A Catholic priest of the Guadalupe Church in Trincomalee was threatened by unidentifiable Sinhalese individuals claiming to be 'intelligence officers' on the night before Maaveerar Naal, 26th November 2013.

Rev. Fr. Johnpillai was grabbed and had a gun pointed at his head by assailants who accused him and Catholic priests in Jaffna, Mannar and Trincomalee as being 'pro-LTTE' and as leading the Tamil people 'astray'.

The problem? He had held mass as usual on Nov 26, and thus 'honoured' LTTE leader Prabhakaran's birthday.

See our earlier post: Letter to UN from NE Sri Lanka Clergy (Feb 2013)

Rev. Fr. Johnpillai's account of Tuesday's attack follows:

Sri Lanka, in a new twist to prove its commitment to justice and accountability has announced that a 'census' counting all those killed in the civil war.

P. B. Abeykoon, reportedly the top civil servant in the ministry of public administration who will supervise the census declared that "the government has nothing to hide".

Another official of the census department said:

'If Only Sharukh Khan', a play by Raani Moorthy, premiered in London yesterday, November 27th. Framed around three characters' love of the Bollywood actor, Shahrukh Khan, the play allows the audience enter the lives of three South Asian women including a former member of the LTTE.

The Sri Lankan government has received $1.9bn worth of loan commitments from other countries, with China leading the way.

China has committed $517mn up to September this year, with Japan committing $421.5mn, Asian Development Bank £371.2mn, World Bank $196.4mn, The UK $103.7mn and the US $64.9mn, according to LBO.

The Bodu Bala Sena, an organisation of Sinhala Buddhist monks has called for the arrest of TNA MP Sritharan for his comments in parliament praising LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, while defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa accused the TNA of trying to sabotage the reconciliation process.

The Chinese embassy in Colombo said that Sri Lanka has made progress on human rights and reconciliation and called on the international community not to complicate matters.

"We believe that the Sri Lankan government and people have the wisdom and capacity to deal appropriately with their internal affairs," an emailed statement said.

A preview screening of the BBC World documentary ‘Sri Lanka’s unfinished war’, which outlines several cases of rape and torture against Tamils in the North-East, took place at the Frontline club today.

The screening was followed by a panel discussion with the producer of the documentary, Frances Harrison, producer of the No Fire Zone documentaries, Callum Macrae and policy and advocacy manager at Freedom from Torture, Sonya Sceats. The Sri Lankan High Commission to the UK refused an invitation to participate in the discussion.

The panel, chaired by a barrister at a London chamber who acted as a rapporteur to investigate the impeachment of Sri Lanka’s Chief Justice, Sadakat Kadri, discussed various issues and answered questions from the audience.

Full discussion can be viewed below.

“The Sri Lankan government has an endless history of commissions that have amounted to nothing. And I think we’re going to see a lot in the run up to the UN sessions in March. I think a spurious reconciliation commission will be offered with the unfortunate help of South Africa, which will be used as an excuse to prevent things form happen. I’m sorry but from what they’ve done in the past, we can guarantee that almost any investigation will be spurious.”

Published 11:29 GMT

Thousands of Tamils have started streaming through the doors at the ExCel convention centre in London's Docklands, as the UK's Maaveerar Naal remembrance event opened its doors a little while earlier.

In amidst the Sri Lankan government's stifling repression of any acts of remembrance, staff at the Jaffna based newspaper, the Uthayan, planted trees and donating blood today.