Sri Lanka’s military and police forces launched yet another investigation into what they saw as a dangerous threat last week – a flower decoration created for a school sports competition. The reaction from the security forces to the decorative display was because it was of a particular flower; the red and yellow karthigaipoo that is a symbol of Tamil Eelam. Soldiers visited the school and the management was instructed to attend the police station for questioning, with statements even recorded from the principal. Despite what Sri Lanka claims, this is neither peaceful nor normal. 

Sri Lankan soldiers are currently fighting a fully-fledged war. However, this time it is thousands of miles from the Tamil homeland. Reports emerged this week that ‘hundreds’ of troops are currently serving with the Russian military, as Moscow continues its deadly offensive into Ukraine. Though some are fighting alongside the Ukrainians, it seems the vast majority are travelling to fight with Russia, lured with promises of earning a stable salary and even foreign citizenship. As Sri Lanka’s economic woes continue, its troops have effectively become a mercenary force. A military accused of war crimes is exporting soldiers to fight alongside another military accused of war crimes.

After more than a week of detention, a group of eight Tamils who had been assaulted, arrested and detained without bail finally had a trumped-up case against them dismissed. The Sri Lankan police never did have any basis to hold them, a fact that even the biased court system could not dispute. But this will not deter Sri Lanka’s security forces from doing the same again. Aside from the blatant racism, there is little legal basis behind the continued detainment or interrogation of Tamils. The logic driving it, however, is not to enforce the law. Instead, it is to threaten, intimidate, and quash any flicker of Tamil resistance.

The Sri Lankan state is on a concerted mission. Following a long history of killings and massacres, it is fervently pursuing a more insidious endeavour across the North-East, attempting to erase Eelam Tamil existence. Buddhist monuments are being purposefully constructed, whilst attempts to seize Tamil-owned land have persevered through the military and government’s archaeology and forestry departments. Whilst members of the international community seem to place more interest in embellishing ties with Colombo, the Tamil homeland remains under threat.

As Volker Türk addressed the UN Human Rights Council last week, his message could not have been clearer. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights delivered only an “update on progress” concerning reconciliation and accountability in Sri Lanka. He concluded that little such progress had taken place. Instead, the human rights chief said Sri Lanka had implemented “regressive laws and authoritarian approaches”, whilst the security forces continued to engage in rights abuses. Almost 15 years after the mass atrocities at Mullivaikkal and after decades of continued ethnic conflict, the UN human rights chief echoed what Tamils have repeatedly demanded. Accountability must be delivered and the root causes of the island’s turmoil must be addressed.

After yet another week of political turmoil in Sri Lanka, with the president accused of overriding the constitution and appointing a man the Supreme Court found personally participated in torture as the head of police, one might have imagined the authoritarian path the regime is trudging down was clear to all. Not so in Washington. One of the US State Department’s most senior officials flew into the island last week and declared that, despite the ramping up of repression, they would be looking to send yet another vessel to the Sri Lankan navy. The move sends a troubling message across the island and around the world. At a time when US foreign policy is coming under intense scrutiny, it seems as if authoritarianism is being rewarded in Sri Lanka once more.

Recent months have seen India rapidly expand its footprint in Sri Lanka. Under the presidency of Ranil Wickremesinghe, a series of deals have reportedly been agreed, binding the two economically closer than they have been in decades. From New Delhi, things may look comfortable across the Palk Strait. But it would be hasty to think so. If it is a long-term relationship with a stable partner that India is seeking, it will not be found in Colombo where authoritarianism is growing and Sinhala Buddhist nationalism continues to underpin the Sri Lankan state ethos. Instead, it is in liberating the Tamil North-East where India’s efforts should be focused.

The current frontrunner in Sri Lanka’s presidential polls Anura Kumara Dissanayake, leader of Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and National People’s Power (NPP) coalition, was invited to visit Delhi earlier this month, where he engaged in a series of high-level talks. The move was seen as recognition from the Indian government that Dissanayake is a serious contender in elections which are set to take place later this year. It also seemed to mark a significant shift in the militantly Marxist JVP, a movement that was once violently anti-Indian but now seemingly open to engagement with Delhi. As Dissanayake’s visit demonstrates, however, the veneer of anti-imperialist politics within the Sinhala left has always been thin. It is not necessarily Indian interests they oppose, simply Tamil ones. 

There has been much consternation in recent weeks as the Sri Lankan government passed the Online Safety Bill, a new piece of legislation that essentially allows the state to police and prosecute what individuals and organisations post online. There have been remarks from the United Nations human rights office, diplomats from various Western countries and a host of NGOs – all of whom have expressed concern over the risks to freedom of expression on the island. In the Tamil North-East, however, those concerns have long been a reality. Left unabated and unchallenged by the international community for years, that climate of repression has solidified and is now being rolled out across the island.

The ‘Himalaya Declaration’, a supposed path forward for the island that had the blessings of the Sri Lankan state, contained little substance. Instead, it sought to give a regime that is facing increasing global pressure a cheap veneer of progress, obfuscating more than 15 years of calls for international accountability and whitewashing decades of struggle for self-determination. Those who champion justice for the Tamil genocide will be rightly outraged.