On May 10, 2009, Catholic Priest Father Francis Joseph wrote to the Pope from inside the No Fire Zone, calling on the Church to break its silence on the massacre of Tamils.

On this day 15 years ago, Stephen Sunthararaj, an activist who had exposed the trafficking of Tamil children into international prostitution rings, was abducted and forcibly disappeared in Colombo by armed men in military uniforms.

As part of his work he had told the then United States Ambassador in Colombo about prostitution rings run by government aligned paramilitaries in Jaffna. The paramilitaries were trafficking children into sex rings in India and Malaysia with the help of immigration officials.

Nagalingam Ethirveerasingam, the Jaffna-born activist and athlete, who competed in the 1952 Olympics and won the first Gold Medal in any sport for Ceylon passed away on Thursday, 18 April 2024, aged 89 years old.

Amnesty International called on the international community to “urgently review cooperation with the Sri Lankan government” including the training and provision of its security forces, as it released a new report detailing how the military and police engaged in violent suppression of protests.

British politicians called on the UK government to exert more pressure on Sri Lanka by referring them to the International Criminal Court, imposing targeted sanctions and to evaluate it's military co-operation over the island's longstanding history of human rights abuses. 

Opening last week's Westminster Hall debate, Elliot Colburn, the Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Tamils (APPGT) and MP for Carshalton and Wallington explained that despite 15 years passing since the Mullivaikkal genocide, which saw the deaths of tens of thousands of Tamils at the hands of the Sri Lankan state, the situation on the island "remains precarious".

The observance of Shivarathri at the Vedukkunaari Hill Athi Sivan temple in Vavuniya North, descended into chaos today (08.03) as police violence marred the religious proceedings. Member of Parliament Selvarajah Kajendren was assaulted by Sri Lankan police, and a further 8 worshippers were arrested during the incident.

UN High Commissioner Volker Türk told the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) that it is only through addressing the “root causes” of the conflict and ensuring accountability for rights abuses, that Sri Lanka will see “genuine reconciliation and sustainable peace and development”.

In his oral update at the 55th session yesterday, Türk said sustainable peace and reconciliation will not be achieved in Sri Lanka "with regressive laws and authoritarian approaches".

In a historic court case, the Appeal Court of Sri Lanka issued a notice to the Sri Lankan army to appear before the judge on March 28th for intentionally concealing information on the number and names of the LTTE cadres who surrendered during the final phase of the war. 

The case was prompted by a Right to Information (RTI) request filed by a former journalist in 2019. The Sri Lankan army despite having the information detailing the figures, the names, the gender, and to whom these surrenders were handed over or where they were sent, has maintained silence over the details. Tamil families of the disappeared have repeatedly demanded the release of these details during their years-long protests.

Sri Lankan security forces shot tear gas and fired water cannons at Tamil students as they marched on Sri Lanka's 76th Independence Day this morning, with Tamils across the North-East launching demonstrations to mark it as a ‘Black Day’.

Tamils are protesting across the North-East today on Sri Lanka's 76th Independence Day as Tamils continue to lack basic rights in their homeland. 

For decades, the day has been marked as a 'Black Day' by Eelam Tamils, who see it as a reminder of Sri Lankan state oppression.