“enable the government to probe their activities and take appropriate action against them wherever it is necessary.”

“They are to be settled permanently in the location where they are currently staying. All due arrangements for this are currently underway. Because the region is government land, it will be divided among the families.”

In a meeting with a senior Sri Lankan Government official, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stressed the need for a political solution that addressed the underlying factors behind the country’s civil war, despite the Sri Lankan official’s attempts to highlight that ‘progress’ had been made by the Sri Lankan government on resettlement issues.

The UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in March, called on the Government to take “all necessary additional steps to ensure justice, equity, accountability and reconciliation for all Sri Lankans.”

Sri Lanka’s progress in upholding human rights will be scrutinised in the upcoming Universal Periodic review (UPR), which will be conducted by the UNHRC at the beginning of November.

The US Embassy in Colombo has expressed concern over Sri Lanka’s Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) resettlement programme.

A press release by the embassy welcomed the government’s speedy resettlement of a large number of IDPs, but noted concern about resettlement on land “without adequate shelter, water and sanitation”.

“The United States welcomes the work by the Government of Sri Lanka to quickly resettle the large number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) following the 26-year conflict." said the press release.

"However, we remain concerned about the rushed resettlement of the final IDPs to close the Menik Farm camp. Many of the most vulnerable families of the war-affected population in the North have been placed on land hastily cleared without adequate shelter, water and sanitation, or provisions to continue their livelihoods.

"Meanwhile, many long term IDPs remain unable to return home or access basic services from the Government of Sri Lanka.”

See full press release here.

The Tamil National Aliance met with Chinese Embassy officials in Colombo and discussed Tamil concerns about China's support to the government.

Speaking to The Hindu, TNA member Mavai Senathirajah, said,

“We met Chinese Embassy officials on Monday and explained to them our concerns over Chinese help to the Sri Lankan army in the north.”

The TNA members informed the Chinese diplomats that the land that they were constructing on was Tamil land, which had been appropriated by the Sri Lankan government.

The TNA briefed them on their view and requested China to take the sentiments of Tamils into consideration when dealing with the Sri Lankan government.

See here and here for concerns raised recently by the TNA regarding the Sri Lankan government.

Under the code name 'SLINEX', the Indian and Sri Lankan Navy will continue to hold joint exercises, but do so away from India's four southern states, reports the Press Trust of India.

Speaking to PTI, an Indian Navy official reportedly said: "The Defence Ministry has advised us to hold the SLINEX-series exercises with our Sri Lankan counterparts away from the coasts of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Karnataka."

The official went on to explain that the Indian Defence Ministry had most probably arrived at this following the recent outcry against the training of Sri Lankan military personnel in Tamil Nadu.

The Sri Lankan government has announced that its annual Independence Day celebrations will be held in Tamil-dominated Trincomalee next year, reported the Defence Ministry’s website.

It said the decision was made “under the direction” of the president, Mahinda Rajapakse.

At a press conference, Prime Minister D.M. Jeyaratne was reported to have said that the “celebrations” will be a unique opportunity for the people in the North-East to witness “symbolic unity” of the country.

The ancient port town of Trincomalee is one of the largest cities in the Tamil homeland and is a significant cultural and religious centre of the Eelam Tamil nation.

The UK’s Foreign Affairs Committee has released a report calling on the British government to do more to assess the risk of asylum seekers who are removed from the UK, particularly highlighting removals to Sri Lanka.

The report examined a case covered by the Guardian earlier this year which followed a deported Tamil asylum seeker (see here).

It also noted the UN Committee Against Torture’s report which detailed “allegations of widespread torture, secret detention centres, enforced disappearances and deaths in detention in Sri Lanka”, and Human Rights Watch’s comments to the committee that they had "documented many cases of torture and ill-treatment (including rape) of failed asylum-seekers at the hands of security forces".

The report stated that,

“In addition, the Government failed to give a direct answer to our request for an assurance that it was content that its policy on deportation of Sri Lankans was not putting people at risk of torture.”

“We find it unsatisfactory that the Government has not been more forthcoming to Parliament about its efforts—in general and in specific cases—to assess the level of risk to the safety of those who are removed from the UK.”

“However, the routine air of the FCO's initial responses to our questions has not given us particular confidence that the FCO is being as energetic as it might in impressing upon the UK Border Agency the degree of risk.”

“We encourage the FCO to be energetic in evaluating reports by non-governmental organisations and media sources of torture of deportees from the UK, including in Sri Lanka, and in spelling out the risk to the UK Border Agency.

The Chief Executive of the UK Border Agency, Mr Rob Whiteman was also quoted as acknowledging concerns over deportations to Sri Lanka, saying,

"we clearly do need to look at the conditions of what happens when we make returns".

Statistics from 2011 showed that a total of 481 asylum seekers had been deported from the UK to Sri lanka.

The report also acknowledged that "concerns about human rights abuses in Sri Lanka have led the Prime Minister of Canada to indicate that he would not attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Colombo in 2013 unless he saw evidence of progress."

See the full text of the report here.

Also see:

UK ‘inconsistent’ on human rights – Foreign Affairs Committee (17 October 2012)

Despite the army barracks, checkpoints and ever increasing numbers of security forces in the North-East, gold theft is rising. 

The Superintendent of Police in Jaffna, Erik Perera, instructed Tamil girls in Jaffna walking alone to avoid wearing gold, reported Uthayan.

Drawing attention to a rising number of theft incidents where girls have been robbed by masked motorcycle riders the the police have also requested residents to inform them of the license plates of suscipious individuals.

The former LTTE member, Selvarasa Pathmanathan, alias KP, is now "free", reports the BBC.

Speaking to the BBC the head of the Media Centre for National Security, Lakshman Hulugalle, said there was "no case" against Pathmanathan at present, and that "practically, there is no detention now".

Pathmanathan's release was explained by Hulugalle, who remarked:

"I think it's a victory for us - at one point he was against us and was a leader of Tamil people.

"Today he is working for development of this country - he is free to do that."

Sri Lanka’s permanent representative to the United Nations has urged that the Israel-Palestine conflict must be resolved “urgently”.

Palitha Kohona addressed an open meeting of the Security Council in New York and unashamedly criticised the building of settlements and demolishing of Palestinian homes, saying it “fuels resentment”, ignoring his own country’s activities of land-grabbing and the demolition of Tamil homes, religious buildings and war cemeteries.

“Peace between Israel and Palestine will be an answer to a longstanding wish of the international community." Kohona said at the UN.

“It is an essential condition, that tension provoking activities be ceased by all parties,

“Israel’s continuing settlement activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are a critical sticking point. The resumption of talks has become tied to this issue.

“Israel’s practice of demolishing Palestinian homes is a matter of concern and fuels resentment,

“The continuation of this practice cannot contribute to confidence building or the peace process.

"It should be emphasised that Israel must not undertake actions that are contrary to the established rules of international law.”

Land grabbing - like taking candy from a baby (12 Oct 2012)

Tamil politicians highlight ongoing ‘systemic sinhalisation’ (14 Sep 2012)

Army constructs camp over LTTE's Mulliavallai cemetery (26 Aug 2012)

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has said that it has not reached an agreement on resuming political talks with the Sri Lankan government.

TNA legislator, Suresh Premachandran told Xinhua that there are still pending issues which must be addressed before any talks can resume with the Sri Lankan government.

The TNA have refused to take part in the parliament select committee (PSC) until an agreement was reached about the talks with the government beforehand.

Describing the Tamil sentiments towards the PSC, TNA leader Sambanthan, declared,

“We have no trust in the PSC. Nothing will come out of it. We also realize that the government is not serious about granting autonomy to the Tamils,

“We feel cheated by the government. They say something and do something (else),” he went on to say.

In a recent visit to Dheli, TNA MP’s told officials that Tamils in the north of Sri Lanka were facing severe problems. The TNA delegation outlined the continued militarisation of the Tamil north whilst highlighting the evident alteration of the area’s demography.

The TNA also went on to slam the Sri Lankan government’s progress on the LLRC recommendations.

Since the end of the conflict in 2009, the Tamil leaders have accused Colombo of driving a Sinhalese agenda throughout the land, despite the President Rajapaksa’s pledge to reach a political settlement to settle the ethnic issue.

A senior Buddhist leader has called for the abolishing of the 13th amendment at a specially convened press conference in Colombo on Tuesday, reported the DailyMirror.

Elle Gunawansa is the leader of the Patriotic National Movement and was one of several Buddhist leaders, campaigning alongside, then opposition leader, Mahinda Rajapakse, against the peace process around a decade ago.