“The festival was in full swing. All the great writers from around the world were present, topping up their tan by the pool. Sorry I mean all the great white writers. The UK-returned natives were keen to stay out of the sun. Listen, you must understand, on this island paradise, the darker you were the harder it was to find a spouse and the more likely you were to be killed. It’s true.”

“The Festival sponsors strutted about and got lots of exposure. The organisers played at blind-man’s bluff. And the tan-toppers drank a lot. I’m telling you, all was as it should be.”

 “One or two people were a bit worried about security.

            ‘Did you hear a Russian girl was raped?’

            ‘No, no,’ SS told them, waggling his head. ‘That didn’t really happen! It was a play put on for the purpose of the Festival. It wasn’t the real thing!’

            ‘What about that Red Cross guy who was killed?’

            ‘That was in the play, too. Remember your Hamlet? The play’s the thing and all that…’

            ‘Oh okay,’ said the foreigners and off they went for a swim thinking, gosh, these people are incredibly friendly. They just smile and smile…. wasn’t there something like that in Hamlet, too?”

Dismissing the LLRC report for falling "dramatically short of international standards applicable to accountability processes", the TNA (Tamil National Alliance) called on the "international community to institute measures that will advance accountability", in a 70-page response to the LLRC report, released Sunday.

Tamils from Manalaaru in Vanni, who remain forcibly displaced by the Sri Lankan army since 1984, have urged the TNA to act or else the "structural genocide [of Eelam Tamils] will be complete in Mullaiththeevu in 2 years" reported Tamilnet.

The displaced Tamils put their demands to TNA MPs Mavai Senathirajah and S Sritharan when the pair visited the area on a fact finding mission on Friday. The civilians stated that the Sri Lankan Army, citing 'land mines', was preventing them from visiting their lands.

The Sri Lankan president's advisor on reconciliation, Rajiva Wijesinha, called for a "ministry of reconciliation" to be created and "be charged with fulfilling the recommendations of the commission". 

Meticulously addressing any false hope raised by the government's latest fallacy, Wijesinha stipulated that it would work "as best as possible", and would "be given a limited lifespan, of two years perhaps, after which it should be made redundant."

"This is a question of words versus deeds and it has to be backed up by action.

“The British Government is, on the whole, disappointed by the report’s findings and recommendations on accountability. Like many others, we feel that these leave many gaps and unanswered questions.

We welcome the acknowledgement that “considerable civilian casualties” occurred during the final stages of the conflict and the recommendation that specific incidents require further investigation. But we note that many credible allegations of violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law, including from the UN Panel of Experts report, are either not addressed or only partially answered."

“We believe that video footage, authenticated by UN Special Rapporteurs, should inform substantive, not just technical, investigations into apparent grave abuses."

“continue(d) to believe it is important that an independent, credible and thorough mechanism is put in place to investigate all allegations of grave abuses.”

Four US government officials will be visiting Sri Lanka over the next two weeks, the US embassy confirmed on Thursday.