Tamil students at Eastern University staged a protest yesterday condemning the recent attack on a Tamil university student by Sinhalese students after he posted a picture commemorating the Mullivaikkal massacres on May 18 on a Facebook page.

The protesting students called on the university administration to take action against the perpetrators and to put an end to racially motivated attacks. The incident, which took place earlier this week, has seen no arrests and has seen the university authorities and Sri Lankan state condemned for its inaction and "partisan approach".

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa says she will continue to press the central government in Delhi to get justice for Tamils in the North.

The Japanese government will provide Sri Lanka with loans worth over $340mn, for the construction of transmission lines and water supply facilities, according to a statement released by Japan.

"Prime Minister Abe expressed his intention to provide ODA loans, which amount to approximately 38 billion yen, for the construction of transmission lines in the North Central and Eastern Provinces and water supply facilities in the North Central Province, in order to further promote socio-economic development of Sri Lanka. The project of constructing transmission lines will allow the electricity generated at the power plants that Sri Lanka planned in the Eastern Province to be transmitted to the City of Colombo," the statement said.

The prime minister told President Sirisena, who is currently in Japan, that Sri Lanka will also receive two patrol boats, a part of their maritime security cooperation.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has criticised the Sri Lankan government’s newly announced Office of Missing Persons’ (OMP), stating that the authorities had failed to sufficiently consult with victims in establishing the new mechanism.

“At the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva last year, the government had agreed to hold nationwide public consultations on all transitional justice mechanisms,” said a press release on Friday. “However, on May 24, 2016, Sri Lanka’s cabinet approved the new Office of Missing Persons without talking with the families who have long waited for justice.”

Sri Lanka’s OMP has already come under fire from Tamil organisations across the North-East who said the government had not shown any “genuine willingness to consult the victims”.

Noting that Sri Lanka’s long history of government appointed commissions into the issue of disappearances, HRW  went on to state that “various commissions of inquiry established by successive Sri Lankan governments in response to pressure from victims’ groups and others have produced reports that have largely remained unpublished and have not resulted in criminal prosecutions of those responsible”.

Members of the Tamilar Vidiyal Katchi held a protest outside the United Nations office in Chennai this week, calling on the international body to ensure an independent international inquiry into the genocide of Tamils by Sri Lanka is carried out.

Protestors gathered outside the UN office with placards criticising the UN for failing to stop the massacre of tens of thousands of Tamils during the final stages of the armed conflict in 2009.

Another former LTTE member was arrested by the Terrorism Investigation Department, TamilWin reported on Thursday.

Ayyathurai Mohandas, known as Athavan Master, was arrested at Katunayaka airport, in connection to the suicide vest, discovered by the military earlier this year.

Former president Mahinda Rajapaksa has slammed the Eastern Province Chief Minister Nazeer Ahamed, who berated a navy officer and the governor of the province in the presence of US Ambassador Keshap.
Mr Rajapakse said the incident showed there was a project which aimed to "demoralise war heroes", since President Sirisena took charge.

“The fact that this ugly incident took place in the presence of the American ambassador has added to its seriousness. The Eastern Province Chief Minister who raised an issue of protocol over his place on the stage can be heard shouting at the naval officer repeatedly using phrases like ‘get out from here’ ‘idiot’ and ‘shut up’. On a previous occasion when TNA politicians forcibly entered an army camp in the north, the government went out of its way to portray this as a minor incident and to sweep it under the carpet. This is now the second such incident," he said.