In response to a private member’s bill which seeks to decriminalise same-sex relations between consenting adults, a collection of over thirty civil society organisations and individuals questioned this gesture as Sri Lanka’s president continues a “systemic campaign to arrest and detain protesters involved in the aragalaya protests”.

Tamil Guardian hosted a Twitter space joined by Dr. Madurika Rasaratnam where the causes of the current economic and political crisis in Sri Lanka were discussed. 

^{The uniform of the Jaffna task force.}

Jaffna’s Municipal Council task force will take to the streets wearing blue uniforms once more, announced the mayor of Jaffna after a case against him was dropped last month.

As the Nallur Temple Thiruvizha is underway and set to conclude with a grand chariot festival this week, Jaffna Mayor V Mannivannan said the blue uniforms that he was arrested over will be seen in public at the festival.

German Tamils held a remembrance event in Berlin last week, to commemorate 16 years since the Sri Lankan air force massacred 53 school girls in the Vanni.

The event consisted of poetry recitals and speeches, as well as a moment of silence to commemorate those killed. Members of the public were also given flyers on the massacre and other atrocities committed by the Sri Lankan state.

See more photographs below.

At least two more Eelam Tamil families fled Sri Lanka and arrived in Dhanushkodi as refugees this week, with more looking to flee to Tamil Nadu in the wake of a worsening economic crisis and military occupation on the island.

Sri Lanka’s former resident and ex-prime minister, Mahinda Rajapaksa, broke his silence over the weekend as he defended the record of his war-crimes accused brother and maintained that his only folly was that “he became soft”.

“Gotabaya Rajapaksa is not responsible for all the country’s ills. Everybody, including me and the previous governments, would have to answer,” Mahinda Rajapaksa told the Sunday Times.

Locals in Mullaitivu managed to block Sri Lankan authorities from yet another land grab attempt as they looked to expand the existing  'Vattuvakal Gotabaya Navy base' by seizing 617 acres of private land.

Representatives from the USA, European Union, Canada and international human rights organisations have expressed their concern and censured the Sri Lankan government over its use of anti-terror legislation to detain three Sinhalese student leaders this week.

The activists were all arrested last week and are currently being held under the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), a piece of legislation that has come under criticism for decades for its arbitrary use against Tamils.

A commemoration event was held in Jaffna this weekend to mark 16 years since the assassination of Sinnathamby Sivamaharajah, who was a former member of parliament, the veteran chairman of Multi-Purpose Co-operative Society (MPCS) and the Managing Director of Jaffna Tamil daily "Namathu Eelanadu" when he was killed.