Sri Lanka's Ministry of Defence is to strengthen its intelligence apparatus in a restructuring move that will give its leadership more "authoritative status" to tackle 'security threats' including "separatism".

The governor of the Northern province admitted that the Sri Lankan military was causing environmental damage by exploiting Mullaitivu ground water.

The remarks came at a meeting of the district development committee last week when Governor Suren Raghavan was told about the Sri Lankan army extracting millions of litres of water daily from a tube well in Karaithuraipatru (Maritimepattu).

Families of the disappeared this week continued their protests across the North-East, demanding justice for their disappeared loved ones. 

Mullaitivu fishermen have stepped up calls for the release of access roads to fishing waters from Sri Lankan navy and military occupation.

The district’s fishermen said that their livelihoods continue to suffer due to the forces continued occupation of two access roads in the Vadduvakal area, one which leads to the lagoon and another to deeper sea areas. The roads have been closed off to the public since 2009.

A disappearances activist in Vavuniya was questioned by Sri Lanka’s terrorism division earlier this month.

The secretary of the Vavuniya Families of the Disappeared association, K Rajkumar was questioned by Terrorism Investigation Department (TID) officials at the site of the Vavuniya protest on June 20.

Initially attempting to question Rajkumar by telephone, the TID officials appeared at the protest after he had refused and asked for any requests for investigation to be made in writing.

Rajkumar said he had been questioned for over thirty minutes, including over disappearance activists going to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Tamil families of the disappeared have accused international organisations of working to derail their campaign for justice by trying to convince families to abandon their protests in favour of welfare payments and other buy offs.

Families in Mullaitivu have been campaigning for over two years for answers about their disappeared relatives, many of whom surrendered at the end of the war.