Jaffna Monitor - Unafraid and Unbowed

THE EASTER SUNDAY FILES Part One: What the FBI Found

Colombo — More than seven years after eight suicide bombers tore through three churches and three hotels, killing more than 260 people, Sri Lanka is still arguing about what really happened on Easter Sunday. The country’s search for answers has produced thousands of pages of testimony, evidence, and analysis spread across seven major investigations. Yet those inquiries did not always pursue the same questions, nor did they always reach the same conclusions. The debate has now burst back into p

Jaffna Monitor

Jun 9, 2026 — 9 min read

Did Sri Lanka Really Repay $8 Billion?

June 2026 Opinion & Analysis

Jaffna Monitor Economic Desk

Jun 7, 2026 — 4 min read

What the Medical Report on Suresh Sallay Says — and What It Means

JM Exclusive June 2026

Our Reporter

Jun 7, 2026 — 9 min read

JVP Sang the Same Songs. Only Tamil Rapper Went to Jail.

JM Exclusive May 2026

M.R. Narayan Swamy

Jun 6, 2026 — 5 min read

With E.U. Backing, Sri Lanka Moves to Operationalise Green Finance Taxonomy

COLOMBO — More than 200 officials from Sri Lanka's central bank, licensed financial institutions, corporate entities, and public sector bodies have completed training in applying the country's Green Finance Taxonomy, part of a European Union-funded effort to direct more financing toward environmentally sustainable projects. The taxonomy, developed by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka and published in May 2022, sets out a framework for classifying which economic activities count as environmentally s

June 2026 Monitor Memo

Our Reporter

Jun 9, 2026 — 1 min read

Government Wants Ex-Intelligence Chief Dead, says Lawyer

By M.R. Narayan Swamy The Sri Lankan government wants former intelligence chief Suresh Sallay, whose health has become precarious after launching a hunger strike in custody, to die because it cannot prove that he was in any way involved in the 2019 Easter bombings that killed 269 people, one of his lawyers alleges. This is the reason the retired Major General has been forced to undergo “inhuman treatment” in CID custody so that he breaks psychologically and commits suicide, one of Sally’s lawy

Guest Column June 2026

M.R. Narayan Swamy

Jun 8, 2026 — 4 min read

The Diaspora’s Dangerous Nostalgia

by Kumulan Every time I see Khalistan rallies in Canada, the UK, Australia, or some comfortable Western suburb with clean pavements, I feel like I am watching political cosplay with a blood-soaked backstory. Flags. Slogans. Martyr posters. Angry men with microphones. Boys born in Mississauga, Southall, Surrey, or Melbourne shouting about liberation with the confidence of people who have never had to live through the consequences of the liberation they are selling. It is all very heroic when t

Guest Column June 2026

Kumulan

Jun 7, 2026 — 5 min read

Suresh Sallay Begins Hunger Strike Under PTA Detention

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka’s former military intelligence chief, retired Maj. Gen. Suresh Sallay, has begun a hunger strike while in police custody, according to Udaya Gammanpila, a former member of Parliament who has also acted as one of his lawyers. Speaking at a news conference that he said had been convened at the request of Sallay’s wife and son, Mr. Gammanpila said the retired officer had resorted to the protest over conditions in detention. Mr. Gammanpila said Sallay’s son visited h

June 2026 Monitor Memo

Our Reporter

Jun 6, 2026 — 4 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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The Man Who Survived the LTTE — and Saved Its Members

By M.R. Narayan Swamy “Please don’t harm me! Yes, I am a Tiger. I was told to keep a watch on you, so I came here. Please don’t have me killed!” This is how a young spy sent by the Tamil Tigers spoke in visible despair after being identified by Douglas Devananda, a sworn enemy of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The incident took place a few years before the LTTE went down fighting in 2009. A Sri Lankan minister, then, Douglas, was presiding over a camp organized by his Eela

Guest Column June 2026

M.R. Narayan Swamy

Jun 5, 2026 — 6 min read

Why Sri Lanka Has Yet to Unlock the Indian Market

By M.R. Narayan Swamy Why are India and Sri Lanka struggling to embrace a mutually beneficial trade agreement despite plenty of attempts? Why do exports to India account for only about 6 percent of Sri Lanka’s total exports? Colombo and New Delhi have long sought to upgrade the original India-Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement (ISFTA) by addressing its shortcomings and expanding its scope to include services and investment provisions. The Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) was pr

Guest Column May 2026

M.R. Narayan Swamy

Jun 4, 2026 — 4 min read

At Jaffna University, a Damaged Vesak Lantern Tests a Fragile Consensus

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — When a few Vesak lanterns erected by Sinhala Buddhist students at the University of Jaffna were vandalized this week, the damage itself was limited. What followed was more unusual: student leaders, university representatives, and even Tamil nationalist politicians quickly united to condemn the act and reject attempts to turn it into an ethnic controversy. The lanterns, displayed as part of Vesak celebrations at the university’s Faculty of Management Studies and Commerce, wer

May 2026 Monitor Memo

Our Reporter

Jun 3, 2026 — 3 min read

Deepthi Attygalle, Pioneer of Sri Lankan Anaesthesia, Dies at 86

Deepthi Attygalle, the Sri Lankan anaesthesiologist whose work on magnesium sulphate became an important reference point in the treatment of severe tetanus, died on June 1, 2026. She was 86. For much of the twentieth century, severe tetanus was managed by heavily sedating patients and supporting them on mechanical ventilators for weeks at a time, a regimen that consumed intensive-care resources often unavailable in many developing countries. At the General Hospital in Colombo, Dr. Attygalle and

May 2026 Obituary

Jaffna Monitor

Jun 3, 2026 — 3 min read