University of Jaffna's Art Faculty students held a memorial service yesterday to mark the 14th year death anniversary of former student union leader Sellathurai Purusothaman, who was killed along with another Tamil youth during a clash with the Sri Lankan Army.

The students paid tribute to Purusothaman as a popular and courageous student leader, leading the arts faculty students union at Jaffna University between 2006 and 2007, during the height of Sri Lankan military hostilities against Tamil students.

Jaffna University students are protesting through Tellippaalai this morning demanding the return of land to villagers in Valikamam which is currently occupied by the Sri Lankan Army.

Protestors held  placards that read: “Give back our lands, stop the encroachment on our Homeland, Vali North is our native land!” 

Following a whirlwind tour of Sri Lanka, where she met Sri Lanka's political leaders, the Deputy Managing Director of the European External Action Service’s (EEAS) Asia and Pacific division, Paola Pampaloni reaffirmed the European Union’s commitment to supporting Sri Lanka during this “difficult period” but stressed the need to see progress on accountability and the protection of democratic freedoms.

The interviews come as news breaks that Sri Lanka’s Presidential Envoy to Europe and Commonwealth, Niranjan de Silva Deva Aditya (Nirj Deva), is reportedly seeking for Sri Lanka to join the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS), expand concessions for Sri Lanka under the GSP+ agreement with the EU, and to strike a free trade agreement.

Plainclothed Sri Lankan military officers took photographs of Tamils preparing for Maaveerar Naal at Koppay Thuyilum Illam. 

Maaveerar Naal - or Great Heroes Day - remembers those who sacrificed their lives in the Tamil liberation struggle, and is marked on November 27, in memory of the first death of a Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam cadre, Lt Col. Shankar who died in combat on November 27, 1982. 

Students at the University of Jaffna paid tribute to those who gave their lives to the Tamil liberation struggle today. 

With the beginning of month of November, commemoration events have commenced to mark Maaveerar Naal.

Responding to continuing land grabs by Sri Lanka's regime, Jaffna University's Student Union has organised a sit-in protest in Tellippalai to demand the return of land to villagers in Valikamam.

The protest will be held tomorrow. Student organisers have called on all political parties and civil society organisations to participate in the demonstration.

“There are many lands in North-East which were grabbed by the Government. We should fight back to get our lands”, a representative of the student union told the media.

Not only does acting on Sri Lanka provide Sunak the opportunity to re-establish Britain’s presence internationally, it also remains entirely in British interests to do so. Successive Sri Lankan regimes have shirked off the building of any rules-based international order and refused to comply with global norms. Holding the state to account will be a demonstration that to the British government, values matter. The UK will not condone mass atrocities or genocides from Bucha and Xinjiang to Jaffna and Mullivaikkal.

Sri Lanka is not Sunak’s toughest test on the global stage at present. In fact, it should be his easiest. If Sunak wants to build a Global Britain, this is where he should start.

Tamil families of the disappeared protested against Sri Lanka’’s justice minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe's visit to Jaffna earlier today. 

Following growing demands to release all Tamil political prisoners, Sri Lanka’s Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe met with the relatives of those detained alongside the leader of the Tamil Makkal Thesiya Kootan (TMTK), CV Wigneswaran.

During the meeting, Rajapakshe claimed that the government is “considering the release of remaining political prisoners”. He further highlighted a spate of recent releases to signal that the government was taking a positive stance toward the issue.

On October 30, 1995, over half a million Tamil men, women and children fled their homes in Jaffna as the Sri Lankan military launched a military offensive to capture the peninsula, under the leadership of then president Chandrika Kumaratunga.