The Pilakudiyirippu (Pilavu) protest for land return enters its third week. With each morning that breaks at their base outside a Sri Lankan air force camp, the protestors reaffirm their resolve.

The former paramilitary leader who has been accused of war crimes, Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan (alias Karuna Amman) on Saturday launched a new political party in Batticaloa - 'Tamil United Freedom Party'. 

Spaking at the launch, Karuna who was previously a deputy minister under the previous government, said the party would be based in Batticaloa and would have branches across the North-East. 

Family members of disappeared Tamils rejected the government’s offer to set up a special inquiry to investigate the fate of just their missing relatives, rather than providing an acceptable solution to the 32,000 missing. 

"We came to get collective justice for thousands of our people who have gone missing, not only for our sake," said one family member.

Following a recent evaluation by the Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and Justice – indicating that the Sri Lankan government has largely failed to implement Resolution 30/1, the organisation called on the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) pass a robust follow-up resolution.

UNHRC Resolution 30/1 called for the implementation of a credible process towards accountability and reconciliation in Sri Lanka.

A Sri Lankan solider was arrested this week after villagers in Uttuppulam, Kilinochchi accused him of sexually abusing a young Tamil woman. 

The soldier, who has not been identified, was deployed to the village to collect family details from each household, when he is said to have met the woman who lived at home with her parent who suffered with mental health difficulties.

Villagers gathered in Muttur today to mark 21 years since the Kumarapuram massacre, where 24 Tamil villagers were killed by a group of Sri Lankan soldiers.

The Tamil People’s Council reiterated its calls for transparency in the constitution making process, and the resultant formation of a sovereign institution of self-governance which recognised the Tamil people in the North and East as a distinct nation, whilst acknowledging their right to self-determination.

 In a declaration made at the second ‘Ezhuka Tamil’ gathering, which saw thousands of Tamils march through the streets of Batticaloa, the TPC said,

Sri Lanka’s foreign minister said his government would not allow foreign judges to hear cases in an accountability mechanism for human rights abuses committed during the final stages of the armed conflict, in which tens of thousands of Tamil civilians were killed.

The Sri Lankan army distributed artificial limbs to former LTTE cadres and civilians in Kilinochchi.

At an event funded by USAID, artificial limbs were presented by Sri Lankan army officers to thirty Tamils, including former LTTE cadres, that had lost limbs during the war.

The United States’ Acting Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs highlighted Sri Lanka’s potential to “become a leader in contributing to peacekeeping operations across the globe (and) promoting human rights abroad” in a speech delivered in Washington this week.

Bruce Wharton addressed a ‘Sri Lanka National Day Reception’, where his speech said “Sri Lanka has the potential to become the next Asian Tiger”.

Sri Lankan Independence Day was not a day of celebration for Tamils given the ongoing plight of Tamils in Sri Lanka, the British Tamils Forum said in a statement.

A Tamil boy died on Sunday after falling into an unprotected waste oil pit dug by the Sri Lankan army.

The body of 10-year-old Gajenthirakumar Sajinthan was retrieved from an 15-foot deep oil pit which has been in Kankensanthurai for ten years.

Locals expressed concern that the waste oil pit was uncovered, adding that it contributed to making their community spaces unsafe.

British Tamils gathered outside Downing Street last week to protest the Sri Lankan government's inaction on accounting for missing and disappeared persons.