Tamil families of the disappeared marking 1,400 days of protest in Vavuniya in December 2020

Vavuniya Magistrate Court imposed a ban on demonstrations and hunger strikes planned by Tamil families of the disappeared to mark Sri Lanka's Independence Day as a day of protest.

Sri Lankan army officers shot at three unarmed Tamil men in Vavuniya, leaving one of them hospitalised. They claimed that they acted in response to being shot at by the three men, however the men insisted they were unarmed and had only gone to the local forest to cut down some trees.

Sri Lankan Prime Minister, Mahinda Rajapaksa, has caved to nationalist demands against Indian involvement in the East Container Terminal (ECT), promising trade unions that it would be 100 per cent by Sri Lankan Port Authority.

Accused war criminal Shavendra Silva attended a ceremony to lay the cornerstone for the construction of a 100ft Buddhist Stupa in Jaffna.

The ceremony was attended by all departments of the military and members of the Buddhist clergy. Silva was invited as the chief guest by the Commander of the Jaffna security force, General Priyantha Perera.  Kandyan drummers led the accused war criminal to the site where he laid the foundation stone.

At least 117 journalists have been killed of have disappeared since 1981 and an "innumerable number have been subjected to great repression", stated the former Sri Lankan MP Karu Jayasuriya.

Family members of Sri Lanka’s political elite have been appointed to foreign posting whilst the Foreign Ministry insists that the decision based on experience and educational qualifications.

Amongst the appointments are Dulmini Attanayake, daughter of Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) parliamentarian Tissa Attanayake, and Subashini Samaranayake, daughter of Mohan Samaranayake, Director General of the Presidential Media Unit.

Colombo Telegraph has alleged to have received a leaked report by Sri Lanka’s Presidential Commission of Inquiry on political victimisation, which is to be used to exonerate and acquit war criminal and money launders and punish respondents.

M K Stalin, president of the Tamil Nadu opposition party Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), has urged the Indian Prime Minister to take the lead with a stronger line on Sri Lanka at the upcoming UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) session.

In a letter sent to Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week, Stalin was critical of Indian foreign minister S Jaishankar's silence on the UNHRC process during his recent visit to Sri Lanka.

^{India's shipment of vaccines arrive in Sri Lanka} 

China and India have agreed to donate COVID-19 vaccines to Sri Lanka, with Chinese officials releasing a statement on 27 January, promising 300,00 free vaccines and India delivering 500,000 free vaccines to the island on 28 January.  

Following a damning report by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, Human Rights Watch has endorsed the recommendations of the High Commissioner for targeted sanctions on Sri Lankan officials credibly accused of war crimes and for the establishment of an independent international mechanism to investigate violations of international law.