The Thandikulam Agriculture Farm School in Vavuniya held a ceremony to mark the 9th anniversary since the massacre of 5 students by Sri Lankan security forces.

On the 11th of November 2006 Sri Lankan troops raided the school and lined up the students, before executing them.

School principal Kumuthiny Chandrakanthan lit a memorial flame, with other school officials, students and relatives of those killed present at the ceremony. A blood donation event was also held in memory of those killed.

“These soldiers fired indiscriminately at a group of students who had thrown themselves on the ground seeking safety after an LTTE (Tamil Tiger) claymore mine blast nearby," said Helen Olafsdottir, spokeswoman for the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission to Reuters at the time.

"Witnesses say that soldiers jumped over the fence, into the agricultural school premises, and opened fire," she added. "They shot from close range, five of the students were killed and at least 10 others were injured."

The United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (UN WGEID) called on the Sri Lankan government to bring about truth, justice and reparations to victims of enforced disappearances, stating that “the time for action has come”.

In a statement released to mark the end of the group’s visit to the island, the UN WGEID said the “extensive use of enforced disappearances, followed by an almost complete lack of judicial accountability and decisive and sustained efforts to secure the truth about the disappeared - including the determination of their fate or whereabouts – as well as the absence of a comprehensive reparation program and social, psychological and economic support for the relatives, have left profound wounds in society and a deep sense of mistrust among the relatives”.

It further added “this context of mistrust is exacerbated by the continued and extensive presence of the military in the North and East of the country”.

Calling on the Sri Lankan government to “translate that announced commitment into concrete and urgent specific measures to address disappearances,” the statement added:

“The time for promises is over. The time for action has come.”

Sri Lankan opposition MP and Pivithuru Hela Urumaya General Secretary Udaya Gammanpila warned that the Sri Lankan government had agreed to sign the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) with India next year, in an address to a Young Entrepreneurs’ Conference in Colombo.

Mr Gammanpila claimed that an agreement had been reached for the trade deal to be signed in May 2016, and warned that Sri Lanka would “definitely become an Indian colony”.

A former Sri Lankan ambassador has renewed efforts to construct an India Studies Centre (ISC) in Colombo in order to “avoid any confrontation with the regional superpower,” reports The Hindu.

Former Ambassador Kalyananda Godage told The Hindu that “it’s now more than ever necessary to understand what India plans for South Asia as the world seems to be making space for India in the high tables of international diplomacy”.

“As India finds a new and more intense international role, smaller neighbours of India too will have to understand New Delhi’s behaviour in order to avoid any confrontation with the regional superpower as cooperation is in mutual interest,” he added.

Mr Godage was Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner to Malaysia, before he was recalled abruptly by Colombo after he was accused of sympathetic involvement with Tamil organisations in Malaysia.

Sri Lankan president Maithripala Sirisena assured an all-party meeting on Tuesday that he would ensure the “the dignity of the country is safeguarded” in regard to action on a UN Human Rights Council resolution on accountability for mass atrocities.

In the second all-party meeting to discuss the resolution passed earlier this year, the Sri Lankan president reassured the island’s political parties that his government would ensure “every action in relevant to Geneva Proposals will be taken in accordance with the Constitution of Sri Lanka”.