The US State Department has announced the head of Sri Lanka’s army Shavendra Silva has been barred from entering the USA “due to credible information of his involvement, through command responsibility, in gross violations of human rights”.

A statement released by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that Silva and his immediate family are now “are ineligible for entry into the United States”.

“The allegations of gross human rights violations against Shavendra Silva, documented by the United Nations and other organizations, are serious and credible,” said Pompeo.

As a group of Tamil students set out to clear a former playground in Vavuniya last month they found themselves unexpectedly halted from doing so, by Sri Lankan forestry department officials.

A Pillaiyar statue located on the street of Chenkalady border in Batticaloa has been vandalised and tossed on the side by unknown individuals.

Batticaloa’s mayor Thiyagarajah Saravanapavan met with British High Commissioner Sarah Hulton on Tuesday (11^th Feb 2020), where he revealed that the government has relinquished the powers of the local council and abandoned the development of their city.  

Excavation work at a hospital in Mullaitivu has uncovered bullets and the bodies of at least two people, after skeletal remains and mines were found on Wednesday.

Deminers with protective equipment carried out excavation work at the site, under the supervision of Kilinochchi district hospital medico-legal officer Dr Thanushan and Sri Lankan police officers.

<p><img alt src="/sites/default/files/File/Modi%20Rajapaksa/84211907_1516737505158226_6234815504603676672_o.jpg"></p> <p>During a meeting between Israeli Ambassador, Ron Malka and Sri Lankan President, and accused war criminal, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the Ambassador pledged support for Sri Lanka’s economy.</p> <p>Earlier this year the European Union warned Sri Lanka that the preferable trading benefits it received under the GSP plus agreement were not “automatic” but depended upon the effective implementation of 27 international conventions, related to human and labour rights, environment and good governance”.&nbsp;</p>

Sri Lanka’s president and accused war criminal Gotabaya Rajapaksa made a highly publicised visit to Welikada prison this week, whilst his regime continues to arrest and detain Tamils under the highly criticised Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA).

Rajapaksa was accompanied by reporters as he visited the maximum security prison in Colombo. His official website said that Rajapaksa “engaged in casual conversation with the prisoners”.

Human skeletal remains and mines have been recovered from a hospital in Mullaitivu this morning, after land clearance work had taken place at the grounds.

Clearance work had been taking place at the Mankulam Hospital as plans were underway to construct a new hospital on the premises. However, construction workers soon uncovered remnants of mines that may remain unexploded.

<p>A cross party group of British parliamentarians have written to the UK Foreign Secretary, after Sri Lanka’s president claimed that the thousands of forcibly disappeared Tamils “are actually dead”.</p>

<p>Sri Lanka is exploring the possibility of purchasing modern weapons from Russia, Yury Matery, the Russian Ambassador to Colombo, reportedly said.</p> <p>In an interview with RIA Novosti, the Ambassador stated that military-technical cooperation between Russia and Sri Lanka has been developing over the recent years.</p> <p>Matery recalled Russia’s military assistance to Sri Lanka during the armed conflict against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) where they provided the Sri Lankan security forces with helicopters, armored personnel carriers, infantry fighting vehicles and small arms.</p>