The Northern Provincial Council passed a resolution calling on the Sri Lankan government to allow United Nations investigators into the country, in order to carry out a probe into mass atrocities.

The resolution, which was adopted on Wednesday, said,

The Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi passed a series of resolutions this week, condemning the Sri Lankan government's genocidal actions and calling for the maximum possible devolution of power to a merged North-East province.

Photograph: Uthayan

Hundreds of protestors took to the streets of Chennai earlier this week, to rally against Sr

The Sri Lankan government has introduced another new bill into parliament, looking to restrict land ownership by foreigners, foreign companies and companies registered in Sri Lanka that have foreign owners.

The bill entitled “Land (Restrictions on Alienation)” is set to be debated on in Parliament before it is passed.

(Pictures: BattiNews)

A commemorative event for Tamils killed in the 1990 Saththurukondan Massacre, committed by Sri Lankan forces in Batticaloa, was stopped by a court order, preventing relatives of those killed and Tamil politicians to observe the anniversary on Tuesday.

Tamil National Alliance MPs P Ariyanenthiran, P Selvarasa and C Yogeswaran, along with several family members of those massacred, attempted to proceed to the site of the event in Kokkuvil, however police read out a court order which banned the event to “prevent damage to people and properties”, issued by Batticaloa District Court.

At least 184 Tamil men, women and children were hacked to death after being taken to the Sathurukondan army camp, on September 9, 1990.

The relatives and the MPs were forced to go to a temple in Saththurukondan, and lit candles there in remembrance of the dead.

TNA MP Ariyanenthiran condemned the hypocrisy shown by the authorities in cracking down on Tamil remembrance events, while allowing Sinhala and Muslim events to go ahead.

“Muslims and Sinhalese are free to hold events to commemorate their dead, but Tamils are not able to do so,” he said to the Tamil Guardian.

Tamil Nadu’s Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa urged Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ensure the release of the six fishermen, arrested by the Sri Lankan Navy on Tuesday.

In a letter to Modi, Jayalalithaa said that it was “inhumane” of Sri Lanka to detain the fishermen, who were in distress, due to a technical issue with their boat.

"These boats in distress and Indian fishermen on board are being apprehended and remanded to custody in Sri Lanka. This is a totally inhumane approach and completely against the ethics of maritime search and rescue operations," she said according to PTI.

The Sri Lankan strategy of keeping the apprehended fishing boats of the fishermen in its custody had "snatched away" the source of their meagre livelihood and "is also fuelling despondency and great unrest amongst the fishermen," Jayalalithaa said.

UK's Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) minister Hugo Swire stated Britain “will continue to give full support” to the upcoming United Nations investigation into mass atrocities in Sri Lanka.

Speaking in Parliament on Wednesday, Swire said the UK welcomed the resolution which established an investigation, adding,

A 15-year-old Tamil school girl has been reported missing in Wattagoda, Madakumpura lower division estate in the island's hill country, reports Uthayan.

Human Rights Watch urged the new UN Human Rights Commissioner to “not let victims of abuse down as it did in Sri Lanka,” in its opening statement at the 27th session of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC).

Sri Lanka's prime minister D.M. Jayaratne accused western countries of trying to breach the peace on the island.

The Chinese President Xi Jinping is to make an official visit to India, as well as the Maldives, Sri Lanka and Tajikistan, the country's foreign ministry said Tuesday.

The trip will commence in Tajikistan, where he will be attending a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, a security coalition including Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, later this week.

The Sri Lankan government announced that it has banned the import of potatoes, in a bid to protect local farmers from going out of business this week.

The move comes after Sri Lanka announced that it would increase import taxes on both potatoes and onions last month, in a bid to increase vegetable prices.

Traders had complained that the falling prices of vegetables had left many of them unable to make a profit. Sameera Gurusingha, a potato grower from the South told the Sunday Times,

“We mortgage our properties to buy the components that we need for potato cultivation but we don’t get enough profits to pay the mortgage and regain our belongings. We have to use the income to begin the next cultivation.”

The government has made efforts to try and protect the Southern farmers, purchasing potatoes through state-owned Lanka Sathosa retail network as well as declaring a guaranteed price of Rs. 80 per kilo in March this year.

The Sri Lankan government is trying to change the ethnic demographics of the Tamil North-East said the leader of the Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF).

Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, in an interview with the Sunday Leader, accused the government of using land appropriation, militarisation and Sinhala colonisation to change the ethnic demographics of the region.