Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi parliamentarian M A Sumanthiran was the sole opposition lawmaker to attend a meeting convened by Sri Lanka’s president regarding engagment with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Monday, as he broke a boycott against the global body’s “hard reforms”.

The Opposition SJB and JVP parties had both declared they would boycott the meeting, which was organised by Ranil Wickremesinghe to discuss his government’s engagement with the IMF.

The residents of Pallimunai in Mannar and Pungudutivu in Jaffna took to the streets last week to protests over the Sri Lankan government’s failure to address their grievances on a range of issues, from Sinhala settlers disrupting their livelihood through sea cucumber farms to illegal sand mining.

The protest was led by the Pallimunai St.Lucia Fisherfolk Cooperative Society and galvanized the support of several residents in the area who marched up to the Mannar District Secretariat. 

Out of the thousands of acres of land forcibly retained by the Sri Lankan military in the North-East, 70 acres in Valikamam North and 40 acres in Kilinochchi were ceremoniously released this weekend, even as the state continues to engage in further land grabbing attempts.

(File photo)

Just weeks after the US government pledged to gift another cutter to the Sri Lanka Navy, Ambassador Julie Chung said Washington was continuing to monitor legislative developments in Sri Lanka that could challenge its progress on human rights, reconciliation, and civic space. 

Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK) MP Sivagnanam Shritharan has called on Sri Lankan president Ranil Wickremesinghe to release the eight individuals who were arrested by Sri Lankan police during the observance of Shivarathri at the Vedukkunaari Hill Athi Sivan temple on Friday. 

Despite repeated pleas from civil society organizations, environmentalists, and locals over the construction of a wind power plant in Eastern Mannar, the government of Sri Lanka announced that it would forge ahead regardless and call for tenders this week owing to ‘growing interests from investors.’

A protest was held in Jaffna this morning to condemn the violence and arrests by Sri Lankan police that disrupted Shivarathri celebrations at the Vedukkunaari Athi Sivan temple on Friday.

Mannar Magistrate Court has summoned the Chief Judicial Medical Officer and other experts to attend the next hearing on the Sathosa mass grave for failing to provide a comprehensive report on the excavations. 

Sri Lanka’s Religious, and Cultural Affairs Minister Vidura Wickramanayaka told a gathering of Buddhist monks that steps would be taken to raid unregistered religious centres that are reportedly “engaged in religious conversions,” in a move that looks to strengthen Sinhala Buddhism on the island.

The residents of Keppapulavu marched to the District Secretariat in Mullaitivu where they handed over letters addressed to president Ranil Wickremesinghe and other officials requesting the return of their lands which are occupied by the Sri Lankan military.