Sri Lanka will not start a domestic war crimes probe before September, said Deputy Foreign Minister Ajith Perera to Ceylon Today, despite President Maithripala Sirisena’s pledge last week to launch an inquiry in June.

The deputy minister said Sri Lanka would only present a report on the modalities on how such a domestic inquiry would be conducted at the UNHRC in September.

Mr Perera said the government achieved a “great diplomatic victory” in March this year, referring to the deferral of the OISL report until September.

"We made it clear to the UN that there was no need for an international inquiry and told that we have an independent judiciary and independent public service,” he said.

The leader of the Labour Party Ed Miliband has pledged to continue to push for a "full and independent international investigation" into war crimes in Sri Lanka, in a video message to the British Tamil community marking the Tamil New Year.

Thanking the British Tamil community for the "incredible contribution" it has made to the UK, the opposition leader said the Labour Party has always been "a friend of the Tamil community".

The Tamil Civil Society Forum (TCSF), a network of civil society groups in the North-East, welcomed the statement by the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence, Pablo de Greiff, released on Saturday, following his visit to the island.

"We are pleased that Mr de Grieff has addressed many issues that was raised by TCSF in his meeting with him," the group said on its social media page on Monday.

Responding to a letter by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) warning Sri Lanka that it risked its international status over its decision to hold elections under a contentious sports law introduced by the new government, Sri Lanka's sports minister, Navin Dissanayake, denied that the ministry was exerting any pressure on sporting bodies.

“We categorically deny that any pressure had been exerted to any sports body or federation by our Ministry,” Mr Dissanayake wrote in a letter dated April 7, reports the Daily Mirror.

The Tamil National Alliance and the Sri Lankan Muslim Congress (SLMC) called on  the government to avoid implementing the delimitation of electoral boundaries in the Northern Province for the next 10 years,  until displaced people are resettled in their original lands, including those that fled the country due to conflict.

(Security Force Headquarters East)

The Sri Lankan military organised an awareness programme on traffic law to students of the Methodist Tamil School in Pothuvil earlier this week.

The lecture was delivered by a police officer from Pothuvil police station, and army officials and teachers of the school were also present.

The military's ongoing involvement in Tamil affairs almost 6 years after the end of the armed conflict has been widely condemned by Tamil politicians and activists, with numerous calls for the new president, Maithripala Sirisena to demilitarise the North-East.

 The Tamil struggle stands on its own and own arguments and does not need justification, said that a former anti-apartheid activist who works in on promoting justice, reconciliation and democracy around the world.

Speaking to Ceylon Today in an interview on Friday, Dr Ivor Jenkins, highlighting that Sri Lanka had a chance to find a solution to bring stability to the island, said,

“The Tamil ethnic question can indeed be resolved through talks and negotiations to everyone’s satisfaction.”

Sri Lanka’s state owned National Savings Bank (NSB) lost millions of rupees through investments in the Colombo Stock Exchange, said the government’s finance minister Ravi Karunanayake.

ColomboPage reported Mr Karunanayake telling reporters that investments by the NSB resulted in losses amounting to Rs.1.1 billion, after Rs.2.6 billion from bank funds were used to make investments.

An investigation is being launched into the matter added the minister.