One of the front running candidates vying to become the next United Nations Secretary General accepted that there are “legitimate criticisms” of how the global body handled the final stages of the armed conflict that killed tens of thousands of Tamil civilians in Sri Lanka.

Helen Clark, a former New Zealand Prime Minister, said “there were legitimate criticisms of the way the UN dealt with Sri Lankan abuses,” reports the Guardian.

However Ms Clark sought to distance herself from the global body's failings, documented in an internal report in November 2012.

“It was before my time,” she said.

The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) leader, Anura Kumara Dissanayake told Sri Lanka's parliament that the recent student clashes at the University of Jaffna were due to racial hatred spread by groups in the North.

Raising concerns in parliament on Wednesday over the clashes, Mr Dissanayake was quoted by Colombo Gazette as saying, "the clash cannot be seen simply as a clash between two student groups."

"The clash had occurred in an environment where racial hatred was being spread by some groups in the North," he reportedly added.

The Chief Minister of the Northern Provincial Council called for an inquiry into the violence between Sinhala and Tamil student at Jaffna University on Saturday, and said the “underlying causes” of the tensions must be resolved.

“Such incidents should not be viewed from a purely criminal law standpoint,” said the Chief Minister CV Wigneswaran, in a statement co-signed with the leader of the opposition of the NPC S Thavarasa. “We must first try to find out the underlying causes that led to their violent behaviour... This would ensure that such incidents will not be repeated.”

The unprecedented move to issue a joint statement was acknowledged by the two, who said “We have both come together to issue a joint statement to show the world that the Northern Provincial Council views such incidents beyond the mundane political differences that usually engulf us”.

Sri Lankan soldiers involved themselves in yet another Hindu temple festival in Jaffna this week, as the military continued to bear a heavy presence in civilian life in the Tamil North-East.

At the chariot festival of the Sri Gnana Durga Amman temple in Thenmaradchi, in the Jaffna district on Wednesday, troops from the 52nd battalion of the Sri Lankan military were seen pulling the chariot.

The Government of Sri Lanka and the World Bank signed agreed a $55 million loan to Sri Lanka to improve urban services, preserve cultural and environment assets and improve liability in Jaffna said the World Bank in a press release yesterday.

 The credit will add development of rapidly urbanising Jaffna to the existing Strategic Cities Development Project (SCDP) added the statement.

The World Bank Senior Urban Development Specialist and Task Team Leader of the project Zhiyu Jerry Chen, said,

Norway, together with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on Thursday signed an agreement to extend the country's support to resettled families in North-East, including "improving access to justice".

Trincomalee and Jaffna districts were highlighted as areas of need, with particular reference to Tellipalai and Sampoor.

UNDP Sri Lanka, with support of the Government of Norway, will strengthen its work on improving access to justice and livelihood opportunities of the recently resettled communities in the district.