Several UK politicians, including the Prime Minister's Office, have shared their thanks to the British Tamil community and wished them a happy new year as well as highlighting the dire situation in Sri Lanka.

The Prime Minister's Office tweeted:

The Tamil New Year, which falls on the first day of the month of Chithirai in the Tamil calendar, was celebrated across the Tamil homeland on Wednesday, April 14.

With some referring to the April festival as an exclusively Hindu and sanskritised holiday, there is debate among Tamil communities as to whether the day truly represents a Tamil New Year.

Sri Lankan navy officers assaulted a group of Tamil fishermen, near the coast of Pallimunai beach in Mannar, last month.

A Fundamental Rights petition has been filed by Sri Lanka's former Human Rights Commissioner, Ambika Satkunanathan, in the Supreme Court against the expansion of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), which permit the state to "de-radicalise" and "rehabilitate" individuals who hold "violent extremist ideology".

Photograph: Amnesty International

Today marks a year since the detention of prominent Muslim human rights lawyer, Hejaaz Hizbullah, who was detained under Sri Lanka’s draconian and internationally condemned Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA).

Following the unwarranted and internationally condemned arrest of the Mayor of Jaffna, Viswalingam Manivannan, Sri Lanka’s army commander, and accused war criminal, Shavendra Silva visited the province to “evaluate security developments” ahead of New Year festivities.

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A Sri Lankan minister has sparked controversy and a backlash from Germany after claiming that “6.9 million people who voted for Gotabaya Rajapaksa wanted him to be a Hitler”, when speaking about the Sri Lankan president’s 2019 election victory.

Dilum Amunugama, Sri Lanka’s transport minister, added that “even I accept that”, and that “when he [Gotabaya Rajapaksa] fails to do so, they criticise him”.

Sri Lanka’s army has announced that it will send 243 army personnel to serve in Mali under the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission despite the UN suspending the use of Sri Lankan troops except for “essential” service in 2019.

During a visit to Vavuniya, last week accused war criminal Gotabaya Rajapaksa expressed the need to “protect” the “ideology” and “force” that made him President and claimed that groups were used to “spread lies about white vans, crocodiles and sharks”; his comments came in the same week in which the elected Mayor of Jaffna V. Mannivannan was arrested by Sri Lanka’s Terrorism Investigation Division (TID) and amongst intense military harassment of Tamil and Muslim civil society members.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa visited Vavuniya to hold his 17th “Discussion with the Village”, in one of the few talks to be held in the Northern Province. A programme which began running in September 2020, aimed to meet people in remote villages and inquire into their problems and discuss solutions. In previous discussions, the President has claimed that he does know what human rights abuses he has committed.

During this discussion in Vavuniya, Gotabaya Rajapaksa stressed the importance to protect the ideology that brought him into power and criticised hostile forces towards this “ideology” claiming that they are spreading “false propaganda” and trying to destroy it.

The International Truth and Justice Project have called upon the British Foreign Office to abide by its commitments to human rights and impose Magnitsky Sanctions against Sri Lanka’s Army Commander, Shavendra Silva, who is credibly accused of crimes against humanity.