The 53 Tamil political prisoners massacred in Welikada prison 38 years ago were remembered in Trincomalee yesterday despite a police ban. 

Attendees, including MP for Batticaloa Govindan Karunakaran, defiantly laid flowers for the victims of the massacre, as a Sri Lankan police officer attempted to obstruct the service. 

Sarah Hulton, British High Commissioner in Sri Lanka reaffirms the United Kingdom's “commitment to Sri Lanka” as consultations begin on a new trade scheme, despite international concern over the deteriorating human rights situation in Sri Lanka.

One of the key eyewitnesses of the notorious 2012 Welikada prison massacre, Sudesh Nandimal De Silva, received death threats by two unidentified people.  

According to Attorney-at-Law and the chairman of the Committee for Protecting Rights of Prisoners (CPRP), Senaka Perera, the two unidentified people had inquired from neighbours about De Silva’s movements and made statements which implied death threats to De Silva on 7 July 2021.

A remembrance event was held for Selvarajah Yogachandran, referred to as Kuttimani, and Nadarajah Thangavelu, alias Thangathurai, the co-founding leaders of TLO (Tamil Liberation Organisation), at the Tamil National Party office in Jaffna on Sunday.

The two were brutally murdered during the infamous Wellikada prison massacre which occurred during ‘Black July’, which saw thousands of Tamils killed by Sinhala mobs backed by the Sri Lankan government forces. 

Former Northern Provincial Council member Thurairasa Ravikaran called for Sri Lankan state forces to take accountability and impose sanctions on the illegal encroachment of fishermen from Southern Sri Lankan into the seas in Mullaitivu. 

The Sri Lankan navy has stepped up land grab operations in Mullaitivu, redoubling efforts to seize 617 acres of private land which was gazetted in 2017 for appropriation for the construction of 'Vattuvakal Gotabaya Navy base'.

In 2018, the navy abandoned land surveying attempts in response to successful protests organised by the Tamil landowners. Then Northern Province Council members M. K. Sivajilingam and T. Ravikaran were arrested by Mullaitivu police for their involvement.

Sri Lanka's Forest Department is alleged to have facilitated the illegal trade of timber across the North-East, particularly forested areas in Mullaitivu which have been targeted by illegal loggers leading to high rates of deforestation within the area. 

Teak trees cut in the Murrippu, in the Mullaitivu district, are reportedly transported to the Nahacholai forest area and sold by smugglers.

Marking 38 years since the horrors of Black July, the People for Equality and Relief for in Lanka (PEARL) renewed calls for justice and reflected on the "indelible impact of this genocide committed against Tamil people."

In a statement, the US-based organisation highlighted that the violent massacres of Black July, which took over 3,000 Tamil lives and forced more than 50,000 Tamils to flee the island, was "systematic and intentional genocide."

Demonstration were carried out in Jaffna, Amparai, Vavuniya and Mannar to mark the 38^th anniversary of Black July, paying tribute to the thousands of Tamil lives lost during the state-sponsored anti-Tamil pogroms of 1983.  

British Tamils gathered outside Downing Street to mark the 38th anniversary of Black July, when thousands of Tamils were killed by Sinhala mobs backed by the Sri Lankan state. 

LIVE - British Tamils mark 38th anniversary of Black July outside Downing Street pic.twitter.com/WCnf6LpTuK