In a statement released on Friday, the Tamil Refugee Council have strongly rejected comments made by the Sri Lankan High Commissioner to Australia that groups calling for a boycott of Sri Lanka’s cricket tour have “terrorist” connections.

TRC spokesman, Mal Bala said,

“The Admiral’s comments are not just laughable. It is insulting to these people to be told they are connected to terrorism”.

Responding to comments by the High Commissioner that he has brought up the planned leafleting campaigns and protests against the cricket tour with “relevant authorities”, Bala responded,

“Thanks to freedom of speech here we can do it. But if you did it in Sri Lanka you would quickly be disappeared into the bowels of a torture centre.”

See the full text of the statement below.

A 21-year-old student from Jaffna University, Nadarasa Kiyani, has been found strangled to death in her house in Chunnakam, reports JDS.

The body of Kiyani, a student of the Fine Arts Faculty, was found by her parents, with a bed sheet wrapped tightly around her neck.

According to initial reports, the post-mortem has deemed the cause of death to be a heart attack.

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), on Tuesday, forwarded a statement from the Women’s Action Network, expressing concern on the plight of Tamil women coerced into joining the Sri Lankan military, reported the BBC. Latest reports have also indicated that at least 20 of these women have now been admitted into Kilinochchi district hospital, with many unconscious.

Trevor Grant, former chief cricket writer for The Age, has appeared on Radio Australia calling on both Cricket Australia and the Australian government to ban future matches against Sri Lanka, until there is an investigations into the killing of up to 40,000 Tamils in “safe zones” during the latter stages of the armed conflict.

He appeared on the show alongside Sri Lanka's high commissioner to Australia Admiral Thisara Samarasinghe. The Admiral was the Sri Lankan Navy's Northern commander during 2009 and himself stands accused of participating in the shelling of civilians.

Grant, who has been leading calls for Australia to boycott the Sri Lankan cricket team, said,

"This cricket team is part and parcel of maintaining credibility for a government that has been called out on war crimes and crimes against humanity by the UN and continues to persecute Tamils in the Northern and Eastern regions, and what’s more has refused point blank to many requests for independent reviews of things going on in that country”.

“We are taking a lesson from the anti-apartheid boycotts back in the 1970s. it has been proven that those boycotts in fact were probably the deciding factor in alienating South Africa so much that apartheid was killed.”

“We are trying to create an awareness. We know that this tour cannot be stopped now, but we would like to ask fans to think twice now about going to the game and also we want to government and Cricket Australia to ban future matches against Sri Lanka until things change.”

Listen to the full interview here.

Admiral Thisara Samarasinghe meanwhile responded,

"I categorically, totally deny baseless, unsubstantiated allegations of 40,000 deaths, crimes against humanity, various other allegations… This is a way of bringing discredit to the country, to people with vested interests… The rest of the world should hail Sri Lanka.”

The Power and Energy Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka has slammed US sanctions against Iran, saying they ‘infringe’ on the rights of Sri Lankans.

Ranawaka is reported to have made the comments during separate discussions with the Russian and Iranian ambassadors.

He told the Iranian ambassador to Sri Lanka that electrification of 1000 villages has been halted due to the sanctions.

Buddhist monks led a mob of roughly 1000 people to vandalise a church and attack the pastor on 9th December, reported the Morning Star.

According to the Morning Star, the monks had given the church one day's notice to close down, proclaiming to the pastor that permission from Buddhist clergy was needed for Christian worship.

A Japanese national was arrested on Thursday by Sri Lankan police at Mount Lavinia for having printed 42 postcards with a panda replacing the lion on the Sri Lankan flag. 

The man accused of this shocking crime was reportedly arrested whilst he was in the process of mailing his goods.

He will be produced in front of Mount Lavinia Magistrate on Thursday.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi met with Sri Lanka’s Minister of Industry and Commerce Rishad Bathiyutheen, calling for the two countries to expand their relationship.

Salehi stated on Monday,

"The Islamic Republic of Iran is fully ready for supporting and evermore expansion of comprehensive cooperation with Sri Lanka, particularly in political, economic, commercial, transit, and joint investments fields,"

In a report published on Thursday following a recent visit, the Australian Human Rights Commission said it "continues to hold serious concerns about the appropriateness of holding asylum seekers in immigration detention on Christmas island."

Asserting that the conditions are "not appropriate for asylum seekers", the Commission stated it "has ongoing concerns about the prison-like nature of the Christmas Island Immigration Detention Centre (IDC), the harsh conditions in the Aqua and Lilac compounds, and the inappropriateness of the Construction Camp as a place for accommodating families with children and unaccompanied minors."

It went on to highlight "significant overcrowding", concerns around a lack of sufficient mental health services to keep pace with a growing demand, and that children "continue to be subjected to mandatory detention on Christmas Island, in breach of Australia’s obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC)," as key issues.

In the Aqua Compound - a one of the 'secure' immigration detention facility - the Commission found that single adult men were being housed along side families with children, which the Commission felt may lead to a further breach of the CRC. Thirty-five children were reported to be housed in this 'secure' compound. Most family groups are housed within the Construction Camp, a 'low security detention facility'.

On this visit, the Commission detailed that 1989 people were in current detention, included 315 children, and 944 people from the island of Sri Lanka.