Meeting with Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner to the UK, Saroja Sirisena, Britain’s Speaker of the House of Commons Sir Lindsay Hoyle reportedly spoke on the need to strengthen bilateral relations and agreed to a controversial cricket match between British and Sri Lankan parliamentarians despite concerns over human rights abuses.

The International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP) said the recent appointment of war time police chief to the Office of Missing Persons (OMP) "completes the militarisation of this transitional justice mechanism" and "obliterates any chance of truth and justice" for Tamil families of the disappeared.

On May 20, the Parliament Council appointed former Inspector General of Police, Hapu Arachchige Jayantha Shantha Kumara Wickremaratne as a member of the OMP. 

Australian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, David Holly called on Sri Lanka President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Monday to voice support for development in Sri Lanka despite ongoing concerns over Sri Lanka’s human rights record.

Sri Lankan Minister, Ajith Nivard Cabraal, defended the governments $250 million currency swap with Bangladesh implying it was not disgraceful for Sri Lanka to seek this arrangement with one of the most impoverished countries in the world.

Cabraal responded to a question during webinar on the arrangement by claiming that “Bangladesh is loaning more money to the US than to anybody else, the same way Sri Lanka is”. He further added:

The Sri Lankan Air Force and police are monitoring locals in Mullaitivu, using newly launched drone surveillance, as the area is in lockdown. 

The drone surveillance has been used to target locals in Puthukudiyiruppu, where a travel ban is currently in place. The Mullaitivu Air Force said it will extend its drone surveillance to other areas in the district soon.

A cargo ship carrying chemicals caught fire spilling microplastics across Sri Lanka’s coastline and causing the worst environmental disaster in the island history.

The fire on MV X-Press Pearl is believed to have been caused by a nitric acid leak that set the ship ablaze on 20 May. Sri Lankan and Indian naval officials have been trying to reduce the flames for over ten days. It has devastated Sri Lanka’s coastline with the debris spread mostly between Negombo and Moratuwa.

At midnight on May 31, 1981, the Jaffna Public Library, the crucible of Tamil literature and heritage, was set ablaze by Sri Lankan security forces and state-sponsored mobs. The burning has since been marked by Eelam Tamils as an act of genocide.

A COVID-19 treatment centre that was set up by the Sri Lankan army at Vavuniya Economic Center, is facing severe difficulties in coping with patient demands due to extreme weather over the last couple of weeks. 

Tamil patients demanded that alternative arrangements be made for the benefit of the sick people. Elderly patients are reportedly facing many difficulties as the 200 bed makeshift hospital is lacking proper facilities.

In a landmark decision, the British Upper Tribunal has recognised the risk of arrest and torture Tamil activists face in Sri Lanka in a judgement granting an appeal to two Tamil asylum seekers in the case known as KK & RS vs the Home Secretary.