Jaffna Monitor - Unafraid and Unbowed

Tamil Families Displaced Since 1990 Vow Weekly Protests Until Military-Held Lands Are Returned

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — Holding faded land deeds — some preserved for more than three decades as the last legal proof of ownership — displaced Tamil residents of Valikamam North gathered Friday outside the gates of the military’s Commando bungalow in Sri Lanka’s Jaffna Peninsula, demanding the return of ancestral lands they have been barred from entering since their forced displacement in June 1990. The demonstration, organized by landowners and their families, marked the start of what participants

Jaffna Monitor

May 1, 2026 — 11 min read

India-Sri Lanka Fishing Row Risks Dangerous New Escalation After Violent Sea Assault

April 2026 Guest Column

M.R. Narayan Swamy

May 1, 2026 — 6 min read

Chemmani Mass Grave Probe Hinges on Fresh Forensic Evidence

April 2026 Monitor Memo

Our Reporter

May 1, 2026 — 1 min read

Sri Lanka Moves to Create a Tobacco-Free Generation, Joining a Growing Global Push

April 2026 JM Exclusive

Our Reporter

Apr 30, 2026 — 7 min read

Sri Lankan Think Tank Seeks Closer Ties With Indonesia in Indian Ocean Push

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Milinda Moragoda, founder of the Colombo-based Pathfinder Foundation, met this week with Indonesia’s ambassador to Sri Lanka, Dewi Gustina Tobing, to explore avenues for collaboration as Sri Lanka seeks to strengthen strategic ties with Southeast Asia’s largest economy. According to a statement released by the foundation, discussions focused on Indonesia’s growing geopolitical and economic influence in the Indo-Pacific, including its status as the world’s fourth most populo

May 2026

Our Reporter

May 1, 2026 — 1 min read

Reconciliation in Sri Lanka: Enough Promises, Time for Proof

Seventeen years after the end of Sri Lanka’s civil war, reconciliation remains more slogan than substance. It is invoked in speeches, embedded in policy frameworks, and repeated in international forums, but for many citizens, particularly in the North and East, it has yet to translate into meaningful, lived change. The uncomfortable truth is this: Sri Lanka does not suffer from a lack of reconciliation mechanisms. It suffers from a lack of political will, consistency, and sustained execution. R

April 2026 Guest Column

Colonel Nalin Herath

May 1, 2026 — 4 min read

Indian Lawmaker Seeks to Bar Perarivalan From Legal Practice

CHENNAI, India — A sitting Member of Parliament from Tamil Nadu has written to President Droupadi Murmu demanding that A.G. Perarivalan — convicted in the 1991 assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and released by India’s Supreme Court in 2022 after more than three decades in custody — be barred from practicing law, days after he was enrolled as an advocate by the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. The seven-page letter, dated April 29, 2026, was written by Adv. R. Sudha, w

April 2026 Monitor Memo

Our Reporter

Apr 30, 2026 — 4 min read

Sri Lankan Fisherman Taken Hostage and Assaulted by Indian Fishermen, Renewing Palk Strait Tensions

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — A Tamil fisherman from Jaffna was severely beaten after being detained at sea by a group of Indian fishermen, according to Sri Lankan fishing associations, Indian police accounts and widely circulated video footage, in an episode that has once again exposed the volatile maritime tensions of the Palk Strait. The fisherman, a 29-year-old man from Vallai in Sri Lanka’s Jaffna District, is being treated at Nagapattinam Government Medical College Hospital in Tamil Nadu, where doc

April 2026 JM Exclusive

Our Reporter

Apr 28, 2026 — 3 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

Kaniyan Pungundran

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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Jaffna’s Legendary Teacher Questions Tamil Youths’ Support for Vijay’s TVK

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — R. Kumaran, a veteran physics teacher from Jaffna who has taught generations of students in northern Sri Lanka, has publicly questioned the political maturity of young Sri Lankan Tamils supporting actor-turned-politician Vijay and his Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) movement in neighboring Tamil Nadu. In a video widely circulated online, reportedly from a Zoom session with his advanced-level students, Mr. Kumaran — widely regarded in Jaffna as one of the region’s most influen

April 2026 JM Exclusive

Our Reporter

Apr 28, 2026 — 3 min read

U.S. Embassy Marks 15 Years of American Corner in Jaffna, Unveils “Freedom 250” Pavilion

JAFFNA — The U.S. Embassy in Sri Lanka on April 26 marked the fifteenth anniversary of the American Corner Jaffna at its premises on Athiyady Road in Nallur, and inaugurated a new outdoor structure it has named the “Freedom 250 Pavilion.” The pavilion forms part of a global State Department initiative built around the 250th anniversary of American independence, which falls on July 4, 2026. The American Corner Jaffna was established in 2011 in partnership with the Jaffna Social Action Center, in

April 2026 Monitor Memo

Our Reporter

Apr 28, 2026 — 4 min read

Sowing the Future

A policy framework for agricultural revival in Sri Lanka's Northern Province — and the case for treating it not as a welfare programme, but as an economic system designed to win. By Jeevan Thiagarajah The Northern Province of Sri Lanka holds more than 100,000 hectares of paddy land, some of South Asia's most productive onion soil, and a coastline that ranks among the country's richest fishing grounds. Revitalising it is not merely a regional ambition — it is a national opportunity. This pie

April 2026 Guest Column

Jeevan Thiyagaraja

Apr 27, 2026 — 12 min read

Jaffna M.P. Archchuna Ramanathan Arrested After Brandishing Gun in Land Dispute

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — Ramanathan Archchuna, a controversial Jaffna District M.P., was arrested on Monday after he was accused of brandishing a firearm during a land dispute in Periyavilaan, the police said. The arrest follows the circulation of video footage, reviewed by Jaffna Monitor, that appears to show Mr. Archchuna pointing a handgun during a confrontation with a group of residents, including women. Police said one of the women involved in the dispute was also arrested and remanded by cour

April 2026 JM Exclusive

Our Reporter

Apr 27, 2026 — 2 min read