Students from the University of Jaffna's medical faculty held a commemoration event on campus yesterday to remember Lt Col Thileepan and the sacrifice he made 38 years ago. 

Tamils in Wutterpal, Germany marked 38 years since Lt Col Thileepan began his fast unto death, which he undertook to press the Indian government to uphold its commitments to the Tamil people. 

A mass rally was held today in Geneva, Switzerland, to renew demands for justice and international accountability for the Tamil genocide, as Sri Lanka features on the agenda of the 60th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC). 

A memorial float dedicated to Lt Col Thileepan, who fasted unto death in September 1987, will travel through the North-East this week as the Tamil nation remembers his sacrifice 38 years on. 

Tamils in Jaffna and Mullaitivu marked 38 years since Lt Col Thileepan began his hunger strike at Nallur Kandaswamy temple in protest against the failure of the Indian government to honour the pledges made it to the Tamil people. 

Sri Lankan authorities have arrested a police officer, an army colonel, and a former local councillor in connection with aiding and supplying notorious underworld figures, who were recently apprehended in Indonesia.

A new draft resolution on Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council has faced criticism for dropping explicit calls for foreign judges and instead endorses a domestic judicial mechanism backed by Colombo, despite repeated rejections by the Sri Lankan government of any international involvement in accountability.

Sri Lanka’s Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa this week denounced Israel’s assault on Gaza as a “genocide against the Palestinian people,” even as he continues to embrace Sri Lankan military commanders who conducted atrocities against Tamils during the final stages of the armed conflict.

Sri Lanka’s former president and accused war criminal Mahinda Rajapaksa returned to his family residence in Tangalle today, after being forced to vacate his luxury state-funded mansion in Colombo under new legislation scrapping benefits for former heads of state.

Indian officials held talks in Jaffna last week on the long-delayed development of Point Pedro harbour, pledging financial assistance for the project that has repeatedly failed to materialise in the Tamil homeland.

A group of 16 Sri Lankan journalists has been flown to Israel on a five-day study programme arranged by the Israeli Embassy in New Delhi, in what critics have described as a propaganda exercise to whitewash Tel Aviv’s assault on Gaza.

The Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK) has condemned Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath’s address at the UN Human Rights Council this week, accusing Colombo of failing to deliver on promises of accountability, reconciliation and devolution, more than a year after Anura Kumara Dissanayake came to power.

India delivered its statement on Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday, where it once again stressed its support for Tamil aspirations of “equality, justice, dignity and peace”, but only within what it described as the island’s “unity, territorial integrity and sovereignty.”

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk delivered his report on Sri Lanka to the 60th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday, where he urged Colombo to take “decisive action” on accountability and reforms but stopped short of calling for a fully international accountability mechanism, despite decades of impunity.