Commemoration events to mark 39 years since the burning down of the Jaffna Public Library, were observed yesterday in Jaffna.

The library, which housed over 95,000 unique Tamil literature, was targeted and set ablaze by Sri Lankan security forces and state-sponsored mobs on the midnight of May 31, 1981.

Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court has unanimously dismissed a petition challenging the president Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s decision to reconvene parliament.

Rajapaksa had dissolved parliament, with hopes of holding a general election to build on his party’s popularity after his electoral victory in presidential polls last year. However, the coronavirus pandemic has led to the elections being delayed.

Murdered Tamil journalist Aiyathurai Nadesan was remembered by journalists in Vavuniya, to mark 16 years since his assassination. 

Writing in The Wire India, Harini Amarasuriya, highlights how Sri Lanka’s response to the coronavirus demonises minority communities and imposes a demand to submit to “the benevolent control of the majority community”.

Rising Islamophobia

May 31, 1981 marked not only the burning of the Jaffna Public Library, but the beginning of a week-long rampage of violence by Sri Lankan security forces and Sinhala mobs which devastated the peninsula.

Sri Lanka's Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has launched investigations into Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) which were reportedly registered without due procedure under the previous government. 

Tamil families of the disappeared in Vavuniya marked a milestone 1,200 days of protest today, as they continue their demands for information regarding their forcibly disappeared loved ones.

Following the death of Ceylon Workers’ Congress leader Arumugan Thondaman, Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister, and war criminal, Mahinda Rajapaksa was sworn in as the Social Empowerment and Estate Infrastructure Development Cabinet Minister.

The Sri Lankan president has promoted a former military intelligence director to the rank of Major General, despite his role in a number of abuses including the reported forced confession and denial of medical treatment of a Tamil doctor who served during the massacres at Mullivaikkal in 2009.

Even before they returned to power in Sri Lanka last year, the Rajapaksas never sought to cloak their brash espousal of Sinhala Buddhist chauvinism. As defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa ran a ruthless offensive that massacred tens of thousands of Tamils, which his brother Mahinda oversaw as president, with what he called “a sense of quiet joy”. Now, more than six months have passed with the Rajapaksa siblings back in power and occupying the island’s highest offices. And whilst global attention has been focussed on controlling the coronavirus pandemic, the regime has used the crisis to unleash Sinhala supremacy with an even greater ferocity.

At midnight on May 31, 1981, the Jaffna Public Library, the crucible of Tamil literature and heritage, was set ablaze by Sri Lankan security forces and state-sponsored mobs. The burning has since been marked by Eelam Tamils as an act of genocide.

Aiyathurai Nadesan was remembered by journalists and media workers at a memorial event in Batticaloa, marking 16 years since his assassination. 

Sri Lankan President, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, appealed to the international community for economic support following the devastating impact caused by the COVID-19 virus.