The Sri Lankan government has issued 50 birth certificates, 130 citizenship certificates and 60 passports to Tamil refugees at a camp in Rameswaran, Tamil Nadu, reports the Hindu.

The Deputy High Commissioner, RKMA Rajakaruna, said:

Adding to the chorus of Sinhala voices calling for the 13th Amendment to be abolished, the JHU and the now infamous Minister of Construction, Engineering Services, Housing and Common Amenities, Wimal Weerawansa, joined in.

In a letter to President Rajapaksa, Weerawamsa, requested that a referendum be held to repeal the provincial council system, stating that the system was introduced without the public consent through the Indo-Lanka Accord of 1987.

Meanwhile the JHU's deputy leader, Udaya Gammanpila, told the SundayTimes.lk that the party plans to launch a campaign to repeal it, adding, the "13th Amendment is harmful to the government and, therefore, it should be abolished. This will bring an end to a series of problems."

Extract of Gammanpila's comments to the SundayTimes.lk:

‘Our party has requested the government to abolish the 13th Amendment to the Constitution. We have done this because the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has based all its arguments on devolution of powers as well as ideas of separatism based on the 13th Amendment.

“The TNA has resorted to action in the courts based on this 13th Amendment. The judiciary is helpless as this is now part of the Constitution. The existence of this Amendment is an obstacle to the development of the country. Whenever the country tries to move forward the issue of this amendment is brought forward stalling the progress. The 13th Amendment is harmful to the government and, therefore, it should be abolished. This will bring an end to a series of problems.

As concerns are raised about four Tamil Nadu fishermen who never returned home after setting off on Saturday night, fishermen in Tamil Nadu spoke to the Times of India, of the relentless alleged attacks by the Sri Lankan Navy.

Adding to recent unsubstantiated claims by the Sri Lankan government that it is talking to the Tamil diaspora, the Minister Keheliya Rambukwella explained that it was a government strategy to use the recently freed former LTTE commander, Selvarasa Pathmanathan or KP to forge "constructive dialogue" with the Tamil diaspora.

British authorities are set to deport 60 failed asylum seekers to Sri Lanka on Tuesday the 23rd of October, according to reports.

A specially chartered plane is set to take the asylum seekers to Sri Lanka, departing from an undisclosed terminal at Heathrow Airport reported Ceylon Today.

A court in Chennai has refused to revoke a non-bailable arrest warrant for Sri Lankan Minister of Traditional Industries & Small Enterprise Development, Douglas Devananda.

Douglas is wanted in India for the shooting and killing of a lawyer in Chennai in 1986 and has been wanted for murder in the country since.

The JVP reiterated their stance that the 13th Amendment to the constitution will not provide a solution to the 'ethnic issue', reports Colombo Page.

In a meeting with a senior Sri Lankan Government official, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stressed the need for a political solution that addressed the underlying factors behind the country’s civil war, despite the Sri Lankan official’s attempts to highlight that ‘progress’ had been made by the Sri Lankan government on resettlement issues.

The US Embassy in Colombo has expressed concern over Sri Lanka’s Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) resettlement programme.

A press release by the embassy welcomed the government’s speedy resettlement of a large number of IDPs, but noted concern about resettlement on land “without adequate shelter, water and sanitation”.