The UNP's deputy leader, Sajith Premadasa, is reported to be working with UNP dissidents towards forming a new organisation, with the group's first meeting held in Kandy Upcountry Union recently.

Ahead of the UNHRC March session, starting next week, Sri Lanka's minister of foreign affairs suggested it was unreasonable to expect implementation of the LLRC recommendations already.

Peiris said,

The official news portal of the Sri Lankan Government quoted Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative to the Unit, Dr Palitha Kohona, as saying the government will not favour any external intervention in, what it says are, ‘domestic issues’.

According to Dr Kohona, domestic processes must be ‘exhausted’, before resorting to externalisation.

The decision to appoint Major General Shavendra Silva of the Sri Lankan Army to the UN Special Advisory Group on Peace Keeping Operations has come under fire, as pressure increases on the UN to review the appointment.

The US Ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice was earlier quoted as saying,

"It's very concerning that someone with his background would be selected to serve on this advisory group. We have conveyed this to member states, as well as to the Secretariat.

The influx of British tourists into Sri Lanka has fallen following the murder of a British tourist and the rape of his girlfriends at a holiday resort in the South of the island, according to official figures.

Statistics from Sri Lanka’s Tourist Board show whilst tourist numbers from Western Europe had increased, there was a 14.2% decline in the number of British tourists in January compared to last year. Visitors from Western Europe still made up the bulk of tourists to Sri Lanka, accounting for 42% in total.

Extracts from The Economist article on India's strategy in the region and China's role:

Memories in Sri Lanka of India’s troubled role in the long and bitter civil war appear to be fading. Meanwhile, India, officially, does not worry about signs of its neighbour’s dalliance with China.

That is despite the news last month that Chinese investors took 85% control of the project extending Colombo’s main commercial port, which handles goods traded almost entirely with India.

The Director General of the Media Centre for National Security, Lakshman Hulugalle, dismissed the statement made by Human Rights Watch as "part of promoting pro-LTTE propaganda".

Hulugalle added,

“Even when the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) was established to look in to these allegations, they had a negative approach and criticised it.”

In a joint statement released Friday, 14 non-governmental organisation have called on the US to "press for action" at the UN Human Rights Council's March session.