Ahead of Sri Lanka’s presidential election, Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister, Ali Sabry, lashed out at Tamils and claiming, “Tamil leadership have continuously refused to be part of the government” and has refused to be a part of a common “Sri Lankan identity”.

Canada’s Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, released a statement on the 41^st anniversary of the anti-Tamil Black July pogroms, which saw the slaughter of over 3,000 Tamils, and renewed the country’s commitment to “demand accountability for human rights violations” on the island.

Trudeau’s statement further noted that:

This month marks, 41 years since the Welikada prison massacre which resulted in the murder of 53 political prisoners was instigated during the Black July pogrom by prison officials.

Eelam Tamil residents of Parangikamam,  Iluppai Kadavai, and Antoniyar Puram, villages in Manthai West, Mannar, held a protest march towards the Land Reforms Commission demanding that the commission take measures to prevent land grab by foreigners, illegal Sinhala settlers, and the Sri Lankan security forces. 

The former cricketer and ex-parliamentarian with the Rajapaksa clan, Sanath Jayasuriya, has been appointed as the interim coach of Sri Lanka's national team, as they prepare to tour England later this year.

Hindu nationalist organisations have increased their presence and activities in Tamil Eelam over recent months, including by supporting the release of a racist Sinhala Buddhist monk.

Sri Lanka’s cabinet of ministers has approved the controversial Commission for Truth, Unity, and Reconciliation (CTUR) bill by incorporating certain amendments to it. 

As many as 52 skeletal remains, fragments of artillery, and clothing resembling LTTE uniforms have been recovered from the 10 days of excavation work at the Kokkuthoduvai mass grave site.

Several Tamil political parties and civil society activists signed an agreement today, uniting to field a common Tamil candidate for the Sri Lankan Presidential election which is to be held later this year. The agreement comes in response to a sentiment acknowledged widely by Tamils in the homeland and abroad that no presidential candidate has advocated on behalf of Eelam Tamils on the island. 

Tamil families of the disappeared in Vavuniya marked 2,700 days of protest over the weekend as their campaign to find out the fate of their forcibly disappeared loved ones continues.