The Sri Lankan army escorted a South African and Chinese delegation around Vanni on Friday.

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse received the long-awaited Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Committee report today, but it is still unclear when it will be made available to the public.

One of the world’s best known aid agencies, Médecins sans Frontières, has released a collection of essays which has revealed some of the controversial policies that they undertook when negotiating with governments during their work.

Alistair Burt, British Foreign Office minister has today called on Sri Lanka to release the report on the findings of the controversial Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission.

Sri Lanka’s present political predicament is already somewhat hastily being described as ‘post-conflict’ by both international and local actors, for example by both the Government of Sri Lanka and the IMF.

However, there are very good reasons for remaining sceptical about the use of this terminology, not just because of the nebulousness of definitions of conflict (and a simplistically assumed opposition with peace), and its injudicious past use in places like Afghanistan, but also due to present dynamics in Sri Lanka which are being deliberately papered over and viewed through a skewed lens.

Indeed, ‘post-conflict’ is a misnomer that flows from the predominance of a particular international common sense knowledge and the way it understands the power dynamics in the interface of the global and local that we find in Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka's 2012 budget reveals further proposals to aid security forces and encourage the expansion of their families.

Extracts from a resolution passed unanimously by the annual general meeting of the York Federation of Students, the largest student union in Canada, representing 50,000 students:

“Be It Further Resolved that the York Federation of Students

Indian investers have expressed concern at companies they have invested in, being listed among the 37 companies identified by the government through in the expropriation act as 'underperforming'. 

The investors are said to be studying the provisions of the Act very carefully.

According to reports, the investors, such as one involved in the export of Wanaspathi oil, are in the process of appealing to the Indian High Commission to intervene.

The bill, which was passed as law - the Revival of Underperforming Enterprises and Underutilized Assets Act - allows the government to takeover companies it deems to be underperforming.

Twenty percent of the US$560 million of foreign direct investment received last year was from India.

Highlighting the ongoing oppression and discrimination of the Tamils by the Sri Lankan government, the TNA's leader, Sampanthan, asserted that the Tamil nation "will not accept this status of inequality" in an interview with the Sunday Leader, published on Sunday.

See here for interview in full.

Extracts of Sampanthan's responses are reproduced below:

"The Tamil people have not been treated as equal citizens for a very long time."

"The Tamil people have consistently demonstrated that they will not accept this status of inequality and that they are resilient enough to come out of this tragic situation."

On the militarisation and Sinhalisation of the North-East, the TNA leader said,

"Deliberate efforts are being made by the Government to further change the linguistic and cultural identity of the Northern and Eastern provinces.

"There is no doubt whatever that the Government is aggressively pursuing a sinister programme to change the demographic composition of the Northern and Eastern provinces in such a manner as to weaken the Tamil presence and increase the majority Sinhala presence."

On accountability and investigating war crimes, Sampanthan reiterated,

"Human rights laws and humanitarian laws are a matter of universal concern. No country is entitled to violate international human rights laws and international humanitarian laws.

Every country is bound by the international conventions it has acceded to, and Sri Lanka can be no exception."

Tamil National Alliance (TNA) is seeking devolution of executive, legislative and judicial power as an essential part of addressing the legitimate grievances of the Tamil nation in the North-East, said TNA MP Suresh Premachandran.

In an attempt to quell investor fears, Sri Lanka’s Central bank has announced that the takeover bill is not expropriation.

Defending the newly passed “urgent bill”, the bank said in a statement,

Sarath Fonseka, former Sri Lankan Army General was sentenced for three years by the High Court on Friday on charges of "spreading disaffection", "spreading rumours" and "causing public disorder".

According to the prosecution, Fonseka told the Sunday Leader newspaper on 13th December 2009, that the defence secretary, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, of ordering the execution of LTTE commanders as they surrendered - a war crime. Fonseka disputes this.

He is currently facing a 30-month sentence for alleged corruption and other charges.

The decision to sentence Fonseka fell on the same day as Rajapaksa's birthday, and two days before the proposed release of the LLRC.

Two out of the three High Court judges ruled against him. Attorney Nalin Ladduwahetty said Fonseka would appeal the sentence.

In a statement, Fonseka said,

“I reject this decision with disgust,”

“I believe that the fair-minded people will correct this mistake one day, otherwise it will remain a black mark in the history of our judiciary.”

Fonseka was the Army General during the final stages of the conflict where over 40,000 Tamils were systematically targetting by the Sri Lankan military and annihilated.

The Committee to Protect Journalists has slammed Sri Lanka’s accusations that missing journalist Prageeth Eknaligoda has gone to seek political refuge in a foreign country.