Journalists in Batticaloa gathered at the Gandhi Park on Saturday to remember their colleague Subramaniyam Sugirdharajan, who was shot dead in Trincomalee after exposing the Sri Lankan Special Task Force's killing of 5 Tamil students, in a case that has been dubbed the 'Trinco 5'. 

At least 11 people have been arrested after the Sri Lankan army launched two days of search operations in Vavuniya this week, as security continues to remain tight in the Tamil homeland

<p>Tests for coronavirus on patients in Colombo have all come back as negative so far, according to the Sri Lankan government.</p> <p>Four people including a Sri Lankan medical student who travelled to the Wuhan province and three Chinese nationals with suspected symptoms of coronavirus had been admitted to the Infectious Diseases Hospital (IDH) in the south.</p> <p>Fifty-six people have died from the virus in China so far.</p>

<p>A Tamil shop owner arrested under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) for selling a CD with LTTE songs has been released on bail after his lawyer appealed to Sri Lanka’s attorney general.</p> <p>Another Tamil man arrested for purchasing the CD and playing it remains in remand after a year.</p> <p>The shop owner Kanthasamy Ariharan was granted bail on Thursday, while the buyer Gunapalasingham Gunaseelan remains in detention.</p>

A Sri Lankan soldier was beaten by a crowd of Vavuniya residents after he sexually harassed a woman in front of her home in Nochchimoddai.

The woman says he urinated in front of her house and then exposed his genitals while calling her over.

Sri Lanka’s president released a statement on Friday criticising “certain international media channels” and denying he had acknowledged that over 20,000 Tamils who were forcibly disappeared during the final stages of the armed conflict had been killed.

The statement from the president’s office came amid the uproar that erupted from Rajapaksa’s comments from his meeting with UN Resident Coordinator in Sri Lanka, Hanaa Singer. In the meeting, Rajapaksa said “he explained that these missing persons are actually dead”, according to the official media division of the Sri Lankan president.  

The Sri Lankan military has arrested at least one Tamil youth, after conducting search raids in Valvettithurai on Thursday.

The youth, identified as 28-year-old Padmanabhan Sindhuraj, was at home when the military raided the property, allegedly searching for his brother. 

It is reported they were searching for the Tamil man in connection with a clash between local Tamils and soldiers in Nagarkovil last week.

Sri Lanka’s Terrorism Investigation Division (TID) attempted to pressure the families of the disappeared to end their campaign for accountability, as they interrogated a protest leader in Colombo last week.

Sri Lanka’s defence secretary announced his regime would be launching a “Cyber Security Act”, just weeks after the defence ministry took control of state institutions that govern for non-governmental organisations, as well as the technology, telecommunications and media agencies.

Following President Rajapaksa’s statement that the thousands of forcibly disappeared and missing Tamils were ‘actually dead’, The Woman’s Action Network (WAN), which is comprised of nine women’s group working across the North and East, have released a statement condemning the President’s statement describing it as an “affront to mothers, wives, sisters, and daughters of the disappeared” who have protested for over 1,000 days to know the fate of their loved ones.

 

A prominent Sri Lankan Buddhist monk and academic has urged the government to escalate its efforts to ‘dismiss the Tamil Diaspora’ and instead write a ‘victor’s history’ of Sri Lanka.

<p>The Supreme Court of Canada has effectively upheld the acquittal of three Tamils who were charged with human smuggling following the arrival of a ship carrying hundreds of Tamil asylum seekers to British Columbia.</p> <p>In a decision on Thursday the court rejected the government’s application for an appeal hearing on the case.</p>

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has called for “proper police protection” and a “thorough investigation” after journalists in Batticaloa received death threats yesterday, amidst a ramped up climate of harassment of media workers in recent months.

A number of journalists from the Batticaloa district were issued death threats, with leaflets of their photographs circulated warning that they will soon be executed.

In light of the Sri Lankan president Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s declaration last week that the thousands of forcibly disappeared and missing Tamils “are actually dead”, People for Equality and Relief in Lanka (PEARL) and 47 Roots released a video calling on government officials around the world to take action.