Malayaha Tamils rallied through Hatton today demanding equal land rights and declaring 21 June as Sri Lanka's "National Day of the Landless".

Demonstrators held placards and chanted slogans asking for "20 perches of land to build a house" and "agricultural land with a house" as Malayaha Tamil community continue to be denied land rights. 

Today the United States announced the latest installment of $5.7 million in humanitarian assistance "to address the immediate needs of people hardest hit by the economic crisis in Sri Lanka."

In a statement, the US said the funding will "provide cash assistance, short-term jobs, and agriculture supplies such as seeds directly to crisis-affected people to meet their basic needs" as the island faces its worst economic crises in decades. 

Australia’s Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil met with senior Sri Lankan military officials today, including those accused of war crimes and genocide, as she continued her visit of Colombo today.

O'Neil was photographed shaking hands with Sri Lanka’s defence secretary Kamal Gunaratne, a man who has been named in several United Nations reports and accused of war crimes.

The Nallur Pradeshiya Sabha in Jaffna has passed a resolution welcoming the Canandian parliament motion recognising May 18 as Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day - a landmark move that made it the first parliament in the world to recognise the Tamil genocide.

A Madhusudhan, a member of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), moved a resolution that welcomed the Canadian parliament move and condemned Sri Lanka’s genocide of Tamils.

Sri Lanka has been added to a “human rights watch list” by CIVICUS, a global alliance of over 10,000 civil society organisations, which highlighted the violent crackdown on anti-government protests and attacks on journalists.

Stating that there has been a “rapid decline in civic freedoms”, CIVICUS said there had been a “lack of accountability for the attack on protesters peacefully demonstrating”.

Flights from Jaffna’s Palaly airport to Chennai are set to be resumed next month said Sri Lanka’s prime minister, as reports of restarting a ferry service from the North-East to India also emerged, drawing together closer links between the two Tamil regions.

Sri Lanka’s former Public Security Minister Sarath Weerasekera reportedly warned the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) “not to test the patience of Buddhists” earlier today, in a chilling address in Sri Lanka’s parliament.

Speaking to ABC Australia, UNICEF spokesman Bismarck Swangin issued an urgent appeal warning that families in Sri Lanka are being pushed to the brink by the current crisis.

Following reports of the Sri Lankan army opening fire on those queuing for petrol, US Ambassador for Sri Lanka, Julie Chung, has urged for an investigation into the excessive use of force tweeting:

As petrol lines & power cuts increase, tensions are naturally rising too. But boiling over will not address SL’s urgent needs. I urge authorities to exercise restraint under these difficult circumstances. Any excessive use of force should be quickly investigated.

On Sunday, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, met with Sri Lanka’s Foreign Affairs minister, Professor G.L. Peiris, whilst Tamil families of the disappeared and civil society actors burned effigies of the minister and called on the UN for international justice.