The Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Health and Mass Media, and the General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University (KDU), have signed a tripartite Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to facilitate the expansion of free cardiothoracic surgery services by utilising the facilities of the General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University (KDU) Teaching Hospital.

The Defence Secretary Air Vice Marshal Sampath Thuyacontha (Retd), Secretary to the Ministry of Health and Mass Media Dr Anil Jasinghe, and Vice Chancellor of General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University Rear Admiral H. G. U. Dhammika Kumara, signed the agreement on behalf of their respective institutions.

The Defence MInistry said that the initiative, implemented in accordance with a Cabinet proposal submitted by the Minister of Health and Mass Media Dr Nalinda Jayatissa would reduce congestion and address the lengthy waiting list for cardiothoracic surgeries at the National Hospital of Sri Lanka (NHSL).

The Ministry stated: “Under the arrangement, specialist doctors and clinical staff of the Cardiothoracic Unit of the National Hospital will conduct free heart and thoracic surgeries and provide specialised treatment for patients at the KDU Teaching Hospital. KDU will provide the necessary infrastructure, medical facilities and specialised equipment, while the Ministry of Health and Mass Media will provide the required medicines, medical supplies and specialised medical care.”

Families of the disappeared in the Northern and Eastern provinces have announced plans to publish a series of books documenting their long search for answers about their missing relatives. They made the announcement at a media briefing in Mannar on Monday (24), where they also expressed support for a conference in Jaffna on 30 August to mark the International Day of the Disappeared, Jaffna-based sources said.

The conference will be held from Sunday morning (30) at the Thanthai Selva Auditorium in Jaffna. Manuel Uthayachanthira, chairperson of the Mannar District Association of Relatives of the Enforced Disappeared, called on those who support the Tamil national cause to support the gathering.

Uthayachanthira said families had repeatedly appealed to successive Sri Lankan governments and staged numerous demonstrations and protests over the years, asking a simple but unanswered question: what happened to their missing relatives and whether they are still alive. Despite their sustained campaigning, she said, they had received no meaningful answers.

The conference will seek to preserve that history. One publication will document the lives of mothers who spent years searching for their children before dying without learning their fate, while another will focus on children who were forcibly disappeared.

A third book will document the families’ 17-year struggle, including the authorities and institutions to which they submitted petitions, those with whom they raised their concerns, the locations where they staged protests and the hardships they faced. It will record a struggle that has continued through successive changes of government.

The families say their records represent around 17,000 missing persons across the eight Northern and Eastern districts, comprising people whose relatives continue to search for them or who have been formally recorded as disappeared. They say the figure does not include every person who may have gone missing, including cases in which entire families or even villages disappeared and therefore had no surviving relatives to continue searching for them.

Many relatives who have continued the search have themselves died without learning what became of their loved ones. Uthayachanthira said mothers who had spent years searching for their children were continuing to die, leaving behind a history of unanswered questions and unresolved grief.

The families have marked the International Day of the Disappeared every year by taking their demands to the authorities and the international community. This year’s conference is being organised amid what they describe as the continuing absence of answers about the fate of those who disappeared.

Uthayachanthira appealed to the public to attend the 30 August gathering, saying the disappeared were also members of the community. She expressed hope that the international community would pay greater attention to the families’ suffering and to their demands for answers about the fate of their loved ones.

This version keeps the strong human element but is more restrained and newspaper-like. It also avoids turning claims made by the families into independently established facts.

BASL urged to reveal its stand on unsubstantiated allegations against CJ

Deputy Public Security and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sunil Watagala has said that Opposition lawmakers have made a host of unsubstantiated allegations at Chief Justice Preethi Padman Surasena in Parliament. He said that such allegations were made in contravention of the Standing Orders of Parliament.

Attorney-at-law Watagala said so, outside the Supreme Court, after filing an intervenient petition on Tuesday (25) in the wake of nearly two dozen petitions filed against the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution.

The Deputy Minister said that they had intervened because the issue at hand was being discussed outside and unsubstantiated allegations and claims were made. The JVPer said that their petition reiterated that the 22nd Amendment was in line with the Constitution, as well as complied with the mandates received by the NPP in 2024. According to him, the conduct of the Chief Justice was being discussed outside, particularly in Parliament, and that unsubstantiated allegations were directed at him.

Surasena received the appointment as the CJ, in July, 2025, following the retirement of Murdhu Fernando, who served in that capacity from December 2024.

Lawyer Watagala said that the Bar Association of Sri Lanka should have taken up the issue of members of Parliament directing attacks on the CJ as the MPs conduct was a threat to judicial independence.

Responding to growing accusations that the 22nd Amendment eroded judicial independence and public confidence in the judiciary, MP Watagala said that in fact criticism directed at the CJ undermined the judiciary. Watagala emphasised that the BASL should state its position regarding the continuing attacks, in and outside Parliament, against the CJ. The MP stressed that the CJ couldn’t be criticised, in or outside Parliament, under any circumstances. The Attorney General, too, should disclose the position of his Department, the lawmaker said.

Declaring that NPP MP Lakshman Nipunarachchi filed the intervenient petition in respect of the petition filed by the BASL, lawmaker Watagala said that they would file several other petitions. Petitions can be filed over a period of two weeks, beginning 18 August, the day Justice and National Integration Minister Harshana Nanayakkara tabled the controversial constitutional amendment in Parliament.

Deputy Minister Watagala reiterated the NPP’s position that they were confident the 22nd Amendment could be implemented without being subjected to a referendum. The uncorroborated allegations and claims could be rightfully dealt before the Supreme Court, he said. (SF)