Monthly Archives: August 2025

Onomastics of Tamil Personal Names – Part 4

by Sachi Sri Kantha, August 27, 2025 LTTE leader Prabhakaran’s father Velupillai departed this world 15 years ago on Jan. 6, 2010, at the age of 86. To honor his memory, after 8 years, I pick up the thread on my Onomastics of Tamil Personal Names. In this Part 4, I focus on a specific… Read more »

Sri Lanka Faces Renewed Global Scrutiny Ahead of UNHRC Session

by Sulochana Ramiah Mohan, Ceylon Today, Colombo, August 16, 2025 Sri Lanka is once again under the global human rights spotlight as the 60th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) approaches. With mounting momentum for the adoption of a resolution targeting the country’s human rights record, questions remain over how the newly… Read more »

ISGA Index

Originally posted as events unfolded at http://www.sangam.org/articles/indexes/isga/ (ordered from earliest to latest) – Interim Self-Governing Authority Proposal – The LTTE’s Proposals for an Interim Self-Governing Authority – …And It Is Time for Action in Colombo – SLFP Response to LTTE ISGA Proposal – A Nudge for Sri Lanka Peace – AFTA Media Release – Kumaratunge’s Coup and the Peace Process – LTTE’s… Read more »

Buried Tales of Past Violence from Chemmani

Chemmani is Sri Lanka’s collective shame and evidence of systemic failure to deal with extra-judicial killings and deliver truth, justice and accountability by Dilrukshi Hanunnett, The New Indian Express, Chennai, July 6, 2025 More recently reprinted from The Associated Press, NY, see below also: A wartime mass grave in Sri Lanka yields a baby bottle,… Read more »

‘Quest for Human Rights: The Sri Lanka Ethnic Issue’

by Sunil C. Roy, VAP Enterprises, New Delhi, 1987 Comment by former Sangam Founder and Editor, Dr. Rajan Sriskandarajah: Just prior to the 1987 Indian military intervention in Sri Lanka’s national (ethnic) conflict, a booklet detailing the persecution of the Tamils, was widely distributed all over the world. Although it was printed & distributed privately,… Read more »

“The Jaffna” and the Bird Aeroplanes

by Capt. Elmo Jayawardena, Sri Lanka Guardian, Colombo, October 6, 2021 I like to think more light would be shed by people who may know some almost forgotten facts connected to these aeroplanes.  Some years ago, I was writing a book for the Civil Aviation Authority of Sri Lanka. They were commemorating 100 years of… Read more »

Argentina: Searching for the Children of the Disappeared

A new book examines the extraordinary decades-long campaign by Argentinean women to find their grandchildren. by Graciela Mochkofsky, The New Yorker, July 31, 2025 “Ispent five years researching and writing this story, and I still find it hard to believe,” Haley Cohen Gilliland told me during the launch of her book, “A Flower Traveled in… Read more »

HRW: Police Target Families of ‘Disappeared’

UN Human Rights Council Should Monitor Repression, Counterterrorism Law Abuses by Human Rights Watch, New York, August 20, 2025 (Geneva) – Sri Lankan security forces still harass families of victims of forced disappearances and misuse the country’s draconian counterterrorism law a year since President Anura Kumara Dissanayake took office with promises of reform, Human Rights Watch said today…. Read more »

From Sachi’s File – Chapter 26

When the LTTE strangled the Sri Lankan Army’s neck in 2000 by Sachi Sri Kantha, August 18, 2025 Front Note What happened 25 years ago in Elephant Pass, will NOT be recorded in the history columns of the website of the Government of Sri Lanka’s army. [https://www.army.lk/]. For the benefit of new recruits and the… Read more »

Government Announcing Release of Lands in Jaffna Largely Political Rhetoric

by LankaFiles, July 28, 2025 It has been revealed that the repeated claims made by successive presidents, including the current head of state, regarding the release of ancestral lands in the Valikamam region of Jaffna district, are largely political rhetoric. At a press conference held in Jaffna, civil society activists and local residents asserted that… Read more »

AHRC: Island of Mass Graves 2014

by Asian Human Rights Commission, Hong Kong, Feb-Apr 2014 These articles contain important information on Chemmani and other mass graves. AHRC Island of Mass Graves 2014 editorial AHRC Island of Mass Graves 2014 enforced disappearances AHRC Island of Mass Graves 2014 Chemmani unearthed yet untold SRI LANKA: The Island of mass graves – Asian Human… Read more »

Türk: Sri Lanka has Opportunity to Break from Past

by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, August 13, 2025 Non-official UN languages:Tamil version (PDF) Sinhala version (PDF) GENEVA – A report published today by the UN Human Rights Office calls on Sri Lanka’s Government to seize the historic opportunity to break with entrenched impunity, implement transformative reforms, and deliver long-overdue justice and accountability for serious violations and abuses… Read more »

OHCHR’s 2025 Report on Sri Lanka

by UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Geneva, August 12, 2025 a-hrc-60-21-auv.pdf OHCHR report on Sri Lanka Aug 12 2025 Summary The present report, submitted pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 57/1, provides a comprehensive analysis of the human rights situation in Sri Lanka. It notes the new Government’s pledges to address… Read more »

HRW: UN Rights Report Details Security Force Abuses

UN Human Rights Council Should Adopt Resolution that Promotes Accountability by Human Rights Watch, New York, August 15, 2025 (Geneva) – The United Nations Human Rights office’s report on Sri Lanka details entrenched and systemic rights violations—including arbitrary detention, torture, and deaths in custody—under President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, Human Rights Watch said today. The new report by the UN High Commissioner… Read more »

Notes on Reaching 70 Not Out – Part 9

Thanking Two Teachers for My Scientific Writing by Sachi Sri Kantha, August 3, 2025 When we complete our ‘formal studies’ at one or more tertiary institutions of learning with an undergraduate degree or a postgraduate degree, nominally we would have listened to lectures, trained in practicals and demonstrations, received guidance/ mentoring and other modes of… Read more »