43rd anniversary remembrance by British Tamils Forum, London, June 1, 2024 June 1st evokes the scar of the Burning of Jaffna Public Library in 1981, the irreplaceable asset of Tamil people. This calculated arsenic destruction was one of the major cultural genocides against Tamil people masterminded by Sri Lankan state to destroy historic evidence of Tamil… Read more »
Middle-aged Politics?
by Nillanthan Maha, Jaffna, June 1, 2024 [translated from the original Tamil by Google Translate, with improvements by the Editor.] A friend who is a medical professional recently asked, “If my child asks why he should not go abroad, is there any valid reason for me to tell him why you should stay in the… Read more »
Am I A Settler Too?
Reflections of a Sinhalese from Sri Lanka after Gaza by Nalin Jayathunga, Polity.lk, Colombo, April 29, 2024 Mapping temporal and spatial lines between the past and the present, this reflection draws parallels between the Palestinian genocide and the Tamil genocide. It is premised on my moral conundrum of protesting the genocide currently unfolding in Gaza,… Read more »
Second Arrest inn UK’s Sri Lanka War Crimes Investigation
Police appeal for information by uknip427 (UK News in Pictures, June 5, 2024 Counter Terrorism detectives investigating allegations of war crimes linked to the Sri Lankan civil war in the early 2000s are appealing for anyone who might have information that could assist their investigation to contact police. The appeal comes after a second UK-based… Read more »
Two Poems by V.I.S. Jayapalan
translated from the Tamil by Shash Trevett, Harvard Review Online, Boston, MA, USA, December 5, 2023 One Night in Frankfurt Packed like litter in the belly of a pregnant sow, a group of men from Jaffna lie seemingly lifeless in a room in the heart of Frankfurt— their bodies curled in blankets wrapped tight like… Read more »
Out of Sri Lanka: Tamil, Sinhala, & English Poetry from Sri Lanka & Its Diasporas
Edited by Vidyan Ravinthiran, Seni Seneviratne, and Shash Trevett, Bloodaxe Books, UK, June 22, 2023 Paperback £14.99 ISBN: 9781780376738 E-book £12.99 ISBN: 9781780376745 Poetry Book Society Special Commendation Sri Lanka has thrilled the foreign imagination as a land of infinite possibility. Portuguese, Dutch and British colonisers envisioned an island of gems and pearls, a stopping-point… Read more »
Gnanam: Life Lessons from Her Mother
‘Gnanam” by Selvi Sachithanandam, shortlisted for 2023 Gratiaen Prize Gnanam is a biography cum memoir and charts the stories of 5 generations of women belonging to one family in Jaffna and it was inspired by the love, empathy, and trust that they handed down. The spiritual thread that runs through the book is innocuous, but… Read more »
Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields Cast a Long Shadow
Impunity for crimes committed during the civil war has fuelled post-war repression in Sri Lanka. by Al Jazeera, May 18, 2024 By Madura Rasaratnam and Ambihai Akilan Published On 18 May 202418 May 2024 Today we mark the 15th anniversary of the bloody end of Sri Lanka’s three-decades-long civil war. This anniversary comes around at a critical historical… Read more »
Recognising Genocide
by Tamil Guardian, London, May 25, 2024 Tamils across the world marked the 15th anniversary of the massacres at Mullivaikkal last week. Thousands gathered, en masse in public commemorations and in private ceremonies at homes, to pay tribute to those who were killed by the Sri Lankan state. As they did so, they were clear… Read more »
Amnesty: Fifteen Years After the End of War, Victims Still Await Justice at Mullivaikkal
by Amnesty International, London, May 18, 2024 Victims still await justice at Mullivaikkal, Sri Lanka (amnesty.org) Speaking at a commemoration marking the 15th anniversary of the end of Sri Lanka’s internal armed conflict on 18 May 2009, which culminated in the brutal Mullivaikkal offensive where countless civilian lives were lost, Agnès Callamard, Secretary General at Amnesty… Read more »
MGR Remembered – Part 76
On M.K. Muthu; from a Fan to promoted Cinema Rival and Fall by Sachi Sri Kantha, May 14, 2024 Comments received from fellow MGR biographer R. Kannan on Mar 26th about the contents in Part 75 of this series, were as follows: “The Economic and Political Weekly articles [cited] appropriately show the pressures on MGR… Read more »
The Burden of War Widows
Gendered consequences of war and peace-building in Sri Lanka by Karen Brounéus, Erika Forsberg, Kristine Höglund, Kate Lonergan, Third World Quarterly, Pages 458-474, Received 26 Aug 2022, Accepted 16 Aug 2023, Published online: 09 Sep 2023 Burden of War Widows Third World Quarterly Sept 2023 Abstract Research shows that war affects various groups of survivors… Read more »
HRW: Crackdown Over Civil War Anniversary
UN Report Calls for International Prosecutions for Enforced Disappearances by Human Rights Watch, New York, May 23, 2024 (Geneva) – Sri Lankan authorities have threatened and detained Tamils commemorating those who died or went missing in the country’s civil war, Human Rights Watch said today. On May 17, 2024, the United Nations human rights office issued a report calling… Read more »
Dead or Alive?
Parents of children gone in Sri Lanka’s civil war have spent 15 years seeking answers by Krishnan Francis, Associated Press, New York, May 18, 2024 MULLAITIVU, Sri Lanka (AP) — For 15 years, Rasalingam Thilakawathi has been trying to find out what happened to her daughter at the end of Sri Lanka’s bloody civil war…. Read more »
Prabhakaran and LTTE: A Chronological Bibliography
Compiled by Sachi Sri Kantha, May 23, 2024 Front Note This is a revised version of my previous compilation, in three parts. Part I appeared on Nov 16, 2009. Part 2 was posted on Nov 24, 2010, and Part 3 appeared on Nov 27, 2011. Cumulatively, there were 189 items in the three parts. After… Read more »
Legacy of Enforced Disappearances Haunts Sri Lanka
by Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Geneva, May 21, 2024 “I have been looking for my son since 2009. I am now 72 years old and I will leave this world soon. Maybe I will get to see my son again or at least find out where he is buried,” said Kamala*…. Read more »
Axiom Business Book Award for ‘Prisoner 1056’
by Axiom Awards, Michigan, USA, May 2024 Other winners in ‘Memoir / Biography’: GOLD Happy At Any Cost: The Revolutionary Vision and Fatal Quest of Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh by Kristen Grind and Katherine Sayre (Simon & Schuster) SILVER (tie) Bully Market: My Story of Money and Misogyny at Goldman Sachs by Jamie Fiore Higgins… Read more »
Rep. Krishnamoorthi Speech re 15th Anniversary
by Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL), May 23, 2024 https://x.com/i/status/1793652891875426437
US Congress House Resolution 1230
by US House of Representatives, Washington, DC, May 15, 2024 Mr. NICKEL (for himself, Ms. Susan WILD, Mr. Danny DAVIS of Illinois, Ms. Nicole MALLIOTAKIS, Mr. Mike CAREY, Mr. Dan DAVIS of North Carolina, Ms. Summer LEE of Pennsylvania, and Mr. Jeff JACKSON of North Carolina) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the… Read more »
15 Years Today – A Massacre in Mullivaikkal
by Tamil Guardian, London, May 18, 2024 To mark 15 years since the Sri Lankan military onslaught that massacred tens of thousands of Tamils, we revisit the final days leading up to the 18th of May 2009 – a date remembered around the world as ‘Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day’. After providing an initial death toll of 40,000, the UN… Read more »