_{File photo: Vincent Florence Joseph}

Former Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) member and famous scholarly translator, Vincent Florence Joseph, passed away due to illness at his home in Kurunagar, Jaffna on Sunday. 

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called on the European Commission to increase its scrutiny on Sri Lanka and to set out a “timeline and concrete benchmarks for replacing the PTA and fulfilling other human rights obligations” or otherwise suspend Sri Lanka's access to preferential trading terms known as GSP+.

People for Equality and Relief in Sri Lanka (PEARL) condemned the pardoning of convicted murderer Duminda Silva and called on the European Union (EU) to withdraw it's GSP+ trade preferences "if human rights obligations continue to be abrogated."

A young Tamil man was found hanging from a neem tree in Mullaitivu, last week.

The body was discovered by a relative from the village, after the victim’s wife reported that her husband went missing following a family dispute. 

The Mullaitivu police are currently investigating the case and have taken the body to the district hospital for an autopsy. 

Amidst the strict militarised COVID-19 response by the Sri Lankan state and the recent stringent travel ban measures, many families across the Tamil homeland have been put under extensive mental, physical and economic strain.

Residents of Parangikamam, a village in Manthai West, Mannar have complained that swathes of forest near their area are being illegally deforested by the Sri Lankan government and that their land has become appropriated by private persons and foreigners. 

Addressing Sri Lankan Parliament, President Rajapaksa admonished the record of the previous administration claiming that they left the economic and security apparatus of Sri Lanka in ruins whilst, “the terrorism, which we ended in 2009, had re-emerged in a more dangerous form”.

“We went through a period where making comments about our character, our culture and nationality was a cause for insult and ridicule. We have changed that” Rajapaksa claimed.

The Sri Lankan navy opened fire at Tamil Nadu fishermen on Thursday whilst they were engaged in fishing near the waters of Dhanushkodi off the coast of the Pamban island. 

The Sri Lankan Navy, which was patrolling the sea at the time, used a loudspeaker and threatened to arrest the more than 20 fishermen who were on the spot, allegedly for violating the maritime boundary between India and Sri Lanka.  

Marking, International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, the International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP) released a statement highlighting several recent cases of “abduction and torture of Tamils perpetrated by the Sri Lankan security forces under the government of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.”

Despite ongoing criticism of its involvement in civilian affairs in the North-East, the Sri Lankan military launched several projects in June, normalising wider patterns of militarisation of the Tamil homeland

Leader of the United National Party, Ranil Wickremesinghe, criticised Sri Lanka’s militarised response to the COVID-19 pandemic noting that it is being led by the head of Sri Lanka’s army, Shavendra Silva.