Image courtesy of Action Contre la Faim (ACF)

On this day 15 years ago, Sri Lankan security forces summarily executed 17 aid workers from the French NGO, Action la Contre Faim (ACF), in Muttur, Trincomalee. 

On this day 32 years ago, up to 64 Tamil civilians were killed by the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) in Valvettithurai in a massacre that was termed “India’s My Lai”.

The massacre, which saw dozens killed, came on the background of escalating violence and rights abuses committed by Indian forces across the Tamil homeland. As Tamil militant groups continued hostilities with the IPKF, the Indian forces imposed a curfew on August 2, 1989, following an ambush attack.

The United States says that all Sri Lankan soldiers continue to be fully vetted for involvement in human rights abuses before being allowed to train in the country. Recent appointments however point to holes in the vetting process and raise questions from survivors.  

Today marks 20 years since a team of 14 LTTE commandos infiltrated and attacked the Sri Lankan Air Force Base in Katunayake, destroying several aircraft and causing over US$500 million worth of damage without a single civilian fatality.

Today marks thirty-eight years since the horrors of the anti-Tamil pogrom of 1983, when thousands of Tamils were killed by Sinhala mobs backed by the then UNP government and state forces.

On this week 22 years ago, Sri Lankan soldiers burst into the home of Ida Camerlitta, a 21-year-old Tamil woman, in Mannar. They gang raped her and shot her dead, in what was yet another example of horrific crimes committed by the military. To this day, the soldiers responsible for her rape and killing continue to roam free. 

On the 12^th of July 1999, armed Sri Lankan soldiers stormed into Ida Camerlitta’s home in Pallimunai. Her whole family, including her mother, were inside at the time.

The soldiers beat and tied up some of those who were inside the home. They then proceeded to rape Ida, before shooting her dead.

Her post-mortem revealed 18 injuries across her body, including injuries from sexual violence and bite wounds on her breasts and lips. She had been stabbed in the abdomen and then shot through her genitals.

^{21 Black Tiger elite commandos who took part in the raid on a Sri Lankan airbase in Anuradhapura, 2007}

On July 5, Eelam Tamils across the world remember and mourn the sacrifices made by the LTTE's elite women and men, the Black Tigers. “Karumpuli Naal” marks the sacrifice made by the first Black Tiger, Captain Miller, or Vallipuram Vasanthan, 34 years ago.

Professor Lukman Thalib can still vividly remember that day his home was raided. As the head of the Department of Public Health at Qatar University and a member of the country’s Scientific Committee against Covid-19, the highly respected Australian public health professor was chairing a meeting on Zoom, when he heard his wife screaming downstairs.

“I came down and there were 4 to 5 people in plain clothes inside my house,” he says. “It was as though they took over my house… We were terrified.”

An Israeli weapons manufacturer announced that the Sri Lankan military has signed a new US$50 million contract this week, in a move that will see Colombo’s infamous Kfir bomber jets revamped and upgraded.

Kfir jets, which have been extensively used by the Sri Lankan Air Force to carry out bombing raids across the North-East, have killed thousands of Tamils throughout the years. The use of the aircraft became so prevalent that for Tamils the name Kfir, Hebrew for "Lion Cub", became synonymous with all the aircraft used by the Sri Lankan military during attacks on the Tamil homeland.

^{Scene of shooting - MP Sathasivam Vivalendiran House}

A Tamil man has been shot in the head by security forces outside of the Sri Lankan Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) MP Sathasivam Viyalendiran's house in Batticaloa earlier today.