Tamil National Alliance (TNA) leader R Sampanthan was full of praise for the Tamil diaspora, as he made an appeal for relief funds to come directly through his party’s former lawmakers.

The Sri Lankan military said that the deaths of two homeless men who were sent to a military-run quarantine centre in Mullaitivu were not coronavirus related, prompting questions from locals as to why they had been detained and sent to the North-East by the armed forces.

On this day 44 years ago, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were founded.

Sri Lanka is currently using its military forces to seize schools and educational establishments in the Northern Province, to quietly convert into Quarantine Centres (QC’s) for returning navy personnel from the South at risk of the coronavirus (COVID-19).

These efforts have been met with heavy disapproval by local residents and have sparked multiple protests and fear among the public. Around 50 schools in the Northern Province have currently been seized and are in the process of being converted into QC’s.

Diaspora Tamils are providing assistance to families across the North-East who are struggling under Sri Lanka’s lockdown.

On March 20, the Sri Lankan government imposed an island-wide curfew to curb the spread of coronavirus, but this brought hardship to many families in the North-East.

Former TNA MP, M.A. Sumanthiran has requested that Sri Lanka’s Human Rights Commission advise the government on the legality of their state-imposed curfew.

During this coronavirus pandemic, Sri Lanka’s army commander and accused war criminal, Shavendra Silva, has issued a statement that the military can arrange hotels for returnees from abroad to stay at during their quarantine period.

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has come under fire for being the only major opposition party to attend a meeting convened by Sri Lankan prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, after all other major parties boycotted it.

The leaders of a extremist Sinhala Buddhist organisation claimed that the chairman of telecommunications company Lycamobile funded the LTTE and is now looking to take over Sri Lankan media channels, at a press conference in Colombo this weekend.

^{Photograph: Sri Lankan soldiers spray disinfectants in Mullaitivu}

Sri Lanka has taken on a dangerous coronavirus containment strategy. Faced with a public health crisis, the state has driven through authoritarian measures and deployed a military accused of systemic rights abuses. The response so far has been deeply troubling. Thousands have been forcibly sent to military-run quarantine centres, whilst an arbitrary curfew has seen thousands more arrested and livelihoods threatened – particularly in the war-torn North-East. The free hand given to the armed forces has already seen gross abuses of power. This is not how a pandemic should be handled.

The Economist Magazine has ranked Sri Lanka amongst its most vulnerable states that have been worst affected economically by the coronavirus pandemic, as Colombo faces massive debt repayments this year.