A Sri Lankan parliamentarian and leader of the extremist Pivithuru Hela Urumaya (PHU) has lashed out at the United States, calling the country “the number one war criminal in the world” in response to travel sanctions placed on the commander of Sri Lanka’s army for his involvement in mass atrocities last week.

The former chief minister of the Northern Province C V Wigneswaran has praised the US travel ban imposed on Sri Lanka’s army chief, Lt. Gen. Shavendra Silva, last week and said he ‘speaks on behalf of Tamils of Sri Lanka’ when he says the decision is commendable.

Current Sri Lankan prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa will lead a newly formed coalition between the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), ahead of Sri Lanka’s parliamentary elections next month.

The new coalition, Sri Lanka Nidahas Podujana Sandanaya or the Sri Lanka Freedom People's Alliance, is made up of at least nine recognised political parties, as well as groups such as the Sinhala extremist Pivithuru Hela Urumaya (PHU).

Sri Lankan police arrested a former LTTE cadre and two others in Vavuniya, for allegedly carrying out illegal excavations last week.

The three persons were arrested Kanakarayankulam, Vavuniya with Sri Lankan police claiming they were illegal carrying out excavations to look for items that were left buried by the LTTE more than a decade ago.

Following the arrests, Sri Lankan authorities themselves carried out excavations at the site. No items were found.

Sri Lanka’s president Mahinda Rajapaksa met with two US Congressmen and the US Ambassador to the island on Saturday, where they reportedly discussed “counterterrorism” and the relationship between the two governments.

The meeting took place the day after the US announced it was placing a travel ban on the head of Sri Lanka’s army, following reports he oversaw mass atrocities a decade ago, whilst Rajapaksa was president.

Sri Lanka army commander, Major General Darshana Hettiarachchi, was brought out of retirement and reappointed as the Rehabilitation Commissioner General on Friday.

Senior Buddhist monks from Sri Lanka’s leading Sinhala Buddhist chapters have joined the chorus of outrage at US travel sanctions imposed on the head of the army, over his involvement in mass atrocities.

The Malwatte and Asgiriya chapters of Siyam Nikaya Chapters reportedly “expressed their displeasure” after the United States announced Shavendra Silva and his family would not be allowed to travel to the country on Friday, due to his involvement in reported war crimes, including extrajudicial killings, a decade ago

The Sri Lankan government has reportedly decided to withdraw from a United National Human Rights Council resolution that mandated an accountability mechanism for the prosecution of mass atrocities, just weeks before it was due to be discussed in Geneva.

The Australian Immigration Department has been accused of being over-enthusiastic in providing heavily redacted documents to the lawyers of the Eelam Tamil family fighting deportation to Sri Lanka.

<p>Surveillance and harassment against the families of the disappeared and activists have intensified since the election of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in November 2019, says Human Rights Watch.</p> <p>Speaking to HRW, activists working across the North and East of Sri Lanka said that government surveillance and intimidation has risen.</p> <p>One activist told HRW that prior to a victims’ meeting, “every one of the mothers got at least six telephone calls from different intelligence agencies asking ‘where is the meeting?’ Who is organising the meeting?’ What is being said?’”</p>