“The growing number of Buddhist temples in the area, the militarization of the north and the fact that there are new Sinhalese settlements in many areas of the North shows what the Defence Secretary wants to do is to change the demographic patterns of the Northern province”.

According to reports there has been a heavy military presence surrounding Jaffna University since Monday night.

See here and here.

A delegation of British Conservative MPs is expected to visit Jaffna to look at concerns about high levels of military personnel, reported the Daily Mirror.

In a statement released on Tuesday, Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged the UK government to "immediately suspend deportations of ethnic Tamil asylum seekers to Sri Lanka and review its policies in assessing these claims" and highlighted that the next scheduled deporation is due to take place on Thursday.

Iran invited Sri Lanka's president, Mahinda Rajapaksa to Tehran on Tuesday, to attend the 16th summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in August 2012, reported the Colombo Page.

The invitation by Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was delivered by the Iranian deputy minister of foreign affairs, Abbas Aranghchi, whilst on an official visit to Sri Lanka where he met his counterpart, Neomal Perara.

The pro-government newspaper, The Island, reported on Monday, that the external affairs minister, G.L. Peiris "summoned" the British High Commissioner John Rankin, to "protest against the UK envoy contradicting President Mahinda Rajapaksa's Victory Day speech".

The newspaper added,

The World Bank will lend more than twice as much to Sri Lanka over the next 12 months from July, reports Bloomberg.

Sri Lanka will receive $500 million during that period. Bloomberg reports that currently, Sri Lanka borrows $200 million annually under concessionary terms.

"Why should be that? Why should be that? If you are a Sri Lankan citizen you must be able to go and buy the properties from anywhere."

“Don’t get angry! Usually I get angry, so you don’t get angry. Ok don’t get angry. I am the secretary of defence, I have investigated this. You don’t take the words from these people, take the word from me.

"All this we have stopped... but you don't talk about that. You are supporting the terrorist cause!"

“I don’t know. You have to ask the President. I am not interested! I have not known any of these things. I have a lot of work to do… you can see I am not sleeping…"

“I don’t know … I don’t know! I don’t want to comment! I will stop the interview if you continue with this!”

The largest party in the Tamil National Alliance, the Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi, has called for the merging of the Northern and Eastern provinces into one administrative unit at its annual General Council meeting.

The meeting, held ahead of Sunday’s 14th annual convention, also resolved to call for an end to state-sponsored colonisation schemes, equal rights for the Tamil people and for progress in resettlement and development, in both the North and East.