The Sri Lankan police force has rejected a report by Human Rights Watch, which said that detainees were regularly tortured in custody.

The New York-based organisation found that police frequently use torture to try to obtain confessions rather than undertaking the more difficult and time-consuming process of gathering evidence through investigations.

Cases detailed in the report are only from the south of the island, as access to the Tamil-dominated North-East was restricted to human rights organisations.

The report named 'We Live in Constant Fear': Lack of Accountability for Police Abuse in Sri Lanka, detailed severe beatings, electric shocks, rubbing chili paste on genitals and suspension from ropes in stress positions, amongst various methods used by the Sri Lankan police.

Sri Lanka’s foreign minister, speaking in parliament after a debate on the United Nations Human Rights Council, Mangala Samraweera outlined government plans to create four separate institutions to ensure the suffering of those who have lost loved ones is recognised, crims is punished, and any injustice is remedied.

Mr Samaraweera outlined four separate institutions; A commission for Truth Justice Reconciliation and Non-recurrence; An Office on Missing Persons based on the principle of the families right to know, to be set up by Statute with expertise form the ICRC; A Judicial Mechanism with a Special Counsel to be set up by Statute; An Office for Reparations to be set up by Statute.

Full speech reproduced below:

Sri Lanka’s government could be doing much more to heal the wounds of the war and address Tamil grievances writes Taylor Dibbert in the Diplomat.

Highlighting the ongoing military “occupation of civilian land in the northern province” and the “ government’s continued detention of Tamil political prisoners,” Mr Dibbert said President Sirisena’s  decision on how to deal with Tamil political prisoners will be something to watch closely.

The United Nations in Sri Lanka celebrated the 70th anniversary of the world body and 60th anniversary of Sri Lanka being accepted as a member state on Saturday.

A ceremony was held at the United Nations compound in Colombo in the presence of President Maithripala Sirisena, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe, Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera and the visiting UN Assistant Secretary General Mirslav Jenca report Colombo Page.

Members of the Tamil National Alliance including MP MA Sumanthiran and party leader R Sampanthan were also present at the event.

Photograph: @uthayashalin

The Jaffna Press Club held an event to mark the 15th death anniversary of murdered Tamil journalist Mylvaganam Nimalarajan earlier this week.

Mr Nimalarajan, a senior journalist who contributed to the BBC Tamil and Sinhala services, the Tamil daily Virakesari and Sinhala weekly Ravaya, was murdered on October 19th 2000.

The Committee to Protect Journalists stated shortly after his death:

“The assailants shot the journalist through the window of his study, where he was working on an article, and threw a grenade into the home before fleeing the premises. The attack occurred during curfew hours in a high-security zone in central Jaffna town.”

“Local journalists suspect that Nimalarajan's reporting on vote-rigging and intimidation in Jaffna during the recent parliamentary elections may have led to his murder.”

The government aligned paramilitary group the EPDP are suspected of carrying out the killing.

Sri Lankan cabinet spokesperson and government minister Rajitha Senaratne reiterated that there are no political prisoners being kept in Sri Lankan jails, reports the Daily Mirror.

Speaking to reporters at the weekly cabinet news briefing, Mr Senaratne stated that prisoners who have been involved in “terrorist activities during and after the conflict” would be prosecuted as soon as possible.

He added that some of the prosecutions would be “fast tracked” where the Attorney-General felt there is “strong evidence” against the accused.

The leader of the Janatha Sewaka Party declared he was willing to join forces with any other political party in Sri Lanka to defeat a UN Human Rights Council resolution on accountability for violations of international humanitarian law.

“I can’t remain silent when such resolution is destroying our independent state,” said Somawansa Amarasinghe, who added that he was open to the idea of partnering with the National Freedom Front.

Stating that the resolution has “violated even the UN convention”, Mr Amarasinghe said “this propaganda is handled by separatists because such global organisation is not supposed to adopt country-specific resolutions violating the country’s sovereignty and Constitution”. 

2nd Lead Updated 22.30 BST 22 Oct 2015

The government’s report on the Second Mandate of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry Into Complaints of Abductions and Disappearances, highlighting that “the duty to prosecute in all circumstances has not yet crystalised into an international norm,” said  “it would also be possible to provide for amnesties from prosecution under national law.”

Noting that the US Secretary of State Jon Kerry on his visit to Sri Lanka “made no reference to war crimes prosecutions, the report suggested that a Truth and Reconciliation with amnesties could also be a possibility. The commission added that if there had been a conclusion of genocide “a criminal investigation with a view to prosecution was unavoidable.”

The report on the Presidential Commission of Inquiry into complaints of Abductions and Disappearances, also known as the Paranagama report contains detailed rejection of the allegations against Sri Lanka's military that it deliberately shelled no fire zones and hospitals.

The report conceded that some of the allegations of war crimes committed are credible, as reported by Channel 4 yesterday, however rationalised the killing of civilians as necessary to end the war.

"The resolve of the Government to end the conflict, even when faced with the unpalatable choice of killing or injuring civilians in the vicinity of LTTE artillery batteries, and other legitimate targets is likely to have saved many more civilian lives and those of the armed forces by bringing the war to a close," the report says.

US Secretary of State said that major gains have been made on democracy in Sri Lanka and highlighted US involvement in several countries.

Speaking at an event in Washington, where he received Foreign Policy magazine's Diplomat of the Year Award, Mr Kerry said,

"I believe that nations obviously – and I’m sure you do – are driven above all by their interests. I think we try to make certain that we’re driven by interests and values simultaneously, and sometimes the interest just overwhelms the value and sometimes the value is foremost and the interests may not be as great,