Opposition Accuses Government of Concealing Buddhist Prelates’ Letter on Judges’ Retirement Age

Opposition Accuses Government of Concealing Buddhist Prelates’ Letter on Judges’ Retirement Age

COLOMBO — Sri Lanka’s dispute over a government proposal to extend the retirement age of senior judges widened this week after an opposition leader accused the administration of concealing a letter from the country’s most senior Buddhist prelates expressing concern over the plan. Patali Champika Ranawaka, a former cabinet minister and leader of the United Republican Front, said the Mahanayake Theras had written to President Anura Kumara Dissanayake setting out their position on the proposed con


Our Reporter

Our Reporter

In Shenzhen, APEC Finds a Laboratory for People-First Technology
Eduardo Pedrosa (R), executive director of the APEC Secretariat, tries a pair of smart glasses at Inno100 in Nanshan District on May 6. Zhen Jianhong

In Shenzhen, APEC Finds a Laboratory for People-First Technology

By: Sun Jin, Zhang Yu SHENZHEN — The drone hovered a moment above his open palm, then settled onto it. “Wow,” said Eduardo Pedrosa. The reaction was not on the schedule. The executive director of the APEC Secretariat was at Shenzhen Bay Culture Square on May 5, midway through the first of two working visits to the city that will host the 33rd APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting in November. The following day, onstage at the “Tech for People” Nanshan Day event, he waved his spectacles at the audienc


Jaffna Monitor

Jaffna Monitor

Sallay’s Counsel Questions Political and Religious Influence Over Easter Sunday Investigation

Sallay’s Counsel Questions Political and Religious Influence Over Easter Sunday Investigation

COLOMBO — A lawyer for Sri Lanka’s former intelligence chief Suresh Sallay has questioned the independence of the continuing investigation into the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings, arguing before the Court of Appeal that criminal investigations should remain free from political and religious influence. President’s Counsel Sanjeewa Jayawardena, appearing for Maj. Gen. Sallay, made the submissions on Monday, Aug. 10, as the court considered applications by several parties seeking to intervene in Sall


Our Reporter

Our Reporter

Pempalā

Pempalā

K. Mohammad Riyas Translated by eḻuttukkiṉiyavaṉ (https://ezi.asokan.org/about). from the Tamil story “பெம்பலா” (pempalā) by K. Mohammad Riyas from the short story collection titled “சிகரி மார்க்கம் (cikari mārkkam)” Pempalā ’s bicycle was absent from its usual place under the lone palmyra tree outside the village. Had he been in town, he would have been there by this time of day. He was absent yesterday, too. One of the men playing cards under the tree declared definitively that if he was a


Eḻuttukkiṉiyavaṉ

Eḻuttukkiṉiyavaṉ

UNAFRAID AND UNBOWED

Archbishop, Archbishop, why hast thou forsaken us in our hour of sorrow and slaughter?

Archbishop, Archbishop, why hast thou forsaken us in our hour of sorrow and slaughter?

"Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins." - Isaiah 58:1 His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith, Archbishop of Colombo and chief shepherd of the Catholic flock in all of Sri Lanka, has recently marked fifty years in the sacred priesthood. As the highest-ranking prelate whose dominion spans the entire island, he now stands as a mighty voice crying for justice, calling upon the nations of the earth for interv


Kaniyan Pungundran

Kaniyan Pungundran

Jaffna Library Burning: The Day They Burned the buddha and his dhamma

Jaffna Library Burning: The Day They Burned the buddha and his dhamma

Why South Asia Reveres Books-and Fears Their Destruction Irrespective of religion, across the Indian subcontinent, books have long held an exalted status. In the indigenous spiritual traditions that emerged from this land-Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism-knowledge is not merely valued; it is venerated in the highest order. In homes, temples, and schools across the region, people treat books with profound reverence-never touching them with their feet, and if done accidentally, offering a


Aruliniyan Mahalingam

Aruliniyan Mahalingam

Chemmani: Where Justice Was Buried

Chemmani: Where Justice Was Buried

The dead do not speak - but the earth does A few years ago, I visited Cambodia. My original aim was to see the Angkor Wat temple complex. But, as always, my journalistic instincts led me deeper into rural Cambodia, where I found myself in quiet conversations with a few former soldiers of the Pol Pot regime, now living ordinary lives as toddy tappers, farmers, and small shop owners. One of them - a former henchman of the Khmer Rouge - opened up after a few glasses of toddy. In a hauntingly calm


Kaniyan Pungundran

Kaniyan Pungundran

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How Justice Was Derailed After the Muttur Massacre

How Justice Was Derailed After the Muttur Massacre

By Aruliniyan Mahalingam JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — It was around 4:15 in the afternoon of Aug. 4, 2006. The men who came through the gate asked in Sinhala what the aid workers were doing there when everyone else in the town had fled, according to an account assembled by the University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna) from police sources in Muttur. The staff answered that their office in Trincomalee had told them to stay and wait to be collected. A home guard interrupted and said they were Tamil Tig


Aruliniyan Mahalingam

Aruliniyan Mahalingam

Cardinal Urges Court Not to Obstruct Easter Bombings Investigation

Cardinal Urges Court Not to Obstruct Easter Bombings Investigation

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Colombo Archbishop Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith has urged Sri Lanka's Court of Appeal to allow the ongoing investigation into the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings to proceed without interference, arguing that previous inquiries had failed to properly investigate the attacks and that the current investigation was moving in the right direction. The submissions were made Thursday by President's Counsel Shamil Perera, appearing for Cardinal Ranjith in an intervening petition filed in co


Our Reporter

Our Reporter

Jaffna Court Orders Gotabaya Rajapaksa to Give Evidence in Lalith-Kugan Case

Jaffna Court Orders Gotabaya Rajapaksa to Give Evidence in Lalith-Kugan Case

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — The Jaffna Magistrate’s Court has ordered former Sri Lankan President and Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa to appear before the Colombo Chief Magistrate’s Court on Sept. 29 to give evidence via video link in the long-running judicial inquiry into the disappearance of activists Lalith Kumar Weeraraj and Kugan Muruganandan. The order was issued on Friday during proceedings in a habeas corpus petition filed by the families of the two men, who disappeared in December 2011.


Our Reporter

Our Reporter

Where Does the Fuel Money Go? Jaffna MP Points to the Ruling Party

Where Does the Fuel Money Go? Jaffna MP Points to the Ruling Party

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Independent Jaffna District MP Ramanathan Archchuna said the monthly fuel allowance paid to Members of Parliament had increased from 179,000 rupees to 244,000 rupees, and alleged that an amount equivalent to the allowance received by each of the Government's 159 MPs is deposited every month into accounts in Pelawatte, an apparent reference to the headquarters of the ruling Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP). The allegation was made in a Facebook post on Thursday. “The fuel al


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