Published 2038 GMT 04 Dec. Updated with more photos and videos 05 Dec 10:53 GMT.

In act of solidarity, British Tamils protested on Tuesday, demanding the immediate release of the four Jaffna university students arrested by the Terrorism Investigation Department for defying the Sri Lankan security forces and marking Tamil remembrance day on the 27th November.

Echoing Tamil youth in Jaffna, Tamil youth in the UK, from university Tamil societies across the country and the Tamil Youth Organisation UK, tied black clothing across their mouths, condemning the silencing of the freedom of speech of youth back home.

Tamils across the generations joined the youth by 10 Downing Street, in London on a bitterly cold Winter's evening, to campaign for the release of the four students and for an end to the militarisation of the North-East.

Carrying placards condemning the militarisation and on-going genocide, Tamils shouted, "stop attacking Tamil students", "self-determination, for the Tamil nation", "Sri Lankan Army, get out of Tamil Eelam" and "let us remember our heroes".

Follow @TamilGuardian on Twitter for our live coverage of events.

 

 Addressing the protesters, Visakan from the Imperial College Tamil Society said:

"At Imperial, we were all shocked and horrified to hear the news of our very brave brothers and sisters, and fellow Tamil students in the Tamil homeland, in the Jaffna university - an environment where the students cannot even mourn our own war dead is clearly not one that is conducive to democracy... We call for the immediate release of the four students that have been detained."

Thusiyan Nandakumar from Kings College London Tamil society and TYO UK said:

"Those that have been attacked in Jaffna, it's just like any one of us being attacked. Whether its students at Queen Mary's, Imperial, Kings, or students at Jaffna University. An attack on anyone of our students is an attack on all of us as a nation."

Speaking in Tamil, Bharathy from the TYO UK spoken with pride and admiration of students at Jaffna university who had defied the intimidation of the state to remember the fallen, and continued to protest peacefully against the attacks despite the overwhelming militarisation of the North-East.

Organised by the TYO UK, the protest is one of many acts of solidarity protests taking place in diaspora capitals across the world today, and was supported by all mainstream British Tamil organisations including the Tamil Coordination Committee (TCC) and British Tamil Forum (BTF).

Speaking to the Tamil Guardian, Thusiyan Nandakumar of the TYO UK, and a student at Kings College London University said:

"On the 27th November, as we were remembering our fallen by lighting candles and laying flowers, our brothers and sisters back home were attacked and assaulted for doing exactly the same thing. The militarisation of the North-East means that Tamils cannot even mourn their dead. It's outrageous. The subsequent arrest of the four Jaffna university students clearly shows which direction the government of Sri Lanka is heading.. and it is not reconciliation."

"The arrest is intended to intimidate and silence other youth from joining those who defied the state to mark remembrance day. As youth here in the West we look on at the defiant protests of the nation's youth in the North-East with fear, because it is not safe for them.. but we're also inspired by their courage to stand up against what is wrong."

"The truth is, that this is just a repeat of history. We've been here before. The Tamil nation has been initmidated and silenced through arrests of the student activists and peaceful protesters for decades. It's an omninous sign of things to come."

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse has congratulated Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas on his country’s successful bid to become a non-member observer state at the United Nations.

Rajapakse wrote in a letter that the people of Sri Lanka have “steadfastly stood with the Palestinian people in their decades long struggle for justice”.

“It is with great pleasure that I extend my heartiest congratulations and sincere best wishes to Your Excellency and the people of Palestine on behalf of the government and people of Sri Lanka on this happy occasion of the adoption of the historic resolution on the enhancement of the status of Palestine in the United Nations General Assembly,” said the letter.

“I am pleased to state that Sri Lanka joined other countries to co-sponsor the resolution to express the solidarity and resolute commitments of my government to the Palestinian people and their just cause. I look forward to working closely with you to achieve the objectives of Palestinian people.

“I take this opportunity to convey to you my good wishes for your good health, happiness and personal well-being and for peace, progress and prosperity of the people of Palestine.”

A group of 56 asylum seekers who were due to be deported from Australia have applied for an injunction halting their deportation, stating the Australian government has ignored pleas that they face persecution upon their return.

Whilst the injunction has not been granted, the asylum seekers will see their case return to court on Thursday. 

Ian Rintoul, a campaigner with the Refugee Action Coalition slammed the Australian screening process for asylum seekers as  "entirely unaccountable, non-transparent, non reviewable", stating,

"We don't know the criteria on which these decisions are made; but they are clearly life and death decisions,"

"We are quite sure that people have what in other circumstances would be a request, and an explicit request, for protection from Australia on the basis of risk of persecution, but they are being ignored".

Pamela Curr from the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre also commented,

"I am really concerned that the Australian Government has made a decision that they wish to deter Tamils coming from Sri Lanka from seeking asylum in Australia, and in order to deter them they are sending vast numbers home."

"The most serious and basic tenet of the Refugee Convention is non-refoulement, a French word meaning that people cannot and must not be returned to persecution."

"What this says is that the Australian Government is breaching that most basic tenet of the Refugee Convention."

"When they sent people back to Sri Lanka, and they're imprisoned and beaten - and I have contacts in Negombo who have reported to me that people are being beaten in that prison - then we are sending them home to be persecuted and we know that."

Over 500 people have been deported involuntarily to Sri Lanka since August 2012.

Wimal Weerawansa has said at a public meeting in Amparai that the West was behind political instability on the island.

He said that the US had caused rifts between the judiciary and the parliament in Pakistan, and is now doing the same in Sri Lanka, reported The Island.

Weerawansa also added that those subverting the country were taking orders from Washington and London.

See report here.

Thirty-seven Tamil Nadu fishermen were arrested by the Sri Lankan Navy off the eastern coast of Pulmoddai at 5am, reports the PTI.

The navy spokesperson Kosala Warnakulasuriya, who announced the arrest, said the fishermen were to be brought to Trincomalee where there would be handed over to the police.

The High Commissioner of India, Ashok K. Kantha, donated over 175 fishing boats fishing equipment to over 350 IDPs on Sunday, during a visit to Mannar.

Addressing those present, Kantha said that India was also working towards building up a fishnet factory in Gurunagar, Jaffna, through the supply of 152 million rupees worth of equipment.

Dr Rajitha Senaratne - Minister of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, and Rishad Bathiyutheen - Minister of Industries and Commerce, were present at the event.

For a detailed analysis of why Tamil areas remain underdeveloped well after the war’s end, see this collection of articles:

Sri Lanka disrupts Tamil recovery (Dec 2010)

North and South. Cartoon Sunday Times

The Sri Lankan government has announced that they are considering purchasing crude oil from Iraq, after US-imposed sanctions on Iran, the island’s main supplier of crude oil.

The announcement follows the US Senate passing another wave of sanctions aimed at Iran’s energy sector. The country was estimated to have provided up to 92% of Sri Lanka’s crude oil prior to the sanctions being put in place.

Foreign ministry secretary Karunatillaka Amunugama stated,

"Oil in northern Iraq is similar to Iranian crude and could be refined (domestically), thereby reducing costs on the import of refined products."

The lack of Iranian crude oil led Sri Lanka to look towards Oman, Saudi Arabia and Singapore in the last year, in hopes of finding a replacement provider, despite Iran offering alternate passages to bypass sanctions.

Three attempts to send ships to obtain Iranian crude oil were also defeated, with the island’s sole oil refinery at having to shut down earlier in October, due to the oil shortage.
 

The head of the Jaffna Security Forces, Major General Mahinda Hathurusinghe, dismissed the widespread news at the Sri Lankan military, along with the police, were responsible for attacks at Jaffna university over Maaveerar Naal commemoration events, and on the editor of the Tamil newspaper, the Uthayan.

Accusing Uthayan of attempting to discredit the military, Major General Hathurusinghe said:

"It is wrong to allege that military personnel entered the Jaffna Campus on this day,"

"I believe that it was the police who were deployed for security in the university."

Four students from Jaffna University have been transferred to Colombo after being arrested by the Sri Lankan Terrorist Investigation Department (TID) on Friday.

The arrested students are:

Paralingam Tharshananth (Secretary of the Jaffna Students Union)

Ganesamurthy Sudarsan (Medical Faculty Student)

Kangasundaraswamy Janamejeyanth (Arts Union President)

Sanmugam Solomon (Final year Science Faculty Student)

The arrests took place after a complaint against the students was lodged with Sri Lankan police by the government-backed paramilitary group Sri TELO. 7 students, including Tharshananth and Sudarsan, were named in the complaint. 

However, Janamejeyanth and Solomon were arrested at their homes, despite not being named in the complaint.

The other five named in the complaint include past student leaders who have left Jaffna University and students from other districts.

The Sri TELO group have opened a new office behind the Jaffna University campus and were reportedly involved in the raid on student halls of residences on the 27th of November. Their police complaint alleged that a petrol bomb was thrown at the office, despite the large presence of Sri Lankan security forces in and around the university campus.

Speaking on Sri TELO, a source from Jaffna told the Tamil Guardian,

”The fact that they moved to a compound behind the unversity campus kit last week is no coincidence.

They were and continue to be involved in the government’s counter-insurgency project”.

Tharshananth, the JSU Secretary, was attacked earlier this year hours before he was due to address a Mullivaikkal remembrance event in Jaffna

See our earlier post: Jaffna student leader attacked before remembrance event (18 May 2012)

University teachers have since staged a protest at the university gates expressing solidarity with the students.

See our earlier post: Jaffna uni teachers protest in solidarity (30 November 2012)

The Ceylon Petroleum Corporation has incurred losses of over Rs 100bn, reported The Sunday Times.

A senior official at the Ministry of Petroleum Industries said that the losses are due to arrears from state institutions and providing fuel at concessionary rates.

The Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) owes Rs 47 billion, SriLankan airline Rs 21 billion, the Defence Ministry Rs 14 billion and Sri Lanka Railway Rs 5 billion.

In a statement published on Friday, Tamils Against Genocide (TAG) urged all foreign donors to demand the "immediate release of all students taken into custody following Tamil Remembrance Day", as well as the "witholding of further economic assistance and military cooperation until the government allows Remembrance Day to be marked by the families of the dead."

See here for full statement, extracts reproduced below:

"Tamils Against Genocide (TAG) condemns the violent repression of Tamil freedom of expression by the Sri Lankan military and police forces and the accompanying destruction of collective history.
 
It is critical that these latest instances of State perpetrated violence be seen not in isolation but in the context of the systemic and structural persecution by the Sri Lankan State. 
 
These acts of violently destroying national memory may be viewed as one of the ‘different coordinated actions’ referred to in Raphael Lemkin’s definition of genocide. Lemkin defines genocide as a ‘a coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of the essential foundations of the life of national groups.,. (where) The objectives of such a plan would be the disintegration of the political and social institutions, of culture, language, national feelings, religion, and the economic existence of national groups’

 
Whilst it is imperative that this latest instance of repression be condemned, it is also necessary that it be analysed within the historical context - the pattern of violence and wider genocidal intent of the Sri Lankan State.
 
In this context, TAG requests Sri Lanka’s foreign donors to demand the immediate release of all students taken into custody following Tamil Remembrance Day and to with-hold further economic assistance and military cooperation until the government allows Remembrance Day to be marked by the families of the dead."

Updated 01:00 BST 03/12/2012

Tamil university students from across the United Kingdom have released a joint statement criticising the intimidation which Jaffna University students faced in the days leading up to Maaveerar Naal and condemning the attacks on the student demonstration which followed.

In a statement released on Friday, Tamil Societies from 16 British universities joined with Tamil Youth Organisation UK to call for the international community to demand the release of the arrested students, condemning the "brazen attempts by Sri Lanka to deny the Tamil nation of this basic right, through intimidation, aggression and sheer violence."

See here for full press release.

Extracts reproduced below:

“It is unacceptable and reprehensible that any people or nation could be prevented by a government and its security forces from mourning and remembering its war dead. The recent events highlight more brazen attempts by Sri Lanka to deny the Tamil nation of this basic right, through intimidation, aggression and sheer violence.”

“The United Nations and the international community must recognise that Sri Lanka is showing no progress or even intention of respecting its democratic obligations. Instead Sri Lanka is further demonstrating utter disregard for the rights of Tamils on the island, as well as its intent to silence and punish any voice of dissent from the Tamil nation.”



“We call on the international community to recognise that these acts of repression are not singular, and are part of a historic, on-going and systematic genocide to subjugate the Tamil community – a programme that is characteristic of the Sri Lankan state since its independence in 1948.”

“We call for the United Nations and the international community to demand a concrete political solution to the Tamil question, taking into account the Tamil nation’s grievances, demands and right to self-determination.”

“Our thoughts are with our brothers and sisters in the North-East who continue to face this genocide today and we stand in solidarity with them as they struggle for their right to mourn our nation's loss.”


The statement was signed by:

BPP University College Tamil Society

Brunel University Tamil Society

Cambridge University Tamil Society

City University Tamil Society

Coventry University Tamil Society

International Tamil Society, Imperial College

International Tamil Society, University College London Union

King's College London Tamil Society

Leicester University Tamil Society

London Metropolitan University Tamil Society

London South Bank University Tamil Society

Queen Mary's Tamil Society

School of Oriental and African Studies Tamil Society

St George's University of London Tamil Society

Tamil Youth Organisation UK

University of Nottingham Tamil Society

University of Westminster Tamil Society

See also: Canadian Tamil youth condemn Jaffna uni attacks (30 Nov)