What the last week has also demonstrated, however, is that there is a growing distance between the language of solidarity from those who claim to be allies in this pursuit, and the courage it actually requires. On the island and around the world, there is yet to be a reckoning.

The Eelam Tamil calendar is scarred with memorials of massacres and killings, each date carrying its own weight. May 18 is different.

Joseph Vijay's historic victory in Tamil Nadu is the most significant political development in the state in a generation. But Eelam Tamils should be cautious.

The interrogation of student leaders at the University of Jaffna marks a deeply troubling escalation in the Sri Lankan state’s long-standing efforts to suppress political expression in the Tamil homeland.

Sri Lanka’s political establishment has been walking a tightrope this week, after the island was thrust into global headlines following the sinking of an Iranian warship by a United States submarine. 

The Oxford Union is no stranger to controversy. Over the decades, the prestigious student debating society has hosted a range of deeply divisive figures, from far-right agitators such as Tommy Robinson and Nick Griffin, to Holocaust deniers such as David Irving. It has justified these invitations under the banner of free speech and intellectual challenge, insisting that debate must remain open, however uncomfortable the speaker may be. The decision to invite Namal Rajapaksa to address the Union next week, however, is particularly disappointing – platforming a defender of mass atrocities and putting the welfare of its own students at risk.

The killing of a 17-year-old in Jaffna, the attempted cover-up that followed, and the complete absence of accountability, are part of a grim and familiar cycle. For decades, such violence has made clear that the Sri Lankan state does not value Tamil lives, no matter which government sits in Colombo.

Last month's UN report adds yet more weight to a body of evidence that is now overwhelming. The time has come for the international community to call these crimes by their proper name: genocide.

When Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney acknowledged that the global order is in a state of “rupture” last month, he gave voice to what many across the world have already felt for some time. The old certainties of the West are collapsing and longstanding alliances are being recalibrated. The world is changing. Where does that leave Eelam Tamils and the ongoing struggle for liberation? 

The unavoidable conclusion is that the government has chosen not to act when it comes to Tamil rights. The NPP has lied, and it continues to lie, to the Tamil people.