The US State Department’s 2019 Country Report on Human Rights Practices in Sri Lanka highlighted a range of concerns this week, from unlawful killings and torture by government agents to the unjustified arrests of journalists and violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) persons.

Amongst the issues raised by the State Department was the harassment of Tamil journalists in the North-East, including of Tamil Guardian correspondents. 

A Tamil man has been admitted to Jaffna General Hospital after he was arrested by Sri Lankan police and found beaten unconscious on Wednesday.

The man, identified as Victor Sunthar of Mambalam junction, Ariyalai, was only admitted into hospital after an intervention from a Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka officer, who accompanied his wife as she attempted to get him released from custody.

Sunthar was arrested for an alleged assault in Kalvuyangad that took place on December 4. His wife had returned home from work to find that her house doors were locked and told that her husband had been arrested by the Sri Lankan police.

The head of Sri Lanka’s army, who is currently subjected to US travel sanctions over his role in overseeing war crimes, called on the public to “confide” in the military as it began quarantining foreigners in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

Shavendra Silva claimed to Sinhala television that the Sri Lankan military “will always tell you the truth”.

Sri Lanka’s already struggling economy looks set to suffer heavier blows this week, as the coronavirus pandemic hit tourist arrivals, caused an economic outflow from the island and may lead to a drop in remittances from abroad.

The news comes amid reports that at least two people have been diagnosed with the coronavirus in Sri Lanka.

The Sunday Times quoted Central Bank statistics as showing a foreign outflow of Rs 8.23 billion by Friday last week as Rs 11.42 billion government securities were encashed, with Sri Lanka’s fragile economic situation worsening.

“Sri Lanka’s economic links with China could be directly affected as significant volumes of consumer goods, intermediate goods and investment goods are imported from China,” the Central Bank said in a statement.

The United States continued its military relationship with Sri Lanka, as American troops took part in a Joint Combined Exchange Training (JCET) in Trincomalee this month, despite the US State Department placing sanctions on the head of the Sri Lankan army.

The course, inaugurated at the Sri Lankan navy’s occupying  Special Boat Squadron Training School in Trincomalee earlier this month, will reportedly focus on several areas including “Human Rights, Law of armed conflict, Small unit tactics, Military operations in Urban Environment, Tactical Combat Casualty Care, Combat Marksmanship, Close Quarter Battle, Mission Planning, Maritime Operations”. 

The  director of Vavuniya-based Thinapuyal newspaper, Sakthivelpillai Prakash, said that Tamil media on the island could not report freely until Sri Lanka’s Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) is lifted.

Prakash, who was speaking to reporters after attending questioning at Sri Lanka’s Terrorism Investigation Division (TID), described the interrogation that his wife and another editor were subjected to.

Prakash and his wife were kept from 9am until 6pm, where they were both initially questioned about their family, before interrogations moved on to the newspaper’s activities.

The Sri Lankan security forces have continued to ramp up the militarisation of the North-East, with new road blocks set up in Mannar this week.

Locals travelling on coaches and public buses have been subjected to searches by the military, as part of increased security operations that have stepped up in recent months.

The prospect of the Rajapaksa clan capturing a two-thirds majority in the upcoming Sri Lanka parliamentary elections has left many on the island fearing what the future may hold, reports The Economist this week.

“They could roll back constitutional changes brought in by the previous government that trimmed the president’s powers,” it said this week. 

The US Supreme Court heard a landmark case brought by a Tamil asylum seeker this month, which could have wide-reaching implications for Washington’s fast-tracked immigration and deportation processes.

Vijayakumar Thuraissigiam, a Tamil asylum seeker who reached the United States via a gruelling eight-month journey through South and Central America, was arrested just 25 yards north of the US-Mexican border and placed in expedited removal proceedings which deemed he could be deported to Sri Lanka. After years in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody, his challenge of a particularly arbitrary US immigration policy has now reached the highest court in the federal judiciary.

Britain’s former foreign secretary David Miliband tweeted that he wished the UK “could have done more” on Sri Lanka, as a fellow Labour parliamentarian visited the UN Human Rights Council this week. 

Labour MP Wes Streeting, highlighted the "widespread concerns" over Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa retracting from Colombo's commitments made at previous UN Human Rights Council sessions and emphasised the need to bring "people to justice for historic war crimes and atrocities committed during the Sri Lankan civil war."