J Jayalalitha was sworn in again on Saturday as chief minister of Tamil Nadu, India, after her court sentence for corruption was overturned by an appeal court.

Crowds cheered "Amma is back" as she arrived at the University of Madras for the swearing in ceremony, which was attended by 28 of her cabinet ministers.

Ms Jayalalitha was sentenced to four years in prison last year charged with accumulating more than $10 m in unaccounted wealth.

Sri Lanka’s former army commander Sarath Fonseka said that he will contest at the next parliamentary elections.

Sri Lanka’s government should not be rewarded for progress it hasn’t made said the International Crisis Group (ICG) and Human Rights Watch (HRW), noting that Tamil demands for progress on accountability for mass atrocities had not been met by Sri Lanka’s new governance.

The International Crisis Group (ICG), Human Rights Watch (HRW), Committee to Protect Jorunalsits (CPJ) and experts on torture briefed a US Congressional Caucus on Ethnic and Religious Freedom in Sri Lanka on human rights progress under Sri Lanka’s new regime, in Washington on Wednesday.

Speaking at the status update on human rights in Sri Lanka under the new regime, Mark Schneider, noting that legitimate demands of Tamils in North-East had not been met, said that the new government was yet to produce a list of detainees held, establish a clear consultative process for release of military held land and take serious steps towards accountability for atrocities.

Mr Schneider added that the recent appointment of Jegath Dias raised serious concerns about Sri Lanka’s commitment to accountability. Noting that the US should support international prosecutions, he added that domestic prosecutions using US law on potential war criminals that held dual citizenship in the US or green cards should also be pursued.   

The Asia director of Human Rights Watch, expressing concerns on issues of accountability, stressed that genuine accountability could not be traded for a truth seeking process and highlighted the need to ensure that there was strong international involvement in any domestic prosecution mechanism that Sri Lanka may implement.

John Sifton added that human rights abuses continued in the North-East under the new regime wit arrests harassment intimidation and violence, noting that though there was a new regime the structure of the state police and security forces responsible for abuses had not changed.

Four government ministers belonging to the Sri Lankan president's party, the Sri Lankan Freedom Party (SLFP) resigned on Friday, accusing the prime minister, Ranil Wickremasinghe of exerting too much control over the coalition government.

Sri Lanka has lost the right to host the Asian Youth Games in 2017 due to government interference.

The Olympic Council of Asia withdrew the games from Sri Lanka citing problems with the autonomy of the National Olympic Committee from the government.

Photographs Tamil Guardian

Sri Lankan police officers were deployed outside the Jaffna court complex on Thursday morning, as protesters gathered expecting three suspects, accused of the rape and murder of a Pungudutivu school girl last week, to be produced before court.



The police have denied this however, telling demonstrators that the suspects were not due to be produced before court today.

Protesters in Jaffna were pursued and assaulted by Sri Lankan police on Wednesday after dispersing from a demonstration outside the Jaffna court complex.

A video obtained by IBC Tamil shows Sri Lankan police calling out an individual from a property and beating him on the street.