A British-Tamil family of a four-year-old leukaemia patient from East London has called for more people from South Asian backgrounds, to sign up to the bone marrow register, with a stem cell donor needed within the next few days. 

Sri Lankan state minister Lohan Ratwatte forced Tamil inmates detained in the Anuradhapura prison to kneel down at gunpoint on Sunday, sources revealed. Ratwatte was allegedly under the influence of alcohol when he entered the premises and demanded Tamil prisoners to perform the humiliating act. 

Today marks 34 years since Lt Col. Thileepan began his hunger strike at Nallur Kandaswamy Temple in protest against the failure of the Indian government to honour the pledges made to the Tamil people. 

Another Tamil father has died following a 12 year search for his forcibly disappeared son. 

Sevamalai Rasathurai, from Mathiyamdu Puliyankulam had been searching for his son Rasathurai Viji who was forcibly disappeared by the Sri Lankan army at the end of the armed conflict. 

Writing to the UN High Commissioner, the Secretary General of Eezha Tameizhar Suadchi Kazhakam, Ananthy Sasitharan, and former member of the northern provincial council, M.K. Shivajilingam, urged the UN to take urgent steps to uphold the right self-determination for Tamils and to prevent the recurrence of patterns of violence.

Sri Lankan Prime Minister, Mahinda Rajapaksa’s visit to Italy as a keynote speaker for the G20 Interfaith Forum 2021 has sparked protests with Tamil community groups condemning the invitation and placing posters to protest his visit, whilst Sinhala groups also gathered to demonstrate.

Writing to Police Scotland and Keith Brown MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Justice, Sarah Boyack, Member of Scottish Parliament for Lothian Region, raised concerns over Police Scotland’s training of Sri Lanka’s police force.

She urged Police Scotland to inform the public of the metric they use to judge whether their intervention in Sri Lanka is successful. She further added:

The Sri Lankan army handed over medical equipment to assist COVID-19 treatment at Mullaitivu District Hospital, District General Hospital Kilinochchi and the Jaffna Teaching Hospital throughout September.

In her oral update during the 48^th session of the UN Human Rights Council, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet warned that Sri Lanka’s current “social, economic and governance challenges” were indicative of the “corrosive impact that militarisation and the lack of accountability continue to have on fundamental rights, civic space, democratic institutions, social cohesion and sustainable development."

In its latest assessment of the human rights situation in Sri Lanka, the global watchdog Human Rights Watch (HRW) noted the deterioration of civil liberties and the growing oppression of minorities in the island. South Asia Director Meenakshi Ganguly said, “No one should be in any doubt that Sri Lanka’s human rights situation is deeply alarming and getting worse.”