by Presidential Truth Commission on Ethnic Violence 1981-1984, September 2002 Report of the Presidential Truth Commission on Ethnic Violence 1981-1984 – Report Report of the Presidential Truth Commission on Ethnic Violence 1981-1984 – Documents – A summary of the Nature and Extent of Damage suffered by Victims of Violence, PART 1 Report of the Presidential… Read more »
Posts Categorized: History
Batalanda Commission Report
by Commission of Inquiry into the Establishment and Maintenance of Places of Unlawful Detention and Torture Chambers at the Batalanda Housing Scheme, Colombo, 2000 Batalanda Commission Report – Book English From an introduction written by Nandana Weerarathne in March 2023 During the 1988/89 era, government forces and police were running torture camps. Also, there were… Read more »
Pirapaharan’s First Interview
by Anita Pratap, Sunday, Calcutta, India, March 11-17, 1984 [archived at TamilNation, accessed 6/17/2023] Velupillai Pirabakaran, leader of the Liberation Tigers ofTamil Eelam, tells Anita Pratap. Q: What made you opt out of a conventional system and spearhead a liberation movement which you knew would be outlawed? A: The democratic parliamentary system, or what you refer… Read more »
UNP Leaders Who Set Jaffna on Fire in 1981
by Nandana Weerarathne, Facebook& Substack May 27, 2023 Why is it important for the present and future generations to know what happened in Jaffna from the end of May to June 8th, 1981? That is the question we asked ourselves prior to writing this book. The concealment of these atrocities from history is a significant… Read more »
Amirthalingam Speech in Parliament re 1981 Burning of Jaffna Library
by Sri Lanka Parliamentary Debates, June 9, 1981, vol.15, no.1, columns 67-92, posted on Facebook by Sivakumar Subramaniam, May 30, 2023 The speech made by then Leader of the opposition Mr A. Amirthalingam in Parliament. A verbatim transcript is provided below. Honorifics of participants have been omitted for convenience. A.Amirthalingam: Sir, I wish to place… Read more »
Rep. Nickel’s Statement for the Record May 18
by US Rep. Wiley Nickel, May 18, 2023 Video address on twitter
History of the Satyagraha of the Tamils in Sri Lanka
by K Sivapatham, Jaffna, 1962 [in Tamil] Satyagraha of Tamils by Sivapatham 1962 [reformatted slightly rom the original by TE Library]
Civilian Killings and Disappearances during Civil War in El Salvador
by Amelia Hoover Green and Patrick Ball, Demographic Research, Vol. 41, Article 27, pps. 781-814, October 1, 2019 DOI: 10.4054/DemRes.2019.41.27 ABSTRACT Background: Debate over the civilian toll of El Salvador’s civil war (1980–1992) raged throughout the conflict and its aftermath. Apologists for the Salvadoran regime claimed no more than 20,000 had died, while some activists… Read more »
‘Prisoner #1056’ by Roy Ratnavel
From the publisher, Penguin Random House, April 18, 2023 ABOUT PRISONER #1056 An incredible immigrant story from a prominent Canadian Tamil who fled torture and imprisonment, arrived in Canada with $50 in his pocket, then rose from the mailroom to the executive suite of the country’s largest independent asset management company. Roy Ratnavel’s astonishing journey began… Read more »
Idol Politics: Knowledge and Action
by A.Nillanthan, March 25, 2023 In the North, more than three statues have been opened in the last one week alone. Along with Nataraja statue, Valluvar statue, Sangliyan statue, there is a bell obelisk in Tirunelveli market. We looked at the politics behind these idols in last week’s article.The religious politics behind these idols should… Read more »
Defeat in Ananthapuram Battle Denoted the LTTE’s End
by DBS Jeyaraj, Daily Mirror, Colombo, March 11, 2023 Defeat in Ananthapuram Battle 2009 Many battles were fought during the long war between the Sri Lankan armed forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Among these was the five-day battle fought at Ananthapuram in the Mullaitheevu District from March 31 to April 4,… Read more »
Sinhala-Buddhism & The Nation State Of Sri Lanka
by Lucian Arulpragasam, Colombo Telegraph, March 15, 2023 Lucian Arulpragasam Our Genetic Commonalities It has been proved by DNA studies conducted by Professor Kamani Thennekoon and others (cited in her article dated Feb. 2019 in The Island) that: “Most DNA studies comparing both the Sinhalese and Sri Lankan Tamils show no large genetic difference, suggesting that both populations… Read more »
An Archive for the Dispossessed
Creating spaces for multiple truths by Shankari Chandran The Griffith Review, Australia, May 2022 Shankari Chandran is a Tamil-Australian lawyer and the author of three books: Song of the Sun God (Perera-Hussein Publishing, 2017), The Barrier (Pan Macmillan Australia, 2017) and Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens (Ultimo Press, 2022). She is the deputy chair of Writing NSW and a member of the Sweatshop Literacy Movement…. Read more »
Journey of a Civilization – Study Program
by Federation of Tamil Sangams of North America (FeTNA) We would like to welcome you all for the final week of our Journey of a civilization study program Concluding remarks: Mr. Balakrishnan R IAS (Retired) Time: 9:00 PM to 10:30 PM EST Zoom Link You are Invited to attend the Grand Finale of the 10… Read more »
India: The Last Battle of the American Revolutionary War
by John L. Smith, Jr. ‘Journal of the American Revolution,’ July 8, 2015 The next time you’re in a trivia contest and the question comes up, “What was the last battle of the American Revolutionary War?” the judges will probably be looking for the predictable answer of “Yorktown.”[1] That’s the neat and tidy answer, but… Read more »
Structures of Tamil Eelam
by Tamil Eelam Economic Development Organisation, 1997 தமிழீழ உட்கட்டுமானம் ‘Structures of Tamil Eelam’ in Tamil A plan for infrastructure development in the North East. Published by World Organization of the LTTE
The History of Jaffna Tamils in Port Swettenham (Port Klang) Malaysia
by Sivananthiram Alagandram, Geneva, January 6, 2023 This is the story of Jaffna Tamils who came to Port Swettenham at the turn of the 20th century and virtually ran the port and railways in the town. They arrived in Port Swettenham at the invitation of the British to develop the port and manage the Railways…. Read more »
The ‘Pirabhakaran Phenomenon’ Book
by Sachi Sri Kantha, November 25, 2022 Pirabhakaran Phenomenon, by Sachi Sri Kantha, 2005 Seventeen years had passed since my analytical biography ‘Pirabhakaran Phenomenon’ on Velupillai Prabhakaran (1954-2009) was published in a print version. This biography was first serialized in the Sangam site for two years from May 2, 2001 to Feb 19, 2003. Though… Read more »
Tamil Nationalist Parties and a Power Sharing Arrangement
Based on the Federal Idea by DBS Jeyaraj, Daily FT, Colombo, November 23, 2022 Sri Lankan Tamil nationalism has been primarily reactive in nature. The Tamils thought of themselves as being on par with the Sinhala people as co-founders of the modern nation of Ceylon. Universal franchise and territorial representation reduced them to a principal… Read more »
The Untold Story of Ancient Tamils in Sri Lanka
by by Prof. Bertram Bastiampillai, Sri Lanka Guardian, March 31, 2008 “And history may need to rewritten in the light of new evidence and argument. Much about Tamils needs to be unraveled and examined according to the author who is convinced and tries to convince that Tamils had been in the island from early years… Read more »