The Heads of Mission of the European Union, Australia, Canada, Netherlands, Norway, South Africa and Switzerland visited the Dewatagaha Mosque on Friday to express solidarity with leaders of Si Lanka’s Muslim community.

Speaking at the mosque, EU Ambassador Tung-Lai Margue said,

The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) has elected Sri Lanka to serve as Vice President of the assembly.

At a meeting of the 72^nd session of the meeting Sri Lanka was chosen to act as Vice-President and representative for the Asia and Pacific Group for the period of September 2017 to August 2018.

Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Rohan Perrara will serve as the v the Vice-president during the 72^nd session.

See here.

A Trincomalee mosque was attacked with petrol bombs in the early hours of Saturday morning.

The Periyakadai Jumma Mosque, situated close to a Sri Lankan Navy camp, is the latest victim in a series of anti-Muslim attacks on the island, most of which had been carried out in the predominantly Sinhala-Buddhist South.

The Adayaalam Centre for Policy Research (ACPR) launched “Stories of Mullivaikaal,” the first series in ACPR’s “Stories of Resilience” project at www.storiesofresilience.com.

The project will document stories of resilience and agency, highlighting narratives other than victimhood within Tamil community, who have exhibited diverse forms of resilience through various stages of Sri Lanka’s unresolved ethnic conflict.

See full press release below:

Thirty-six years ago today, the Jaffna Public Library, a crown jewel among Tamil cultural institutions and one of the largest libraries in South Asia, burned at the hands of Sri Lankan security forces and state-sponsored mobs.

Today the Mullaitivu Magistrate granted an extension allowing the police to continue investigating whether any of the names on stones used for a May 18 memorial that was set up by local human rights activist, Father Elil Rajendram, are former LTTE cadres.

To mark the 100^th day since families of the disappeared began protesting in Kilinochchi, over 1000 families of the disappeared from across the North-East gathered to protest blocking the A9 road in Kilinochchi town for over 5 hours on Tuesday. Civil society, clergy and university students from across the North-East and the South joined in solidarity. 

In a recent ceremony, President Maithripala Sirisena opened the Lanka Patuna bridge.

“The bridge which is 150 meters long, built under the supervision of Road Development Authority will facilitate the devotees who visit the Lanka Patuna temple,” the President’s webpage stated.

Renamed Lanka Patuna by the Sri Lanka government, the small Tamil village originally known as Ilankaithurai Mugaththuvaram, has become a spot for Southern tourists who come to visit the newly built Buddhist temples. 

After receiving further pressure from Mullaitivu police earlier this week to submit a list of the names of the dead that were carved on stones as part of a Mullivaikkaal event last week, Tamil civil society activist and programme director of Adayaalam Centre for Policy Research (ACPR) Father Elil has now been asked by police for the addresses of those names on the list.