Sudden searches and patrols by Sri Lankan military and police forces left Vavuniya residents alarmed over the weekend.

Tamils in Jaffna protested on Saturday calling for the arrest of extremist Buddhist monk Gnanasara of the Sinhala nationalist Bodu Bala Sena organisation.

Malaysian authorities have arrested two lawmakers and give other activists for alleged links to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which continues to be listed as a “terrorist organisation” in the country.

Sri Lanka’s former defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa may evade accountability for war crimes if he wins next month’s presidential elections, warned Beth Van Schaack, stating that plaintiffs pursuing cases against him in the USA are “racing against time”.

Today marks thirty-two years since the death of 2nd Lt. Maalathy, the first female fighter of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to lose her life in the Tamil armed struggle.

Sri Lanka’s former defence secretary and a frontrunner in next month’s presidential elections, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, has vowed to free all Sri Lankan soldiers that he claimed had been imprisoned on “absurd charges”.

Demonstrations were held by Tamil families of the disappeared across the North-East last week to mark Children’s Day.

Protestors held photographs of the Tamil children and babies who had disappeared when their families surrendered to the Sri Lankan army in May 2009.

The families also sent a letter to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, urging her to investigate the fates of the disappeared children.

The Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) announced it will support former defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa in next month’s presidential election, in a landmark move this morning.

The Vice Chancellor of Jaffna University was dismissed earlier this year on “national security” grounds reports the Daily Mirror this week, with the Sri Lanka government refusing to give any further information into the incident.

Hundreds of German Tamils attended an event in Stuttgart last week, to commemorate the 32nd anniversary of the death of Lt Col Thileepan, a political wing leader of the LTTE who fasted to death in 1987, appealing to the Indian government to honour pledges made to the Tamil people.

The British High Commissioner to Colombo has announced more than £10 million in funding to Sri Lanka over the next three years for the explicit aims of long-term stability. 

Sarah Hulton, British High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, stated that these funds would further support “peacebuilding and dialogue, supporting resettlement and livelihood for displaced communities and strengthening the rule of law”.

Sri Lanka risks alienating Muslims with its response to the Easter Sunday attacks, warned the International Crisis Group (ICG), calling on Colombo to “lower communal tensions” on the island.