The Sri Lankan military has arrested at least one Tamil youth, after conducting search raids in Valvettithurai on Thursday.

The youth, identified as 28-year-old Padmanabhan Sindhuraj, was at home when the military raided the property, allegedly searching for his brother. 

It is reported they were searching for the Tamil man in connection with a clash between local Tamils and soldiers in Nagarkovil last week.

Sindhuraj has since been detained by Point Pedro Police.

Sri Lanka’s Terrorism Investigation Division (TID) attempted to pressure the families of the disappeared to end their campaign for accountability, as they interrogated a protest leader in Colombo last week.

Sri Lanka’s defence secretary announced his regime would be launching a “Cyber Security Act”, just weeks after the defence ministry took control of state institutions that govern for non-governmental organisations, as well as the technology, telecommunications and media agencies.

Following President Rajapaksa’s statement that the thousands of forcibly disappeared and missing Tamils were ‘actually dead’, The Woman’s Action Network (WAN), which is comprised of nine women’s group working across the North and East, have released a statement condemning the President’s statement describing it as an “affront to mothers, wives, sisters, and daughters of the disappeared” who have protested for over 1,000 days to know the fate of their loved ones.

 

A prominent Sri Lankan Buddhist monk and academic has urged the government to escalate its efforts to ‘dismiss the Tamil Diaspora’ and instead write a ‘victor’s history’ of Sri Lanka.

Medagoda Abhayatissa, a Sinhala Buddhist monk and professor in Pali at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura made the comments in an interview with Sri Lankan newspaper Daily News.

The monk said the previous government had been prone to “give in to the malevolent scripts of the Tamil Diaspora”.

<p>The Supreme Court of Canada has effectively upheld the acquittal of three Tamils who were charged with human smuggling following the arrival of a ship carrying hundreds of Tamil asylum seekers to British Columbia.</p> <p>In a decision on Thursday the court rejected the government’s application for an appeal hearing on the case.</p> <p>In August 2010, the Canadian navy intercepted the cargo ship MV Sun Sea carrying 492 Tamil asylum seekers&nbsp;from Sri Lanka.</p>

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has called for “proper police protection” and a “thorough investigation” after journalists in Batticaloa received death threats yesterday, amidst a ramped up climate of harassment of media workers in recent months.

A number of journalists from the Batticaloa district were issued death threats, with leaflets of their photographs circulated warning that they will soon be executed.

The press freedom organisation tweeted that it “demands proper police protection for the seven journalists and a thorough investigation into these unacceptable death threats”.

In light of the Sri Lankan president Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s declaration last week that the thousands of forcibly disappeared and missing Tamils “are actually dead”, People for Equality and Relief in Lanka (PEARL) and 47 Roots released a video calling on government officials around the world to take action.

Shavendra Silva, the head of Sri Lanka’s army and a man accused of overseeing war time atrocities, was in Singapore this week, as he took part in an international military conference despite his chequered human rights record.

At least 13 Sri Lankan soldiers, including the former navy media spokesperson, have been granted bail, despite having been charged over the abduction and possible murder of 11 Tamil youth, after they were forcibly disappeared in 2008 and 2009.

A three member Sri Lankan Permanent High Court panel granted bail to the accused, which includes former spokesperson Commodore DKP Dassanayake.