The Australian government has deported 100 failed asylum seekers to Sri Lanka, on a specially chartered Royal Australian Air Force flight.

The recent removal is the single largest group to have been sent to Sri Lanka, and the ninth this month according to the Sri Lankan government. It also brings the total number of people deported from Australia to Sri Lanka to 425 since August 13th, when Australia adopted new immigration policies.

The Sri Lankan Navy has once again been accused of attacking fishermen from Tamil Nadu as they went fishing in the Palk Straits.

The four fishermen alleged that the navy attacked them with sticks, stones and bottles, as well as damaging their boats and fishing nets. In addition, the navy is accused of seizing their GPS and wireless equipment.

According to the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce's data, Sri Lanka’s export during the first quarter of FY 13 earnings from textile and garments has declined 4.3 percent.

(See here and here).

The global head of Unilever Paul Polman has visited Sri Lanka and approved the opening of a new factory in Kalatura in the Western district.

The $50 million plant was to be inaugurated by Mr Polman this week.

Unilever produces 95% of its products sold on the island and the new plant is likely to increase local manufacturing and support export of goods made in Sri Lanka.

A ‘Victory Stupa’ currently being constructed in Anuradhapura was blessed with “treasure” and a large Sinhala-inscribed tablet, at a ceremony coinciding with President Rajapaksa’s birthday to “shower blessings on him”, according to the country’s Ministry of Defence.

The stupa is the first in a set that is to be built across all provinces in the island.

See our earlier post: Buddhist Stupas for Army to be built in all provinces (06 February 2012)

Tamil Nadu opposition leader M Karunanidhi said he was “hopeful” that the UN will intervene in Sri Lanka and take up Tamil grievances, reported The Hindu.

Claiming credit for India’s vote for the UN resolution in March, Karunanidhi said that his DMK would continue to press Delhi to support his demand for a referendum.

In its latest report, entitled, 'Sri Lanka: Tamil politics and the Quest for a Political Solution', the International Crisis Group (ICG) criticised the Sri Lankan government's refusal to negotiate seriously towards a power sharing agreement, arguing that such a refusal was "increasing ethnic tensions and damaging prospects for lasting peace."

Highlighting the "sustained assault" against "Tamil political power and identity" in the North-East, the ICG said the government's military and economic policies were "institutionalising" a Sinhala nationalist thinking that "explicitly rejects a privileged Tamil character".

Arguing that the "de facto military occupation" and "biased economic development policies appear designed to undermine Tamils’ ability to claim the north and east as their homeland," the ICG said that "for many Tamils, this confirms their long-held belief that it was only the LTTE’s guns that placed their concerns and need for power sharing on the political agenda."

In a list of recommendations to various parties, the ICG called on the international community, including China, India and the US to ensure a range of actions that it argued "pave the way for a lasting political solution" are met. These included fulfilment of the March 2012 UNHRC resolution and a credible northern provincial council election by early 2013. The ICG went on to urge the Secretariat and member states of the Commonwealth to insist that the Sri Lankan government fulfils these tasks, "and agree that in the event it fails to do so, the October 2013 Commonwealth heads of government meeting will be moved from Colombo to an alternative location."

See here for full report.

Photographs Amnesty society UCLU

To a packed room of London university students, panellists Thusiyan Nandakumar of the Tamil Youth Organisation UK (TYOUK), Fred Carver of Sri Lanka Campaign, Madurika Rasaratnam of Tamils Against Genocide (TAG) and Alan Keenan of the International Crisis Group (ICG) discussed the question - 'Sri Lanka: Genocide?'.

The event held on 13th November was chaired by Professor Neil Mitchell (International Relations, UCL) and hosted by the Amnesty International society at University of College London University (UCLU).

Criticising the conduct of the Sri Lankan state over the past three years, Alan Keenan of the ICG described the government's killing of civilians as "not accidental". The "machine" the Sri Lankan government used to fight the LTTE said Keenan, "what we might call state terror" has been "actively chugging along since the end of the war." He continued, "the hope was that with the end of the war, the apparatus to destroy dissent would be put away or could be slowly cranked down. Unfortunately it hasn't."

Following on from Keenan, Madurika Rasaratnam of TAG argued that the current issues highlighted were "not a departure from the norm, but rather a development of Sinhala Buddhist state formation".

She continued,

"The idea of genocide is useful to understand the past, the present and the future of Sri Lanka. The label of genocide captures the process that has occurred in the post-independence Sri Lanka. If you look at post-2009 and the policies that were in place in the 60s and 70s there is absolute continuity."