Sri Lanka’s new minister of public security boasted that military intelligence networks have been “strengthened” and “back on track” in a wide ranging interview, as he once again reiterated his calls for the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) to be banned.

The Sri Lankan military has arrested at least 4 Tamils in Kilinochchi this week, accusing them of possessing explosives and ammunition, amidst a crackdown in the North-East.

The arrest comes as the military stepped up arrests and raids in the run up to Maaveerar Naal last week, a day which was marked by Tamils around the world to commemorate those who died in the Tamil liberation struggle.

The body of Jayaseelan Silaksan, a 26 year old resident of Mullaitivu who ventured into the Nanthikadal lagoon to retrieve his boat as cyclone Burevi hit on was recovered on Thursday.

As cyclone Burevi, battered the coastal areas of the Tamil homeland in Eelam and Tamil Nadu, Mullaitivu district experienced torrential rainfall accompanied by intense gusts of wind.

The leader of the Tamil National People's Front (TNPF) highlighted the role of Sri Lanka's Ministry of Defence in the genocide of Tamils in 2009 and it's ongoing role in the oppression of Tamils in the North-East.  

In his parliamentary speech earlier this week, Gajan Ponnambalam recounted the final days of the Mullivaikkal genocide, carried out by the Sri Lankan state, which saw the massacre of tens of thousands of Tamils. 

The 36th anniversary of the massacre of 32 Tamils in Othiyamalai, Mullaitivu, by the Sri Lankan army in 1984 was remembered on Wednesday. 

The families of the disappeared have called for the international community to "protect fundamental rights", as the Sri Lankan government cracked down on Maaveerar Naal commemorations in the Tamil homeland.

In their statement the families of the disappeared highlighted the denial of the fundamental rights of the Tamil people by the Sri Lankan government and military; the freedom to remember and assemble.

Sri Lanka’s police spokesperson DIG Ajith Rohana said that the power to issue detention orders for suspects arrested on terrorism-related activities should be granted to the security services instead of to the courts, as he called for harsher laws and a greater role of powers for the police.

Kanagasabai Devadasan, a Tamil political prisoner from Colombo who has spent 12 years in jail has written a letter to Sri Lankan president Gotabaya Rajapaksa, requesting him to expedite the court hearing of an appeal he had filed against the allegations that incarcerated him or otherwise raise his sentence to capital punishment and "hang him immediately".  

Batticaloa District representatives from the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) visited the Mylanthanaimadu-Periya Maadhavanai grazing and agricultural area to discuss the issues of the disputed land last week, as local Tamils continued to express fears over increasing Sinhala colonisation.

UK Minister for Asia at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Nigel Adams, expressed concerns the government had over Sri Lanka’s continued “harassment of civil society” and “militarisation of civilian functions”.