Families of the disappeared in Vavuniya paid tribute to a Tamil political prisoner who passed away after 26 years of imprisonment, as they marked over 1,050 days of protest last week.

Sellapillai Mahendran was arrested as a teenager during a round-up in Batticaloa on September 27, 1993. He passed away last week after 26 years of imprisonment, based on a false confession produced following a month of torture in detention. 

Tamil Guardian's Batticaloa-based correspondent S Nilanthan has been charged and told to appear in court next week over his reporting on alleged corruption with regards to a local government official.

Nilanthan had been reporting on Tamil-language news platforms on corruption allegations made about the Chenkalady divisional secretary (DS). He had also covered a protest against the DS outside the Divisional Secretariat, carried out by local residents.

Sri Lanka’s prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa claimed that countries were "angry with our armed forces,” as he addressed new troops at a passing out parade in the south last month.

The prime minister, who stands accused of overseeing war crimes during his previous term as president of Sri Lanka, went on to state that the Sri Lankan military should be “proud” of its record.

A Tamil journalist who was murdered by the Sri Lankan army in 1985 was commemorated by his family, colleagues and community members in Amparai last week.

Ganapathipillai Devaraja was arrested in a Sri Lankan military roundup on December 25 1985, and assassinated at the Vattuvan army camp. He was working as a journalist for Virakesari at the time.

Sri Lankan police in plain clothing entered the house of a Tamil Guardian correspondent in Batticaloa, purportedly to arrest him, and threatened his family when it was discovered he was not at home.

Police forcibly entered the home of journalist S Nilanthan on Thursday night at around 9.10pm. Since Nilanthan was not at the house, police threatened his family and warned them to tell Nilanthan to appear at Eravur police station the following morning.

The journalist’s family have been left in fear that the police refused to provide reasons for seeking Nilanthan’s arrest, and that they appeared at night and in plain clothing.

More to follow.

A former Sri Lankan intelligence officer, who had previously evaded arrest over the abduction and disappearance of 11 youths and the assassination of an MP, has been released on bail this week.

Lieutenant Commander Chandana Prasad Hettiarachchi alias 'Navy Sampath' was in remand custody  over  the abduction of the eleven Tamil youth from 2008 to 2009, who were held in navy bases at Trincomalee and Colombo before being almost certainly murdered. He was also wanted in connection with the 2006 murder of Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian Nadarajah Raviraj.

The head of the Sri Lankan army warned that the military must be prepared to face “any internal or external threats” in an address to troops on New Year’s Day.

“We all should determine to attach the highest degree of priority to the enforcement of National Security needs at all times while being prepared to face any internal or external threats upon receipt of proper training and continued exercises,” said Shavendra Silva, who is accused of overseeing a litany of war crimes.

Sri Lanka’s president Gotabaya Rajapaksa vowed to “protect and nurture the Buddha Sasana” in an address to parliament this morning, where he called for changes to be made to the Sri Lankan constitution in order to safeguard “security, sovereignty, stability and integrity”.

In his speech, Rajapaksa outlined policies for his tenure and repeatedly referred to defending Sri Lanka’s “sovereignty” and "Buddhist values".

Sri Lanka’s Tamils who are “concentrated in the country’s north say the area still suffers from a lack of development, despite promises by its new President Gotabaya Rajapaksa,” Charles Stratford reports for Al Jazeera.

A decade on from the end of the armed conflict, “government promises of investment have all failed to materialise.”

Gotabaya is “deeply distrusted” by Tamils due to his role as the Defence Secretary in 2009, where he oversaw the military offensive that killed tens of thousands of Tamils.