Sri Lanka has said it is committed to implement the recommendations of the LLRC, despite the ‘setback’ of the resolution on Sri Lanka which passed in March.

Speaking at the 20th UN Human Rights Council Session in Geneva, Sri Lanka’s representative Manisha Gunasekera claimed some of the recommendations were already being implemented.

"Within the country, women and children are subjected to sex trafficking in brothels. Boys are more likely than girls to be forced into prostitution in coastal areas for domestic child sex tourism."

"Internally-displaced persons, war widows, and unregistered female migrants remained particularly vulnerable to human trafficking."

"Government employees’ complicity in trafficking remained a problem. There were allegations that police and other officials accepted bribes to permit brothels to operate; some of the brothels exploited trafficking victims.

Many recruitment agencies were run by politicians or were politically connected. Some sub-agents cooperated with Sri Lankan officials to procure forged or modified documents, or real documents with false data, to facilitate travel abroad. There were no reported law enforcement actions taken against officials complicit in human trafficking."

Amnesty International have asked the UN Human Rights Council to call on Sri Lanka to implement measures to protect human rights and to be prepared to take independent action if Sri Lanka fails to deliver justice to victims of human rights violations.

The Sri Lankan stock exchange is the fourth worst performing bourse in the world, according to a US investment group.

Bespoke Investment Group’s analysis showed the Colombo Stock Exchange’s All Share Price Index, is down by 18.95% on a year to year basis, just ahead of struggling European economies, Spain, Greece and the Ukraine.

Photograph: TamilNet

A large scale protest by Tamil activists in Jaffna against the expropriation of private land by the government, held in front of Jaffna Bus Stand, was blocked by Sri Lankan police on Monday, reports TamilNet.

See here.

Having alleged the protest contained "destructive elements", the Sri Lankan police cited 'legal permission' from a District Court judge to block the protest at the final moment.

Critising the Metropolitan Police for doing "nothing to control or prevent the protest" against Mahinda Rajapaksa, Sri Lanka's Cabinet spokesperson and Media Minister, Keheliya Rambukwella, said this week:

Spokesperson for the Global Tamil Forum (GTF), Suren Surendiran, slammed the Parliamentary Select Committee as "delaying tactics", and the government's 'reconcilatory efforts' as disingenuous, in an interview with Shamindra Ferdinando of the pro-government newspaper, The Island. Mr Ferdinando was part of the Sri Lankan government's official delegation to the 19th Session of the UN Human Rights Council earlier this year.

See interview in full here.

Extracts reproduced below:

Q: Did the GTF and the BTF pressure former UK Foreign Secretary, David Miliband to rush to Colombo in April 2009 in a bid to persuade President Rajapaksa to halt the offensive? Miliband is on record as having told the US mission in London (according to Wiki Leaks) how he spent 60 per cent of his time on the SL issue, because of impending parliamentary polls.

A: Like I said before, the GTF came into being only after the end of the war. However, the answer to your question is yes, we did pressure the then British government as members of the BTF and the Diaspora community with loved ones caught up in the so called ‘no fire’ zone. It didn’t take too much of persuasion for Mr David Miliband or for other world leaders to see what was happening as reports and evidence of massacres and carnage were coming out regularly. It is a shame that there was a deafening silence from communities in the country outside the war zone and from local journalists who kept numb without reporting independently.

Regarding WikiLeaks - it is interesting isn’t it that in the same token of reporting what Mr Miliband had said or otherwise, it also reports that President Rajapaksa and the brothers were responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity.