Sri Lanka continues to fail survivors of conflict-related sexual violence, with decades of alleged abuses by State security forces remaining largely uninvestigated and unpunished, according to a new report covering the period from 1985 to 2024.

The report documents a pattern of rape, sexual torture and other forms of sexual violence, primarily against civilians from marginalized Tamil communities, both during and after the armed conflict. It notes that while a small number of cases resulted in convictions, most investigations stalled, suspects were released on bail, or cases collapsed due to alleged evidentiary issues, reinforcing what the report describes as a culture of entrenched impunity.

According to the findings, security forces—including the Army, Navy, Air Force, Criminal Investigation Department and Terrorism Investigation Division—were repeatedly implicated in abuses, particularly in State-run detention facilities. Survivors reported violations occurring well beyond the end of the war in 2009, with incidents as recent as 2024 cited in consultations.

The report highlights that command responsibility has rarely been examined, even in cases where perpetrators testified that they acted under orders.

Despite Sri Lanka’s legal obligations under international human rights law, the report notes that prosecutions remain rare and that statutory limitations, prosecutorial discretion and systemic delays have further undermined accountability. Of hundreds of sexual violence complaints recorded by the Government in previous years, only a handful involved action against security personnel.

The report also finds that mechanisms intended to support survivors, including the Office for Reparations established in 2018, have failed to deliver meaningful compensation, rehabilitation or psychosocial support. None of the survivors consulted reported receiving reparations related to sexual violence.

Calling for urgent reform, the report urges the Government to publicly acknowledge past abuses, issue a formal apology, repeal laws such as the Prevention of Terrorism Act, and establish an independent investigative and prosecutorial body to handle conflict-related sexual violence cases free from political interference .

It warns that without decisive action, survivors will continue to live with unaddressed trauma, while Sri Lanka risks further international scrutiny for failing to meet its accountability obligations.

ECONOMYNEXT – Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi at the meeting with his Sri Lankan counterpart during a short visit this week has said the World second largest economy will work with like-minded countries to oppose the resurgence of the “law of the jungle,” resist all forms of power politics and bullying, Xinhua reported.

Wang was in Sri Lanka during a transit and met his Sri Lankan counterpart Vijitha Herath for a discussion on Monday (12).

“Wang said that in the face of an increasingly complex and volatile international situation, China will firmly safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of developing countries, especially small and medium-sized countries, uphold the purposes and principles of the UN Charter and international law,” China’s state news agency reported.

Wang’s comments come days after U.S. President Donald Trump oversaw a military invasion into Latin American neighbour Venezuela and capturing President Nicolas Maduro.

He has now threatened strong military action against Iran for clamping down protests before declaring a 25 percent punitive tariff on countries which trade with Iran,

Wang has also said China will “work with like-minded countries to oppose the resurgence of the “law of the jungle”, resist all forms of power politics and bullying, and defend multilateralism and international fairness and justice,” Xinhua reported.

An incident was reported last Sunday where two men in civilian clothing were arrested near the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) headquarters in Colombo while carrying a sniper rifle wrapped in black cloth.

Initially, their identities could not be confirmed, but later it was revealed that they were members of the Sri Lanka Army.

Yesterday, the two suspects were produced before the Fort Magistrate’s Court and released after the court considered submissions made by the Army.

The arrests took place near the CID building, close to the Harbour Master’s office and the port gate, where suspects usually report to the CID under court orders.

At the time, a large number of suspects were present at the CID premises.

CID informed the court that the weapon found in their possession was an AI-AW type sniper rifle.

The men, dressed in civilian attire, had the weapon wrapped in black cloth and carried no identification documents.

CID further stated that intelligence reports suggested a possible plan to target senior CID officials using sniper rifles, which led to the immediate arrest of the two men.

Following investigations and statements from multiple parties, CID submitted a detailed report to the court yesterday.

An Army legal officer told the court that the suspects were Army Commando soldiers engaged in a hostage rescue rehearsal inside the port premises.

He explained that they were returning from special training and had entered through an alternate route because the main gate was closed, leading to their arrest.

The Army also confirmed that the soldiers had authorization to carry the sniper rifle.

However, CID requested court approval to continue investigations into the weapon and obtain mobile phone analysis reports of the suspects.

The Magistrate ordered their release but stated that further directives regarding the weapon would be issued later.

Nearly sixteen years after the guns fell silent, Sri Lanka’s North and East remain trapped in a quiet but devastating crisis. It is not a crisis of war, but of neglect. While Colombo continues to attract investment, opportunity and attention, vast districts in the North and East are still starving for meaningful economic activity. Roads may exist, elections may come and go, but livelihoods remain fragile and hope wears thin.

Successive governments have spoken at length about reconciliation, integration and development. Yet on the ground, the reality is stark. There are few notable large scale investments in the North and East that generate sustainable employment for locals or meaningfully strengthen regional economies. Young people continue to migrate to Colombo or overseas. Those who stay behind rely heavily on remittances, small scale farming or government assistance. This is not development. It is survival.

One of the biggest obstacles has been the government’s chronic inability to take firm decisions due to geopolitical anxieties. The North and East, because of their strategic location, have been viewed less as economic engines and more as geopolitical chessboards. India, China, the West and regional security concerns have repeatedly paralysed decision making. As a result, global companies that have shown interest have been left waiting, discouraged or quietly pushed away. Investors value clarity and consistency. Sri Lanka has offered neither.

Ironically, infrastructure groundwork was already laid years ago. During Mahinda Rajapaksa’s tenure, major road networks were built connecting the North and East to the rest of the country. The A9, the coastal roads, and improved internal connectivity opened doors that could have been fully utilised. But roads alone do not create prosperity. They must lead somewhere. After that initial phase, very little followed in terms of industrial zones, technology parks, agri-processing hubs or export oriented manufacturing.

Today, as the world races ahead with technology, artificial intelligence and digital economies, much of the North and East still feel frozen in time. In districts like Mullaitivu, Kilinochchi and parts of Batticaloa, even basic private sector presence is limited. Compare this with regions in Vietnam or Bangladesh that emerged from conflict or poverty and strategically positioned themselves as manufacturing and IT hubs. Vietnam’s former war zones are now home to global electronics factories. Bangladesh’s once neglected regions now power its garment export economy. Sri Lanka missed similar opportunities.

The human cost of this stagnation is immense. Youth unemployment remains high. Educated graduates drive three wheelers or wait endlessly for government jobs. Frustration deepens, creating fertile ground for political manipulation and social unrest. Development delayed too long becomes a security issue of its own.

What then must be done?

First, the government must decisively separate economic development from geopolitical paranoia. Safeguards can exist without paralysis. Clear investment frameworks, transparent land policies and long term guarantees must be offered to global and regional investors. Countries far more geopolitically sensitive than Sri Lanka have managed this balance. We can, too. Second, the North and East must be positioned as sector specific investment zones. For example, Mannar and Pooneryn have strong potential for renewable energy, particularly wind and solar. Batticaloa and Trincomalee can be developed as agri processing and logistics hubs. Jaffna, with its strong education base, can be transformed into a technology and knowledge services centre if the right incentives are provided. India’s IT expansion into tier two cities offers a clear model Sri Lanka can adapt.

Third, local communities must be active stakeholders, not passive spectators. Investment projects must prioritise local employment, skills training and supplier integration. When people see tangible benefits, resistance fades and ownership grows. Rwanda’s post conflict recovery offers an important lesson here. By tying foreign investment directly to community upliftment, it rebuilt trust and stability simultaneously.

Fourth, Colombo centric thinking must end. A nation cannot be built on one city. Even today, policy makers behave as though Colombo alone can carry the economy. It cannot. Over concentration only deepens inequality and vulnerability. Balanced regional growth is not charity. It is economic common sense. Finally, political consistency is critical. Investors will not commit to regions where policy reverses every election cycle. A bipartisan development framework for the North and East is essential. Economic revival should not be hostage to party politics. Sri Lanka often speaks of unity and reconciliation, yet continues to ignore the most practical path towards both. Jobs, dignity and opportunity heal wounds faster than speeches. The North and East do not need sympathy. They need investment, courage and vision.

If we continue to delay, we risk creating a permanent underclass within our own borders. The cost of inaction will far exceed the risks of action. It is time to stop treating the North and East as problems to be managed, and start seeing them as assets waiting to be unlocked. Colombo alone cannot carry Sri Lanka forward. The nation will only rise when every region is allowed to rise with it.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has assured his personal intervention into a request by his Sri Lankan counterpart to assist in rebuilding roads, railways and bridges affected by Cyclone Ditwah devastation, the island nation’s Foreign mMinister said in a statement.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi was in Sri Lanka during a short visit and Minister Herath for a discussion.

Minister Hearth in a statement said the discussions focused on further advancing cooperation in the fields of trade and investment, development cooperation and tourism. It also focused on the reconstruction process of Sri Lanka following Cyclone Ditvah.

“In this regard, I particularly requested the assistance of the Chinese government in infrastructure development including reconstruction of identified roads, railways and bridges which were affected..” Herath said in a statement.

“and Minister Wang Yi assured his personal intervention to the said request and expressed confidence that Sri Lanka is on the right track for early recovery, and reaffirmed the Chinese Government’s fullest support.”

Wang Yi’s visit comes three weeks after Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishanker’s visit which saw a pledge of US$450 million assistance including a US$100 million grant for Sri Lanka’s rebuilding after the Ditwah disaster.

India pledged to assist restoration of road, railway and bridge connectivity, support for construction of houses, support for health and education systems, agriculture; and better disaster response and preparedness.

Last Saturday (3), a group of Sinhala Nationalists tried to organise a march carrying a Buddha statue from Kankesanthurai (KKS) railway station to the highly contested Tissa Raja Maha Vihara premises situated about half a kilometre away.

The organisers – prominent Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) social media activists, publicised the event mostly via Facebook and Whatsapp. Their flyers and videos called on a “pilgrimage to reestablish the Sinhalese authority over the region”.

On Friday (2) the same social media pages shared video footage of organisers travelling to KKS aboard the Yaal Devi train, encouraging people to join the march. Local Catholic priests, activists and residents also organised a protest in front of the Tissa Raja Maha Vihara the same day to protest against the march as a part of an ongoing demonstration calling on the Government to release the private lands occupied by the Tissa Raja Maha Vihara.

KKS police told the Sunday Observer that the Security Forces in the area were reportedly mobilised in the early hours to prevent any form of confrontation between the two groups. But the march itself did not take place. The local residents, however, carried out the protest under heavy police presence.

History of Tissa

The Sinhalese chronicle of the Mahawamsa records of a temple being built in honour of King Devanampiyatissa to mark the event of receiving a sapling of the Sri Maha Bodhi tree from Emperor Asoka at Dambakolapatuna, a few miles to the West of the Tissa Raja Maha Vihara. Facing multiple invasions and periodic destruction over the millenia, the vihara was buried in the sands of time.

In the mid-1940s, two bhikkhus from the South arrived in the area in search of the ruins and settled in an area suspected to be where the original temple was. With a small plot of land (1.5 acres) donated by a Sinhalese land owner in the area, a small temple shrine was constructed. This area has also been marked as “temple land” in both the English and the Tamil versions of the 1959 revision of the Jaffna one-inch map (1:63,360) published by the Survey Department. With the establishment of the State cement factory in KKS, many Sinhalese workers who worked in the factory venerated a shrine near a Bo tree that had been where the current temple is located.

According to the documentation provided by the Nagadeepa Vihara Chief prelate Ven. Navandagala Padumakiththi Thera, the shrine was on a plot of land that belonged to the Nagadeepa Temple. However, rising tensions between the Sinhalese and the Tamil communities in the early 1960s later spilled into a civil war, so the humble shrine faded into the forest thicket over the next few decades.

Yet local residents, the majority of whom are Hindus, said that even during the time of the LTTE, local residents used to light lamps near the Bodhi tree out of habit and it was fondly called the “Buddhist Kovil”.

Private land

Following the end of the civil war, large swathes of private land were taken under the control of the military over a myriad of reasons ranging from demining, High Security Zones and for national security. Despite thousands of locals being denied their right to return home, and clear legal documentation that proves the land’s private ownership, the construction of the Tissa Vihara began under the patronage of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s Government.

Despite the political turmoil in Colombo, the vihara was constructed on seven-acres of private land, with the help of the Sri Lanka Army only a few months before President Ranil Wickremesinghe vacated the office, complicating the existing demilitarisation issues in the North.

Following long discussions both within Parliament and across Opposition parties, in April last year the Presidential Secretariat directed the Jaffna Divisional Secretariat to release the private land around Tissa Vihara to the local land owners by May 2025.

The Chief Incumbent of the Tissa Vihara now lays claim to 15 acres surrounding the temple claiming it is an archeological site. However, the remains of houses are scattered across the 15 acres of land, abandoned during the war. These are far older than the newly constructed Tissa Vihara.

The Sunday Observer learns that the Department of Archaeology has not carried out archaeological surveys nor found any archaeological evidence proving the site to be the original location of the fabled Tissa Vihara.

A leading Sinhalese archaeologist who has led excavations in some of the most prominent archaeological sites in the past few years and wishes to remain anonymous told the Sunday Observer that he believes that the actual archaeological site of the Tissa Vihara is believed to be located a few kilometres towards Dambakolapatuna. He said previous Governments nor the Archaeology Department has shown any interest in excavating the suspected area.

“Having a claim over the current temple premises complicates and prolongs the need to release these lands. There are powerful forces that are probably trying to hide something. If they really wanted to find the real temple, then why are we hesitating to unearth it?” asked the archaeologist.

“Bend the law”

Many locals said that certain high-ranking police officers constantly “bend the law” to satisfy the chief prelate of the Tissa Vihara, the Sunday Observer learns. On Saturday, the police refused to allow journalists, both State and private, from entering the temple premises wrongfully referring to a court order which they claim does not permit journalists in. Despite the Deputy Inspector General of Jaffna ordering the Officer-in-Charge of the Kankesanthurai Division , SSP P.M.R. Ambeypitiya to escort the journalist into the temple, journalists were barred from entering the temple.

S.S.P Ambeypitiya along with the OIC of Tellipalai CI W.M. Udayapala and the OIC of Ilavalai CI S.A.C. Jayanath later told the journalists that Ven. Ginthota Nandarama Thera was mentally stressed due to the media pressure and has asked to not allow any journalists into the temple.

Whether they take orders from the DIG of Jaffna or the chief prelate of the Tissa Vihara is a mystery. Many locals said that this is common with regard to the temple, with some locals even saying that on certain days crowds are dispersed by the police at the request of the chief bhikkhu.

Recently, Vali North Pradeshiya Sabha personnel had arrived at the temple to demarcate the temple boundary and put up a board separating the private land. A Pradeshiya Sabha official who wished to remain anonymous told the Sunday Observer that the police had asked them to go back.