The 37th anniversary of the Kokkuvil Pirambadi massacre, when over fifty Tamil civilians were shot dead or crushed with an armoured vehicle by Indian Peace Keeping Forces (IPKF), was commemorated in Jaffna on Monday.

The massacre is claimed to be the first of many by Indian troops during their occupation of the Tamil homeland in the late eighties. During the event, a lamp was lit, and flowers were offered to remember the lives lost in the massacre. 

A young Tamil man was severely injured today in the Kodikamam area of Jaffna after triggering an unexploded ordinance while working in a field. He was immediately rushed to Jaffna Teaching Hospital for urgent medical attention.

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A protest was held in Jaffna on Monday to voice opposition against the opening of a liquor store in the area, as reports of alcoholism continues to plague the Tamil homeland.

The Sri Lankan state continued to target the Tamil families of the disappeared last week, as police issued another summons to Thambirasa Selvarani, the head of the Association for Enforced Disappearances (AERD) in Amparai.

Amnesty International has welcomed the recent adoption of a United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) resolution on Sri Lanka, emphasizing the need for continued international scrutiny to address ongoing human rights concerns in the country.

The People for Equality and Relief in Lanka (PEARL) called on United Nations member states to take "swift action" to bring Sri Lankan perpetrators of human rights abuses to justice using the evidence collected by the OHCHR mandated Sri Lanka Accountability Project. 

Amid heavy rains, Eelam Tamil farmers from Manthai West gathered in protest last week, demanding the return of their ancestral lands, which are at risk of colonisation from Sinhala settlers.

These lands, particularly the Cholamandala Pond land in Iluppaikadavi, under the Manthai West Divisional Secretary Division, have been cultivated by Tamil farmers for over 30 years, and now face the threat of losing them to external settlers.

Several Tamil political parties submitted their nomination papers for the upcoming parliamentary elections, as nominations closed last week.

Members of the Democratic Tamil National Alliance, including former MPs Selvam Adikakalanathan, Sivasakthi Anandan, Mayuran Senthilnathan, Kandiah Sivanesan, former Divisional Councilor K. Vijinthan, Democratic Party spokesperson K. Tulsi, and former cadre Yashodini, all submitted their nominations last week. Several party supporters were present at the time. 

It has been a week of mixed messaging from Washington on Sri Lanka. In Geneva on Wednesday, the United States as a leading member of the Core Group, successfully led a United Nations Human Rights Council resolution on accountability for war crimes and called for an end to impunity on the island. But in Colombo the very next day, the US gifted the military responsible for those very war crimes a brand new aircraft, whilst pledging to build closer ties. These seemingly hypocritical actions are not new.

TJ Gnanavel’s previous feature film, Surya starrer ‘Jai Bhim’ was received with widespread acclaim, causing a movement to submit the film as India’s official selection for the Academy Award for Best International Feature. The film did not work for me, however, and the entire movement felt like an extreme overreaction for a mediocre film - an issue which plagues the Tamil film industry, where the ‘message’ of a film often trumps the quality of it.