An Indian couple were found dead under suspicious circumstances in a hotel in the Wellawatta region of Sri Lanka's capital this week, reports the Daily Mirror.

The couple, a 28 year old woman and 30 year old man, arrived to Sri Lanka on March 27.

Just met w/ #SriLanka FM @MangalaLK; Agreed that success depends on accountability & reconciliation pic.twitter.com/k0lsvVvxIL — Tom Malinowski (@Malinowski) April 2, 2015

The United States Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor met with Sri Lanka's Foreign Minister today, emphasising the importance of accountability and reconciliation.

Tom Malinowski met with Sri Lanka's Mangala Samaraweera in Colombo where the issue of accountability was discussed.

Mr Malinowski also addressed a forum on 'Women's Role in Post-War Reconciliation', telling the audience, “thanks to your dedication, Sri Lanka has a chance now to achieve reconciliation, justice and true peace.”

All Photographs:Naangal

A local civil society group called ‘Naangal,' which operates in the North-East of Sri Lanka, over past weeks has carried out a series of welfare activities across North-Eastern districts.

On the 28th of February, activists in Jaffna handed out school stationary and shoes to students from families that were detrimentallly affected by the ethnic conflict.

The government lacks political will in pursuing truth and justice and has done virtually nothing to consult victims in the design of an internal mechanism to establish these, the Tamil Civil Society Forum said today.

In a memo to the visiting Special Rapporteur on the Promotion of Truth, Justice, Reparation and Guarantees of Non‐Recurrence, Pablo de Greiff, the TCSF said the current regime’s characterisation of final phase of the armed conflict as a humanitarian operation, does not bode well with the government’s promise to conduct a credible inquiry.

“The UN Human Rights Commissioner in his address to the Council on the 5th of March 2015 insisted that GoSL should consult the victims in designing this internal mechanism. To date no such process has been initiated,” the memo said.

“We submit that it is more than clear from the above that the current Government has done very little or nothing to consult the victims in the design of its internal mechanism. The entirety of the process is being designed in secrecy. From what has been made public GoSL is attempting to show progress by rehashing the previous regime’s strategy of talking to the South Africans and using the services of a person whose credibility and standing are highly suspect.”

The Chinese ambassador to India, Le Yucheng said China is planning to open a consulate in Tamil Nadu’s capital Chennai soon, The New Indian Express reported.

Speaking to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister O Paneerselvam on Monday, Mr Yucheng said Beijing was keen on strengthening relations between state-leaders in India and provincial leaders in China and invited the chief minister to visit his country.

Mr Paneerselvam highlighted the key projects China was engaged with in his state, including the supply of laptops to students and utensils to families.

Mr Yucheng noted that China is also collaborating in developing a high-speed rail link between Delhi and Chennai and that a Chinese company is engaged in the construction of the Chennai Metro Rail project.

Sri Lanka's Ministry of Resettlement, Reconstruction and Hindu Religious Affairs said 22,000 children have been born into families in Indian refugee camps, from those who have fled North-East Sri Lanka.

The United Nations Assistant Secretary-General and Chairman of the United Nations Development Group Asia-Pacific, Haoliang Xu, will be visiting Sri Lanka next week, according to a statement from his office.

In what will be Mr Xu's second visit to the island, he is expected to meet with government officials, development partners and civil society groups.