The Sri Lankan government has decided to include two members of the opposition United National Party (UNP) in its delegation to travel to the forthcoming UN Human Rights Council sitting in Geneva, according to ColomboPage.

The UNP MPs, Lakshman Kiriella and Thalatha Atukorale will join the delegation which will be lead by Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources Management Nimal Siripala de Silva and President Rajapaksa’s special envoy for human rights Mahinda Samarasinghe, who is also the Plantation Minister.

Sri Lankan politician Sampath Vidanapathirana has been re-arrested by police over the murder of British aid worker Khuram Shaikh, after he went into hiding two weeks ago.

Vidanapathirana, who is the Tangalle Pradeshiya Sabha Chairman, was found hiding in a house in Kotte, after an arrest warrant was issued following the suspect breaking his bail conditions.

Three more human remains were found at the site of the Mannar mass grave today, as excavations continued, reported the Uthayan. The latest find brings the total number of remains found to 43.

The mass grave was unearthed when construction workers found two human skeletons on December 20th when digging in Thirukketheeswaram.

25 Indian fishermen have been arrested by the Sri Lankan Navy earlier today, for allegedly poaching in its maritime territory.

The men were arrested just north of Nedunthivu (Delft), an island off the coast of Jaffna.

The navy’s spokesperson Kosala Warnakulasuriya said they would be handed over to the police at Kankesanturai harbour.

Families have been encouraged by the Terrorism Investigation Department (TID) to register their disappeared as dead, reports the Uthayan.

Reports suggest that the TID have set up unpublicised events for families of the disappeared and offered monetary gains and food rations to incentivise families into registering their disappeared as dead.

Human Rights Watch has stated that “little progress” has been made towards accountability in Sri Lanka and called for an independent international investigation into war crimes abuses, in its 2014 World Report.

Speaking on the launch of the report, Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch stated,

Writing in the Sunday Times LK, Kishali Pinto Jayawardene, argues "we do not need a truth and reconciliation commission". Full text of her opinion is reproduced below:


We do not need a truth and reconciliation commission

Despite Sri Lanka’s most disgraceful history with a plethora of demonstrably useless Commissions and Committees established by successive Presidents, it is a matter for considerable astonishment that the Rajapaksa Presidency’s near desperate proposal of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission at the turn of this year, appears to have found support in some quarters of our society.

The Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF) discussed the systematic genocide that Tamils face in a meeting with a Canadian delegation, including Sarah Gills, the Senior Desk Officer for Sri Lanka, Maldives, and South Asian Relations, last week.

In a press release about the meeting, the TNPF reported that after discussing the many actions of the Sri Lankan state that constituted genocide of the Tamil nation, the organisation also laid out their expectations for the next UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) session in Geneva.

The 111 Tamil Nadu fishermen who were released following their mass arrest by the Sri Lankan Navy last month, are protesting in Trincomalee that their boats and other fishing equipment be returned to them, reports the Uthayan.

Fifteen boats were also seized by the Sri Lankan Navy in December, whilst arresting over 200 fishermen. Some reports said that upto 300 were arrested, with almost two-thirds later released.

Protests in Australia, as well as outside the Australian High Commission in Tamil Nadu and London today, are demanding the release of 46 refugees who have been detained indefinitely by Australia's Security and Intelligence Organisation (ASIO).

Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India