Britain’s High Commissioner to Sri Lanka met with Shavendra Silva, the war crimes accused head of the Sri Lankan military, as the two discussed the island’s coronavirus outbreak measures.

Sarah Hulton met with Silva at the Sri Lankan army’s headquarters last week, as the military continues to lead Colombo’s response to the outbreak.

C.D Wickramarathna, Sri Lanka’s acting Inspector General of Police, has instructed Sri Lanka’s CID (Criminal Investigation Department) and police to pursue legal action against those on social media criticising government officials on the pretence that it obstructs their duties.

Sri Lanka’s police have arrested 206 people with a 6-hour span on Sunday for violating the island-wide curfew intended to curb the spread of coronavirus.

The United States military celebrated the end of a month-long training exercise with the Sri Lankan navy this week, which continued to take place despite the head of the Sri Lankan army being subject to travel sanctions over his role in overseeing war crimes.

The Joint Combined Exchange Training (JCET) took place at the Sri Lankan navy’s occupying Special Boat Squadron base in Trincomalee this month.

The Australian Tamil Congress (ATC) have condemned the presidential pardon of Sergeant Sunil Rathnayake, insisting the “pardon of convicted murderer of Tamils proves justice only possible through international criminal tribunal.”

Rathnayake, was sentenced to death for killing eight Tamil Internally Displaced People (IDPs) in Mirusuvil, Jaffna on December 2000, after being convicted in June 2015 and had his sentence upheld in April 2019 at Sri Lanka’s supreme court.

A Tamil journalist in Kilinochchi was attacked by a group of unknown persons at his office yesterday, even as Sri Lanka’s security forces patrolled the streets and enforced a curfew in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak.

Nadarasalingam Thusanth was at his office when a group of unknown persons burst in and began to attack him with swords.

Civil society organisations from across the island have condemned the Sri Lankan president’s pardon of a soldier who was convicted for massacring Tamils, stating that “power has been abused and justice has been forsaken”.

The power to pardon as used in Sri Lanka is just another way the State arbitrarily discriminates against Tamils, a Jaffna-based think-tank has said. In a statement condemning the release of a Sri Lankan soldier Sunil Ratnayake, convicted of massacring Tamils, the Adayaalam Centre for Policy Research said the route to justice must be an international process.

“The conviction of Ratnayake was a rare exception to the rule of impunity for crimes committed by State forces in Sri Lanka and his pardon is a reminder that even those rare exceptions are not permitted by the ethnocratic state,” the organisation said. 

A cross-party group of British parliamentarians, including several former ministers, have urged the Foreign Secretary to make progress on an international justice mechanism to achieve accountability in Sri Lanka, following the pardoning of a Sri Lankan soldier convicted for the murder of 8 Tamil civilians.

In a letter to Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, 11 MPs and one member of the House of Lords said they were deeply disappointed by reports of the soldier [Sunil Ratnayake’s] release.