Hundreds of Tamil youth who have been employed as security personnel at financial institutions across the North-East face losing their jobs and being replaced by Sri Lankan troops, said Vanni district Parliament member Sivasakthi Ananthan.

In a letter addressed to Kabir Hashim, Sri Lanka’s Minister for Investment Promotion, Mr Ananthan said that over 100 Tamil youth from the Northern Province and a similar number from the Eastern Province had joined the Rakna Lanka Security Limited Company since the end of the armed conflict, as unemployment remained stubbornly high in the former conflict zone.

Despite having secured these jobs, recent reports in newspapers in the North-East state that the Tamil youth may soon be replaced by Sri Lankan soldiers, as the company looks to making military training a prerequisite for all its personnel.

“Due to this many security officers, who have been employed for more than two and half years, are subject to losing their jobs,” said the parliamentarian.

Sri Lanka has the opportunity to promote human rights and accountability, as the US works with the country to implement the UN Human Rights Council resolution passed in October 2015, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Nisha Biswal told a congressional hearing.

Testifying at a Asia and Pacific subcommittee hearing on 2017's budget priorities in South Asia, Ms Biswal said that diplomatic relations between the countries are at an all time high.

"[Our] bilateral relationship has been transformed over the past year, thanks to a unity government led by a president and prime minister that are committed to reforms that can benefit all Sri Lankans. Sri Lanka now has the opportunity to assume its rightful place as a leader in the international community, one that contributes to the global economy; promotes human rights, accountability, transitional justice, and democracy; and that helps to uphold international law," she said in her opening remarks at the hearing on May 10.

The chair of the subcommittee, Rep Matt Salmon said the 2017 budget request for Sri Lanka was a ten-fold increase from previous years, now at $39.8 million and asked the assistant secretary how the increase would work towards bolstering democratic change, and strengthening civil society organisations.

Ranking member Rep Brad Sherman also questioned Ms Biswal, asking her about the pace of reforms. "As I talk to those from the Tamil community I see that progress could be moving forward more quickly toward giving more local power to local to local officials and withdrawing the military from the North-East," the Californian Democrat said.

“Police Scotland is viewed as a worldwide exemplar of law enforcement training and has provided assistance to the Sri Lankan authorities on a project funded by the British High Commission to develop a National Police Academy, with the capacity to deliver accredited programmes.”

“The initial focus has been on the development of training modules in organisational management, ethical leadership and crime investigation supported by the development of academic governance systems and processes in Sri Lanka, and involved a series of deployments of subject specialists.”

“This project followed an earlier three year initiative to develop community policing in Sri Lanka, funded by the Scottish Government.”

The government of South Korea has entered an agreement with Sri Lanka to develop the southern capital of Colombo and adjacent areas as part of a potential $63.2 billion development plan reports adaderana.lk.

The agreement forms part of Sri Lanka’s $63.2 billion plan to develop nine new zones in Colombo and its adjacent areas by 2030.

South Korea’s Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Kang-Ho-in signed a memorandum of understanding with his counter-part from Sri Lanka during a meeting in Seoul on Tuesday.

The Sri Lankan army is currently holding week-long celebrations of the Buddhist holiday Vesak in Jaffna, while the government called on low-key celebrations in the South due to the floods.

Over the past week soldiers could be observed building structures for the festival, before the official opening of the ceremony on Saturday, which started with the reading of Buddhist psalms in Tamil.

The Sri Lankan government has not shown any “genuine willingness to consult the victims” in order to set up a justice mechanism for prosecute for enforced disappearances said the Tamil Civil Society Forum (TCSF) and other Tamil organisations from across the North-East this week.

In a letter addressed to Sri Lanka’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, the 12 organisations and 26 individuals criticised the government’s lack of engagement with victims in setting up an ‘Office for Missing Persons’ (OMP). Stating that the “process to date has been handicapped by inadequate resources and has made very little progress,” the organisations said:

“We categorically state that an OMP that is designed without proper consultation with the victims and their communities would be unacceptable”.

“The Government despite repeated requests has also refused to engage with victims who are abroad in the consultation exercise,” it added.

A Sri Lankan army commander has failed to show up in court this week, where he was ordered to submit a list of surrendered Tamils that his unit had allegedly kept from the final stages of the armed conflict in 2009.

The General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the 58th Division of the Sri Lanka Army, Major General Chanakya Gunawardena, was ordered by the Mullaitivu magistrate to submit a list of all those that had surrendered, after an army brigadier testified the military had kept a list earlier this year. Amongst those to have surrendered is the husband of Northern Provincial Council member Ananthy Sasitharan, a political leader in the LTTE.

After failing to submit a list last month, the commander failed to show in court at all this week. The commander’s advocate was not present either.

Puthuvai Ratnathurai is an Eelam Tamil Revoluntary Poet. He was in charge of the Tamil Eelam Arts and Cultural Guild. 

Mr Rathnathuai was last seen in the custody of the Sri Lankan military on 18 May 2009 in Mullivaikkal and to date his fate is not known. 

He has written hundreds of poems. Here we publish just one such poem, originally written in Tamil and translated into English by the late Chelva Kanaganayakam.

Flooding in Jaffna this week

Heavy rain and flooding battered the Tamil North-East this week, following torrential rains across much of the region.

Floods have hit Kilinochchi and Jaffna, affecting hundreds of families in the Tamil North-East, who have had to abandon their homes.

Meanwhile more than 68 people have died from lightning strikes, drowning, falling trees and landslides triggered by the rains in the south, according to government updates. Hundreds of thousands have also left their homes as torrential rains continued.

Flooding in Kilinochchi this week