Sri Lanka’s Foreign Secretary, Jayanath Colombage, has claimed that Rajapaksa administration will adopt an “India first” approach with respects to strategic security and has approved a memorandum of cooperation signed with India which regards Colombo Port’s Eastern terminal.

According to Colombage, the “Rajapaksa foreign policy shift would mean that Sri Lanka would not be any more reliant on a West-oriented policy”, reports the Live Mint.

The UK provided military training to 17, out of 30, countries on the British Foreign Office’s own human rights watch list, which includes Sri Lanka, from 2018-2020.

According to the British Foreign Office, this list comprises countries where the UK has “particularly concerned about human rights issues”. UK ministers have admitted to providing training to the majority of countries on this list.

The Independent reports that the UK provided military training to;

A Tamil woman has been hospitalised with serious injuries after a collision with a Sri Lankan army vehicle in Kilinochchi, on Monday.  35-year-old Thadsayini Vikneswaran from Ananthapuram, was admitted to Mullaitivu District General Hospital. 

Writing for the diplomat Tamil journalist, J.S Tissainayagam, rebukes the claim that Tamil’s are “moving away from regional Tamil-nationalist parties – focused on ethnic rights, wartime accountability, and power-sharing” and towards groups focused on “economic development”. Instead, he argues that contrary to this narrative, Tamil demands for rights and justice remains just as widespread and resolute as ever.

Tamil politics since the end of the armed conflict

The Sri Lankan home affairs ministry passed an order on Wednesday rescinding applicability to the Northern and Eastern provinces of a scheme that offers employment opportunities for 100,000 low-income people.

The ministry had earlier announced that one lakh people with low income will be offered employment by the state and had also conducted interviews for the same. However, the latest order has reversed the previous government position and has effectively made the Tamils in the North and East ineligible of availing the employment opportunities this scheme offers.

^{Photograph: Army.lk}

Sri Lankan security force troops carried out ‘community projects’ in schools and hospitals in Mullaitivu over the past few weeks.

^{Photograph: Army.lk}

UNICEF, the United Nations children's agency, praised Sri Lanka for its “effective response to COVID-19” and being among the first South Asian countries to reopen schools, despite previously condemning Sri Lanka’s history of violence against children.

^{Photograph : Twitter - @PragasGnanam [1990 Sri Lanka army roundup at Batticaloa - Chittandi 30th anniversary remembrance]}

The Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF) has extended its support to the families of the disappeared in the North-East ahead of their protests scheduled for the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, in a statement released on Sunday.

Sri Lankan army officers attacked a group of Tamils in Mannar, leaving one of them seriously injured and hospitalised. 

The group of seven Tamils were carrying a corpse to a nearby cemetery in Manthai, Mannar and ritualistically setting off firecrackers before being confronted by the army officials, earlier this month. The officers at Pallamadu junction in Mannar threatened them with charges of firecracker possession before severely assaulting the seven individuals. 

A 24-year-old was admitted to the Pallamudu Hospital after sustaining serious injuries and has now been transferred to Mannar District General Hospital for further treatment.