In his first speech to parliament, Sri Lankan finance minister, Basil Rajapaksa, admitted that coutry was facing a foreign exchange crisis and had lost an estimated Rs. 1.6 trillion in revenue across the pandemic, but maintained that the country would not borrow from institutions which would “attach conditions that impact the country’s sovereignty”.

A new generation of young Tamil men are being picked up and tortured by the security forces in the north and east for exercising their legitimate peaceful political rights. As Frances Harrison writes, parents, teachers, politicians and community organisers need to be more aware of the risks.

In advance of the 48^th session of the UN Human Rights Council, leading representatives of the Tamil National People’s Front and All Ceylon Tamil Congress, have written to the Core Group on Sri Lanka urging the countries to go beyond UN resolution 46/1, which they slam as “highly problematic”.

 Krishanthi Kumaraswamy, a Tamil schoolgirl who was kidnapped, gang raped and brutally murdered by Sri Lankan soldiers in 1996, was remembered yesterday in Jaffna by former Northern Provincial Councillor M K Shivajilingham. 

The Vavuniya Tamil Journalists Association held a memorial for 26-year-old journalist Pragas Gnanapragasam, who died last week after contracting COVID-19. 

With the district of Vavuniya facing serious threats from the coronavirus pandemic, health officials have expressed their concerns over the indifference of the people towards the virus. 

2 brothers from Batticaloa. Mahendiran keerthiseelan and Mahendiran Anujan, were brutally beaten and hosptalised by Sri Lankan police when fuelling their motorcycles at a petrol station in  Thandiyadi on Sunday night.

In a new report, the International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP) highlight cases of abduction, torture and rape of Tamils in the North-East for participating in commemorative events, protests or for receiving funds from abroad, over the last year. 

The report, which was published today ahead of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) session later this month, contains testimonies from 15 Tamils who had been abducted, detained and tortured by Sri Lanka security forces, since Gotabaya Rajapaksa took office as Sri Lanka's president in 2019. The witnesses have now fled the island and reside in the UK. 

Controversial emergency regulation in response to Sri Lanka's food shortages were passed yesterday with a vote of 132 for and 51 against.
The regulations will enable the military to seize stock from traders, who they alledge are hording products, and transfer them into state establishments where they will be sold at government-mandated prices.

Today marks 25 years since the Chemmani massacre of 1996, in which Sri Lankan soldiers raped and murdered Tamil schoolgirl, Krishanthi Kumaraswamy, and three of her family members that had gone looking for her.

Former postmaster turned LTTE interpreter, Velupillai Kumaru Pancharatnam, affectionately referred to as George Master, passed away at the age of 85 on Sunday.

Sri Lankan police investigated the leader of the Hindu extremist organisation Siva Senai, Maru Sachithananthan for using the word 'Eelam' on a memorial monument erected to commemorate the forcibly disappeared people in the Maravanpulavu area in Jaffna. 

The body of a Jaffna-based independent Tamil journalist who died of COVID-19 last week, was cremated yesterday. 

Sri Lankan parliament is set to debate the controversial tax amnesty bill which seeks to enable those who have not disclosed any taxable incomes or assets to immediately invest the equivalent amount in the country and pay a voluntary disclosure at one per cent nominal tax.