Hundreds of Sinhala Buddhist monks protested against the resolution tabled at the UN Human Rights Council urging Sri Lanka to investigate the allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

In a statement, read out at the end of the protest, the protesters said,

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced on Monday that India was ‘inclined’ to back the resolution on Sri Lanka being circulated at the UN Human Rights Council.

The Congress party came under strong pressure by parties and organisations from across India, especially from the southern state of Tamil Nadu.

Despite evidence having emerged suggesting the Sri Lankan Army has violated international humanitarian law Britain has continued to sell weapons to Sri Lanka, continuing after the end of the decades-long ethnic conflict in 2009.

Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) released a statement challenging the British government to explain why weapons are still being licensed to Sri Lanka despite evidence of serious war crimes.

Since the climax of the war in May 2009 over £3 million of military and “dual use” equipment has been licensed for export to Sri Lanka with weapons sales alone comprising over £2 million of the total.

The head of a Sri Lankan Army inquiry into allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity has denied that any human rights abuses had taken place, while addressing troops earlier this week.

Commander of the Army Lieutenant General Jagath Jayasuriya, who has appointed a five member of Army officers to inquire into “alleged civilian casualties”, made the statement in Puthukudirippu, which saw some of the heaviest civilian casualties in the closing stages of the war.

From AFP (see full text here):

Sri Lanka will stop importing oil from Iran at the end of March, ahead of the US sanctions deadline of June 29, the island’s Sunday Times newspaper said.

Sri Lanka has depended almost entirely on Iran for its crude oil supplies, getting 93 percent from there.

Sri Lanka has started purchasing Saudi Arabian oil, and Iraq is offering to supply “substantial quantities” of fuel, the paper said.

What is India’s ambition in Sri Lanka?

According to the Sunday Times editorial today, “to carve out a powerful autonomous Northern Province which it can use as its base on Sri Lankan soil through its proxy - the Tamil National Alliance.”

Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Palita Kohona, has boycotted a Commonwealth Day Reception hosted by the UK mission, after his controversial deputy, Major General Shavendra Silva, was refused an invitation, according to the Sunday Times.

The latest incident points to further isolation of Silva, who was recently expelled from a UN Peacekeeping Advisory Panel after his appointment was deemed “not appropriate”. Sri Lanka responded angrily to the humiliation, liking it to a "public lynching without trial".

Women who have lost male members of their households during the war are being forced to turn to prostitution, according to women’s rights activists in Colombo.

Geetha Lakmini of World Fisherfolk Solidarity Movement told reporters that,

"One village in Madhu area is infamous for prostitution because they have no male family members, no jobs and there is no other way of survival."

"The only way to feed their children is to sell their body."

Photograph Tamilnet