Photographs: Tamil Guardian

Jaffna University students, on Monday, protested against violent crackdowns on Tamil students in recent weeks. 

On Saturday, 9 students were attacked by a group of people wielding swords in Jaffna, resulting in 3 students being submitted to hospital. One students hand was amputated as a result of the attack.

The three students, Muralitharan, Rajeepan and Jepradharshan were all admitted to hospital with severe injuries.

Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera said he is “hopeful”, the parliament to be elected later this year, will introduce a new constitution, one which will “meet the aspirations of all the peoples of Sri Lanka”.

Speaking in parliament during a debate on the 19th Amendment, which is due to be voted on later today, the foreign minister said “democracy, rule of law and human rights, reconciliation and ethnic harmony must be the foundation for the new Sri Lanka we all dream about.”

“Whether it is the tensions between the Sinhalese and Tamil communities or the Sinhalese and Muslim communities, eradicating the motivation for terrorism and violence requires us to go beyond dealing with its symptoms. The root causes of ethnic conflict need to be addressed once and for all, constitutionally,” he said.

Sri Lanka has to hold a credible investigation in order to clear the name of the Sri Lankan military, which stands accused of committing mass atrocities against Tamils during the armed conflict, Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera said in parliament today.

The minister said, despite years of aggression and alienation towards the international community, the government has managed to return Sri Lanka to the “centre stage” of international affairs, signified by the announcement of the visit of US Secretary of State John Kerry.

But Mr Samaraweera warned that Sri Lanka must not lose sight of its “national obligations”:

“To refrain from opening up our nation to international ignominy and making ourselves once again vulnerable to intrusive external interventions, we must initiate a credible domestic investigation into allegations of violations of human rights,

“Such developments are important also to clear the name of our armed forces who have received international recognition as a professional and disciplined force,” he said.

The Chinese Chamber of Commerce in Sri Lanka (CCCSL) said that Chinese banks were feeling demotivated to extend loans to Sri Lanka, amidst criticism of Chinese funded loans by Sri Lankan officials.

CCCSL spokesperson Chen Chuan stressed to Xinhua “that it is the Sri Lankan government that submitted applications for loans from Chinese banks and no one forced the Sri Lankan side to apply for loans”.

“Some high ranking official's wrong allegations on interest rates of Chinese loans have damaged the images of Chinese banks in Sri Lanka and demotivated their enthusiasm of offering preferential loans to the country,” added the spokesperson. "We hope that Sri Lankan official concerned will make remarks based on the facts, take the people's well-being as first priority and make joint efforts with the Chinese side to maintain the good environment of China-Sri Lanka pragmatic cooperation."

The Kuragala mosque will be demolished and rebuilt at another location, after long-running protests by Sinhala-Buddhist groups.

Sri Lanka’s Minister of Arts and Culture Nandimitra Ekanayake said Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe appointed a committee to investigate the location, which then established that the mosque sat on a Buddhist archaeological site.

“The committee has assembled on April 21 and discussed with the Muslims of the mosque to relocate the mosque in another place since the report produced by the committee has proved that the mosque had been built in an ancient Buddhist Archaeological site,” the minister said.

The government will provide Rs1mn (£5,000) to rebuild the mosque in another location.