News

A top commander in the Sri Lanka Army who allegedly assaulted and obstructed wildlife officers from performing their duties has been granted bail the same day he was arrested.

The Sri Lankan government’s pardon of 16 prisoners convicted under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), however welcome, does not address the urgent need to repeal the draconian law, Human Rights Watch said today.

The Public Health Inspectors’ (PHI) Union charges that Sri Lanka’s COVID-19 elimination programme is being carried out without a proper understanding of the Delta variant, known as B.1.617.2, which has spread to at least 85 countries since it was first identified in India last fall.

A prominent prisoner’s rights organisation claims that giving special treatment to a pro-government prisoner while disregarding the policy of treating all prisoners equally, violates prisoners’ basic rights and causes a massive damage to the rule of law.

Hours after an incident where a Senior Officer of the Army was involved in a heated altercation with a team of Wildlife Department officials in Habarana area was reported on Friday (25), action was immediately taken by General Shavendra Silva, Chief of Defence Staff and Commander of the Army to appoint a Board of Inquiry, headed by two Senior Major Generals in order to find and verify facts, related to the whole incident since Police complaints have been lodged.

Former Colombo district parliamentarian Duminda Silva is likely to be released today (24) following a Presidential pardon, The Morning reported.

Legal sources told The Morning that the necessary arrangements for the release have been completed.

Duminda Silva was jailed in September 2016 after the Colombo High Court found him and four others guilty in the murder of former MP Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra.

At the time of the assassination, former parliamentarian Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra served as the Director General of Trade Union Affairs of President Mahinda Rajapaksa while Duminda Silva served as the monitoring MP of the Defence Ministry.

Sri Lanka on Tuesday (29) reported that 45 deaths had occured due to COVID-19 on Monday, June 28, 2021.

A group of senior members of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) have invited former President and incumbent patron of the SLFP Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga to take the lead in rebuilding the party.

Further enhancing India’s defence cooperation initiatives with Sri Lanka, the Indian government has gifted 50 machinery parts worth LKR 120 million to augment maintenance capability of Sri Lanka Coast Guard Ship Suraksha that was presented by India in October 2017.

On Friday (18), the 47-member Geneva forum unanimously passed a resolution brought by Britain and the European Union (EU) without a vote.

The UN's resolution called "upon the Myanmar armed forces to respect the people's will as freely expressed by results of the general election of November 8, 2020, to end the state of emergency, to respect all human rights of people of Myanmar and to allow the sustained democratic transition of Myanmar, including the opening of the democratically elected parliament, and by working towards bringing all national institutions, including the armed forces, under a fully inclusive civilian government that is representative of the people's will."

Belarus called for a vote on the resolution in the 193-member UNGA but supporters of the resolution had hoped that it would be passed unanimously by consensus.

The resolution was finally passed with 119 countries voting 'yes', Belarus voting 'no' and 36 countries abstaining, including Myanmar’s neighbors China and India, along with Russia, according to the news agency AP.

The violence used by Myanmar's armed forces against unarmed opponents since the coup in February has shocked the world with more than 800 people reported to have been killed.

Meanwhile, senior journalist and former Director General of the Sri Lanka Press Complaints Commission and Director General of the Government Information Department, Dr. Ranga Kalansooriya questioned the government on its decision to abstain from voting.