The office of Sri Lanka's President has slammed a recent statement by former US Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes, Stephen Rapp, which revealed that Rajapaksa had admitted to the killing of LTTE leaders, during an offensive that saw the massacre of tens of thousands of Tamils.

See the clip of Rapp speaking and the full video of the webinar below.

A Tamil journalist was threatened and harassed by ‘investigators’ at the Vavuniya families of the disappeared (FOD) protest on Friday 4th February.  

An awards ceremony was jointly organised by the International Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka (ICCSL), the Chartered institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) and the Daily Financial Times newspaper decided to bestow a "Leadership with Distinction" award to Sri Lanka's General Shavendra Silva, an accused war criminal who is barred from entry to the United States over his role in executing Tamils.

Silva received the award at the “Most Admired Companies of Sri Lanka 2020” ceremony last week, where he was the chief guest and the Deputy High Commissioner of India, Vinod K Jacob was the guest honour.

In an interview for Just Security, Former UN Human Rights High Commissioner, Navanethem (Navi) Pillay urged the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) and member states to take action to hold Sri Lanka accountable for war-time atrocities and human rights violations.

“It is time for the HRC to make a drastic departure from its customary complacency over the failures of the Sri Lankan government and hold it to account for its non-compliance with HRC resolutions”.

Writing in Just Security, Daniela Gavshon, Director of the Truth and Accountability program at the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) highlights the findings of their latest report, “Tides of Violence”, a project aims to compile a record of wartime abuses and to the enter them onto a detailed conflict map.

Responding to increasing demands for war crimes accountability from Tamil civil society actors and international human rights bodies, Sri Lanka’s former army commander, Sarath Fonseka, addressed the media and maintained that there was no cause for concern as no government would “betray” the military.

“The forces will not be betrayed. And no harm will be allowed to come to them. Whatever the party, it is our policy as a country.”

Responding to a question, Tamil Makkal Thesiya Kootani (TMTK) leader C.V. Wigneswaran has defended leader of the Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF), Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam’s use of the word “genocide” to describe the on-going suffering of Eelam Tamils.

We are always committed in ensuring that our Tamil brothers and sisters in #srilanka live with Dignity, Equality, Justice & Peace : PM @narendramodi in Tamil Nadu pic.twitter.com/fd1L0oh8u2

The Kalmunai Magistrate Court has issued summons to seven people who participated in the Pottuvil to Polikandy (P2P) march earlier this month.

Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP Shanakiyan Rasamanickam is amongst the seven who have been summoned, the Colombo Gazette reported. 

In a letter to the Ambassador and Permanent Representative of France to the United Nations in the US, as well as the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, several French MPs highlight the “repeated attacks on individual rights and freedom” of Tamils in Sri Lanka, and requested France to indicate its intended role at the United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) later this month.