A new draft resolution on Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council has faced criticism for dropping explicit calls for foreign judges and instead endorses a domestic judicial mechanism backed by Colombo, despite repeated rejections by the Sri Lankan government of any international involvement in accountability.

Sri Lanka’s Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa this week denounced Israel’s assault on Gaza as a “genocide against the Palestinian people,” even as he continues to embrace Sri Lankan military commanders who conducted atrocities against Tamils during the final stages of the armed conflict.

Sri Lanka’s former president and accused war criminal Mahinda Rajapaksa returned to his family residence in Tangalle today, after being forced to vacate his luxury state-funded mansion in Colombo under new legislation scrapping benefits for former heads of state.

Indian officials held talks in Jaffna last week on the long-delayed development of Point Pedro harbour, pledging financial assistance for the project that has repeatedly failed to materialise in the Tamil homeland.

A group of 16 Sri Lankan journalists has been flown to Israel on a five-day study programme arranged by the Israeli Embassy in New Delhi, in what critics have described as a propaganda exercise to whitewash Tel Aviv’s assault on Gaza.

The Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK) has condemned Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath’s address at the UN Human Rights Council this week, accusing Colombo of failing to deliver on promises of accountability, reconciliation and devolution, more than a year after Anura Kumara Dissanayake came to power.

India delivered its statement on Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday, where it once again stressed its support for Tamil aspirations of “equality, justice, dignity and peace”, but only within what it described as the island’s “unity, territorial integrity and sovereignty.”

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk delivered his report on Sri Lanka to the 60th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday, where he urged Colombo to take “decisive action” on accountability and reforms but stopped short of calling for a fully international accountability mechanism, despite decades of impunity.

Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath addressed the 60th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday, where he insisted that accountability for mass atrocities would only be pursued through domestic processes, once again rejecting longstanding calls for international accountability for the Tamil genocide.

Sri Lanka’s former president and credibly accused war criminal Mahinda Rajapaksa is searching for a new residence in Colombo after parliament voted overwhelmingly to strip former heads of state of their state-funded perks, including official housing.

The second phase of excavations at the Chemmani–Sindhubathi mass grave in Jaffna has concluded, revealing at least 240 human skeletons, including the remains of children, infants, and bodies found in overlapping positions, in one of the island’s largest ever mass graves.

A former member of the Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) has said the paramilitary group was behind a series of murders across the North-East and Colombo, including those of journalist Atputharajah Nadarajah, attorney-at-law Maheswari, and Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation employee K. S. Raja.

US Congress members Raja Krishnamoorthi and Deborah Ross have expressed their support for an independent investigation into the Chemmani mass grave, where 240 skeletal remains have been identified. 

A new report 'Killing Sri Lankan journalists: The Case of Nimalarajan Mylvaganam' co-authored by the International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP) and REDRESS, highlights the failures of Sri Lanka's police in investigating the 2000 murder of Tamil journalist Nimalarajan Mylvaganam.