The Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) has claimed the lives of many Tamil youths, while war criminals in Sri Lanka walk free, a Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP has said.

Speaking in Parliament last week, Amparai district representative K Kodeeswaran said it was unjust that Tamil political prisoners were still wasting away in detention while war criminals were being promoted into high positions in Sri Lanka.

The Sri Lankan army, occupying the Mulliyavalai thuyilum illam (LTTE cemetery) in Mullaitivu, has started selling cement bricks, angering residents who say that the army has involved itself in every small-scale commercial activity in the district, undercutting local traders.

Adverts for the business appeared outside the 59th division camp this week with a telephone order service.

Tamils in Batticaloa observed a hartal, a business-strike, in protest of the appointment of former UPFA MP M. L. A. M. Hizbullah as governor of the Eastern Province.

Sri Lanka’s prime minister told his parliament that Colombo faces its highest ever loan installment payment next week, as debts for the government continue to climb.

Ranil Wickremesinghe stated that a payment of US$ 2.6 billion is due on Monday, despite the government’s foreign reserves coming down to US$ 6.9 billion.

Regime change in Sri Lanka has made “no difference in delivering justice and reparation to the victims of war crimes and genocide” said a group of Tamil diaspora organisations this week, in a call for an establishment of an international criminal tribunal.

The head of Sri Lanka’s notorious 58 Division, an army unit that committed grave violations of international law during a military offensive that killed tens of thousands of Tamils, has been named as the army’s new Chief of Staff.

Shavendra Silva assumed office this week after a controversial appointment to second-in-command of the army, a move that has sparked widespread condemnation. 

He marked taking up his post by giving offerings to Buddhist monks.

Sri Lanka’s president praised the “experience and leadership” of Shavendra Silva, the military’s latest chief of staff and commander who led an army unit accused of committing grave crimes against humanity, in an offensive that killed tens of thousands of Tamils.

Sri Lanka's state minister of defence, Ruwan Wijewardene yesterday denied the numerous credible reports of the military's use of cluster bombs and chemical weapons against Tamils during the final stages of the armed conflict in 2009, and rejected the need for an international investigation into the matter. 

“We are capable of conducting our own probe into allegations such as these, but there is no such need,” Wijewardene told parliament. 

The killing of eleven Tamils by Sri Lankan police officers at the 1974 World Tamil Research Conference in Jaffna was remembered today. 

Residents and former members of the Northern Provincial Council gathered 45 years on by the memorial in Jaffna town, erected in memory of the victims of the massacre.