A Tamil youth from Vadamaradchi was severely beaten by Sri Lankan intelligence officers on Friday evening.

The youth was stopped by Sri Lankan intelligence officers near his home in Vettrilaikeni while returning from work yesterday evening. The officers asked him where he had come from and where he was going, to which the youth asked why he had to explain his presence on a public road.

(Photo of  Kilinochchi protest 20 February 2021)

Writing in Just Security, Tasha Manoranjan, Executive Director of People for Equality and Relief in Lanka (PEARL), highlights that a failure to address impunity in Sri Lanka has “very real consequences, even beyond the preservation of international rule of law”.

Following claims by Sri Lanka’s Energy Minister, Udaya Gammanpila, that 99 oil tanks loaned to the Indian Oil Corporation in 2003 had been withdrawn, India’s High Commission has denied these claims maintaining that the bilateral understanding on jointly developing and operating the tank farm stood.

Writing in the Hindu, Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asian Director at Human Rights Watch, calls upon India to fulfil its obligations and support a strong resolution at the next UN Human Rights Council session which aims to “reduce the growing risk of future atrocities” in Sri Lanka.

Tamil families of the disappeared marched through Kilinochchi today, calling for justice for their forcibly disappeared family members, and for Sri Lanka to be referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The protesters marched bearing ‘thee-chatti’ (fire-pot) - clay pots containing live coals - on their heads, performing a traditional Tamil practice of penance or vow-fulfilment.

The march marked 4 years since families of the disappeared began continuous roadside protests across the North-East, demanding the whereabouts of their family members, the majority of whom had been handed over to the Sri Lankan Army at the end of the armed conflict in May 2009.

"We have been fighting non-stop for four years, and we have been waiting for our children to return for twelve years. Still there is no justice," one protester said. "That is why we carry black flags."

Sri Lanka's Minister of Public Security Sarath Weerasekara has vowed to introduce a bill to ban Tamil MPs from mentioning the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and it's leader Velupillai Prabhakaran in parliament. 

A Tamil mother, who spent 12 years searching for her missing son who was forcibly disappeared, died in Mullaitivu. Kanagamani– a mother of five from Kaiveli, Puthukkudiyiruppu – passed away on Thursday from an illness-related death

Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and Tamil National People's Front (TNPF) politicians were subjected to questioning by Sri Lankan police at their respective offices yesterday over their participation in the Pottuvil to Polikandy (P2P) march earlier this month. 

Sri Lankan police claimed to have recovered two faulty 'suicide vests' in the Chinnathambanai forest area in Vavuniya on Thursday (18^th Feb).

The Sri Lankan army prepares for another UN peacekeeping deployment this week, at the behest of an accused war criminal and with another soldier who was convicted over gesturing death threats to Tamils at the helm, despite repeated calls to suspend all deployments of Sri Lankan troops following the release of the UN human rights chief’s damning report.