Dayashri Jayasekara, an MP with Sri Lanka’s main opposition United National Party (UNP), told parliament that Rs. 6.35 million sent as aid to areas highly affected by floods in the East of Sri Lanka in 2011 had been misappropriated.

Jayasekara stated during a debate that several officials involved with the bank had been involved with embezzlement.

Writing in The Guardian on Tuesday, UK MPs, including former UK foreign secretaries, Douglas Alexander MP, David Miliband MP, Jack Straw MP and Margaret Beckett MP, urged member states to back a resolution tabled at the UNHRC.

Extracts reproduced below:

New evidence has emerged detailing the sequence of events that led to the killing of the senior LTTE commander, Colonel Ramesh, after in the custody of the Sri Lankan army, The Global Mail reports.

"Of the mass of available evidence, the most compelling trail is that of Colonel Ramesh. His death provides a crack of light that illuminates the deaths of thousands of others, and the motives of the probable perpetrators."

In an interview to the Debrief news channel, Robert O'Blake, the US Assistant Secretary of State for Central and South Asia, warned of renewed violence in Sri Lanka if the government failed to take "real concrete action".

Asked by the presenter why the US was tabling a resolution at the UN Human Rights Council, despite Sri Lanka giving assurances, as a sovereign country, that it will act towards reconciliation, Blake said,

The UN Human Rights Council has passed a resolution calling on Sri Lanka to investigate alleged human rights violations.

The resolution, sponsored by the US and co-sponsored by 40 other nations, was passed by 24 votes to 15, with 8 abstentions.

The resolution calls on Sri Lanka to implement its own recommendations in addressing allegations of violations of international law.

The text also encourages the UN human rights office to assist Sri Lanka in implementing the steps recommended by the reolution.

“This is a very good start, but it is just a start. We need to keep up the pressure to make sure there is real change. The call for an independent international investigation remains, and will until it is answered.

“Many of the nations that supported Sri Lanka in 2009, such as Nigeria, Cameroon, and India, have realised that they were lied to and today took the courageous step of supporting the resolution. We particularly thank them.

Speaking to journalists on the resolution tabled at the UNHRC, the US ambassador, Eileen Donahue, said,

"We don't think of this as a symbolic vote,"

"We see this as a meaningful effort to encourage the Sri Lankan government to take credible steps. We fear the government of Sri Lanka might fail to take those credible steps."

In a joint statement, a large coalition of activists and civil society actors in India have urged the Indian government to follow through on its recent statements expressing an inclination to support the resolution.

"Our communications with activists and community leaders in Sri Lanka have confirmed need for significant improvements, including efforts to help trace the missing, to devise and implement a political solution, to widen space for civil society groups and to address land conflicts, remain pressing issues, which if left unaddressed can undermine the existing situation in Sri Lanka, where there is a real opportunity for lasting peace."

“The unwillingness of Sri Lanka to make progress on the LLRC and other measures such as the talks with the Tamil National Alliance is the fundamental obstacle to move forward.

"It is thus incumbent for other governments, such as ours, to encourage the Sri Lankan government to do so."

“The U.S.-sponsored resolution calls for Sri Lanka to report back to the UNHRC on the implementation of the LLRC and to accept technical support from the U.N. to implement it. We sincerely hope that the Government of India will follow through on its own statement by supporting this resolution, and strongly urge it to do so."

Giving the term ‘public-private partnership’ a new twist,

Sri Lanka’s leading corporations staged their own demonstration Tuesday against growing international pressure over accountability for mass atrocities in the final months of the island’s war.

See The Island’s report here.