Sinhala extremist lawmaker Wimal Weerawansa claimed that the Sri Lanka refused to facilitate the surrender of LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran to the United States in 2009, as Washington would have supported an independent state of Tamil Eelam.

The Indian government has extended its ban on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) for another five years, claiming the organisation is still active and “threatens the sovereignty and territorial integrity” of India.

The move came almost 15 years since the 2009 genocide at Mullivaikkal which saw the defeat of the LTTE and the murder of tens of thousands of Tamil civilians.

Tamils in Melbourne, Australia, held a protest in front of the Victoria Library demanding justice for the genocide at Mullivaikkal in 2009. 

In a virtual hearing held by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) panelists highlighted the shrinking space for religious freedom on the island.

The Chief Prelates of the four Buddhist sects in Sri Lanka have written to Ranil Wickremesinghe seeking his pardon for convicted racist monk Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara, a notorious figure who  was imprisoned over hate speech.

Tamils in Toronto gathered on May 18 to commemorate 15 years since the Mulivaikkal massacres, an event that has officially been recognised as Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day in Canada. 

Tamil Americans in North Carolina held an event to commemorate Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day, where they reiterated the Tamil people’s right to self-determination and demands for an independence referendum.

A 23-year-old Tamil woman was killed when the bicycle she was riding collided with a van belonging to the Sri Lankan army in Jaffna on Monday.

The woman, identified as Sudhakaran Saruja, was returning from buying milk at her local shop in Puttur, Jaffna, when the collision occurred.

Approximately 160 acres of land in Nadukkuda in Mannar, including Tamil residential land, has been sold to a private Indian company for sand mining, according to local reports.

Former Northern Provincial Council member Thurairasa Ravikaran denounced attempts by the Sri Lankan government to pursue the development of the Mahaweli L Zone adding that it will alter the composition of an all-Tamil region by creating Sinhalese settlements.

On 18 May, Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day was jointly commemorated by the Ottawa Tamil Association (OTA), the National Capital Region Tamil Association (NCRTA), the University of Ottawa Tamil Student Union (TSU), Ottawa Tamil Academy of Culture & Technology (OTACT), Canada Muththamizh Sangam,  Carleton University Tamil Student Association (C

Dozens of Sri Lankan police officers were deployed and one man was carried away by officers as several Sinhalese individuals attempted to disrupt a Mullivaikkal commemoration in Wellawatta, Colombo on Saturday morning, May 18. 

All photographs courtesy of Kumanan Kanapathipillai

Thousands of Tamils gathered at Mullivaikkal memorial yard to mourn their loved ones who were massacred in Sri Lanka's military offensive in 2009.