Sri Lanka’s prime minister has faced criticism from Tamils after telling them to “forget the past and move forward” at an event in Kilinochchi last week.

<p>Occupation and colonisation in Mullaitivu are more pressing issues than development, a Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP told the Sri Lankan prime minister.</p> <p>Speaking at a meeting during prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s visit to the North on Saturday, TNA MP Shanthi Sriskantharajah highlighted that development efforts were secondary to the need to end and reverse the occupation and appropriation of Tamil lands in Mullaitivu.</p>

Sathiyamoorthy, the Tamil journalist killed inside the ‘No Fire Zone’ by a Sri Lankan army artillery barrage in February 2009, was remembered by journalists and writers in Jaffna on Sunday.

Keppapulavu residents defied increased security force presence to protest the visit of Sri Lankan prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

The Sri Lankan navy announced that it had arrested a man in Kayts on Thursday, accusing him of possessing 2kg of cannabis.

Families of the disappeared in Mullaitivu have launched a petition campaign on Saturday, calling for an international accountability mechanism to ensure justice for their loved ones.

The former Chief Minister of the Northern Province called on the Tamil diaspora as well as lawyers and politicians across the North-East to work towards ensuring that the genocide of Tamils becomes internationally recognised. 

The Chairman of the Office of Missing Persons (OMP) has said the DNA of the families of the disappeared would be tested against remains excavated from the Manner mass grave, if radiocarbon dating tests reveal skeletal remains are of those who had died recently.

A 23-year-old Tamil youth was assaulted by the Sri Lankan army on Friday at a restaurant in Eechchankulam, Vavuniya. 

The youth, orginally from Kalmadu, was playing with friends at the local sports ground before he went to the army run restaurant near by, where he was assaulted by a group of soldiers after a verbal argument occurred between him and an army official. 

Displaced families in Keppapulavu who have been protesting continously for several months, rejected the idea of being granted alternative lands, reiterating their call to be allowed to return to their homes.