^{Vavuniya. January 2019} 

Citing public safety concerns during the upcoming Tamil new year and Sinhala new year celebrations, the Sri Lankan police said it would be deploying 8000 extra officers. 

China says it stands ready to broaden cooperation with Sri Lanka, under its Belt and Road Initiative.

The Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Tamils (APPGT) has called on the torture victims in the Britain to join a civil lawsuit that has been filed against Sri Lanka’s former defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

Paul Scully said the APPGT welcomed the news of the lawsuit, of which Rajapaksa was served notice of on Sunday whilst he was in California.

“We hope the hundreds of victims of torture in Sri Lanka under the Rajapaksa administration who are now refugees in the UK can join this action and also seek compensation,” said Scully in a letter released earlier today.

See the full text of the letter below.

More than 100 victims of an infamous disappearance from 1990 may be buried in a mass grave on the islet of Mandaitivu, said Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian Sritharan in a statement to Sri Lanka’s Office on Missing Persons (OMP) last Thursday.

Sritharan told the OMP that hundreds of youth had disappeared from Mandaitivu, Allaipaddy and Mankumban from August to September 1990, as the Sri Lankan military launched an offensive.

The leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), R Sampanthan has called on the Sri Lankan government to released funds that were pledged for the North-East without further delay. 

Yasmin Sooka, the executive director at the International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP) said the culture of impunity related to torture and sexual violence was entrenched in Sri Lanka during a press conference today, following two civil lawsuits being filed in the United States against Sri Lanka's former defence secretary, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa over torture. 

The Sri Lankan military held a meeting with the International Crisis Group (ICG) Sri Lanka desk representative Alan Keenan at its occupying military base in Palaly last week.

Sri Lanka’s president called on the Indian government to increase its training of the country’s war crimes accused military, as he met with India’s defence secretary in Colombo on Monday.

The UN Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture visited Vavuniya prison on Sunday as part of their trip to the island. 

Twenty-six Tamils were arrested in Kilinochchi accused of trying to flee Sri Lanka by boat to Canada.