The British Home Office this week published an updated policy guidance and information note on Sri Lanka aimed at decision makers handling the granting of protection and human rights claims for Tamils.

The updated policy guidance, which follows the country guidance of GJ & Others in 2013, stated that there had been "positive developments" since the new government led by President Sirisena came to office and "an improved environment for civil society and human rights defenders has also been reported". 

Sri Lanka's appointment of Major General Shavendra Silva, who is accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity against Tamils, to the new position of Adjutant General of the army has sparked widespread criticism. 

Major General Silva, who commanded the army's 58 division during the final stages of the ethnic conflict in 2009 where tens of thousands of Tamils were massacres by shelling and aerial bombardment of civilian areas, assumed his duties at a ceremony on Thursday at the army's headquarters. 

Six army officers who were charged and remanded in custody over the abduction and assault of the Sri Lankan journalist, Keith Noyahr in 2008 were on Thursday released on bail. 

The magistrate in Mount Lavinia released the officers, who include one army major, on surety bails of 1 million rupees each, Colombo Page reported.  

Keith Noyahr, an associate editor of The Nation was abducted from just outside him home in Colombo and tortured before being released in May 2008. 

During his address at the Kurunegala Defense Services College, the Sri Lankan President stated that no “war hero” would be allowed to stand before an international court.

“…nor would any War Hero be deemed an “accused” since no one has been produced in any Court as an accused to this date for any alleged violation of human rights, as claimed by some interested parties,” he added.

Three Tamil journalists were harassed and threatened by Sri Lankan soldiers on the 21st March while reporting on an ongoing protest by families of the disappeared in Maruthankerny.

The journalists were photographed en route to the protest, were threatened and made to leave by soldiers from the protest itself and then were followed and harassed on their way home.

One of the journalists recounted the incident to Tamil Guardian:

Sri Lanka's court of appeal on Tuesday ordered the Criminal Investigations Department to find three navy officers who were aquitted in December of the killing of the TNA MP Nadarajah Raviraj. 

The CID was ordered to provide information on the officers' location at present, Colombo Page reported. 

Former President and current head of the Office for National Unity and Reconciliation (ONUR), Chandrika Kumaratunga, said that Sri Lankan soldiers who fought in the civil war will not be dragged to court because of the demands of the Tamil diaspora.

"We have no intention to drag the soldiers before courts and send them to gallows," she said at a gathering in Jaffna.

Ex-defense minister and brother of the former President, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, denied allegations of war crimes against him and hinted a possible entry into Sri Lanka politics.

The Criminal Investigations Department told Sri Lankan courts last week that the former defense minister ran ‘top secret death squads,’ which was responsible for the assassination of political opponents and journalists.

Gotabhaya Rajapaksa denied such claims stating that, “a lot of things happened without my knowledge,” and that he was working on a “policy and strategy level and not on things at the tactical level”.

Residents of a Mannar village have been protesting for six days demanding the return of their navy-occupied land.

Kilinochchi locals marched calling for the withdrawal of the Sri Lankan army from public lands, in particular from the Vaddakkachchi Agricultural Farm, which is currently being used as a military camp.