British parliamentarians filed an Early Day Motion calling for steps to be taken to ensure that clean drinking water is fully accessible in Northern Sri Lanka and expressing their concern over Colombo’s refusal to allow independent assessments of water quality in the region.

The motion, signed by parliamentarians from the Conservative Party, the Labour Party, the Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru, the Democratic Unionist Party and the Scottish National Party, was filed earlier this week, days after an event at the Houses of Parliament discussing Tamil genocide recognition.

The Sri Lankan navy has arrested a Tamil youth in Mannar for allegedly sharing videos of “LTTE activities” on social media.

An official navy website reported that the 20-year-old Tamil man was arrested “during a raid carried out at Pesalei area in Mannar”.

A Sri Lankan army dog and handler won the Washington-based Marshall Legacy Institute’s (MLI) ‘Team of the Year - 2019’ award this week, as the island continues to have military relations around the globe despite concerns of rights abuses committed by troops.

As Sri Lanka’s former defence secretary and accused war criminal Gotabaya Rajapaksa launches his campaign to become the island’s next president, 47 Roots looks back on his previous statements and his hardline Sinhala nationalist appeal.

Former Chief Minister of the Northern Province C V Wigneswaran denied claims he is backing any of the candidates in the upcoming Sri Lankan presidential election and said that with the exception of one outsider, all other Sinhala candidates have ignored demands put forward by Tamil political parties.

Releasing a statement earlier today, the former Supreme Court Justice also said he had not called for a boycott of the polls as reported in some Southern media outlets.

Wigneswaran’s TMK and four other Tamil political parties had put forward a set of 13 demands to all candidates in next month’s polls.

Sajith Premadasa, the United National Party’s candidate for Sri Lanka’s upcoming presidential polls, launched his election manifesto this morning, pledging to strengthen the military, increase UN Peacekeeping involvement, create a “National Intelligence Act” and implement a “Sri Lanka First” foreign policy.

The manifesto was launched after presented it to senior a Sinhala Buddhist monks including the Chief Prelate of Malwatta chapter, this morning.

The families of Tamil asylum seekers who have fled to the UK are being harassed, threatened and in some cases physically assaulted by Sri Lankan security forces, said the International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP) in a press release last week.

“Spouses and parents in the villages of the north of Sri Lanka are being visited by police and army within days of the person in London giving a media interview or participating in a protest,” said the ITJP.

An upscale Colombo cafe triggered outrage over social media and has launched a reported investigation from Sri Lanka’s official languages commission after it displayed a sign instructing its employees that “No Tamil” is to be spoken.

Today marks 24 years since over half a million Tamil men, women and children fled their homes in Jaffna, ahead of a major military offensive by the Sri Lankan government led by Chandrika Kumaratunga, in what became known as the Jaffna Exodus.

On October 30, 1995, the entire town of Jaffna, the largest Tamil population centre in Sri Lanka, streamed out in a mass exodus for the safety of the Vanni, which was then controlled by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).