"Regarding: Seeking UN monitored international independent inquiry into forced disappearances and abductions.

We the committees of the disappearance from the North and East, write to you as representatives of the collective body, that still seek justice. We do not trust any mechanism created locally which in the past has not delivered justice to the survivors.

“We are regularly discussing Sri Lanka with a range of international partners in the run-up to the next session of the Human Rights Council in March”.

“we will continue to press the Sri Lankan Government for credible, transparent and independent investigations into alleged war crimes”.

Sri Lanka’s Plantation Industries Minister Mahinda Buddhadasa Samarasinghe has said that he will present the findings from the census in Geneva during the UN Human Rights Council session in March.

The government announced the census last year and said it would be used to ascertain the real number of people who died during the conflict.

“We have a big challenge in March. We are ready to face any challenge,”

“We will neither betray the nation nor our gallant troops.”

The Inter University Students’ Union has complained that the government spent more money on the Kotelawala Defence University (KDU), than on all other universities combined, reported ColomboPage earlier this month.

IUSF Convener, Sanjeeva Bandara explained that the government has allocated Rs10.144bn to state universities while allocating Rs17.311bn to the KDU this year.

The United States has announced it is supporting the Bar Association of Sri Lanka’s program entitled “Civil Society Initiatives to Support the Rule of Law”, signing a Memorandum of Understanding at the US Embassy in Colombo on Thursday.

The sponsorship, through US Agency for International Development, will see support for the three-year program, which will “foster further linkages between the Sri Lanka Bar and U.S. state bar association” according to an embassy press release.