Jaffna Monitor - Unafraid and Unbowed

Why Sumanthiran Didn’t Sign: Opposition Leaders Tell a Different Story

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Several opposition leaders who attended Thursday’s meeting against Sri Lanka’s proposed 22nd Amendment have disputed published accounts of why M.A. Sumanthiran declined to sign a joint declaration, saying the explanation he gave inside the meeting was that he needed time to consult his party before committing it to the document. Jaffna Monitor reported after the meeting that Mr. Sumanthiran, the general secretary of the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kadchi, or ITAK, had declined to s

Our Reporter

Sep 18, 2026 — 2 min read

From Five Years to Death: Anojan’s Saudi Appeal

September 2026 JM Exclusive

Our Reporter

Sep 17, 2026 — 1 min read

Jaffna Begins 39th Commemoration of Thileepan’s Fast

September 2026

Our Reporter

Sep 15, 2026 — 7 min read

The Long Warning: Inside the Intelligence Trail That Preceded Easter Bombings

JM Exclusive September 2026

Aruliniyan Mahalingam

Sep 8, 2026 — 22 min read

Sumanthiran Declines to Sign Opposition Statement on 22nd Amendment

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — The general secretary of Sri Lanka’s main Tamil political party refused on Thursday to sign a joint opposition statement against a proposed constitutional amendment, saying he would not campaign for judicial independence alongside politicians he accused of having undermined it, according to reports in the Tamil-language media. M.A. Sumanthiran, a President's Counsel and the general secretary of the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kadchi (ITAK) attended a meeting of opposition politicia

September 2026

Our Reporter

Sep 18, 2026 — 2 min read

India and Japan Fund New Hospital Construction Across Sri Lanka's North and East

MANNAR, Sri Lanka — President Anura Kumara Dissanayake laid the foundation stones on Wednesday for four new hospital facilities in Sri Lanka's Northern, North Central and Eastern provinces, a roughly 7.15 billion rupee ($21.8 million) construction program financed through Indian grants and Japanese loans that is intended to narrow long-running gaps in emergency and specialist medical care outside Colombo. The projects include a two-storey accident and emergency unit at the District General Hosp

September 2026

Our Reporter

Sep 16, 2026 — 3 min read

Sri Lankan Prosecutors Say Military Intelligence Sat on Warnings Before Easter Bombings

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lankan prosecutors told a court on Tuesday that military intelligence officers had detailed information about the Islamist group behind the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings months before the attacks but did not pass it to the police, and that investigators were examining whether the information had been deliberately withheld. Dileepa Peiris, an additional solicitor general, made the allegations before the Colombo Fort Magistrate's Court in the case of Suresh Sallay, a retire

JM COURTS September 2026

Our Reporter

Sep 16, 2026 — 3 min read

Shanmugam Sathananthan: A Life Spent Giving Quietly

By Niranjan Nadarajah A Life of Substance Over Spectacle The world lost a man of quiet strength, steady optimism and deep humanity when Shanmugam Sathananthan died peacefully on August 22, 2026, after a brief illness. He was 72. Known to his closest friends as “Satha,” and to colleagues, community members and younger people as “Satha Anna,” the Tamil term of respect for an elder brother, he lived a life that spanned four continents, touched thousands of lives and left a quiet legacy that will

Obituary September 2026

Jaffna Monitor

Sep 15, 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

Explore our archive of articles, interviews, and creative projects

The Curious Case of Gnanasara Thero’s Pardon

By Aruliniyan Mahalingam The Supreme Court declared on 10 September that the presidential pardon granted to Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara Thero was null and void. The judgment runs to 58 pages, and its findings reach well beyond the monk who benefited from the pardon. Justice Janak De Silva wrote it. Justices Sobhitha Rajakaruna and Sampath B. Abayakoon agreed. The two petitions were filed in 2019 by the Centre for Policy Alternatives and its executive director, Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, and sepa

JM Exclusive September 2026

Aruliniyan Mahalingam

Sep 15, 2026 — 8 min read

In Manthuvil, Families Remember Their Dead Amid Fear of Reprisal

MULLAITIVU, Sri Lanka — Relatives of 24 Tamil civilians killed in an airstrike 27 years ago gathered at a road junction in northern Sri Lanka on Tuesday to light lamps and scatter flowers, holding the annual commemoration themselves after the groups that had arranged it in previous years withdrew, citing pressure from government intelligence officers. Community organizations and other local groups had helped organize the ceremony at Manthuvil, in the Puthukkudiyiruppu area of Mullaitivu Distric

September 2026 Monitor Memo

Shanmugam Thavaseelan

Sep 15, 2026 — 2 min read

Thileepan Commemoration Opens at a Tigers’ Cemetery in Mullaitivu

MULLAITIVU, Sri Lanka — The 39th annual commemoration of Thileepan opened on Tuesday at the Theravil Maaveerar Thuyilum Illam, one of the burial grounds the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam built for their dead during Sri Lanka’s civil war. A flame was lit before a garlanded portrait of Thileepan. Those present observed a moment of silence and laid flowers. Members of the committee that maintains the Theravil grounds were joined by political representatives, civil society activists and people f

September 2026

Our Reporter

Sep 15, 2026 — 1 min read

‘We Fought Then, We Will Fight Now’: Sumanthiran Defends Record on Judiciary

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — M.A. Sumanthiran, one of Sri Lanka's most prominent constitutional lawyers, has republished a speech he delivered in Parliament during the 2013 impeachment of Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake, answering critics who have questioned his opposition to a government plan to extend the retirement ages of senior judges. Mr. Sumanthiran, a President's Counsel and general secretary of the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi, the main Tamil party in the island's north and east, posted the

September 2026 Monitor Memo

Our Reporter

Sep 14, 2026 — 3 min read