Jaffna Monitor - Unafraid and Unbowed

The Audacious and Troubled Life of Panagoda Maheswaran

By: Aruliniyan Mahalingam This profile first appeared in the Jaffna Monitor at the time of Maheswaran’s death. It is republished, lightly revised, to mark the second anniversary of his passing. Thambapillai Maheswaran, one of the earliest figures in the armed Tamil struggle and the founder of the Tamil Eelam Army (TEA), died of a heart attack in Jaffna two years ago. He was among the first to bring a certain audacity to the movement — the raids, the jailbreaks, the vehicle bombs that prece

Aruliniyan Mahalingam

Jul 23, 2026 — 10 min read

At Chemmani Mass Grave, Families Tell European Diplomats: ‘Our Lives Are in Your Hands’

July 2026 Monitor Memo

Our Reporter

Jul 22, 2026 — 4 min read

ITAK Accuses Government Authorities of Defying Court Order at Kanniya

July 2026 Monitor Memo

Our Reporter

Jul 22, 2026 — 2 min read

United but Vulnerable: JVP Faces an Uncertain Electoral Future

Guest Column July 2026

M.R. Narayan Swamy

Jul 21, 2026 — 4 min read

‘They Set Fire to the Hearts of the People’: Deputy Minister Blames Ranil, UNP for Jaffna Library Burning

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — A Sri Lankan deputy minister has accused former President Ranil Wickremesinghe and other senior figures associated with the United National Party of bearing responsibility for the political climate surrounding the 1981 burning of the Jaffna Public Library. Eranga Gunasekara, the deputy minister of urban development, said the destruction of the library, one of the most searing symbols of Tamil cultural loss in Sri Lanka, had “set fire to the hearts of the people” and contrib

July 2026 Monitor Memo

Our Reporter

Jul 23, 2026 — 2 min read

Speaker Calls Archchuna a ‘Fool’; Government Leader Says He Is ‘Psychologically Affected’

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — The leader of Sri Lanka’s Parliament told the chamber on Thursday that a controversial independent lawmaker from Jaffna was “psychologically affected” and that lawmakers were patiently waiting for him to seek treatment and recover, an unusually personal attack that came during a chaotic exchange over parliamentary decorum. Bimal Rathnayake, the transport minister and leader of the House, also said the conduct of the lawmaker, Ramanathan Archchuna, was insulting to “the enti

July 2026 Monitor Memo

Our Reporter

Jul 23, 2026 — 3 min read

Black July Was Not an Accident

By Jeevan Thiyagaraja Black July was not a weather event. It means something more disquieting: a set of interlocking failures — constitutional, political, institutional, moral — had been accumulating since independence, so that by the time the Thinnavely ambush of 23 July supplied the occasion, the machinery of a violent, organized pogrom was already lying to hand (Jeyaraj 2021). One caveat belongs at the front of this account. As in 1958, so in 1983: many officers in uniform attempted, at the

Guest Column July 2026

Jeevan Thiyagaraja

Jul 23, 2026 — 14 min read

Sri Lanka Says It Has No ‘Political Prisoners,’ Despite President’s Pledge to Free Them

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka’s justice minister told Parliament this week that the country holds no prisoners officially classified as “political prisoners,” a legalistic distinction that has reopened one of the most sensitive disputes of the postwar era and raised questions about the government’s commitment to a promise made to Tamil voters by both President Anura Kumara Dissanayake and his party’s election manifesto. Harshana Nanayakkara, the minister of justice and national integration, sa

July 2026 Monitor Memo

Our Reporter

Jul 22, 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

Explore our archive of articles, interviews, and creative projects

Seized Indian Trawlers Choke Myliddy Harbour, ITAK Lawmaker Says

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — Thuraireasa Ravikaran, a member of Parliament for the Vanni district from the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi, or ITAK, has urged the government to remove Indian trawlers and other vessels that have long crowded Myliddy Fisheries Harbour, saying they are preventing local fishing families from fully using a harbour that was once one of northern Sri Lanka’s most important fishing centers. Mr. Ravikaran raised the issue at a meeting of Parliament’s Ministerial Consultative Committe

July 2026 Monitor Memo

Our Reporter

Jul 22, 2026 — 2 min read

Tamil Leader Urges Scientific Inquiry Into Chemmani Mass Grave as European Envoys Visit

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — A senior Tamil political leader has urged European diplomats to press for a separate scientific investigation into the Chemmani mass grave, arguing that establishing when the victims were buried could help determine who was in authority at the time and ultimately identify those responsible. C.V.K. Sivagnanam, acting president of the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi, or ITAK, said he made the request during a meeting in Jaffna with a high-level European delegation that included th

July 2026 Monitor Memo

Our Reporter

Jul 22, 2026 — 3 min read

Can Sri Lanka’s Tamil and Muslim Parties Stand Together?

By M.R. Narayan Swamy Six political parties representing Tamils and Muslims in Sri Lanka have come together for the first time in years to pressure the government on issues concerning the minorities ahead of Provincial Council elections expected next year. But even as commoners voice scepticism about the grouping’s viability, one of its key leaders asserts that the front will “advance the historical responsibilities” towards the Tamil-speaking people that transcend elections. Political pundit

July 2026 Monitor Memo

M.R. Narayan Swamy

Jul 20, 2026 — 5 min read

The Cardinal Who Talks Like a Politician

By M.R. Narayan Swamy “He is a cardinal, isn’t he? Why does he always talk like a politician?” No one could have put it better when describing Cardinal Albert Malcolm Ranjith Patabendige Don, known simply as Malcolm Ranjith. And those words came from a respected member of Colombo’s Catholic community. Probably because the government appears to be on his side, the Cardinal may not realise that there is widespread disgust over his unending aggression about a supposed international conspiracy be

Guest Column July 2026

M.R. Narayan Swamy

Jul 19, 2026 — 4 min read