The land of a civil society activist who led land-return protests in Mullaitivu has been confiscated by the Sri Lankan Air Force.

Mrs S Chandraleela heads a local women’s organisation and has been at the forefront of protests demanding the release of land in Pilakudiyirippu and now Keppapulavu.

Families of the missing and forcibly disappeared who have been protesting across the North-East, protested today outside the District Secretariat office in Mullaitivu.

Fishing groups in Tamil Nadu said a fisherman was shot dead by the Sri Lankan navy on Monday evening whilst he worked in the Palk Straits. 

The victim, 22 year old Bristo, was killed when Sri Lankan navy personnel allegedly opened fire. 

The Sri Lankan government has made "no tangible progress" on key issues such as establishing a "hybrid judicial mechanism with domestic and foreign judges and returning the military-occupied lands to Tamil civilians in the north and east," said The Hindu in an editorial written this week.

The editorial, entitled 'Elusive reconciliation', said "Colombo must do much more to address the concerns of the Tamil minority".

An opening ceremony which consisted entirely of Sinhalese cultural performances was held to open a new path leading to the Kanniya (or Kinniya) Hot Wells and the Buddhist temple there.

Kanniya in Trincomalee is a historically sacred site for Tamils but ongoing Sinhalisation has diminished Tamil presence in the area and militarisation has meant that the Sivan temple is disused and unavailable for worship.

The UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) released its 8^th official report outlining recommendations for the advancement of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women in Sri Lanka. Recommendations included a push for accountability over conflict-related sexual and gender-based violence.

Sri Lankan Air Force personnel in Mullaitivu have been reinforcing security around their camps and strengthening their presence, locals report.

The Tamil National Alliance said the Sri Lankan government's lack of action on a number of “critical issues” is “ steadily eroding the trust of our people”, in a statement that reiterated the need for “robust international participation” in an accountability mechanism for human rights violations.

Sri Lanka’s consistent lack of progress conveys the impression of a lack of will to investigate and prosecute serious crimes, the NGO Together Against Genocide (TAG) has said.

The 2016 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, released by the US Department of State, reports that “arbitrary arrest, lengthy detention, surveillance, and harassment of civil society activists, journalists, members of religious minorities, and persons viewed as sympathizers of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE),” are the most pressing human rights issues in Sri Lanka.

A bill amending the Office of Missing Persons Act to be presented to parliament was gazetted today. The bill repeals section 11 (a) of the Act which grants the Office of Missing Persons (OMP) the express power "to enter into agreements, as are necessary to achieve the mandate of the OMP, with any person or organization." 

Human Rights Watch's Geneva Director called on members of the United Nations Human Rights Council to "ensure continued international scrutiny until the Sri Lankan government delivers on its commitments in full", in a statement released as the council meets this week.

Families of the missing and forcibly disappeared continued their protest in Kilinochchi for the fifteenth day on Monday.

A Sri Lankan court has deemed the 'confessions' of two LTTE cadres detained in 2012 over the shooting down of a military aircraft in 2000 are legitimate, ordering the cadres be further detained. 

The 'confessions' were made to the Terrorism Investigation Division, notorious for its routine use of torture.