Civil society leader Velan Swamigal led a vigil on Mullivaikkal beach to mark Tamil Genocide Day, in defiance of crackdowns by the Sri Lankan state, including the lockdown of the areas surrounding Mullivaikkal in Mullaitivu.

Commemorating 12 years since the genocidal massacre at Mullivaikkal, People for Equality and Relief in Lanka (PEARL) has issued a statement remembering the approximately 40,000 to 169,796 Tamils slaughtered and noting that despite the passage of time, Sri Lanka has failed to take “any genuine steps towards accountability and justice”.

“The trauma of Mullivaikkal lies in our collective grief, alongside the sorrow associated with the end of the armed resistance against Sinhala-Buddhist nationalist oppression” their statement read.

Marking 12 years since the Sri Lankan military onslaught that massacred tens of thousands of Tamils, we revisit the final days leading up to the 18th of May 2009 – a date remembered around the world as ‘Tamil Genocide Day’. The total number of Tamil civilians killed during the final months is widely contested.

Parliamentarian and leader of Tamil Makkal Thesiya Kootani (TMTK) C.V. Wigneswaran commemorated the twelfth anniversary of the Mullivaikkal massacre at his party office earlier today. 

Wigneswaran, alongside other party cadres, remembered the victims by igniting a large lamp. 

Despite bans imposed by the Sri Lankan government to commemorate the victims of the Mullivaikkal massacre on May 18, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) politicians including M.K. Shivajilingam and Peter Ilancheliyan defied those restrictions and remembered those who perished in the genocide. 

Former parliamentarian M.K. Shivajilingam and Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK) Youth Wing leader Peter Ilancheliyan paid respects by ceremoniously lighting a lamp at Nandikadal lagoon this morning. 

Special prayers were conducted this morning in the Vavuniya Karumari Amman temple in memory of those killed in the Mullivaikkal massacres, with devotees praying for their souls to rest in peace. 

The temple priest Prabhakara gurukkal presided over the proceedings in which the victims were memorialised by ceremoniously lighting divine lamps.  

The Tamil Youth Organisation in Germany served Mullivaikkal kanji to the homeless yesterday in Berlin, as Tamils across the world mark the 12th anniversary of the massacre at Mullivaikkal.

A series of Sri Lankan government websites have been hacked today, with messages commemorating the Mullivaikkal genocide that was carried out by the state in May 2009. 

The websites hit by the hackers include Sri Lanka's Ministry of Health, the Embassy of Sri Lanka in People's Republic of China and the Rajarata University website. 

Tamils in Australia rallied in Melbourne and Sydney on Sunday to commemorate the 12th anniversary of Mullivaikkal genocide which saw the massacre of tens of thousands of Tamils in May 2009. 

The protests, which were organised by the Tamil Refugee Council, had four key demands: 

• End the military occupation of the traditional Tamil homelands in the North and East;

Former Northern Provincial Council member, M.K Shivajilingham marked the sixth day of Mullivaikkal remembrance week despite facing intimidation by Sri Lanka's security forces.

Shivajilingham lit a flame at the Mullivaikkal memorial monument which was destroyed by the Sri Lankan army last week. The monument pays tribute to the tens of thousands of Tamils that were killed in the final days of the armed conflict by the Sri Lankan goverment.