Keppapulavu residents defied increased security force presence to protest the visit of Sri Lankan prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

The Sri Lankan navy announced that it had arrested a man in Kayts on Thursday, accusing him of possessing 2kg of cannabis.

Families of the disappeared in Mullaitivu have launched a petition campaign on Saturday, calling for an international accountability mechanism to ensure justice for their loved ones.

The former Chief Minister of the Northern Province called on the Tamil diaspora as well as lawyers and politicians across the North-East to work towards ensuring that the genocide of Tamils becomes internationally recognised. 

The Chairman of the Office of Missing Persons (OMP) has said the DNA of the families of the disappeared would be tested against remains excavated from the Manner mass grave, if radiocarbon dating tests reveal skeletal remains are of those who had died recently.

A 23-year-old Tamil youth was assaulted by the Sri Lankan army on Friday at a restaurant in Eechchankulam, Vavuniya. 

The youth, orginally from Kalmadu, was playing with friends at the local sports ground before he went to the army run restaurant near by, where he was assaulted by a group of soldiers after a verbal argument occurred between him and an army official. 

Displaced families in Keppapulavu who have been protesting continously for several months, rejected the idea of being granted alternative lands, reiterating their call to be allowed to return to their homes. 

The wife of a forcibly disappeared Tamil from Mannar has appealed for protection after she was harassed in her home by purported Sri Lankan intelligence personnel.

Anantharaja Edna Dias from Pesalai filed a complaint  with the Human Rights Commission, Mannar on February 13, stating that there were threats to her and her three children’s lives.

The Sri Lankan army continued its intrusion into civilian life in the Tamil North-East, organising a volleyball camp in Mullaitivu last week.

The Sri Lankan government’s failure to establish an accountability mechanism for violations of International law means that referral to the International Criminal Court or the creation of another international mechanism “would be fully warranted," said the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), in a statement to the UN Human Rights Council last week.

“Almost ten years after Sri Lanka emerged from a period of conflict and massive human rights violations, the Government of Sri Lanka still has largely failed to implement its human rights obligations and commitments as reflected in Resolution 30/1,” said the ICJ in its submission.

It went on to add: