The Sri Lankan government will seek international assistance in training new executioners, reports AFP, as the government gears towards re-implementing the death penalty.

A reported 47 applicants are being interviewed by the government, with Sri Lanka’s president Maithripala Sirisena stating this week that a date had been set to restart the death penalty.

However, the new recruits will need some foreign assistance, according to an official who spoke with AFP.

“Since there is no living person in Sri Lanka who has carried out an execution, we need to send the new recruits abroad for training,” said the official, who asked to remain anonymous.

As India heads towards a general election, the senior AIADMK leader O Paneerselvam on Thursday accused the Congress party, which was in power in May 2009, of being responsible for the genocide of Tamils by the Sri Lankan state. 

Sri Lankan police have summoned the former Northern Provincial Council member, T Ravikaran for an interview on April 7, amid ongoing tensions after Buddhist monks stormed a Tamil festival. 

Accusing the government of planning to sell Sri Lankan Airlines to a company 'operation with LTTE Funds', Sinhala trade unions have threatened industrial action if the deal goes ahead. 

Colombo Fort Magistrates was told yesterday by the Sri Lanka's Criminal Investigations Department (CID) there was evidence the Chief of Defence Staff, Admiral Ravindra Wijegunaratne hid a man wanted over the abduction and disappearance of 11 predominantly Tamil youths during 2008 - 2009. 

The Sri Lankan Supreme Court has ordered the Northern Power Company to compensate residents in Chunnakam, Jaffna for environmental damage caused by the Uthuru Janani thermal power plant which the court claims violated residents fundamental rights.

<p>A Sri Lankan minister claimed that president Maithripala Sirisena is not against a UN Human Rights Council resolution which mandated a hybrid court with international judges, despite his government repeatedly speaking out against such a mechanism.</p> <p>“I don’t think the President is really against the UNHRC or the setting up of OMP,” claimed Harsha De Silva in an address to Sri Lanka’s parliament.</p>

"Sri Lanka Finance Minister, Mangala Samaraweera, has released an article entitled the "Truth about the Geneva Human Rights Council Resolution" in which he called upon citizens to reaffirm commitment to the UN resolution and warned of the threats of universal jurisdiction. 

The Sri Lankan government plans to buy private land in order to resettle internally displaced families in the North-East.

The proposal was presented by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe at cabinet, according to Ada Derana, citing a ‘lack of sufficient state-owned lands in the Jaffna District’ as the cause for the unresolved issue of resettlement.

However Tamil representatives and community groups have consistently called for the release of state and private lands from military occupation as a solution to several issues, including displacement and unemployment.

<p>Sri Lanka’s decision to reinstate the death penalty may disproportionately impact on Tamil speaking people on the island, said Amnesty International in a briefing released earlier today.</p> <p>Amnesty International found that “people who are from less advantaged socioeconomic backgrounds, or belonging to racial, ethnic or religious minorities, are disproportionately vulnerable to being sentenced to death”.</p>