A recent discovery of one thousand nine hundred and four Ancient Pandyan coins in Mannar has brought up archaeological interest from Tamil academics and professionals on the island, but has led to some Sinhalese archaeologists claiming that they coins are from a Sinhala-based lineage.

Sri Lankan army officials threatened Tamil families of the disappeared in Mullaitivu, as they prepared to stage a protest to mark Children’s Day on Thursday.

Eleven years since Mullivaikal, the end of Sri Lanka’s armed conflict in which tens of thousands of Tamils were massacred by the military at the behest of the state authorities, Sri Lanka is no closer to delivering transitional justice to the Tamil people or bringing war criminals to justice, writes Professor Kate Cronin-Furman, in the Foreign Affairs magazine.

“In its rush to celebrate Sirisena’s election as the dawn of a new democratic era in Sri Lanka, international actors facilitated the entrenchment of impunity and squandered a chance to protect vulnerable people,” writes Cronin-Furman.

Whilst the previous government led by Sirisena put up a veneer of commitment towards ensuring accountability, the current Rajapaksa administration with their “unassailable mandate for their Sinhala-Buddhist nationalist politics and militaristic governing style spells disaster for human rights in Sri Lanka,” she adds.

Tamil families of children who disappeared during the 2009 Mullivaikkal massacres, organised protests across the North-East urging the Sri Lankan government to deliver information on the whereabouts of their children. 

Today marks the birthday of Balachandran Prabhakaran, the third child of LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, who was executed by the Sri Lankan military during the final days of the Mullivaikkal massacre.

Balachandran, who was born on the 1^st of October 1996, would be 25 years old today.

Aged just 12 years old, he was one of thousands of children killed by the Sri Lankan military. Leaked trophy photographs taken by Sri Lankan soldiers, show the child in their custody sitting with a snack in his hand, sitting on a bench surrounded by sandbags, in what looks like a fortified army position.

The United Nations Secretary General António Guterres raised concerns over the Sri Lankan government’s intimidation of human rights activists, including those that had travelled to the UN Human Rights Council earlier this year, labelling any such activities “absolutely unacceptable”.

Responding to a downgrade in credit ratings from Moody, a global rating agency, from a B2 to a Caa1, Sri Lanka’s Finance Ministry has hit back claiming that such a report is “unwarranted” “premature and reckless”.

Sri Lanka’s ambassador to Germany Manori Unambuwe reportedly called for the establishment of an “anti terrorism task force on cyber security” to monitor social media platforms, citing the success of Tamil campaigns and activism in the diaspora. 

Attorney General Dappula de Livera informed Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court that the draft 20th constitution will be updated as the Supreme Court considers 39 petitions against the proposed bill this week.

The Attorney General said that the updates would be introduced during the committee stage debate in parliament on the draft 20th Amendment.

Tamil farmers from Thanikallu, northern Vavuniya, have complained that the army is denying them permission to enter their paddy fields. 

The reports come after the Vavuniya northern council coordination committee convened on Friday, September 18, under the leadership of K Dileepan, during which the farmers registered their concerns. 

A Sri Lankan police officer has been caught on video snatching a newspaper from a Tamil protestor as a hunger strike was underway in Jaffna this weekend.

Whilst Sri Lanka has imposed a ban on commemorating the sacrifice of Lt Col Thileepan across Eelam, Tamils across Tamil Nadu have taken to paying tribute to his hunger strike, despite the coronavirus pandemic that has gripped the state.

The owners of the New Diamond supertanker which caught fire off Sri Lanka’s coast have agreed to pay $1.84 million to the Sri Lankan government, whilst the Colombo Magistrate's Court imposed a travel ban on the captain preventing him from leaving the island.