The International Truth and Justice Project, and Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka yesterday criticised Sri Lanka's decision to send the former minister Mahinda Samarasinghe as part of a delegation to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Sri Lanka's former defence secretary, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, who was implicated in the use of white vans to carry out enforced disappearances and killings with impunity, rejected the allegations at a conference in Kandy on Saturday. 

Carbon dating of bone fragments taken from Mannar mass graves date back to 1499 - 1719 AD, the United States based Beta Analytic Institute of Florida has concluded in its report. 

Less than a day after Sri Lanka's ministry of foreign affairs agreed to the co-sponsoring of a roll-over UN resolution, the president Maithripala Sirisena said he wanted it stopped.  

In an alarmingly candid statement published today the Sri Lankan government admitted it would be co-sponsoring a roll over resolution at the UN Human Rights Council as "this strategy will prevent international war crimes allegations being continuously leveled against Sri Lankans through strengthened ownership of the implementation process."

Human rights organisations highlighted the ongoing militarisation of the Tamil homeland at a side event at the UN Human Rights Council yesterday. 

The Sri Lankan government skirted past key concerns raised by the former UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, Ben Emmerson, in a statement to the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) last week, arguing instead that progress was being made. 

Two Tamil activists were arrested by counter-terrorism police at Heathrow airport yesterday morning as they were about to travel to Geneva to participate in a demonstration at the UN Human Rights Council, calling for Sri Lanka to be referred to the International Criminal Court. 

Hundreds of Tamils from across Europe gathered in front of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday to demand justice for the genocide committed by the Sri Lankan state. 

Two Sinhala traders were arrested in Jaffna yesterday for illegally harvesting aloe vera from a plantation in Jaffna.