An ongoing strike carried out by lawyers across the North-East was suspended last Friday as the Sri Lankan Attorney General responded, acceding to the lawyers' demands to investigate incidents surrounding the cremation of a Buddhist monk in a Hindu temple in Mullaitivu last week.

Amparai (and above)

The Federation of Saiva (Hindu) Temples UK expressed their dismay at the cremation of a monk in the grounds of a Hindu temple, despite a court injunction prohibiting the funeral rites from being carried out on the temple's premises.

The Federation strongly opposed the cremation as Hindu temples and their grounds are considered to be sacred and called on the President of Sri Lanka to take responsibility "for the sacrilege acts of the Buddhist monk pardoned by him."

A Tamil journalist from Jaffna has been summoned to Sri Lankan police headquarters in Colombo.

T Sobithan who reports for the island-wide Tamil language daily newspaper Virakesari was summoned in relation to an article he had published in which he’d reproduced quotes by a disappearances activist about Gotabaya Rajapaksa and EPDP leader Douglas Devananda.

The activist had said that Devananda as well as select other Tamil politicians would once again ally with Rajapaksa to oppress Tamils.

The United Nations has called for a Tamil family who are currently being detained by Australian authorities on Christmas Island, to be released “into community setting arrangements”, as the legal battle to deport them to Sri Lanka continues.

The UN-issued interim measures states that the Tamil family should be “released into community setting arrangements or [the immigration department should] find another way to release them from detention within 30 days”, said Carina Ford, a lawyer for the detained family.

The British Tamil Conservatives (BTC) hosted their annual reception at the Conservative Party Conference last weekend, where they were joined by Parliamentarians who pledged to work for justice for Tamils in Sri Lanka.

The leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has called the cremation of a controversial Buddhist monk in the grounds of a Hindu temple in Mullaitivu last month “a deliberate act of aggression” and called for those responsible to “be dealt with and appropriate action should be taken against them” in a wide ranging letter released this week.

Despite local opposition and a court injunction, a Buddhist mob led by Sinhala extremists defied the order and carried out  the cremation at the Neeraviyady Pillayar Temple, whilst Sri Lankan police officers provided them with security.

The appointment of accused war criminal Shavendra Silva to the top of Sri Lanka’s military has “exposed the Sri Lankan army as one institutionally committed to impunity for grave abuses” said Human Rights Watch’s United Nations Director Louis Charbonneau this week.

“Despite commitments to investigate and prosecute alleged war crimes, the government has failed to do so,” said Charbonneau.

He went on to call the United Nations’ move to suspend any new intakes of Sri Lankan peacekeepers in response to the Silva appointment, a “stand against impunity for war crimes”.

Events were held in India to mark the 32nd anniversary of the death of Lt Col Thileepan, a political wing leader of the LTTE who fasted to death in 1987, appealing to the Indian government to honour pledges made to the Tamil people.

A vigil was held by the Naam Tamilar party in New Delhi, in partnership with Sikh activists.

The former head of Sri Lanka’s army announced that he will be running for president in the island’s upcoming elections, as the electoral contest between Sinhala Buddhist candidates begins to heat up.