The tenth anniversary of the Mullivaikkal genocide was commemorated in Thanjavur on May 18 at the ‘Mullivaikkal Muttram’ memorial centre.

<p><img alt="Image removed." src="/core/misc/icons/e32700/error.svg" title="This image has been removed. For security reasons, only images from the local domain are allowed." height="16" width="16" class="filter-image-invalid"></p> <p>Marking 10 years since the end of the armed conflict in Sri Lanka, former President Mahinda Rajapaksa said no war crimes were committed during the final stages of the war against the Liberation Tamil Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), adding that Sri Lanka wouldn’t have been able to defeat the separatist group without the help of the US.</p>

Today marks 11 years since the death of Brigadier Balraj, a senior commander with the LTTE, who passed away from a sudden heart attack in 2008.

Brig. Balraj was famed for his courage, leadership and skills on the battlefield.

Fitch Ratings warned of increased external financing pressures and lower economic growth in Sri Lanka this year, in a statement released last week. 

"The tragic Easter bombings in Sri Lanka will result in lower economic growth this year and could increase external financing pressures," the statement said, adding that a 5% reduction in Fitch-estimated GDP was expected with reduced tourism. 

"These pressures are mitigated by the government's continued adherence to economic policies and targets that have enabled Sri Lanka to get its IMF programme back on track."

Sri Lankan police on Saturday arrested a Muslim indexing officer at the parliament's Hansard Department, accusing him of aiding and abetting one of the Easter Sunday suicide bombers, Zahran Hashim. 

The suspect, Mohamed Naushad Jalaldeen from Kandy, was arrested in Kurunegala following information obtained from an electro-cardiologist at the local teaching hospital, who was also arrested over association to the group Zahran led, National Thawheed Jamaath (NTJ). 

Jalaldeen started working in parliament in 2006, when he joined the Transation Department. 

The iconic Vattrapalai Amman temple in Mullaitivu was forced to hold its annual festival amid a heightened security presence. 

Exports from Sri Lanka to Pakistan have plummeted, the Pakistan-Sri Lanka Business Forum said this month, after days of anti-Muslim violence attacking Muslim businesses, homes and mosques. 

"It is the Muslim community in Sri Lanka that imports Pakistani products and sells them there. They are partners of Pakistani exporters,” the Forum's chairperson, Aslam Pakhali told the Express Tribune. 

"Their shops, super stores and godowns are being targeted. The goods exported from Pakistan have been unloaded at the Sri Lankan port, but the importers are not getting them cleared because of the deteriorating law and order situation there," he added. 

Tamils around the world held vigils, rallies, marches and exhibitions to mark May 18 as Tamil Genocide Day.

Sri Lanka’s former defence secretary, who oversaw the military offensive that killed tens of thousands of Tamils in Mullivaikkal, said he had watched those bloody final weeks “with a sense of quiet joy” in a statement released on Saturday.

<p>UK Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn called for a war crimes tribunal in Sri Lanka to ensure perpetrators of crimes are punished, in a message released to mark ten years since the end of the armed conflict on Saturday.</p> <p>“On Mullivaikkal Remembrance Day we commemorate the tens of thousand of people who were killed and the widespread human rights abuses in the final stages of the Sri Lankan Civil War,” said the British opposition leader.</p> <p>“Ten years on there has been virtually no progress in prosecuting those responsible and without justice there can be no sustainable peace.”</p> <p>Corbyn went on to add,</p>