The Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF) said that there was “no point” in trying to engage with Ranil Wickremesinghe ahead of lawmakers electing a new Sri Lankan president, as he was actively working with a party that was against the changes that are currently taking place on the island.

Following months of protest, Sri Lanka’s military have stormed the protest site in Galle Face destroying the settlement where less than a hundred protesters were camping.

French Tamils commemorated Black Tigers Day in Paris earlier this month, paying tribute to fighters of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

An event was held in Bobigny, with musical tributes and flowers laid before portraits of fallen cadres.

Arputham Ammal, the mother of A.G. Periarivalan, who was imprisoned for over 31 years over his alleged role in the 1991 Rajiv Gandhi assassination, was celebrated at a function in Tamil Nadu earlier this month, where she was praised for her resilience.

Periarivalan was finally freed from prison earlier this year, following a long legal battle led chiefly by Arputham Ammal.

Sri Lanka’s president Ranil Wickremesinghe paid a visit to the Defence Headquarters Complex hours after he was sworn in this morning, where he shook hands with accused war criminals and ceremonially lit a lamp before a statue of the Buddha.

Wickremesinghe was greeted by Kamal Gunaratne, Sri Lanka’s defence secretary and former army commander who was involved in overseeing the Mullivaikkal genocide.

Demonstrations have been held outside Singapore’s embassies around the world, calling on the country to arrest Sri Lanka’s former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa and prosecute him for genocide.

In Malaysia, a delegation led by Penang Deputy Chief Minister, Prof Ramasamy met with the Singapore High Commissioner to Malaysia, Vanu Gopala Menon, handing him a memorandum expressing the sentiments of Malaysian Tamils over Rajapaksa’s presence in the country.

Canadian lawmaker Gary Anandasangaree called on his government to impose sanctions on former Sri Lankan president Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his brother Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday, days after they lost immunity from prosecution.

Within hours of being appointed Sri Lanka’s new president, Ranil Wickremesinghe issued a stark warning to the island’s protestors, as government supporters reportedly attacked a demonstration site and a court blocked protests at another major site in the Southern capital.

“We will deal with them firmly according to the law,” he warned. “We will not allow a minority of protesters to suppress the aspirations of the silent majority clamouring for a change in the political system.”

Sri Lanka's President-elect Ranil Wickremesinghe mocked claims he was an old friend of the former president's family when questioned by Sky News.

Latest from Sri Lanka here: https://t.co/3GdudkJzyE pic.twitter.com/BNi1wkbZrd

— Sky News (@SkyNews) July 20, 2022

Sri Lanka’s president Ranil Wickremesinghe mocked a question from Sky News, as he claimed to not be a friend of the Rajapaksas and instead a “friend of the people”.

Sri Lanka's lawmakers have voted for Ranil Wickremesinghe to become the country's next pesident, after a secret ballot and a tense vote in parliament earlier today.