Responding to the passage of the UN Human Rights Council resolution on Sri Lanka, the British Tamil Conservatives welcomed the passage of the resolution but called for further legal action on Sri Lanka officials implicated in war crimes as well as trade sanctions against Sri Lanka.

TNPF leader Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam expressed his party’s concern over the new UNHRC Resolution 46/1 on Sri Lanka, which seeks to investigate the crimes committed by the Sri Lankan government, as being “very disappointing” and “contrary to natural justice” during a speech in Parliament.

“It is a resolution that deceives the affected people,” he said. “Affected Tamils are asking for an international mechanism that can fully investigate all crimes, including the genocide perpetrated against Tamils by this government.”

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has welcomed the newly passed UN Human RIghts Council resolution on Sri Lanka which establishes a new process “to collect, analyse, and preserve evidence” of war crimes “for use in future prosecutions”, with the human rights organisation urging member states to impose “targeted sanctions” on those on those allegedly responsible for grave violations and pursue justice in “national courts under the principle of universal jurisdiction”.

The Sri Lankan archaeological department has initiated an attempt to seize another 400 acres of land in the Thannimurippu area around Kurunthoormalai in the Mullaitivu district, as local Tamils continue to face threats from Sinhala Buddhist monks.

The department instructed the provincial secretary of Karaithuraipatru in a letter to cede 400 acres of land surrounding Kurunthoormalai that belongs to native Tamils. 

This move is seen as an attempt to erase the Tamil identity of the area and further the ‘Buddhisation’ of the traditional Tamil homeland. 

Devotees in Mannar celebrated the St. Soosaiyappar church festival last week. 

Responding to the UN resolution on Sri Lanka, former Finance Minister Eran Wickramaratne decried the government’s disastrous management of “foreign diplomatic relations” and raised concerns over the economic impact stating:

“We must not risk legal battles in foreign jurisdictions, travel bans, economic and trade embargoes. The economic consequences will be catastrophic”.

Responding to UN resolution on Sri Lanka, which mandates that the Office of High Commissioner for Human rights must gather and preserve evidence for a future war crimes tribunal, former Indian Finance Minister and member of the Rajya Sabha, Palaniappan Chidambaram described India’s abstention as a “gross betrayal of the Tamil people”.

On Twitter he stated:

The Sri Lankan army and forestry department has continued its ban on Tamil villagers of North Nedungeeni Vedivaithakal in Vavuniya from entering the village. 

Another Tamil father who was searching for their forcibly disappeared son for over a decade passed away this week in Vavuniya. 

Kanagaiya Ranjanamurthy, 63, from Vinayagapuram, Vavuniya, joined other Tamil families of the disappeared in roadside protests in the district for 1495 days, demanding justice for their forcibly abducted loved ones.

Responding to the recently passed UN resolution, which mandates that the Office of the High Commissioner for Human rights collect, “consolidate, analyse and preserve” evidence of war crimes for a future tribunal, Sri Lanka’s main opposition party the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB, or United People’s Front) has called for yet another “domestic accountability mechanism”.

"The SJB is committed to an internationally credible, independent domestic accountability mechanism" read their press release.