The involvement of Sri Lanka’s army in the Department of Irrigation has been strongly condemned as the military opened the four floodgates of Muttiankaddu pond in Mullaitivu on Sunday.

Vidura Wickramanayaka, Sri Lanka's state minister for 'national heritage', accompanied by army soldiers and archaeology department officers, led an event on Monday at Kurunthoormalai in which a new Buddha statue was placed and consecrated at the site of the Athi Aiyanar temple.

The temple site, on a hilltop in the Kumulamunai area of  Mullaitivu, has been the target of intense landgrab efforts by Sinhala Buddhist monks, met with fierce resistance from locals which in 2018 led to a court order decreeing that no changes could be made to the site. The court also stated that the archaeology department had abused its power in allowing Buddhist monks to survey the area.

While Tamils have been resisting several attempts at landgrabs and Sinhalisation across the North-East, and particularly in Mullaitivu, fronted by state agencies such as the archaeology department and forest department, the minister's presence in Monday's landgrab represents the first time the Sri Lankan government has openly demonstrated its involvement in the colonisation.

In advance of the 46^th Human Rights Council session, Amnesty International has urged the UN to establish an international accountability mechanism in Sri Lanka to monitor the human rights situations, warning that if there was insufficient progress, that the Human Rights Council must take “international action to ensure accountability”.

Responding to a question posed by UK Shadow Minister for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Ruth Jones, about Sri Lankan forced, Minister for Asia at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Department for International Development, Nigel Adams,  expressed the UK's repeated concern over minority rights in Sri Lanka.

The Washington-based advocacy organisation People For Equality And Relief in Lanka (PEARL) has called on the international community to consider demands made by Tamil people in the North-East after a coalition of elected representatives of the Tamil people in Sri Lanka, members of the Tamil victim communities, and Tamil civil society organizations united behind calls for Sri Lanka to face international accountability.

A Tamil refugee is to stand trial at the Higher Regional Court of Düsseldorf, Germany, for alleged involvement in an attack on a Sri Lankan army convoy 12 years ago. 

The Public Prosecutor’s office claims that the defendant incriminated himself in his 2018 asylum application. The attack, which is alleged to have taken place when the refugee was 15 years old, is reported to have resulted in the deaths of six people, though it is unclear whether any civilians were injured or if all were Sri Lankan military personnel.

Reports have emerged over how India’s ambassador to Sri Lanka rushed to meet Sri Lanka’s prime minister last week, in an attempt to contain the fallout just hours after authorities destroyed a monument at the University of Jaffna, whilst Sri Lanka’s president was left in the dark over the meeting and decisions made in Colombo.

Sri Lanka’s foreign secretary said his regime was firm on withdrawing from a UN resolution on accountability, as he slammed the global body, claimed there was an “ulterior motive” behind calls for a justice mechanism and claimed that thousands of forcibly disappeared Tamils are abroad “living somewhere”.

The US State Department has retained the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) on its Foreign Terrorist Organisations (FTO) list, despite almost 12 years since the Sri Lankan government claimed to have eradicated the organisation, in a military offensive that killed tens of thousands of Tamil civilians.

Sri Lankan authorities have detained a Muslim businessman, Fawaz Mohamad Nisar, for allegedly posting hate speech on his personal Facebook account, as authorities continue to crackdown on social media posts.

Nisar was detained in prison from January 13, until later today.

Sri Lanka's Criminal Investigations Department (CID) claim Nasir’s Facebook posts included content that was demeaning to Buddhist monks, thereby committing an offence under International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights Act (ICCPR) for inciting racial tensions.