Five Ontario school boards have marked the beginning of Tamil Genocide Education Week. This is the first year since the Tamil Genocide Education Week Act was passed into law. 

The war crimes-accused head of the Sri Lankan army was the chief guest at a grand Sinhala Buddhist ceremony at the controversial Kuragala site this week, where a giant lion statue and restored stupa were unveiled.

The newly appointed Sri Lankan prime minister warned that the upcoming months “will be the most difficult ones of our lives” as he called for Sri Lanka to make “sacrifices” in the face of an economic crisis.

Ranil Wickremesinghe claimed “foreign allies will assist us” and that states had “already pledged their support”.

Sri Lankan soliders and police officers ramped up their presence at the Mullivaikkal memorial this afternoon as Tamils gathered to make preparations for May 18th, also known as 'Tamil Genocide Day'. 

In recent weeks, the Sri Lankan army has held several events across the Tamil homeland, particularly with Tamil schoolchildren, as it continues its process of normalising militarization of the North-East.

Tamils began their rally from Valvettithurai towards Mullivaikkal this morning as the Tamil nation remembers the genocide that took place 13 years ago.

Tamils in the North-East continued to serve kanji across the homeland as part of commemoration events taking place during Mullivaikkal remembrance week. 

he Sri Lankan defence ministry has said it is taking further steps to strengthen the security in the country, after a report that the ex-LTTE cadres were planning to regroup in India.

Following a report published in The Hindu, which noted that Indian intelligence services had shared information internally, Tamil Nadu had stepped up coastal surveillance. The report had noted that “some erstwhile cadres” had entered Tamil Nadu to “plan and execute” attacks in Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Defence initially denied the claims, calling the report “baseless”.

Tamil civil society groups in the North-East condemned the violence against Sri Lanka’s anti-government protestors and urged them to go beyond “the narrow goal of removing Rajapaksa family members from office,” in a statement issued last week.

As protests against the Sri Lankan government continued in Colombo last week, one demonstrator defied authorities and publicly praised LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, stating he was “the person who truly fought for our country”.

Occupying Sri Lankan soldiers in Mullaitivu handed out juice and biscuits to locals, whilst hoisting lanterns and makeshift lotus flowers in Nandikadal lagoon this morning, as they celebrated Vesak during Tamil Genocide week.

Uniformed soldiers were seen stopping passers by and offering the refreshments earlier today.

The Association of Relatives of the Disappeared in the North East began a three day rally from Pottuvil in the East, towards Mullivaikkal to commemorate the tens of thousands of Tamils massacred in Mullivaikkal by the Sri Lankan state 13 years ago. 

The Tamil National People’s Front launched a float that drove across the Jaffna district today, as part of a campaign to commemorate the Tamil genocide across the North-East in the days leading up to May 18^th.