The Sri Lankan police's massacre of 8 Tamil civilians, including two schoolchildren in Thampalakamam, was remembered yesterday at the Trincomalee village, twenty years on. 

On February 1, 1998 civilians working at the local paddy fields were taken to the nearby police station where officers and home guards began shooting at them, before mutilating the dead bodies by stabbing and kicking them. One dead Tamil man's penis was cut off and stuffed inside his mouth. 

The Sri Lankan army continued with its miltiarisation of the North-East, by deploying soldiers to a Tamil pre-school in Kilinochchi to help pick up litter.

According to an official military website, 15 Army members of the 652 Brigade of the 65 Division cleaned up “garbage and other pollutants” from the Haridas Pre-school “under the supervision of Colonel Prabhath Kodithuwakku, Brigade Commander, 652 Brigade”.

The People’s Alliance for Right to Land released a statement this week, condemning the Sri Lankan security forces’ intimidation of Tamil families from Keppapulavu who were protesting and demanding the release of their land from Sri Lankan military occupation.

^{Photograph: A UK mercenary pictured training Sri Lankan soldiers in the 1980s. JDS Lanka}

Britain’s Foreign Office plans to shred dozens more files about its relationship with Sri Lanka, in addition to the hundreds of diplomatic it has already destroyed, writes Phil Miller in JDS Lanka this week.

“I found, from British air force files that had survived the shredder, that a senior British intelligence officer made two visits to Sri Lanka in 1979 to advise how to deal with the Tamil militancy,” writes Miller. “In 1980, a British special forces training team visited Sri Lanka to help set up an army commando unit.”

<p>A Tamil school student has been attacked and hospitalised after reporting to Sri Lankan police about illegal drug dealing in his local area.</p> <p>The student informed police about activity in his local area when police visited his school to raise awareness about the illegal drug trade and ways to report it.</p> <p>The police used the student’s information to arrest two individuals, following which the student was repeatedly harassed and threatened by local drug dealers.</p> <p>Although awareness and complaints were raised about the threats, no action was taken.</p>

<p>The father of one of the Tamil students gunned down in the infamous ‘Trinco 5’ massacre has spoken of how despite the Sri Lankan government’s intransigence, he will continue his struggle for justice more than 13 years after the killings.</p> <p>“The current Government promised me, when they met me in Geneva, that a hybrid court would be established,” said Dr Manoharan, the father of 20-year-old Ragihar,&nbsp;summarily executed by Sri Lanka's Special Task Force, whilst he spent an afternoon with friends on the beach in Trincomalee..</p> <p>“But later, they said the President and Attorney General said no to a hybrid court.”</p>

Sri Lankan police have arranged security to guard an illegally-built Buddha statue while a court injunction on its construction remains in place.

Submissions on the legality of the statue encroaching a Hindu temple in Neeraviyadi, Semmalai were heard by the Mullaitivu magistrates court last week. The case was adjourned to February 12, until which time an injunction was placed on any construction work on the premises.

Employees of Vavuniya urban council held a strike on Friday, protesting the unnecessary and aggressive intrusion of United National Party (UNP) supporters into their duties.

Council workers had been instructed by the council chair to clear unauthorised and outdated posters, including political ones, from public spaces.

As concerns over military involvement in civilian activity in the North-East continue, the Sri Lankan military handed out accessories to Tamil schoolchildren in Poonakari last week, taking charge of an initiative that was begun by Jaffna University students.

The Sri Lankan air force announced that it had held a golf tournament earlier this month, at a luxury gulf resort in Trincomalee which is run entirely by the military.

The announcement of the tournament comes as Tamils across the North-East continue their calls for the military to vacate land in the region and cease involvement in civilian activities.