"Nothing can bring back the estimated 30,000 civilians who died in 2009 in the closing months of the war in Sri Lanka, but if the UN is to learn from its shocking failure to protect those civilians it must do more than mouth regrets and resolutions."

Amnesty International indicated that the self-critical United Nations report, released yesterday, further authenticates calls for an independent international investigation into war crimes in Sri Lanka.

Speaking in an interview on TamilNet's Palaka'ni channel, TNPF leader Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam asserted that Eelam Tamils were a nation and asserted their right to sovereignty, and outlined the Tamil National People Front's position as:

"The existence of the Tamil nation must be secured. The recognition of Tamil nationhood and its distinct sovereignty is non-negotiable, that is our party's position. As to how that status is going to exist, whether it is going to exist within a larger state, or within a larger country, so as in the country being a multi-national state, or whether the Tamil nation is going to exist as a nation state, is something the eventual peace process will decide. But our view, what is fundamental, is the recognition and the safe-guard of the Tamil nation."

See full video here.

“This report details a litany of human rights violations endured by the Sri Lankan people.

“That’s absolute nonsense.... To say that Sri Lanka was intimidating the United Nations, a very small country, and the United Nations being what it is, I think that’s absolute rubbish.”

"I think that you are talking nonsense again. Sri Lanka was... There were hundreds of UN staff in Sri Lanka at the time. They were given visas to come into the country I don’t think any UN staff member who applied for a visa at the time was refused admission."

"Q: Do you know that for a fact?"

"As I said, I do not THINK that they were refused admission."

"Q: Do you believe the decisions taken at the time of the Sri Lankan conflict by the Sri Lankan Government were the right ones? Today, do you believe that is the case?"

"Absolutely... The decisions made at the time were the best decisions for all the people in the country."

The Tamil National Alliance said it demands an international investigation into the crimes committed by the Sri Lankan government, after the UN accepted it failed to protect Tamils.

Spokesperson MA Sumanthiran told AFP on Thursday that the TNA wanted immediate action.

"Now that the UN has come with this report we want action."

"There should be an international inquiry. The government as the main accused party cannot be involved in the investigation."

Tamils in South Africa have condemned the appointment of Sri Lanka's Major General's Shavendra Silva's appointment as the Deputy Ambassador to South Africa.

What's Sri Lanka’s response to the forthcoming UN internal review, which is to state that under intense pressure from Sri Lankan authorities, the UN concealed its knowledge that “a large majority” of civilian deaths in the closing months of war in 2009 were caused by government shelling?

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, has slammed the state of Australian offshore asylum camps.

Refugees arriving in Australia are now processed in camps in Nauru, where several detainees have conducted hunger strikes in protest at the conditions.

Speaking to ABC Radio, Navi Pillay said the hunger strikes were an "indication of the unbearable conditions under which they're being held".

The UN's Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers, Gabriela Knaul, condemned the increasing reports of intimidation and attacks on judges and judicial officers in Sri Lanka.

In a news release, Knaul said:

“I urge the Sri Lanka Government to take immediate and adequate measures to ensure the physical and mental integrity of members of the judiciary and to allow them to perform their professional duties without any restrictions, improper influences, pressures, threats or interferences, in line with the country’s international human rights obligations,”

“The irremovability of judges is one of the main pillars guaranteeing the independence of the judiciary and only in exceptional circumstances may this principle be transgressed,”