Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has called on Sri Lankan authorities to end the harassment of Tamil Guardian’s Jaffna-based correspondent, Uthayarasa Shalin. The harassment of the journalist recalls the worst period of persecution of Tamil journalists in Sri Lanka, the press freedom organisation said.

The organisation issued a statement today in response to Sri Lankan authorities, primarily the Terrorism Investigation Division (TID), targeting the journalist for over two months over the “entirely spurious grounds” of a cut-out of the Tamil homeland being displayed at his local temple.

The incoming US Ambassador to Sri Lanka and the Maldives, Alaina Teplitz was sworn in on Monday.

Earlier this year Teplitz told the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations that the Tamil community remained concerned about Sri Lanka's lack of progress towards reconciliation, accountability and justice.

Sisira Mendis, the former Deputy Inspector General (DIG) in charge of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and Terrorism Investigation Division (TID) in Sri Lanka, and current director of the country’s intelligence services, appeared at the Galle Dialogue, an international maritime conference.

A Sinhalese man from Anuradhapura has been arrested in Kilinochchi on charges of drug smuggling this week.

The man was reportedly caught with at least 4kg of cannabis.

It is not yet known where the man was travelling to.

The latest arrest comes after Tamil UNP MP Vijayakala Maheswaran said politicians from the South of the island are responsible for supplying the drugs in the North, earlier this year. On previous occasions, Sri Lankan soldiers have been caught smuggling drugs in the North-East.

A delegation from the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) visited villagers in Vavuniya last week, where Tamils have been blocked from returning to their land by Sri Lanka’s forestry department.

Twelve members of the NPC met with residents from Navalarpannai and Kanchuramoddai, where they have been unable to resettle in their land.

Sri Lanka’s Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) called in the leader of the Hindu extremist organisation Siva Senai, M K Sachithananthan earlier this month.

Sachithananthan was summoned to the TID office in Colombo on October 5, but claimed he could not travel to the south due to ill health. He was subsequently questioned at the TID office on 4th Cross Road in Jaffna on October 11.

He told reporters that questioning revolved around the Siva Senai organisation and its work in the North-East, including reported funding from India.  The group, which has called for a beef ban in Jaffna, is reported to have links to fellow Hindu extremist organisations in India.

The Jaffna Teaching Hospital held a commemoration service in remembrance of the 68 staff and patients who were massacred by the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) 31 years ago.

Sri Lanka's president sat next to a controversial admiral accused of involvement in covering up the abduction and murder of Tamil youths, whilst speaking at a public event in the south this week.

Chief of Defence Staff Admiral Ravindra Wijegunaratne was seen on stage next to Maithripala Sirisena in Colombo. Wijegunaratne is wanted for questioning by the CID, for allegedly assisting the main suspect accused of heading the abduction and murder of Tamil youths.

A Sri Lankan minister has requested the UK government to take further action against Tamil activists that were arrested by British police earlier this month.

Sri Lankan minister Champika Ranawaka, a leader of the hard-line Sinhala-Buddhist JHU party, met with the FCO Minister for Asia and the Pacific, Mark Field, during his visit to London last week.

According to the Daily Mirror, Ranawaka pushed for “taking stern action against the four individuals who were arrested for displaying the LTTE flags” during the meeting.

Sri Lanka's former foreign minister has said that the UN's repatriation of an army commander was down to the current government's inability to handle foreign relations, and warned that the repatriation could have serious repercussions for the entire Sri Lankan Army.

“It will have serious repercussions not only on the 58th Division but on the entire Sri Lankan Army,” former minister G L Peiris said according to the Daily Mirror.

“If it were our government, we would have asked for the basis of such allegations,” he said.