Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP) leader and Batticaloa district MP Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan, has been released on bail by the Batticaloa Court today. 

Sri Lanka’s Navy has conducted several operations which led to the detention of 10 Tamils, who they accuse of “illegal fishing” in Eastern and North-western seas, as well as several others accused of “drug smuggling”.

^{File photograph: Mahinda Rajapaksa meets with former US Ambassador Robert O'Blake}

On the 27th of November we remember the thousands of Tamil heroes who died fighting for our country. Fighting for our freedom. Fighting for our future.

Every year we come together to honour and pay our respects to our fallen soldiers and give our love and support to the families who have lost their loved ones. We remind each other of who we are and why we should be proud to be Tamil through our speeches and cultural performances. We think about the bravery showcased by our heroes who had to say their farewells to their families knowing full well they may never see them again. These courageous heroes put their lives on the line to combat the discrimination, torture and killings inflicted upon the Tamil people by the racist Sri Lankan state.  They will go down in history as martyrs inspiring us to carry on the fight for our freedom.

In the lead up to Maveerar Naal, an 18-year-old British Tamil in London reflects on the sacrifice made by her uncle.

The day, which is marked by Eelam Tamils around the world, commemorates those who gave their lives in the Tamil liberation struggle.

Tamil National People's Front general secretary and parliamentarian Selvarajah Kajendran paid tribute to the LTTE's Major Sothiya as the Tamil nation prepares for Maaveerar Naal this week. 

Speaking in parliament on Sri Lanka’s new budget, Tamil parliamentarian C V Wigneswaran slammed Colombo’s continued inflated defence expenditure, questioning whether the government is “expecting another war” and “if so with whom?”

The Tamil nation, in the homeland and in the diaspora, holds steadfastly to records of the liberation struggle. The well-known dates and the lesser known dates are tirelessly observed. Heroes are canonised in the Maaveerar Naal calendar.

But with the destruction of LTTE records and cemeteries, it becomes inevitable that some names are lost to us, at least momentarily.

The record of Muslim fighters remains incomplete. Their contribution to the Tamil struggle for liberation is often overlooked in the mainstream commemoration of Maaveerar Naal.

Jaffna High Court rejected an appeal demanding an injunction against court bans for Maaveerar Naal commemorations in Mullaitivu and Vavuniya, last week but “there is no prohibition on memorialising the fallen, individually at home,” said Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP M. A. Sumanthiran.

Sumanthiran insisted that the court ruled that permission to commemorate publicly for Maaveerar Naal was refused on the grounds of “national security”.

Tamil Nadu Fisherman and local trade union members staged a protest against the Sri Lankan navy for seizing the fisherman’s boats, on Friday.

The protest, which took place on Pamban beach in Rameswaram, called on the Sri Lankan navy to return the 19 boats that were seized from Tamil Nadu fisherman in 2016 and has as a result impacted the livelihoods of families of fisherman in villages across Rameswaram.

A senior Sri Lankan official claimed that The Elders, a group of senior luminaries founded by Nelson Mandela in 2007, have “become senile” or “deliberately twisted the facts about Sri Lanka” in a statement that lashed out at the organisation this week.

US Congressmen Brad Sherman and Jamie Raskin introduced a House Resolution calling for an end to enforced disappearances in Sri Lanka, across Asia and around the world and also calls upon the United States to ratify the International Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance.

The resolution highlights that "Tamil families of the disappeared have demonstrated tremendous courage in conducting continuing protests, lasting over 1,300 days to demand answers from the Sri Lankan state, despite being met with threats, intimidation, and harrassment by state security forces."

It also noted that Sri Lanka has "promoted high-ranking military officials suspected of forcibly disappearing persons and bearing responsibility for war crimes, incuding Lieutenant General Shavendra Silva, and has failed to hold accountable other current military officials accused of war crimes."

Amidst a Sri Lankan state crackdown of commemoration activities for Maaveerar Naal, Tamil families of the disappeared have asserted families' rights to remember their war dead.

‘‘No one can stop individuals from participating in the remembrance. The mothers will also commemorate in the same way’’ a representative of families protesting in Vavuniya said.