The Indian Supreme Court has heard that retrieving the small island of Katchatheevu from Sri Lanka will impossible, reported the Times of India . "The island was given to Sri Lanka on the basis of a bilateral agreement in 1974. To retrieve it now, we have to go to war," attorney general Mukul Rohatgi told the court. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa and opposition leader M Karunanidhi are presenting petitions to the Supreme Court next week, calling for a retrieval of the uninhabited island in the Palk Strait. Tamil Nadu’s assembly some years ago unanimously passed a resolution moved by Jayalalithaa, calling on the government of India to take “immediate steps to retrieve Katchatheevu Island ceded in 1970 to Sri Lanka". Katchatheevu has been used by fishermen of both countries for decades, however Tamil Nadu fishermen are routinely arrested and harassed by the Sri Lankan Navy.
Locals in Trincomalee district clashed with police after government officials attempted to survey land in Trincomalee, Pulmoddai and Arisimalai. A 54 year old local man, Abookkar, was admitted to Pulmoddai hospital with injuries. Locals rushed to the scene in protest, when s urveyors arrived Tuesday morning at 8.30am escorted by armed police, Batticaloa News reports. The locals, who said they were displaced from their homes and currently staying at relatives' houses in Pulmoddai, demanded that the land surveying be halted, stating that it was being done to divide the villages of Ponmalaikuda, Veerantheevu and Theththavadi.
Sri Lankan police arrested two Indian citizens Tuesday for allegedly recording and possessing photographs and video footage of Parliament and the Prime Minister's residence, reports PTI . The men, who have not been identified, were arrested on a tipoff whilst travelling in a three wheeler taxi in Colombo, the police spokesperson SSP Ajith Rohana said. According to the Sri Lankan paper, News First , Rohana added that the two men were from Chennai.
Sri Lanka's missions in Europe met with the External Affairs Minister GL Peiris this week, to review progress and discuss "initiatives to counter campaigns against the country, using human rights and other issues as political tools", Colombo Page reports. The meeting included Sri Lanka's ambassadors in France, Germany and Italy, as well as the country's Permanent Representative at the United Nations in Geneva, Ravinatha Aryasinha. Making suggestions regarding a "coordinated strategy", the envoys reportedly gave "perspectives of special relevance to the countries in which they are serving".
The Sri Lankan government announced the opening of a new police station in Nilaveli, Trincomalee this week, reports ColomboPage . The 436 Police station was built on two acres of land in the Eastern Province at a cost of Rs. 12.1 million. Sri Lanka Police Media Spokesperson SSP Ajith Rohana commented, “This Police Station was built to start a civil control through establishing law and order that was disrupted in the North and East area, while specially providing facilities needed by the people of the North and East."
The Indian government has announced the funding of two major development projects in Jaffna, worth a total of Rs. 365 million. A grant of Rs. 145 million has been allocated towards renovation of the Duraiappah Stadium, with another Rs. 220 million granted to set up the Atchchuvely Industrial Estate. Indian High Commissioner Y. K. Sinha said the Industrial Estate “is expected to attract potential investors, from within and outside Sri Lanka” with access to the area increased once the Northern Railway Project, also financed by India, is completed. The rail project is scheduled to be completed in September 2015.
UN Human Rights Commissioner, Navi Pillay, has said that she remains unfazed by derogatory remarks and accusations made against her by Sri Lankan officials. Speaking to CNN just days before the end of her term, Ms Pillay said that she was not disturbed by criticism from Sri Lanka, calling her a "Tamil Tigress", nor from other countries such as Israel which has attacked her for her stance on Gaza. "I am supremely confident that I speak with moral authority," t he High Commissioner told CNN's Christiane Amanpour when asked about such remarks.
A class action case is being brought against the Australian government citing inadequate provision of healthcare for asylum seekers detained on Christmas Island. The case has been filed with a six year old asylum seeker as the main plaintiff, at Victoria's Supreme Court. "It seeks compensation for injuries as well as Court orders that the government and the Minister for Immigration provide the medical care that injured asylum seekers require," the law firm Maurice Blackburn, said in a statement . Many Tamils from the North-East of Sri Lanka are being detained on Christmas Island, after fleeing the country by boat.
Six key human rights groups have urged the President of the UN Human Rights Council to condemn Sri Lanka's ongoing intimidation and harassment of rights activists who work with the UN body. In a joint letter published Monday, the NGOs - Amnesty International, Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA), CIVICUS World Alliance for Citizen Participation, International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), International Movement Against Discrimination and All Form of Racism (IMADR) and International Service for Human Rights (ISHR) - called on the UNHRC president "to take the meaningful steps necessary to protect human rights defenders and other individuals from intimidation and reprisals in connection with their cooperation with the UN." "The UN Human Rights Council also has a responsibility to protect those who engage with it from intimidation and reprisals. In this regard, we call on the Council, through its President, to condemn the systematic reprisals faced by Sri Lankan human rights defenders and other individuals as well as to remind Sri Lanka of its obligation to ensure that all persons can exercise their right to free and unhindered access to UN human rights mechanisms," the groups said.
Pope Francis will visit the Shrine of Our Lady of Madhu in Mannar during his upcoming trip to the the island of Sri Lanka, the Vatican Insider reports. Earlier this year, the Tamil civil society groups, called on the Pope to visit the Tamil areas in the North and East, in order to view the ongoing plight of the Tamil people. “We are confident that Your Holiness will appreciate, following your visit to Sri Lanka, that Sri Lanka is not merely lacking in ‘reconciliation’ but that the problem is far worse than that - as we have tried to describe above, the problem is one of consolidating an ethnocratic state. Your Holiness will no doubt recall that it is this ethnocratic project that led the Tamil people to take up arms against the Sri Lankan state," the Tamil Civil Society Forum wrote in a letter to Pope Francis. See here .