India’s Defence Minister Heads to Sri Lanka for High-Level Security Talks

India’s Defence Minister Heads to Sri Lanka for High-Level Security Talks

COLOMBO — India’s defence minister, Rajnath Singh, is expected to visit Sri Lanka next week for talks with President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, in what would be the most senior Indian defence visit to the island since the two countries signed their first formal defence cooperation agreement last year. Mr. Singh is also expected to meet Air Vice Marshal Sampath Thuyacontha, the secretary to Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Defence, according to people familiar with preparations for the visit. Mr. Dissanay
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New E.U. Packaging Rules Now Apply to Sri Lankan Exports

New E.U. Packaging Rules Now Apply to Sri Lankan Exports

COLOMBO — European rules governing packaging began to apply on 12 August, and they cover imports. Sri Lankan exporters of tea, spices, seafood and processed food must now be able to show that the pouches, cartons and wrappers they ship to Europe meet binding requirements on recyclability, recycled content, labelling and chemical safety. The Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation entered into force in February 2025 after years of negotiation in Brussels. It draws no distinction between packagi
Economics August 2026
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Sri Lankan Police Seek Temple Priest Accused of Pawning Gold to Fund Gambling

Sri Lankan Police Seek Temple Priest Accused of Pawning Gold to Fund Gambling

COLOMBO — A Sri Lankan court has ordered the arrest of the chief priest of a Hindu temple in central Colombo after police said he repeatedly removed gold jewellery from the temple’s safe, pawned it and used the proceeds for gambling before redeeming and returning the valuables. The Fort Magistrate’s Court also imposed a travel ban on the priest, identified as Satheeskumar Gurukkal, 34, who served as the chief priest of the Sri Sivasubramaniyar Temple in Slave Island and has since gone into hidi
August 2026 JM COURTS
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Japan Gives Sri Lanka Rs. 591 Million to Educate Future Government Leaders

Japan Gives Sri Lanka Rs. 591 Million to Educate Future Government Leaders

COLOMBO — Japan has provided Sri Lanka with a grant of 282 million yen, about 591 million Sri Lankan rupees, to fund postgraduate study in Japan for 15 Sri Lankan public-sector officials, the Japanese Embassy in Colombo said Monday. The funding, provided under Japan’s Human Resource Development Scholarship program, known as JDS, will enable the officials to pursue two-year master’s degree programs at Japanese universities beginning in 2027. The scholarship program aims to develop a new generat
August 2026
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Sinhala Nationalist Monk Invokes Prabhakaran to Rebuke Sinhala Voters

Sinhala Nationalist Monk Invokes Prabhakaran to Rebuke Sinhala Voters

COLOMBO —A controversial Sinhala nationalist Buddhist monk invoked Velupillai Prabhakaran, the slain leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, to rebuke Sinhala voters for what he described as their tendency to quickly forget the past and repeatedly make poor political choices. Ittekande Saddhatissa Thera, general secretary of the Sinhala nationalist organisation Ravana Balaya, said Sinhala voters had proved correct a remark he attributed to Prabhakaran: that they remember events for only
August 2026 Monitor Memo
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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
Editorial July 2025
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
Cover Story June 2025
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
Editorial June 2025
Kaniyan Pungundran

Kaniyan Pungundran

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Sri Lanka's Post-Election Optimism Ebbs as Government Approval Falls

Sri Lanka's Post-Election Optimism Ebbs as Government Approval Falls

COLOMBO — Approval of Sri Lanka's government fell to 50 percent in July from 65 percent in February, and the public's reading of the economy turned negative, according to the latest round of Verité Research's "Mood of the Nation" poll, reported in Colombo on Aug. 16. The research group surveyed 2,013 adults between July 11 and July 30. Of those, 49.83 percent said they approved of the way the government was working, and 31.40 percent said they disapproved. Verité recorded disapproval at 16 perc
August 2026 Monitor Memo
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Judges’ Retirement Plan Is a Cover for Preferred Appointments, Mano Ganesan Says

Judges’ Retirement Plan Is a Cover for Preferred Appointments, Mano Ganesan Says

COLOMBO — Mano Ganesan, leader of the Tamil Progressive Alliance, has accused the Sri Lankan government of seeking to use its proposed extension of judges’ retirement ages to facilitate the appointment of preferred candidates to senior judicial positions, adding his voice to growing opposition to the proposed 22nd Amendment to the Constitution, which Justice Minister Harshana Nanayakkara has said will be presented to Parliament on Aug. 18. Ganesan, an opposition lawmaker, said he did not object
April 2026 Monitor Memo
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Local Council Vice Chairman Among Five Arrested in Mullaitivu Heroin Case

Local Council Vice Chairman Among Five Arrested in Mullaitivu Heroin Case

MULLAITIVU, Sri Lanka — The vice chairman of a local council in northern Sri Lanka was among five people arrested after police said they recovered two grams of heroin during a road check on Saturday evening. Yogeswaran Anojan, vice chairman of the Maritimepattu (Karaithuraipattu) Pradeshiya Sabha, was arrested with four others while travelling along the Semmalai-Kokkilai Road, according to Jaffna Monitor’s reporter in Mullaitivu. Anojan is affiliated with Rishad Bathiudeen’s All Ceylon Makkal
August 2026
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EU Sets Reform Terms as Sri Lanka Faces Fresh Application for Trade Preferences

EU Sets Reform Terms as Sri Lanka Faces Fresh Application for Trade Preferences

COLOMBO — The European Union has set out the legal and human rights reforms it expects Sri Lanka to carry out to keep preferential access to the European market, weeks before new rules require Colombo to apply again for the concessions. The reforms are set out in an assessment by the European Commission and the European External Action Service of Sri Lanka's performance under the Generalised Scheme of Preferences Plus, or GSP+, covering 2023 to 2025. The document, SWD(2026) 192 final, was submi
August 2026 Exclusive
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