Jaffna Monitor - Unafraid and Unbowed

Jaffna Judge Who Took On Drug Networks and Political Power Is Transferred

By Aruliniyan Mahalingam For six years, a woman from the Pommaveli area of Jaffna — known to police and lawyers alike as one of the district’s most persistent narcotics dealers — had walked in and out of courtrooms, exploiting successive bail hearings to remain free and, according to legal sources, continue trafficking. She had been arrested in June 2020 for possession of 1.475 grams of heroin. Six years of adjournments, applications, and legal manoeuvring produced no conviction. On May 21, 20

Aruliniyan Mahalingam

May 29, 2026 — 9 min read

DBS Jeyaraj: The Man Who Lifted the Cadjan Curtain

Guest Column May 2026

Vijitha Yapa

May 28, 2026 — 6 min read

Police Question Sons of Late LTTE Singer S.G. Santhan Over Song at Temple Festival in Jaffna

May 2026 Monitor Memo

Our Reporter

May 28, 2026 — 1 min read

Gajendrakumar Accuses Government of Misleading Tamils on Military-Held Lands

May 2026 Monitor Memo

Our Reporter

May 28, 2026 — 2 min read

China Calls for Stronger U.N. Authority, Criticises Unilateral Actions at Security Council Session

UNITED NATIONS — China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi called on the United Nations Security Council to reassert its authority over international security matters and urged member states to stop bypassing the body through unilateral military action and sanctions — remarks widely read as a pointed critique of the United States conduct in global affairs. Speaking at a high-level Security Council meeting on the theme "Upholding the Purposes and Principles of the U.N. Charter and Strengthening the U.N.-

May 2026

Our Reporter

May 28, 2026 — 4 min read

Thinakaran Controversy Deepens as Minister Promises Future Merit-Based Appointments

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka's Media Minister said Tuesday that future appointments to the top editorial position at the state-run Tamil daily Thinakaran would be made on the basis of qualifications, as the newspaper's management faces criticism over the interim appointment it made following the suspension of its Editor-in-Chief over alleged financial misconduct. The minister, Nalinda Jayatissa, made the remarks at a government media briefing held to announce Cabinet decisions, after journali

May 2026 Monitor Memo

Our Reporter

May 27, 2026 — 2 min read

Write your memoirs now; tomorrow may be too late.

By M.R. Narayan Swamy “Sir, why don’t you talk to me at length about your early political history?” I made the plea to Appapillai Amirthalingam, leader of the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), while he was perched on a sofa at the Tamil Nadu government guest house in Chennai. The year was 1988 when Indian troops were battling the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka’s north and east. I was on my way to Colombo, a trip I made frequently then. With no direct Delhi-to-Colombo flights, I used to take s

Guest Column May 2026

M.R. Narayan Swamy

May 27, 2026 — 5 min read

The Constitution They Promised to Defend

By Sidhartha Thamby There is a particular cruelty in watching a party that once raged against the abuse of power quietly settle into practicing it. Sri Lanka has seen this before. What is new is that we are watching it happen to Provincial Council elections — a decade overdue — and to the constitutional architecture of devolution itself, piece by piece, coordinator by coordinator, committee by committee. We are watching the slow installation of party-aligned coordinators, the bypassing of elec

Guest Column May 2026

Sidhartha Thamby

May 27, 2026 — 8 min read

Unafraid and Unbowed

Archbishop, Archbishop, why hast thou forsaken us in our hour of sorrow and slaughter?

"Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins." - Isaiah 58:1 His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith, Archbishop of Colombo and chief shepherd of the Catholic flock in all of Sri Lanka, has recently marked fifty years in the sacred priesthood. As the highest-ranking prelate whose dominion spans the entire island, he now stands as a mighty voice crying for justice, calling upon the nations of the earth for interv

Editorial July 2025

Kaniyan Pungundran

Jul 14, 2025 — 12 min read

Jaffna Library Burning: The Day They Burned the buddha and his dhamma

Why South Asia Reveres Books-and Fears Their Destruction Irrespective of religion, across the Indian subcontinent, books have long held an exalted status. In the indigenous spiritual traditions that emerged from this land-Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism-knowledge is not merely valued; it is venerated in the highest order. In homes, temples, and schools across the region, people treat books with profound reverence-never touching them with their feet, and if done accidentally, offering a

Cover Story June 2025

Aruliniyan Mahalingam

Jun 16, 2025 — 14 min read

Chemmani: Where Justice Was Buried

The dead do not speak - but the earth does A few years ago, I visited Cambodia. My original aim was to see the Angkor Wat temple complex. But, as always, my journalistic instincts led me deeper into rural Cambodia, where I found myself in quiet conversations with a few former soldiers of the Pol Pot regime, now living ordinary lives as toddy tappers, farmers, and small shop owners. One of them - a former henchman of the Khmer Rouge - opened up after a few glasses of toddy. In a hauntingly calm

Editorial June 2025

Kaniyan Pungundran

Jun 16, 2025 — 7 min read

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Military Begins Assessments of Occupied Northern Lands, Raising Cautious Hopes

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — Senior Sri Lankan defense officials traveled to the country's Northern Province on Tuesday to inspect lands that have remained under military control for years, in what security sources described as early steps in a process that could eventually return some of those parcels to their civilian owners — though the scope, timeline, and ultimate outcome of any releases remain unclear. The Deputy Minister of Defense and the Commander of the Army conducted field inspections across

May 2026 Monitor Memo

Our Reporter

May 27, 2026 — 2 min read

Is the Next Pandemic Already Being Mismanaged?

In early April, a passenger aboard the Dutch expedition cruise ship MV Hondius fell ill with fever and respiratory distress while crossing the South Atlantic. He died on April 11. No tests were conducted. His body was removed from the vessel, and the ship continued its voyage. By early May, health authorities across three continents were scrambling to trace the movements of 147 people from 23 countries who had shared the same cabins and recirculated air. On 2 May 2026, WHO received a formal not

JM Exclusive May 2026

Aruliniyan Mahalingam

May 27, 2026 — 11 min read

No Justification for holding the Strait of Hormuz Hostage by the Iranian regime

By Reuven Azar, Israel’s Ambassador to Sri Lanka and India. The following is submitted in response to the opinion article by Kazem Gharibabadi, Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs of Iran, titled "The Strait of Hormuz: New Arrangements Under International Law," published in Jaffna Monitor. The Strait of Hormuz is one of the world's most vital maritime corridors. Roughly one-fifth of global oil trade passes through this narrow waterway connecting the Persian Gulf to th

Letter to the Editor May 2026

Reuven Azar

May 26, 2026 — 4 min read

Drug Use Confirmed in Deadly Kilinochchi Motorcycle Crash That Killed Mother

KILINOCHCHI, Sri Lanka — A youth hospitalized after a deadly motorcycle crash that killed a 32-year-old mother in Sri Lanka's Northern Province has admitted to police that he was riding the motorcycle involved in the collision, after initially claiming he had only been traveling as a pillion passenger, police sources told Jaffna Monitor on Tuesday. The crash, which occurred Monday on the Uruthirapuram-Karadipokku road in Kilinochchi district, killed Kagitha Shanmugam, who was on her way to pick

May 2026 Monitor Memo

Our Reporter

May 26, 2026 — 1 min read