For months relatives of the forcibly disappeared have been protesting on the streets across the North-East, demanding to know the whereabouts of their loved ones. Despite years, sometimes decades, of various government mechanisms and pledges, their search for answers continues.

In this series of interviews conducted since May 2017, Tamil Guardian goes behind the protest to the individual stories that make up this unyielding movement of Tamil families of the disappeared.

Sri Lanka's National Polls Observation Centre criticised the government's proposed 20th Amendment to the constitution, stating that it could lead to "a pool of blood". 

"The 20th Amendment to the Constitution, that seeks to give parliament the powers of Provincial Councils, when they are dissolved and to decide on the date of the dissolution of Provincial Councils, is undemocratic," National Coordinator of NPOC Rasanga Harischandra was quoted by Ceylon Today as saying. 

"When such undemocratic Bills have been passed, the country has ended up in a pool of blood," he added. 

The UNP MP Thalatha Atukorale has been appointed as Sri Lanka's new justice minister, after Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe was forced to resign over allegations of corruption. 

His portfolio has been divided between Ms Atukorale and Gamini Jayawickrama who has been appointed the new minister of Buddha Sasana. 

Ms Atukorale came into politics in 2004, following the death of her brother, the UNP MP and assistant party leader.

Sri Lanka's State Minister of Skills Development and Vocational Training Palitha Range Bandara was acquitted on Friday by Colombo's High Court. 

Mr Bandara had been charged with fraud along side a businessman Nalinda Jagath Kumara Liyanage who were accused of 'aiding and abetting to present a vehicle registration permit for an illegally assembled vehicle', Colombo Page reported. 

Six people have been arrested today after two Sri Lankan soldiers were attacked in Kilinochchi on Thursday night.  

The soldiers from the Murugandi Army base were reportedly attacked by a group of youths near the Oottrupulam market by a sharp object.

Local sources said the soldiers were Tamil and were on leave in their hometown of Oottrupulam.

Members of the Northern Provincial Council held an awareness protest at the Council's sitting today, calling for the release of Tamil political prisoners. 

The Asian Development Bank pledged to allocate up to US $5 billion over the next five years in efforts to move Sri Lanka to an upper middle income country reports sundaytimes.lk.

The bank’s Country Director Sri Widowati told press that the assistance would aim to strengthen drivers of growth and improve the quality Sri Lanka’s growth.

A senior economist at the ADB Tadateru Hayashi said,

“We feel that the basic infrastructures is developed and the road density is the best in South Asia.”

The chief minister of the Northern Province, C V Wigneswaran said on Thursday that the NPC would not back the proposed 20th Amendment to Sri Lanka's constitution. 

He said the amendment was aimed at concentrating Provincial Council powers within the parliament.

The amendment which aims to hold all the Provincial Council elections on the same day was last month approved by the Cabinet and tabled in parliament on Wednesday. It would be discussed by the NPC on September 4th, the chief minister said.

The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) on Thursday called on the Sri Lankan government to "swiftly operationalise" the Office on Missing Persons.

The statement which came on the one year anniversary of the enactment of the OMP bill said, the ICJ "also urged the Government to set up other transitional justice mechanisms it committed to in the context of a key 2015 UN Human Rights Council resolution, without further delay." 

The ICJ said: 

Sri Lanka's new navy commander said "the navy uniform is not a license to kill, steal or commit any other crime", stating that those found guilty of commiting a crime would be punished. 

"No one will be pardoned if someone within the Navy is found guilty of any crime even if the person is a war hero," he was quoted by Colombo Page as saying. 

"A war hero cannot be a murderer but no naval personnel will be allowed to go free if found guilty," he reportedly added.