by Sunil C. Roy, VAP Enterprises, New Delhi, 1987 Comment by former Sangam Founder and Editor, Dr. Rajan Sriskandarajah: Just prior to the 1987 Indian military intervention in Sri Lanka’s national (ethnic) conflict, a booklet detailing the persecution of the Tamils, was widely distributed all over the world. Although it was printed & distributed privately,… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Military
“The Jaffna” and the Bird Aeroplanes
by Capt. Elmo Jayawardena, Sri Lanka Guardian, Colombo, October 6, 2021 I like to think more light would be shed by people who may know some almost forgotten facts connected to these aeroplanes. Some years ago, I was writing a book for the Civil Aviation Authority of Sri Lanka. They were commemorating 100 years of… Read more »
Argentina: Searching for the Children of the Disappeared
A new book examines the extraordinary decades-long campaign by Argentinean women to find their grandchildren. by Graciela Mochkofsky, The New Yorker, July 31, 2025 “Ispent five years researching and writing this story, and I still find it hard to believe,” Haley Cohen Gilliland told me during the launch of her book, “A Flower Traveled in… Read more »
Fonseka’s Statement Puts Foreign Minister in Difficulty
by LankaWeb, Colombo, July 18, 2009 Fonseka statement July 2009 Lanka News Web A senior Foreign Ministry official told Lanka News Web that irresponsible comments made by former Army Chief General Sarath Fonseka in the past few days put Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama in a difficult spot during his visit to the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM)… Read more »
Sarath Fonseka Post-War
TIME US Wants to Talk to Sri Lanka Tiger Tamer Nov 2 2009 http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1934060,00.html by Amantha Perera, TIME, November 2, 2009 To many Sri Lankans, Lieut. General Sarath Fonseka is a bit of a hero. Now the equivalent of the U.S. military’s Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Fonseka was the former army commander… Read more »
Sri Lanka’s Quiet Reckoning with Its Past
Sixteen Years On In a world currently embroiled in multiple conflicts from Gaza to Ukraine Sri Lanka’s experience stands as a stark reminder of the consequences when power eclipses principle…When military triumph is achieved through the disregard of civilian protection, and when the shield of sovereignty is used to justify systemic abuse, the credibility of… Read more »
Explainer: Another Mass Grave and the 1990 Sampur Massacres
by Tamil Guardian, London, July 25, 2025 Tamils pay tribute to victims of the massacres earlier this year. Following the discovery of another set of human remains in Sampur this week, just metres from where at least 57 Tamil civilians were murdered by Sri Lankan government forces in July 1990, we re-examine the massacres. ‘We… Read more »
From Chemmani to Geneva
Will Sri Lanka Face Its Truth? by Wimal Navaratnam, Canada, June 30, 2025 From Chemmani to Geneva Next Steps and Future Outlook With Volker Türk’s mission now completed, attention shifts to what comes next. All parties – the UN, the Sri Lankan government, Tamil representatives, and international actors – are looking ahead to ensure that… Read more »
Justice for Sri Lanka’s Genocide Against Tamils
by [unclear, although some analysis is provided by People for Equality and Relief in Lanka (PEARL) and the document is supported by the Ottawa Tamil Association. the Tamil Genocide Memorial, Tamil American United PAC, the Federation of Global Tamil Organizations, the Ilankai Tamil Sangam, and the Federation of Tamil Sangams of North America (FeTNA)], 2024 Justice… 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 »
New Sri Lanka Mass Grave Discovery Reopens Old Wounds for Tamils
by Jeevan Ravindran, AlJazeera, Doha June 16, 2025 So far, 19 bodies have been found. Thousands of Tamils were disappeared during the civil war that ended in 2009. A rusted gate behind which Sri Lankan excavators are digging the latest mass grave they have found from the country’s 26-year-long civil war, in Chemmani, Sri Lanka… 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 »
Why Citing Sri Lanka to Justify Gaza Is Strategically and Legally Dangerous
The problem is that Sri Lanka is not a model of anything durable. It is a case study in how military triumph achieved through mass atrocity leads to long-term state failure. Genocide may remove an armed group, but it also erodes legitimacy, triggers unintended consequences, and breaks the systems that sustain governance. by Maxwin Paul… 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 »
Operation Sindoor
And the Evolution of India’s Military Strategy Against Pakistan by Arzan Tarapore, War on the Rocks, Washington, DC, May 19, 2025 Once more unto the breach, India struck inside Pakistan in response to a terrorist attack. Once more, the two sides escalated — again to unprecedented levels — before agreeing to a ceasefire. It is… Read more »
SLC: Mullivaikkal Remembrance Day 2025
Memory, Mourning and the Long Struggle for Justice by Sri Lanka Campaign, London, May 16, 2025 Sixteen years after the end of Sri Lanka’s civil war, Tamil survivors and families of the disappeared are still fighting for one of the fundamental human rights: the right to mourn. Every May 18, Mullivaikkal Day serves as both… Read more »
What’s Legally Allowed in War
How U.S. military lawyers see Israel’s invasion of Gaza—and the public’s reaction to it—as a dress rehearsal for a potential conflict with a foreign power like China. by Colin Jones, The New Yorker, April 25, 2025 This past July, Geoffrey Corn, a law professor at Texas Tech and a former judge advocate general in the… Read more »
Richard Armitage Obituary
Richard Armitage has notoriety among Tamils for arming one side – the Sri Lankan government – which fatally destabilized the 2002 ceasefire between the LTTE & the government. – ED Richard L. Armitage, 79, Dies; State Department Official in a Turbulent Era While serving as Colin Powell’s deputy during the Iraq war, he found himself… Read more »
What is the Batalanda Report?
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 »