High taxes on cars and trucks have been placed on imports from India, reports Sri Lanka's Sunday Times.

According to the customs official who spoke anonymously, the taxes would meanwhile be an advantage to Japanese car imports.

Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Health has officially announced that around 65000 people in the North-East have been affected by some form of mental trauma or illness as a consequence of the three-decade long war.

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has been hailed by one of his Ministers as having “sparked a renaissance” on the island, reported the Daily Mirror.

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa concluded a 3 day state visit to Uganda on Friday, aimed at strengthening the longstanding relations between the two nations.
 
The two delegations held bilateral discussions  regarding current developments in Sri Lanka.

The Sri Lankan Army has been teaching Sinhalese to children in Kilinochchi, boasted the Ministry of Defence earlier this week.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon receives a copy of a report on the actions of the United Nations in Sri Lanka on Wednesday morning. Picture courtesy of Inner City Press.

A report detailing the “grave failure of the United Nations” in Sri Lanka has been officially handed over to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, on Wednesday morning and released publicly later in the evening.

The full report can be downloaded here.

In a statement, the UN Secretary General said,

"I am determined that the United Nations draws the appropriate lessons and does its utmost to earn the confidence of the world's people, especially those caught in conflict who look to the organisation for help,"

"transparency and accountability are critical to the legitimacy and credibility of the United Nations".

Some UN staff in Colombo expressed to the UNCT leadership their dismay that the UN was placing primary emphasis on LTTE responsibility when the facts suggested otherwise, and urged a more public stance.

several USG participants and the RC did not stand by the casualty numbers, saying that the data were ‘not verified’. Participants in the meeting questioned an OHCHR proposal to release a public statement referencing the numbers and possible crimes.

Several participants noted the limited support from Member States at the Human Rights Council and suggested the UN advocate instead for a domestic mechanism, although it was recognized that past domestic mechanisms in Sri Lanka had not led to genuine accountability. One participant said that “[i]t was important to maintain pressure on the Government with respect to recovery, reconciliation and returns and not to undermine this focus through unwavering calls for accountability ...”

A critical report by the Foreign Affairs Committee on the Commonwealth, which slammed the Commonwealth's decision to hold the 2013 Heads of Government Meeting in Colombo as "wrong", has received a dismissive response from the UK FCO.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon receives a copy of a report on the actions of the United Nations in Sri Lanka on Wednesday morning. Picture courtesy of Inner City Press.

A report detailing the “grave failure of the United Nations” in Sri Lanka has been officially handed over to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, on Wednesday morning and released publicly later in the evening.

The full report can be downloaded here.

In a statement, the UN Secretary General said,

"I am determined that the United Nations draws the appropriate lessons and does its utmost to earn the confidence of the world's people, especially those caught in conflict who look to the organisation for help,"

"transparency and accountability are critical to the legitimacy and credibility of the United Nations".

Some UN staff in Colombo expressed to the UNCT leadership their dismay that the UN was placing primary emphasis on LTTE responsibility when the facts suggested otherwise, and urged a more public stance.

"Nothing can bring back the estimated 30,000 civilians who died in 2009 in the closing months of the war in Sri Lanka, but if the UN is to learn from its shocking failure to protect those civilians it must do more than mouth regrets and resolutions."

Amnesty International indicated that the self-critical United Nations report, released yesterday, further authenticates calls for an independent international investigation into war crimes in Sri Lanka.

Speaking in an interview on TamilNet's Palaka'ni channel, TNPF leader Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam asserted that Eelam Tamils were a nation and asserted their right to sovereignty, and outlined the Tamil National People Front's position as:

"The existence of the Tamil nation must be secured. The recognition of Tamil nationhood and its distinct sovereignty is non-negotiable, that is our party's position. As to how that status is going to exist, whether it is going to exist within a larger state, or within a larger country, so as in the country being a multi-national state, or whether the Tamil nation is going to exist as a nation state, is something the eventual peace process will decide. But our view, what is fundamental, is the recognition and the safe-guard of the Tamil nation."

See full video here.