Tamils in Jaffna protested carrying black flags on Wednesday ahead of the visit by the Sri Lankan president, Maithripala Sirisena and the prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, on Friday for the traditional Tamil festival of Thai Pongal.



Holding black flags as a sign of their ongoing oppression, the protesters which included families of the disappeared and detained, put forward five key demands.

- Justice for the genocide and war crimes committing during the armed conflict

- A solution to the Tamil national question that is mediated by a third party

- Thousands of acres of Tamil people's land is currently occupied by the military. This needs to stop immediately.

The city of Ballarat in Victoria, Australia has banded together to help save a Tamil family from being deported to Sri Lanka, reports The Border Mail.

Hundreds of people attended a rally at Alfred Deakin Place to demand Neelavannan Paramanathan, his wife Suganthini and their three children are not deported back to Sri Lanka, where they face the risk of human rights abuses.

“There are children, families and people from all over Victoria at this gathering who just want assurances that this family will be safe,” said rally organiser and refugee advocate Kath Morton.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein will visit Sri Lanka in February, announced the Resident Coordinator of United Nations in Sri Lanka.

The Resident Coordinator of United Nations in Sri Lanka Subinay Nandy announced that he is leaving the island to take up his next assignment in New York, but added, "I am not saying good-byes right away since I shall be back to Sri Lanka accompanying UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Al Hussein in his next month's visit to Colombo".

The High Commissioner's visit will focus particularly on the issue of IDPs said Mr Nandy, who added, “He is also pleased with Sri Lanka’s present leadership and their commitment towards the minorities”.

The Indian foreign secretary Subrahmanyam Jaishankar landed in Sri Lanka on Tuesday morning to begin his two-day visit ahead of the upcoming India- Sri Lanka Joint Commission meeting (ISLJC) in Colombo when India's external affairs minister, Sushma Swaraj will be attending.

Mr Jaishankar's visit is to meet with the country's prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe and the foreign minister. He was previously in the Maldives.

Japan and Sri Lanka held talks in Colombo today, aimed at enhancing cooperation between the two countries.

The meeting which is part of a longer running dialogue between the two foreign ministries on policy issues which was agreed on during the prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe's visit to Tokyo in October 2015.

India's National Fishworkers' Forum (NFF) on Tuesday urged the central government to ensure the release of Indian fishermen currently incarcerated in Sri Lankan jails before the traditional Tamil festival of Pongal.