This week marks 16 years since five Tamil students were summarily executed by Sri Lanka's Special Task Force, whilst they spent an afternoon on the beach in Trincomalee.

To date no one has been held accountable for the murder.

Sri Lanka’s economy is in dire straits with the World Bank reporting that an estimated 500,000 people have fallen bellow the poverty line since the start of the pandemic and with the price of basic goods skyrocketing.

Over the next 12 months, Sri Lanka is required to pay an estimated US$7.3 billion in domestic and foreign loans, including a US$500m international sovereign bond repayment in January. However, as of November, available foreign currency reserves were just $1.6 billion.

Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa flew to India using a private jet allegedly procured by the High Commissioner of Sri Lanka to Uganda and Kenya, Velupillai Kananathan, costing millions of Sri Lankan rupees. 

Responding to the rejection of 20,000 tonnes of organic fertiliser by the Sri Lankan government, the Chinese company Seawin Biotech have successfully sued the government and are now putting pressure on the Chinese government to impose economic sanctions and trade restrictions on Sri Lanka.

The rejection of the import occurred in September and led to China blacklisting Sri Lanka’s second-largest state-owned bank and a lawsuit in which Sri Lanka agreed to pay USD $6.7 million in damages to a Chinese fertiliser company.

^{Mahinda Amaraweera}

Sri Lanka cabinet will meet on Monday to decide whether or not to seek bailout funds from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The group of ministers will be joined by the Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal as well as the Treasury Secretary Sajith Attygalle, according to Environment minister Mahinda Amaraweera. 

Sri Lanka has temporarily closed three overseas diplomatic mission posts from December 31 in a bid to save foreign currency reserves and cut spending, as the country deals with crippling debt.

The Sri Lankan High Commission in Abuja, Nigeria, the Consulate General of Sri Lanka, Frankfurt, Germany and the Consulate General of Sri Lanka in Nicosia, Cyprus will be closed from January.

Commenting on the closures, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said: 

As 2021 draws to a close, Tamil Guardian reflects on some of the most significant moments across this past year.

Responding to the death of anti-apartheid activist Bishop Desmond Tutu, Global Tamil Forum (GTF) has released a statement mourning his passing and remembering his support for “justice, reconciliation and prosperity” in Sri Lanka.

In their statement, they highlighted that the Nobel laureate closely followed the brutal massacres that concluded the armed conflict in Sri Lanka and the continued abuses that followed in the years that came.

Yasinthan, 27, was severely injured after the Sri Lanka's notorious Special Task Force (STF) opened fire against him last week in Ariyalai-Mulli, Jaffna. 

Yasinthan was operating a tractor in farmland when the STF obstructed him. They opened fire at him when he continued operating the tractor on the soil without obeying the officers’ orders. 

Yasinthan suffered terrible injuries as a result of the shooting and was admitted to the Jaffna Teaching Hospital by the police. The police are also said to have confiscated the tractor. 

Charges have been filed against former Jaffna University Students’ Union President M. Thivakaran and Secretary S. Babilaraj in Colombo's High Court.

These charges come thirty months after the two men were arrested under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) and released on bail by a Jaffna Court.