The European Union has called on Sri Lanka to allow visits to the island from UN special mandate holders, in a statement released to mark World Human Rights Day.

Welcoming visits to the island by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the UN Special Envoy on Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons, the statement urged to government of Sri Lanka to further grant outstanding requests for UN access, highlighting in particular the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances.

The statement also noted that,

The Guardian, today, interviewed the private public relations and marketing known for working with the Sri Lankan government and many other regimes, Bell Pottinger.

When asked if Bell Pottinger was still working for the Sri Lankan government, the chairman, Tim Bell, said,

Displaced Tamils vented their anger at the leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), R. Sampanthan, on Monday, whilst he was visiting the Kattai Parichchan IDP camp near Sampoor.

Families of the disappeared protesting at the Trincomalee Bus Station were attacked by masked men, today.

The demonstrators, whose protest coincided with international Human Rights Day, sustained several injuries, resulting in the organiser, Sundara Mahendran, being admitted to hospital.

Published 09:36 GMT

The Permanent People's Tribunal on the genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka continues this morning in Bremen, Germany.

Watch the live feed from the PPT website 09:00-13:30 (GMT+1) here.

The Northern Provincial Council Minister for Agriculture, Livestock and Water Supply, P Iyngaranesan has refused to hoist the Sri Lankan flag at an event in Mannar.

The minister was chief guest at the event in a school in Vellangulam.

Sri Lanka has announced that a ‘National Inquiry on Torture’ has been postponed indefinitely, after requests from several ‘civil society organisations’, reported the Sunday Leader.