The survey department of Sri Lanka has notified villages of Karampan – West in Kayts that a new Sri Lankan Navy ‘security zone’ will be built.

In a tweet posted by The National People’s Front (TNPF), a letter notes that 0.4Ha of Tamil land will be surveyed for the construction of a new navy security zone on the island. The recent land grabs come as anti-government protestors in the south have demanded the resignation of the Rajapaksa government due to their economic mismanagement.

A Tamil youth from Jaffna has been admitted to hospital with a slit throat after being detained in police custody.

An arrest warrant had been issued by the Jaffna Magistrate’s Court against the individual, which police forces exercised. The individual who is from the Pommai velli area of Jaffna was then detained by police.

Once in police custody, according to police reports the individual who had hidden a blade on him, then slit his throat. The police then admitted him to the hospital.

Patricia Gossman, associate Asia director at Human Rights Watch has condemned the police killing and injuries of protestors which occurred last week and called for an impartial investigation.

Those responsible for abuses should be disciplined or prosecuted as appropriate. Sri Lanka has a long history of failing to provide justice and redress to victims of human rights violations, the statement noted.

As negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) continue, Sri Lanka’s finance minister, Ali Sabry, announced that the country would receive $300 to $600 million from the World Bank over the next four months to buy medicine and other essential goods.

Speaking in parliament Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, leader of the Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF), stressed that the removal of the executive presidency is not sufficient, instead a total reform of the state on federal lines is needed.

“For the first time, Sinhalese people are questioning their own leaders,” Ponnambalam told parliament. They are calling into “question 74 years of leadership and the very system”.

Speaking at St. Anthony’s Shrine, Archbishop of Colombo, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, raised the possibility that the Easter Sunday attacks were part of a ploy to stoke ethnic divisions and security concerns ahead of the 2019 Presidential elections.

Quoting the parliamentary select committees report he notes:

Protesters in Jaffna demanding self-determination this week 

Civil society organisations in the North-East and South have called on protesters that are demanding the Rajapaksa regime to change, to also include calls for the structural change of the state that recognises the Tamil right to self-determination. 

The war crimes-accused head of Sri Lanka’s army released a statement yesterday, calling on “intelligent” Sri Lankans to back the armed forces and “co-operate” as they had done when the military launched an offensive that killed tens of thousands of Tamils in 2009.

Commemoration events were held across the Tamil homeland on Thursday, to mark 3 years since the devastating Easter Sunday attacks, in which more than 250 people were killed.

A monument to a man who oversaw two anti-Tamil pogroms and the architect behind one of the most racist pieces of legislation on the island’s history overlooks the Galle Face protests. If these protests are to be inclusive of all in Sri Lanka, that statue must go.