The official news portal of the Sri Lankan Government quoted Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative to the Unit, Dr Palitha Kohona, as saying the government will not favour any external intervention in, what it says are, ‘domestic issues’.

According to Dr Kohona, domestic processes must be ‘exhausted’, before resorting to externalisation.

The decision to appoint Major General Shavendra Silva of the Sri Lankan Army to the UN Special Advisory Group on Peace Keeping Operations has come under fire, as pressure increases on the UN to review the appointment.

The US Ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice was earlier quoted as saying,

"It's very concerning that someone with his background would be selected to serve on this advisory group. We have conveyed this to member states, as well as to the Secretariat.

The influx of British tourists into Sri Lanka has fallen following the murder of a British tourist and the rape of his girlfriends at a holiday resort in the South of the island, according to official figures.

Statistics from Sri Lanka’s Tourist Board show whilst tourist numbers from Western Europe had increased, there was a 14.2% decline in the number of British tourists in January compared to last year. Visitors from Western Europe still made up the bulk of tourists to Sri Lanka, accounting for 42% in total.

Extracts from The Economist article on India's strategy in the region and China's role:

Memories in Sri Lanka of India’s troubled role in the long and bitter civil war appear to be fading. Meanwhile, India, officially, does not worry about signs of its neighbour’s dalliance with China.

That is despite the news last month that Chinese investors took 85% control of the project extending Colombo’s main commercial port, which handles goods traded almost entirely with India.

The Director General of the Media Centre for National Security, Lakshman Hulugalle, dismissed the statement made by Human Rights Watch as "part of promoting pro-LTTE propaganda".

Hulugalle added,

“Even when the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) was established to look in to these allegations, they had a negative approach and criticised it.”

In a joint statement released Friday, 14 non-governmental organisation have called on the US to "press for action" at the UN Human Rights Council's March session.

Electricity and fuel prices have shot up as Sri Lanka’s economy adjusts to the sudden drop in the value of the rupee after the Central Bank acceded to IMF pressure and abandoned – for now - its long standing policy of artificially propping up the local currency.

Diesel and kerosene prices rose 36 and 49 per cent respectively whilst electricity rates for domestic consumers are to rise by 40 per cent. Bakeries are threatening to increase the price of bread, a staple - especially for the working poor.

In the past two weeks the rupee has lost 5.7 per cent of its value against the US dollar. Consequently the prices of fuel and other imported commodities have risen.

At the same, the Central Bank is finally signalling an end to cheap credit from Sri Lanka’s increasingly state controlled banks – another key demand of the IMF.

Cheap state directed credit was an important factor in fuelling import demand - see our earlier post here.

These changes will hit hard President Mahinda Rajapakse’s support base – namely the middle and lower middle class, urban and rural voters in the Sinhala majority areas.

The UNP is already talking of an anti UPFA alliance with the TNA and JVP. However, economic difficulties may strengthen rather than undermine Rajapakse’s impeccable Sinhala nationalist credentials.

New York based Human Rights Watch have denounced the Sri Lankan Army’s own inquiry into alleged rights violations as a delaying tactic, attempting to ward off international pressure.

“The Sri Lankan army’s announced inquiry appears to be a transparent ploy to deflect a global push for a genuine international investigation, not a sudden inspiration nearly three years after the war,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.