Sri Lanka signed six agreements with Pakistan on Monday, aimed at increasing bilateral cooperation. The agreements were signed by Pakistan's prime minister, Nawaz Sharif and the Sri Lankan president, Maithripala Sirisena, who is currently in Islamabad on a three day state visit.
Highlighting that the former ruling coalition and opposition parties were now both in the new government, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) said that it was the largest party in parliament outside of government, on Sunday. “The UPFA is part of the government now. So we are the largest party in the opposition,” the TNA leader R Sampanthan, told journalists. The United National Party (UNP) and the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) had jointly formed the new government meant that with 13 MPs, the TNA was the opposition party with the greatest number of members, said the TNA leader.
Sri Lanka's prime minister, Ranil Wickremasinghe, was criticised by members of the Northern Provincial Council for dismissing the chief minister, C. V. Wigneswaran during a recent three day visit to the North. Speaking to the New Indian Express on Sunday, a member of the NPC said: “This is an affront to the elected provincial council. He has devalued the NPC and the office of CM."
The chief minister of Tamil Nadu, O Panneerselvam, urged the Indian prime minister to ensure a "firm, clear, unequivocal and unambiguous" response to Sri Lanka's recent arrest of 37 fishermen, reports The Hindu . In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday, Mr Paneerselvam wrote: “It is unfortunate that this incident has taken place immediately after the third round of fishermen-level talks which were held at Chennai on March 24."
Photograph Tamilwin The body of a Vanni school girl who was gang-raped and died on February 27 was exhumed on Monday, as sent for a post-mortem in Colombo, reports Colombo Mirror .
Photograph Tamil Guardian The chief minister of the Northern province, C V Wigneswaran, told the visiting Australian High Commissioner, Robyn Mudie on Monday that the change in government in Sri Lanka had failed to produce the changes that the Tamils' had expected. "The ground situation post regime change and issues which were expected to take place after the change of government, but have failed to take place were discussed," Mr Wigneswaran said, speaking to journalists afterwards. “She asked me what kind of advantages and disadvantages had the political change brought among the people," Mr Wigneswaran continued . “The change of government has not given us anything we had anticipated," he reportedly replied.
Japanese Maritime Self Defence Force (JMSDF) ships docked in Colombo last week, where they were welcomed by the Sri Lankan navy.
The Sri Lankan army was in the Kanapathypillai school of Navakkadu in Jaffna on March 26, to donate an electric water pump.
Sri Lankan navy officers and Buddhist monks held a religious ceremony in Nainativu, where the extension of a Buddhist temple was officially declared open last week. The “alms hall” of the Purana Rajamaha Viharaya, situated in the Jaffna peninsula islet, was declared open on the Buddhist Bak Full Moon Poya Day. According to the Sri Lankan navy, construction of the hall was carried out by “civil engineering personnel of the SLN”. The Sri Lankan navy continued to say the construction, “fulfils (sic) a long-felt need of the historic temple and enables devotees to offer alms to the Maha Sangha at a spacious building, which is equipped with all facilities required for the purpose.”
Talks were held in Singapore this weekend between Tamil and Sri Lankan groups on promoting reconciliation and strengthening democracy in Sri Lanka. The meeting was organised by the government of Switzerland and the In Transformation Initiative (ITI) and held between April 3 and 5. "As part of an on-going dialogue process towards promoting reconciliation and strengthening of democracy in Sri Lanka, the Government of Switzerland and the In Transformation Initiative (ITI) from South Africa, invited a group of political, civil society, academic, diaspora and other international stakeholders including an observer from the Government of Australia to a meeting in Singapore from 3 to 5 April 2015," the ITI said in a statement released on Sunday. The meeting is believed to have included representatives of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), officials from the Sri Lankan government, and Tamil diaspora groups, including the Global Tamil Forum (GTF) and all its key member groups. The GTF's current member organisations are Canadian Tamil Congress (CTC), Australian Tamil Congress (ATC), Norwegian Council of Eelam Tamils (NCET), Swedish Tamil Forum (STF), Malaysian Tamils and the US Tamil Political Action Council (USTPAC).