The Tamil National Alliance (TNA), widely criticised for its perpetual dithering, slammed the 13th Amendment to Sri Lanka's constitution as "full of flaws" on Saturday.

The TNA's spokesperson, MP Suresh Premachandran, said,

Dismissing Mahinda Rajapaksa's address on Sri Lanka's independence day, TNA MP Sumanthiran, said that the recommendations of the LLRC has not been implemented.

He added that the TNA believes the Sri Lankan government had received a letter from the US urging action.

It was just this week Mahinda Rajapaksa asserted that only the Parliamentary Select Committee would decide on devolution, dismissing India's external affairs secretary, SM Krishna's statement that 13+ changes had been promised by Sri Lanka.

On Thursday his words were:

"The PSC, in which all parties in parliament would be represented, was the best forum to discuss and take a decision on the matter.”

“I cannot reveal it. If I say anything on it, people will say, I am biased. Let parliament decide. I’ll accept its recommendations.”

Yet speaking Saturday, at celebrations for what Sri Lankans commemorate as their independence day, Rajapaksa revealed his devolutionary vision and his guiding light:

"Ethnic communities have no separate regions. The entire country belongs to all ethnic communities."

"what is required today is the formulation of policies based on a vision that is commonly applicable to the whole country."

"The words of the Buddha show the path we should take and how we should solve problems.

Akkodhena jine kodham – asadhum sadhuna jine
Jine kadariyam danena – saccena alikavadinam

"Let this thought guide all in making the freedom of our motherland meaningful!"

Gavin Barwell, Conservative MP, Croydon Central. Photographs Tamilnet

British MPs and peers endorsed the call for an international, independent investigation, at an exhibition organised by the All Party Parliamentary Group for Tamils (APPGT) and the British Tamil Forum (BTF). Photographs Tamilnet.

A group of students from the University of Virginia’s School of Law visited Sri Lanka as part of a Human Rights Study Project (HRSP).

At a recent debate in the House of Commons, British MPs urged the British government to ‘speak out loudly’ and raise human rights issues in Sri Lanka with the UN and other organisations.

Labour MP Kerry McCarthy called for a debate in the House of Commons about the controversial LLRC report.

Dismissing the recent boycott of Sri Lankan goods but activists in Tamil Nadu, an official of Sri Lanka's Deputy High Commission to India, drew attention to the lack of an apology from Tamil Nadu state government.

The official added,

Any decision of system of devolution will only be determined by a Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) said Sri Lanka's president, Mahinda Rajapaksa:

“I had told Krishna that I had no objection to going beyond the 13th Amendment, and that I had said so earlier too. However, I added that I could not take a decision on the matter arbitrarily."

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has urged the UN Human Rights Council to act against the continued lack of accountability for abuses committed in Sri Lanka.