On May 5-7, 2018, academics from around the world came together to take part in the ‘Second International Conference on Tamil Nationhood and Genocide in Sri Lanka’ at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada.

The Sri Lankan military constructed a children’s park at a Tamil school in Mullaitivu last month, as it continued to consolidate its presence in Tamil schools across the region.

President Mithripala Sirisena met with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on his two day state visit to Iran, reports adaderena.lk.

A series of 5 MoUs have already been signed during the current visit reports Iranian news site mehr.news.

Sirisena is expected to sign new MoU’s with Iran to further strengthen economic and trade ties between the two countries.

The Sri Lankan navy received two main engines for one of its vessels from the Australian government in March, in a move that the military hailed as “strengthening the long standing bilateral relationship” between the two.

Sri Lankan President Mathripala Sirisena again reiterated that soldiers were not being persecuted, saying that he has stopped members of the military from being prosecuted for war crimes.

“I have succeeded in stopping anyone from being tried for war crimes,” Sirisena said, according to PTI.

Responding to former president Rajapaksa’s charges that the Sirisena government was going after soldiers, Sirisena said,

Vigils were held today in Chemmani and Mirusuvil in Jaffna, in Uyilankulam in Mannar, and Mulankavil to mark the first day of Tamil genocide remembrance week in the North-East.

The Office on Missing Persons (OMP) is launching launched a series of regional discussion with families of the disappeared starting in Mannar today, reports adaderena.lk.

The consultations are a vital step in the process to operationalise the functions of the OMP in its search for missing and disappeared persons said the Chairman of the OMP Saliya Peiris in a statement.

Sri Lanka’s central bank intervened as the rupee closed at a record low at the end of last week.

The central bank intervened by selling US dollars to support the currency, reports Reuters.

Officials at Sri Lanka’s central bank were not available for comments. Earlier last week senior deputy governor at Sri Lanka’s central bank Nandalal Weerasinghe said the bank would intervene to smooth high volatility and to support the rupee when necessary.

The Sri Lankan government has introduced the “Single Window Investment Facilitation Taskforce” as a mechanism to coordinate and speed-up the investment approval process, according to EconomyNext.

The taskforce is expected to help investors avoids the delays that are associated with the14 different approvals and licenses needed for project approval. 

See more here.

In an interview with Al Jazeera, former army commander and now minister, Sarath Fonseka, denies the enforced disappearance of hundreds of Tamils at the end of the war.  He told Al Jazeera that such claims are “definitely an exaggerated story.”

In response to the correspondent’s questions regarding the whereabouts of Tamil surrendees, Fonseka stated:

“I don’t know. I can’t visualise how it could have been taking place. During the war and the last two weeks of the war, we had a very good system where we had made a beautiful arrangement with everybody coming and surrendering to security forces. I even went there personally. I am 100% sure. Incidents of this nature never took place […] Just because of some 10, 15 family members come and say that our children were taken… they have gone missing, you can’t take it as gospel truth or something.”