"Respect for basic rights and liberties has declined in Sri Lanka in the four years since the government defeated the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). This week marks the fourth anniversary of the brutal civil war's end."

"Publications − including electronic media − that are critical of the government have been subject to government censorship, and some have been forced to close down. The leading Tamil opposition newspaper, Uthayan, has faced repeated physical attacks against its journalists and property."

"Tamils with alleged links to the LTTE remain targets of arbitrary arrest and detention, and are at risk of torture and other ill-treatment. Sri Lankan security forces have used rape and other forms of sexual violence against alleged LTTE supporters, as documented by Human Rights Watch in a February report. On the strength of the evidence presented by Human Rights Watch and other organizations, since 2012 several courts in the United Kingdom suspended the deportation of Tamils considered to fall within this risk category."

Jayasuriya further added that the LLRC reported no deliberate targeting of civilians by the army during the war and praised the army’s role in developing the country as “peacetime troops”.

Speaking on a state-run radio station, the Sri Lankan Army Commander defended criticisms, claiming that only three army camps were currently present in the Jaffna Peninsula and added that “foreigners have no right to decide where the army camps of this country should be maintained”.

Over 500 Australian Tamils gathered in Melbourne on Saturday to remember the victims of the Mullivaikkal massacre, 4 years on.

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Updated 09:00 GMT

Over 100 Tamils gathered in Stockholm to mark the 4th anniversary of the Mullivaikal massacre on Saturday.

"This week we join our friends in Canada’s Tamil-Canadian community in observing the fourth anniversary of the end of the decades-long civil war in Sri Lanka."