Reports have emerged that the Sri Lankan Army is ready to distribute and sell fruits and vegetables, as thousands of farmer protested against a new law requiring plastic crates to be used in their transportation.

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has called for investigations into the disappearances of two activists, who helped organise a protest in Jaffna drawing attention to the plights of missing people on the island.

The disappearances are just the latest in a string of abductions, which have seen a marked rise in the Northern and Eastern Provinces.

Mahinda Rajapaksa's ears must have been burning yesterday, as ministers took turns to confess their gratitude to the President during the parliamentary session.

"We must be grateful to him" urged UPFA member VK Indika, lauding the "numerous benefits" Rajapaksa is said to have been bestowed upon the fisheries sector.

"We must thank President Rajapaksa for eliminating terrorism" echoed UPFA's Suriapperuma.

Sri Lanka's Buddhist monks, charged with crimes, are to have their court cases tried in a "separate court" said Prime Minister Jayaratne on Friday.

According to Jayaratne, the decision - currently a draft bill sitting with cabinet, was made in order to ease an overwhelming backlog of court cases involving monks.

Relatives of missing hold up pictures (Pictures: TamilNet)

Relatives of people that had disappeared during and after the war in Vanni staged a protest in Jaffna on Human Rights Day on Friday.

Hundreds of soldiers and policemen across the peninsula harassed civilians in an attempt to intimidate and block the protest from going ahead, TamilNet reported.

The protest is the latest sign of simmering anger and injustice felt by Tamils in the North-East.

However, the growing defiance and peaceful protests staged by the Tamil people, continue to be repressed by the Sri Lankan government and ignored by the Sinhala press.

At a discussion hosted by the Asia Society on December 6, 2011, documentary filmmaker Callum Macrae, Malinda Seneviratne, Editor-in-Chief of Sri Lanka's The Nation, and Bob Templer of the International Crisis Group present and assess both the Sri Lankan government and international community's perspectives on that country's decades-long sectarian conflict. Tunku Varadarajan, editor of Newsweek International, moderates the discussion. (1 hr, 16 min.)