Shanthi Sriskantharajah, a parliamentary candidate from Vanni, has written to the election commission in which she called for the reduction of the Sri Lankan military presence in Mullaitivu, to create conditions conducive for conducting peaceful and democratic elections this year.

Photograph by @streetsoftamileelam

After Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa established an all Sinhala task force, which includes Buddhist monks and alleged war criminal to “preserve the historical heritage of Sri Lanka” in the Eastern province, we take a closer look at Sinhalisation efforts that have already taken place in the region.

Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and three other international human rights groups condemned the Sri Lankan police authorities’ assault on journalist Dharisha Bastians and stated they should immediately stop the “targeting, intimidating and harassing” and ensure Bastians’ safety.

Witnesses have told a court inquiry of how prison officials beat a 25-year-old detainee to death earlier this year, as Sri Lanka’s Attorney General vowed to reform the island’s prison system.

The Sri Lankan government has criticised Israel for “settlement expansion” in the West Bank and called for the implementation of UN resolutions regarding the “inalienable rights of the Palestinian people to statehood and the attainment of a two State solution,” even whilst Colombo continues its own Sinhala colonisation of the Tamil North-East.

Tamil refugees from Eelam that are currently residing in camps across Tamil Nadu, have been particularly hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic and lockdown that followed, whilst continuing to face threats to their livelihood.

Besides the threat of contracting the virus in the cramped refugee camps scattered across the state, most of them have also lost a means to earn a daily wage. “Prior to the lockdown, we had been working in areas beyond Cuddalore. But now, we are unable to go to work even within Cuddalore,” Gunarathinam, an inmate of Kurinjipadi camp near Cuddalore told BBC Tamil.  More than 400 Eelam families reside at the camp.

The sick and the elderly who are stricken with conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure are being treated in hospitals like COVID-19 patients, they added, which subjects them to especially unpleasant ordeals. 

The European Union’s Election Commission has decided against deploying a fully-fledged observer mission for Sri Lanka’s upcoming parliamentary elections, which is et to take place on August 5 despite logistical and health concerns relating to COVID-19.

The EU has instead proposed to send an Election Expert Mission, which will not have public visibility and will not qualify as electoral observers, due to coronavirus concerns.

Britain’s Minister of State for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said the UK was “monitoring the situation in Sri Lanka closely” and continues to support “Sri Lanka's accountability commitments” made to the United Nations Human Rights Council, in response to questions on Sri Lanka this week.

Yet another Tamil father who was searching for his forcibly disappeared child has died today, despite more than 1,222 days of protest in Vavuniya.

Thirunavukarasu, a 69-year-old man from Chettikulam, spent more than a decade demanding information on the whereabouts of his son Wickeswaran, who went missing in Vavuniya in 2008.

For 1,222 days Thirunavukarasu joined other Tamil families of the disappeared in roadside protests in the district, demanding justice for their forcibly abducted loved ones.