December 14, 2017 1. This website, TamilTigerwomen.com is the byproduct of the project to record women’s history in the LTTE. A translation of some of their writing. The project itself is not complete yet. 2. Peopling an Island – the case of Sri Lanka (appeared in the telesur site, April 2017) 3. Rape: Sri Lanka’s Weapon of Genocide (appeared in… Read more »
Posts Categorized: History
Burying History
by Sanjana Hattotuwa,’ ‘The Island, Colombo, November 18, 2017 Over four years ago, I wrote an article on mass graves in Sri Lanka that could be seen using Google Earth imagery, serving as a solitary, virtual witness to what happened on the ground. The article focused in and around Nandikadal – the sliver of land… Read more »
JR: I was Forced into a Deal with India
Jayewardene told U.S. envoy by Amit Baruah, ‘The Hindu,’ Chennai, February 5, 2017 Former Sri Lanka President claimed his troops refused to take Jaffna, reveal declassified papers Sri Lanka was forced into making a deal with India as its own armed forces had twice refused to “take Jaffna”, then President J.R. Jayewardene has been quoted… Read more »
A Hollow Attempt to Re-write History and Deny Justice
Lord Naseby’s ‘revelations’ by Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace & Justice, London, December 5, 2017 In October, a member of the House of Lords took to their feet in Parliament to argue that the UK Government, and other members of the international community, should abandon their long-standing and hard-fought push for accountability in Sri Lanka. Over half… Read more »
Early Inhabitants and the Rulers of the Island
By P. Sivakumar, November 8, 2017 During the early historic period (6th century BC to 3rd century AD), Lanka/ilankai (as first mentioned in the Ramayana) was a part of South India separated by a shallow sea and was only a walking distance before the sea levels rose. Even today, one of the ancient bridges that… Read more »
Origins of English Education in Sri Lanka
by Mandalam’s Note, source & date unknown It should be recalled that amongst the many Colebrooke Commission changes, English was made the Official Language of the country in 1833. For reasons that have not been researched, large sections of the Tamils ended up in the barren North with poor rainfall once a year during the… Read more »
From New Jersey to Pandatherippu
Dr. John Scudder and the First Western Medical Centre in South Asia By Dr. D.C. Ambalavanar, Visiting Lecturer in Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Jaffna, October 29, 2017 On October 18th a public function was held by the Church of the American Ceylon Mission in the village of Pandatherippu in Northern Sri Lanka. This was the… Read more »
The Legacy of Indian Migration to European Colonies
[Note that Indian Tamils brought by the British to work in the coffee, rubber & tea estates of Sri Lanka are not included in the discussion below. This community joined the indigenous Tamils already on the island for milennia. /Ed.] http://indianexpress.com/article/research/indian-tamils-and-sri-lankan-tamils-here-is-the-difference-4654435/ One hundred years since servitude by ‘The Economist,’ London, September 2, 2017 A century after India… Read more »
Mahaweli & Demographic Change
1. Sri Lankan president to issue 10,000 deeds to Mahaweli settlers by ‘TamilGuardian,’ London, August 10, 2017 Sri Lanka’s President Maithripala Sirisena is to issue 10,000 deeds to settlers this week under the Mahaweli development project, a controversial scheme that Tamils have criticised as Sinhala colonisation. According to the official President’s Media Division, deeds are to… Read more »
TGTE: Remedial Justice for 1983 Massacre of Tamils
Would have averted 2009 Mullivaaikaal Genocide by Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam, July 23, 2017 Today Tamils across the globe are remembering 34th anniversary of massacre of Tamils – Black July 83. COLOMBO, SRI LANKA, July 24, 2017 /EINPresswire.com/ — During the final days of July 1983, Sinhala racism unleashed a pogrom towards the Tamils… Read more »
Sri Lanka’s Genocidal War as Seen by the World
By: Thambu Kanagasabai LLM [London], Former Lecturer in Law – University of Colombo, May 30, 2017 Though Sri Lanka unleashed its agenda of marginalization of Tamils starting in 1956 through a program of Budddhisisation and Sinhalisation and a hidden genocidal process, the climax was reached during the war against Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam from 2006… Read more »
‘Demons in Paradise’
SYNOPSIS Sri Lanka 1983, Jude Ratman is five years old. On a red train, he flees the massacre of the Tamils instigated by the Pro-Sinhalese majoritarian government. Now a filmmaker, he takes the same train from South to North. As he advances, the traces of the violence of the 26-year-old war and the one which… Read more »
A Look Through CIA Reports
‘Burn Jaffna to the ground’ by ‘Tamil Guardian,’ London, February 20, 2017 Declassified documents from the CIA show how despite regarding himself as “South Asia’s elder statesman and a political moderate” the Sri Lankan president “had twice ordered his forces to take Jaffna” as part of a massive military assault on the peninsula. A set… Read more »
Justice Denied to Survivors of the Kumarapuram Massacre
“His name is Kamaleswaran” by Marisa de Silva, ‘Groundviews,’ Colombo, February 11, 2017 [more information at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumarapuram_massacre] “Shoot me but, please don’t kill my children,” pleaded Kanthappoody Kamaladevi with her arms outstretched over her head, just before she was shot dead outside her home in Kumarapuram, Killiveddy, by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA). L-R (first row):… Read more »
What Nutmeg Can Tell Us About Nafta
by Amitav Ghosh, ‘The New York Times,’ December 30, 2016 GOA, India — For many years the word “globalization” was used as shorthand for a promised utopia of free trade powered by the world’s great centers of technological and financial innovation. But the celebratory note has worn thin. The word is now increasingly invoked to… Read more »
12th Anniversary of Tsunami
Photo: TamilNet, 26 December 2004 Photo: TamilNet, 26 December 2004 Photo: TamilNet, 26 December 2004 On this day, ten years ago, a magnitude 9.1 earthquake struck beneath the Indian Ocean near Indonesia, generating a massive tsunami that claimed more than 230,000 lives in fourteen different countries, one of the deadliest natural disasters ever… Read more »
The History of the Kingdom of Jaffna
Jaffna – Yalpanavaiyaka Maalai Translated from the Tamil by C. Brito, 1879 Also available at Noolaham
Remembering Bala Anna 10 years On
by Tamil Guardian, London, December 14, 2016 Today marks 10 years since the passing of Anton Balasingham, the chief negotiator and political strategist of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Mr Balasingham – or Bala Anna as he was fondly known – was deeply adored by the Tamil people. His charismatic addresses drew tens… Read more »
Clinton & the IMF
Clinton pressured IMF to not give loans to Sri Lanka: Min. Amunugama by LankaBusinessOnline, Colombo, December 7, 2016 Dec 07, 2016 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Special Assignments Minister Sarath Amunugama today revealed that Hillary Clinton forced IMF not to approve a loan facility to Sri Lanka when she was working as the US secretary of… Read more »
How to Achieve a Ceasefire
by Daniel Spector, ‘Simon-Evertt.com,’ July 22, 2016 For nearly two years, Simon Everett has been designing and coordinating area studies courses at the Department of State for diplomats who are heading to their next assignments overseas. We’re fortunate to have an exceptional cadre of regional experts leading those courses. They have lived and traveled all… Read more »