Christmas came to Kilinochchi this year courtesy of the Sri Lankan Army.

Photographs of the festive joy are reproduced from off the Ministry of Defence (and Urban Development) website:

In addition to an 80 ft Christmas tree, the Tamil women recruited into the Sri Lankan army sang Christmas carols.

The Russian ambassador to Sri Lanka says that countries criticise Sri Lanka’s human rights violations, while ignoring their own record.

“Sometimes people point at a speck in the others eye without knowing a whole lot about the board in theirs,” Alexander Karchava said in an interview to the Daily News.

Mahinda Rajapaksa on Christmas day...  

"The teaching of love and understanding that brings the spirit of sharing, which marks the celebration of Christmas, can help in strengthening the bridges of peace, tolerance and reconciliation that are being built in our country."

"The birth of Jesus Christ in a stable at Bethlehem shows the world the importance of love extending to all, moving beyond all barriers, extending from the highest to the humblest in society, to all beings who share this earth with us, and to nature that sustains us all."

Here's a round-up of articles on Christianity and Sri Lanka from 2012:

Monks attack pastor and vandalise church (13 Dec 2012)

Church and mosque vandalised and burnt (27 Oct 2012)

An economist from Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy says Sri Lanka has been withholding trade from India, most notably the neighbouring Southern states, "for a combination of chauvinistic reasons and defensive economic reasons of some [local] business."

Flooding has continued to affect parts of the North-East, including Batticaloa and Vavuniya, following heavy rains over the past few days.

Chinese companies are investing into mega projects in Sri Lanka, avoiding tender procedures and hence emerging as the only bidders for contracts, reported The Sunday Times on Sunday.

The paper quoted a local agent of an Indian construction company as saying that the Chinese companies pay commissions to its local agents, depending on the value of the project negotiated.

In an interview with BBC Tamil, Sivasubramaniyam Sivadas, the medical doctor who reportedly treated the 15 Tamil women who were admitted to Kilinochchi hospital shortly after being recruited into the Sri Lankan army, dismissed reports of sexual abuse or mental trauma, and claimed that they fifteen had suffered from a case of 'collective hysteria'.

See here for full interview in Tamil. See below for a transcript of the interview:

Dr Sivadas: There are 15 of them. Out of that 02 are admitted to the wards. The remaining 13 are kept in a room in the upper floor in order to be consulted by me. Many people requested me to see them. I clearly informed them about two matters. I will see them if only you accept my decision after I diagnose them. The other one is that I wanted to meet the patients privately.

After that one medical officer from the Army arrived. He contacted higher authorities and said 'that they are ready to accept my recommendations'. After that only I met all 15 girls personally.

“For too long Australia has turned a blind eye to the mounting evidence that the Sri Lankan Government committed war crimes against the poorest of its own people, including the slaughter of more than 40,000 innocent Tamil civilians at the end of the civil war in 2009."

“There will be a stain of injustice that won’t wash out of the cricket whites if the human rights abuses of the ruling Sri Lankan regime pass unremarked.”

“All the matters your letter raised are issues we can’t pretend about anymore, and if our government keeps up with their present tricks, they may be subject to bans and blacklistings, too.”

The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has listed persons suspected of the LTTE links, journalists, opposition politicians, political activists, gays and lesbians, as groups of people in Sri Lanka that are “likely to be in need of international refugee protection.”

The family of British tourist Khuram Shaikh, who was brutally murdered in Sri Lanka last Christmas, has spoken of their distress over the lack of progress in prosecuting those responsible for his killing.

Khuram Shaikh was killed while on holiday in the south of Sri Lanka, after getting into an altercation with a local group. His girlfriend was also attacked and is thought to have been raped by the men.

A politician of the ruling party is one of the eight suspects in the attack, however all were recently released on bail.

Speaking to The Guardian, Khuram’s brother Nasir said the situation was "disheartening, upsetting" and unacceptable.