Former chief cricket writer at The Age (Australia), Trevor Grant has written on his experiences protesting against Sri Lanka and the intimidation tied with it.

See here for full article.

Extracts reproduced below:

"As I was... handing out leaflets to the crowd on the opening day of the Test match, I noticed a... man of Sri Lankan or Indian appearance... taking photographs of me."

"I was curious because it was obvious he wasn't a press photographer... because when I moved towards him, he ran away and tried to hide..."

"My Australian-Tamil friend, Kartheeban Arul, from the Sydney branch of the Tamil Youth Organisation, tells me that this is a regular occurrence whenever Tamils attend a protest in Australia that is directed at the Sri Lankan government. He says the Tamil community is convinced these men work for the Sri Lankan embassy. Their job is to provide identification of Tamil protesters, which is used by government security agents to harass friends and relatives back in Sri Lanka."

"It was the second time in as many protests that I saw this stalking and intimidation."

"A few days after I wrote an opinion piece in this newspaper last month, a column that argued for a boycott of the Sri Lankan cricket team by the Australian government and Cricket Australia, a man claiming to be a ''concerned citizen'' rang me on my mobile phone."

"He said I had grossly misrepresented Sri Lanka and the government treatment of the Tamils. He said it was obvious I was being seduced by terrorists. He wanted to meet me to explain the error of my ways."

"I met him for a coffee and he spoke at length to me about the wonderful place Sri Lanka had become since President Rajapaksa had killed off the Tamil Tigers (LTTE) and ended the civil war. He offered to arrange a trip for me to see all this peace and serenity for myself."

"He seemed more knowledgeable about the Sri Lankan government than the average ''concerned citizen''. I didn't have to guess any more about his links when he produced from a wad of papers a document headed: ''English translation of the document recovered from a LTTE hideout in Wanni by security forces during humanitarian operations''."

"It purported to be a document showing that a prominent Tamil activist in Australia was a member of the Tamil Tigers. I have spoken to the person whose full personal details are contained in the document. The person claims it is a fraud."

"I recently sent a letter to Foreign Minister Bob Carr asking whether he thought it was appropriate for officials from a foreign embassy to photograph Australian citizens in this manner, and other questions."

Jaffna University will resume its academic activities starting Tuesday according to media reports.

The university was virtually shut down as classes were boycotted for more than a month, with students demanding the release of four Jaffna University students held by the army.

Higher Education Minister S.B. Dissanayake threatened that Jaffna University will be closed if classes don’t resume.

“I have told the university authorities that, willingly or unwillingly, we will have to close the university, even for one year, if campus activities are not normalised.” he said.

According to Uthayan, the Higher Education Minister announced that all four detained Jaffna University students will be released before Thai Pongal.

The Sunday Times reported that Jaffna University Vice Chancellor Vasanthy Arasaratnam told the Minister that campus activities continue to operate, but students have kept away because of lack of security for them to attend classes.

Award winning musician ‘Maya' Mathangi Arulpragasam, better known as M.I.A., has spoken out against Australia’s policy on asylum seekers calling on the country to do more to help Tamil refugees.

In an interview whilst in Australia, the Grammy and Oscar-nominated artist said,

"I'd much rather take detention in Australia over detention in Sri Lanka because at least you're not going to be killed,"

"Letting people into Australia isn't going to kill anybody… Those people are not going back to a nice life. They're going to get tortured and they're going to basically live like prisoners and it's ridiculous,"

"I don't think it's about isolating those people. It's about embracing them because that's the future.''

Her next album off Interscope records entitled “Mathangi” is due to be relased on April 15th, coinciding with the Tamil New Year.

Applicants for dual citizenship will now have to face an interview panel led by none other than the Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, after having their application approved by the Immigration Department.

The panel will also include the Foreign Ministry Secretary Karunatillake Amunugama and Public Administration Secretary PB Abeykoon.

Amunugama said,

"The panel will look into criteria such as the applicant’s professional qualifications, investment capacity and the need to obtain dual citizenship. Many of the people who are seeking dual citizenship have left the country in their youth and therefore we will be closely looking at the reason for their decision.”

The Japanese government has pledged approximately 23 million Japanese Yen in donations for those affected by the floods. The assistance includes tents, plastic sheets and sleeping pads and will be distributed by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

In a statement, the Japanese embassy said:

"The People and the Government of Japan sincerely hope that this aid would contribute to improving the humanitarian situation in the affected areas, and that this disaster will be under control as early as possible."

In an effort to deal with the increasing number of foreign investors who are defaulting on loans from state banks, the Sri Lankan government has pledged an investigation - an international one.

According to Lokuge, ten garment manufacturing factories have had to close in Biyagama, Nittambuwa and Katunayake investment zones resulting in over Rs. 5 billion in losses to state banks.

The Sri Lankan Labour minister Gamini Lokuge will meet with Mahinda Rajapaksa next week to discuss what action needs to be taken.

The Sri Lankan media ministry has sent letters to websites, asking them to register and pay the fee by January 15, reported ColomboPage.

New regulations, brought in by the government last year, stipulate that websites on the island need to register and pay registration fees of Rs 25,000 and an annual fee of Rs 10,000.

In an interview with The Hindu, Antonio Guterres, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, highlighted the need to re-establish the confidence of Tamils so that they may return, whilst making a point of stressing that this return must be voluntary. 

See full interview here.  Extracts reproduced below: 

"The number of people going back to Sri Lanka has decreased substantially in the recent past. We need to look into what are the obstacles and how the two governments of India and Sri Lanka, working together can improve the conditions and create opportunities for the voluntary repatriation of the people. Voluntary is the key word here."

"More needs to be done by the governments of the country of origin, to create conditions for people to feel comfortable about considering the possibility of returning. It has to do with the living conditions, work, education, health, property and security; these are all key questions that need to be addressed for the voluntary repatriation of the people. It is very important that the governments of the country of origin do everything possible to re-establish the confidence of people. And I hope it will be also possible in the near future to intensify the voluntary repatriation of the Tamils into Sri Lanka."

"The UNHCR has been running several welfare programmes to support the people that returned and the internally displaced people of Sri Lanka. We are already cooperating with India and ready to intensify our programme in order offer our contribution to the successful operation of people going back to their homes whenever possible with safety and dignity."

The Sri Lankan government is to seek out a further loan from the International Monetary Fund after the failure of foreign investment to materialise. See LBO's report.

Interestingly, Sri Lankan Treasury Chief Punchi Banda Jayasundera said:

''We are asking the IMF to extend budget support ... That money cannot go the central bank.''

IMF loans are usually extended to central banks when countries run into balance of payments problems - meaning they can't meet their external obligations, such as paying in dollars for imports. See here.

Sri Lanka is however seeking the IMF loan for government spending e.g. on civil servant salaries or state purchases.

Also, 'budget support' means the government is free to decide how to spend the money - as opposed to loans for specific projects.

Jayasundera went on to state that the decision was made after foreign investment turned out to be less than 50% of the government's original target for the year.

That also means Sri Lanka's projected tax revenues, which enables government expenditure, have not materialised.

The government has also revised down its 2012 growth forecast to 6.5% from 7.2% after dramatic drops in imports due to tariffs imposed by the government.

The country's trade deficit remains a reported $10 billion.

In 2009, Sri Lanka was granted a $2.6bn loan from the IMF, which they finished drawing from earlier in 2012.

An IMF team is expected in the country later this month.