The Sri Lankan government has announced that they will be establishing diplomatic relationships with 13 Latin American and Caribbean countries.

Sri Lanka has rejected South Africa’s offer to broker talks between the Tamil National Alliance and the Colombo government, The Island newspaper reports.

The government will not accept any third party mediation, the paper said.

"Protecting the population includes not only complying with the law of armed conflict, but also consistently respecting and protecting the human rights and basic dignities of the populations we serve. Failure to treat civilians with respect risks alienating the population and re-animating old or new grievances that can give rise to renewed conflict."

"This is the first lesson I’d like to speak about, the need to engage legitimate authorities as early as possible. In our experience the engagement of legitimate civilian authorities includes working with civilian authorities both within our own government, and, more importantly, outside of it – with local experts."

Protesters gathered by Jaffna bus stand, demanding justice to the murdered Tamil political prisoners - Nimalaroopan and Dilrukshan.

See here for report on Uthayan.

Despite the presence of police officers and intelligence officers within and around the crowd, protesters gathered in this morning. Shouting slogans such as "the deaths of Nimalaroopan and Dilrukshan need justice", and "we'll send the murderous regime home", protesters  held banners and placards demanding that the those responsible be punished.

Human rights activists in Sri Lanka have blamed the government for the deaths of Tamil detainees after violence in a Vavuniya prison and called for an UN-led investigation the deaths, reported the BBC on Wednesday.

A total of 28 activists have issued a statement, saying the deaths of Nimalaroopan and Dilrukshan were caused by torture, inflicted by prison officers, after detainees protested over the disappearance of a fellow Tamil inmate.

"We, the civil society, have lost confidence in domestic mechanisms in being able to deal with such situations," they write.

The power cuts imposed across the country due to continuing problems at the Chinese built Norochcholai power plant have been extended for another fortnight.

Sri Lanka has lost around 17% of its capacity to meet demand for electricity due to the failure.

“There are many elements operating locally and internationally, trying to disturb the peace we have gained. A political party had adopted a resolution stating that the country should be divided.”

“These things should be taken seriously, and the country should allocate more funds for defence."

Speaking to mourners of the Tamil political prisoner, Dilrukshan, Father Sakthivel described seeing him in hospital in the days before his death - in a coma, but still with his feet chained together.

Apparently - according to Sri Lanka’s Human Rights Commission Chief Pratiba Mahanamathe who in turn quoted the presidential secretary - "most" of the LLRC recommendations had been addressed.