On 5 May, British citizens will be heading to the polls to vote for their local councillors however this year there is an unprecedented number of Tamil candidates to choose from.

Tamil Guardian has spoken to a selection of these candidates from across the political spectrum ahead of the election to better understand what they are offering to their constituents.

The Sri Lankan police have placed spiked barricades that are ‘hidden’ with tarpaulin across parts of Colombo over the last 24 hours and reportedly equipped themselves with newly issued gas masks, as anti-government protests continue across the South.

The Tamil Academic Journal (TAJ), the first Tamil diaspora led academic journal, has published its first issue under the title “Tamil Resistance in the Twenty-First Century” online.

The survey department of Sri Lanka has notified villages of Karampan – West in Kayts that a new Sri Lankan Navy ‘security zone’ will be built.

A Tamil youth from Jaffna has been admitted to hospital with a slit throat after being detained in police custody.

An arrest warrant had been issued by the Jaffna Magistrate’s Court against the individual, which police forces exercised. The individual who is from the Pommai velli area of Jaffna was then detained by police.

Patricia Gossman, associate Asia director at Human Rights Watch has condemned the police killing and injuries of protestors which occurred last week and called for an impartial investigation.

As negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) continue, Sri Lanka’s finance minister, Ali Sabry, announced that the country would receive $300 to $600 million from the World Bank over the next four months to buy medicine and other essential goods.

Speaking at St. Anthony’s Shrine, Archbishop of Colombo, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, raised the possibility that the Easter Sunday attacks were part of a ploy to stoke ethnic divisions and security concerns ahead of the 2019 Presidential elections.

Quoting the parliamentary select committees report he notes:

Protesters in Jaffna demanding self-determination this week 

The war crimes-accused head of Sri Lanka’s army released a statement yesterday, calling on “intelligent” Sri Lankans to back the armed forces and “co-operate” as they had done when the military launched an offensive that killed tens of thousands of Tamils in 2009.

Commemoration events were held across the Tamil homeland on Thursday, to mark 3 years since the devastating Easter Sunday attacks, in which more than 250 people were killed.

A monument to a man who oversaw two anti-Tamil pogroms and the architect behind one of the most racist pieces of legislation on the island’s history overlooks the Galle Face protests. If these protests are to be inclusive of all in Sri Lanka, that statue must go.

At least 18 more Eelam Tamil refugees landed in Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu last night, as Tamils continued to flee Sri Lanka amidst an economic crisis, which has worsened conditions for many given its history of repression and blighted human rights record.