The European Union has agreed to fund counter-terrorism training provided by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) despite on-going human rights concerns.

Troels Vester, a representative of UNODC Sri Lanka and Maldives, announced the training on Twitter, specifying that the training would range from “human rights to successful convictions”.

Sri Lankan troops involved themselves in Thai Pongal festivities on 14 January, in Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu, in an attempt to “strengthen reconciliation efforts between the Sri Lanka Army soldiers and civilians,” regardless of mounting criticism over the increased militarisation throughout the North-East.

The Sri Lankan state portrays those arrested for allegedly committing terror offences, to date mainly Tamils, and after the Easter attacks also Muslims, as guilty from the point of arrest, writes Ambika Satkunananthan in GroundViews.

Keheliya Rambukwella, a Sri Lankan cabinet spokesman told reporters that he does not consider the proposal to enforce military training for youth above the age in 18 in Sri Lanka as “militarisation of the nation”.

Responding to questions raised by journalists, Rambukwella instead claimed “many highly democratic countries, such as the US and England have implemented military training for their youths”.

This week public security minister Weerasekera said he would propose to parliament the introduction of mandatory military training for youths over the age of 18. The proposal follows a pattern of increased military involvement and influence within the public sphere.

The Sri Lankan president has announced the appointment of yet another Commission of Inquiry, purportedly to investigate the findings of all previous human rights commissions and committees created by the Sri Lankan government.

The new commission dedicated to “finding closure to burning issues” follows several failed attempts, including the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission and the Presidential Commission to Investigate Complaints Regarding Missing Persons (Parangama Commission report).

Britain's Minister of State for the Foreign and Commonwealth, Lord Tariq Ahmad, has raised concerns with Sri Lanka’s foreign minister, Dinesh Gunawardena, over Sri Lanka’s continued policy of forced cremations and inability to deliver justice and accountability.

On Twitter, Lord Ahmad stated:

Religious leaders urged the Sri Lankan president Gotabaya Rajapaksa to release all the Tamil political prisoners and grant them amnesty as the increasing threat of COVID-19 in prisons threatens their welfare.

As leaders around the world congratulate Joe Biden on assuming office as the 46^th President of The United States, the head of Sri Lanka’s army who remains barred from travel to the USA over his role in overseeing the execution of Tamils, delivered his own message to the American leader.

“I express my heartiest congratulations on your acceding to the highest cachet in the World (sic),” wrote Shavendra Silva on Twitter.

The destruction of the Mullivaikkal monument at the University of Jaffna on January 8 is an erasure of collective memory, writes Thamil Venthan Ananthavinayagan in The Diplomat.

Ananthavinayagan, a lecturer in public international law writes:

As US President Joe Biden looks to take up duties this week, Victoria Nuland is set to serve as his Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs – a figure who in her previous role as State Department spokesperson commented extensively on Sri Lanka and calls for an internationalised accountability process.

Nuland is set to become the State Department’s third highest ranking official, serving under Antony Blinken and Wendy Sherman, both of whom have also commented on Sri Lanka in the past.

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