The International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP) have published a new infographic showcasing the authoritarian hold President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has imposed in Sri Lanka through “powerful militarised task forces that bypass the usual checks and balances of a democratically elected parliament.”

Sri Lankan Prime Minister, Mahinda Rajapaksa, has attacked communal parties, with particular attention to the rival Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), led by Sajith Premadasa, which he claims would have divided the country and invited foreign influence.

Unitary or Undivided

Former NPC member, M K Sivajilingam has been summoned to court over three charges, including the commemoration of the Navaly church massacre in 1995. 

Manipay police have ordered Sivajilingam to appear at Mallakam court at noon on July 8, claiming that he is trying to regroup the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and is planning a 'protest' on the anniversary of the Navaly church massacre. The police have argued that Sivajilingam would be breaching COVID-19 rules if the 'protest' goes ahead. 

The families of the disappeared in Vavuniya have responded to the Tamil National Alliance’s (TNA) election campaign and recent comments by insisting they are not going to be deceived by “Mavai – who is changing his disguise as we get nearer to the elections - and his friends of the TNA.”

Sri Lankan Prime Minister, Mahinda Rajapaksa, has announced a special inquiry into Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) who he claims are “spreading slander against the government”, with specific concern to "foreign currency".

The Sri Lankan navy has stepped up surveillance across the Northern coast, in response to what authorities have termed the “illegal entry” of Eelam Tamil refugees from India. 

P Charles, Governor of the Northern Province, told The Hindu that “we have received information that some of the refugees are trying to leave India because of the coronavirus situation there”.

The British High Commission in Sri Lanka said a new British sanctions regime was “an important new tool" for "tackling serious human rights violations and defending the rules-based international system”, as more sanctions are expected to be announced in the coming months.

The UK Global Human Rights sanctions regime, which was announced by the British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab yesterday, imposed sanctions on 49 individuals and organisations involved in notorious human rights abuses in recent years. 

Speaking with People for Equality and Relief in Lanka (PEARL), Gowri Koneswaran, a lawyer and writer, Ram Paramanathan, a journalist and media critic, and Abhirami Balachandran, researcher and educator, gave enlightening discussions on queer identity in the Tamil community as part of their final discussion in their Tamil Struggle 101 workshop.

Rejecting cis-heterosexual normativity

Black Tigers Day events were held across Europe and other countries, last week to mark 33 years since the death of the first Black Tiger, Captain Miller. 

France

Around 50 organisations and individuals based in South Africa, including the South African Tamil Federation (SATF) and the Tamil Federation of Gauteng (TFG) have expressed their support for International Truth and Justice Project's (ITJP) executive director, Yasmin Sooka and expressed their “extreme concern and strenuous condemnation” in light of the defamation case against her, in a statement released last week.