UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson paid tribute to the British Tamil community and thanked them for their contribution towards the coronavirus pandemic response in the country, in a message to mark Thai Pongal released today.

Johnson said he wanted to “thank you for everything you’re doing in our struggle against COVID, because throughout this crisis your values of hard work, discipline and community spirit have really shone brightly”.

Sri Lankan president Gotabaya Rajapaksa issued a chilling warning on Saturday, as he threatened to “bring back” his role as defence secretary and disparagingly spoke of how Sri Lankan security forces killed LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran.  

In response to a critical parliamentary speech by opposition MP Harin Fernando, Rajapaksa warned that he has “two faces”.

Canada’s Chief Government Whip, Mark Holland, has condemned the destruction of the Mullivaikkal memorial in Jaffna as an attempt to erase “erase the memory of thousands of massacred Tamils”.

On Twitter he stated:

British Shadow Minister for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Stephen Kinnock, has called upon ministers to “defend the rights of minorities in Sri Lanka” as he laid out the Labour party’s new foreign policy agenda yesterday.

Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Finance has praised the Rajapaksa administration for its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and building economic stability in the country as government spokesman, Udaya Gammanpila, pleaded with international investors to roll over bonds maturing this year.

Responding to the destruction of the Mullivaikal monument at Jaffna university, the EU has responded issuing a statement stating that they were saddened by the destruction of the monument.

On Twitter they stated:

Writing in the Telegraph, Britain’s former Foreign Secretary, William Hague, warns against global democratic decline and highlights the authoritarian tendencies in Hungary, India, Turkey, and Sri Lanka.

In his piece he notes:

The original monument when it was unveiled in 2019

Tamil diaspora organisations from across the globe condemned the destruction of the Mullivaikkal memorial monument and expressed their solidarity with the protesters at Jaffna University. 

In a joint statement, the Australian Tamil Congress (ATC), British Tamils Forum (BTF), Irish Tamils Forum (ITC), Solidarity Group for Peace and Justice in Sri Lankan (SGPJ) and United States Tamil Action Group (USTAG) said; 

The continued detention of 25-year-old Ahnaf Jazeem, a Muslim poet from Mannar, by Sri Lankan authorities under terrorism charges has drawn widespread condemnation across the island.

Sri Lanka’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID) decided his book of Tamil language poems, titled Navarasam contained extremist messaging and have held him in detention since May 2020 under the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA).

Tamils in Switzerland held a rally outside the United Nations in Geneva today to condemn the demolition of the Mullivaikkal memorial in the University of Jaffna. 

Swiss Tamils demonstrates in solidarity with the students at Jaffna University as global outrage continues over the destruction of the monument dedicated to the tens of thousands of Tamils killed at the end of the armed conflict in 2009.