• Pig’s head hung in front of Muslim shop as racist harassment in Sri Lanka continues

    Muslims in Sri Lanka have continued to face racist harassment, with reports that a pig’s head was hung in front of a Muslim store - the latest in a string of incidents to hit the community since the Easter Sunday attacks earlier this year.

    "Sinhala Buddhist hegemonic majoritarianism that prevails in Sri Lanka is very dangerous," said rights campaigner Nuwan Athukorala.

  • Britain’s new cabinet – On British Tamils, Sri Lanka and justice

    Boris Johnson has been appointed as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, with a new cabinet that includes many politicians that have spoken out in support of British Tamils.

    We examine key figures in the new cabinet and their previous statements on the British Tamil community, justice for mass atrocities and the enduring ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka.

  • Law enforcement discriminates against Tamil protesters says UN Special Rapporteur

    Sri Lankan authorities apply laws in discriminatory ways, with Tamil protests and gatherings in the North-East disproportionately facing crackdowns, the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association said last week.

    The special rapporteur Clément Nyaletsossi Voulé said in his closing statement of his official trip to the island that although Sri Lanka had a comprehensive legal framework governing the right to freedom of peaceful assembly, this was “scattered in different sets of laws and regulations which seem to be interchangeably enforced”.

  • 3 months since the bombs – prayers in Batticaloa

    A special service was held in Batticaloa last week, to mark three months since the Easter Sunday attacks that claimed hundreds of lives.

  • Disappearances protester dies after eleven year search for son

    A disappearances activist who had been searching for her son for over eleven years died on Wednesday.

    Sebamalai Theresambal died of cardiac arrest. Her son Sebamalai Selvan was taken by the Sri Lankan navy on July 1, 2008 and never returned.

  • Chief Justice met with UN official despite Speaker’s attempt to stop it
    <p>Visiting UN Special Rapporteur, Clément Nyalestsossi Voule met with the Chief Justice and High court judges despite assurance from the Speaker earlier this week to block the scheduled meeting.</p> <p>Speaker of Parliament, Karu Jayasuriya, said there had been a meeting between the UN Special Rapporteur and the Chief Justice but noted that it was a courtesy call in the company of foreign ministry officials.</p>
  • Militarisation: Sri Lankan troops put on yet another music show in Jaffna

    Sri Lankan soldiers have organised yet another music show in Jaffna, as thousands of troops remain stationed in the Northern city despite calls for demilitarisation.

  • Sinhalese rights activist added to Sri Lanka’s 'terrorist list'

    The Sri Lankan government announced that Viraj Mendis, the Sinhalese chairperson of the International Human Rights Association – Bremen (IMRV), has been added to their list of known “terrorists” in an updated gazette notification that has been slammed as a "escalation in political repression".

  • Sri Lankan politicians lash out at Tamil diaspora and warn of ‘northern threat’ on Black July anniversary

    The Sri Lanka Freedom Party’s (SLFP) former General Secretary Rohana Lakshman Piyadasa lashed out at the Tamil diaspora for “undermining Sri Lanka” and criticised the United National Party (UNP) for allowing the 1983 Black July pogrom to take place and giving Sri Lanka “a bad name”.

    “It was a pogrom against Tamils by a few Sinhalese aided and abetted by the J.R. Jayawardene regime,” claimed current secretary Dayasiri Jayasekera at a press conference on Wednesday.

  • British woman raped in Sri Lanka goes to European Court of Justice

    A British woman who was raped by a local employee at a hotel in Bentota and subsequently found she was pregnant, has had her case referred to the European Court of Justice.

    The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was raped by an electrician employed by her hotel the Club Bentota in Sri Lanka,. She subsequently discovered she was pregnant and had to undergo testing to ensure the baby’s father was her husband, reports Herald Scotland.

  • Protest outside British High Commission in Sri Lanka after ‘hazardous waste’ sent from UK

    British authorities announced they would launch an investigation after human waste was reported to be part of a tranche of hazardous waste exported to Sri Lanka and discovered in over 100 containers at Colombo port this week.

    Some of the 111 containers date as having arrived far back as 2017, and reportedly contain body parts and syringes, mixed with mattresses and other plastics. The containers had apparently been disguised to make it seem as if they held recyclable metals.

  • Germany charges Tamil man over assassination of Sri Lankan foreign minister

    Prosecutors have charged a Tamil man in Germany over claims he was involved in the 2005 assassination of Sri Lanka's foreign minister, Lakshman Kadirgamar.

    Authorities announced that the man, Navanithan G, has been charged as an accessory to murder and with membership of a foreign terrorist organization.

  • UN Special Rapporteur visits protesting Keppapilavu villagers

    A United Nations delegation led by Special Rapporteur Clément Nyalestsossi Voule met with protesting Tamil villagers from Keppapilavu last week, as they continued to demand the Sri Lankan military vacate their land.

  • Black July remembered across Tamil homeland


    The victims of Black July, the horrific anti-Tamil pogrom of 1983 when thousands of Tamils were killed by Sinhala mobs backed by the then UNP government and state forces, were remembered across the Tamil homeland on Tuesday, thirty-six years on.

  • British Tamils mark Black July with protest at Downing Street

    British Tamils held a protest at Downing Street this evening, as they marked 36 years since the Black July pogrom where thousands of Tamils were killed by rampaging Sinhala mobs.

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