Original monument to Thileepan before its dectruction (Tamilnet 2003)

The destroyed monument to Thileepan in Jaffna will be restored and maintained by the Northern Provincial Council, the council chairperson C V K Sivagnanam announced on Thursday.

Sri Lanka will appoint Eastern Naval Commander Rear Admiral Travis Sinniah as Navy Commander next week reports Dailymirror.lk.

Rear Admiral Sinniah was the senior most naval officer in active combat operations at sea during Sri Lanka’s war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Sri Lanka’s Army distributed spectacles to 40 Tamil civilians in Kilinochchi as part of a larger distribution programme launched by the Security Force Headquarters – Kilinochchi.

The event was headed by Major General Sarath Weerawardena as part of the first phase of distribution with the Colombo based Opticians.

Officers from both the 65^th and 57^th divisions of Sri Lanka’s military in Kilinochchi attended the event last weekend.

Sri Lankan soldiers have begun clearing up the 30-year-old grave of an Indian army officer in Koppay, Jaffna.

The grave, to a Major General killed in battle in August 1987 while heading an Indian Peacekeeping Force camp in Koppay South during Indian occupation, was left to ruin after the forces withdrew from the island.

The request to restore the tomb came at the request of the Indian Army’s Southern Commander, P. M. Hariz, who was a serving soldier during the IPKF occupation.

The Tamil Nadu government is pushing New Delhi to discuss the restarting of a ferry service between India and Sri Lanka in order to facilitate the repatriation of refugees, the Times of India reported on Wednesday. 

A meeting that was due to be held between Tamil Nadu officials and the Ministry of External Affairs was cancelled due to "political turmoil", an official told TOI. 

"Now a letter and a report have been submitted to the Centre to aid structured resettlement of refugees who want to return," the official said. 

Sri Lanka's finance minister on Thursday announced he would be introducing tax cuts and subsidies for loans to small businesses as a result of the droughts and flooding. 

"Our measures today will increase economic growth and make this country an entrepreneurs' paradise," Mangala Samaraweera was quoted by AFP as saying. 

"Businesses would be offered heavy-subsided loans up to 750 million rupees ($5 million) and tax cuts for commercial vehicles to encourage entrepreneurship."

Tamil mothers of the disappeared who have been protesting for months across the North-East stated that they were still waiting on the Sri Lankan president to fulfil promises he made to them earlier this year.

Speaking at a press conference in Colombo, the mothers stated that one of their demands was a list of all those who surrendered to Sri Lankan security forces before and after the armed conflict.

“Does [the Sri Lankan president] not understand the pain of losing a child?,” one mother told jouranlists.

Sri Lanka’s Police Chief Pujith Jayasundare is considering legal action against a news website which published a video of him assaulting two junior members of staff at the police headquarters for not obeying the police department's rules on morning meditation for Buddhists, said a spokesperson this morning.

Police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekara stated that “there are 17 lawyers among police officers and they are reviewing this ugly episode and will take appropriate legal action”.

The footage, which was published Lanka-E-News, was captured on CCTV and shows Mr Jayasundara manhandling and making threatening gestures to the two men earlier this year.

Officials at Eastern University announced that the Vantharumoolai and Batticaloa campuses would be closed “Indefinitely” as tensions continue to be rasied, after an attack on security staff by Sinhala students last week.

All students have been ordered to vacate their rooms and hand over their keys by noon tomorrow, reports Daily Mirror.

The Sri Lanka Campaign (SLC) has called on the Sri Lankan government to release a list of all those who surrendered or were detained by the security forces during and after the war, in a new initiative launched this week.

“For approximately half a year, family members of those who disappeared during and after Sri Lanka’s civil war have been protesting continuously at various locations across the North and East of the country,” said the group. “Today we are launching this campaign in support of their struggle.”