Students and staff at the University of Jaffna today held a remembrance event to mark 35 years since the pogrom of Black July in 1983. 

Over 3000 Tamils were massacred during the pogram which saw Sinhala mobs target Tamil homes and businesses, looting and ransacking property, as well as rounding up Tamils and burning them alive.

The head of Sri Lanka’s military visited a Buddhist temple in Amparai last month, where monks praised the military in religious ceremony held for the army.

A boat belonging to Tamil fishermen was destroyed by a group of unknown persons, as tensions continue to escalate between Tamil and Sinhalese fishermen in the region.

Threats made against the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka are “absolutely outrageous” said Yasmin Sooka, executive director of the International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP), as she called for further vetting to ensure Sri Lankan troops accused of war crimes are not deployed with United Nations peacekeeping missions.

The Sri Lankan military reported that it had organised a seminar for schoolchildren in Trincomalee last week, as it continues to involve itself with educational activities across the North-East.

The Chinese President has offered Sri Lanka a new grant worth $295 million USD, reports Reuters.

Sri Lanka’s President, Maithripala Sirisena, made the announcement on Saturday at a ceremony inaugurating construction of a Chinese-funded hospital in Polonnaruwa, saying, “when the Chinese ambassador visited my house to fix the date for this ceremony, he said that Chinese President Xi Jinping sent me another gift.”

A young protester from the Vavuniya families of the disappeared protest has died from ill health.

24-year-old Nila Rasanayagam who has been searching for her disappeared brother passed away on Saturday.

Her brother Rasanayagam Jenisraj disappeared in Colombo in 2009. His family had not received any information about his fate since.

Ms Rasanayagam has become the eighth protester to die since protests started.

A documentary filmed and produced by British Tamil students highlighting the struggle of Tamil families of the disappeared protesting across the North-East has been released online today.

The documentary, entitled ‘Sri Lanka’s Disappeared’, was made freely available online after a series of screenings worldwide over the last year.

The TNA spokesperson M A Sumanthiran said he could see the mental agony of the families of the disappeared who protested against the hearings of the Office on Missing Persons in Jaffna and Kilinochchi this month, however he said the party's view was that the OMP was the way forward. 

"We see the mental anguish of those who protest. However, in a situation like this, in order to handle this, a mechanism such as the Office on Missing Persons is very good. It is because of this that it has been created," Mr Sumanthiran said at a press briefing, when asked for his view on the recent OMP protests."

The Sri Lankan navy announced that it had arrested a four year old child and a 28 year old man, claiming that the two had attempted to illegally enter the island from India.