Justice Minister Harshana Nanayakkara presented in Parliament the Presidents’ Entitlements (Repeal) Bill which aims to repeal the Presidents’ Entitlements Act, No. 4 of 1986.
The Bill, once enacted, will repeal special privileges granted to former Presidents, their families and retired Members of Parliament.
The Government of China has officially handed over a humanitarian aid package worth Rs. 400 million to the Government of Sri Lanka to support ongoing flood relief efforts. The donation, facilitated through China Aid, includes a wide range of emergency items such as tent kits, folding bags, power generators, water pumps, blankets, and other essential supplies.
The handover ceremony took place in Colombo, with the Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to Sri Lanka, Qi Zhenhong, and Secretary to the Ministry of Defence, Air Vice Marshal (Retd) Sampath Thuyacontha, in attendance.
Speaking at the event, Ambassador Qi Zhenhong emphasized China’s commitment to supporting Sri Lanka’s post-disaster recovery:
“This shipment has already arrived in Colombo to improve settlement conditions for affected communities. China is willing to actively share its expertise in disaster response, early warning systems, and meteorological monitoring. We look forward to deepening cooperation in these areas to contribute to the safety and well-being of the Sri Lankan people.”
Defence Secretary Thuyacontha expressed gratitude for the timely assistance:
“This generous donation of humanitarian aid, valued at 10 million yuan, comes at a crucial time. As climate change intensifies natural disasters, partnerships like this are vital for building resilience. The aid will be managed by the National Disaster Relief Services Centre and distributed through district secretaries to ensure it reaches those most in need.”
The aid is expected to be deployed swiftly through relevant government agencies to provide relief to flood-affected communities across the island.
The Government stated that although it may need to seek technical assistance from international experts to examine skeletal remains discovered at mass graves such as Chemmani, there will be no need for any other form of international intervention, as it fully supports the ongoing investigation process.
Speaking to The Daily Morning, Deputy Minister of National Integration Muneer Mulaffer said that while there has long been a call from some groups in the north for international involvement in such investigations, the Government, he insisted, has not obstructed any part of the current probes.
“There is already space for a fair investigation. If we need international technical help, say for identifying skeletal remains or conducting advanced forensic testing, that’s something that we can discuss. But, apart from that, there’s no need for another type of intervention, because we are giving our full support,” he added.
His remarks follow renewed calls for international oversight after more than 100 skeletal remains were found at the Chemmani mass grave site. The Thamil Makkal Thesiya Kuttani Leader, President’s Counsel and former Northern Chief Minister and Supreme Court Justice, C.V. Wigneswaran recently called for an international oversight mechanism, claiming that there is a breakdown of public trust in the local authorities.
Last week, the International Commission of Jurists also called for international oversight of the Chemmani excavation, describing a victim-centred process as an important first step toward truth and accountability. It urged the Government to ensure that all investigative and exhumation efforts align with international human rights standards, including the Minnesota Protocol on the Investigation of Potentially Unlawful Death.
The Chemmani site is one of several known mass graves in Sri Lanka linked to alleged enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings, particularly during the civil conflict. Discovered in the late 1990s, Chemmani came into focus again this year after excavation teams uncovered over 100 skeletal remains. Other sites, including those in Mannar, Matale, and Sathurukondan, have similarly revealed mass graves over the years, but few have led to successful prosecutions.
Sri Lanka’s City of Dreams integrated resort, built by John Keells Holdings, with a casino and Nuwa hotel by its partner Melco Resorts and Entertainment, expects to reposition Colombo to the top end of the tourism market, officials said.
The 1.2 billion Us dollar integrated resort was conceptualized in 2010-2011, after a 30-year war and John Keells was looking for ways to strengthen Sri Lanka’s tourism potential.
“We were also conscious that we were next door to India, which was growing at a rapid pace, and is continuing to grow even today, 11 years later,” JKH Chairman Krishan Balendra said.
“And we could see the potential for having that outbound Indian tourist market. But not just India.
“We are four hours away from the Middle East and other parts of South Asia, and very close even to Southeast Asia, so we have very big tourist arrivals from India, China, other Southeast Asian countries, the Middle East.”
“So, we were looking at what we should build to tap that opportunity, and looking around what was very impactful in the region were these integrated resorts, where you have the different components that we now have in place.”
The City of Dreams has a Cinnamon Hotel, Melco casino and its Nuwa Hotel, apartments, shopping mall, conference and banqueting space and restaurants which will have spillover effects similar to Marina Bay sands in Singapore, he said.
“The first time I visited 12 years ago, and I was shown the rendering and the design of this iconic building, I thought – and we built some pretty amazing stuff around the world – and I was like, this is just impossible, it’s not buildable,” said Lawrence Ho, Chairman of Melco Resorts and Entertainment.
“And of course, we’re in this amazing iconic building today.”
“Sri Lanka is perfectly positioned as a gateway to key feeder markets, including India, China, Russia, the Middle East, with India in particular showing tremendous growth in its affluent middle and upper classes.”
Melco has gaming resorts in Macau, Manila and Cyprus. Sri Lanka has the chance to be what Macau is to China, he said.
Between Cypress and Colombo, there was the Middle East where the firm had seen significant growth.
“What we’ve been telling our database of guests is that Sri Lanka is like no destination that we’ve been to,” Ho said.
“If you go to look at the places that we’ve had, like Macau, which is very much a small city where gaming and localities really, and Cyprus is an island.
“But when you come to Sri Lanka, it’s really a destination that you can spend a week or even two weeks in.”
John Keells Holding is expected to get fixed and variable revenues from the Casino, hotel revenues, rent over the longer term, and also profits from apartment sales.
Bookings are starting to grow and this year’s winter season as a whole is is looking better than last year for the country, Balendra said.
A member of the Sri Lanka Navy has been arrested in Minuwangoda on suspicion of being involved in a planned organized crime, including an alleged plot to assassinate a businessman in the Gampaha area.
The arrest was made during a special operation conducted by the Police Special Task Force (STF).
Authorities say the suspect was found in possession of narcotics at the time of arrest.
Initial reports suggest the suspect may have been acting under the direction of a criminal gang, with plans to carry out a targeted killing.
The suspect has been handed over to the Gampaha Crimes Division.
Two Fundamental Rights petitions filed seeking an order to invalidate the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) recently signed between Sri Lanka and India, were today dismissed by the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court two-judge-bench comprising Justice Achala Wengappuli and Justice Priyantha Fernando decided to dismiss the two petitions citing that there is no prima facie case to proceed with the applications.
Seven MoUs between India and Sri Lanka, including defence cooperation, sharing successful digital solutions and MoU on Multi-sectoral Grant Assistance to the Eastern Province, were exchanged on April 5 at the Presidential Secretariat in the presence of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
President’s Counsel Manohara de Silva and Senior Counsel Canishka Witharana appeared for the petitioners. Deputy Solicitor General Nirmalan Wignashwaran appeared for the Attorney General.
In a significant development related to the Chemmani mass graves case in Jaffna, the wife of Lance Corporal Somaratna Rajapakse—who was convicted as the main accused in the Krishanti Kumaraswamy rape and murder case—has written to President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, expressing her husband’s willingness to testify if an international investigation is launched, Virakesari newspaper exclusively reported on Sunday (3).
In her letter, S.C. Wijewikrama stated that her husband has no involvement in the rape and murder of Krishanti Kumaraswamy and her family. She claimed that the orders to bury the bodies at the Chemmani checkpoint came from senior military officers, particularly Captain Lalith Hewage. She insists her husband only carried out those orders and was wrongfully convicted.
She further alleges that successive governments have protected high-ranking military officials while punishing lower-level soldiers to create a false image of accountability before the international community.
Wijewikrama claims that over 300 individuals suspected of having links with the LTTE were detained, tortured, and killed over time, and their bodies were secretly buried in the Chemmani area, often at night. The only reason Krishanti Kumaraswamy’s case came to light, she says, is because her family was related to Kumar Rupasinghe, a known international human rights activist and brother-in-law of then-President Chandrika Kumaratunga.
In her detailed account, she describes how suspected individuals were identified and arrested at the Chemmani checkpoint, taken to the 7th Battalion military base, tortured, and later buried near the checkpoint by her husband and other soldiers, allegedly under direct orders from higher-ranking officers.
She also claimed that her husband’s conviction was based solely on his disclosure of the location of the graves and not on any direct involvement in the murders. She alleges that Captain Hewage and other officers were briefly arrested in 1999 after her husband gave testimony, but were later released on bail, and no further legal proceedings followed.
Wijewikrama mentioned that her husband shared these details with lawyer Kumar Ponnambalam, who was later assassinated. She believes political pressure led to the rejection of their appeal in the Supreme Court and insists that the real perpetrators were never held accountable.
She expressed her frustration that despite sending appeals to every President since 1998, no relief has been provided, while several LTTE suspects with far more serious charges have been released in recent years.
Calling for justice, Wijewikrama urged President Dissanayake to appoint a presidential commission to investigate the Chemmani mass graves and the associated crimes. She reiterated that her husband is willing to testify and expose senior officers involved in war-time atrocities committed in Jaffna.
She concluded by stating that international complaint proceedings would soon be filed with the United Nations Human Rights Council and expressed hope that her husband and the other convicted soldiers would finally receive justice after 29 years of imprisonment.
(Courtesy: Virakesari. This news is a translation of the original article, and all credit goes to the newspaper’s editorial team and the reporter.)
Even after thirty-eight years, the Indo-Lanka Accord, signed on July 29, 1987, stands out as a remarkable event in Sri Lanka’s history. After much struggle, the accord led to the 13th Amendment to the constitution, which introduced a provincial council structure in an attempt to resolve the island’s protracted ethnic conflict. From the outset, hardliners on both sides rejected the 13th Amendment as a comprehensive solution: Tamil hardliners argued it was insufficient, while some Sinhalese hardliners believed it gave too much to the Tamils.
To this day, Sri Lanka’s ethnic question remains unresolved, stubbornly echoing those same old arguments—even though the bloody civil war ended with the loss of thousands of lives. History remains our only teacher, reminding us of what we failed to understand in the past. Despite India’s hard-footed Cold War approach, she put her best efforts into helping Sri Lanka move forward, but both factions failed to engage constructively.
If we examine the post-Indo-Lanka Accord era, it is clear that successive governments of Sri Lanka have failed to show even a little progress. Sixteen years after the end of the war, the nation still struggles to move an inch toward resolving the national question beyond the 13th Amendment.
Throughout my political journey as an opinion maker, I have often observed—especially on the Tamil side—a tendency to blame India, a sentiment that persists even today. Whenever I hear such statements, I am reminded of the African proverb: “He who spits against the sky, it falls on his face.” Blaming powerful countries will not affect them; it always rebounds on those who blame.
Amidst a world entangled in Cold War tensions, India inevitably took a tough stand on Sri Lanka after President JR Jayewardene shifted away from the non-aligned orbit. Had Jayewardene acted in accordance with India’s concerns, India would never have decided to train Tamil militants. At that time, as a nation within the Soviet sphere of influence, India faced difficult choices to maintain its regional power status.
In Sri Lanka, many still cling to old hatreds, missing the reality: if India had truly wanted to break up Sri Lanka, it could have done so through Tamil militants, just as it did in East Pakistan. However, from the beginning, India had a firm policy not to support a separate Tamil state. Gopalaswami Parthasarathi, then special envoy of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to Sri Lanka, made it clear to all militant leaders that India would not support a separate state—and would never allow it.
When I interviewed the late R Sampanthan, leader of the Tamil National Alliance, in 2010 about the Vattukottai Declaration of 1976—why SJV Chelvanayakam made that decision and whether it was wise to call for a separate state without knowing how to achieve it—Sampanthan replied boldly, “If it was needed by India, it would have happened.” Even today, some manipulate the same narrative, suggesting India supports Tamil separatists or controls the north and east when it comes to investments in those provinces. But the reality is far from that.
India devoted maximum effort to move the nation forward, but both the LTTE and the Premadasa-led UNP missed the bus. Both Premadasa and Prabhakaran wanted India out for their own political survival. Later, LTTE ideologue Anton Balasingham admitted the truth: the LTTE compromised with Premadasa because, as he stated, “We were on the brink of destruction; the IPKF had taken the entire north and east—so we entered into an understanding with Premadasa to escape total annihilation.”
If we are truly committed to learning from history, a crucial question arises: who was ultimately responsible for empowering the LTTE as a powerful non-state actor—Premadasa’s UNP or India?
Premadasa and Prabhakaran invested in each other against India. As a consequence of this dangerous game, Premadasa lost his life within a few years, and Prabhakaran and his entire force were destroyed at Mullivaikkal. What was achieved by antagonizing the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord? Nothing.
The reality is that the ethnic question remains unresolved. If we truly saw it as a domestic issue, why have we not found a solution better than the 13th Amendment? If it is not the optimal solution, successive Sri Lankan governments could have proposed another—but this has not happened. What does this teach us? The answer is that the provincial councils introduced by the Indo-Lanka Accord remain the best option for Sri Lanka to close its internal ethnic gap and move forward.
Looking through the lens of history, India’s involvement in Sri Lanka has been that of a “bridge, not a battering ram”—from the infamous “Parippu Drop” of June 1987 to providing $4 billion in aid during Sri Lanka’s recent economic crisis. In this context, this essay argues that we all missed the bus—and, worryingly, we are still in danger of missing it again. There were historic opportunities during the so-called government of good governance led by Maithripala Sirisena, but they missed the bus. Now, with the National People’s Power government holding a rare majority in parliament, the opportunity is here again.
*A. Jathindra is a Sri Lankan-based independent political analyst and head of a think tank, Centre for Strategic Studies -Trincomalee (CSST).
The review committee for the proposed Anti-Terror Bill is on track to complete its work in the next two weeks, paving the way for the bill to be released for public consultations.
This timeline was confirmed by Committee Chairman Rienzie Arsecularatne, PC, who stated that the team was currently reviewing the final two chapters of the legislation.
“We are down to the last two chapters, so we plan to invest the next two weeks into completing the necessary work,” Arsecularatne said.
“We will be making any necessary additions, and thereafter we will also be making the bill available for public consultations.”
The new bill is intended to replace the country’s longstanding Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), a controversial piece of legislation that has faced widespread criticism from human rights organisations for its broad provisions that have been used to arbitrarily detain and prosecute critics, journalists, and members of minority communities. The new legislation incorporates amendments based on recommendations from the Supreme Court.
Arsecularatne noted that there had been considerable interest from various stakeholders, including the European Union and the British High Commission, as well as civil society and religious organisations.
However, the period for public input will be brief. “The public consultations cannot be extended for a long period of time because there is urgency in enacting the bill,” he said.
The committee’s goal is to finalise the entire process by September, a deadline that aligns with previous statements from the Foreign and Justice Ministers.
The government is inquiring into a major racket by Chinese nationals to claim a considerable portion of Sri Lanka’s gross domestic product in the same manner they acquired the golden triangle of Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar.
‘Silumina’ reports that they had been aided by top officials of the police, immigration and emigration department and other state institutions.
Chinese nationals, barred from their own country over computer fraud, have been issued with resident permits here.
In Cambodia, they have acquired around 60 percent of that country’s GDP.
Experts on international relations say that country has been unable to take action against the fraudsters.
If the situation persists in Sri Lanka, the immigration and emigration permits as well as the GSP plus concession would be adversely impacted, they said.
China has cracked down on them, and a man who carried a red warrant and entered Sri Lanka on a Guinean permit, but deported home, has been sentenced to death.
Some of the Chinese who had been nabbed with fake resident visas had all permits issued by the state.
The boundary observation unit of the department notified the state intelligence service about them, who had entered the country on tourist visa.
Holders of tourist visa cannot engage in any income-earning activity.
They have invested heavily in the Colombo port city with the intention of claiming a majority stake, state intelligence believes.
IT firms set up by them recruit Sri Lankans at high salaries and are given specific targets to fulfil.
Questions have been raised over their telephone numbers and email addresses.
A detailed report about them is to be handed over to the president and other government authorities in the coming week.
