Despite widespread criticism of the appointment of Shavendra Silva to second-in-command of the Sri Lankan army earlier this year, the war crimes-accused general was promoted to army commander by the Sri Lankan president on Monday.

Residents of a Vavuniya village protested against the Sri Lankan forest department’s land-grabs last month.

Protesting in front of the old mosque in Sooduventhapulavu, the villagers said that the forest department had declared 428 acres of land under its jurisdiction. However this land belonged to and was cultivated by the villagers since 1974.

A complaint filed by the Sri Lankan police against a Tamil politician for ‘breach of peace’ was dismissed by the Mullaitivu magistrate’s court on first hearing.

Mulliyavalai police had filed a case against Karaithuraipatru (Maritimepattu) Divisional Council (PS) member Thavarasa Amalan claiming he had breached the peace, after he had taken journalists to a well to expose how Sri Lankan military forces were exploiting the public water source.

The specific incident had occurred in October but had been preceded by ongoing disputes between locals of Kanukkeni West and the military, who locals accuse of pumping out millions of litres of ground water from the tube well and causing pollution and damage to the rest of the area’s water supplies.

Locals of Oddusuddan, Mullaitivu are concerned about threats to the ancient Vavettimalai hill, whose history intertwines with the district’s iconic Thanthondreeswarar temple. Large scale stone mining in the area is destroying the hill’s archaeological and spiritual characteristics, locals say.

The massacre of 53 schoolgirls by the Sri Lankan air force was remembered in the Tamil homeland on Wednesday on the thirteenth anniversary of the attack.

On 14 August 2006, 53 schoolgirls and three teachers in Mullaitivu were killed by the Sri Lankan air force who bombed the Sencholai school in Vallipunam.

Sri Lanka’s former defence secretary, who oversaw the military offensive that killed tens of thousands of Tamils in Mullivaikkal, officially launched his presidential bid this week.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa accepted the nomination made by his brother and former president Mahinda Rajapaksa to represent the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna as its presidential candidate.

Amnesty International has said that reforms are required in Sri Lanka if new investigations into the ‘Trinco 5’ massacre are to be effective.

In a statement welcoming the Sri Lankan attorney general’s decision to recommence investigations after 13 Special Task Force (STF) suspects were acquitted last month, the organisation noted the “importance of a thorough, effective and impartial investigation into the killing to ensure that victims of human rights violations and abuses can access justice”.

An Indian government-funded model village was inaugurated in the Jaffna District on Saturday.

The village in Valikamam West, called Senthamizh (‘pure Tamil’) Village, consists of 24 homes built with Indian grant assistance.

Sri Lanka’s tourism industry sees signs of a gradual recovery after the tragic Easter Sunday bombings, which killed over 250 people.

Tourism is one of Sri Lanka’s largest revenue streams, with tourists arriving from Europe and Asia-Pacific accounting for 90% of the total visitors. Sri Lanka’s Tourism Development Authority reports that after the attack on 21 April, the number of tourists halved in July from a year ago.

Chief executive officers of Sri Lankan Airlines, the country’s sole carrier, reported that they would likely see a loss of as much as $160 million in the financial year to end-March 2020 due to the concerns raised by the attack.

This year marks 36 years since the Black July pogroms. The brutal state-sponsored violence by Sinhala mobs lasted a week and saw the death of at least 3,000 Tamils, destruction of 5,000 shops, and displacement of over 150,000 Tamils. At least 500 Tamil women were raped and many families were burned alive. It also prompted the first large exodus of Tamils: 500,000 fled the island, giving seed to a global Tamil diaspora.