In the face of repeated calls for the military to withdraw itself from civilian activities, the Sri Lankan army decided to hold an event to mark the upcoming Tamil and Sinhala New Year in Poonakari last week.

US military officials from the  US Pacific Command (PACOM) met with the head of Sri Lanka’s army last week, where they discussed “career development prospects in the Indo-Asia-Pacific Region” and “further expansion of security cooperation”.

The Sri Lankan navy has been accused of chasing off up to 2,000 Indian fishermen on Saturday night, as years of tension the two sides continue.

Rameswaram Fishermen Association President P Sesuraja from Tamil Nadu said that the fishermen were fishing near Katchatheevu, when the Sri Lankan navy arrived and snapped the fishing nets of 20 boats before chasing the rest of the group away.

The incident marks the latest in a long history of attacks by the Sri Lankan navy on Tamil Nadu fishermen.

Tamil National Alliance Parliamentarian MA Sumanthiran denied that his party reached an agreement with Sri Lanka’s prime minister, in order to back him against a no confidence motion in parliament last week.

Speaking to the Sunday Observer Mr Sumanthiran said that though the TNA had discussion with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe regarding issues of concern to Tamils of the North-East, “our support for the Prime Minister was not conditional on them agreeing to any of this”.

Sri Lanka’s Minister for Resettlement has said 500 acres of Tamil people’s land will be released in Valikamam North when earlier in the week the ministry’s secretary had pledged that 650 acres would be released.

According to the Uthayan, the resettlement minister D. M. Swaminathan told journalists in Colombo that 500 acres of land in Valikamam North would be released on April 16, contradicting an announcement by secretary Ponniah Suresh who had said on Thursday that 650 acres would be released.

Supporters of the All Ceylon Makkal Congress, a breakaway faction of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, protested against the election of a Tamil deputy mayor to the Kalmunai Municipal Council in Amparai.

A section of coastal land in Mullaitivu rightfully belongs to Tamil fishermen, a Mullaitivu court has ruled, defeating a case brought against the Tamils by the Fisheries and Aquatics Department on behalf of Sinhalese fishermen who contested the land rights.

The land in Kokkulai was granted to local Tamil fishermen by the Karaithuraipattu divisional council for the construction of a jetty in 2016, provoking opposition from Sinhalese fishermen who stated that the land was theirs and that they had their nets in that section.

The former head of Sri Lanka’s military intelligence has been arrested over the 2008 abduction and assault of a journalist, reports the Daily Mirror.

Former Military Intelligence Director and Chief of Staff of the Army, Major General  Amal Karunasekara, who is now retired, was arrested on charges of aiding and abetting the abduction of Keith Noyahr. Mr Noyahr was an associate editor of The Nation when he was abducted in May 2008.

The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) has slammed the Sri Lankan military for deploying peacekeepers to take part in a UN mission in Lebanon, before human rights vetting of military personnel could be completed.

In a letter to the Sri Lankan president, HRCSL Chairperson Deepika Udagama said that though the military had agreed to vet 204 soldiers who were due to be deployed to Lebanon, a group of 49 were already deployed before the process could be completed. They only learnt of the deployment through a “media statement”.

Sri Lanka’s president once more reiterated that he would not allow any foreign judges to participate in an accountability mechanism to deal with mass atrocities, as he spoke with the heads of media institutions at the President’s House in Colombo on Friday.

Mr Sirisena has repeated several times that his government would not allow any foreign judges to take part in such a mechanism, since Sri Lanka agreed to set up a “credible justice process” with “Commonwealth and other foreign judges, defence lawyers and authorized prosecutors and investigators” in a 2015 UN Human Rights Council Resolution.