Tamil farmers in the Siththandi area of Mayilathamadu, Batticaloa, organised a protest on January 15 against the occupation of their land by Sinhala settlers. 

As they marked Maatu Pongal, a festival celebrated to give thanks to cattle, Tamil farmers in Siththandi poured into the streets and blocked pathways in protest against the encroachment of their lands by Sinhala settlers. 

An art exhibition was held in Jaffna by the Voice of the Voiceless, demanding the immediate release of Tamil political prisoners.

“Any dream of the political prisoners returning to their families this Thai Pongal have been shattered,” said former political prisoner and Voice of the Voiceless coordinator, Murugiah Komakan at the event earlier this month.

At Neeraviyadi Pillaiyar temple in Semmalai, Mullaitivu, Thai Pongal festivities took place amidst surveillance of several police and military investigators who were stationed inside the temple throughout the event.

The Association for Relatives of the Enforced Disappearances have written to Core-Group Ambassadors for Sri Lanka calling on the international community and UN refers the country to the International Criminal Court or establish a specifically created International Criminal Tribunal in advance of the 46th UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) session in Geneva this March.

Responding to a question posed by UK Labour MP Taiwo Owatemi on the legitimacy of exporting military equipment to Sri Lanka, with a “value of £149,724”, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary for the Department of Trade, Ranil Jayawardena, denied that this was a breach of international humanitarian law.

Today marks 28 years since the death of Sathasivam Krishnakumar alias Colonel Kittu, and nine other LTTE cadres, who committed suicide after being surrounded by Indian navy warships in 1993.

Ed Davey, Leader of the UK Liberal Democrats, has called on the Prime Minister to “create an International Independent Investigative Mechanism” (IIM) to “investigate and prosecute for serious international crimes committed in Sri Lanka against the Tamils”.

The Sri Lankan army has formed a new corps for Agriculture and Livestock under the army’s existing Directorate of Agriculture and Livestock (DAL), as militarisation becomes rampant in the public sphere and amidst attacks on Tamil farmers.

Accused war criminal Shavendra Silva, attended an event where he signed into the order the formation of the Corps of Agriculture and Livestock earlier this month. The newly raised unit is set to focus on collaborating with ‘all agrarian stakeholders’ in its effort towards ‘nation-building tasks’. The DAL has previously used ‘army lands’ to cultivate a variety of crops across plantations. A report released by the South Asian Centre for Legal Studies (SACLS) detailed the ‘deepening consequences’ of the continuous military occupation of civilian spaces which curtail local economic development, particularly in the North-East.

In an unprecedented show of unity, major Tamil political leaders, Tamil civil society actors and Tamil victim community representatives have signed a statement declaring that there is "no scope" for a domestic accountability mechanism within Sri Lanka and jointly called for an international accountability process, including a referral to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Reconstruction of a memorial that was destroyed by authorities last week has begun at the University of Jaffna this morning.

A banner has been hosted at the site of the demolished memorial, which reads ‘Mullivaikkal Ninaivu Mattram’ – or Mullivaikkal memorial monument.