The US embassy in Colombo has expressed “grave concern” about the intimidation by Sri Lankan security forces of journalists, covering the court proceedings related to the gang rape of an 11-year old Tamil school girl by Sri Lankan Navy personnel in Jaffna.

In a statement released on Monday, the embassy also said it was deeply concerned about the cancellation of a training session for Tamil journalists, which was financially supported by the US embassy, after protests hit the venue in Colombo.

The US said that “well-organised protestors” disrupted the third such event since May, threatening to harm the participants, and accused the Sri Lankan police of not providing security to the threatened journalists, or taking action against the groups making the threats, despite their presence during the incidents.

Photograph CIMICJaffna.lk

A football coaching camp for Tamil youths and schoolchildren was held by the Sri Lankan Army in Jaffna.

Coordinated by the Commander of the 533 Brigade Colonel Vijith Subasinghe and the president of the Sri Lankan Football Federation Ranjith Rodrigo, the three day camp in the Duraiyappa Stadium saw participation by coaches and players from the US-based Soccer Outreach Association, Pennsylvania.

The Indian government has told Sri Lanka that it needs to find a solution to the Tamil political question in order to make progress in trade between the two countries.

The spokesperson of Sri Lanka’s police force, Ajith Rohana has denied that a group of Tamil journalists travelling to a workshop in Colombo were detained and said that only their vehicle was taken into custody.

Rohana said the police was not aware that the people travelling in the van were journalists and that they were stopped due to a tip-off that the vehicle was smuggling heroin, reported Colombo Page on Sunday.

Brigadier Ruwan Wanigasooriya, spokesperson for the Sri Lankan army also dismissed the journalists' account that the military planted the drugs during the stop.

“When an alleged party to crimes is involved in the decision making process of choosing the investigators or the counsel of advisors and their terms of reference for the investigation, that may not be impartial.”

"The question is why the government took all this time to do that.
Previously under several occasions the government appointed commissions and international experts to overlook investigations but none was implemented successfully."

"With regard to Udalagama Commission, the government did not let the experts to overlook the investigations and act independently. We have previous examples why we cannot rely on the government. We do not know exactly what is going to happen to this Commission. Therefore we will need to discuss its new mandate."