As many as 7 Tamil fishermen were admitted into hospital last week, after Sri Lankan navy officers attacked them in Pesalai, Mannar.

The attack happened on Thursday 2 June, as the navy questioned the fishermen whilst they were preparing to head out to sea around 3PM.

Following the attack, they were admitted to Pesalai Hospital for treatment.

The assault on the Tamil fishermen comes as Sri Lanka continues to be in the midst of an economic crisis that has impacted livelihoods across the island.

Tamil families of the disappeared criticised the international community’s response to their struggle to find justice for their loved ones, noting how rapidly governments around the world mobilised to tackle Sri Lanka’s economic crisis but still continued to ignore their plight.

Locals participated  in a clean up operation of Mullaitivu beach to mark World Environment Day today. 

The clean up was organised by Karitas, a non-governmental organisation and aimed to  encourage locals and tourists  to keep the area free from polythene and other plastic debris. 

Ponnuthurai Sivakumaran, the first Tamil to die in the liberation struggle, was remembered in Jaffna this morning this morning to mark 48 years since his death. 

Sivakumaran was a member of the Tamil Manavar Peravai (or Tamil Student Federation, TSF) and a leading militant in the early armed Tamil struggle. With decades of Sri Lankan state repression and deadly anti-Tamil pogroms already having taken place, Tamil militant movements began to form. 

Food supplies from Tamil Nadu arrived in Vavuniya yesterday as the island’s economic turmoil continues. 

The supplies will be distributed to families across Vavuniya who have been struggling due to Sri Lanka’s economic crisis. Sri Lanka’s shortage of foreign reserves and soaring inflation has created a shortage of essential items including fuel, food and medicines. 

A coastal clean-up operation and tree sapling planting event was held this morning at Mannar Keeri beach ahead of of World Environment Day. 

The clear up was organised by Mannar Karitras Wildlife to mark World Environment Day which falls on June 5 and to raise awareness of pressing environmental issues. 

On Tuesday the chairman of Sri Lanka’s Port Authority, Prasantha Jayamanna, declared that they would be issuing Expressions of Interest (EOIs) to develop Trincomalee Port however poor governance from Colombo has left investors wary.

“We will be asking not only from one party, but whoever the industrialists are who want to come and utilise the port premises,” Jayamanna told representatives of shipping companies and port workers’ unions.

A new Buddhist vihara is being constructed in Muttur, a majority Tamil speaking area, with the aid of Sri Lanka's army and it's archaeology department. 

Last December, a Buddha statue was erected by Buddhist monks under the cover of night in the Malayadi Pillaiyar temple area in Muttur, Trincomalee. The next day, local Tamils protested against the new statue and it was removed from the site by the police that same day. 

The province of Ontario’s lawyers effectively argued to dismantle the legal case filed against Bill 104 – the “Tamil Genocide Education Week Act”, at the Superior Court of Ontario by Tamil Genocide deniers.

It is a well-known fact that the Sri Lankan government is working extremely hard against any efforts undertaken in the struggle for justice for Tamil people in Sri Lanka and around the world. Even today despite facing an economic crisis, triggering political and financial instability, the Sri Lankan government continue to engage in Tamil Genocide denial and distortion.

Protests were held in Jaffna and Kilinochchi yesterday demanding an end to violence against girls and women, in the wake of a spate of violent incidents targeting young females across the island.