The Tamil people are in doubt over the Sri Lankan justice system said the Chief Minister of the Northern Province C.V. Wigneswaran, because pro-government cases are resolved, whereas those against government policies are delayed, reports Uthayan.

Drawing attention to the on-going cases of over 2000 filed regarding land grabs in Valikaamam North, Justice Wigneswaran said Tamils had lost faith in the system.

'This Land Belongs to the Army’ is a strong documentary about the manner in which the lands in the traditional Tamil homelands of the North-East of the island of Sri Lanka have been appropriated by the government and the military.

Made by Indian journalist and filmmaker Maga Tamizh Prabhagaran, the documentary features first-hand testimony from victims and an exclusive discussion with a Sri Lankan Army soldier about the use of chemical and other bombs to support the logic that the land belongs to the Army and that the Tamils can “live in [the] country” only provided they do not “demand undue things”, to use the words of former military commander Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka,.

Launched in January this year at the UK Houses of Parliament, the documentary has gone on to be broadcast around the world, as well as being selected for the 7th International Documentaries and Short Film Festival of Kerala taking place next month and the Mediteran Film Festival in Bosnia in August. It was also entered into the International Festival of Local Televisions in Slovakia earlier this month.

The Sri Lankan Army has been carrying out rebuilding work on the island’s south coast, following violence by Sinhala Buddhist mobs which left at least 4 people dead.

Troops preparing to undertake rebuilding work

Rajitha Senaratne, the Sri Lankan government Minister of Fisheries, justified the decision to hand the work over to the security forces by saying,

“Why we have given it to military is because no one else would be able to finish rebuilding by meeting the month’s deadline to finish the work.”

Sri Lanka’s Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has donated Rs 5 million rupees towards the construction of new living quarters for monks at the Bellana Sri Dharmapala Pirivena in Agalawaththa, which the Sri Lankan Air Force will help to construct.

A Tamil refugee has been arrested in Tamil Nadu for holding a hunger strike demanding the Indian government hand him, his family and other Tamils who have fled Sri Lanka to the United Nations, instead of deporting them back to the island.

32-year-old Chenthuran was arrested by Tamil Nadu police from a camp in Cheyyar, earlier this week and is currently being held in Puzhal Prison in Chennai.

A second patrol boat donated by the Australian government to Sri Lanka has arrived in Colombo this week, having been ceremoniously received by the Sri Lanka Navy.

The Australian Immigration Minister Scott Morrison on Saturday said there were no significant reports at sea, the Sydney Morning Herald reports, despite news that a boat carrying 153 Tamil asylum seekers is in trouble off the coast of Christmas Island. 

"I am advised that I have no such report to provide to you today," he was quoted as saying to reporters in Melbourne.