The Secretary to the Sri Lankan President, Lalith Weeratunge has claimed that the people of Jaffna have made “fervent appeals” to keep the army on the peninsula.

“Many lands have been returned, and ones that are needed for public purposes will be retained. The HSZ has shrunk by almost 60%. Many peace loving residents of Jaffna have made fervent appeals to retain the Armed Forces because of their post conflict welfare activities,” Weeratunga said in a Twitter interview today.

More photos and videos have emerged of the violence in London yesterday, as Sri Lankan cricket fans hurled racist abuse and attacked Tamil activists who were campaigning outside the Oval cricket stadium.

Find full coverage of the event here: Sri Lankan cricket fans attack #BoycottLKA activists in London (18 June 2013)

The video below was sent to Tamil Guardian by an activist, which shows Tamil activists being beaten and dragged into the road by a mob of Sri Lanka cricket fans.

The Sri Lanka fans hurled racist abuse at the Tamils, with police struggling to cope as hundreds more swarmed around the small group of activists.

See more photos of Sri Lanka cricket fans attacking Tamils, as an elderly Tamil man and child take cover on TamilWin here.

The cricket fans were screaming "F*** Tamils!" and "One nation!" as police reinforcements arrived and attempted to herd the Sri Lankan fans away from the Tamils. Bottles and rocks were then launched towards the 20 or so activists, as the Sri Lankan fans continued to chant.

The British Council will hold a global education forum in Colombo, with attendees from several countries coming together to discuss international higher education issues.

“Global education dialogues are organised around the world to bring together key policy-makers and influences so that they can reflect on and debate the challenges and opportunities facing international higher education,” the British Council said in a statement.

University Tamil societies from across the UK have released a statement condemning the racist attacks outside the Oval on Monday.

21 Tamil societies joined together to denounce the attacks and commend the peaceful campaign of the activists, while questioning the lack of response from police forces to assaults.

"We the British Tamil youth are shocked by such racially motivated attacks and the malicious and spiteful slogans such as "F*** Tamils” and other expletives hurled at the peaceful men and women, several of whom sustained injuries from the incident. At this time we commend the Tamil activists caught up in the violence, for remaining steadfast in their purpose as peaceful campaigners even in the face of such violence and abuse."
 

The Secretary of the Ministry of External Affairs, Karunathilake Amunugama said that through the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, the 'correct image of Sri Lanka could be depicted to the international'.

Writing in the Guardian's 'Comment is free' section, Emily Howie - a lawyer with the Human Rights Law Centre and a leebron fellow at Columbia university - said the new 'enhanced screening' is jeopardising Sri Lankan asylum claims, and described Australia's deportation of asylum seekers from Sri Lanka as "reckless".

See here for full opinion. Extract published below:

"Australia's practice of returning Sri Lankans is reckless. Not only does the country turn a blind eye to the harm that the they may face on return, it does so on the basis of a diminished understanding of individuals' claims for asylum and without adequate monitoring back in Sri Lanka."