Posts Categorized: Human Rights

Facing the Truth of July 1983

by Kumar Rupesinghe, Sunday Observer, Colombo, July 17, 2003 See: Report of the Presidential Truth Commission on Ethnic Violence 1981-1984 – Ilankai Tamil Sangam Before I begin an assessment of the final report of the Presidential Truth Commission on Ethnic Violence from 1981-1984, I would like to recollect some encounters I had with former President… Read more »

How New DNA Science Could Help More Families of the Missing

Emerging methods are improving the ability to identify even highly degraded human remains by Damien Cave, The New York Times, July 4, 2025 The world is facing an abundance of tragic events that produce large numbers of the dead and missing people, including wars in Ukraine, Myanmar, Sudan and the Middle East, as well as… Read more »

The Story of Chemmani and the Graves That Refuse to Stay Buried

by Roy Fernando (SJ), Groundviews, Colombo, June 30, 2025 Some truths are not uncovered by force. They rise slowly, persistently, from the ground because the dead cannot remain forgotten forever. In the quiet village of Chemmani, nestled within the war scarred terrain of the Jaffna peninsula, a patch of soil became the unlikely custodian of… Read more »

TG Explainer – Krishanthi Kumaraswamy and the Chemmani Mass Graves

by Tamil Guardian, London, July 2, 2025 Krishanthi Kumaraswamy was an 18-year-old Tamil schoolgirl from Jaffna whose brutal rape and murder in 1996, along with the killing of her mother, younger brother, and a neighbour, became one of the most notorious atrocities of Sri Lanka’s genocide of Tamils. Her case exposed a grisly network of… Read more »

Türk: ‘The Haunting Past Becomes Visible’

UN human rights chief reflects on Chemmani visit by Tamil Guardian, London, June 25, 2025 United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk reflected on his visit to the Chemmani mass grave site near Jaffna on Wednesday, reiterating the importance of ensuring “independent experts with forensic expertise” are allowed to be used to excavate… Read more »

Adayaalam: A Phantom that is Real

Persisting culture of surveillance and intimidation in the North-East by Adayaalam Centre for Policy Research, Jaffna, February 2025 Adayaalam A-Phantom-that-is-Real_-Persisting-Culture-or-Surveilance-and-Intimidation-in-the-NorthEast This report sheds light on the prevailing patterns of surveillance, intimidation, and arrests that activists, civil society members, and journalists face in the North-East of Sri Lanka, and is one of the recent studies exploring… Read more »

Adaptation of Archaeological Techniques in Forensic Mass Grave Exhumation: Chemmani

The experience of ‘Chemmani’ excavation in northern Sri Lanka by PR Ruwanpura, UCP Perera, HTK Wijeyaweera and N Chandrasiri, Ceylon Medical Journal, 2006 Sep;51(3):98-102 1251-1-4695-1-10-20091023 Abstract There have been several mass grave excavations in Sri Lanka during the period of 1995 to 1998. Excavation of mass graves in the Chemmani area of northern peninsula of… Read more »

Letter re Repeal of PTA from Civil Society

Letter re PTA May 2025 English Letter re PTA May 2025 Tamil Letter re PTA May 2025 Sinhalese 29th May, 2025 Secretary, Ministry of Justice and National Integration, Colombo 10 Re: The Repeal of the PTA – Do not replace with a new terror law We, as concerned peoples of Sri Lanka, respond to the… Read more »

TG: Sri Lanka’s Genocide Blueprint

Tamil Guardian editorial, June 2, 2025 There was a marked shift in global politics last week as states around the world, including staunch allies of Israel, began to criticise its ongoing military offensive in Gaza. It comes as a senior United Nations humanitarian official repeatedly issued a stark reminder of the international community’s failure to… Read more »

TG: A Global Reckoning

Tamil Guardian editorial, May 27, 2025 Last week, thousands of Tamils gathered at Mullivaikkal, on the very beaches where tens of thousands were massacred by the Sri Lankan state in 2009, to mark the 16th anniversary of the genocide. The turnout was remarkable, the largest since the end of the armed conflict, and a powerful testament… Read more »

TG: There Can Be No More Denial

Tamil Guardian editorial, May 19, 2025 Today, Tamils around the world are commemorating 16 years since the massacres at Mullivaikkal. Though more than a decade-and-half has passed, the situation on the island for Eelam Tamils seems as precarious as ever. There has been no accountability for the atrocities that took place. The seizure of historic… Read more »

Mullivaikkal Declaration 2025

by Tamil Guardian, London, May 21, 2025 See in original Tamil at TamilWin தமிழீழ வரலாற்றின் சாட்சியாக முள்ளிவாய்க்கால் பிரகடனம் 2025 – தமிழ்வின் Marking sixteen years since the Mullivaikkal genocide, the Mullivaikkal Remembrance Public Forum released a statement on 18 May 2025, reaffirming the Tamil nation’s unwavering commitment to justice, self-determination, and resistance against continued structural oppression… Read more »

BBC: After Decades of Bloodshed, is India Winning its War against Maoists?

by Suvojit Bagchi, BBC, London, May 28, 2025 Could India’s decades-long jungle insurgency finally be approaching its end? Last week, the country’s most-wanted Maoist, Nambala Keshava Rao – popularly known as Basavaraju – was killed along with 26 others in a major security operation in the central state of Chhattisgarh. Home Minister Amit Shah called… Read more »

FT: India Corners Maoist Rebels after Decades-long Struggle

Death of Naxalite insurgency’s leader a moment of triumph for Narendra Modi’s government by John Reed and Jyotsna Singh in New Delhi, Financial Times, London, May 23, 2025 Indian communist rebel Nambala Keshava Rao was one of the country’s most wanted men, but few images of him are publicly available. A photograph from his college days,… Read more »

UN Committee on the Rights of the Child 2002

by Sri Lankan government, November 2002 and the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, July 2003, Geneva Report by the Sri Lankan government (CRC/C/70/Add.17) covers the period 1994-1999. CRC_C_70_Add-17-EN.pdf Committee on the Rights of the Child in its final report (CRC/C/15/Add.207) responds to contemporary events also. g0342764.pdf

The Hindu: A Sri Lankan Anti-Terror Law That Needs Repeal

The Sri Lankan government must translate its pre-election rhetoric into reality, and end the Prevention of Terrorism Act by The Hindu, Chennai, April 30, 2025 In the many cycles of violence in Sri Lanka’s troubled history, “terror” has been a running theme. While the state — that has repeatedly demonstrated a majoritarian tendency — has… Read more »