The Sri Lankan government has made no meaningful progress on justice and reconciliation, the British MP, Joan Ryan, has said.

In a statement for Tamil New Year, the Labour MP for Enfield North said:

I send my warmest wishes to all Tamils in the UK as you celebrate Puthandu. 

As you reflect upon the past twelve months and look forward to the year ahead, I know many of you will be thinking about family, friends and loved ones in Sri Lanka.  

Sri Lanka’s President Maithripala Sirisena is set to visit the UK later this month, as part of a trip to attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in London.

Mr Sirisena “will be focused on reaffirming Sri Lanka’s firm commitment to the Commonwealth and deepening Sri Lanka’s partnership with the Organisation as well as with each individual member nation” said a Sri Lankan Ministry of Foreign Affairs press release.

Op-Ed by Paul Scully, MP

Today Tamils living in the United Kingdom and across the globe will be welcoming a new year. 

It is a time to spend with loved ones, feast, exchange greetings and offer prayers at temples. Whilst it is a time for celebrating with family and friends and enjoying the festivities, it is also a time for reflecting on past achievements and looking towards the future with hope.

The head of Sri Lanka’s army has attacked the Tamil diaspora for criticising the military, stating that they have been supplying “distorted, malicious and untrue information”.

Lieutenant General Mahesh Senanayake, Commander of the Army was speaking at an event to inaugurate the military’s Directorate for Overseas Operations in Colombo, when he told reporters that "various anti-Sri Lanka Army groups, including the diaspora keep pressure on international organizations supplying them with distorted, malicious and untrue information of different nature and some of those agencies continue to deter our progress by doing so”.

A Tamil political prisoner has been hunger striking since Monday, demanding his trial and release.

36-year-old Irapallavan Thaporuban was arrested by the Terrorism Investigation Department in 2009 and kept in detention in Jaffna until 2012 when he was moved to Anuradhapura prison.

Mr Thaporuban said that he has engaged in countless protests over the years and been granted several promises that his case would go to trial and that his indefinite detention would come to an end.

The detainee said that he was forced to campaign once again as despite all those promises there has been no progress with his case.

The Sri Lankan government has failed to respond to a United Nation Committee Against Torture (CAT) report, which called for information on the “establishment of a judicial mechanism” to investigate torture and information on the role of a former Criminal Investigations Department head, confirmed a UN official this week.

Sri Lanka had until December 2017 to respond to the report, which was issued after the state was discussed at the 59th session of the UN CAT in 2016. However, the Tamil Guardian confirmed with the United Nations this week that Sri Lanka is yet to provide a response, though several months has passed since the deadline. Other states such as Armenia, Ecuador and Turkmenistan, which were also discussed at the 59^th session, have responded to the global body as required.

The families of the disappeared protest in Mullaitivu was attacked by a knife-wielding individual on Thursday on its 400th day.

India’s prime minister Narendra Modi was forced to take a helicopter ride from Chennai airport to a speaking engagement at India’s mega defence exhibition at Thiruvidanthai,

Mr Modi was met in Chennai by a sea of black flag protests over the centre’s failure to resolve a water despite between neighbouring state Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

Several Dravida political party leaders in Tamil Nadu participated in the citywide protests, which forced the Indian Prime Minister to take areal routes to his speaking engagements.

The Indian Premier League was also forced to move it’s cricket matches due to ongoing protests.

The Sri Lankan military has admitted to detaining and questioning a Tamil journalist, whilst he was reporting on the army’s plans to appropriate land in Mullaitivu last month.

The Commanding officer of the 24th battalion of the Sinha Regiment (24SLSR) Champika Kathriarachchi attempted to downplay the incident, telling Sri Lanka’s Human Rights Commission that there had been a “misunderstanding” that led to journalist Shanmugam Thavaseelan being held and interrogated for an hour and a half.

Whilst calls for the Sri Lankan military to vacate their military bases in the North-East continue, the army held a talent show at its military base in Palaly last month, the site of a massive High Security Zone which remains inaccessible to locals and landowners, nine years after the end of the war.