Dr Suthan Ulakanathan tells the story of how his family has dealt with grief in a time of chaos.

It’s Easter Sunday, 12 April 2020, and my mobile phone rings at 11:55 PM. It is the hospital's intensive care doctor who tells me my father has deteriorated in the last few hours. He asks if I want to come and see him should he get worse. I immediately say yes as I hadn’t seen him in person for several weeks and I missed him a lot. I get my clothes ready and sit in bed with my wife, tears running down my cheeks, as I am expecting the worst news I would ever receive in my life. At 1:30 AM I get the phone call I’ve been dreading. Appa had passed away.

Wendy Sherman, a former Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs and a lead negotiator on the US-Iran nuclear deal, has been widely reported to have been appointed as the next United States Deputy Secretary of State. 

The situation in Sri Lanka and Tamil politics will not be entirely unfamiliar to Sherman, as she looks to take up the role later this month. In 2011, Sherman met with a Tamil National Alliance (TNA) delegation made up of R Sampanthan, Mavai Senathirajah, Suresh Premachandran and M A Sumanthiran, as it visited Washington on the invitation of the US State Department.  

Tamil farmers in the Siththandi area of Mayilathamadu, Batticaloa, organised a protest on January 15 against the occupation of their land by Sinhala settlers. 

As they marked Maatu Pongal, a festival celebrated to give thanks to cattle, Tamil farmers in Siththandi poured into the streets and blocked pathways in protest against the encroachment of their lands by Sinhala settlers. 

An art exhibition was held in Jaffna by the Voice of the Voiceless, demanding the immediate release of Tamil political prisoners.

“Any dream of the political prisoners returning to their families this Thai Pongal have been shattered,” said former political prisoner and Voice of the Voiceless coordinator, Murugiah Komakan at the event earlier this month.

At Neeraviyadi Pillaiyar temple in Semmalai, Mullaitivu, Thai Pongal festivities took place amidst surveillance of several police and military investigators who were stationed inside the temple throughout the event.

The Association for Relatives of the Enforced Disappearances have written to Core-Group Ambassadors for Sri Lanka calling on the international community and UN refers the country to the International Criminal Court or establish a specifically created International Criminal Tribunal in advance of the 46th UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) session in Geneva this March.

Responding to a question posed by UK Labour MP Taiwo Owatemi on the legitimacy of exporting military equipment to Sri Lanka, with a “value of £149,724”, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary for the Department of Trade, Ranil Jayawardena, denied that this was a breach of international humanitarian law.

Today marks 28 years since the death of Sathasivam Krishnakumar alias Colonel Kittu, and nine other LTTE cadres, who committed suicide after being surrounded by Indian navy warships in 1993.

Ed Davey, Leader of the UK Liberal Democrats, has called on the Prime Minister to “create an International Independent Investigative Mechanism” (IIM) to “investigate and prosecute for serious international crimes committed in Sri Lanka against the Tamils”.