Tamil lawmaker M A Sumanthiran praised those “who took up arms on our behalf” as part of the Tamil liberation struggle this month, as Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day was marked around the world.

Tamil gathered across Canada to mark Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day. In Toronto Tamils  gathered to pay their respects and remember the tens of thousands who were massacred by the Sri Lankan government in the final days of the armed conflict fifteen years ago.

The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a communique marking 15 years since the end of the armed conflict noting that Sri Lanka’s legacy of war and enforced disappearances haunt entire communities with victims and survivors "impacted psychologically, economically and socially".

The Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF) called on Tamils to boycott the upcoming Sri Lankan presidential election, adding that they must refrain from casting their vote until the Tamil aspirations are also fulfilled. 

“The Sri Lankan government looks to the Tamil homeland as enemies,” their statement read. “They continue with their Buddhization, militarization, and structural genocide in the homeland. As long as the majority representation is in their hands, they will not consider the Tamils as their people but enemies.”

Senior Janatha Vimukthi Party (JVP) member K D Lalkantha said only his party and one other led by extremist Sinhala monks are responsible for defeating “separatist terrorism” as he boasted of “ending” the island’s conflict “through war,” a day after Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day

Addressing former military officers in Ratnapura during a party meeting, Lalkantha credited the JVP for mobilizing “ideological warfare” whilst the security forces took up arms.

Sinhala extremist lawmaker Wimal Weerawansa claimed that the Sri Lanka refused to facilitate the surrender of LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran to the United States in 2009, as Washington would have supported an independent state of Tamil Eelam.

Speaking in Sri Lanka’s parliament, Weerawansa said the US had sent a ship to the shores of Mullatiivu in 2009 to facilitate the surrender of the LTTE leadership.

“We opposed it,” he said. “Even China and India asked for us to hand him over. We refused all of that.

The Indian government has extended its ban on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) for another five years, claiming the organisation is still active and “threatens the sovereignty and territorial integrity” of India.

The move came almost 15 years since the 2009 genocide at Mullivaikkal which saw the defeat of the LTTE and the murder of tens of thousands of Tamil civilians.

Tamils in Melbourne, Australia, held a protest in front of the Victoria Library demanding justice for the genocide at Mullivaikkal in 2009. 

Tamils held placards calling on the Sri Lankan government to stop the structural genocide on Tamils in their own homeland and reiterated that Tamils have the right to self-determination.

Samantha Ratnam, member of the Victorian Legislative Council, was amongst many at the protest. 

In a virtual hearing held by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) panelists highlighted the shrinking space for religious freedom on the island.

The Chief Prelates of the four Buddhist sects in Sri Lanka have written to Ranil Wickremesinghe seeking his pardon for convicted racist monk Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara, a notorious figure who  was imprisoned over hate speech.

The four prelates of Malwathu, Asgiri, Amarapura, and Ramanya claimed that Gnanasara’s actions were “commended” by many and he had advocated for “the prevention of conflicts between ethnicities”.