<p>The father of one of the Tamil students gunned down in the infamous ‘Trinco 5’ massacre has spoken of how despite the Sri Lankan government’s intransigence, he will continue his struggle for justice more than 13 years after the killings.</p>

Sri Lankan police have arranged security to guard an illegally-built Buddha statue while a court injunction on its construction remains in place.

Employees of Vavuniya urban council held a strike on Friday, protesting the unnecessary and aggressive intrusion of United National Party (UNP) supporters into their duties.

As concerns over military involvement in civilian activity in the North-East continue, the Sri Lankan military handed out accessories to Tamil schoolchildren in Poonakari last week, taking charge of an initiative that was begun by Jaffna University students.

The Sri Lankan air force announced that it had held a golf tournament earlier this month, at a luxury gulf resort in Trincomalee which is run entirely by the military.

<p>Civil society groups working on issues in the North-East have written to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, expressing concern over the Sri Lankan government’s pledges to implement a UN resolution and called for the appointment of a Special Rapporteur on the issue.</p>

Families of the disappeared in Vavuniya today urged the United Nations to ensure Sri Lanka was referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC) over its genocide of Tamils. 

Holding a demonstration in Vavuniya calling for justice and for answers over the tens of thousands of Tamils who were disappeared, families expressed anger and a feeling of betrayal over the current government's failure to fulfil its pledges. 

 

Families of the disappeared in Amparai yesterday held a demonstration and signature campaign, demanding answers over the unearthing of hundreds of skeletons at a mass grave in Mannar. 

"Tell us the truth about the skeletons excavated in Mannar and who those people are," demanded protesters as they marched from the 'Office for the Families of the Disappeared in Thirukkovil' to Amparai clock tower. 

A US military delegation held another meeting with the Sri Lankan army in Jaffna, where they discussed the prospects of more training programs between the two militaries this week.

The Sri Lankan military continued to consolidate its presence in the Tamil homeland, announcing that yet another building had been constructed at its headquarters in Jaffna.

The Tamil Nadu activist who self-immolated in protest at the Indian government's failure to stop the massacre of Eelam Tamils in Sri Lanka was remembered yesterday in Jaffna. 

Muthukumar, from Thooththukkudi, wrote for Pennea Nee feminist magazine. On January 29, 2009 he doused himself with petrol and set himself afire in front of the Shastri Bhavan, the Indian Central Government's Chennai Head office, condemning the futile visit by Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who failed to stop the war in Sri Lanka and save Eelam Tamils.

<p>Sri Lanka’s newly appointed chief of staff, who is accused of playing a leading role in the massacre of tens of thousands of Tamil civilians and breaking international law, warned that the military “was watching the country’s security situation carefully,” according to a report in The Island.</p>

Tamils of Valikamam North who returned to view their lands found that during the Sri Lankan army’s 28 year occupation of the area their homes and lands had been converted into guesthouses and leisure resorts.

<p>Sri Lanka has failed to make progress in tackling corruption, maintaining the same score on Transparency International’s 2018 Corruption Perception Index (CPI) as the previous year.</p> <p>The global anti-corruption organisation’s index ranks countries by their perceived levels of public sector corruption according to experts and businesspeople, using a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean.</p>