Senior Sri Lankan defence officials visited the North on Sunday to examine army led resettlement projects. The paper reported that the army's release of civilian land in Jaffna, as well as the housing project in Keeramalai were also evaluated. See more here . The government's failure to expedite the release of civilian land currently occupied by the military over 7 years since the end of the armed conflict has been widely criticised, and has prompted numerous protests across the North-East.
The Sri Lankan military placed a statue of Buddha inside the Tamil Hindu temple in Murunkan, Mannar. The statue is the latest in the growing number of the Buddha statues and Buddhist stupas that have been erected by the military in the Tamil North-East following the end of the armed conflict in 2009.
Unemployed Tamil graduates from across the Northern Province protested against the lack of e government jobs available to them on Saturday. The graduates staged their protest outside the Jaffna government secretariat. Following police intervention at the protest, eventually a meeting was set up between the protesters and the government agent, N Vethanayakan, who pledged to raise the issue with the Sri Lankan government.
Human rights violations continue to occur in the Tamil North-East with militarisation by Sri Lankan troops at its peak said co-spokesperson of the Tamil Civil Society Forum Father Elil Rajendram. In an interview with Taylor Dibbert, Father Rajendram said that since Sri Lanka's new government came into power in January 2015, “Tamils speak about the “non-transition transition” while the Sinhalese people residing in the Sinhala-majority South claim it is a real transition”. “Why I state that it is a non-transition transition is because militarization is at its peak,” he said. “Abductions, arbitrary arrests and sexual violence perpetrated by the military have not decreased. Military involvement in the North and East is still strong. Most military camps have become permanent and Sinhala colonization is actually on the rise. Buddhist statues continue to be built in these locations.” “However, as most human rights activists have noted, more space for public dissent is available now,” the spokesperson added.
Sri Lankan troops oversaw two charitable ceremonies last week, where school items were donated to Tamil children in the Kondavil region in Jaffna. Sri Lanka's 551 Brigade troops were garlanded by Tamil schoolchildren from the Alvai Ambal Vidyalaya, as they organised a ceremony overseeing donations from the 'Old Anandians group of Southern Province' last Friday.
On the 25th July 1983 Sellarasa “Kuttimani” Yogachandiran, leader of the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO) and Ganeshanathan Jeganathan, a political writer, had their eyes gouged out in mockery before being killed by Sinhalese inmates at the high security Welikada prison in Colombo. A total of 37 Tamil prisoners were murdered the same day, and 18 more were killed two days later . Tamil political prisoners: Dr S Rajasunderam, Selvarajah Yogandram and Nadarajah Thangathurai
The Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau issued a statement on Saturday commemorating the anniversary of Black July alongside "Canadians of Tamil descent" and the "Tamil community around the world". "Let us pause to remember the victims of the anti-Tamil pogroms and all the lives that were lost throughout the entirety of the Sri Lankan Civil War," Mr Trudeau said. He offered his "deepest condolences" to those who lost family and friends. "Canada will continue to encourage the Sri Lankan government to fulfill its commitment to the United Nations Human Rights Council to bring about real peace...
Hundreds of Tamil Canadians gathered in Toronto on Saturday to commemorate thirty-three years since the Black July pogrom, where thousands of Tamils were massacred by Sinhala mobs.
The massacre of Tamils in July 1983 , commonly referred to as 'Black July' was remembered in London today.
The chief minister of the northern province told delegates of the World Bank during their visit to Jaffna on Friday that the Sri Lankan government was ignoring Tamil demands for decentralisation of powers. Discussions took place regarding the Jaffna City Development Scheme as well as other World Bank projects. "Many projects do not kick-start because of the lack of mutual understanding between central and the provincial governments," Mr Wigneswaran told the delegates, adding that the provincial government was being sidelined. "The Tamil people want to make their living by power sharing. We can not work as servants to the central government," he said.