Melani Manel Perera

Thanks to an initiative by the National Fisheries Solidarity Movement (NAFSO) in Negombo (Western Province), a group of women were given tools to earn a living: fishing rods, sewing and baking machines, and more. All were internal displaced, widowed by war or the tsunami or abandoned by their husbands.

Despite an official ban, people in Uruthirapuram (Kilinochchi District) celebrated a Mass in remembrance of Fr Mariampillai Sarathjeevan. He was one of eight priests who stayed with northern communities at the end of the ethnic conflict. He died on 18 May 2009, the last day of the war, exhausted by weeks without food or water.

The Archdiocese of Colombo organised the event as part of its celebrations for the Marian Year. Reciting "the rosary every night as if we were one big family was very moving," said a 65-year-old faithful.

Yesterday the country celebrated the fifth anniversary of the end of the conflict with Tamil Tigers. President Rajapaksa says "we are not celebrating a victory, but peace”. But police and soldiers close down temples and offices in the north of the country. Tamil Priest: Government uninterested in our predicament, it is “our right to remember our loved ones."

On Sunday, the government is set to celebrate the end of the civil war and the defeat of Tamil rebels. However, in the mostly Tamil north, celebrations will be banned, a decision criticised by the National Peace Council, which calls instead for a moment of remembrance for all of the war's victims.

On Thursday, the Good Shepherd nun will be 80. She spoke to AsiaNews about the last years of her life, which she dedicated "almost by accident" to families in northern Sri Lanka, an area affected by the country's ethnic conflict.

The organization Rawana Balaya ("Power of the King Rawana ") submits an official request to the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Buddha Sasana, which heads the special police unit. "There are no religious disputes that the normal police cannot solve."

The government set up a special unit to investigate and solve religious disputes. For some leading Catholics and Anglicans, the move is "an attempt to give official protection" to radical Sinhalese Buddhist groups that attack the country's minorities.

More than 600 people took part in a special march on International Workers' Day in a Free Trade Zone (FTZ). At the beginning of the rally, Roshen Chanaka, a Catholic worker who died during clashes with police, was remembered. Trade unions call on the government to help Sri Lankan workers in lieu of foreigners.

The legislation passed by Sri Lanka's parliament gives tax breaks to "mixed development projects". For the opposition, this is part of a strategy to legalise gambling in the country.

Interview with Sister Deepa Fernando, a nun with the Congregation of the Holy Family, and a member of Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation (JPIC) and the Christian Solidarity Movement (CSM). According to her, Christians in Sri Lanka sometimes "forget that we are all brothers and sisters." For this reason, we must follow in the footsteps of Jesus, who "died to protect the rights of others."

In their Easter message (in Sinhala, Tamil and English), the country's bishops call on fellow Sri Lankans to search for "true peace" that "can be lived united with God [. . .] in the aftermath of a war that ravaged the country."