A senior former military official has dismissed war crimes accusations against former army commander Jagath Jayasuriya, who fled Brazil on Sunday after lawsuits were filed against him.

Rtd Major General Kamal Gunaratna, former commander of the 53rd Division which is also thought to have committed mass atrocities during the armed conflict, said the Tamil diaspora orchestrated the charges.

The Acting Assistant Secretary of State of the US, Alice Wells and the US ambassador to Sri Lanka remembered the tens of thousands of enforced disappearances in Sri Lanka at an event in Colombo on Tuesday, held to mark International Day of the Disappeared. 

"Today on Int. Day of Victims of Enforced Disappearances we honor #DisappearedSL families searching for answers in SL w @State_SCA A/AS Wells," Mr Keshap tweeted. 

The British Tamils Forum and the US Tamil Political Action Council marked  International Day of the Disappeared on Tuesday and called on Sri Lanka to operationalise the Office of Missing Persons. 

Amid military intelligence surveillance, Tamil families of the disappeared marched across the North-East to mark the International Day of Victims of Enforced Disappearance. Demonstrations took place across Trincomalee, Batticaloa, Mannar, Mullaithivu, Vavuniya and Jaffna.

A delegation of the US military "saluted Sri Lanka’s war heroes" during a ceremony at Sri Lanka’s National War Heroes monument "for the first time in recent history", according to the army.lk website. 

A former Sri Lankan general who fled from his post as ambassador to Brazil this week should be referred to the International Criminal Court at The Hague said the chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Tamils Paul Scully.

Officials from the Sri Lankan military have denied war crimes charges against a former military commander who was appointed as the government’s ambassador to Brazil and fled from South America earlier this week.

Speaking after General Jagath Jayasuriya arrived back in Colombo, Sri Lanka's military spokesman Roshan Seneviratne denied all reports of war crimes.

Updated 1300 GMT 

Sri Lanka's ambassador to Brazil has fled the country after human rights groups filed lawsuits accusing him of overseeing war crimes on Monday night.

Jagath Jayasuriya has now returned to Colombo via Dubai after fleeing Brazil on Sunday.   

There can be no further delay in bringing a solution for families of the disappeared, Tamil civil society groups have said in a statement of solidarity on International Day of the Disappeared.

With hundreds of families of the disappeared protesting across the North-East since February, the Sri Lankan government has failed to answer any of the their demands to uncover the fates of their disappeared loved ones, the groups said.

Sri Lanka's prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe pledged the country would be debt free of the debt burden by 2020, Colombo Page reported. 

Speaking at an event by the Ministry of Housing, Mr Wickremesinghe said, "the government's intention in the next two years is to create an economy with the debt burden is stabilised and increasing income enabling to repay the debt in the future."

Sri Lanka's Southern Provincial Council (SPC) rejected the government's proposed 20th Amendment to the constitution, the Daily Mirror reported. 

Twenty-seven Joint Opposition SPC members reportedly voted against it, whilst one UNP member abstained. 

A tense situation prevailed following the vote with the mace being forcibly removed from a UNP member, and UNP members leaving the Council chambers in protest until the mace was returned. 

Marking International day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, the Tamil National Alliance urged to government to bring those responsible for the many thousands who have been forcibly disappeeared for justice. 

The Sri Lankan election monitor, Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE) criticised the Tamil National Alliance leadership's support for the government as it seeks to pass the 20th Amendment to the constitution, calling the leader, R Sampanthan a traitor. 

The National Polls Observation Centre (NPOC) warned on Tuesday that the Eastern Province would be the "biggest loser" if the proposed 20th Amendment to the constitution was adopted.