In the run up to Maaveerar Naal, young Tamil artists took to Instagram to commemorate the thousands who gave their lives fighting in the Tamil struggle.

Posters marking Maaveerar Naal (Tamil national remembrance day) were posted anonymously around the University of Jaffna as the students and staff held remembrance events on Friday. 

The posters feature a gloriosa lily and the leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), V Prabhakaran in front of the LTTE's insignia. 

Students and staff at the University of Jaffna marked Maaveerar Naal (Tamil national remembrance day) on Friday, lighting candles in memory of those who gave their lives to the Tamil struggle. 

The Northern Provincial Council has condemned the building of Buddhist viharas in the North as well as calling for legal action against Buddhist monks who incite racial and religious hatred.

In its 66th sitting on Thursday, the NPC’s chair C. V. K. Sivagnanam brought the resolution condemning the proliferation of Buddhist viharas across the North, pointing out that the region was home to very few Buddhists.

The resolution also called for legal action to be taken against Buddhist monks, particularly mentioning the recent incident in Batticaloa’s Mangalaramam, where a monk was filmed racially abusing and threatening to kill a Tamil government official.

US Marine Corps troops have been engaged in military training exercises with the Sri Lankan navy in Trincomalee, after the arrival of the US Naval Ship “USS Somerset” this week.

The Sri Lankan navy said that 7 officers and 150 sailors had undertaken the exercise with over 150 US Marines participating.

The Sri Lankan military has opened a Buddhist site in the Vanni, which contains 28 newly constructed Buddha statues in memory of Sri Lankan soldiers.
 

A notice has been published in a Tamil local newspaper announcing the intention to acquire 617 acres of land in Vattuvahal, Mullaitivu for the Sri Lankan armed forces. 

The notice, under Section 38a of the Land Acquisition Act, comes despite repeated public annoucement by the present Sri Lankan government that it was looking to release all land currently occupied by the military. 

Photograph @rkguruparan

Sri Lanka's cabinet spokesperson, Gayantha Karunatilaka said on Wednesday the government is to consider establishing a media standards body to ensure the media would act with responsility and decorum. 

The government minister said the proprosal, which is to be put for public consultation, was in order "to prevent misinformation, disinformation, character assassinations and publishing half baked news, lies and absolute lies have become the order of the day by both print and electronic media and the worse was the so-called social media that comprises web sites and FM services." 

The former US ambassador at large for war crimes, Stephen Rapp said the Sri Lanka's government's delay in establishing an accountability mechanism could be an attempt to avoid it entirely, in an interview to the Daily FT. 

“The Government could begin setting up those investigation units, a prosecutor’s office that could determine if there are cases and start putting cases together even if the court does not start work immediately,” Mr Rapp told the paper. 

The United States Aid Agency for International Development (USAID) launched a US$13 million partnership with Sri Lanka’s parliament to strengthen accountability and democratic governance in Sri Lanka.

The three-year Strengthening Democratic Governance and Accountability Project (SDGAP) looks to improve strategic planning within the government, enhance public outreach and increase political participation of women and underrepresented groups reports Colombo Page.