A collection of 99 non-governmental organisations around the world have called on the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to ensure that governments it provides funds to respect the rights of civil society groups, citing the case of arrests in Sri Lanka.

“As organizations that closely monitor corruption and its impacts, we also know that transparency and accountability are key to making sure the money the IMF is disbursing actually goes to protecting lives and livelihoods,” said the letter. 

Priya Murugappan, a Tamil asylum-seeker, currently detained on Christmas Island, spoke at a digital rally organised by the Tamil Refugee Council.

Speaking on the phone from Christmas Island, Priya described the conditions in detention, and the impact it is having on her two young children who are growing up in isolation.

Priya, her husband Nades and their two daughters, Kopika and Tharunicaa have been in detention since March 2018 and continue to face deportation to Sri Lanka.

The United States announced that it is contributing a total of US$5.8 million to Sri Lanka, as part of coronavirus relief efforts, in line with its “long tradition of US support for Sri Lanka’s security and sovereignty”.

The announcement comes after US Ambassador to Sri Lanka Alaina Teplitz met with Sri Lankan prime minister, and accused war criminal, Mahinda Rajapaksa this week.

“We want to remain a steadfast partner,” Teplitz reported said, according to a Sri Lankan press release.

Sri Lanka’s President, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, has appointed “an alarming collection of alleged perpetrators of war crimes and bureaucrats previously accused of corruption to his new government,” the International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP) said in a press release.

Tamil National Alliance (TNA) leader R Sampanthan was full of praise for the Tamil diaspora, as he made an appeal for relief funds to come directly through his party’s former lawmakers.

The Sri Lankan military said that the deaths of two homeless men who were sent to a military-run quarantine centre in Mullaitivu were not coronavirus related, prompting questions from locals as to why they had been detained and sent to the North-East by the armed forces.

On this day 44 years ago, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were founded.

Sri Lanka is currently using its military forces to seize schools and educational establishments in the Northern Province, to quietly convert into Quarantine Centres (QC’s) for returning navy personnel from the South at risk of the coronavirus (COVID-19).

These efforts have been met with heavy disapproval by local residents and have sparked multiple protests and fear among the public. Around 50 schools in the Northern Province have currently been seized and are in the process of being converted into QC’s.