Sri Lankan soldiers station in the East had a training session n “riot control” last month, announced an official military website.

Journalists and media workers massacred by Sri Lankan state forces were remembered today at an event organised by the Uthayan newspaper. 

The leader of the Bodu Bala Sena Galagodaaththte Gnanasara, who stands accused of hate crime, conducted rituals for the State Vesak selebratiosn on this week, reports Colombo Telegraph.

Sri Lanka’s that failure to address past abuses contributes to ongoing torture on the island, wrote Ann Hannah, Acting Director of Policy and Advocacy at Freedom from Torture in a blog post last week.

“There is a culture of impunity that has very few structures in place to challenge it, coupled by at best ambiguous political messaging about investigations and justice for past abuses,” she said.

Several Tamil diaspora organizations have written to the Under-Secretary General for Peacekeeping Operations urging a response to the issues surrounding the involvement of Sri Lanka’s paramilitary police in international peacekeeping.

The South Asian Centre for Legal Studies (SACLS) released a report on the increased level of military presence in civilian life in post-war Sri Lanka.

The Sri Lankan President ordered the suspension of the planned removal of unauthorised constructions on Mirissa’s coastal belt after coming under personal pressure from politicians.

The Coast Conservation Department was scheduled to remove unauthorised constructions on the Mirissa beach front on Tuesday, after attacks on tourists earlier in the month were blamed on groups linked to the illegal businesses.

Sri Lankan troops stationed in the East were lectured on social media last month, where they were advised not to post “statements propagating hatred” online.

According to a military website, troops were lectured on “maintaining their privacy in popular social networking websites including Facebook, Viber, WhatsApp”.

Sri Lanka's cabinet reshuffle today failed to end the climate of political uncertainty with the stock index ended flat. 

The reshuffle, which is the government's fourth, follows the suspension of parliament after the  no-confidence motion against the prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and the defection of SLFP ministers from within the coalition government. 

The Sri Lankan government has not made progress on returning lands in Iranaitivu back to the people, the Tamil MP, S Sritharan wrote in a letter to the president. 

"People from Iranaitivu were displaced in 1992 due to the military's actions. They have been living in Mulankavil for the past 26 years without any livelihood support and without any hope for the future amid severe difficulties," Mr Sritharan wrote. 

Families of the disappeared were "very disappointed" by the Sri Lankan president's recent comments rejecting the existence of secret detention camps and missing persons, the Northern Provincial Council's minister of women's affairs, Ananthi Sasitharan said. 

Tamil workers and political parties defied the government's decision to postpone May Day celebrations after the Buddhist festival of Vesak, holding their rallies today on May 1. 

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) held rallies in Vadamarachchi and Batticaloa, whilst the Tamil National People's Front (TNPF) held its rally in Nallur. 

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has emarked approximately $2.8 billion wort hof loans over the next two years in a bid to assist Sri Lanka in meeting its key development goals, reports Sri Lanka.

The ADB said that it looked to contribute to job creation, rural economic development, knowledge formulation and economic diversification over the next 5 years of its Country Partnership Strategy (CPS).

The Tamil Students Association (TaVS – Tamilscher Verein der Studierenden) in Switzerland hosted an event discussing the human rights situation in Sri Lanka.