The Sri Lankan army is currently holding week-long celebrations of the Buddhist holiday Vesak in Jaffna, while the government called on low-key celebrations in the South due to the floods.

Over the past week soldiers could be observed building structures for the festival, before the official opening of the ceremony on Saturday, which started with the reading of Buddhist psalms in Tamil.

The Sri Lankan government has not shown any “genuine willingness to consult the victims” in order to set up a justice mechanism for prosecute for enforced disappearances said the Tamil Civil Society Forum (TCSF) and other Tamil organisations from across the North-East this week.

In a letter addressed to Sri Lanka’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, the 12 organisations and 26 individuals criticised the government’s lack of engagement with victims in setting up an ‘Office for Missing Persons’ (OMP). Stating that the “process to date has been handicapped by inadequate resources and has made very little progress,” the organisations said:

“We categorically state that an OMP that is designed without proper consultation with the victims and their communities would be unacceptable”.

“The Government despite repeated requests has also refused to engage with victims who are abroad in the consultation exercise,” it added.

A Sri Lankan army commander has failed to show up in court this week, where he was ordered to submit a list of surrendered Tamils that his unit had allegedly kept from the final stages of the armed conflict in 2009.

The General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the 58th Division of the Sri Lanka Army, Major General Chanakya Gunawardena, was ordered by the Mullaitivu magistrate to submit a list of all those that had surrendered, after an army brigadier testified the military had kept a list earlier this year. Amongst those to have surrendered is the husband of Northern Provincial Council member Ananthy Sasitharan, a political leader in the LTTE.

After failing to submit a list last month, the commander failed to show in court at all this week. The commander’s advocate was not present either.

Puthuvai Ratnathurai is an Eelam Tamil Revoluntary Poet. He was in charge of the Tamil Eelam Arts and Cultural Guild. 

Mr Rathnathuai was last seen in the custody of the Sri Lankan military on 18 May 2009 in Mullivaikkal and to date his fate is not known. 

He has written hundreds of poems. Here we publish just one such poem, originally written in Tamil and translated into English by the late Chelva Kanaganayakam.

Flooding in Jaffna this week

Heavy rain and flooding battered the Tamil North-East this week, following torrential rains across much of the region.

Floods have hit Kilinochchi and Jaffna, affecting hundreds of families in the Tamil North-East, who have had to abandon their homes.

Meanwhile more than 68 people have died from lightning strikes, drowning, falling trees and landslides triggered by the rains in the south, according to government updates. Hundreds of thousands have also left their homes as torrential rains continued.

Flooding in Kilinochchi this week

The Democratic representative for Illinois, Mr Danny Davis commemorated the Mullivaikkal remembrance day in the US congress on May 18, speaking on the Sri Lankan government's failure to win the peace, seven years after the end of the armed conflict.

Rep Davis said the "ambitious promises" made by the government need to be turned into concrete action, calling on the US to assist and support the processes, while keeping conditions on the military and other aid in place until there is real reform.

"The government of Sri Lanka has made commitments on transitional justice and accountability, a political settlement of the ethnic problem, security sector reform, the return of land, the release of Tamil political prisoners, actions to end human rights violations and other ambitious reforms. Unfortunately, not enough improvement has yet been seen by the Tamils, Christians and Muslims who feel marginalized and discriminated against. Courageous leadership is needed to gain trust if reconciliation is the goal, not just promises. Now is the time for real action."

A panel in Washington DC last week discussed the possibilities and risks in achieving justice and peace in Sri Lanka.

Speakers on the panel on May 11, organised by PEARL, were Kara Bue of Armitage International, Lisa Curtis from The Heritage Foundation, Alan Keenan of the International Crisis Group and Suthaharan Nadarajah from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. The event was moderated by PEARL's Senior Analyst Gowri Koneswaran.

The president of the Justice and Peace Commission in Jaffna Diocese has demanded the Sri Lankan government determine the whereabouts of several catholic priests who surrendered to the military in the closing stages of the armed conflict, reports Herald Malaysia.

"The local church still seeks an answer in court and from the army about the whereabouts of the missing priests but no information has been forthcoming," said Father S V B  Mangalarajah.

He was speaking at a memorial to remember Father Mariampillai Sarathjeevan who died of a heart attack amidst the massacres of 2009. The ceremony, at Our Lady of Fatima's Church in Uruthirapuram, took place on May 18, alongside several other remembrance ceremonies across the Tamil North-East. Father Sarathjeevan was unable to access medical help at the time, with resources and medicines embargoed to the conflict zone by the Sri Lankan government.

"But what happened to our missing Sri Lankan priests Father Jim Brown and Father Joseph Francis who surrendered to the army? asked Father Mangalarajah. "Father Francis was among those leaving the war zone in May 2009 and passing through a military checkpoint where some people saw him but he is no more today."