(File photo)

Just weeks after the US government pledged to gift another cutter to the Sri Lanka Navy, Ambassador Julie Chung said Washington was continuing to monitor legislative developments in Sri Lanka that could challenge its progress on human rights, reconciliation, and civic space. 

Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK) MP Sivagnanam Shritharan has called on Sri Lankan president Ranil Wickremesinghe to release the eight individuals who were arrested by Sri Lankan police during the observance of Shivarathri at the Vedukkunaari Hill Athi Sivan temple on Friday. 

Despite repeated pleas from civil society organizations, environmentalists, and locals over the construction of a wind power plant in Eastern Mannar, the government of Sri Lanka announced that it would forge ahead regardless and call for tenders this week owing to ‘growing interests from investors.’

A protest was held in Jaffna this morning to condemn the violence and arrests by Sri Lankan police that disrupted Shivarathri celebrations at the Vedukkunaari Athi Sivan temple on Friday.

Mannar Magistrate Court has summoned the Chief Judicial Medical Officer and other experts to attend the next hearing on the Sathosa mass grave for failing to provide a comprehensive report on the excavations. 

Sri Lanka’s Religious, and Cultural Affairs Minister Vidura Wickramanayaka told a gathering of Buddhist monks that steps would be taken to raid unregistered religious centres that are reportedly “engaged in religious conversions,” in a move that looks to strengthen Sinhala Buddhism on the island.

The residents of Keppapulavu marched to the District Secretariat in Mullaitivu where they handed over letters addressed to president Ranil Wickremesinghe and other officials requesting the return of their lands which are occupied by the Sri Lankan military. 

To mark International Women's Day, the Kilinochchi District’s Women’s Front of the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK) organised an event to honour female Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) cadres and recognise the political and social work done by its membership.

Lawyers representing the eight devotees who were arrested without any warrant during the Shivarathri observances at the Vedukkunaari Temple yesterday said the individuals are being held without charge and have been ill-treated at the time of their arrest.

As Volker Türk addressed the UN Human Rights Council last week, his message could not have been clearer. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights delivered only an “update on progress” concerning reconciliation and accountability in Sri Lanka. He concluded that little such progress had taken place. Instead, the human rights chief said Sri Lanka had implemented “regressive laws and authoritarian approaches”, whilst the security forces continued to engage in rights abuses. Almost 15 years after the mass atrocities at Mullivaikkal and after decades of continued ethnic conflict, the UN human rights chief echoed what Tamils have repeatedly demanded. Accountability must be delivered and the root causes of the island’s turmoil must be addressed.