Human Rights Watch called on UN member states to "press Sri Lanka for a time-bound action plan on reforms" during the country's third Universal Periodic Review, which commences today.
A Sri Lankan soldier was arrested for smuggling cannabis by Vavuniya police on Sunday.
Puliyankulam police station’s officer-in-charge said the solider was arrested in the early hours of Sunday morning on a night bus from Jaffna to Trincomalee.
The 24-year-old soldier who is based in a camp in Jaffna was in possession of around 2kg of Kerala ganja.
The Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Tamils, MP Paul Scully called on UN Human Rights chief to launch an investigation into the most recent reports of torture in Sri Lanka.
“The investigations by the Associated Press once again highlights the gravity and scale of continuing human rights abuses against Tamils on the island,” said the British MP.
The current good-governance regime in Sri Lanka will allocate plenty of funds to rehabilitate the North-East, the UNP parliamentarian and State Minister for Women’s and Children’s Affairs, Vijayakala Maheswaran has claimed.
Ms Maheswaran criticised the previous regime for overspending on defence and security forces, stating that the current government would be more focused on addressing the needs of the Tamils and Muslims of the North-East, including war widows and the displaced.
Four Tamil men have been hospitalised following a resurgence in sword attacks in Jaffna this week.
In one incident on Monday, Srikanthan of Koppay North was pursued from Jaffna Town by assailants on two motorcycles before being attacked just 500 metres from Koppay police station.
In another attack on Monday night, a Tamil man was injured at his home in Navaly when the house was broken into and attacked.
Sri Lanka's Inspector General of Police, Pujith Jayasundara warned that the "President and the Prime Minister would not tolerate the NGOs, which are dependent on foreign aid and racketeers who deposit public funds in foreign banks", the Daily Mirror reported.
Mr Jayasundara made these remarks whilst speaking at an event in Kurunegala.
Civil society groups across the North-East highlighted the feature published in the Associated Press last week detailing recent reports of torture and rape of Tamils by Sri Lankan authorities and called on the international community to "re-prioritize accountability and justice for atrocity crimes committed during and after the armed conflict in their engagement with the Government of Sri Lanka."
Member states of the United Nations Human Rights Council questioned Sri Lanka on ongoing torture, militarisation and its failure to repeal the Prevention of Terrorism Act in an advanced submission to the Universal Periodic Review Process.
Sri Lanka’s president Maithripala Sirisena attempted to assure the military that army camps in the North “have not been removed or will not be removed in a way which will weaken the national security or have an impact on the security forces but lands acquitted by the armed forces during the war will be released to people,” Colombo Page reported.
The spokesperson of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), M A Sumanthiran assured there would be ‘extensive discussions’ at a grassroots level on the interim report by the constitutional steering committee, Ceylon Today reported.
Sri Lanka’s state minister of defence Ruwan Wijewardene asserted he “would not allow anyone to threaten national security”, Adaderana reported on Monday.
"The present government has taken every measure in this regard," Mr Wijewardene said.
The comments were made at an event in Gampaha, the paper reported.
Over 250 Tamils were arrested in a province-wide police operation conducted in the North on Saturday.
Led by the Deputy Inspector General of Police for the Northern Province, over 2000 police officers across the Jaffna, KKS, Kilinochchi, Vavuniya, Mullaitivu and Mannar forces conducted search and arrest operations, with over 3500 individual searches and checks being reported.
