The leader of the Labour Party, Ed Miliband, challenged Sri Lanka’s new president, Maithripala Sirisena, on the ongoing military presence and the plight of political prisoners.

During a meeting with Shadow Foreign Secretary Douglas Alexander, Mr Sirisena and Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera, Mr Miliband highlighted the “extreme importance” of the diaspora and said there was “deep unhappiness” in the Tamil community regarding the atrocities committed during the armed conflict.

Northern Provincial Council Chief Minister C. V. Wigneswaran said the 13th Amendment “can never be the final solution” in Sri Lanka and called on the visiting India Prime Minister Narendra Modi to “ensure maximum power sharing for the North and East” ahead of his visit to Jaffna.

“We know we have a friend in him,” said Mr Wigneswaran, in an interview to The Hindu, stating Mr Modi was a “proponent and an advocate of devolution.”

“We appreciate his concerns for us, in wanting to come to the North,” he continued. “We would recommend to him that it is time to reconsider the 13th Amendment, which was a fall out from the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord of 1987 and to replace it with a more dynamic system, which would ensure maximum power sharing for the North and East.”

Mr Wigneswaran added that “the path to ultimate settlement is going to be long and arduous”, stating the “thirteenth Amendment can never be the final solution”.

India should support a United Nations investigation into mass atrocities that took place in Sri Lanka, said Northern Provincial Council member M. K. Shivajilingam in a letter Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi ahead of his visit to Jaffna this week.

The UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman said there are now greater expectations of Sri Lanka and encouraged the government to take immediate, feasible steps.

Speaking on his return from the island, Mr Feltman told reporters at the United Nations headquarters in New York that accountability must addres grievances in the North.

“The meetings and talks with the Government of Sri Lanka are so different than they used to be, so that leads us to greater expectations…There was suffering across all Sri Lanka, every community suffered and accountability must address the grievances in the North, but also allow that all [people] in Sri Lanka feel like all their concerns are being addressed,” he said.

The Indian government has announced it will build two warships for Sri Lanka.

Minister of State for Defence Production Rao Inderjit Singh said last Saturday, Sri Lanka had placed an order for the ships.

The Indian government is reported to be keen to restart the ferry service between Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu and Thalaimannar in the North-East of the island, with expectations that Prime Minister Modi’s forthcoming visit to Sri could breathe new life into the project.

The shipping ministry will hold a meeting regarding the service, which has been suspended for over 30 years, with Ircon International, the infrastructure company under the railway ministry, to complete construction work in Talaimannar required for any vessels to dock, The Economic Times reported.

"Ircon needs to construct a wooden pier in Talaimannar based on the same design it used in Rameshawaram. The company or the Tamil Nadu Maritime Board is yet to get into action in this matter," a senior government official told the paper.

Power and Energy minister Champali Ranawaka called on India to see Sri Lanka as one unit and not focus on just the island's Tamils, in an interview with The Hindu.

“That India is a guarantor of the northern Tamil people’s rights should now be a thing of the past,” the leader of the Sinhala nationalist JHU said in an apparent reference to India’s push for devolution of powers in Sri Lanka under the 13th Amendment.

“The Sri Lankan Tamils have to cooperate with the existing government to settle their problems without dragging India in,” the minister further said.

Published 00:01 GMT
 

Writing in the Tamil Guardian today, British Prime Minister David Cameron reiterated his commitment to ensuring those responsible for war crimes in Sri Lanka are held accountable and said he would press the country's new president, Maithripala Sirisena, to deliver on his commitments, during a bilateral discussion at Downing Street this afternoon.

 

Sixteen months ago I welcomed Tamil representatives from communities here in Britain to Downing St to discuss how we could work together to address the issues of Sri Lanka’s past and put the country on the path to a brighter, peaceful and prosperous future.
 
Since then, a UN led investigation into alleged war crimes by all sides in the conflict has got underway. And the people of Sri Lanka have elected a new President who has made clear that he is fully committed to reconciliation and reform.
 
Ever since my visit to Sri Lanka in 2013 one thing has remained constant - my unwavering commitment to stand up for all those affected by what happened. I remain determined to ensure that there is accountability for the past and respect for human rights today. And that will be my message to President Sirisena when I meet with him in Downing Street today.
 

Tamil disappearances activist Jeyakumari Balendran, who was arrested and arbitrarily detained by Sri Lankan security forces almost 1 year ago, was granted bail by a court in Colombo today.

Ms Jeyakumari was released with a Rs. 200,000 surety bail and instructed that she must sign in to a police station every month. She is also subject to a travel ban, with her passport having been confiscated by Sri Lankan authorities.

Protestors had gathered outside of the courthouse in Colombo earlier today, as she arrived for her hearing, having being held in detention for 362 days.

The producers of the award-winning, Emmy-nominated documentary No Fire Zone: The Killing Fields of Sri Lanka released a version of the movie in the Sinhalese language at an event in the House of Commons in London.

A press release said the new version was a "direct challenge to the new government over its commitment to a free media".

The event, which coincided with the new Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena's visit to London, was attended by No Fire Zone Director Callum Macrae, Labour MP Siobhain McDonagh and Conservative MP Lee Scott and was also addressed by exiled Sinhalese writer Bashana Abeywardane.

“I welcome President Sirisena’s commitment to freeing the media in Sri Lanka from the censorship and repression of the Rajapaksa years,” Mr Macrae said.

Prime Minister David Cameron told President Maithripala Sirisena that meaningful engagement with the OHCHR Investigation in Sri Lanka is central to continued support from the UK, at the first meeting between the two leaders in London earlier today.

A Downing Street spokesperson said they discussed President Sirisena’s "clear plans to build lasting reconciliation across Sri Lanka, both through supporting the ongoing UN investigation and by establishing an internal mechanism to address issues from Sri Lanka’s past".