The Tamil Nadu Film Director's Association (TNFDA) announced on Sunday that it would be holding a hunder strike on Tuesday to protest against the genocide of Eelam Tamils.

In a statement that TNFDA Secretary and filmaker, Ammer Sultan, said:

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa has called upon the Indian government to not only support the upcoming resolution on Sri Lanka at the UNHRC, but to strengthen it and call for an international independent investigation into war crimes.

In a letter addressed to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Jayalalithaa stated,

The Sri Lankan High Commissioner for India, Prasada Kariyawasam, said that the protests by Tamil Nadu students were a 'form of terrorism'.

Speaking to CNN-IBN, Kariyawasam said:

A senior military commander of the Sri Lankan Army has claimed that not a single person was in their custody.

"As a high-ranking officer of the army, I can say with authority that the persons claimed to be missing are not in the army camps,” Vanni Security Force Commander, Major General Boniface Perera said, according to the DailyMirror.

“There are no unaccounted persons at all,” he told media at Camp Joseph in the Vanni.

“I don’t think a solution could be found by staging demonstrations, carrying banners and blaming the army and the govt. They just need to come to the nearby camps and find out for themselves.

See here for the Financial Times' comment on the opening of Hambantota airport and Sri Lanka's China links.

The new Chinese President Xi Jinping has assured President Rajapakse that his country would continue to support efforts to protect Sri Lanka’s sovereignty, reported the DailyMirror.

During a phone call on Saturday, Rajapakse congratulated President Xi and thanked him for China’s assistance in rebuilding the country.

Sri Lanka has rejected a request by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression to visit the island, reported ColomboPage.

"I'm confident that if phrases in the UN resolution sought credible independent international probe, India would support it," 

Addressing the UN Human Rights Council during the general debate on Friday, Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, the leader of the TNPF who was representing the NGO International Educational Development, called for "we call for the establishment of a transitional administration, under international supervision, in the North and East of Sri Lanka – the traditional homeland of the Tamils – as an urgent measure to stop the on-going destruction of the Tamil people."

See here. Reproduced in full below:

'International Educational Development has followed the progress of the UPR since its inception. Now, in its second cycle we note a decided failure of some States to implement the recommendations of the first review - as is glaringly apparent in the second review of Sri Lanka.

The review of Sri Lanka also demonstrates the paucity of opportunities for a people, such as the Tamil people, who identify as a collective political entity – that is as a Nation - based on historical independence, ethnicity, language and customs to be heard and taken into account. Their genuine grievances and aspirations are reduced to mere individual human rights problems rather than the destruction of their Nation. Sadly, except for one statement made by Austria concerning the rape of Tamil women, the Tamils as a people are not even named—the UPR is “de-Tamilized” to the point that, anyone not fully cognizant of the facts of the 65 year long Tamil-Sinhala conflict would not even know who is to be a party to “reconciliation.”

Addressing the UN Human Rights Council during Sri Lanka's UPR review, Mario Arulthas of the NGO Liberation called on the Council "to establish an independent, international Commission of Inquiry (COI).

See here. Reproduced in full below:

Thank you Mr. President, and the working group for facilitating Sri Lanka’s Universal Periodic Review.

Sri Lanka’s first UPR in 2008 began shortly before the height of the armed conflict: a period in which a UN Panel of Experts found credible allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity. An estimated 70,000 Tamil civilians are believed to have been killed in a matter of months during this time period, primarily attributed to the actions of the Sri Lankan military.

Nearly 4 years later, giving the government of Sri Lanka “time and space” for domestic processes has failed to advance peace or reconciliation in the traditionally Tamil North and East of Sri Lanka.

Addressing the UN Human Rights Council during Sri Lanka's UPR review session, the US ambassador Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe expressed disappointment at the overwhelming rejection of recommendations by Sri Lanka.

In statement, Donahoe said:

'We welcome the Government’s statement of its intention to accept recommendations to combat gender-based violence, to carry out an independent and credible investigation into the allegations of violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, and to strengthen the independence of institutions, including the Human Rights Commission, Police Commission, and Election Commission.

During the review, a number of States called for the implementation of the recommendations of Sri Lanka’s own Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC).  We are disappointed that the Government rejected all UPR recommendations from States that called upon it to implement the LLRC recommendations.

Further, the Sri Lankan delegation attempted to reframe Sri Lanka’s human rights commitments in terms of the government’s National Plan of Action, which does not address the broad spectrum of recommendations put forward by the LLRC report, and by lobbying other delegations to revise their UPR recommendations to exclude reference to the LLRC report after they had been orally presented.

Major changes were made to the substance of recommendations after the interactive dialogue. This is inconsistent with the transparent, interactive character of the UPR. 

The Tamil Nadu government has ordered indefinite closure of colleges across the state in response to students of more than 40 colleges joining calls for a war crimes investigation in Sri Lanka.

University examinations have also been postponed indefinitely.

Human Rights Watch slammed Sri Lanka's rejection of nearly half of all proposed UPR recommendations, including one that was to implement the government's own LLRC recommendations.

See here for full statement. Extract reproduced below: