The Sri Lankan military announced that Shavendra Silva, an army commander who has been the subject of international calls to face trial for war crimes, will be one of several senior military figures to participate in celebrations to mark “a decade upon eradication of the brutal terrorism”.

The events, dubbed by the military as “National War Heroes’ Day”, are set to start tomorrow. A military press release said troops from the “victorious and dignified Army” will take part in events across the island.

British MPs join the Tamil community in remembering the tenth anniversary of the Mullivaikkal massacre. 

Helen Grant MP for Maidstone and the Weald tweeted and shared an online video message in rememberance of "the terrible Mullivaikkal genocide of innocent Tamils 10 years ago."

Robert Halfon MP for Harlow expressed the importance of commemorating the loss of so many innocent lives. 

Marking 10 years since the Sri Lankan military onslaught that massacred tens of thousands of Tamils, we revisit the final days leading up to the 18^th of May 2009 – a date remembered around the world as ‘Tamil Genocide Day’. The total number of Tamil civilians killed during the final months is widely contested. After providing an initial death toll of 40,000, the UN found evidence suggesting that 70,000 were killed. Local census records indicate that at least 146,679 people are unaccounted for and presumed to have been killed during the Sri Lankan military offensive.

The Mullivaikal Remembrance Public Forum, the collective responsible for organising remembrance activities in the North-East on the tenth anniversary of the Tamil genocide made a declaration on May 18, calling for the continued unity of the Tamil nation to struggle for justice and self-determination.

As part of a collaborative project marking the 10th year since the end of the war in Sri Lanka, today the Adayaalam Centre for Policy Research, Tamil Guardian and 47 Roots, launched: www.RememberMay2009.com. 

The website aims to provide a resource that maps out the atrocities that took place during the final months of the armed conflict and reflects on their impact 10 years later.

The Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF) released a poetry anthology and musical record to mark ten years since the Mullivaikkal massacres.

Ten years since the end of the armed conflict, Sri Lanka remains divided. Far from the promise of stability and unity, the fractures that have plagued the country since independence, continue to define the relationships within the island. Sri Lanka has failed to become what the international community expected it would, when the war ended ten years ago - a stable, peaceful, pluralist state founded on liberal, democratic principles. To the Tamils this is unsurprising. The failure to ‘fix’ Sri Lanka begins with the failure to acknowledge the toxic Sinhala Buddhist ethnocracy in its core.

Canadian politicians have been joining the Tamil community to mark the tenth year of Mullivaikkal and Tamil genocide remembrance in the lead up to May 18.

Speaking in Parliament, Gary Anandasangaree MP said:

The Sri Lankan military today set up check points at both main entrances to Mullivaikkal beach, registering those passing through, just hours before Tamils plan to gather Mullivaikkal genocide remembrance events, set to take place tomorrow.