Civil society organisations in the UK have criticised the passing of a reviewed counter-terrorism bill, saying it will not enhance public security but instead further criminalise vulnerable communities, with the Tamil community mentioned amongst potential victims.

The UK government claim that the Review of the Counter-Terrorism and Sentencing Bill is to safeguard the community from terrorism by reinforcing legislations regarding the sentence, release and surveillance of terrorism offenders. However with the bill drafted in the midst of the Coronavirus lockdown, rights campaigners have said the bill evades proper scrutiny from parliament and civil society.

The Sri Lankan army is set to be deployed in place of up to two-thirds of the police force at Nallur to supervise the annual festival of Nallur Kandaswamy Temple, according to reports from Jaffna.

The annual festival of the Kandasamy Temple began on Tuesday, 25th July with the ceremonial hoisting of the flag- Kodiyetram- and ends on August 20. 

Migrant workers who have been stranded in Jordan and looking to be repatriated to Sri Lanka were teargassed earlier today, as they stand a protest outside the Sri Lankan embassy in the country.

Ranil Wickremesinghe, Leader of the United National Party (UNP), has stated that the party will decide on a new leader “when the time is right”.

This statement follows calls from a senior UNP official for a change in leadership during his election campaigns. Navin Dissanayake, the UNP National Organiser and Nuwara Eliya District UNP candidate, recently criticised the leadership stating that the same person who had been the leader for 26 years could not continue to be the leader of the party.

Last week, the Court of Appeal (CoA) overturned a life sentence given to Jaffna University lecturer and former LTTE cadre, Kanesasundaram Kannadasan, under the draconian Prevention of Terrorism (PTA) for allegedly recruiting 'child soldiers'.

The appeal was filed last year questioning the indictments filed by the Attorney General (AG) department. M A Sumanthiran, who represented Mr Kannadasan, reportedly argued that since the AG department acknowledged that it could not justify it's inquiry, Kannadasan should be released immediately. 

Documents surfaced recently revealed that the UK’s intelligence agencies, MI5 and MI6, have trained intelligence officials from multiple countries, including Sri Lanka, as recently as last year.

Officials from Sri Lanka, Saudia Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh, among others, all attended an International Intelligence Directors Course in 2019. The Ministry of Defence has described this course as one that “provides significant opportunity for intelligence diplomacy at the highest levels.”

Dozens of British Tamils gathered outside the Sri Lankan High Commission in London this week, as they marked 37 years since the deadly anti-Tamil Black July pogroms.

Protestors chanted slogans and held placards demanding justice for the atrocities that saw thousands of Tamils killed by government-backed Sinhala mobs.

See more photographs of the protest below.

Read more on Black July here.

British politicians from across the aisles joined commemorating the anniversary of Black July today, a week of anti-Tamil pogroms thirty-seven years ago that killed thousands of people across the island.

Stephen Timms, Chair of Work and Pensions Committee and former Vice-Chair of the APPG for Tamils stated:

Australia’s former High Commissioner, Howard Debenham, has recalled his close relationship with then Sri Lankan president Ranasinghe Premadasa and other Sinhala politicians who held notoriously racist views, as part of a new memoir entitled “Waiting ‘round the Bend”.

Debenham arrived in Sri Lanka in 1992, where he said his objective was to “to get close enough to Premadasa for him to listen to Australia's views on human rights, trade and investment”.

He reports that after their first meeting at the presidential mansion, “…we got along well. He made it clear he would be pleased to see more of me, one-on-one”. “My relationship with the President grew and the bilateral relationship between Sri Lanka and Australia prospered,” he commented.

Debenham was posted to Sri Lanka, as the mil

Reporting for the Hindu, Austin Fernando, former Sri Lankan High Commissioner to India, notes that despite a relative dip in the amount of aid offered by India to Sri Lanka; the current administration is “patching up with the Rajapaksas”.