Residents of a Mannar village are facing land-grab and eviction by Sri Lanka’s Department of Wildlife Conservation.

The 22 families of Kuruvilvaan village have complained to the civil society group, Mannar Citizen’s Committee of having long faced intimidation from department officials, including their homes being trespassed upon, with the ultimate purpose of having their lands grabbed.

The Sri Lankan government must reach a political settlement with Tamils in the North-East of the island and devolve power to the provinces as a matter of urgency, said the Financial Times.

In an editorial on Sunday, the Financial Times said the new government must now deal with “several legacy issues”. It continued to say:

“Most urgent is to reach a political settlement with the minority Tamils in the north and east. They must be convinced that the Sinhalese chauvinism practised by Mr Rajapaksa is over. Power is already devolved to some extent, but this may have to go further. Any settlement must also involve a credible inquiry into the final months of the civil war in 2009 when the government launched a crushing offensive against the Tamil Tigers. Its victory involved the shelling and bombing of civilians and other alleged atrocities. The UN estimates that 40,000 civilians died in the final stretch of the war.”

Sri Lanka will sign three MoUs with Hong Kong, Thailand and Korea to promote trade and investment announced Sri Lanka’s Export Development Board (EDB) on Monday.

The Sri Lankan Criminal Investigation Department has questioned four army officers over the disappearance of journalist Prageeth Eknaligoda.

Sri Lankan media reports indicate that two Lieutenant Colonels, a Sergeant and a Corporal were being questioned over the January 2010 disappearance of the cartoonist.

Eknaligoda disappeared after his wife claimed he had uncovered evidence of the Sri Lankan Army’s use of chemical weapons against the Tamil people.

Speaking to the BBC in 2010 she said,

“In 2008, Prageeth wrote and informed the diplomats about the Sri Lankan government’s usage of chemical weapons against the people in the north.”

“I think he was abducted by people who did not like the truth.” 

Former defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa was questioned in relation to the misuse of state funds earlier today.

Britain's former prime minister Tony Blair said on Monday he would speak on behalf of Sri Lanka to help "negate misconceptions being spread" the country.

Mr Blair, who is on a private visit to the island, along with his wife Cherie Blair and his two children, met with President Maithripala Sirisena today and praised his efforts at holding "peaceful" parliamentary elections and work done towards reconciliation.

The Sinhala hard line National Freedom Front said it will take legal action against the UPFA's former general secretary, Susil Premajayantha, for preparing the coalition's nomination list. Another coalition member, the Front Line Socialist party also expressed it objections to the agreement to form a national unity government by the UPFA and the UNP-led UNFGG.

The NFF, which is led by Wimal Weerawansa, and won 5 parliamentary seats, also opposed the agreement signed by the two main parties.

Mr Weerawansa, who is a close ally of former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, received the highest number of any UPFA candidate in Colombo’s 16 polling divisions, with 313,801 preferential votes, second behind Ranil Wickremesinghe who won 500,566 preferential votes.