The Sri Lankan army took a group of Tamil pre-school children on a tour of Palaly Airport last month, in an area restricted to civilians deep inside a Sri Lankan High Security Zone (HSZ).

The Sinhalese leadership's reluctance to end the political stranglehold exercised by themselves so far is the fundamental cause of ethnic tensions in Sri Lanka, said the Northern Provincial Council Chief Minister CV Wigneswaran.

Mr  Wigneswaran noted that  the UN Special Rapporteur on Truth, Justice, Reparations and Guarantees of Non Recurrence had also made similiar observations during his time working on Sri Lanka and the reconciliation process. 

Stressing the need to enlist international pressure to ensure the rights of the Tamil people , the chief minister said,

The Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) said this week it would not contest the upcoming local polls in Sri Lanka under the 'house' symbol of the Ilankai Thamil Arasu Katchi, but would remain within the Tamil National Alliance coalition

The 'house' symbol, though belonging to ITAK, is used by the TNA at elections. 

At a press conference at the Jaffna Press Club, the EPRLF leader Suresh Premachandran explained the decision and criticised the ITAK's dominance within the TNA. 

Eight Tamil Nadu fishermen were arrested by the Sri Lankan navy on Sunday for allegedly crossing the maritime boundary.  

The men were arrested off the coast of Neduntheevu. 

"The fishermen from Akarapettai in Nagapattinam district, who put out to sea in a mechanised boat, were arrested on charges of poaching fish in Lanka’s territorial waters," the Assistant Director of Fisheries Department, Nagapattinam Gangadhar was quoted by PTI as saying.

The former president Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga recently attempted to distinguish herself from the Sinhala ethnonationalism of Buddhist monks stating that she was what described "a good Buddhist", and the racist ideology was perpetuated by a "minor group" of Buddhist monks. 

“I am a good Buddhist. What is more regrettable is the fact that a group of Buddhist monks indulge in extremism. That is a minor group. A majority of monks are good," she was quoted by the Daily Mirror as saying.

The Bar Association of Sri Lanka rejected any assistance from a German NGO to develop an awareness programme on constitution making after members protested against the arrangement. 

The BASL had previously accepted the offer from Democracy Reporting International (DRI). 

Explaining the situation the BASL Chairman U.R. De Silva was quoted by the Daily Mirror as saying that DRI had "never tried to force its way on us.” 

The Sri Lankan military showed no sign of scaling back its involvement in civil life in the North-East this month, after troops paid a visit to an adult care home in Jaffna last month, where they hosted a party for the “inmates”, according to an official military website.

Sri Lanka’s president and prime minister inaugurated the Seventh Buddhist Summit of the World Buddhist Supreme Conference at Temple Tress in Colombo this week, as the government released a special stamp to mark the occasion.

Sri Lankan soldiers “should not be allowed to wear the blue helmet” of United Nations peacekeepers, said Canadian parliamentarian Gary Anandasangaree in a piece published in The Star this week.

Writing ahead of the United Nations Peacekeeping Conference taking place in Vancouver later this month, the Liberal MP said the Sri Lankan military “has a long record of rights violations”.

The clearing of destroyed LTTE cemeteries continues in the North-East in the run-up to Maaveerar Naal.