The Sri Lankan president and his wife arrived in Japan on Tuesday as part of a four day official visit, accompanied by Minister of External Affairs Prof. G.L. Peiris, Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources Management Nimal Siripala de Silva, Monitoring MP for Ministry of External Affairs Sajin de Vaas Gunawardena, Secretary to the President Lalith Weeratunga and Governor of Central Bank Ajith Nivard Cabraal.

Groups supporting the LTTE are trying to attack Sri Lanka using international forces said Sri Lankan Minister of Investment Promotion Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena at a public meeting, reported Colombo Page.

The government is to investigate the TNA's complicity in crimes committed by the LTTE announced the paramilitary leader and deputy minister, Vinayagamoorthy Karuna.

The news was reported in the Sinhala language newspaper Divaina on Friday. 

Translation by Keerthi Warnakulasooriya, reproduced below:

Speaking at the General debate at the United Nations Human Rights Council sessions, Canada reiterated its call for an independent investigation in to the Sri Lankan government’s human rights violations.

Canadian Ambassador and permanent representative to the UN, Elissa Golberg, stated

The Tamil Eelam Supporters Organisation (TESO) calls for a State-wide general strike in Tamil Nadu stirred a widespread response, resulting in arrests and small incidents of violence.

TESO called for a general strike to put pressure on the Indian government to vote against Sri Lanka when the final draft of a U.S sponsored resolution on Sri Lanka is tabled at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) later this month.

Writing in the Times of India on Monday - Commonwealth Day, two prominent members of the Elders group, the Archibishop Desmond Tutu and the former Irish President Mary Robinson, argue that the "climate required for reconciliation does not yet exist" in sri Lanka and "urge the Commonwealth to seriously reconsider appointing Sri Lanka as its chair for 2013-15".

See here - 'Hope and reconciliation: Healing Sri Lanka’s wounds of conflict' - together with embedded links.

Extract reproduced below:

'How the Council chooses to act at this time will have a profound impact on Sri Lanka's standing in the international community. In this regard, we urge the Commonwealth to seriously reconsider appointing Sri Lanka as its chair for 2013-15, as it currently plans to do. In this role, Sri Lanka would host the biennial meeting of Commonwealth heads of government in November this year.

Writing in The Guardian on Monday, the former UK Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, urged the British government to "back the call for CHOGM to be moved", arguing that "for it to go ahead in Sri Lanka would be a mockery of Commonwealth values and UN authority, and a further invitation for its government to ignore international pleas for decency and accountability."

See here - 'Britain must stand up for human rights in Sri Lanka'.

Extract reproduced below:

'Human Rights Watch says that several thousand people are locked up without charge, and that state-sponsored abuse of Tamil activists is widespread. Other UN investigations record over 5,000 outstanding cases of enforced and involuntary disappearances; and nearly 100,000 internally displaced people remain without proper protection. This is not the path of reconciliation promised by the Government after the civil war.

In a letter to the US State Department, the Sri Lankan government asked the US to discontinue to the prosecution of a Tamil Canadian Suresh Sriskandarajah reports the National Post.

Sriskandarajah was extradited to New York in December, charged with buying equipment and laundering money for the LTTE.