The Sri Lankan army, occupying the Mulliyavalai thuyilum illam (LTTE cemetery) in Mullaitivu, has started selling cement bricks, angering residents who say that the army has involved itself in every small-scale commercial activity in the district, undercutting local traders.

Adverts for the business appeared outside the 59th division camp this week with a telephone order service.

Tamils in Batticaloa observed a hartal, a business-strike, in protest of the appointment of former UPFA MP M. L. A. M. Hizbullah as governor of the Eastern Province.

 

Organisers of the protest said that Hizbullah, a pro-Rajapaksa politician who is being investigated for corruption, was unfit to to represent the Eastern Province.

<p>The International Cricket Council (ICC) announced that it was granting Sri Lanka an unprecedented 15-day amnesty, as it continues its investigation into corruption on the island.</p> <p>The sport’s governing body said that those who come forward with information on corruption will not be charged during the amnesty period, which runs until the end of this month.</p> <p>"This is the first time the ICC has held an amnesty and it is in response to the very specific challenges we face in Sri Lanka,” said Alex Marshall, general manager of the ICC's anti-corruption unit.</p>

Sri Lanka’s prime minister told his parliament that Colombo faces its highest ever loan installment payment next week, as debts for the government continue to climb.

Ranil Wickremesinghe stated that a payment of US$ 2.6 billion is due on Monday, despite the government’s foreign reserves coming down to US$ 6.9 billion.

Colombo will be paying back close to US$ 5.9 billion in interest and principal payment for debt servicing alone throughout this year, reports Lanka Business Online.

See more from LBO here.

Regime change in Sri Lanka has made “no difference in delivering justice and reparation to the victims of war crimes and genocide” said a group of Tamil diaspora organisations this week, in a call for an establishment of an international criminal tribunal.

“Yet another New Year dawns almost 10 years since the worst of the genocidal onslaught against the Tamil people by the Sri Lankan state with no sign of the victims receiving justice in the near future,” said the United States Tamil Political Action Council (USTPAC), British Tamils Forum (BTF) and Australian Tamil Congress (ATC) in a statement.

The head of Sri Lanka’s notorious 58 Division, an army unit that committed grave violations of international law during a military offensive that killed tens of thousands of Tamils, has been named as the army’s new Chief of Staff.

Shavendra Silva assumed office this week after a controversial appointment to second-in-command of the army, a move that has sparked widespread condemnation. 

He marked taking up his post by giving offerings to Buddhist monks.

<p>Two former LTTE cadres were sentenced to imprisonment for shooting down a Sri Lankan air force aircraft in the year 2000.</p> <p>The North Central Provincial High Court judge handed out a sentence totalling 185 years each, with parole after 5 years ‘rigorous’ imprisonment, for the two former cadres, 41-year-old Rajathurai Jegan and 43-year-old Nallan Sivalingam.</p> <p>Jegan and Sivalingam allegedly fired a missile at a Sri Lankan air force Antonov-32 aircraft over Anuradhapura, downing the plane and killing all 37 people onboard, including Sri Lankan air force personnel, navy personnel, police officers and the Russian pilot.</p>

<p>A Tamil political prisoner in Anuradhapura prison has been hunger striking for his release since last week, causing a serious deterioration in his health.</p> <p>32-year-old Sivapragasam Sivaseelan has been in detention for almost 10 years after being arrested by the Sri Lankan army on May 17, 2009.</p> <p>A case against him under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) was only filed three years later in 2012.</p> <p>Due to repeated court delays, Sivaseelan’s case has not progressed almost six years later.</p>

Sri Lanka’s president praised the “experience and leadership” of Shavendra Silva, the military’s latest chief of staff and commander who led an army unit accused of committing grave crimes against humanity, in an offensive that killed tens of thousands of Tamils.

“It is my pleasure to congratulate Major General Shavendra Silva on his appointment as Chief of Staff,” said Maithripala Sirisena, as Silva took up the promotion this week.

Sri Lanka's state minister of defence, Ruwan Wijewardene yesterday denied the numerous credible reports of the military's use of cluster bombs and chemical weapons against Tamils during the final stages of the armed conflict in 2009, and rejected the need for an international investigation into the matter. 

“We are capable of conducting our own probe into allegations such as these, but there is no such need,” Wijewardene told parliament.