Over 80 Canadian Tamil organisations have come together to create a common position on Eelam Tamil activism, while rejecting the proscription of diaspora organisations and individuals by the Sri Lankan government.

The Tamil Community General Assembly, made up of community and political organisations, unanimously adopted a document, outlining 34 key points regarding Eelam Tamil political activism.

The document called on the international community to recognise Eelam Tamil nationhood, saying that the Sri Lankan government was continuing a “systematic and accelerated process of genocide” in the Tamil homeland and that an internationally supported transitional administration should be implemented to halt the genocide.

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(Pictures: KUTS)

Kingston University Tamil Society held the first ‘Breaking the Silence’ event of 2014 earlier this month.

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(Pictures: KUTS)

Kingston University Tamil Society held the first ‘Breaking the Silence’ event of 2014 earlier this month.

The servicing of public debt soaked up all of Sri Lankan government revenue in 2013, The Sunday Times reported.

That the government is having to borrow to meet its debt repayments is itself increasing the debt burden – even as state revenue is falling, the paper said.

Sri Lanka’s much-vaunted growth in GDP “has been achieved by increasing foreign and domestic debt and cutting developmental expenditure [and thus by] undermining macroeconomic fundamentals,” the paper warned.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) in 2013 fell from the year before to US$ 916 million, mostly in hotels, the paper also said.

A tourist from Britain was arrested at Katunayake Airport for having a tattoo of the Buddha on her hand, reported the Daily Mirror.

Michele Calmon, 37, landed in Sri Lanka this morning and was produced before Negombo Magistrates Court today.

Katunayake Airport police told the magistrate that the tattoo was contrary to Buddhism, who then transferred Calmon to the Mirihana detention camp for immediate extradition.

The Bishop of Mannar Rayappu Joseph has been denied access to visit Tamil political prisoners over Easter, as customary in the Catholic Church, the Uthayan reported.

Bishop Rayappu Joseph who was accompanied by the Bishop of Anuradhapura to visit the Tamil detainees in Anuradhapura prison, received permission for the visit from the ministry responsible for prisons.

"It would be unfair to permit any foreigner to live in the country for long periods, let alone journalists,"

"He has stayed in the country for over five years, and we have granted him a further three-month extension on that visa. Granting him any further extension would be unreasonable."