“We have a big challenge in March. We are ready to face any challenge,”

“We will neither betray the nation nor our gallant troops.”

The Inter University Students’ Union has complained that the government spent more money on the Kotelawala Defence University (KDU), than on all other universities combined, reported ColomboPage earlier this month.

IUSF Convener, Sanjeeva Bandara explained that the government has allocated Rs10.144bn to state universities while allocating Rs17.311bn to the KDU this year.

The United States has announced it is supporting the Bar Association of Sri Lanka’s program entitled “Civil Society Initiatives to Support the Rule of Law”, signing a Memorandum of Understanding at the US Embassy in Colombo on Thursday.

The sponsorship, through US Agency for International Development, will see support for the three-year program, which will “foster further linkages between the Sri Lanka Bar and U.S. state bar association” according to an embassy press release.

"This grave has grown-up people and children, and there are some holes in the skulls believed to be from gunshots,"

"We don't know who killed these people. This is an area that was held by army for a long time. Wherever there has been LTTE or army camps, we must dig."

"We hope that you will use your influence to persuade [Sri Lanka's] President Jayewardene to give a positive lead by making constructive suggestions at the All Parties Conference.

"Military aid and anti-insurgency assistance are not enough to overcome a political crisis which has to be faced and resolved."

The Ravana Balaya, an organisation made up of Buddhist monks, has called for the arrest of Tamil clergymen who provided ‘false information’ about war crimes to the visiting US ambassador-at-large for war crimes, Stephen Rapp.

Canadian Member of Parliament Rathika Sitsabaiesan has stated that she was trailed and privately interrogated by Sri Lankan authorities, during a recent trip to her place of birth in the Tamil North-East of the island.

In her first interview since her arrival back in Canada, Sitsabaiesan told The Star how motorbikes followed her whilst she visited various places across the North-East, and on one occasion, three men took her into a room by herself, interrogating her on details of people she had been meeting during her trip.

Initially, as Sitsabaiesan began to realise her movements were being tracked, she said,

“And then the next day it happened, and we were like ‘Oh, this is a constant thing.’ And then outside my hotel, they would just hang out and give word when I left.”

She went on to tell The Star of how whilst visiting an orphanage, she was informed that the Sri Lankan authorities had arrived and with an apparent warrant for her arrest.