From 5 pm to 6.15 pm heavily armed troops, on a Mahindra Bolero people carrier and approximately 5 field motorbikes, circled the Tamil National People’s Front’s offices continuously, maintaining their direct surveillance for the third day straight. 

This latest developed was tweeted by the TNPF official account and follows attempts by the Sri Lankan state to crackdown on remembrance events.

The TNPF has stated on the increased surveillance and threats that the;

<p>The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has issued a statement criticising the detention of author Shakthika Sathkumara, who was arrested following the publishing of a controversial short story, stating it was in violation international human rights law.</p> <p>Shakthika Sathkumara has been kept in pre-trial detention for four months was first detained in April 2019 after he published his short story ‘Ardha’ (Half). The arrest is seen as a violation of his right to freedom of expression.</p>

Today marks 12 years since the death of Brigadier Balraj, a senior commander with the LTTE, who passed away from a sudden heart attack in 2008.

Brig. Balraj was famed for his courage, leadership and skills on the battlefield.

<p>Following an independent inquiry into Facebook’s impact on human rights in Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Cambodia; the company has put out a statement apologising for the role it has played in stoking anti-Muslim violence.</p> <p>The specific accusations against Facebook relate to an anti-Muslim Digana riot in Kandy. During the riots at least 8 homes and 50 businesses were destroyed. There were also reports that politicians and police backed by President Mahinda Rajapaksa joined the anti-Muslim&nbsp;riots.</p>

2015: Protest in Chunnakam, Jaffna against the Uthuru Janani thermal power plant for dumping waste oil and grease deposits in the local well. 

Sri Lanka’s ecology and biodiversity are threatened by the continued repression of Eelam Tamils. To protect the land, international mechanisms are needed “to ensure accountability and help pave the way for egalitarianism and self-determination”.

 

The legacy of the war

As thousands of Tamils around the world commemorated the eleventh anniversary of the Mullivaikkal Genocide, marked on May 18, Adayaalam Centre for Policy Research (ACPR) joined in mourning the lives that were lost while also emphasising the lack of justice, in a statement released yesterday.  

The statement acknowledged the lives lost during the war and in particular “the tens of thousands of Tamil lives that were taken by horrific atrocities perpetrated during the final phase of the war” and other multiple massacres due to the “Sri Lankan state’s genocidal campaign against the Tamil people spanning across more than three decades.”

<p>Marking eleven years since the end of the Sri Lankan war, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has put out a statement maintaining that there has been “no reconciliation efforts” and that state officials are stoking racial animosity.</p>

Tamil students from City University in London created a video tribute for the Mullivaikkal genocide that occurred in 2009.

The video was posted yesterday to mark the May 18 massacre that was carried out by the Sri Lankan government against Tamils.

A 16 year old Mullivaikkal survivor, who was just 5 years old at the time of the massacres, shared their experiences of the genocide on the eleventh anniversary of the atrocities.

Pakaloan Vamanan now lives in France.

The following pieces are reflections from Tamil children who all survived the massacres at Mullivaikkal.

Eleven years later, they are telling their stories around the genocide they faced and are reclaiming the narrative.

They have all lost at least one family member during the massacres of 2009. All are now living in the diaspora.