NUWARA ELIYA, Sri Lanka — A former Sri Lankan lawmaker has called on Britain to help secure land rights for the descendants of Indian labourers brought to the island to work on colonial plantations, arguing that generations of workers have been denied the opportunity to own the land on which their livelihoods depend. Mayilvaganam Thilakarajah, a former member of Parliament for Nuwara Eliya District, said Britain bore a historical responsibility for the future of the Malaiyaha Tamils, whose ance

By Asela Kuruluwansha Agriculture, Livestock, Lands and Irrigation Minister K. D. Lal Kantha said neither President Anura Kumara Dissanayake nor the government has the power to release Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara Thera, rejecting the central demand of Buddhist monks who marched from Kandy to Colombo last week to seek the imprisoned monk’s freedom. The government would not take such a step under any circumstances, the minister said, because going against a court ruling would betray the mandate vo

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, Oct. 17 — Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara Thera, a hard-line Buddhist nationalist monk serving a prison sentence in Colombo, resisted prison officials for more than two hours before giving up his saffron robes, and someone watched the removal remotely through a telephone connection, according to an account he gave his lawyer. The lawyer, Chula Adhikari, said the monk described the incident during a visit at Magazine Prison, where he is serving a sentence for contempt of court afte

By Asela Kuruluwansha KANDY, Sri Lanka, Oct. 16 — Sri Lanka’s prison authorities told the country’s two most senior Buddhist prelates on Friday that monks serving prison sentences will be allowed to wear their robes when taken outside prison. The change follows weeks of objections from the clergy over the treatment of Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara Thera, the nationalist monk who was returned to prison this month. Senaka Palletenna, a spokesman for the Department of Prisons, described the changes a