[Reuters]

Sri Lanka on Monday began compulsory military-led training for thousands of university entrants, despite protests by opposition-backed student unions that called it the government’s latest move to militarise the country.

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[BBC]

Student unions in Sri Lanka have objected to a new scheme under which university entrants must undergo three weeks of training in military camps. The unions have petitioned their country’s Supreme Court to stop the programme, which begins on Sunday. Training will include physical drills and conflict management in a bid to increase mental and physical fitness. The government has defended the initiative, which it says is about leadership skills. From Sunday, every student who has recently won a university place will have to report to a specified military or police camp. There are 28 dotted around the country.

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[BBC]

India has urged Sri Lanka to scrap far-reaching emergency powers and probe allegations of human rights violations. The emergency remains two years after the government’s military defeat of the Tamil Tigers on 18 May 2009. The Indian call came in a bilateral communique issued after talks in Delhi between the two countries’ foreign ministers, SM Krishna and GL Peiris. It is an unusually frank message to the island nation from its closest international ally. The statement quotes the Indian side as saying that Colombo should ensure the resettlement of all internally displaced people and promote “genuine reconciliation”.

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[Guardian UK]

Thousands of Tamils will hold a vigil in Trafalgar Square on Wednesday evening to mark the second anniversary of the end of the civil war in Sri Lanka and to call for an independent international investigation into allegations of war crimes and human rights abuses. As many as 40,000 non-combatants died in spring 2009 as the Sri Lankan government moved to crush Tamil Tiger separatists and end the island’s 26-year conflict. Evidence of atrocities on both sides has emerged. Government soldiers have been accused of shelling hospitals, targeting civilians and attacking aid workers, while rebels are said to have used civilians as shields and shot those attempting to flee the fighting.

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[Amnesty International USA]

This week marks the second anniversary of the end of Sri Lanka’s 26-year civil war, between government forces and the opposition Tamil Tigers.  The Tigers were seeking an independent state for the Tamil minority on the island.  As documented by Amnesty International and a recent U.N. panel report, there are credible reports that both sides committed gross abuses of human rights and international humanitarian law, including war crimes.  Yet no one has been held accountable for these crimes.

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[BBC]

The Sri Lankan government rejected a surrender offer by Tamil Tiger rebels at the end of the war, reports released through the Wikileaks website say. They say that Defence Secretary Gothabaya Rajapaksa dismissed US pressure to allow a mediated surrender with the words “we’re beyond that now”. The leaked US cables suggest requests for the International Red Cross to go into the war zone were refused. Sri Lanka’s government has repeatedly denied all these accusations. The Sri Lankan civil war came to an end in May 2009 with the death of their leader Velupillai Prabhakaran after the Tamil Tigers made a last stand in the north-east of the island.

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[CBS]

A U.S. diplomat Wednesday asked Sri Lanka to address allegations of possible war crimes toward the end of the country’s civil war and to share political power with an estranged Tamil minority for a lasting peace. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Robert O. Blake told reporters that Sri Lanka has promised to address these issues and many others raised by him during official meetings. But he said the “proof lies in results, not in promises.”

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[AFP]

The United States called on Sri Lanka Wednesday to bring to justice anyone responsible for war crimes committed as the island crushed a decades-long insurgency. US diplomat Robert Blake said Colombo should carry out its own investigation into allegations contained in a United Nations report of atrocities during the 2009 offensive against Tamil Tiger rebels. “The international mechanism can become appropriate in case of states that are unable or unwilling to meet their obligations,” the assistant secretary of state for south and central Asia told reporters at the end of a two-day visit to Sri Lanka.

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[Reuters]

The United States urged on Wednesday Sri Lanka’s government to hold anyone responsible for wartime rights violations accountable and warned that an international investigation could be an option if it failed to do so.

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