The United States on Wednesday welcomed the appointment of the “distinguished experts” as advisors to the OHCHR investigation panel by the High Commissioner Navi Pillay.

During a press briefing at the State Department, spokesperson Marie Harf told reporters that the US urges Sri Lanka to cooperate fully with the OHCHR and to take meaningful steps towards accountability and justice, offering US assistance on these issues.

The Sri Lankan government has allocated Rs 200mn to repair buildings damaged during anti-Muslim violence by Sinhala mobs, Rs 150mn of which will be given to the Sri Lankan Army, reported the Daily Mirror.

Sri Lanka’s resettlement minister Gunaratne Weerakoon told a meeting in Kalutura today that several buildings in Beruwala, Kalutara, Matugama and Bentota divisions had been damaged in the incidents and that the security forces personnel would be deployed to repair them.

"I also explained that the military presence has increased in Vanni region, and [the military] have acquired the majority of lands in the area in the meantime."

The editor of the Daily News, a paper owned by the Sri Lankan state, has called for the arrest of Al Jazeera journalist Dinouk Colombage, for his coverage of recent violence by Sinhalese against Muslims, reported The Australian.

Rajpal Abeynayake took to Twitter to accuse Colombage of inciting religious tension through his coverage of the violence in Aluthgama, which left 3 Muslims and one Tamil dead, after attacks by Sinhala mobs.

“Lock up this scum to save lives” Abeynayake sid in one tweet, linking to Colombage’s own Twitter page, before tweeting that the journalist and other media were “twitter murderers” who “incited” the violence.

U say arrest Atte Gnanasara. Arrest the twitter murderers Groundviews, Colombage etc. what's the differnce? Both didn't do it but incited

— Rajpal Abeynayake (@Abeynayake) June 22, 2014

The editor mentioned President Rajapaksa, his son Namal and Consul-general to Australia, Bandula Jayasekara, in many of his tweets, in one of which he described the journalist as a “Twitter murderer sicko scumbag”.

A monk was arrested on his release from hospital, for the “staging” of his attack and abduction, police in Colombo said.

Watareka Vijitha was found beaten, naked and tied up, after he campaigned against the anti-Muslim violence in southern Sri Lanka.

Police afterwards claimed that the monk’s injuries were self-inflicted using keys and blades.

Sri Lanka is using the mask of ‘counterterrorism’ to hide its own terror, whilst increasingly becoming a hub for international crime, said award-winning exiled Tamil journalist J.S. Tissainayagam in a piece for Foreign Policy.

Tissainayagam, a former a Nieman Fellow at Harvard Univeristy, said that by continuing to paint itself as a victim of terrorism, Sri Lanka “absolves itself of its own inaction if not outright compliance with exporting terrorism”.

Whilst Sri Lanka may continue to claim the alleged revival of the LTTE as a reason for receiving international assistance, Tissainayagam argues that meanwhile, with government and military involvement, the island has become a hub for international crime.