The Indian Minister of State in Prime Minister's Office (PMO) V Narayanasamy has stated that "there is still time" to decide on India's attendance at the upcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, due to be held in Sri Lanka in November 2013.

The World Bank has provided Sri Lanka with a concessionary loan of $200 million to support the public health system on the island.

"Investing in further improvement of the health system will be a critical pre-requisite for Sri Lanka's vision as reflected in the Mahinda Chintana," Country Director of World Bank in Sri Lanka Diarietou Gaye said according to ColomboPage.

The Indian External Affairs Minister, Salman Khurshid, acknowledged the sentiments of those supportive of the resolution by the Tamil Nadu Assembly regarding the Eelam Tamil issue, however, rejected its demands outright.

Speaking in an interview with CNN-IBN, Khurshid said:

In an emergency vigil on Friday, Australians gathered outside the Broadmeadows Immigration Detention Centre in Melbourne and protested against the indefinite detention of the Tamil asylum seeker Selva.

Thirty-seven year old Selva, or Sivaloganathan Kulachelvan, has been in detention for 37 months. Selva who has sewn his lips together in act of desperation, wrote a heart-wrenching open letter, outlining his plea for release where he calls himself as a "a worthless human being" and describes his sorrow at being away from his wife and daughter.

Selva's letter:

DEAR CITIZENS OF AUSTRALIA,

THE STORY OF MY LIFE IN DETENTION - A WORTHLESS HUMAN BEING

Please let me relate my story in the hope that I could solicit your support to bring some meaning to my life. At present, after 37 months in detention, I feel that I am "a worthless human being", to my beloved wife and daugthter; a daughter, who I have not seen, except in photographs.

I was able to share my love and affection with my wife for eleven (11) months, who I left when she was two months pregnant. I was not there to give her hand through her pregnancy, nor did I have the opportunity to be at her side when giving birth, and the opportunity to hold my daughter when she was born.

My beloved daughter is now two and half (2 1/2) years old, and has not had the opportunity of a cuddle, nor the warm embrace of a father; all she only hears is my voice intertwined with emotional cries of my unfailing love for her. After my daily calls to my beloved wife and daughter, I stay awake in bed unable to sleep. There are days when my emotions become uncontrollable, and I cry fulfilled with the shame that I have become "a worthless human being", and not a husband to my wife and a father to my daughter. These days bring mixed messages to my mind, where I think; death would be better.

The 37 months in detention has physically and mentally affected me to function as a normal human being, as detailed in the report by my Counsellor at Foundation House. This is a true reflection of a humang being affected by 37 months in detention in combination with the effects of war in Sri Lanka.

Updated: 02:15 30/03/2013

A Muslim owned store in Colombo came under attack by a violent mob lead by Buddhists monks in Colombo on Thursday night.

Buddhists monks were filmed hurling stones at the ‘Fashion Bug’ store in the centre of Colombo, to cheers from crowds as policemen stood by.

The Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation denied claims by the BBC that it had interfered in the broadcasts of Tamil programmes.

"We have not jammed the programme or edited it," chairman Hudson Samarasinghe told AFP.

"They stopped the feed. They have not informed me why they did it," he said.

The Sri Lankan government should begin by investigating Deputy Minister Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan or Karuna, asserted Human Rights Watch on Thursday.

Statement:

'The Sri Lankan government should act on the call by a government deputy minister to investigate war crimes by examining his own role in serious abuses.

Addressing a group of American Sri Lankans who were visiting Temple Trees on Tuesday, the Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa reminded them of what is expected of them: 'unstinting support from all Sri Lankans living abroad'.

He added that 'Sri Lanka needs not only the support of the expatriate community but also of the diaspora community to overcome the anti-Sri Lankan forces in the international arena.'

See here for a press release by the Sri Lankan embassy in the USA.

Sri Lanka is facing a constitutional crisis following the impeachment of the Chief Justice concluded a report by the International Bar Association's Human Rights Institute, which was released on Thursday.

In an interview to the Times of India, Alan Keenan of the International Crisis Group (ICG) outlined the Sri Lankan government's litany of failings to make progress on reconciliation or accountability.

Highlighting that "Tamils have long suffered from a denial of their collective right to self-rule within a united Sri Lanka", Keenan added that "these problems have continued and, in some ways, grown worse since the end of the war."

See interview here. Reproduced in full below:

Q: According to the ICG, how is Sri Lanka`s consolidation of power impacting the process of post-war reconciliation?

KEENAN: There is no process of reconciliation or accountability and the government has made no attempt to remedy the long-standing poli-tical marginalisation of Tamils. It has made it clear it has no intention to devolve meaningful power to Tamil and Muslim areas in the north and east. It has refused to acknowledge the terrible suffering of Tamils and the loss of civilian lives in the last stages of the war, focussing only on the sacrifices of government troops.

Also, it has refused to conduct any independent investigations into alleged war crimes by government and LTTE forces or other violations of human rights suffered by members of all of Sri Lanka's communities. The further concentration of power in the Rajapaksa family and the executive, achieved through the impeachment of the chief justice, will make reconciliation and accountability even harder.

Q: What does such a situation mean for minority rights?

KEENAN: The rights of Tamils and Muslims are under grave threat. Tamils have long suffered from a denial of their collective right to self-rule within a united Sri Lanka as well as from a regular denial of many of their individual civil and political rights. These problems have continued and, in some ways, grown worse since the end of the war.

Sri Lankan cricketers should boycott the Indian Premier League (IPL) demanded the JHU (Jathika Hela Urumaya) and the National Buddhist Council, handing over a petition to Sri Lankan cricket's governing body on Thursday.

The chairperson of the National Buddhist Council, Rajawatte Wappa Thero, said:

In an interview with the BBC Sinhala service, US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, Robert O. Blake said that the US worked very closely with India in drafting the resolution, passed last week at the UN Human Rights Council.

Interview With BBC Sinhala Service - US State Department

Please see below for excerpts, for interview in full click here.

Question: [W]ith regard to the resolution passed yesterday, Indian media reports say that U.S. vetoed a last minute attempt by the Indian government to bring in some resolutions, some amendments, especially calling for some international involvement in monitoring LLR’s implementation. Is that true?

Blake: Well let me just say with respect to India that we worked very closely with India throughout the process and we indeed welcomed some of the changes that India made. So we were quite satisfied with the cooperation that we had with India, and I think going forward it will be very important for all of the international community to continue to work with India to encourage progress, since India has quite a lot of influence on the island.

Question: Did India propose any amendments at the last moment?

Blake: Like I said, we consulted closely throughout the entire process.

Question: Right.

The original draft proposed by the United States was in the opinion of observers was pretty much toned down at the last moment. Is that because of Indian influence?

Blake: I reject that premise. I don’t think that it was toned down in any way. I think it remains a very fair and balanced text that again reaffirms that Sri Lanka had to take meaningful action on reconciliation and accountability.

The UN Human Rights Council resolution on Sri Lanka last week rightly invoked mixed sentiments. On the one hand, the passing of the second resolution in two years and the advocacy efforts that accompanied it underlined that Sri Lanka remains firmly on the international agenda and that the coalition of state and non-state actors pursuing accountability for the slaughter of tens of thousands and continuing rights abuses is expanding. On the other hand, the quest for consensus on the Council, and in particular the support of India, resulted in a significant weakening of the resolution’s force and the introduction, as Delhi’s pound of flesh, of elements deeply antithetical to the goals of accountability and justice, and injurious to the political aspirations of the Tamil nation.