by Tamil Guardian, London, March 11, 2025 Following a disastrous interview with Al Jazeera’s Mehdi Hasan by former Sri Lankan president Ranil Wickremesinghe, the Batalanda report and his role in facilitating torture has come into the spotlight. We take a look at the report and at Wickremesinghe’s alleged role. What is the Batalanda Report? Established… Read more »
Posts Categorized: History
Al Jazeera: Who is to Blame for Sri Lanka’s Crises?
by Head to Head, Al Jazeera, London, March 6, 2025 When Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country in 2022 – amidst mass protests and an economic crisis– parliament elected veteran politician and six-time Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. As President, Wickremesinghe negotiated the country’s biggest bail-out, but his critics say he is part of… Read more »
ITJP: Valvettithurai – Testimonies of a Massacre
by International Truth & Justice Project, South Africa, March 2025 ITJP_VVT-report_Digital_Final-March-2025 [Tamil & Sinhalese versions available] This report uses the voices of those who were there to tell the story of the Valvettithurai massacre in 1989, one of the worst atrocities committed by the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) in Sri Lanka. From 1987-1990, India… Read more »
NESoHR: Massacres of Tamils 1956 – 2008
by North East Secretariat for Human Rights, Vanni, 2010 This Book is dedicated to the thousands of Eelam Tamils who lost their life at the hands of the Sri Lankan and Indian State Armed Forces. NESoHR Massacres-of-Tamils-1956-2008 Originally posted on Sangam at Massacres of Tamil 1956 – 2008 Documented by North East Secretariat for Human… Read more »
NESoHR Archives
by NorthEast Secretariat for Human Rights, Kilinochchi, Vanni 2004-2017 NESoHR-Compilation-of Human Rights Reports With-Page-Numbers 2005 to 2009 NESoHR Massacres-of-Tamils-1956-2008 English Originally posted: Massacres of Tamil 1956 – 2008 Documented by North East Secretariat for Human Rights Manitham January 2010 NESoHR’s Publication about Massacres on Tamils in German 2004 Opening of NESoHR July 9 2004 TamilNet… Read more »
The Genesis of the Sri Lankan Unitary State
and the Call for Eelam Tamil Self-Determination by Sahithyan Thilipkumar, December 2023 Master Thesis at University of Zurich’s Faculty of Law Master_Thesis_Sahithyan_Thilipkumar_ZORA 6. Conclusion Contemporary discussions on the conflict in Sri Lanka often start with the country’s independence or the beginning of the war. My thesis examined how the basis of the conflict was laid… Read more »
Who Ruined Sri Lanka?
When some pattern of behaviour seems inexplicable, the real reason is often history. by Gynne Dyer, The Hamilton Spectator, Canada, September 28, 2024 Gwynne Dyer’s new book is “Intervention Earth: Life-Saving Ideas from the World’s Climate Engineers.” Last year’s book, “The Shortest History of War,” is also still available. It’s hard to know who ruined… Read more »
External Actors Disrupted the Power Symmetry Between the Sri Lankan State and LTTE
TGTE Prime Minister Rudrakumaran Speaks on Norwegian Peace Talks on Peace Lawyering Podcast “External Actors Disrupted the Power Symmetry Between the Sri Lankan State and LTTE” – Rudrakumaran WASHINGTON, DC, UNITED STATES, August 26, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ — On August 8, 2024, Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) Prime Minster Visuvanathan Rudrakumaran was interviewed on the… Read more »
From Jaffna to Malaya: The Unseen Architects of Modern Malaysia
by Sivananthiram Alagandram, Geneva, May 16, 2024 . Introduction The Jaffna Tamil community offers a compelling narrative of migration, showcasing a remarkable trajectory from agricultural origins in Jaffna to attaining middle-class status within just half a century in Malaysia. Yet, equally intriguing is their rapid ascent from clerical and junior civil service positions to prominent… Read more »
Presidential Truth Commission on Ethnic Violence 1983
by Presidential Truth Commission on Ethnic Violence (1981-1984), Vol.I (Report), Colombo, dated September 2002, published April 24, 2003 Commission appointed July 23, 2001 by President Chandrika Kumaratunge Commissioners: Suppiah Sharvananda, Esq. (retired Chief Justice) Sathyaloka Sasita Sahabandu Esq., President’s Counsel Mohammed Mohammed Zuhair Esq., President’s Counsel Part 1 For… Read more »
200 Years of Malaiyaha Tamil Labour in Sri Lanka
A brief history of 200 years of involuntary migration, imposed statelessness, exploitation and marginalization of Upcountry or Malaiyaha Tamil tea plantation workers. by SALAM & Maynmai, Jamhoor, India, June 6, 2024 View fullsize Tea Estate, Ceylon. Image: 1891 collection, V&A 200 years ago, the British empire brought Tamil plantation workers against their will from southern… Read more »
UK PM to PM Jayawardene re Black July 1983
by British Prime Minister, London, November 28, 1983, thanks to Mario Arulthas, July 26, 2024 https://x.com/MarioArul/status/1816552074169008428
Black July 1983: 40 Years On
by Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and Justice, London, July 2023 An overview of the events of the Black July Pogrom of 1983, and its relationship to Sri Lanka’s continued cycles of violence and impunity. SLCPJ 2023-July-Black-July-40-Years-On Introduction Forty years ago today, on 23rd July 1983, a mass anti-Tamil pogrom broke out in Sri Lanka,… Read more »
Population of Sri Lanka by Ethnic Group 1880 to 2020
by Subasium, Colombo, Dec 15, 2019 Source of data: http://www.statistics.gov.lk (Census of Population and Housing of Sri Lanka, 2012) http://www.statistics.gov.lk ( Population by ethnic group and census years) http://sis.statistics.gov.lk (Population by ethnic group)
Like Sri Lanka Once Did, Israel has Turned ‘Safe Zones’ into Killing Fields
But there is one important difference between the two cases: The genocide in Gaza is not taking place in the dark. by Neve Gordon and Nicola Perugini, Al-Jazeera, Qatar, June 11, 2024 While our eyes were on Rafah’s “Block 2371” – the small area in south Gaza which the Israeli military designated as a “safe… Read more »
On the Tamil National Army (TNA)
RAW’s malformed Baby that lived for 9 months by Sachi Sri Kantha, June 10, 2024 As a chronicler of Eelam history of the 20th century, I had been highlighting issues and items that demands a record and focus. One such item was the brief existence of Tamil National Army (TNA), a malformed baby of India’s… Read more »
Tarzie Vittachi on Abrogation of B-C Pact
Excerpts from Emergency’58, The Story of the Ceylon Race Riots by Tarzie Vittachi, Andre Deutsch, 1958, courtesy TamilNation.org “The Prime Minister, Mr S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike, continued with his year-long efforts to convince the people that the Bandaranaike-Chelvanayakam Pact which he had made with the Federal Party a year ago, was a fool-proof solution of the… Read more »
Burning of the Jaffna Public Library
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 »
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 »
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 »