The Bodu Bala Sena on Saturday confirmed it would take part in the general election, due to be held on August 17.

General Secretary Galagodaaththe Gnanasara said to Ceylon Today that a new political party had been created and registered to contest the elections.

"We will give all the information in due course. At the moment, all I can say is that we will contest the general election on 17 August under a new party name and a symbol," the Thera said adding "all the information, including the name of the party and the symbol will be revealed at the end of this month," the monk said.

The Tamil National Alliance has accused the Sri Lankan government of attempting to cover up increasing evidence linking abductions with former defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaska and the Sri Lankan Navy.

Speaking to journalists in Jaffna, TNA spokesperson and MP, Suresh Premachandran said that an international inquiry would be the sole means by which to discover the truth behind abductions and disappearances in Sri Lanka.

Mr Premachandran said the current government were attempting to cover-up concrete evidence linking the navy and Gotabhaya with abductions, including reports of over 700 imprisoned in a camp known as 'Gota camp' in Trincomalee's naval base.

The government, Mr Premachandran said, addressed the issue long enough only to deny that any such camps presently existed.

A Facebook page started to “save war hero Sunil Rathnayaka”, the Sinhala soldier sentenced to death over the massacre of 8 Tamil civilians, has garnered over 13,000 likes, within a day of being set up.

The Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General of the UN, Farhan Haq, reiterated that Sri Lanka needs to consult broadly, most importantly with victims and their families, in establishing political processes and stressed the need for credible mechanisms for accountability and reconciliation.

UPDATED: 2355 GMT

President Maithripala Sirisena has dissolved Sri Lanka’s parliament, paving the way for parliamentary elections.

"The president signed a gazette notification dissolving parliament with effect from midnight today," government spokesman Rajitha Senaratne said.

The government announced that the election will be held on 17 August.

Nominations will be called from 6-15 July and the new parliament is due to sit by September 1.

Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs Ajith Perera said on Friday morning that the move had been imminent and was prompted by stalling on proposed electoral reforms.

See full text of the gazette below.

The conviction and death sentence given to a Sinhala soldier showed that Sri Lanka has an independent and exceptional judicial system, army spokesperson Jayanath Jayaweera said on Friday, the Daily Mirror reported.

Sri Lankan opposition parliamentarian Wimal Weerawansa warned that “national security” was at risk in Sri Lanka and rallied against the dismantling of High Security Zones (HSZ) in the island’s North-East.

Colombo Gazette reports the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) MP as saying urgent action was needed to prevent the island being divided and stated the government was releasing land in the North-East due to international pressure.

He went on to warn of attempts to dismantle HSZs, highlighting the Palali HSZ as an example.

His remarks come as opposition politicians, including the former foreign minister, warned that the government was facing threats to “national security”.

Updated 02:34 BST

Witnesses from the No Fire Zone revealed their testimonies at a side event on disappearances in Sri Lanka at the 29th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, on Thursday.

A panel discussion on detainees and disappearances in Sri Lanka consisting of the Chair of the Bar Human Rights Committee Kirsty Brimelow QC, President of the Bianca Jagger Human Rights Foundation and Council of Europe Goodwill Ambassador Bianca Jagger, Human Rights Advocacy activist and the Tamil Guardian's Sutharshan Sukumaran, was chaired by the former All Party Parliamentary Group for Tamils (APPG-T) chair Lee Scott.

Speaking to Tamil Guardian at the 29^th session of the UN Human

Sri Lanka’s defence minister reiterated that security in the country was not under threat and that not a single army camp has been removed from the North-East, in a statement issued on Wednesday.

“The President, the Prime Minister and I have placed utmost diligence in ensuring and furthering national security,” said State Minister of Defence Ruwan Wijewardene. “There is not an iota of truth in the notion that national security is in danger,” he added. “Every person who is promoting such notions in doing so with ulterior political motives”.

The minister went on to state “the government’s foreign policy is aimed at strategically dismantling the terrorist networks world over and the fact that the LTTE ban has been extended in certain countries is an example of the dividends of this strategy.”

His remarks come after Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe told the Sri Lankan parliament that military camps have not been withdrawn from the North-East of the island.

Sri Lanka’s former Foreign Minister GL Peiris slammed the present Sri Lankan government for failing to manage the “rapidly developing situation influenced by Western powers, Diaspora and their agents” and endangering “national security”.

The Island reports Mr Peiris as stating the country” was facing a major security crisis” under the present government, accusing it of “dismantling post-war counter terrorism structure built by the then Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa”.

The claims have been rebuffed in recent days by Sri Lanka’s defence minister and prime minister, both of whom have denied that any military camps in the Tamil North-East have been dismantled.

Mr Peiris also criticised the government’s plans to launch a domestic inquiry into reports of mass atrocities that occurred during the final phases of the armed conflict, stating that it could not be used to “rubber stamp [an] external investigation launched last year without Sri Lanka’s consent”.

The US State Department has highlighted human rights abuses which occurred in 2014, in its annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices.

The report details attacks on human rights activists, journalists and Tamils viewed as sympathisers of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam by government-linked individuals and impunnity for wide-spread abuses.

See full report here.

"The major human rights problems reported over the year were: attacks on, and harassment of, civil society activists, journalists, and persons viewed as sympathizers of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) by individuals allegedly tied to the government; involuntary disappearances, arbitrary arrest and detention, torture, abuse of detainees, rape, and other forms of sexual and gender-based violence committed by police and security forces; and widespread impunity for a broad range of human rights abuses," the report said.

"Involuntary disappearances and unlawful killings continued to diminish in comparison with the immediate postwar period. Nevertheless, harassment, threats, and attacks by progovernment loyalists against media institutions, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and critics of the government were prevalent, contributing to widespread fear and self-censorship by journalists and diminished democratic activity due to the general failure to prosecute perpetrators."