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 »
Posts Categorized: Politics
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 »
TG Explainer – What are the Chemmani Mass Graves?
by Tamil Guardian, London, June 25, 2025 Chemmani, a village on the outskirts of Jaffna, is a serene and beautiful town that has come to take on a notorious reputation. It is the site of mass graves, where potentially, hundreds of Tamils who were murdered by the Sri Lankan military lie buried. These graves date… 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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
The Story of Eelam Tamils in South Indian Cinema
by I.V. Mahasenan in his blog, May 12, 2025 [translated into English from the original Tamil by Google Translate with corrections by the Editor.] The Tamilaham (Tamil Nadu) and Eelam-Tamil relationship is essential to the existence of Tamil national politics. Since the Sri Lankan and Indian governments have interpreted the rise of Tamil nationalism… 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
Bose: How Tamil Nadu Keeps the Fire for Tamil Eelam Burning
Sixteen years after Mullivaikkal by Subash Chandra Bose, South First, Hyderabad, India, May 16, 2025 While the international community has not formally recognised the May 2009 events in Sri Lanka as genocide, Tamil diaspora groups and Eelam supporters firmly assert that it was a planned extermination of Tamils. Synopsis: Tens of thousands of Sri Lankan Tamils… 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 »
TG: Tamil Resistance at the Polls
Tamil Guardian editorial, May 9, 2025 Sri Lanka’s recent local government elections illustrated a sharp decline in support for the National People’s Power (NPP), a fall most pronounced in the Tamil North-East. Less than a year since it swept into both presidential and parliamentary power on a platform of anti-corruption and political reform, the coalition… Read more »
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 »
Letter to Pres. Dissanayake re Land Settlement Ordinance Notice of March 28, 2025
by MP M.A. Sumanthiran, May 3, 2025 See page 6 for the Notice: 2025-03-28(III-0)E.pdf