The week of July 16th to the 22nd has been declared as ‘Social Integration Week’ in Sri Lanka. It was launched ceremonially by President Mahinda Rajapakse at Temple Trees on Monday.

Colombo Page reports that the ‘initiative’ has been launched to tackle disparities in civil rights, to sanctify co-existence and ultimately to unite the nation.

An Australian NGO working with Tamil asylum seekers and detainees in Australia, the Australian Refugee Action Coalition, said they expected more Tamil asylum seekers to risk their lives, as the situation in Sri Lanka deteriorated.

A spokesperson for Australian Refugee Action Coalition, Ian Rintoul, said,

Tamils protested against the presence of two Sri Lankan military officials at Gateway Hotel, at the Coonoor hill station in Tamil Nadu on Sunday, reports NDTV.

The military personnel, reported to be a Rear Admiral and a Major General, arrived on Sunday evening, prompting 25 MDMK members to protest. They were arrested by Indian police officers as they attempted to march to the hotel.

Speaking to The Daily Telegraph, young Tamil asylum seekers who made the perilious journey to Christmas Island, recounted their ordeal.

A 17-year-old school boy said he left fearing arrest by the Sri Lankan Navy or police if he was found.

"It was very bad, for five days we had no food, no water, it was very, very scary," he said.

"We were vomiting blood. There were three small boys and every day we were vomiting blood. We were very frightened."

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalitha has criticised the Indian government for allowing two Sri Lankan officers to receive training in the southern state’s Nilgiris district, while Karunanidhi has dropped the demand for an independent Tamil Eelam from a conference, after pressure from the home minister.

In a strongly worded letter to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Jayalalitha said the people of Tamil Nadu “are frustrated and outraged” by the “callous and adamant attitude” of India in giving training to Sri lankan armed forces personnel.

In an interview with Sami Zeiden of Al Jazeera, Sri Lanka's Justice Minister, Rauf Hakeem, asserted that Sri Lanka was being 'unfairly targetted' by the Human Rights Council, and felt 'victimised' by the European Union.

The Sri Lankan military in Jaffna has evicted more than 279 families from their homes and occupied their land, reports TamilNet. Civil society sources in the north report that military personnel are silently evicting people from their homes in Maathakal, an area that is outside the former ‘High Security Zone’.

See here and here.

Speaking to reporters on Sunday, the Sri Lankan Army's chief, Lt. General Jagath Jayasuriya, gave his take on the army's role in the North-East and rejected any criticism of the army camps as "not anybody else's" problem.

Jayasuriya said,

"It's not correct to say that there is one soldier for every five citizens in the north,"

The British High Commissioner, John Rankin, urged the government to investigate disappearances and resolve the "complex" land issues that remain.

In a statement released on Friday, Rankin said,

Citing a "challenge [to] the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India", the Indian government extended its ban on the LTTE for another two years. In a statement, the home ministry added that the LTTE held a strong anti-India stance and pro-LTTE groups 'continued to foster a separatist tendency' among the Indian masses.