Sri Lanka has appointed its chief of staff of the army, Major General Shavendra Silva as the new colonel of the commando regiment, despite international calls for him to face a trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity. 

The Sri Lankan navy held a series of Buddhist ceremonies in Nainativu this week, as part of elaborate celebrations where Buddhist monks invoked blessings on the military.

Nainativu, a highly militarised island of Jaffna with a large navy presence, has a Buddhist vihara which the navy helped to construct and continues to assist in maintaining.

The Sri Lankan navy has arrested at least four Nigerian men and two locals from Mannar off the Talaimannar coast last Sunday. 

The men were apprehended during a Sri Lankan navy patrol allegedly aimed at curbing people smuggling across the border to India. 

All of the arrested men have since been handed over to the Sri Lankan police. 

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has rejected the Sri Lankan government's claim this week that 90% of land occupied by the military has been released as "not true". 

Sri Lanka's Ministry of Defence is set to receive the largest allocation in this year's budget, despite the armed conflict ending ten years ago. 

The leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), R Sampanthan, has been nominated to Sri Lanka's Constitutional Council, following the resignation of Chamal Rajapaksa.

Officials from the United States embassy in Colombo met with former LTTE members of the Crusaders for Democracy political party on Wednesday. 

State Department official Christina James and political officer, Sean Ruthe met with party members in Jaffna. 

The Sri Lankan government will seek international assistance in training new executioners, reports AFP, as the government gears towards re-implementing the death penalty.

A reported 47 applicants are being interviewed by the government, with Sri Lanka’s president Maithripala Sirisena stating this week that a date had been set to restart the death penalty.

However, the new recruits will need some foreign assistance, according to an official who spoke with AFP.

“Since there is no living person in Sri Lanka who has carried out an execution, we need to send the new recruits abroad for training,” said the official, who asked to remain anonymous.

As India heads towards a general election, the senior AIADMK leader O Paneerselvam on Thursday accused the Congress party, which was in power in May 2009, of being responsible for the genocide of Tamils by the Sri Lankan state. 

Sri Lankan police have summoned the former Northern Provincial Council member, T Ravikaran for an interview on April 7, amid ongoing tensions after Buddhist monks stormed a Tamil festival.