Several thousand Sri Lankan soldiers attended a military talent show held at the occupying military base in Jaffna this week, as the army continued its decades-long militarisation of the region.

The Sri Lankan and Indian armies engaged in joint visits last month, with troops from both militaries touring each region as relations between them continue to grow despite reports of continued human rights abuses.

Hill Country Development Minister Lakshman Kiriella has admitted that Sri Lanka’s biased education system with inaccurate historical accounts are being taught to propagate ethnic hatred. 

In the minister’s statement, he claimed that ancient Sri Lankan kings were not nationalists and that Tamils and Muslims were “relatives” of the Sinhalese as opposed to foreign invaders. 

A Tamil newspaper distributor was arrested by the Sri Lankan army in Mullaitivu for possessing newspapers with photos of the LTTE leader Veluppillai Prabhakaran on the cover.

The distributor of a Tamil weekly was arrested and handed over to Oddusuddan police after being stopped and searched on the Oddusuddan-Nedunkeni road by the army.

The Vavuniya High Court has placed an injunction on works being carried out to a Hindu temple in Mullaitivu, following a Sinhala Buddhist monk’s appeal against a magistrate’s court ruling in favour of the temple.

The Sri Lankan military consolidated its presence in Jaffna this week, announcing the completed construction of yet another building at the army headquarters.

The Church of St Peter at Navaly commemorated over 140 Tamil civilians killed in its premises by Sri Lankan Air Force bombs 24 years ago during the presidency of Chandrika Kumaratunga.

On July 9 1995, the Sri Lankan Air Force bombed the St Peter’s Church in Navaly and the nearby Sri Kathirgama Murugan Kovil, which were both sheltering displaced Tamils from army bombardment.

Sri Lanka’s Criminal Investigations Department (CID) concluded that there is “no justification” for the arrest of a Muslim doctor accused of sterilising Sinhala women, yet the man continues to be held in custody.

The acquittal of Sri Lankan Special Task Force (STF) troops over the murder of five Tamil students in 2006 demonstrates the need for “a court with international participation” said Human Rights Watch in a joint statement with Amnesty International on Monday.

Both Sri Lanka and Myanmar are “on the forefront of a radical religious-nationalist movement,” said Hannah Beech, the Southeast Asia Bureau Chief for The New York Times this week, in a piece that looked at the growing “militant Buddhism” in both regions. 

A Sri Lankan navy officer accused of aiding a key suspect involved in the abduction and murder of 11 Tamil youths was the guest of honour at the passing out ceremony of hundreds of Sri Lankan Special Forces troops last month.

Admiral Ravindra C. Wijegunaratne, Sri Lanka’s Chief of Defence Staff, was given a special guard of honour at the ceremony and awarded Special Forces badges and Colours to troops, before addressing the crowd.

Sri Lanka’s most notorious hardline Buddhist monk, the recently pardoned from jail Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara, has called on Sri Lanka’s 10,000 Buddhist temples to campaign for a Sinhala government to protect Sinhala interests.