British parliamentarians from across the political spectrum participated in a Westminster Hall debate on Tamils and human rights in Sri Lanka, with many urging the UK government to consider sanctioning Sri Lankan officials accused of war crimes.
Tamil News
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The Defence Service Command and Staff College (DSCSC) has spent Rs 1.1 million on "entertainment expenses" on five Sri Lankan military officers, a National Audit report revealed.
The Rs 1.1 million was spent on food and refreshments during a visit to the DSCSC in 2022 by the Defence Ministry Secretary, Chief of Defence Staff, the commanders of the Army, Navy and Air Force.
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Eelam Tamils in Indonesia joined the rest of the diaspora and Tamils in the homeland in marking the 36th Maaveerar Naal.
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All photographs courtesy of Thaarakam
Tamils in Australia marked Maaveerar Naal with a series of remembrance events across the country.
Events took place in Adelaide, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney.
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All photographs courtesy of Ninaivukal
Tamils in Toronto, Canada, held a comemmoration event on November 27 to mark Maaveerar Naal.
See more photographs here and below:
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Across Tamil Nadu, thousands of Tamils, including prominent politicians, gathered to commemorate Maaveerar Naal, as Tamils across the world remember those who lost their lives in the Tamil struggle for liberation.
Thol. Thirumavalavan, Founder-President, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi, marked the event in Chennai by lighting a flame. Marking the...
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Tamils in Paris, France joined Tamils in the homeland and across the diaspora in marking Maaveerar Naal.
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A teenage Tamil boy was tortured to death according to his family, after being arrested by Sri Lankan police and sent to a reformatory home in Amparai.
13-year-old Ananthadevan Darsanth, from Kokuvil in Batticaloa, was arrested by Sri Lankan police officers for allegedly stealing a bell and lamp from a local...
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Tamils gathered in Finland to mark Maaveerar Naal.
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Tamils gathered in Antwerp to commemorate Maaveerar Naal.
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Tamils gathered in Palermo to commemorate Maaveerar Naal.
The Governor of the City of Palermo and several Italian dignitaries were also present.
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Amidst the United National Climate Conference (COP 28) in Dubai, Sri Lanka’s President Ranil Wickremesinghe and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi met to discuss a variety of issues.
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In the Mayilathamadu Madhavanai area in Batticaloa, tensions are escalating between Sinhalese occupiers and Tamil cattle farmers, as a disturbing trend of brutal attacks on cattle by Sinhalese settlers continues to unfold. The situation, which poses a direct threat to the livelihoods and safety of Tamil farmers, has reached a critical point.
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The podcast miniseries ‘You Have Been Told a Lie - Blood, Borders and Biloela’ has won best podcast in the News and Current Affairs category. Centring around the Nadesalingam family, who hit the headlines and became referred to as the ‘Biloela family,’ the miniseries deconstructs the narrative over six episodes.
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Oddusuddan police disrupted an event to remember the 32 Tamils that were massacred in Othiyamalai, Mullaitivu by the Sri Lankan army in 1984.
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As many as 11 Tamils, including a Batticaloa schoolboy, have now been arrested by Sri Lankan authorities under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), after Maaveerar Naal commemorations this week.
As tens of thousands paid tribute to those who died in the Tamil liberation struggle, Sri Lankan authorities launched a crackdown, which included storming...
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Sri Lanka will aim to have a military numbering at 150,000 said a state minister last week, as he rebuffed calls for further demilitarisation and stressed there would be “no impact on national security”.
Earlier this month, a Sri Lankan lawmaker admitted that the island is one of the most militarised places in the world, stating that...
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Sri Lankan soldiers stationed with the United Nations Peacekeepers in the Central African Republic were given medals earlier this month, despite their involvement in grievous human rights abuses during previous peacekeeping missions.
According to Sri Lanka’s ministry of defence, Sri Lankan troops were...
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Seized decorations which saw Tamils arrested under the PTA this week.
Statements have been released by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the US, the UK, the EU and Canada today, condemning the continued use of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) as authorities detained several...
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Tamil parliamentarian Selvarajah Kajendran confronted Sri Lankan police officers as they stormed Maaveerar Naal commemorations in Batticaloa on Monday.
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Tamil Nadu parliamentarian Thamizhachi Thangapandian said she would apologise to Velupillai Prabhakaran - “the honourable Tamil national leader” – for the Mullivaikkal genocide which saw tens of thousands...
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In her debut novel ‘Your Driver is Waiting’, Priya Guns challenges us to rethink the lies we are told about capitalism. Following the death of her beloved Appa at his minimum wage job, Damani’s life is thrown into turmoil. Unable to put her degree to use, she keeps her family afloat, driving her late father’s old car for a ride-share company.
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Sri Lanka’s Energy Minister, Kanchana Wijesekara, has admitted that the country use of the oil tanks in Trincomalee hinges upon Indian approval due to an agreement signed in 2022.
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Tamils across Germany gathered together in Dortmund to mark Maaveera Naal.
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Leader of the Tamil Makkal Thesiya Kootan (TMTK), CV Wigneswaran, accused Sri Lankan authorities of supporting Sinhala settlers to displace native Tamils in the North and East.
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Responding to the arrest of 7 Tamils by Sri Lankan police during Maaveerar Naal commemorations, British MP Siobhain McDonagh stressed the need to repeal the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) and respect the right of Tamils to remember their loved ones.
Very concerned by the Sri Lankan govt preventing Tamil memorialisation, and the arrests of Tamils in the North-East.
They were arrested under the...
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Tamils across the world marked Maaveerar Naal on Monday, paying tribute to the men and women who laid down their lives for the liberation of Tamil Eelam.
Whilst a crackdown was underway in the North-East, around the world - from Australia, to Europe to the United States - several large scale commemorations were held.
See a round up of events that took place around the world below.
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Sri Lanka has arrested and detained at least 7 Tamils under the notorious Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), as part of a crackdown against Maaveerar Naal remembrance events this week.
The arrests, which came mainly in the East, were carried out as Tamils carried red and yellow flags or speakers, to take to Maaveerar Naal commemorations, which...
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Tamils in Scotland joined Tamils in the homeland and across the diaspora in marking Maaveerar Naal.
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World News
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The Biden administration said Wednesday it has determined that both sides in the ongoing conflict in Sudan have committed atrocities in the African nation’s western region of Darfur and elsewhere,...
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The Justice Department has filed war crime charges against four members of the Russian military accused of abducting and torturing an American during the invasion of Ukraine.
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The United States have sanctioned two russian military officials for their "involvement in gross violations of human rights" in Ukraine.
Secretary of State Anthony Blinken imposed visa restrictions on Russian Armed Forces Col. Azatbek Omurbekov, also known as “The Butcher of Bucha,” and Guard Corporal Daniil Frolkin. They were sanctioned for involvement...
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Nearly 20,000 men have fled Ukraine since the outbreak of war to avoid being drafted.
The BBC reports that Another 21,113 men attempted to flee but were caught by the Ukrainian authorities.
After Russia's invasion, most men aged 18-60 were banned from leaving. But data obtained by the BBC reveals dozens have made it out daily.
The BBC has established - by requesting data of illegal border crossings from neighbouring Romania, Moldova, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia - that...
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A group of lawyers representing Palestinian victims of Israeli attacks on Gaza have filed a complaint to the International Criminal Court (ICC), arguing that Israel’s actions amount to the crime of genocide.
Gilles Devers, a veteran French lawyer and the victims’ representative before the ICC, submitted the complaint to the prosecutor as...
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Grave violations committed by Israel against Palestinians in the aftermath of 7 October, particularly in Gaza, point to a genocide in the making, UN experts said last week.
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South Africa has filed a referral to the International Criminal Court for an investigation into war crimes committed by Israel in Gaza.
“As South Africa we have accordingly, together with many other countries across the world, referred this whole Israeli government action to the International Criminal Court,” South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said on...
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A French court has issued an international arrest warrant for the Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad for complicity in war crimes against humanity linked to a chemical weapons attack. -
The European Union has condemned an escalation of violence in the Darfur region, situated in Sudan, warning of "another genocide".
The EU's chief diplomat Josep Borrell cited in a statement witness reports that more than 1,000 members of the Masalit community were killed in Ardamta, West Darfur, in just over two days earlier this week during attacks by the...
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Pakistan on Monday opened three new border crossings to accelerate the repatriation of undocumented Afghan nationals who have been ordered to leave the country or face expulsion, officials said.
The new crossings were set up at the Afghan border in southwestern Balochistan province in addition to the main crossing in Chaman district, said Jan Achakzai,...
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Five judges at the supreme court unanimously upheld an appeal court ruling that found there was a real risk of deported refugees having their claims in the east African country wrongly assessed or being returned to their country of origin to face persecution.
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Luis Moreno Ocampo has called Isarel's blockade of Gaza as a "crime against humanity and a genocide.
Speaking to BBC Newsday the former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court condemned the attacks by Hamas and Israel's blockade of Gaza.
He said,
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A panel of UN experts have called the bombings of schools and hospitals in Gaza as crimes against humanity and highlighted the "risk of genocide against the Palestinian people".
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The escalation in fatalities and severe human rights violations against innocent civilians in Darfur, including refugees and internally displaced people, is worsening six months into the deadly conflict in Sudan.
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Meta should immediately pay reparations to the Rohingya for the role that Facebook played in the ethnic cleansing of the persecuted minority group, Amnesty International said today, on the sixth anniversary of the Myanmar military’s brutal operation during which they raped Rohingya women and girls, burned down entire villages, and killed thousands.
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Australians have rejected a proposal to recognise Aboriginal people in the country’s constitution and establish a body to advise parliament on Indigenous issues.
Saturday’s voice to parliament referendum failed, with the defeat clear shortly after polls closed.
To succeed, the yes campaign – advocating for the voice – needed to secure a double majority, meaning it needed both a majority of the national vote, as well as majorities in four of Australia’s six states.
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The International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia (ICHREE) released its final report today detailing human rights violations committed during the two-year war in Tigray, Amhara, Afar and ongoing conflict in the...
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Dozens of people have been killed by an artillery strike on a refugee camp in the Kachin state.
30 people, including women and children, were killed in Myanmar in an artillery strike on a camp for displaced people in Kachin State near the border with China
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Israel's use of white phosphorous "violates international humanitarian law", Human Rights Watch reports following attacks on Gaza and Lebanon.
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srael has declared a "complete siege" on Gaza as the United Nations states there is "clear evidence" of war crimes...
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Pakistan has ordered for the deportation of an estimated 1.7 million Afghan refugees by the end of November, in a move the Taliban has opposed as “unacceptable”.
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India has told Canada to remove 41 of its 62 staff in the country, in an escalation of diplomatic tensions between the two countries.
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A former Bolivian president and his defence minister have agreed to pay damages to the families of people killed by the military during their government, in a landmark settlement that sets a precedent by which other foreign leaders could face accountability for human rights abuse in US courts.
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Thousands of ethnic Armenians fled Nagorno-Karabakh on Monday in lines of cars which stretched for kilometres after Azerbaijan took control of the breakaway region sparking fears of persecution.
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The United States has recognised the Cook Islands and Niue as “sovereign and independent” states and pledged to open diplomatic relations.
In a statement on Monday, Biden said “the history and the future of the Pacific Islands and the United States are inextricably linked...
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Justin Trudeau has said there is “credible evidence” India is responsible for the alleged assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a prominent Canadian Sikh leader.
The Canadian prime minister told the House of Commons of Canada on Monday that, in recent weeks, national security authorities had been...
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Testimonies from over 200 people accusing the Ugandan president, his son, and other senior officials of killings, torture, and other crimes against humanity have been submitted to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
In total, there are 26 officials that have been accused of aiding the incarceration and systemic abuse of Ugandans who supported opposition leader Bobi Wine in 2021.
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Eighty Afghans may have been victims of summary killings by three separate British SAS units operating in the country between 2010 and 2013, lawyers representing the bereaved families have told a public inquiry.
One of the elite soldiers is believed to have “personally killed” 35 Afghans on a single six-month tour of duty as part of an alleged policy to terminate “all fighting-age males” in homes raided, “regardless of the threat they posed”.
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British MPs have been warned of the possibility of genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan and urged to put pressure on the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group, which has been accused of murder and arson attacks on minority groups in the area.
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Fighting has intensified in several areas of Khartoum after a ceasefire deal between Sudan's army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) expired on Saturday.
