A panel event by the Congressional Caucus on Religious and Ethnic Freedom in Sri Lanka saw a lively discussion on the link between Sinhala Buddhism and extremist violence in Washington DC last week.

The panel, moderated by the co-chair of the caucus Representative Bill Johnson, saw contributions from PEARL's Advocacy Director Mario Arulthas, Associate Professor at Youngtown University Dr Michael Jerryson and Dr Robert Oberst, professor at Nebraska Weselyan University.

Sri Lanka’s president told a group of senior Buddhist monks that his government would ensure “all duties” are carried out in accordance with their advice, as he marked Vesak this weekend.

Speaking at Buddhist ceremony, Maithripala Sirisena said that “all the duties will be conducted as a government in accordance with the advices of the Maha Sangha”.

A former LTTE cadre died on Sunday from cancer, which was diagnosed after his release from 'rehabilitation' by the Sri Lankan state. 

Sunthirasekaram Piratheepan, originally from Oddusuddan, Mullaitivu, surrendered to the military after the end of the armed conflict and was forced into the 'rehabilitation' programme.

He was diagnosed with cancer in August 2016.

His parents and family wept as his last rites took place on Monday. 

Pressure on the Sri Lankan government from the international community led to the military releasing occupied Tamil land in the North-East, stated the chief minister of the Northern Province Justice C V Wigneswaran this week.

In an interview with the Sunday Observer, the chief minister dismissed remarks that the Sri Lankan military’s release of land earlier this month was a “gesture of goodwill”.

“The release of land recently is not a gesture of goodwill,” he said.

Rachel Seoighe launched her book ‘War, Denial and Nation-Building in Sri Lanka’, which explores how political discourse has been utilised to deny and re-engineer state violence in Sri Lanka, at an event in London last week.

Medical officers in Batticaloa launched a strike on Thursday demonstrating against the failure to receive authorised salary increases, previously approved by the Ministry of Health and Social Services in the Eastern Province in January 2018. 

Patients waited in empty rooms as staff walked out in protest. 

Meeting with the Governor of the Eastern Province on the issue on April 10, representatives of the Eastern branch of the Government Medial Officers Association raised objections to the delay and received assurances from the Governor that the increase would be paid before Tamil New Year on April 14. 

The University of Jaffna's Vavuniya campus was forced to close this week after Sinhala students threatened university administration staff over they stopped the students erecting a Buddhist shrine on site. 

On April 23 a group of Sinhala students attempted to install a shrine on campus grounds in view of later placing a Buddha statue inside it. 

In a frank interview with BBC Sinhala, the Sri Lankan president Maithripala Sirisena dismissed concerns over ongoing detentions of political prisoners, stressing "there are no political prisoners in Sri Lanka". 

"Also, there are no secret prisoners in Sri Lanka under my government," Mr Sirisena said.

Commenting on ongoing protests across the North-East calling for action on disappearances and the release of political prisoners, Mr Sirisena claimed that they were instigated by NGOs, accusing them of "misleading" people. 

Sri Lanka's Office on Missing Persons (OMP) is to begin meeting with families of the disappeared from next month, with the first meeting taking place in Mannar. 

"The OMP will from May onwards visit different places to speak to families of the missing and disappeared to share our plans and obtain their views on how we should proceed. First meetings in Mannar on 12th May," Saliya Pieris, the chairman of the OMP tweeted yesterday.

The World Bank on Thursday approved $100 million credit to improve Sri Lanka's education system, aimed at improving GCE and A level grades, with a particular focus on children in disadvantaged areas. 

"Sri Lanka has made impressive progress in expanding access to education. However, to reach the status of an Upper Middle-Income Country, it needs to further improve the overall learning outcomes. Sri Lanka's education policy makers recognize that a high-quality general education system will enable students to meet the demands of 21st century jobs," the World Bank's Country Director for Sri Lanka and the Maldives, Idah Z. Pswarayi-Riddihough said.