Sri Lanka High Commissioner to Pakistan, vice-admiral Mohan Wijewickrema, has held discussions with Pakistan’s Navy chief Admiral Amjad Niazi over maritime security and bilateral cooperation.

Meeting with Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner to the UK, Saroja Sirisena, UK Trade Minister, Mervyn Davies raised concerns over Sri Lanka’s policy of forced cremations and denial of religious rights to Muslims.

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has spoken out against Sri Lanka’s policy of forced cremations, describing it as “violation of their fundamental rights”.

TNA spokesman M.A. Sumanthiran released a statement maintaining that:

“The denial of the right of the Muslim people to dispose of their dead bodies in keeping with the tenets of their religion is a violation of their fundamental right and should not continue,”

Art by Shaumya

Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian Shanakiyan Rajaputhiran Rasamanickam told Sri Lanka’s parliament that Tamil voices would ‘not be destroyed’ in a fiery address earlier this month, as refought off several interruptions from Sinhala lawmakers.

Tamil lawmakers from across the different political parties have written to Sri Lanka’s president, calling for the release of Tamil political prisoners.

The parliamentarians, 15 from across the island and from various political parties, said that more than 80 political prisoners had been arrested from 1994 until 2009 and “are being confined for a long period in prisons”.

Amongst them are those who have been “detained without any judicial trial” said the letter.

The Indo-Lanka accord “is no longer valid” proclaimed Sri Lanka’s Minister of Public Security and Rajapaksa enthusiast Sarath Weerasekara this week as he once more spoke out against the devolution of powers on the island.

The accord, which stated Sri Lanka is “a multiethnic and multilingual society” and that the “Northern and Eastern provinces are areas of historic habitation of the Tamil -speaking people” led Sri Lanka to bring about the 13th Amendment to the constitution, which pledged to devolve power to a merged North-East.

Sri Lanka’s foreign secretary said that his government believes “once you are a terrorist, you are always a terrorist,” as he spoke to Business World about reconciliation on the island last month.

"One thing we have to understand, reconciliation can not be forced,” said Admiral Jayanath Colombage, when asked about whether his government would devolve power to the Tamil provinces on the island.

“There can not be a good terrorist and a bad terrorist, right?” he continued “Once you are a terrorist, you are always a terrorist. That is what we believe in. We have suffered immensely because of terrorism and we don’t want to suffer any more. And we don’t want to promote terrorism, or at least see promotion of terrorism in any part of the world.”

Several Tamil Nadu fishermen were arrested by the Sri Lankan navy this week, causing a stir in Rameshwaram as fishermen protested against the detentions.

The United States, Russia and India have also sent messages of congratulations to Sri Lanka’s navy as it marked its 70th anniversary this week, despite the decades of human rights violations carried out by Sri Lanka’s security forces.

“In the backdrop of terrorist activities started by the LTTE in early 1980s, the Navy, which had hitherto been in charge of ceremonial duties, turned into full-fledged operations,” said the Sri Lankan navy in a message posted on its official website.