The Sri Lankan Army has re-seized some lands in Valikamam North that were released to their owners earlier this month.

Just two days after releasing around 683 acres from the 28-year occupation of the ’high security zone’, Sri Lankan soldiers blocked off access and reoccupied lands in Thaiyiddi South - Unthuvathai, and the area surrounding the Vellaivaikkal Vairavar temple.

The legacy of Sri Lanka’s human rights abuses was planned to be a main topic of discussion at this year’s Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in London, according to a UK parliamentary Foreign Affairs Select Committee document.

Referring to remarks made by the British Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, the select committee document said that “the legacy of human rights abuses in Sri Lanka” would be a main topic to be discussed as part of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s strategic vision for the summit.

The Tamil National People’s Front paid tribute to Annai Poopathy at the party’s Jaffna headquarters on Thursday.

A collection of Tamil diaspora groups have called on Commonwealth countries to exercise universal jurisdiction “to provide accountability in cases where Sri Lanka itself fails to act”.

Sri Lanka’s Buddhasana Minister Gamini Jayawickrama Perera said that some 2,000 Buddhist viharas across the island will be “developed” with extra facilities and accommodation for monks, according to a report in the Daily News.

The minister stated that about 2,469 temples “have no basic facilities” and these would be developed with support from the Education Ministry, Prime Minister’s Office and the Presidential Secretariat.

Despite continued calls for the de-militarisation of the North-East, Sri Lankan military constructed a new tennis court exclusively for the use of its soldiers inside its military headquarters in Mullaitivu last month.

Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe commissioned a new Advanced Offshore Patrol Vessel (AOPV) for the Sri Lankan Navy on Thursday, a ship that was entirely Indian built.

Families of the disappeared at Kilinochchi paid tribute to Annai Poopathy on the 30th anniversary of her death on Friday.

The protestors at Kilinochchi, particularly the mothers of forcibly disappeared young Tamils, paid tribute to Annai Poopathy’s commitment to obtain justice through peaceful protest, similar to their ongoing protest, and to her resilience as a mother that had suffered the shooting and killing of two of her sons by the Sri Lankan Army.

The Sri Lankan government has deployed the notorious Special Task Force, in order to protect foreign tourists in the south of the island after a group were assaulted earlier this month.

Police Chief Pujith Jayasundara said the move was a “temporary measure to stabilize the law and order situation” according to the Daily Mirror.

The body of a Tamil man reported missing last month was recovered from a forested area of Mannar.

71-year-old Manuelpillai Albert of Thottaveli was reported missing by his wife on 26th March.

His body was discovered in the forested area near the Mannar - Talaimannar main road on Wednesday.