Local government bodies and places of worship across the North-East held remembrance events for May 2009 this week ahead of the main event tomorrow at Mullivaikkal where thousands of people are expected to attend at the site of the final phase of the armed conflict and where tens of thousands were massacred by the Sri Lankan armed forces. 

Tamils gathered in Neduntheevu on Wednesday to remember the thirty-six Tamils massacred by Sri Lankan navy officers on board the Kumuthini boat on May 15, 1985. 

Families of the disappeared in Vavuniya this week urged Sri Lanka to be referred to the International Criminal Court as they held a token fast in tribute to the tens of thousands massacred by the Sri Lankan armed forces in May 2009. 

Eleven people were arrested this week in Point Pedro by police, including two Tamil business owners and 9 Muslim men. 

Two Jaffna University student union leaders and a campus hospitality worker, arrested earlier this month under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), were yesterday released on bail. 

The leader of the Ilankai Thamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK), Mavai Senathirajah, the former chief minister, C V Wigneswaran and the Tamil National People's Front (TNPF) called on Tamils to gather tomorrow at the May 2009 remembrance event in Mullivaikkal in memory of those who were massacred. 

A future Labour government would be committed to the causes of achieving justice and accountability for the Tamil people, as well as recognising their right to self-determination, the party’s leading figures said this week at an event marking the tenth anniversary of Mullivaikkal in Parliament.

“This is a sad occasion because we are commemorating the tenth anniversary of that terrible massacre,” said Labour leader and Leader of the Opposition Jeremy Corbyn MP.

<p>The Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) has challenged the banning of the Liberation Tamil Tigers of Tamil Eelam in the UK, citing that is being used to crack down political work of Tamils.</p> <p>In a petition to the British Home Secretary, TGTE members said that the ban on the LTTE is being misperceived as a ban on advocacy for a sovereign state of Tamil Eelam.</p> <p>Over the past ten years, there have been no violent activities carried out by the LTTE the statement added.</p>

A Sri Lankan minister this week said hard-line Buddhists were behind the recent days of anti-Muslim violence, describing the attacks as "organised" and "systematic". 

"These are organised attacks on Muslim business houses and premises," Navin Dissanayake, minister of plantation industries, said at a press briefing yesterday. 

The attacks were organised and systematically carried out in several locations by people brought form outside, he added. 

"They were organised thugs that have been brought to the areas from other areas. We have evidence and we can prove this," he said. 

The Committee to Protect Journalists this week condemned Sri Lanka's decision to reinstate an Army Major accused of the assassination of the Sunday Leader editor, Lasantha Wickremetunge. 

Prabath Bulathwatte was arrested two years ago over a number of attacks against media workers and is currently on bail. However, the army commander last week announced he would be reinstated following the Easter sunday bombings by Islamist extremists.