Marking 32 years since the death of Lt Col Thileepan, thousands of Tamils across the North-East attended commemoration events held throughout the day.

Today marks 32 years since the death of Lt Col Thileepan, a political wing leader of the LTTE who fasted to death, in a protest appealing to the Indian government to honour pledges made to the Tamil people.

Thileepan began his fast on the September 15, 1987, with 100,000 people gathered around the historic Nallur Kandwaswamy Temple in Jaffna. As he began his strike he put forward 5 demands to the Indian government.

Thirty-two years on, Tamils continue to call for the demands made by Thileepan. 

A new report from the International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP) has identified at least 58 alleged torturers in the Terrorism Investigation Division (TID) of the Sri Lankan police, including those who personally participated in violence and those who bear command responsibility.

Thousands of Tamils joined the ‘Ezhuka Tamil’ rally in Jaffna this morning, demanding justice for the Tamil people and an end to Sri Lankan oppression of the North-East. 

Despite widespread criticism of the appointment of Shavendra Silva to second-in-command of the Sri Lankan army earlier this year, the war crimes-accused general was promoted to army commander by the Sri Lankan president on Monday.

Boris Johnson has been appointed as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, with a new cabinet that includes many politicians that have spoken out in support of British Tamils.

We examine key figures in the new cabinet and their previous statements on the British Tamil community, justice for mass atrocities and the enduring ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka.

Sri Lankan authorities apply laws in discriminatory ways, with Tamil protests and gatherings in the North-East disproportionately facing crackdowns, the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association said last week.

The special rapporteur Clément Nyaletsossi Voulé said in his closing statement of his official trip to the island that although Sri Lanka had a comprehensive legal framework governing the right to freedom of peaceful assembly, this was “scattered in different sets of laws and regulations which seem to be interchangeably enforced”.

Today marks thirty-six years since the horrors of the anti-Tamil pogrom of 1983, when thousands of Tamils were killed by Sinhala mobs backed by the then UNP government and state forces.

Armed with electoral rolls, Sinhala mobs targeted Tamil homes and businesses, looting and ransacking property. Driven from their homes, particularly in Colombo, over 3000 Tamils were massacred, whilst thousands more were effectively deported by the state to the North-East.

Hundreds of Tamils from across the North-East travelled to Kanniya in Trincomalee to protest the destruction of a Hindu temple to make way for a Buddhist vihara. Several protesters were obstructed and blocked en route by Sri Lankan army and police, while some were assaulted by Sinhalese as security forces watched on.

The villagers of Keppapilavu who have been calling for the released of their occupied land for more than 863 days criticised Tamil politicians, stating that they have been “forsaken”. 

Speaking to reporters in Mullaitivu, where the Sri Lankan security forces have continued to occupy private Tamil land, protestors slammed leaders from the Tamil National Alliance as well as the governor of the Northern province Suren Raghavan.