Sri Lankan police stopped and interrogated a divisional council member in Mullaitivu for over three hours in connection with the upcoming anniversary of the Iyankulam massacre carried out by the Sri Lankan army's Deep Penetration Unit (DPU).

Thunukkai divisional council member, S Sujansan said Mallavi police threatened him against commemorating the victims of the targeted claymore attack of November 27, 2007 which claimed the lives of eleven people, including seven students between the ages of 13 and 22. The students had been travelling in an ambulance to a voluntary first aid class.

Sri Lanka's army commander saw off a group of soldiers earlier this week, who are off to join a UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan, despite human rights concerns. 

Last year, the UN announced it would ban all "non-essential" Sri Lankan troops in response to the appointment of Shavendra Silva, due to his abysmal human rights record. 

The United Nations failed to “prevent ethnic slaughter in places like Sri Lanka” said former US president Barack Obama in his memoir, ‘A Promised Land’, reflecting on his time at the White House.

“I read the U.N.’s 1945 founding charter and was struck by how its mission matched my mother’s optimism,” wrote Obama, reflecting on his early conversations as a child about the global body. “Needless to say, the U.N. hadn’t always lived up to these lofty intentions.”

“In the middle of the Cold War, the chances of reaching any consensus had been slim, which is why the U.N. had stood idle as Soviet tanks rolled into Hungary or U.S. planes dropped napalm on the Vietnamese countryside. Even after the Cold War, divisions within the Security Council continued to hamstring the U.N.’s ability to tackle problems. Its member states lacked either the means or the collective will to reconstruct failing states like Somalia, or prevent ethnic slaughter in places like Sri Lanka.”

The Sri Lankan state has intensified its crackdown on commemorations of Maaveerar Naal, the Tamil national remembrance day for fallen LTTE fighters, with police obtaining court injunctions against commemorations in several districts and both police and Sri Lankan army setting up roadblocks and checkpoints around LTTE cemeteries.

The Jaffna High Court on Friday rejected petitions against a number of injunctions, with the judge ruling that the court had no jurisdiction to issue such an order. The court however further stated that no one can prevent the petitioners from commemorating individually, but that collective commemoration was a matter related to national security.

The UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), has published an updated report on 30 countries of human rights concerns, noting that the “human rights environment in Sri Lanka worsened”.

Human rights under attack

The report highlights specific concerns over the surveillance and intimidation of activists, human rights defenders, and high-profile human rights lawyers whilst also raising alarm over the pardoning of Sunil Ratnayake. They note that this was “the only member of the armed forces convicted of a wartime atrocity”.

Tamils across London are showcasing their unity by flying the Tamil Eelam flag outside homes and businesses in the build-up to Maaveerar Naal, which takes place on 27 November.

Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian M A Sumanthiran paid tribute to the LTTE’s Captain Pandithar at the fighter's family home this morning, as part of events leading up to Maaveerar Naal this week.

The Kayts Magistrate's Court has imposed a ban on observing Maaveerar Naal and other remembrance events in Jaffna from today until November 27.

An order was was issued by the court yesterday evening under the Covid-19 Isolation Act after Kayts police filed a case to ban any commemoration events. The police said they had received information that arrangements were being made to observe Maaveerar Naal in Velanani and Pungudutivu. 

This follows a series of court bans across the North-East prohibiting Tamil people from taking part in Maaveerar Naal commemorations. 

Sinnathurai Maheswari, the mother of Sinnathurai Raveenthiran, otherwise known as LTTE’s senior Captain Pandithar, pleaded that no one should be banned from paying homage to their deceased children.

Maheswari, hailing from Valvettithurai filed a petition at Jaffna High Court seeking an injunction not to attempt a ban on Maaveerar Naal events.

“Thirty years have passed since my son died and every year," she told reporters.