Journalists in Batticaloa demanded that the Sri Lankan state protect human rights and ensure freedom of the press at event held in the city on Sunday evening.

Tamil parliamentarians met in Colombo on Sunday, as they discussed the 13^th Amendment to Sri Lanka’s constitution which calls for some devolution to the North-East, amidst renewed discussion over power sharing to the Tamil homeland.

During demining excavations in Palai, human skeletal remains and an LTTE uniform were found. 

A Buddha statue has been removed in Amparai after it was secretly erected on Friday night by a group of Buddhist monks. 

Ambika Satkunanathan, Former Commissioner at the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, addressed the United States House of Representatives Tom Lantos Commission on Human Rights this week, as it held a hearing on 'Accountability and Human Rights in Sri Lanka'.

See the full text of her address and video footage of the event below.

A new statue of Subramania Bharati, an early 20th century Tamil poet fondly called Bharathiyar, was unveiled in Jaffna earlier today on the occasion of his 139th birth anniversary. 

A four-member delegation from the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) held a meeting with Swiss Ambassador to Sri Lanka Dominik Furgler and Political Secretary Sidonia Gabriel at the Embassy in Colombo on Friday. 

The International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP) welcomed the sanctions on Sri Lankan military officials for human rights violations which were announced by the US State Department earlier today. 

The United States has announced bans on two more Sri Lankan military officials for human rights violations, as the State Department expand sanctions on those accused of war crimes.

The United States is “not satisfied” with progress in Sri Lanka and is eyeing up a broader involvement in the island’s ethnic turmoil, said Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian MA Sumanthiran, who held a series of high-level meetings in Washington DC, New York, Toronto and London last month.

Speaking to the Tamil Guardian in London, the lawmaker said that there had been discussions regarding “greater involvement by the US, broadly speaking, in the Tamil affairs in Sri Lanka”.

A mob which included the Sri Lankan police Officer-in-Charge (OIC) of a local station in Kilinochchi attacked diners at a restaurant last month, allegedly for not wearing face masks.

British MP for Harrow West, Gareth Thomas, has continued his calls for Magntisky style sanctions on Sri Lankan army commander and accused war criminal, Shavendra Silva.

On Twitter Thomas asked:

A Chinese fertiliser company, Seawin Biotech, has launched a legal case against Sri Lanka for turning away scheduled exports of fertilisers worth 49.7 million US dollars, the Global Times reported.  

Sondra Anton, student attorney at the International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School, addressed the United States House of Representatives Tom Lantos Commission on Human Rights yesterday, as it held a hearing on 'Accountability and Human Rights in Sri Lanka'.

See the full text of her address and video footage of the event below.