The Sri Lankan government is reported to be hesitating over Japan's US $1 billion loan for the third phase of the Central Expressway project, stating the conditions attached are too severe. 

Families of the disappeared this week expressed fury at the UN Human Rights Council's decision to grant a two year extension to Sri Lanka to implement resolution 30/1. 

Devotees and residents of Neeraviyadi temple in Mullaitivu accused police of partiality over the occupation of the temple by a Buddhist monk. 

Sri Lanka’s president claimed that the government’s representative at the United Nations had co-sponsored a resolution on accountability without his knowledge and claimed that doing so was a betrayal to the military, earlier today.

Maithripala Sirisena claimed Sri Lanka’s UN representative in Geneva committed his government to co-sponsor a resolution at the Human Rights Council without his consent. The Associated Press added that he called the co-sponsorship “akin to betraying the armed forces”.

Tamil refugees who fled Sri Lanka and sought asylum in Tamil Nadu, India have welcomed efforts to grant them citizenship in the country, stating the risk to Tamils continued on the island. 

Sri Lanka, the country that the Lonely Planet declared as the top destination of 2019, is a “holiday paradise is polluted by torture and lies,” wrote Freedom from Torture's policy and advocacy director Steve Crawshaw in The Independent last week.

“This failure to confront, let alone prosecute, past crimes provides the climate in which torture and other abuses continue today,” said Crawshaw. “Torture survivors who have received rehabilitation treatment from Freedom from Torture tell us repeatedly of the importance of seeing those who have committed torture brought to account.”

Sri Lanka's foreign minister, Tilak Marapana today reiterated the goverment's rejection of a hybrid court to provide justice for war crimes as layed out in the UN Human Rights Council resolution, stating instead that any transitional justice process would be "firmly grounded in the constitution and the domestic legal framework". 

A Trincomalee villager in Thennamaravaadi this week reported the illegal encroachment of agricultural land by a Sinhala settler. 

Filing a complaint with Pulmoaddai police, Sithamparanathan said that a Sinhala settler was ploughing the land which belonged to him. 

Police have said they will investigate the matter however, local residents expressed doubt. 

"There have been many cases like this and none of them are resolved," one resident told the Tamil Guardian. 

"The Sri Lankan justice system is not able to stop the majority (Sinhala) people encroaching on our lands," he added. 

The German Foreign Ministry’s report on human rights around the world highlighted Sri Lanka’s continuing military occupation of land in the North-East and lack of accountability for crimes committed during the armed conflict last month.

The report, which examines the period from October 2016 until September 2018, stated that “a judicial accountability mechanism to investigate alleged crimes during the civil war also remained unaddressed”. “The government rejected any international involvement in such a judicial body,” it noted.

Indian troops arrived in Sri Lanka this week, as they prepared to take part in the annual ‘Mitra Shakthi’ military exercise.