The former head of the Sri Lankan army said visa applications to travel to the United States have been rejected three times over reports of war crimes committed by the military.

Speaking to the Daily Mirror Sarath Fonseka denied being dropped from a Sri Lankan delegation visiting New York for the UN General Assembly, and instead said visa issues prevented him from travelling.   

The United States Embassy hosted a workshop on psychological operations for the Sri Lankan military in Kilinochchi earlier this month.

Thileepan was remembered in Kilinochchi on Tuesday, on the 30th anniversary of the final day of his fast.

Hundreds of students and staff at the University of Jaffna gathered to remember Thileepan, marking thirty years since his death.

Thileepan was remembered in Mannar on Tuesday on the 30th anniversary of his death.

The Sri Lankan government is looking to sign extradition treaties with several countries including those in Europe and Asia, the State Minister of Defence Ruwan Wijewardena said, reported Colombo Gazette. 

Treaties have already been signed between Sri Lanka and Ukraine, China and Vietnam. 

"The extradition treaties will help Sri Lanka and foreign countries exchange wanted criminals," Mr Wijewardena was quoted as saying. 

Thirty-one Rohingya refugees who were inside a UN safe house run by the UNHCR near Sri Lanka's capital city were taken into police custody, after a mob led by Sinhala Buddhist monks stormed the building on Tuesday. 

According to AFP, the mob "broke down gates and entered the walled multi-storied compound as frightened refugees huddled together in upstairs rooms". 

"We have pushed back the mob and the refugees will be relocated in a safer place," a police official was quoted by the news wire as saying. 

The general secretary of the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK), Vaiko said he was on Monday accosted by a Sri Lankan woman and former army personnel after concluding his address to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. 

“After I completed my speech, a woman approached me and questioned my right to speak against Sri Lanka when I was not a citizen of the country," he told The Hindu by telephone. 

Tamils gathered in Nallur today to remember the 30th anniversary of the final day of Thileepan's fast unto death. 

Lt. Col. Thileepan, a political wing leader of the LTTE fasted to death on hunger strike, appealing to the Indian government to honour pledges made to the Tamil people. He began his fast on 15th September 1987 and died on the 26th. 

UK Foreign Office policy “significantly” downplays the scale of human rights abuses and torture in Sri Lanka, said British parliamentarian Joan Ryan at the side-lines of the Labour party conference on Monday.