HRW: Sri Lanka Struggles in Aftermath of Devastating Cyclone

Longstanding Discrimination Against Marginalized Communities Worsens Catastrophe by Meenakshi Ganguly, Deputy Asia Director, Human Rights Watch, New York, December 11, 2025 Sri Lanka is suffering a series of floods and landslides brought upon by Cyclone Ditwah this past November. Climate experts believethe intensity of seasonal storms, which also recently devastated Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia, are likely… Read more »

Rivers of Sri Lanka

by Nuwan I. Senaratna, Dec, 6, 2025 From his X account: We cannot hope to understand floods without first understanding the #rivers that shape them. This repository offers GeoJSON maps of Sri Lanka’s rivers, extracted from from https://hydrosheds.org. (Each color in the map represent a river basin. The colors have been picked at random) @Github… Read more »

The Great Flood

by B. Skanthakumar, Polity, Colombo, December 5, 2025 Cyclone Ditwah ripped through Sri Lanka between 27 and 29 November. The toll is devastating. Seven days later, the official count is 486 deaths and 341 missing. To which should be added five navy and one air-force officer killed in rescue operations; and an electricity board technician… Read more »

Ten Jolting Takeaways from Trump’s New National Security Strategy

by Rick Landgraf, War on the Rocks, Washington, DC, December 5, 2025 The new National Security Strategy is out, and it’s a shock to the system. It is not just the latest public articulation of principles, ambitions, and priorities around which the United States organizes its foreign policy. Instead, it reads like a manifesto for a radically… Read more »

Sri Lanka’s Bloody Past is Re-emerging from the Soil

A blue schoolbag in a mass grave by Helen Regan, Kumanan Kanapathipillai, Kunal Sehga, Hanako Montgomery, CNN, Atlanta, GA, USA, November 29, 2025 https://www.cnn.com/2025/12/05/world/video/sri-lanka-mass-grave-hanako-montgomery-digvid . . EDITOR’S NOTE:  This article contains images and descriptions that some readers may find distsurbing. Two human skeletons lie entangled on the rough earth – the arms of one wrapped… Read more »

MGR Remembered – Part 84

Health status – A Decisive Factor by Sachi Sri Kantha, November 22, 2025 Comments from R. Kannan After nearly 12 years of email correspondence, Kannan and I met face to face on Oct 17, 2025 in Tokyo. It was a pleasurable meeting for us, and to our spouses. Kannan’s son, residing in Tokyo, was the… Read more »

Essential Jaffna Tamil

by N. Malathy, November 12, 2025 Sociological study of Jaffna Tamils is not extensive. We have not had a well-known academic among us in this area. Karthikesu Sivathamby’s books (“யாழ்ப்பாண சமூகத்தை விளங்கிக் கொள்ளல்,” கார்த்திகேசு சிவதம்பி, 1990; “Sri Lankan Tamil Society and Politics”, Karthikesu Sivathamby, 1995) about us are the best I have seen. All are… Read more »

Leonard Woolf– a British Jew in Colonial Jaffna

by Sachi Sri Kantha, November 17, 2025 Introduction Leonard Woolf (1880-1969) was the husband of influential British novelist Virginia Woolf nee Stepehen (1882-1941), who committed suicide. November 25th marks his 145th birth anniversary. He is one of the few writers of the 20th century, whose contributions were eclipsed by their wives. Still, five volumes of… Read more »

‘Uprooted — Voices of Tamil Dispossession and Resilience’

MEDIA RELEASE Uprooted — Voices of Tamil Dispossession and Resilience MP4 video of Mr. Ana Pararajasingham on his book — fa06ec34-bcfd-4e5c-8597-290df08410c0 Published in late September and now available on Amazon, Uprooted explores the displacement of Sri Lanka’s Tamil people through the voices of those who lived it — thirty-four individuals across the globe who, while… Read more »

War Crimes Indictment Reveals a Hard Road to Justice for Syria

Prosecutors say a Syrian security official accused of torture hid in plain sight in Europe for years, protected by Israeli and Austrian intelligence agents. By Carlotta Gall and Saad Alnassife, The New York Times, Nov.12, 2025, updated Nov. 14, 2025 Our reporters traveled all over Europe, including to Vienna, to interview survivors of torture who will… Read more »

LTTE and Women Warriors

by Sachi Sri Kantha, October 12, 2025 Front Note by Sachi In 2010, I wrote a humorous verse ‘Six Blind Women of Gringo Land who went to see the Tiger’ [https://sangam.org/2010/03/Blind_Women.php?uid=3867], about the six American journalist who covered the Eelam war. It was inspired by John Godfrey Saxe’s poem. Subsequently, I also wrote an appreciation… Read more »

UNHRC 2025 Resolution on Sri Lanka

UK Core Group Statement to introduce Item 2 Resolution on Sri Lanka. Delivered by the UK’s Permanent Representative to the WTO and UN, Kumar Iyer. From: Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office and Kumar Iyer CMG Delivered on: 6 October 2025 (Transcript of the speech, exactly as it was delivered) Thank you, Mr. President. I have the honour to… Read more »

ABC: More than 200 Skeletons Uncovered in Mass Grave

In Sri Lanka, exposing its haunting history by Nicholene Canisius, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, October 4, 2025 Saaratha Iruthayanathar was six years old when she last saw her father leaving to get groceries, during the Sri Lankan civil war. To this day, she still does not know whether he is dead or alive. While travelling by… Read more »

From Sachi’s Files – Chapter 27

Captain Pandithar and a Collection of 1985 Editorials in International Newspapers by Sachi Sri Kantha, September 29, 2025 Prelude Proper chronological dating of events is important to history. When did the so-called Sri Lankan civil war start? Majority of journalists (indigenous and international varieties) historians, politicians as well as those dimwit Wikipedia entry twisters opt… Read more »

Sri Lanka’s President Surprises with Pro-Market Pivot

by Uditha Jayasinghe and Krishna N. Das, Reuters, London, September 23, 2025 Summary President Dissanayake’s government plans fresh steps to boost investment after 2022 economic collapse Power tariffs raised, state-run electricity board being broken up despite union protests $100 mln in cannabis-based medical oil projects expected for export to US and Europe Analysts say strong… Read more »

US State Dept.: 2024 Sri Lanka Human Rights Report

by US Department of State, Washington, DC, August 12, 2025 Sri Lanka Human Rights Report US State Dept 2024 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY After the widely contested September 21 presidential elections and November 14 snap parliamentary elections, civil society groups called on the first voter-elected presidential administration since 2022 to build on the demands for good governance… Read more »

From Thileepan to Today

Tamil Guardian editorial, London, September 29, 2025 Remembering Thileepan’s sacrifice 38 years on | Tamil Guardian An unprecedented number of events took place across the North-East last week. Hunger strikes were staged. Flames were lit and garlands laid. The elderly and children gathered together. A kavadi even procession took place, with hooks piercing the flesh… Read more »

Two Steps Backwards

Tamil Guardian editorial, , London, September 15, 2025 To call the latest draft resolution from the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva disappointing would be far too kind. It is not simply a missed opportunity, but a disastrous step backwards in the long and painful struggle for justice for the Tamil people. Sixteen years… Read more »

‘The Anarchy’ by William Dalrymple

by Anwar Halari, The Conversation, Boston, USA, July 29, 2024 We live in a world dominated by colossal corporations. The likes of Microsoft and Apple are bigger than most economies. Not long ago, however, a British company dwarfed these giants, yet few people know its history or the valuable lessons it can teach us today…. Read more »