Senior Sinhala Buddhist monk Omalpe Sobitha has called for Sri Lanka to withdraw from the Commonwealth in retaliation to the newly elected British Prime Minister’s call for reconciliation and accountability in Sri Lanka. 

A Tamil man from Mannar has been reported missing by his family this week.

Thirty-year-old Antonis Nimal who is employed as an outreach officer at the Nanattan divisional council was last seen leaving for work on Saturday morning.

The Swiss government has criticised Sri Lanka for a lack of due process following the arrest of one of its embassy employees in Colombo, after she claimed to have been abducted in the southern capital last month.

“Switzerland wishes to emphasise that in this high-profile case Sri Lanka's reputation as a country that upholds the rule of law is at stake,” said a Swiss government statement.

Sri Lanka’s president Gotabaya Rajapaksa met with Switzerland’s ambassador to Colombo this week, where he told him that the alleged abduction of a Swiss embassy employee last month was “a total fabrication”.

The head of a Sinhala nationalist organisation has demanded that former Chief Minister of the Northern Province C V Wigneswaran is arrested by Sri Lankan police after he said it was wrong to call Sri Lankan a Buddhist country last week.

Dan Priyasad, head of the Nawa Sinhale National Movement, filed an official complaint at Sri Lanka’s Police Headquarters and the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) demanding the senior Tamil politician be arrested.

Streets in Jaffna were decorated with street art this week, showcasing various aspects of the city’s Eelam Tamil culture.

Walls in streets through the city centre were emblazoned with images depicting the history of the city.

The Committee for International Solidarity, made up of 14 different organisations from nations around the globe, held a rally in Basel this weekend expressing solidarity with oppressed peoples around the world.

Marching through the centre of Basel, Tamil groups joined Kurds, Catalans, Basques, South American groups and with Swiss left organisations. The rally aimed not only to highlight the solidarity amongst the groups, but also to showcase resistance to oppressive policies of the Swiss state in supporting repressive regimes around the world.

A Tamil family of four from Biloela, who were detained last year by Australian authorities and sent to detention on Christmas Island, will be spending their second Christmas there.

They will await the verdict of their ongoing battle against to gain asylum, at a Federal court hearing in February. The family will remain in detention until the case concludes, with a two day hearing expected around mid-to-late February, with the final date to be confirmed. 

Sri Lankan authorities have arrested a Swiss embassy employee who was allegedly abducted and molested at gunpoint last month, according to the latest media reports from Colombo.

The woman, who the Sri Lankan government prevented from leaving to receive medical treatment in Switzerland, had been interviewed several times by Sri Lanka’s Criminal Investigation Department this week. She was also reported to have undergone a psychiatric examination.

Sri Lanka’s prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa slammed attempts at holding the military accountable for war crimes through United Nations resolutions as a humiliation, as he vowed to use “whatever means necessary” to defeat “terrorism”.

Memorials were held across the North-East for Anton Balasingham, chief negotiator and political strategist of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), on the thirteenth anniversary of his death on Saturday.

Sri Lankan authorities have arrested a man who had admitted to being the driver of a ‘white van’ squad that murdered people and fed bodies to crocodiles, as well as another who claimed to have been the victim in a press conference last month.

Sri Lankan President, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, met with officials from the Ministry of Power and Energy to discuss issues within the energy sector.

During this meeting, Rajapaksa emphasised the importance of attracting foreign invading into the country to meet increasing energy demands. 

Japan’s Foreign Minister, Toshimitsu Motegi, met with Sri Lankan President, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, to reaffirm their bilateral relationships and commitment to key areas of cooperation despite human rights concerns.