The Tamil Civil Society Forum (TCSF) has put forward a set of eight questions to the Sri Lankan government on its coronavirus response, calling for greater transparency in how Colombo’s actions during the pandemic.

“We fear that politics precedes science and the public good in the Government’s response to COVID 19,” said the TCSF. “We demand concrete answers to these questions from the Government. The Government must release in public a white paper on its handling of the crisis thus far and its plans for the future.”

The TCSF called for clarification on the government’s strategy, including on curfews, funding and the economic fallout thus far.

At least  248 sailors at a Sri Lankan naval base have currently tested positive for the coronavirus admitted authorities, in what has been the biggest outbreak of the virus on the island so far.

Shavendra Silva, currently heading COVID-19 operations, stated that among the 30 cases in the last 24 hours, 22 of them were navy sailors and all but one of the rest had been in close contact with them. 

Memorial events were held across the Tamil homeland this week to mark 15 years since the assassination of Tamil journalist Dharmeratnam ‘Taraki’ Sivaram.

D. Sivaram, also known as Taraki, was a renowned journalist and editor of the website TamilNet, who was abducted on 28 April 2005. His body was found the following day inside a High-Security Zone in Himbulala, a Sinhala suburb of Colombo.

Tens of thousands of Eelam Tamil refugees in India are bracing themselves for the fallout of a lockdown and any potential coronavirus outbreaks in the refugee camps that they have been trapped in for decades, wrote Kavitha Muralidharan for Firstpost last week.

At least 54,000 Eelam Tamils live as refugees in 107 camps across Tamil Nadu, she said, including a special camp in Tiruchy that houses ‘offenders’. A further 32,000 Eelam Tamils live outside of camps.

A nationwide curfew has left jobs scarce for many in the camps, who rely on daily work in the region, “forcing them to survive on the limited provisions disbursed by the government,” writes Muralidharan.

A small war-impacted school in Mullaitivu celebrated as two of its students, both who were left paralyzed from the waist down by Sri Lankan military attacks in 2009, achieved top marks in their O-Level exam results this week.

One of the schoolchildren, Vidurshika, spoke to the Tamil Guardian at her home in Mullaitivu the day after she received her results.

She was just 6-years-old when a Sri Lankan soldier shot her in the back.

<p>Sri Lanka’s Deputy Inspector General of Police has reported that 40,095 persons have been arrested for violating the state-imposed curfew since it was imposed on 20 March.</p> <p>In the last 12 hours, 222 people were arrested.</p> <p>The high level of arrests and militarised response of the Sri Lankan state has raised concerns from human rights organisations such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.&nbsp;</p> <p>Read more from <a href="http://www.colombopage.com/archive_20A/Apr27_1588010405CH.php">Colombo Page.</a></p>

Marking 15 years since the assassination of Tamil journalist Dharmeratnam Sivaram, we have reproduced a speech delivered by former Tamil Guardian editor Vino Kanapathipillai at a commemoration for the slain journalist in 2010.

This speech was delivered in London on Aril 29, 2010 at the fifth anniversary of the death of Sivaram. 

Marking 15 years since the killing of Tamil journalist Dharmeratnam Sivaram, popularly known as ‘Taraki’, we have reproduced his final written piece.

The article, written in Tamil for the Colombo-based Virakesari newspaper, was published on Sunday April 24, 2005 - just days before Sivaram was murdered.

Today marks the fifteenth anniversary since the abduction and murder of Tamil journalist Dharmeratnam Sivaram.

Sivaram, popularly known under his nom-de-plume Taraki, was abducted in front of Bambalipitiya police station in Colombo on April 28 and was found dead several hours later in a high security zone in Sri Lanka's capital, which at the time had a heavy police and military presence due to the ongoing conflict. His killers, highly suspected to be linked to the government of then-president Chandrika Kumaratunga, were never caught.

The Tamil National People's Front (TNPF) has condemned the Sri Lanka military’s use of buildings in the North-East to construct quarantine facilities for its armed forces.

Former Sri Lanka parliamentarian and General Secretary of TNPF, Selvarajah Kajendren, released a statement on behalf of their party.