Tamil Affairs

Tamil News

Latest news from and about the homeland

A protest march was held last month opposing limestone excavation, mineral sand mining and a proposed wind power project across the villages of Veravil, Valaipadu, Ponnaveli and Kiranchi, in the Poonakary Divisional Secretariat division of Kilinochchi. The demonstration was organised against plans to establish wind power stations and to carry out mineral sand and limestone extraction in the…

Demolition of memorial another ugly face of Sinhala racism - TGTE

The demolition of the Memorial at the Jaffna University can only been seen as an attempt to erase the genocide by the Sinhala racist racism and its ugly face, the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) has said.

In a statement last week, the organisation's political affairs lead highlighted that "genocide of the Tamil people in the island of Lanka is a state policy of the Government of Sri Lanka" and that bans against memorialisation "showed that there was no political space in the island of Lanka for the Tamil people to express their feelings".

French MP condemns Sri Lanka and vows to ‘fight for recognition of war crimes’ against Tamils

In a series of tweets French MP François Pupponi expressed his solidarity with Tamils and avowed to fight for the recognition of war crimes committed against the Tamil people. Pupponi is the MP for the department Val-d’Oise in the Île-de-France region (The regional capital of which is Paris.)

Tamil farmers in Batticaloa hospitalised after brutal assault and torture

Tamil cattle farmers in Batticaloa, who went in search of their missing cattle were kidnapped, and then brutally beaten by armed Sinhalese men, last Saturday. After attacking the farmers, the Sinhalese men then handed them over to Maha Oya police officials to arrest them and filed a case against them.

A few days later, the six farmers who were also subject to police brutality in custody, were released on bail after being produced in court.

Reporters Without Borders calls on Sri Lanka to drop 'Kafkaesque' charges against detained Tamil journalist


Reporters Without Borders (RSF) called on Sri Lanka's prosecutors to drop the absurd terrorism charges against a Tamil journalist detained under the notorious Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA). 

UK Prime Minister praises Tamils for COVID response in Thai Pongal message

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson paid tribute to the British Tamil community and thanked them for their contribution towards the coronavirus pandemic response in the country, in a message to mark Thai Pongal released today.

Johnson said he wanted to “thank you for everything you’re doing in our struggle against COVID, because throughout this crisis your values of hard work, discipline and community spirit have really shone brightly”.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa issues chilling warning to opposition

Sri Lankan president Gotabaya Rajapaksa issued a chilling warning on Saturday, as he threatened to “bring back” his role as defence secretary and disparagingly spoke of how Sri Lankan security forces killed LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran.  

In response to a critical parliamentary speech by opposition MP Harin Fernando, Rajapaksa warned that he has “two faces”.

‘We must never erase a genocide’ – Canadian Chief Government Whip, Mark Holland

Canada’s Chief Government Whip, Mark Holland, has condemned the destruction of the Mullivaikkal memorial in Jaffna as an attempt to erase “erase the memory of thousands of massacred Tamils”.

On Twitter he stated:

Ministers need to ‘defend the rights of minorities in Sri Lanka’ - UK Shadow Minister for Foreign and Commonwealth Affair

British Shadow Minister for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Stephen Kinnock, has called upon ministers to “defend the rights of minorities in Sri Lanka” as he laid out the Labour party’s new foreign policy agenda yesterday.

Sri Lanka claims the country is ‘economically stable’ as government pleads for debt rollover

Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Finance has praised the Rajapaksa administration for its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and building economic stability in the country as government spokesman, Udaya Gammanpila, pleaded with international investors to roll over bonds maturing this year.

EU ‘saddened’ by destruction of Mullivaikal monument but grants Sri Lanka 8.26 billion LKR

Responding to the destruction of the Mullivaikal monument at Jaffna university, the EU has responded issuing a statement stating that they were saddened by the destruction of the monument.

On Twitter they stated: