Two vigils to mark Tamil Genocide Remembrance Week were again surrounded by surveillance today, including by the officer-in-charge of Jaffna police.

The police officer joined the usual throng of intelligence personnel at the vigils organised by the Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF) at Gurunagar St James’s Church - the sites of a massacre by the Sri Lankan Air Force and another by the navy, and the World Tamil Conference Massacre Memorial.

(Photo Credit: trokilinochchi)

Over a decade has passed since the Mullivaikkal massacre but “Tamils remain heavily discriminated against by a state that has yet to reckon with its violent past,” writes Visvajit Sriramrajan for The Diplomat.

<p>Sri Lanka President, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, has reportedly agreed to a billion-dollar loan from China despite owing 4.8 billion dollars this year.</p> <p>Rajapaksa has borrowed from China twice in the past two months in pursuit of a bailout as the country’s foreign reserve shrank to&nbsp; $7.2 billion in April. He has stated one of his key objectives is to attract foreign investment into the country.</p>

Despite the on-going damage to national reconciliation, Gotabaya Rajapaksa is insistent on the normalisation of “military’s influence in the civilian sphere”, warns the Economist. 
 

The normalisation of the military

Jaffna University students commemorated the Kumuthini massacre and the Mullivaikkal genocide before being disrupted by Sri Lankan police officers. 

the students lit lamps in tribute to the Tamils who were massacred by Sri Lankan navy officers aboard the Kumuthini boat in 1985 and the tens of thousands of lives lost in the Mullivaikkal genocide in 2009.

<p>Sri Lanka has issued a request for rapid financial support from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) following growing economic concern as the country responds to the coronavirus pandemic.</p> <p>The IMF has issued approximately 18 billion USD to support developing countries to support their economies. Fifty countries, including Sri Lanka are to be assessed for receiving this rapid financial facility and a further fifty country have been granted approval. &nbsp;</p>

<p>The International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute has called upon Sri Lanka’s Minister of Justice,&nbsp;Nimal Siripala de Silva, to ensure that the government due process in handlining the case of Former state counsel and prominent lawyer, Heejaz Hizbullah.</p> <p>Hizbullah was detained on 14 April, along with five others, under the much-criticised Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA). He was arrested under alleged involvement in the 2019 Easter Sunday Bombings. Despite being detained, a detention order was not served, and he was denied confidential access to a lawyer.</p>

Today marks 35 years since 36 Tamils were massacred by Sri Lankan Navy officers on board the Kumuthini boat on May 15, 1985. 

File photograph

Eye witnesses reported seeing six plain clothed Navy officers boarding the Kumuthini boat and pointing a gunat passengers before ordering them to come up to the main deck one by one and shout their name and destination. 

Sri Lanka’s Terrorism Investigation Division (TID) has attempted to detain and arrest activists with the Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF), as the party began a series of events to commemorate the Mullivaikkal genocide this week.

The TNPF tweeted that its Mullaitivu District organizer T Kinthujan was visited by TID attempting to arrest and detain him, having previous faced threats of detention from Sri Lankan security forces.

I am 22 years old. My right hand was amputated during the end of the war in Valainjarmadam. I was 10 years old at the time and I became disabled. I am right-handed. It was very difficult to learn to write with the left hand after I lost my right hand. At the beginning no matter how much I tried, my writing didn’t come out well. However, now I am able to use my left hand to do everything I need to do. I sat for Ordinary Level exams twice and now I have passed the A / L exam as well.