Sri Lankan Army officers from the operational camp of the occupying military in Vanni, have been enforcing the acceptance of death certificates on to families of missing persons in the Mullaitheevu district.

Speaking at a press conference on Monday, TNA MP Suresh Premachandran noted that some of the families say that they personally handed over their living family members at a military check post during the final hours of the 2009 war and are now being forced to sign death certificates.

The Sri Lankan electricity board has announced it will cut the electricity supply across the country for three hours a day, after the Chinese-built Norocholai coal power plant failed for the 5th time in 16 months.

"We are facing difficulties in balancing the supply and demand," the ministry said in a statement. "The only alternative is to carry out power cuts across the country until further notice."

The drought on the island has compunded the problem in electricity supply from hydro-power plants.

Last week was the gorvernment's much hyped about Social Integration Week. True to form, the event kicked off with an example of what integration is in Sri Lanka - the national anthem sung in Sinhala only.

The week was said to ensure a 'united nation' and 'reintegrate all ethnic groups as one nation, free of ‘petty’ social and cultural differences.'

 

Australia's handling of Tamil asylum seekers arriving boat, has been criticised by human rights organisations base in the country, reports the Sydney Morning Herald.

The executive director of Human Rights Law Centre in Australia, Phil Lynch, criticised the country's close liaison with Sri Lanka, including security and military cooperation.

The Tamil Nadu fishermen, arrested by the Sri Lankan Navy on Saturday night, will be remanded in custody until August 6th. The twenty-three men were presented to a court in Mannar today and said to be detained at Anuradhapura prison.

Local fishermen groups in Rameswaran have urged an indefinite strike till all the fishermen are released.

Photographs Tamilwin

Sri Lankan military, intelligence and police officers descended upon the funeral proceedings of Nimalaroopan - the Tamil political prisoner who was murdered whilst in custody - on Tuesday, reports Tamilwin.

Mourners were unable to pay their respects freely as security personnel surrounded the event.

The Sri Lankan government has ordered 14 more Mi-171 helicopters, according to Russian company Rosoboronexport.

The purchase is part of a $300million loan 10 year loan signed with Russia to buy equipment for the Sri Lankan armed forces.

The government has previously armed the transport helicopters and used them during the war, according to Defense Industry Daily.

Amongst the London2012 Olympics tourists by Whitehall in Central London, Tamils came together to remember the massacre of Black July.

Holding a silent vigil, Tamils held a minutes silence and lit candles in remembrance.

Sri Lankan Defence Secretary, Gotabaya Rajapaksa has called for the media to be more 'responsible' when reporting about incidents of crime.

Speaking at the Government’s information Department seminar on crime and national security, Rajapaksa outlined that ‘improper’ reporting of crime related reports would ruin Sri Lanka’s ‘image’, and have a negative impact on tourism and investments in the country.

Sri Lanka’s Minister of Industry and Commerce Rishad Bathiyutheen, accused of intimidating a Mannar magistrate, has refused to resign from his position over the allegations.

The Minister claimed that the judge was lying about receiving telephone threats regarding a court ruling against resettled fishermen in the Mannar district.

As the country’s lawyers and judges boycotted judicial duties in protest of an attack on Mannar’s court complex, Bathiyutheen was named as an initiator of the violence.