worker sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia over a Facebook comment about the Prophet Muhammad, has told Saudi authorities that he is willing to convert to Islam in an effort to avoid execution, a Tamil-language newspaper in Jaffna reported on Friday. The report could not be independently verified, and Tamil politicians involved in efforts to save Mr. Anojan’s life said they could not confirm it. Neither the Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry
October 2026
Our Reporter

Our Reporter
Navi Pillay, Jurist of Tamil Descent Who Pressed Sri Lanka on War Crimes, Wins Nobel Peace Prize

Navi Pillay, Jurist of Tamil Descent Who Pressed Sri Lanka on War Crimes, Wins Nobel Peace Prize

OSLO — Navanethem Pillay, the South African jurist whose demands for an international investigation into the final months of Sri Lanka’s civil war made her a defining figure for war-affected Tamils and a target of the Rajapaksa government, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday. The Norwegian Nobel Committee said it was honoring Ms. Pillay, 85, known as Navi, for her work to advance “a more comprehensive global legal order” and to ensure that war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocid
JM Exclusive October 2026
Aruliniyan Mahalingam

Aruliniyan Mahalingam
President Says Prison Rules Did Not Foresee Jailed Monks. The British Were Jailing Them in 1816.
An illustration of Wariyapola Sri Sumangala Thero, who defied British colonial rule and was imprisoned in Jaffna for treason in 1818, nearly six decades before Ceylon enacted its Prisons Ordinance.

President Says Prison Rules Did Not Foresee Jailed Monks. The British Were Jailing Them in 1816.

By Aruliniyan Mahalingam The president told senior clergy that the drafters of Sri Lanka’s prison regulations may not have expected monks to be imprisoned. Colonial records show monks tried for treason, jailed in Jaffna and Kandy, and executed in their robes before the law was written. A court ruled on a monk stripped of his robes in prison more than a century ago. JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — More than 120 years ago, a Buddhist monk walked out of a colonial prison in Ceylon without his robes. The pris
JM Exclusive October 2026
Aruliniyan Mahalingam

Aruliniyan Mahalingam
What the President Told the Monks: Inside AKD's Meeting on the Jailed Monk's Robes

What the President Told the Monks: Inside AKD's Meeting on the Jailed Monk's Robes

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — President Anura Kumara Dissanayake told senior Buddhist monks on Thursday that he understood the distress caused by seeing a revered monk brought before court in prison clothing, but insisted that he would not intervene to set aside prison regulations for an individual, declaring that his personal preferences must never become the law. Speaking at a meeting convened after senior Buddhist prelates protested the treatment of Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara Thero, the president defe
JM Exclusive October 2026
Our Reporter

Our Reporter
Fisheries Minister’s Associate Accused of Pressuring Officials Over Jaffna Sea Cucumber Project

Fisheries Minister’s Associate Accused of Pressuring Officials Over Jaffna Sea Cucumber Project

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — A former head of the Jaffna District Fisheries Federation accused an associate of Fisheries Minister Ramalingam Chandrasekar on Thursday of pressuring officials to grant land for a sea cucumber hatchery to a local leader of the governing National People's Power's Praja Shakthi programme on one of the islands off Jaffna. Annalingam Annarasa, the federation's former chairman, made the allegation at a news conference in Jaffna. He said he knew the associate's identity and had e
October 2026
Our Reporter

Our Reporter
Canadian Poet Anne Carson, Who Reinvented the Greek Classics, Wins Nobel Prize in Literature

Canadian Poet Anne Carson, Who Reinvented the Greek Classics, Wins Nobel Prize in Literature

STOCKHOLM: Anne Carson, the Canadian poet, essayist and translator whose books fold ancient Greek literature into verse novels, essays, performance pieces and comics, won the Nobel Prize in Literature on Thursday. The Swedish Academy cited Ms. Carson "for her bold and inventive oeuvre that, in playful dialogue with the classical tradition, has created new forms for contemporary literature." The prize, awarded for a writer's entire body of work, carries 12 million Swedish kronor, about $1.2 mill
October 2026
Jaffna Monitor

Jaffna Monitor