Today Britain’s longest-ruling monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, passed away peacefully at her Scottish estate. Across the globe, messages of condolence have poured in to mourn the passage of the British head of state whose reign spanned over 15 Prime Ministers.

The latest report from the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) on child malnutrition in Sri Lanka , has been rejected by Sri Lanka's health ministry. 

Speaking to the media yesterday at the Health Ministry, Health Ministry secretary Janaka Sri Chandraguptha say they are not satisfied with the data the UNICEF used to form the report. 

The Health ministry secretary also said the UNICEF report's claim that the malnutrition status of children has greatly increased according to long-term data is not valid. 

Valasingham Krishnakumar, President of Batticaloa District Tamil Journalists Union has been summoned by Sri Lanka's Counter Terrorism and Terrorism Investigation Department (CTID) for an investigation in Colombo. 

Batticaloa police officers visited Krishnakumar's home today to hand over the summons letter which explains that he must go to Colombo on September 14th for questioning. This is the latest in a recent intensified crackdown on Tamil journalists in the homeland. 

Krishanthi Kumaraswamy, the Tamil schoolgirl raped and murdered by Sri Lankan soldiers in 1996, was remembered in her hometown of Chemmani today.

On September 7, 1990, Krishanthi was on her way home from school when she was stopped by a Sri Lankan soldier who called her into the Kaithady military checkpoint for 'questioning' when eleven officers kidnapped and gang raped her before killing her and burying her dismembered body in a ditch.

Image courtesy of JDS

Batticaloa District's Civil Society President Sabaratnam Sivayoganathan has been summoned by Sri Lanka's Counter-Terrorism and Terrorism Investigation Department (CTID) for questioning on September 9th.

Although Sivayoganthan has not been given any reasoning for the recent summons, he has previously faced similar interrogations. 

Illustration by Keera Ratnam/ waves of colour

The enforced disappearance and massacre of 158 Tamils from the Eastern University in Batticaloa in 1990 was remembered on Monday, marking 32 years since the incident. 

On September  5, 1990 Sri Lankan soldiers surrounded the Vantharumoolai campus of Eastern University, rounding-up and arresting 158 Tamils that were sheltering there. Those 158 were never seen again. Although locals believe they were likely to have been massacred, not even one body has been found.

Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Ali Sabry reportedly said that Sri Lanka will not accept any international investigation into war crimes perpetrated by Sri Lanka and its officials ahead of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) 51st session which starts next week. 

The University of Jaffna Students’ Union is condemning a series of tweets by the Chinese Embassy in Sri Lanka that commits to protecting the regime against ‘accountability for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and Genocide committed by the Sri Lankan state against the Tamil people” at the upcoming UNHRC session in Geneva. 

Ahead of the 51^st session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), the UN High Commissioner has released a scathing report on Sri Lanka outlining the deepening militarisation, the continued harassment of Tamil survivor communities, and the deterioration of human rights on the island.