Sri Lanka’s president Maithripala Sirisena vowed that his government would not “bow down” to international pressure, days after meeting with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon.

Speaking at the 65th anniversary of the Sri Lankan Freedom Party, Mr Sirisena told a crowd in Kurunegala that the international community would not be allowed to interfere with the “domestic affairs” of the island.

Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner to Malaysia was reportedly assaulted by a group of protestors, amidst continued demonstrations against former Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa’s visit to the country. 

The High Commissioner, Ibrahim Sahib Ansar, was at Kuala Lumpur airport on Sunday to see off Sri Lankan MP Dinesh Gunawardena, who had accompanied Mr Rajapaksa to Malaysia. The protestors reportedly surrounded the Sri Lankan official and demanded to know the whereabouts of Mahinda Rajapaksa, who they accuse of committing genocide.

In his inaugural address to the Indian Conference 2016 in Singapore, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe called for the establishment of an Indian Ocean Order to govern the "interaction between states to ensure the safety and security of the Indian Ocean". Wickemasinghe focused on the emerging significance of the Indian Ocean's busy trade corridors and called for the establishment of an Indian Ocean Assembly.

The Sri Lankan army has been invited to join the UN peacekeeping force in Mali, the Sunday Times reported. 

Citing a senior foreign ministry source, the paper said the "Government of Mali has sought a Sri Lankan peacekeeping contingent as against troops from Pakistan or Bangladesh", which the source said, "was because of the Sri Lanka Army’s successful military defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), one of the world’s deadliest terrorist organisations at the time."

In a letter handed to the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, civil society organisations have criticised the Sri Lankan government lack of political will on meaningful transitional justice and its failure to establish a conducive environment for meaningful consultations on any process. 

The letter, handed to Mr Ban during his visit to Jaffna last week, was signed by Centre for Human Rights and Development, Centre for the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights, Home for Human Rights, Tamil Civil Society Forum and The Social Architects. 
 

The UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon told displaced Tamils from Vali North that he would push for their resettlement into their homes, as he visited an IDP camp in the region on Friday. 

Mr Ban had visited Jaffna as part of a three day visit to the island, where he also met with the chief minister of the Northern Provincial Council, the Tamil National Alliance, the Sri Lankan prime minister and president. 

The chief minister of the Northern Provincial Council (NPC), C V Wigneswaran told the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon who visited Jaffna on Friday that a credible war crimes was essential and that the Tamil people would not be satisfied regarding its credibility unless international judges and prosecutors were included. 

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon admitted the global body made “big mistakes” and could have saved “many more human lives” during the final phase of the island's bloody armed conflict in 2009, where tens of thousands of Tamil civilians were massacred at the hands of Sri Lankan security forces.

The UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon told the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) in a meeting on Friday in Jaffna that he fully realises the Tamil people's expectation of justice and that it must include international involvement, the TNA's spokesperson, M A Sumanthiran told reporters after the meeting. 

Tamils in the North-East gathered outside the public library in Jaffna on Friday as the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon visited to raise awareness of their plight. 

Reiterating their central demands of international justice for mass atrocities, end to the military occupation of their lands, release of Tamil political prisoners, repeal of the Prevention of Terrorism Act, and to find out the whereabouts of their missing loved ones, Tamils gathered carrying banners and placards, and called on the UN to make the Sri Lankan government to act.

The demonstration took place despite a number of armed Sri Lankan military personnel being deployed to the area along with a full-scale police presence.