Marking the 38^th anniversary of the Black July massacre in which over 3,000 Tamils were slaughtered, German Tamils gathered in the city centre of Berlin to remember this act of genocide.

This week a Jaffna court ordered the complete release of five Tamils who had been detained for 93 days after the Terrorism Investigation Division (TID)  notified the court that there were 'no charges to file against them'. 

The five Tamils had been arrested by the TID on charges of 'trying to recreate the LTTE' and had then been subsequently detained for 93 days without charge under the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA). Four of those detained were from Jaffna and one was from Mullaitivu.

Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, remembered the “victims of the horrific events” of Black July, which took the lives of thousands of Tamils 38 years ago. 

“In July 1983, longstanding tensions and unrest culminated in anti-Tamil pogroms in Colombo and across Sri Lanka, plunging the country into a 26-year-long armed conflict. The conflict killed tens of thousands of people, forced many into exile, and left lasting wounds in communities across the country,” Trudeau said in a statement. 

Protesters in Jaffna marked the 38th anniversary of Black July, the horrific anti-Tamil pogrom of 1983 when thousands of Tamils were killed by Sinhala mobs backed by the then UNP government and state forces. 

Jaffna Municipal Council marked the 38th anniversary of Black July by paying tribute to the thousands of Tamil lives lost during the anti-Tamil pogrom of 1983. 

Led by Mayor of Jaffna, Visvalingam Manivannan , members lit candles and laid flowers in a tribute to the victims of the brutal violence, where thousands of Tamils were killed by Sinhala mobs backed by the then UNP government and state forces. 

This year marks 38 years since Black July: the anti-Tamil pogrom where thousands of Tamils were killed by brutal state-supported Sinhala mobs. It was a week of violence that saw Tamils murdered, tortured and displaced. It remains a premeditated and meticulously coordinated act of genocide. The remnants of this pogroms however, still reverberate across the island to this very day. Recent months in particular, carry concerning parallels to the period leading to 1983’s explosive violence, as Sri Lanka returns to patterns of the past with press suppression, arbitrary and racist detention, military occupation and unchecked state violence running devoid of consequence. 

Sri Lankan security forces tore down posters commemorating Black July overnight as the Tamil nation marks 38 years since the anti-Tamil pogrom. 

The posters were put up across Jaffna by the Tamil National Cultural Council to remember the brutal state-sponsored genocide, where thousands of Tamils were killed by Sinhala mobs. 

The Presidential Commission of Inquiry for Appraisal of the Findings of Previous Commissions and Committees on Human Rights and the Way Forward provided President Gotabaya Rajapaksa with its interim report on Wednesday calling for the Prevention of Terrorism Act to be reformed instead of repealed.

Following the appointment of Basil Rajapaksa to the cabinet, the Economist highlights growing unrest throughout Sri Lanka including farmers, teachers, war victims, and civil society actors. In light of this growing unrest, the Economist writes that “the Rajapaksas’ suffocating hold on power look like a weakness”.

In advance of the Moody Investor Service placing Sri Lanka “under review for downgrade” Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Finance slammed the agency’s announcement claiming that it was “ill-timed, ill-judged and hence unacceptable’.