News

SL authorities target religious minorities, claims HRW

Published

2 years ago

2024/07/30

(New York, July 29, 2024)

– Sri Lankan authorities are conducting a campaign to deny Hindus and other religious minorities access to places of worship and other property and redesignate locations as Buddhist sites, the HumanRights Watch has said. Government agencies, including the Department of Archaeology, the military, and police, have taken part in a concerted strategy assailing the culture and practices of religious minorities. They are promoting majority Sinhalese Buddhist settlement in Sri Lanka’s north and east to the detriment of the predominantly Tamil and Muslim populations’ rights to property and religious freedom.

Since the Sri Lankan government defeated the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 2009 after a brutal 26-year civil war, military forces and security agencies deployed in the Northern and Eastern Provinces have carried out intrusive surveillance of activist groups, suppressed dissent, and increasingly violated the right to freedom of religion. A pattern has emerged at temples throughout the north and east in which the authorities, along with nationalist Buddhist clergy, have damaged or removed Hindu idols and threatened, attacked or arrested worshippers to deny them access. They have also targeted Tamil and Muslim properties in land grabs.

“The Sri Lankan government’s loud claims of reconciliation ring hollow in the face of increasing suppression of minority religious and cultural identities,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, Deputy Asia Director at Human Rights Watch. “Concerted international pressure is needed to reverse this nefarious campaign, which promotes Sinhala Buddhist nationalism at the expense of other populations.”

The campaign to redesignate Tamil Hindu temples as Buddhist sites gathered speed in 2020 when then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa established the Presidential Task Force for Archaeological Heritage Management in the Eastern Province, composed of senior security officers and nationalist Buddhist monks. Although the task force is no longer active, the policy continues under Rajapaksa’s successor, President Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Wickremesinghe has publicly quarreled with archaeology officials and pledged to address Tamil grievances, but his administration has done little or nothing to reduce or reverse violations.

Activists estimate that the government’s Department of Archaeology has surveyed about 600 Hindu temples in the Eastern Province, a frequent prelude to Buddhist clergy and security forces denying access to Hindu worshippers. Several temples in the Northern Province have been similarly affected, as well as the property of Muslim communities. Other agencies, including the Forest and Wildlife Departments, often act in concert with monks, security forces, and the Department of Archaeology to redesignate and deny access to lands.

In August 2023, Senthil Thondaman, the Eastern Province governor, ordered a halt to the construction of a Buddhist temple in a village in Trincomalee district with an overwhelmingly Tamil population. In response, a group of monks threatened to “squeeze the neck” of the provincial governor.

On February 23, police and soldiers blocked Hindu worshippers from observing a festival at Kandasamy Murugan temple in Trincomalee district. A Sri Lankan human rights organization reported that the police officer in charge said the land “belongs to the Buddhist religion and Department of Archaeology.”

In 2023, Human Rights Watch visited a predominantly Muslim area at Pulmoddai in Trincomalee where Buddhist monks and their supporters, including soldiers and an armed man, intending to build a Buddhist structure, confronted local villagers. People for Equality and Relief in Lanka (PEARL), a Tamil human rights organization, has documented extensive development of new Buddhist sites and security forces’ bases in the area.

Also in 2023, unidentified assailants damaged Hindu statues at Veddukkunaari in the Vavuniya district, the site of a hilltop Hindu shrine. Hindu worshippers won a court judgment allowing them to reinstall the statues but say they were threatened and obstructed by the police. Witnesses told Human Rights Watch that in February 2024, in an incident reported by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, Sri Lankan Army personnel escorted Buddhist monks to the Veddukkunaari shrine, which they claim as an ancient Buddhist site. Police and soldiers obstructed and assaulted Hindu worshippers, including an Opposition member of Parliament, despite a court order allowing them to celebrate the March 8 festival of Shivaratri. Eight were arrested and allegedly beaten in custody before a magistrate released them without charge on March 19. “These types of incidents are causing ethnic conflict between the communities,” said a Hindu man who was among those arrested and was still facing threats from the police.

Activists allege that in February 2021, soldiers destroyed a Hindu shrine at Kurunthurmalai hill, in Mullaitivu district, and four months later, on June 13, the Army participated in a ceremony to lay the foundation for a new Buddhist temple. Construction proceeded in defiance of court orders. In July 2023, a local magistrate, T. Saravanarajah, ordered the removal of Buddhist statues from Kurunthurmalai after Buddhist monks and others allegedly threatened Hindu worshipers during the Pongal festival. A US government report found that the police took no action against those responsible. In September, Saravanarajah resigned as magistrate, citing threats to his life, and reportedly fled the country.

In some cases, government “land grabbing” targets private land and economic resources of Tamils and other religious minorities.

At Thaiyiddi, on the north coast of Jaffna district, the Sri Lankan Army constructed a Buddhist temple on land that local residents and politicians alleged is owned by Tamils. The foundation stone was laid in 2021 by the then Army Chief, now Chief of Defence Staff, Shavendra Silva, who was banned from traveling to the US for “his involvement through command responsibility, in gross violations of human rights, namely extrajudicial killings” during the civil war. The surrounding area includes numerous military bases and military-run farms, operated on land allegedly seized from civilians during and after the civil war. In Jaffna, the Army has restricted access to Hindu temples on land that the military has controlled since the war.

At Mylanthanaimadu and Periya Maadhavanai, in the Batticaloa district and the neighbouring Ampara district, hundreds of Tamil and Muslim dairy farmers, who say they have used area lands for grazing for generations, have been in disputes with Sinhalese arable farmers, many of them former soldiers who have been settled in the area with government support since 2010. The protesting herdsmen, who have petitioned the government and the courts, allege that the authorities have subjected them to threats as well as surveillance and intimidation and that settlers have killed their livestock. In October 2023, in an apparent attempt to consolidate control of the disputed land, settlers and monks installed a Buddhist monument there.

Since the end of the war, international efforts to ensure justice for conflict-era crimes and address ongoing rights violations have focused on the United Nations Human Rights Council. The current resolution of the council, which mandates evidence gathering for use in future prosecutions related to the war and ongoing monitoring of human rights in Sri Lanka, is due to expire in September.

“The Sri Lankan government’s deepening repression of minority communities will only end when there is genuine accountability for past war crimes and ongoing abuses,” Ganguly said. “To reduce the risk of further violations, it is crucial that the UN Human Rights Council renews its mandate on Sri Lanka for another two years.”

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News

INS Airavat makes port call in Colombo

Published

1 hour ago

2026/06/4

Priyan

The Indian Naval Ship (INS) Airavat arrived at the Port of Colombo for Operational Turnaround on 01 Jun 26. The visiting ship was welcomed by the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) in compliance with time-noured naval traditions.

INS Airavat is a Landing Ship Tank, commanded by Commander IP Patil.

During their stay in the island, the ship’s crew is scheduled to take part in a series of professionally enriching events and camaraderie-building programmes organised by the Sri Lanka Navy.

The Indian naval personnel will also tour several historic and prominent tourist attractions across the country before the ship concludes her deployment.

News

BASL asks govt. to abandon plan to raise retirement ages of CA and SC judges

Published

6 hours ago

2026/06/4

Sahan Weerasooriya

… tells Prez such arbitrary change neither necessary nor desirable

The Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) has urged President Anura Kumara Dissanayake to abandon the controversial plan to increase the retirement age of the judiciary, including the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court.

In a statement issued by the BASL President Rajeev Amarasuriya and its Secretary Nalin de Silva, the BASL pointed out that the proposed increase of the retirement age of the judiciary would undermine the independence, integrity, dignity, and public confidence in the Judiciary, which is essential for the maintenance of the Rule of Law and democratic governance in Sri Lanka.

The text of the BASL statement: “The Bar Association of Sri Lanka (hereinafter referred to as “BASL”) notes with grave concern reports in the public domain that the Government is considering the introduction of an amendment to the Constitution to increase the age of retirement of Judges of the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court.

It is the considered view of the BASL that the age of retirement of the judges of the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court which has stood at 63 years and 65 years respectively from the promulgation of the 1978 Constitution, should not be changed arbitrarily and that such a change is neither necessary nor desirable.

To do so will result in the loss of public confidence in the integrity of the legal system and of the Government’s commitment to preserve and protect the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary. Members of the public are likely to question the motives of the Government in bringing in a Constitutional amendment solely for this purpose.

Your Excellency is no doubt aware that the cadre of the Judges of the Court of Appeal was increased from 12 to 20 Judges (including the President of the Court of Appeal) and that of the Supreme Court from 11 to 17 Judges (including the Chief Justice) by the 20th Amendment to the constitution certified on 29th of October 2020. With such enhancement, workwise, there cannot be a real requirement to extend the retirement ages of these judges.

Your Excellency is aware that altering the retirement age of judges of the apex courts would have to be done through a Constitutional amendment. For many years Sri Lanka’s Constitution has been subject to ad hoc amendments, sometimes in order to cater to the political needs of the government in power and often contrary to the interests of the rule of law, the independence of the judiciary and the judiciary.

Extending the retirement age of the sitting Judges of these Courts at this point of time is likely to be viewed by the public as a blatant attempt to interfere with the judiciary. We believe that to go ahead with such an ad hoc move will also be an affront to the Honourable Judges of those courts.

If the Government goes ahead with such a move it will set a dangerous precedent for future Governments too to introduce ad hoc amendments to the Constitution in respect of the functions of the Judiciary.

The independence of the Judiciary and the public confidence reposed in it, are indispensable pillars of the Rule of Law and the democratic framework of our Republic. In that regard, it is of paramount importance that the Judiciary must not only remain independent in fact, but must also be seen by the public to be wholly independent, impartial, and free from even the slightest perception of influence, favour, accommodation, or impropriety.

The Bar Association of Sri Lanka is therefore constrained, in the discharge of its duty to uphold and safeguard the Rule of Law and the independence of the Judiciary, to respectfully express its serious concern regarding any such proposed amendment, which is neither in the interests of the Judiciary and nor of the people.

In the circumstances, the BASL respectfully urges Your Excellency not to proceed with any proposed constitutional amendment seeking to increase the retirement age of the members of the Judiciary including Judges of the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court.

We remain confident that Your Excellency will give due consideration to the importance of preserving and protecting the independence, integrity, dignity, and public confidence in the Judiciary, which is essential to the maintenance of the Rule of Law and democratic governance in Sri Lanka.”

Govt. declines to respond

A member of the Cabinet yesterday declined to comment on the BASL’s letter to President Anura Kumara Dissanayake. The Minister said that he wouldn’t comment for the time being.

News

New US tariffs proposed on 60 countries, including Sri Lanka

Published

6 hours ago

2026/06/4

Sahan Weerasooriya

12.5% additional duties on goods imported from Colombo

The US has proposed additional duties of 10% or 12.5% on imports from 60 economies, including Sri Lanka, over their alleged failure to curb trade in ‌goods made with forced labour.

The proposal made by US Trade Representative’s (USTR) office in terms of Section 301 unfair trade practices investigation to be released, news agencies reported, pointing out that the Trump administration was seeking to rebuild its emergency tariffs, which were struck down by a US Supreme Court decision in February.

The USTR said it determined that it would impose 10% duties related to ⁠the forced labour investigation on imports from Canada, Ecuador, the European Union, Indonesia, Mexico, Pakistan, Argentina, Bangladesh, Cambodia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan and Britain.

The trade agency said it would impose additional duties of 12.5% on the remaining 45 countries that were investigated.

“The failure of our most important trading partners to address the importation of goods made with forced labour is unacceptable,” US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in a statement. “This creates a dynamic where American workers are forced to compete globally on an unlevel playing field.”

According to the trade agency, the USTR found that Sri Lanka has failed to impose and effectively enforce a forced labour import prohibition.

The USTR noted that the results of its investigation indicate that the acts, policies and practices of Sri Lanka related to the failure to impose and effectively enforce a forced labour import prohibition are unreasonable and burden or restrict US commerce.

Accordingly, it has proposed to impose 12.5% additional duties on goods imported from Sri Lanka.

The USTR said it also was proposing a textile mechanism that would allow for a certain volume of apparel and textile imports ‌to ⁠enter the US at a reduced tariff rate, though the duties and volumes were not disclosed.

The announcement comes ahead of the July 24 expiration of a 10% temporary tariff imposed by the Trump administration on February 20, the day the Supreme Court struck down US President Donald Trump’s tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

On Monday, the USTR proposed ⁠a 25% duty on many Brazilian goods as a result of a Section 301 investigation into the country’s digital trade practices and preferential tariffs. The trade agency is also expected to soon unveil the findings of another major Section 301 probe into ⁠the buildup of excess industrial capacity in 16 trading partners, including China.

In the forced labour findings, the USTR said it would exempt from the tariffs a number of products, including energy, rare earths and certain ⁠other metals, beef, coffee, certain fruits and vegetables, pharmaceuticals, organic chemicals and aircraft parts.

The USTR said it would accept public comments on the proposed tariffs and other remedies through July 6, with a public hearing scheduled for July 7.