Leader of the People’s Liberation Organization of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) and Tamil member of parliament Dharmalingam Siddarthan told Tamils in Vavuniya that the 13th Amendment should be accepted as it is the “realistic” thing to do. 

“Everyone should unite and accept the 13th Amendment to the constitution as it is,” he told a gathering in Vavuniya. “Accepting it does not mean it is sufficient. Even though many of us continue to deny it, successive governments continue to withhold it.”

The full text of a speech delivered by Dr A R Sriskanda Rajah at the Genocide to Life Conference in Erbil, March 2024.

Sri Lanka’s former president Maithripala Sirisena shockingly claimed to know the perpetrators behind the deadly Easter Sunday attacks that killed more than 250 people, almost five years since the bombings.

“No one knows who is behind these attacks, but I do,” Sirisena told reporters in Kandy.

“I am willing to disclose this information before a court of law, but I also ask that this information be kept strictly confidential.”

Sri Lanka’s Minister of Public Security has reportedly ordered an immediate investigation into Sirisena’s claims.

Sri Lankan officials disgruntled with India's involvement in infrastructure projects are said to have delayed fast-tracking the Mannar wind farm project. 

“Some officials are stubborn and not helping to fast track the project,” a cabinet minister told EconomyNext when asked the reasons for the delay.

After more than a week of detention, a group of eight Tamils who had been assaulted, arrested and detained without bail finally had a trumped-up case against them dismissed. The Sri Lankan police never did have any basis to hold them, a fact that even the biased court system could not dispute. But this will not deter Sri Lanka’s security forces from doing the same again. Aside from the blatant racism, there is little legal basis behind the continued detainment or interrogation of Tamils. The logic driving it, however, is not to enforce the law. Instead, it is to threaten, intimidate, and quash any flicker of Tamil resistance.

The Sri Lankan President’s Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor on National Security Sagala Ratnayake is scheduled to make a two-day visit to India, for discussions on constructing an over-the-sea bridge connecting Tamil Nadu to the island by land.

Speaking at the Genocide to Life Conference in Erbil, Dr A R Sriskanda Rajah, representing the World Tamil Co-ordinating Committee drew parallels of the genocide experienced by the Kurds and Eelam Tamils adding that the journey to justice has also been long and arduous for both. 

After four consecutive days of a hunger strike, the Jaffna District Federation of Fisheries Co-operative Unions has concluded its demonstrations with a mass. protest outside of the Indian consulate in Jaffna, in protest of ongoing fishing disputes with their northern neighbours.

Sri Lanka is on a “knife edge path” which “could easily go back to a vicious cycle,” International Monetary Fund (IMF) officials told reporters in Colombo this week, as they approved the next loan tranche from a $3 billion bailout program.

Peter Breuer, the IMF Senior Mission Chief told the press that the IMF has received several proposals but “for us, what is absolutely key is that the program objectives are achieved because with those, Sri Lanka has a chance of emerging from the crisis”.

Civil society organisations have denounced a proposed amendment to Sri Lanka’s Penal Code which will see a reduction in the age of consent from 16 years to 14 years of age, stating that the amendment must be withdrawn immediately.

The letter, signed by 150 individuals and 55 civil society organisations states that child abuse is rife in Sri Lanka, and it is reprehensible that this Bill is being presented as an amendment to the Penal Code.