Tamil families of the disappeared have launched a hunger strike in Mullaitivu marking Sri Lanka's 73rd Independence Day as a 'black day' as they continue to demand to know the whereabouts of their forcibly disappeared loved ones. 

Families of the disappeared raised black flags today in protest against Sri Lanka's 'Independence Day' and called on the international community to ensure justice and accountability for the Tamil victim-survivor community. 

The families of the disappeared in Vavuniya, who were instructed against taking part in demonstrations and hunger strikes on Sri Lankan Independence Day, resisted court bans by protesting and starting a hunger strike in Vavuniya, earlier today.   

Despite the numerous injunctions and restrictions imposed, the families of the disappeared braved Sri Lankan police intimidation to carry out protests demanding the whereabouts of their missing loved ones.

Rejecting the Sri Lankan Independence Day and referring to it as a ‘black day’ instead, the families of disappeared demonstrated in front of Jaffna Central Bus Stand at 10 am today.

Sri Lankan magistrates across districts in the North-East issued bans and injunctions against civil society members, journalists and other individuals ahead of a ‘walk for justice’  organised by Tamil war victims’ families, civil society organisations and Tamil politicians.

The protest march, which mobilised around demands for the United Nations and international community to heed Tamil calls for justice and accountability, began today from Pottuvil despite the imposed restrictions, roadblocks and police interference.

Responding to the death of 4 Tamil fishermen, India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar addressed the Rajya Sabha and maintained that the matter had been taken up with Sri Lanka in the “strongest terms”.

“We have taken it up in strongest terms with the Sri Lankan government and this particular incident I think was particularly unacceptable and that has been made very very clear to them”, he said.

Former Chief Justice and Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York, Mohan Pieris, accused the Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva of being a tool for terrorists in his first address to the UN General Assembly last Thursday.

Pieris made the derogatory comments about the institute during an informal interactive session following UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres’ presentation of his annual report to the General Assembly.

The UN has labelled the forced cremation of deceased #COVID19 patients in #SriLanka a violation of human rights, especially in the case of Muslims.

Tamils in the North-East have started a massive protest march, mobilising around demands for the United Nations and international community to heed Tamil calls for justice and accountability. The walk for justice has been named after its route from ‘Pottuvil to Polikandi’, delineating the two furthest ends of the traditional Tamil homeland, from Pottuvil in Amparai in the south, to Polikandi in Point Pedro at the northern tip.

The march has been endorsed by all Tamil political parties, as well as by Tamil and Muslim civil society  organisations and Muslim leaders. The campaign has been met with a brutal crackdown from the Sri Lankan state, with troops and police disrupting and threatening marchers, and Sri Lankan police obtaining injunctions against the protest, and targeting individuals in the community, in several districts.

Several Tamil politicians and civil society members defied injunctions to participate in the march.

Tamil families of the disappeared marking 1,400 days of protest in Vavuniya in December 2020

Vavuniya Magistrate Court imposed a ban on demonstrations and hunger strikes planned by Tamil families of the disappeared to mark Sri Lanka's Independence Day as a day of protest.

Sri Lankan army officers shot at three unarmed Tamil men in Vavuniya, leaving one of them hospitalised. They claimed that they acted in response to being shot at by the three men, however the men insisted they were unarmed and had only gone to the local forest to cut down some trees.