The UN Human Rights Council's adoption of a resolution last week calling on the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to undertake a comprehensive investigation into Sri Lanka is a key milestone in the protracted Tamil struggle. The Council which in May 2009 praised Sri Lanka for its 'victory', now calls for it to be subject to an international inquiry. Whilst the intensification of Sri Lanka's militarised repression in the North-East, even during the Council's 25th session, underscores the inability of the resolution to lead to any immediate change on the ground, the significance of this moment - hard fought and long overdue – is nonetheless profound. Almost five years after the mass slaughter of tens of thousands of Tamils, in what international experts have described as war crimes, crimes against humanity, and even genocide, the international community has come to acknowledge what Tamils had consistently argued was the case: Sri Lanka lacks the will to deliver justice to the Tamil people, international intervention is essential.

India’s Union Shipping Minister GK Vasan said that he was “agonised and shocked” by India’s abstention at the UN Human Rights Council, on the resolution on Sri Lanka, reported The Hindu.

“India’s abstention has caused agony and shock for a majority of Congress leaders and workers in the State. There could be no two opinions on the serious human rights violations that took place in Sri Lanka [in the last leg of the military conflict during 2009],” the Minister said.

A Tamil prisoner has died in Jaffna Hospital reported the Uthayan.

Vairavanathan Nathan, 33, from Aanaikkottai was an inmate at Jaffna Prison and was taking to Jaffna Hospital after falling ill.

The Sri Lankan government has banned 15 Tamil diaspora organisations as “LTTE fronts”, reported the Daily Mirror on Monday.

The government banned the organisations as “foreign terrorists” under UN Security Council Resolution 1373 which was brought about by the USA on September 28, 2001 after the attack on the World Trade Centre.

A ban would make it a criminal offence for Sri Lankan citizens to maintain contacts with these organisations or its members, a move which is thought is likely to affect several members of Tamil political parties in Sri Lanka, the Daily Mirror said.

Op-ed written for South Africa's Mail & Guardian, by Yasmin Sooka, who in 2010 was appointed by UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon to a panel of experts to advise him on the conflict in Sri Lanka. 

The arrest on terrorism charges this week of two well-known human rights activists in Sri Lanka has sent ripples of fear through those who work for justice on the island, even though the two men were subsequently released. It was the timing, happening just days before the United Nations Human Rights Council votes on whether or not to hold Sri Lanka accountable for grave violations of international law during the final phase of the conflict in 2008-2009. An investigative mechanism under the office of the High Commissioner is envisaged in the current draft of the Resolution, which was tabled for voting on March 26.

The Sunday Times has reported of an increase in sexual assaults on tourists in Sri Lanka.

Last week, the chairman of the Weligama local government body was arrested for sexually harassing a 22-year old Swedish tourist at a resort in the town.

Earlier this month two police officers were arrested for sexually assaulting a German tourist, who was dragged into a rickshaw by the constables. In another case an Australian University student was allegedly raped by a tour guide in Ambalangoda.

A United States-based company has been selected to build a $50 million project to lay a 5.8 km pipeline from the Colombo Port to the Kolonnawa fuel storage facility to expedite unloading of fuel from ships, the Sunday Times reports.