With the 2024 UK General Election set to take place on July 4, more British Tamils than ever before have been named as candidates with a range of Britain’s political parties.

The Tamil Guardian caught up with the candidates this month, as they vie to become one of the UK’s first-ever British Tamil parliamentarians.

Sri Lanka's Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Sabry criticised the “double standard and hypocrisy” shown by some countries over the humanitarian situation in Gaza, and called for “upholding international law,” despite his government refusing to address crimes committed against the Tamil population on the island.

Sabry made the remarks addressing the BRICS Foreign Ministers’ meeting held in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, earlier this month.

Major General Rohitha Aluwihare, the former commanding officer of the General Officer Commanding 11 Infantry Division - Central and representing the Vijayabahu Infantry Regiment has been appointed as the Chief of Staff of the Sri Lankan army, as another official accused of war crimes receives a promotion from the military.

The first ever British Tamil hustings took place last week, as representatives from the UK’s major political parties pledged to work towards justice and accountability for mass atrocities in Sri Lanka.

Watch the full recording of the event below.

The Swiss Tamil Youth Organization (TYO) hosted the “Manavar Eluchi Naal" (Tamil Students Uprising Day) to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Pon Sivakumaran's sacrifice in Kollinken, Switzerland on Sunday.

Pon Sivakumaran, who gave his life 50 years ago in 1974 at the age of 24, is remembered as the first martyr in the Tamil resistance. On June 5, 1974, surrounded by the Sri Lankan police and fearing torture, he swallowed cyanide and took his own life.

A Sinhala nationalist politician has called for Sinhala language schools to be set up in the Tamil homeland across the North-East, as he addressed parliament.

Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna's Member of Parliament Gevindu Kumaratunga stated that all 25 districts in the country have Tamil medium primary schools and that the absence of Sinhala medium schools in the North and East “is a matter of concern”.

A group of 23 Sri Lankan police officers have left for New Delhi to attend a two-week course on subjects such as “terror financing, internal security dynamics, and Islamic fundamentalism” as part of a fully funded Indian training program for the Sri Lankan security forces.

Sri Lanka’s Junior Foreign Minister Tharaka Balasuriya confirmed that at least 455 Sri Lankans are fighting for the Russian army in the war against Ukraine, but admitted that “the number could be much higher,” as he travelled to Moscow this week.

^(Virakesari)

The Sri Lankan government recently provided police protection and increased military presence for a group of Sinhala Buddhist monks who are undertaking a pilgrimage on foot to Kurunthurmalai, where an illegally built Buddhist temple is situated.

The increased security for the monks contrasts sharply with the surveillance of Tamil devotees by police during a pooja at the Athi Aiyanar temple in the same area last week.

Tamil families of the disappeared protested in Kilinochchi today as part of their ongoing campaign to know the fate of their forcibly disappeared relatives. 

The families gathered outside Kandaswamy temple in Kilinochchi to demand an international mechanism to investigate the disappearances of their relatives, many of whom have been disappeared at the hands of Sri Lanka's security forces.