The Sri Lankan military overruns the last remaining ‘No Fire Zone’. TamilNet receives a final phone call before it loses all communication with its correspondents in the field.
Members of the US Congress reiterated their support for a landmark resolution this week, calling for an independence referendum for Eelam Tamils and recognising the genocide committed against them by the Sri Lankan state. Shortly after introducing the resolution and speeches on the Congress floor, members addressed an event at the Library of Congress. Over 100 Tamils from across the United States and around the world were in attendance to mark the occasion.
A landmark resolution was introduced to the US Congress calling on the United States to work towards an independence referendum for Eelam Tamils and recognise the genocide committed against them by the Sri Lankan state. The resolution, introduced by Representative Wiley Nickel, is the first of its kind to be brought to the US Congress. It comes as Tamils marked 15 years since the Mullivaikkal genocide this week, with May 18 commemorated as Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day worldwide. The resolution calls for the “nonrecurrence of past violence, including the Tamil Genocide, by supporting the...
On May 10, 2009, Catholic Priest Father Francis Joseph wrote to the Pope from inside the No Fire Zone, calling on the Church to break its silence on the massacre of Tamils.
On this day 15 years ago, Stephen Sunthararaj, an activist who had exposed the trafficking of Tamil children into international prostitution rings, was abducted and forcibly disappeared in Colombo by armed men in military uniforms. As part of his work he had told the then United States Ambassador in Colombo about prostitution rings run by government aligned paramilitaries in Jaffna. The paramilitaries were trafficking children into sex rings in India and Malaysia with the help of immigration officials.
Nagalingam Ethirveerasingam, the Jaffna-born activist and athlete, who competed in the 1952 Olympics and won the first Gold Medal in any sport for Ceylon passed away on Thursday, 18 April 2024, aged 89 years old.
Amnesty International called on the international community to “urgently review cooperation with the Sri Lankan government” including the training and provision of its security forces, as it released a new report detailing how the military and police engaged in violent suppression of protests.
British politicians called on the UK government to exert more pressure on Sri Lanka by referring them to the International Criminal Court, imposing targeted sanctions and to evaluate it's military co-operation over the island's longstanding history of human rights abuses. Opening last week's Westminster Hall debate, Elliot Colburn, the Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Tamils (APPGT) and MP for Carshalton and Wallington explained that despite 15 years passing since the Mullivaikkal genocide, which saw the deaths of tens of thousands of Tamils at the hands of the Sri Lankan state, the situation on the island "remains precarious".
The observance of Shivarathri at the Vedukkunaari Hill Athi Sivan temple in Vavuniya North, descended into chaos today (08.03) as police violence marred the religious proceedings. Member of Parliament Selvarajah Kajendren was assaulted by Sri Lankan police, and a further 8 worshippers were arrested during the incident.
UN High Commissioner Volker Türk told the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) that it is only through addressing the “root causes” of the conflict and ensuring accountability for rights abuses, that Sri Lanka will see “genuine reconciliation and sustainable peace and development”. In his oral update at the 55th session yesterday, Türk said sustainable peace and reconciliation will not be achieved in Sri Lanka "with regressive laws and authoritarian approaches". "It is only through addressing the root causes of the country’s conflict and economic crisis, and ensuring accountability, that Sri Lanka...