Pizza Hut in Sri Lanka has come under criticism after posting an image celebrating ‘National Victory Day’ as Tamils around the world commemorated the massacres at Mullivaikkal.

^{File photogrpah: Wikipedia}

Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court is due to deliver a key ruling over the reconvening of parliament, just days after the Election Commission said plans to hold polls in June would have to be rescheduled once more due to the coronavirus outbreak.

The ruling Sri Lankan state must ask themselves why Tamils are actively seeking a separate state and acknowledge “what may be going wrong” said former East Timor President and Nobel Laureate Dr. Jose Ramos-Horta.

Dr. Jose Ramos-Horta headed the fifth annual Mullivaikkal Memorial Lecture, hosted by The Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE), which was delivered through a webinar format this year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

<p>Former Malaysian Home Minister, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, defended the continued proscription of the LTTE as a terrorist group, despite more than a decade passing since the war ended, as she claimed “remnants” had fled to Malaysia.</p> <p>This comes as legal challenges begin to mount against the listing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) as a terrorist group in 2014, five years after the war. In an affidavit-in-reply responding to a legal challenge, she maintained that the group still posed a risk national security posed by remnants of the group that fled to Malaysia.</p>

<p>A Fundamental Rights applications has been filed at Sri Lanka's&nbsp;Supreme Court, challenging the arrest and detention of Hejaaz Hizbullah.</p> <p>Junior counsels of Hizbullah, Chalana Perera, Jegatheeswary Muthusamy and Shifan Maharoof, have challenged the legality of the arrest as it was premised on an unwarranted raid of his chambers. The raid was conducted by officers of the Criminal Investigations Department who took two briefs into their possession, in violation of privileged communication between clients and lawyers</p> <p>On this matter, they stated that to their knowledge;</p> <blockquote><p>

The Tamil National People’s Front has reported a surge in intimidation, surveillance and harassment of members and activists by the Sri Lanka security forces.

On Tuesday TNPF members travelling to repair a roof damaged by the cyclone were interrupted by army officials. They were stopped at Pungudutheevu Army Camp and had their van examined for an hour. After being cleared, army personnel continued to follow them.

This follows the continued surveillance of their offices by heavily armed troops.

<p>Sri Lankan police have reported that they have arrested 60,425 for violating a state-imposed curfew which came into effect on 20 March.</p> <p>On Wednesday 20 May at least 660 people were arrested. Whilst there have been 1,000 identified cases of the coronavirus, 500 have recovered and there have been nine deaths.</p>

 

During a press conference, Defence Secretary, Kamal Gunaratne, stated that there is “no truth in news being circulated in social media” regarding extremist threats to Sri Lanka and applauded the work of the Sri Lanka security forces in tackling the coronavirus despite raised human rights concerns.

On this day in 1958, Sinhala mobs began to attack, rape and murder Tamils across the island, in what was to become another in a series of deadly anti-Tamil pogroms.

Estimates range from between 300 and 1,500 Tamils murdered in the days of violence which resulted in many more injured and the arson, looting and destruction of Tamil homes and businesses.

Sri  Lanka’s promotion of troops who have reportedly been involved in war crimes, as Tamils around the world marked 11 years since the Mullivaikkal massacre, is an “insult to victims and reeks of brazen impunity” said the International Truth and Justice Project Sri Lanka (ITJP).

The military announced that more than 14,000 soldiers are to receive “a record promotion bonanza” as part of the state’s “National War Heroes’ Day”, which took place as Tamils mourned the tens