Speaking in parliament today, Elliot Colburn, MP for Carshalton and Wallington, and Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Tamils (APPGT) welcomed the work of the British Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) in bringing about the recent UN Human Rights Council resolution but questioned what further action was being taken.

The original monument unveiled in 2019 

The reconstructed Mullivaikkal memorial monument, located at the University of Jaffna,  is set to be unveiled on Friday, April 23, after it was destroyed by Sri Lankan authorities earlier this year. 

Today marks the sixteenth anniversary since the abduction and murder of Tamil journalist Dharmeratnam Sivaram.

Sivaram, popularly known under his nom-de-plume Taraki, was abducted in front of Bambalipitiya police station in Colombo on April 28 and was found dead several hours later in a high security zone in Sri Lanka's capital, which at the time had a heavy police and military presence due to the ongoing conflict. His killers, highly suspected to be linked to the government of then-president Chandrika Kumaratunga, were never caught.

Annai Poopathy, the Tamil woman and mothers front activist who fasted to her death in protest of the Indian Army’s abuses in 1988, was commemorated across the Tamil homeland on the anniversary of her death on Monday.

Although Sri Lankan police had threatened Annai Poopathy’s family members against commemorating her at the monument to her memory in Kattankudy, Batticaloa, TNA politicians gathered there early on Monday morning to light candles and lay flowers.

Across the North-East, a crackdown is in full effect. Despite a renewed international focus on the island’s human rights record following the passing of yet another UN resolution on Sri Lanka, the state has decided to respond by doubling down on its repression. The expansion of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), the proscription of hundreds of Tamil diaspora members and the brazen arrest of Jaffna Mayor Viswalingam Manivannan show that Colombo will not respond to calls for reform. These actions, whilst shrouded in the rhetoric of national security, lay bare the intentions of the Sri Lankan state, not only to block justice for genocide and mass atrocities but also to deny even the slightest degree of autonomy to Tamils.

Sri Lanka’s Justice Minister, Ali Sabry, has announced plans for new legislation in Sri Lanka to curb speech on social media under claims of tackling “fake news”.

Speaking to the media, Sabry maintained that there must be limits on the freedoms that could be exercised and maintained that restrictions on speech should be in place with respects to “national security, reconciliation and development, refraining from destroying the name of the country and defaming individuals”.

^{Image courtesy of @saygi}

Today marks 33 years since the death of Annai Poopathy, a Tamil woman who fasted unto death in protest against the atrocities committed by Indian Peace Keeping Forces (IPKF).

As a member of the Navatkerny Mother's Front, Poopathy Kanapathipillai from Batticaloa, commenced a fast unto death on March 19, 1988 to protest the injustices and atrocities committed by the IPKF.

India’s External Affairs Ministry has insisted that, despite speculation, Milinda Moragoda’s nomination as Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner to India last November still stands.

Moragoda’s nomination followed a drastic shake-up of Sri Lanka’s foreign service in September with a number of hard-line Sinhala Buddhist politicians and former military personnel, many of whom have been implicated in grievous war crimes.

Sri Lankan police have threatened the family of Annai Poopathi, warning that if they commemorated her death anniversary near her grave, they would be imprisoned under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA). 

Annai Poopathy's elder daughter Ms Lokeshwaran Santhi, while speaking to the press in Batticaloa Press Club, said that her family was instructed by the police not to commemorate her mother in her resting place. 

Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP and media spokesperson, M.A. Sumanthiran has promised to take the necessary steps to help restore the full worship rights of Hindus in Kurunthur Malai, Mullaitivu.