During a conference at Matara, in the southern province of Sri Lanka, Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa lashed out at “foreign and local forces” which he alleged are supported by “the mafias” and are “misleading the public”.

German Tamils gathered in Berlin and Düsseldorf to protest the round-up and planned deportations of as many as 100 Tamil asylum seekers.

These protests follow the mass dentition of Tamil refugees across the country, mainly in Nordrhein-Westfalen and Baden-Württemberg.

This week the Sri Lankan government issued a gazette announcing the proscription of hundreds of Tamils and several diaspora organisations, in a move that has generated shock and outrage across the world. The announcement, which renews and broadens a previous 2014 gazette is designed to criminalise, intimidate and terrorise. It must be immediately condemned.

An estimated 100 Australian Tamils gathered in Sydney to protest Australia’s continued detention of refugees such as Rajan Navanthirasa and the issuing of temporary bridging visas such as the TPV and SHEV which have been granted to most Tamil refugees.

The entrance to the Kittu Memorial Park in Nallur, Jaffna was set on fire in a suspected arson attack on Sunday night.

Although the blaze was reported to the Jaffna Municipal Council fire brigade, the vehicle was occupied at another location.

The National Council of Canadian Tamils (NCCT) has cautiously welcomed the latest resolution on Sri Lanka passed at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), but called on Canada to demand the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to investigate Tamil genocide.

“NCCT cautiously welcomes the new resolution (A/HRC/46/L.1/Rev.1) adopted on March 23 rd , 2021 at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) as it includes some important progressive steps and a step towards attaining an international accountability process against Sri Lanka.”

Families of the missing persons, who have been on a rotational hunger strike in Vavuniya, reached their 1500^thday of protest on Sunday. 

(Protest in Pforzheim)

Hundreds have gathered in front of detention centres in Büren and Pforzheim, Germany, to demonstrate against the round-up and planned deportations of as many as 100 Tamil asylum seekers.

These protests follow the mass dentition of Tamil refugees across the country, mainly in Nordrhein-Westfalen and Baden-Württemberg. 

The Sri Lankan government has announced a sudden and wide-ranging proscription of hundreds of individuals and several Tamil diaspora organisations, as the regime continues to crack down on Tamil civil society and activists.

Mullaitivu locals carried out a demonstration, as part of an island-wide protest against deforestation.

The protest was held on Tuesday in front of the Vidyananda College in Mulliyavalai, with demonstrators demanding halting of cutting trees and preventing unforeseeable changes to the environment.