When Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney acknowledged that the global order is in a state of “rupture” last month, he gave voice to what many across the world have already felt for some time. The old certainties of the West are collapsing and longstanding alliances are being recalibrated. The world is changing. Where does that leave Eelam Tamils and the ongoing struggle for liberation? 

British Tamils staged a demonstration outside the Sri Lankan High Commission in London this month, condemning ongoing repression in Sri Lanka and demanding the immediate repeal of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA).

Sri Lankan military personnel who had been stationed on land in Pandatharippu belonging to the Manipay Pradeshiya Sabha have fully vacated the premises, with the land formally handed back to civilian authorities last week.

The Sri Lankan government has continued to deny access to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to more than 100 Rohingya refugees, including women and children, who have been held under military custody for over a year at an occupying air force base in Mullaitivu.

The National People’s Power (NPP) Government that was elected to effect ‘system change’ is recycling drafts of former governments that the NPP themselves, when in opposition, said they would scrap if they were to be elected. 

While New Delhi and Brussels have framed the agreement as a historic partnership covering nearly a quarter of global GDP, the implications for Sri Lanka are far more troubling, with risks of Colombo being further marginalised within an already fragile economic landscape.

A memorial tribute for the late Thambithurai Muthukumarasamy, also known as T Kumar, a pioneering figure of the Eelam liberation struggle and a long-standing international human rights activist, was held in Batticaloa last week.

India and the European Union have announced a sweeping free trade agreement that both sides have hailed as the “mother of all deals”, concluding nearly two decades of intermittent negotiations.