The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) expressed disappointment over the president’s stance on land and police powers to provinces today.

The party leader, R.Sampanthan, speaking to media, outlined that President Mahinda Rajapaksa continually changed his stance on devolving police and land powers.

A Chinese mega-port built in Colombo will be opened tomorrow.

The Colombo International Container Terminal cost $500mn to build and is 85% owned by state-owned China Merchant Holdings International.

Independent shipping expert, Rohan Masakorala, said the port gives China a foothold on a strategic route, according to AFP.

A second protestor involved in the Weliweriya demonstration has died, after being wounded by troops who fired on the villagers.

There is a heavy presence of Special Task Force soldiers and armed police in the village, according to the AFP.

"People are afraid to go outside of their houses because of the security forces' presence," A. Siridamma, the senior Buddhist monk in the area told reporters.

The US embassy in Colombo has expressed concern about the incidents in a statement.

A Sri Lankan lawyers’ organisation, the Lawyers Collective,  strongly condemned the Sri Lankan government’s harsh action on the Weliweriya protests.

In a statement the organisation said that it condemned the government attacks on peaceful protestors, stating,

The Sri Lankan government have outlined that there will be no restrictions placed on the movements of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay during her visit to Sri Lanka.

"We wanted to display black flags to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh beacuse of his support for Sri Lanka. Without India's support Sri Lanka would not have had the opportunity to host the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting - India's role made it possible for them to host it."

"We are protesting against the India Prime Minister for supporting a genocidal government with their pro-Sri Lanka stand, and condemn his actions. That is why we are raising black flags during his visit to Trichy."

"We are calling for the cancellation of CHOGM in Sri Lanka, and the May 17th Movement as well as other organisations are joining Vaiko's call."

'Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has said that the Weliweriya drinking water dispute was settled satisfactorily.  He has said that in the meantime certain vested elements provoked the villagers into needless confrontations.
 
Rajapaksa has said that the protesting public were satisfied with the solution offered to close a factory, which was supposed to cause contamination of water in the area, but those with political motives provoked some of the residents for staging protests.'

'The U.S. Embassy is concerned about the violence in yesterday’s protest in Weliweriya, and urges the Government of Sri Lanka to respect the rights of people to protest peacefully, and urges restraint from all sides.'

"How will the world view Sri Lanka after the events of yesterday?" asks Jayatilleka, adding, "the obvious observations will be, if this is how the State authorities treat unarmed Sinhalese, largely Buddhist civilian men, women and children who are protesting against polluted water, how must that state have treated the Tamils in the closing stages of the war?"