The Sri Lankan government has begun to appropriate over 400 acres of land belonging to Tamil families in Veerapuram, Vavuniya, and transferring it to Sinhala families from Ulukullam, reports Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian, Sivasakthi Anandan.

Australia's Immigration Minister Brendan O'Connorhas once again reiterated his country's support for Sri Lanka hosting the Commonwealth Heads Of Government Meeting in Colombo later this year, whilst visiting the island.

The Minister also stated that Australia had made it "very, very clear" that Sri Lanka had to do more to pursue reconciliation, as the summit approaches.

He told reporters in Colombo,

The Sri Lankan High Commissioner to Canada has slammed the Canadian government's threat to boycott the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Sri Lanka later this year, accusing Canada was strengthening "evil forces".

In a statement published on Thursday, the High Commissioner, Chitranganee Wagiswara, said it was “appalling and unprecedented for certain quarters to express views," that went against a decision made by the heads of state on who would host the upcoming event.

Brendan O'Connor, the Australian Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, reported commended the Sri Lankan Navy for their efforts in preventing those seeking asylum from fleeing from the country, according to government sources.

O’Connor is currently visiting Sri Lanka and held talks with Commander of the Sri Lanka Navy, Vice Admiral Jayanath Colombage, with the Sri Lankan Navy website reporting,

A workshop for media in Sri Lanka was held by the government to mark World Press Freedom Day, under the title “Patriotism and the role of media”.

Minister of Mass Media and Information Keheliya Rambukwella said at the event that Sri Lanka’s media has to act responsibly and with self-constraint.

Marking World Press Day, the Jaffna Press Club called for action to stop the on-going "violence unleashed again on the media in the Northern part of Sri Lanka".

In a statement released on Friday, the JPC called on the international community and Sri Lanka, 

1) To create an environment conducive to journalists and media personnel;

2) For perpetrators of violence against journalists, media personnel and media  establishments to be brought to justice;

The Sri Lankan state’s forcible appropriation of Tamil-owned land and property has escalated in recent weeks. The state’s de-facto seizure of vast tracts of residential land, plantations and farms, occupied and enclosed in ‘high security zones’ during the war by the military, has been ‘legalised’ by new decrees. However, instead of dousing Tamil resistance to Sinhala hegemony, it will have precisely the opposite effect, galvanising anew Tamil hostility to the state and the Sinhalese. The forcible appropriation of land and property brings home to the majority of Tamil families the force of Sinhala oppression today, and fuels the thirst for Tamil Eelam, in ways abstract nationalist appeals cannot.

Sri Lanka has rejected a US grant of US$ 3.5 million aimed at judicial reform stating that the grant's conditions would impact on Sri Lanka's sovereignty.

Speaking to the New Indian Express on Wednesday, Sri Lanka's Justice Minister, Rauff Hakeem said:

“The grant’s conditionalities were incompatible with our status as a sovereign country,”

The leader of the new political front - 'Unity of Diversity', Asath Salley, has been arrested by Sri Lanka's CID (Criminal Investigations Department).

Sally, who was also the former Deputy Mayor of the Colombo Municipal Council and the founder of the Muslim Tamil National Alliance, was arrested at his home in Kolonnawa.

According to the police spokesperson, Buddhika Siriwardena the arrest was made following 'several complaints' made against him.

Writing in the BBC, Alan Strathern, a fellow in History at Brasenose College, Oxford,has explored the relationshi between Buddhist monks and violence, in light of attacks on Muslims by Buddhists in Burma and Sri Lanka.

Strathern is also the author of ‘Kingship and Conversion in Sixteenth-Century Sri Lanka: Portuguese Imperialism in a Buddhist Land’.

Extracts from his piece have been reproduced below. See the full piece here.

“But however any religion starts out, sooner or later it enters into a Faustian pact with state power. Buddhist monks looked to kings, the ultimate wielders of violence, for the support, patronage and order that only they could provide. Kings looked to monks to provide the popular legitimacy that only such a high moral vision can confer.”

“The result can seem ironic. If you have a strong sense of the overriding moral superiority of your worldview, then the need to protect and advance it can seem the most important duty of all.”

“One of the most famous kings in Sri Lankan history is Dutugamanu, whose unification of the island in the 2nd Century BC is related in an important chronicle, the Mahavamsa.”

“It says that he placed a Buddhist relic in his spear and took 500 monks with him along to war against a non-Buddhist king. He destroyed his opponents. After the bloodshed, some enlightened ones consoled him: "The slain were like animals; you will make the Buddha's faith shine."”