Sinhala extremist lawmaker Wimal Weerawansa claimed that the Sri Lanka refused to facilitate the surrender of LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran to the United States in 2009, as Washington would have supported an independent state of Tamil Eelam.

Speaking in Sri Lanka’s parliament, Weerawansa said the US had sent a ship to the shores of Mullatiivu in 2009 to facilitate the surrender of the LTTE leadership.

“We opposed it,” he said. “Even China and India asked for us to hand him over. We refused all of that.

The Indian government has extended its ban on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) for another five years, claiming the organisation is still active and “threatens the sovereignty and territorial integrity” of India.

The move came almost 15 years since the 2009 genocide at Mullivaikkal which saw the defeat of the LTTE and the murder of tens of thousands of Tamil civilians.

Tamils in Melbourne, Australia, held a protest in front of the Victoria Library demanding justice for the genocide at Mullivaikkal in 2009. 

Tamils held placards calling on the Sri Lankan government to stop the structural genocide on Tamils in their own homeland and reiterated that Tamils have the right to self-determination.

Samantha Ratnam, member of the Victorian Legislative Council, was amongst many at the protest. 

In a virtual hearing held by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) panelists highlighted the shrinking space for religious freedom on the island.

The Chief Prelates of the four Buddhist sects in Sri Lanka have written to Ranil Wickremesinghe seeking his pardon for convicted racist monk Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara, a notorious figure who  was imprisoned over hate speech.

The four prelates of Malwathu, Asgiri, Amarapura, and Ramanya claimed that Gnanasara’s actions were “commended” by many and he had advocated for “the prevention of conflicts between ethnicities”. 

Tamils in Toronto gathered on May 18 to commemorate 15 years since the Mulivaikkal massacres, an event that has officially been recognised as Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day in Canada. 

The remembrance event which saw hundreds in attendance at Albert Campbell Square in Scarborough, was organised by the National Council of Canadian Tamils (NCCT) and Tamil Youth Organization Canada (TYO).

Tamil Americans in North Carolina held an event to commemorate Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day, where they reiterated the Tamil people’s right to self-determination and demands for an independence referendum.

The event saw speeches and readings from a range of community members at the Herbert C. Young Community Center in Cary.

US Houses Representatives Wiley Nickel and Deborah Ross highlighted the significance of recognizing the genocide and affirming the Tamil people's right to self-determination.

A 23-year-old Tamil woman was killed when the bicycle she was riding collided with a van belonging to the Sri Lankan army in Jaffna on Monday.

The woman, identified as Sudhakaran Saruja, was returning from buying milk at her local shop in Puttur, Jaffna, when the collision occurred.

She was seriously injured and rushed to the Achuveli Hospital where she was pronounced dead upon admission. 

She was killed on her birthday, having just turned 23-years-old.

Upon the conclusion of Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General, five day visit to Sri Lanka, the organisation issued a statement noting that "it is not just the successive governments [...but] all those in positions of leadership, from elected officials, opposition leaders, religious establishments and the media has failed in its fight against impunity". 

Approximately 160 acres of land in Nadukkuda in Mannar, including Tamil residential land, has been sold to a private Indian company for sand mining, according to local reports.

Photographs of the site taken before and after show concrete columns have been erected to create a perimeter around the land, which includes parcels individually owned by residents.