The Sri Lankan Navy has detained four Tamils, including a former LTTE cadre and a 'suspected LTTE activist', as they reportedly attempted to seek asylum in India on Saturday.

The individuals were spotted 11 nautical miles off the coast of Jaffna by the Sri Lankan navy, in a dinghy.

Japan has granted Sri Lanka 345 million Rs. (or 200 million Japanese Yen) in support of the country’s anti-drug campaign, which is headed by the accused war criminal, Kamal Gunaratne.

This statement follows the establishment of a Presidential Task Force (PTF) that provides Sri Lanka officials with a worryingly broad mandate to tackle the drug menace whilst also failing to illustrate clear lines of accountability.

Sri Lanka responded to a report from the United Nations Special Rapporteur this week, by stating he should “be mindful of that stark reality when making recommendations related to security sector reforms”.

UN Special Rapporteur Clément N. Voule had expressed repeated concern at how “rapidly” changes had taken place in Sri Lanka since presidential elections last year, citing ethnic discrimination, miltiarisation and intimidation of civil society in an address to the UN Human Rights Council.

The UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances has issued a statement expressing concern over Sri Lanka’s withdraw from co-sponsorship of the Human Rights Council resolution 30/1 as well as statements from the government on the issue of enforced disappearances.

Up to 2,000 sites in the Eastern province are subject to 'archaeological' examination says Ellawala Medhananda, a Presidential Task Force (PTF) for Archaeological Heritage Management member. 

The Buddhist monk stated that preparations have begun to 'examine' the 2,000 'archaeological' sites, including forests, across Amparai, Batticaloa and Trincomalee. He further stated that if Buddhist artefacts are found at Koneswaram Temple, they should be protected. 

Writing on Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan’s (aka Karuna Amman) recent boast, that under the LTTE he had killed “2,000 – 3,000 soldiers” during the attack on elephant pass, Tissainayagam notes that this statement “shattered an alternate reality Sri Lanka has tried to create about the country’s civil war” and its post-war order.

For this constructed reality, Karuna had served two purposes, argues Tissainayagam;

UN Special Rapporteur Clément N. Voule expressed repeated concern at how “rapidly” changes had taken place in Sri Lanka since presidential elections last year, citing ethnic discrimination, miltiarisation and intimidation of civil society in an address to the UN Human Rights Council yesterday.

Addressing the Council, Voule said “almost one year after my visit, and slightly over six months after Presidential elections were held, I am deeply concerned that the context I found at the time of the visit has already rapidly changed”.

Sri Lanka’s former president who oversaw the bombing of a church in Jaffna, has reportedly said the attack was a “mistake” made by the Sri Lankan air force, backtracking from comments she made at the time of the massacre 25 years ago.

The families of the disappeared in Vavuniya have demanded Tamil National Alliance (TNA) members Sumanthiran, Sritharan and Sampanthan to resign and urged Tamil people to boycott the TNA in the upcoming parliamentary elections.

As they marked 1,236 days of continuous protests last week, they insisted by removing the TNA from power it would allow an international investigation into the Tamil genocide to be launched.

Former parliamentarian and leader of the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO), Selvam Adaikalanathan has issued an ‘emergency letter’ to the defence secretary, Kamal Gunaratne urging him to consider the issue of increased military checkpoints in the North, which has caused “untold hardships to the general public.”