The Sri Lankan government have used the notorious Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) to crackdown on anti-government protesters, with three Sinhalese student leaders being detained for their participation in the mass protests that swept the island earlier this year. Successive Sri Lankan regimes have used the draconian legislation for decades to detain Tamils and Muslims arbitrarily and to extract false confessions through the use of torture. While the legislation has been repeatedly condemned by activists in the North-East and the international community, Sri Lanka has failed to repeal it. A...
Today marks 40 years since Sri Lankan security forces and state-sponsored Sinhala mobs set ablaze the Jaffna Public Library , the crucible of Tamil literature and heritage, which housed over 95,000 irreplaceable Tamil palm leaves, books and manuscripts. The burning has been etched in the hearts of Eelam Tamils as an act of genocide. Although 40 years have passed, no one has been held accountable for this painful unbearable loss of the Tamil nation. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka’s security forces continue to escalate their militarisation of the North-East. Last week, the Sri Lankan Air Force was seen...