President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has effectively ruled out granting a presidential pardon to Ven. Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara Thera, stressing that his government will respect Supreme Court decisions and will not interfere with the judicial process.

Addressing the National People’s Power (NPP) women’s rally in Badulla on Sunday (October 18), the President said the government would accept the final decisions of the judiciary and warned that no one should expect the executive to overturn them.

Although the President did not specifically mention Gnanasara Thera or his imprisonment, his remarks appeared to be directed at the ongoing controversy surrounding the monk’s imprisonment and demands for a presidential pardon.

The President explained that Parliament was responsible for enacting laws, while institutions such as the police, Criminal Investigation Department and Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption were responsible for investigations and enforcement.

However, he stressed that the final authority to interpret and apply the law rested with the judiciary, particularly the Supreme Court.

“When the Supreme Court delivers a judgment, some people start shouting, demanding that it be removed. How can a country function with laws like that?” the President questioned.

He said the government considered judicial decisions to be the authoritative determination of the law and would abide by them.

“We will abide by the decisions delivered by the courts. Beyond that, no one should expect decisions from us,” he declared.

The remarks come amid mounting demands from several Buddhist monks and opposition politicians for the release of Gnanasara Thera.

On September 10, the Supreme Court invalidated the presidential pardon granted to Gnanasara Thera by former President Maithripala Sirisena in 2019, ruling that the decision was unlawful.

Following the judgment, the Court of Appeal ordered on October 5 that the monk’s six-year prison sentence for contempt of court be enforced.

The decision has triggered protests by groups demanding his release, including a demonstration by Buddhist monks in Colombo.

The President’s latest remarks represent his clearest public indication yet that he is unwilling to intervene in the matter, although he stopped short of explicitly announcing a decision on a fresh presidential pardon.

Separately, government sources have indicated that the President would not grant Gnanasara Thera a pardon or yield to pressure to circumvent the law.

The President also warned against attempts to undermine the legal system, saying that a country where the law is applied equally to everyone is essential to ensuring a secure future for its children.

Four consecutive tender cancellations have held up the full commissioning of the Colombo Port’s East Container Terminal (ECT), with the Government now making a fifth attempt to procure 15 straddle carriers even as it explores handing over operations of the State-owned facility to a private operator.

With 82–85% of civil construction completed, the terminal faces a further wait of 10–12 months for the equipment to arrive after the contract is awarded, raising questions over repeated procurement failures at one of Sri Lanka’s key port development projects.

Speaking to The Sunday Morning, Ports and Civil Aviation Minister Anura Karunathilaka revealed that four previous tenders for straddle carriers had been cancelled for different reasons, while the fifth procurement process was nearing completion following negotiations with two bidders.

“The main issue is the procurement of equipment, particularly straddle carriers,” the Minister said.

He said that the Government expected to conclude negotiations and award the contract within approximately two months, particularly as the validity period of the current bids was approaching its expiry.

“We expect to complete the process within this year. The bid validity period is also approaching its end. Therefore, we need to complete the negotiations and award the contract within approximately the next two months,” he explained.

However, even if the contract is awarded within the anticipated time frame, the terminal will not be immediately ready for full operations.

“After awarding the contract, it will take another 10–12 months for the equipment to be delivered and become operational,” the Minister said.

Meanwhile, the Government is considering private sector participation in the operation of the ECT while retaining State ownership, with several proposals already received from prospective operators, including major international shipping companies.

The Minister confirmed that no investor or operator had been selected and that the Government was awaiting legal clearance before proceeding with an open competitive bidding process.

“Our intention is to retain ownership of the terminal while considering the possibility of granting operational rights to a private sector operator. That could involve a local company or an international partner,” he said.

According to Karunathilaka, the Government’s primary consideration in selecting an operator would be its ability to attract sufficient container volumes to ensure the terminal’s commercial viability.

“The most important consideration is the operator’s ability to attract sufficient container throughput,” he explained. The Minister said that several proposals had already been received, although he declined to identify the interested companies or their countries of origin.

“We have received several proposals from different companies. However, we have not selected an investor or operator,” he said.

He added that certain legal matters needed to be resolved before the Government could proceed with the proposed selection process. “We are awaiting the necessary legal clearance. Once those issues are resolved, we intend to proceed through an open and competitive bidding process,” he said.

The ECT, designed to handle approximately 2.4 million Twenty-foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) annually, comprises a planned 1,320-metre quay and a terminal area of around 75 hectares. Its first phase, including a 440-metre quay, was completed in 2015 at a cost of approximately Rs. 11.17 billion, although operations remained limited due to equipment shortages.

The terminal became the centre of political controversy following a 2019 agreement between Sri Lanka, India, and Japan to develop the facility under a 51:49 ownership arrangement. Following strong opposition, the then Government decided in February 2021 to develop and operate the ECT entirely under the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA).

Construction of the second phase commenced in January 2022, with an estimated project cost of $ 510 million, including $ 200 million from the SLPA. The development envisaged 12 ship-to-shore cranes and 40 rail-mounted gantry cranes.

According to the Auditor General’s report, the SLPA procured these 52 cranes for approximately $ 282.56 million. Although all equipment had arrived by June 2025, only six ship-to-shore cranes were operational at that stage due to infrastructure delays. Terminal capacity utilisation increased from 43% in 2021 to 63% in 2024.

Despite these constraints, the ECT handled more than 500,000 TEUs in 2025 and commissioned its third berth in 2026.

Meanwhile, Colombo Port recorded 8.29 million TEUs in 2025, up from 7.79 million TEUs in 2024, reflecting 6.4% growth. During the first half of 2026, throughput increased by 11.9% to 4.44 million TEUs, compared with 3.97 million TEUs during the corresponding period of 2025.

According to the SLPA, Colombo’s global ranking improved from 26th at the end of 2025 to 20th during the first half of 2026, highlighting the growing importance of bringing the ECT into full operation.

When Navanethem Pillay, who served as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2008 to 2014, won this year’s Nobel Peace Prize on last Friday we saw mixed reactions from Sri Lankans.

Many including Tamil leaders and anti-war campaigners welcomed it, while many in the southern parts of the island deplored it.

Among the UN High Commissioners for Human Rights, Navanethem Pillay, commonly known as Navi Pillay, can be described as the most familiar figure to the people of Sri Lanka. This is because it was during her tenure that the UN and its Human Rights Council began taking decisive actions regarding the human rights situation in Sri Lanka.

One cannot say definitively that she was the sole reason for these actions, or that her Tamil heritage was the cause. The secessionist war in Sri Lanka ended during her tenure and the final stage of the war was highly catastrophic. Under those circumstances, even if someone else had been the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the UN would have still been compelled to handle the Sri Lankan human rights issue with high priority.

Navi Pillay is the fourth person of Tamil or Tamil-descent to receive a Nobel Prize. The other three are C.V. Raman, who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1930; Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1983; and Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, who won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2009.

Among them, C.V. Raman belonged to Tamil Nadu. His nephew, Chandrasekhar, was born in Lahore (a city in present-day Pakistan) and later acquired American citizenship. Ramakrishnan, who is of Indian origin, holds British and American citizenship.

First non-white high court judge

According to Wikipedia, Navi Pillay’s grandparents were taken from Tamil Nadu to South Africa as indentured labourers to work in sugarcane plantations. Her father, Narayansamy Naidu, worked as a bus driver in South Africa. In 1965, Navanethem Naidu married Paranjothi Anthony Pillay, thus becoming Navanethem Pillay. Navi Pillay was the first non-white judge appointed to the High Court of South Africa.

This year’s Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to her for her services to world peace and international law. Her long-term contributions to these fields were taken into consideration for the award.

Examining genocides

When Hutus massacred around eight hundred thousand Tutsis in Rwanda in 1994, UN established the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in 1995 to investigate it. Navi Pillay was appointed as one of its judges and in 1999, she became the President of the tribunal. In 2003, she was appointed as a judge of the International Criminal Court (ICC). In 2008, she was appointed as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Following the end of her term at the Human Rights Council in 2014, Pillay served as a judge on the International Court of Justice (ICJ) regarding the Rohingya genocide in Myanmar. Subsequently, she was appointed as a member of the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, established in 2021.

In 2023, this commission concluded that Hamas had committed war crimes, and in 2024, it determined that Israel was engaged in genocide. Due to this ruling on Israel and her work at the International Criminal Court, Navi Pillay earned the resentment of certain Western countries, including the United States. Therefore, when she won the Nobel Peace Prize this time, US President Donald Trump expressed his dissatisfaction regarding it.

Although many High Commissioners for Human Rights took various actions concerning Sri Lanka during and after the war, Navi Pillay attracted the most attention. In particular, while the Tamil people praised her actions, the majority of the Sinhala population severely criticised her. This was because many viewed her actions through the lens of her being a Tamil woman rather than as the head of an international organisation.

Pillay was not the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights who took the harshest action against Sri Lanka. The most stringent action was taken in 2021 when Michelle Bachelet was the High Commissioner. An evidence-gathering mechanism was established then to prosecute those accused of human rights violations in Sri Lanka in foreign courts. Yet, Pillay remains the most disliked figure by successive Sri Lankan governments and the majority community.

It was during her tenure at the Human Rights Council that passing of annual resolutions on Sri Lanka was begun. Sri Lanka was censured twice every year through this process regarding its human rights record. The Sri Lankan government and the majority community strongly opposed this. On those occasions, some did not forget her Tamil heritage, either.

Yet, the first resolution passed by the Human Rights Council in 2012 merely urged the government to implement the recommendations of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), appointed by President Mahinda Rajapaksa in 2010. While subsequent annual resolutions included several other conditions, the Sri Lankan government, except during Yahapalana period,” vehemently opposed all those resolutions.

Consequently, when Navanethem Pillay visited Sri Lanka in 2013, Mervyn Silva, a minister in Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government at the time, insultingly stated that he wished to marry Pillay. Later, while she was still in Sri Lanka, President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Cabinet spokesman Dullas Alahapperuma, and Leader of the House Nimal Siripala de Silva expressed their regrets over the incident.

Having experienced severe racial discrimination in South Africa during apartheid, it would not be surprising if Navi Pillay viewed the issues of Tamils in Sri Lanka with a unique sense of empathy. At the same time, she might have approached the issues in Sri Lanka from the perspective of being a Tamil.

However, the reports on human rights violations in Sri Lanka published during her tenure did not solely highlight the excesses of the Sri Lankan armed forces. They mostly referred to the human rights violations of “both parties”— the armed forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

In 2014, her office conducted an investigation into the alleged human rights violations committed by “both parties” and the report of it was published in 2015. With the exception of sexual offenses, all other allegations leveled against the armed forces in that report were also leveled against the Tigers.

The investigation was conducted based on specific international laws including international criminal law, which encompasses crimes such as genocide. This means allegations of genocide had been taken into consideration during the investigation. However, the report did not accuse any belligerent party of genocide.

Ultimately, along with a long list of recommendations for the government to implement, the report also stated that: “There must be recognition within the Tamil community, for example, of the destruction and harm inflicted on civilians and communities by the LTTE.”

Accordingly, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) issued a statement then saying, “We will use this moment as a moment of introspection into our own community’s failures and the unspeakable crimes committed in our name.” However, the government of the day failed to understand these positive signals and take steps toward reconciliation.

Also, we don’t recall her mentioning ‘both parties’ in Sri Lanka after leaving the UNHRC.

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) says it is currently taking the necessary steps to obtain an Interpol Red Notice against former Minister Basil Rajapaksa.

The move follows an order issued by the Colombo Fort Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday directing that warrants against Rajapaksa be issued in both Sinhala and English to facilitate action through Interpol.

The order was made when a case relating to the alleged use of Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau funds for the printing of T-shirts for an election campaign was taken up before Colombo Fort Magistrate Pasan Amarasena.

The case is scheduled to be taken up again on February 17.