Canada’s Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre said he would look to prosecute Sri Lanka at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and appoint lawyers to pursue charges against accused war criminals in international criminal courts. Giving interviews to two Tamil media outlets in recent months, Poilievre said his plan includes "Magnitsky sanctions to specifically target guilty members of the Rajapaksa regime for their role in the genocide”. “We want to prosecute the regime at the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ). We will move motions to...
Sri Lanka's Foreign Affairs Minister Ali Sabry said his government would "express its displeasure with the British government" against the protest held by Tamils in London, at a time when Sri Lanka was holding its 76th Independence Day Celebrations and Tamils worldwide marked it as a 'Black Day'. Sabry reportedly said that Sri Lankan government’s displeasure over the incident would be conveyed to the United Kingdom through the Sri Lankan High Commission in London. He also said that the government in Sri Lanka would bring to the notice of the Foreign Ministry in the UK that an organization...
Tamil journalist Puniyamoorthy Sathiyamoorthy, who was killed by a Sri Lankan artillery barrage inside the ‘No Fire Zone’ in February 2009, was remembered by the Tamil National People's Front. The TNPF held a remembrance event in their Jaffna office today to mark 15 years since his death. Sathiyamoorthy, who began contributing to 'Pulikalin Kural' (Voice of Tigers) later wrote the military column for the 'Eezhanaatham' daily. He was reporting from inside the 'No Fire Zone' when Sri Lankan artillery shells landed in the Mullaitivu district. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said that...
Murugathasan Varnakulasingham, the 26 year old who self-immolated in protest outside the United Nations in Geneva over the inaction of the international community in the face of the 2009 genocide of Tamils, was remembered in London today. Murugathasan's parents laid a flower garland on his tombstone and the national flag of Tamil Eelam was raised to honour his sacrifice. In his parting letter , Murugathasan wrote: "We Tamils displaced and all over the world loudly raised our problems and asked for help before [the] international community in your own language for three decades. But nothing...
This week marks 28 years since the Kumarapuram Massacre took place in Trincomalee, where the Sri Lankan military killed 26 Tamil civilians and gang-raped a 15-year-old girl. On the evening of February 11, 1996, a group of soldiers, some of them under the influence of alcohol, charged into the village of Kumarapuram and indiscriminately beat up Tamil civilians in the locality. They subsequently killed 26 people, gang-raped a teenage girl and caused injuries to 24 others. Survivors of the carnage recalled that the soldiers shouted “death to Tamils” as they rampaged through the hamlet. Six Sri...
There has been much consternation in recent weeks as the Sri Lankan government passed the Online Safety Bill, a new piece of legislation that essentially allows the state to police and prosecute what individuals and organisations post online. There have been remarks from the United Nations human rights office, diplomats from various Western countries and a host of NGOs – all of whom have expressed concern over the risks to freedom of expression on the island. In the Tamil North-East, however, those concerns have long been a reality. Left unabated and unchallenged by the international community for years, that climate of repression has solidified and is now being rolled out across the island.
Sri Lankan government officials, tasked with surveying 500 acres of land for transfer to the Civil Aviation Authority in Jaffna's Valikamam North, were compelled to retreat in the face of vehement opposition from local residents. After learning that officials were planning to measure the land today, residents from Kurumbasiddy, Vasavilan, Kadduvan, Kadduvan West and Kuplan flocked to the site to stop the officers from measuring the land which is for the development and extension of the Jaffna International Airport in Palali. The residents had submitted a written objection to the District...
Despite criticism from Tamils across the North-East and international organisations, Sri Lanka’s much criticised ‘Truth and Reconciliation’ Commission held a forum in the South last week, with the participation of Colombo-based civil society organisations and journalists.
Leader of the lankai Thamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK) Sivagnanam Shritharan speaking to parliament told the house that “Sinhalese leaders waged a war against their own brethern and turned into a genocide," adding "in a country where justice does not prevail, the economy cannot flourish”. Shritharan referring to Sri Lankan president Ranil Wickremasinghe’s speech in parliament said the president spoke squarely on the economy as if there are no other issues prevailing on the island. He faulted successive governments citing that they borrowed heavily to strengthen the army but struggled to pay it back...
Following the disintegration of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), a coalition of Tamil political parties that broke down last year, the leader of the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO) raised the possibility of once again teaming up with the Ilankai Thamil Arasuk Katchi (ITAK) under the new leadership of S Shritharan. Vanni District Member of Parliament Selvam Adaikkalanathan said that his party is ready to make concessions so that all Tamil political parties can work together for a common goal. “Five Tamil political parties are all traveling along one line and under the common...