The presidential candidate for the United National Party (UNP) Sajith Premadasa has pledged to protect accused war criminal Shavendra Silva “no matter what”, at a rally in Homagama this weekend.

"No matter what pressures, I will protect Shavendra Silva and he will continue as the Army Commander,” declared Premadasa.

Former Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa paid a Deepavali visit to Batticaloa prison to see his associate and paramilitary leader Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan, who is currently in remand for the 2005 assassination of Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP Joseph Pararajasingham.

Tamil families of the disappeared in Vavuniya continued their protest for the 981st day.

Protesters boycotted Deepavali celebrations to continue the rally.

"How can we celebrate festivals when we don't know if our children are dead or alive?" protesters said. "We have been on the road here every day, for New Year, Deepavali, Christmas. We will be here until we have answers."

The Tamil National Alliance’s leader R Sampanthan said that the Tamil people wanted “credible and durable power-sharing” in comments made to The Hindu this week, ahead of Sri Lanka’s presidential elections.

British troops from the Royal Air Force (RAF) were training Sri Lankan troops in Trincomalee last week, as the UK continues its military engagement with Sri Lanka despite concerns over human rights abuses.

An RAF Force Protection team delivered “a bespoke Force Protection Executives Course” to a Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) Regiment, according to an RAF press release.

The Swiss government hosted a workshop with Tamil diaspora members from around the world last week, to discuss transitional justice initiatives and processes.

The conference, organised by the Human Security Division of the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, saw Tamil diaspora members gather in Zurich “to discuss potential contributions of the Tamil diaspora to Dealing with the Past initiatives and processes,” said a Swiss government statement.

“Switzerland has been supporting Dealing with the Past efforts for several years,” the statement continued.