As garment workers across Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are forced to work in precarious conditions during the pandemic, over 50 labour advocacy groups have called on the governments of Bangladesh and Sri Lanka to protect workers.

The joint statement warns that “Sri Lankan and Bangladeshi workers must choose between death and destitution”.

Jaffna parliamentarian C.V. Wigneswaran criticised President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's imposition of emergency on the island and called it an attempt to pre-empt the people from “rising up” against him. “This is a crucial step towards totalitarianism,” he added. 

Wigneswaran said that the COVID-19 pandemic is a pretext for the emergency and suggested that, instead of invoking such a law, the president should’ve passed a disaster relief legislation. 

"The tiger has always been an integral part of Tamil history."

Tamil students at the University of Glasgow have launched its first Tamil society, marking a spread of the vibrant Tamil student culture which already exists in England to another European country. 

The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) has criticised the Sri Lankan government's Kafkaesque handling of the COVID-19 pandemic as one which “undermines freedom of expression”.  

Journalists, doctors and social media users have been threatened and harassed by the government for criticising the state response to the COVID-19 pandemic. ICJ notes that critics have been questioned by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and some have gone on to be arrested and detained for weeks for allegedly posting “fake news” on social media. "The government’s intimidation of people who raises questions about measures to respond to COVID-19 serve to undermine, not advance, efforts to stop the spread of the pandemic,” said Ian Seiderman, ICJ’s Legal and Policy Director. 

(Photograph courtesy of @Kavinthans) 

The Kilinochchi Media Forum held a memorial for 26 year old journalist Pragas Gnanapragasam who died earlier this week after contracting coronavirus. 

The Sri Lankan army have begun constructing a 'Dhamma school' - Buddhist religious school - inside the Bhadrakali Amman kovil premises in Trincomalee, as Sinhala colonisation of the North-East continues. 

Earlier this year, the Sri Lankan government announced that Rs 22 million had been allocated for the development of Dhamma schools in the North-East. 

Sri Lankan police in Akkaraipattu, Ampara, blindfolded and beat freelance journalist Shahir Khan Farook and his brother for reportedly not wearing masks.

Addressing the issue of enforced disappearances in Sri Lanka, Tamil Makkal Thesiya Kootani (TMTK) leader C.V. Wigneswaran maintained that there also be a settlement of Tamil political problem, providing self-governance to the North and East.

Jaffna Press Club has pledged to “follow in the path” of Pragas Gnanapragasam, a 26-year old Tamil journalist who died on Thursday, and work towards realising his dreams. In a condolence statement, the Club paid tribute to Gnanapragasam and the integrity of his journalism. 

The daughter of a Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) member who was forcibly disappeared during the end of the armed conflict, speaks to Tamil Guardian about how difficult it has been to live without her father for the past 12 years.