The US State Department has retained the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) on its Foreign Terrorist Organisations (FTO) list, despite almost 12 years since the Sri Lankan government claimed to have eradicated the organisation, in a military offensive that killed tens of thousands of Tamil civilians.

Sri Lankan authorities have detained a Muslim businessman, Fawaz Mohamad Nisar, for allegedly posting hate speech on his personal Facebook account, as authorities continue to crackdown on social media posts.

Nisar was detained in prison from January 13, until later today.

Dr Suthan Ulakanathan tells the story of how his family has dealt with grief in a time of chaos.

It’s Easter Sunday, 12 April 2020, and my mobile phone rings at 11:55 PM. It is the hospital's intensive care doctor who tells me my father has deteriorated in the last few hours. He asks if I want to come and see him should he get worse. I immediately say yes as I hadn’t seen him in person for several weeks and I missed him a lot. I get my clothes ready and sit in bed with my wife, tears running down my cheeks, as I am expecting the worst news I would ever receive in my life. At 1:30 AM I get the phone call I’ve been dreading. Appa had passed away.

Wendy Sherman, a former Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs and a lead negotiator on the US-Iran nuclear deal, has been widely reported to have been appointed as the next United States Deputy Secretary of State. 

The situation in Sri Lanka and Tamil politics will not be entirely unfamiliar to Sherman, as she looks to take up the role later this month. In 2011, Sherman met with a Tamil National Alliance (TNA) delegation made up of R Sampanthan, Mavai Senathirajah, Suresh Premachandran and M A Sumanthiran, as it visited Washington on the invitation of the US State Department.  

Tamil farmers in the Siththandi area of Mayilathamadu, Batticaloa, organised a protest on January 15 against the occupation of their land by Sinhala settlers. 

An art exhibition was held in Jaffna by the Voice of the Voiceless, demanding the immediate release of Tamil political prisoners.

At Neeraviyadi Pillaiyar temple in Semmalai, Mullaitivu, Thai Pongal festivities took place amidst surveillance of several police and military investigators who were stationed inside the temple throughout the event.

Responding to a question posed by UK Labour MP Taiwo Owatemi on the legitimacy of exporting military equipment to Sri Lanka, with a “value of £149,724”, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary for the Department of Trade, Ranil Jayawardena, denied that this was a breach of international humanitarian law.

Today marks 28 years since the death of Sathasivam Krishnakumar alias Colonel Kittu, and nine other LTTE cadres, who committed suicide after being surrounded by Indian navy warships in 1993.

Ed Davey, Leader of the UK Liberal Democrats, has called on the Prime Minister to “create an International Independent Investigative Mechanism” (IIM) to “investigate and prosecute for serious international crimes committed in Sri Lanka against the Tamils”.

The Sri Lankan army has formed a new corps for Agriculture and Livestock under the army’s existing Directorate of Agriculture and Livestock (DAL), as militarisation becomes rampant in the public sphere and amidst attacks on Tamil farmers.

Accused war criminal Shavendra Silva, attended an event where he signed into the order the formation of the Corps of Agriculture and Livestock earlier this month. The newly raised unit is set to focus on collaborating with ‘all agrarian stakeholders’ in its effort towards ‘nation-building tasks’. The DAL has previously used ‘army lands’ to cultivate a variety of crops across plantations. A report released by the South Asian Centre for Legal Studies (SACLS) detailed the ‘deepening consequences’ of the continuous military occupation of civilian spaces which curtail local economic development, particularly in the North-East.