A senior Buddhist monk from south London has been jailed for sexually assaulting an underage girl.

Pahalagama Somartana, 65, of the Thames Buddhist temple in Selsdon, was sentenced to seven years in jail after being found guilty of carrying out four sexual attacks on a girl aged between 8 and 9 at the time of the attacks. The court heard how Somaratana, a Sinhalese originally from Sri Lanka, enticed his victim to his room with sweets before touching her.

Sri Lankan Army has been constructing houses in Thirumurukandi, Mullaitheevu district, after seizing 4,000 acres of land reports Uthayan.

Project “War Heroes Housing Scheme” started last year intending to establish one thousand houses, fully equipped with modern facilities, for 'disabled' Sri Lankan soldiers. It has recruited over 2000 Sinhala construction workers from the southern part of Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka is to request a further US$500 million after the completion of the Standby Arrangement (SBA) of US$2.6 billion next month, the International Monetary Cooperation Senior Minister, Sarath Amunugama, revealed on Wednesday.

Amunugama said,

A report by the Tamil rights group, Tamils Against Genocide (TAG), provides primary evidence supporting the claims of torture against failed asylum seekers, and Tamils deemed to be political active.

Find report here.

See TamilNet article here.

One signed witness statement, which we should warn is extremely distressing, said:

"... about 5 CID officers beat me. And pushed me roughly and tightly. They hit my head against the wall and tore my T shirt off. Then one person untied the knots in my hand and ordered me to undress. They forced me to undress and then beat me left and right with their booted legs..."

Sri Lankan Minister Mervyn Silva has been cleared by a party ‘disciplinary hearing’, following comments made by the Minister threatening journalists and human rights activists after the 19th UN Human Rights Council session.

“In light of the UK’s obligations under universal jurisdiction provisions, we invite the Metropolitan Police to investigate these allegations and arrest Rajapaksa in order to commence criminal proceedings.”

“TAG has submitted a formal complaint with the aim of bringing justice to the victims of alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity by the Sri Lankan state.

While TAG appreciates that there are immunity issues involved, it is our understanding that this will not prevent the Metropolitan Police from opening a case file and commencing investigations.”

“the report characterizes the systematic shelling of civilians and intentional deprivation of access to food and medicine as “calculated to bring about the destruction of a significant part of the civilian population”. This characterization is identical to the definition of genocide in Article 2(c) of the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide.”

“The strength of these credible allegations clearly meets the threshold for an arrest to be made and charges to be brought. TAG urges the Metropolitan Police to take necessary steps in accordance with the UK’s universal jurisdiction and international law obligations to arrest Rajapaksa and bring him to justice.”

The National Freedom Front (NFF), a constituent party of the ruling coalition in Sri Lanka, has called for the deportation of the British High Commissioner John Rankin, after he criticised the disproportionate military presence in the Northeast of the island.

At a press briefing, Piyasiri Wijenayake of the NFF, said it was not up to the British High Commissioner to decide on the withdrawal of military camps in the country, ColomboPage reported on Wednesday.