Jaffna Monitor - Unafraid and Unbowed

‘They Deserve Answers’: U.N. Envoy Presses Sri Lanka on the Disappeared

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — The United Nations’ top official in Sri Lanka called on the government on Sunday to strengthen investigations into enforced disappearances, conduct independent forensic examinations of mass graves, and ensure that families searching for missing relatives can participate meaningfully in the process. Marc-André Franche, the United Nations resident coordinator in Sri Lanka, made the appeal in a video statement marking the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappeara

Our Reporter

Aug 30, 2026 — 3 min read

Sri Lanka’s Disappeared: Where Do We Go From Here?

Guest Column August 2026

Sunanda Deshapriya

Aug 30, 2026 — 5 min read

ITAK Will Skip Disappearance Commemorations, Citing Exclusion

August 2026

Our Reporter

Aug 29, 2026 — 3 min read

Mano Ganesan Urges Direct Global Links for Jaffna, Accusing Bimal Rathnayake of Standing in the Way

August 2026

Our Reporter

Aug 29, 2026 — 3 min read

NPP ‘Thug’ Councillor Arrested at 12:45, Freed at 7

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — A local councillor from Sri Lanka’s governing National People’s Power was arrested early Sunday after allegedly entering the home of a retired government official in Nelliady with a group of associates while intoxicated, damaging property and threatening those inside. Roughly six hours later, he was released on police bail, prompting allegations that political pressure helped secure his release. Santhirakumar Kanesaruban, an NPP member of the Vadamaradchi South West Pradeshi

August 2026

Our Reporter

Aug 30, 2026 — 4 min read

Iranian Tankers Gather Near Sri Lanka, Where U.S. Sank an Iranian Warship in March

COLOMBO — Nearly 20 Iranian oil tankers, all of them empty, have gathered in waters near Sri Lanka, unable to sail home because an American naval blockade has closed Iran's ports. Their presence has brought the war between Washington and Tehran close to Sri Lanka and to one of the world's busiest shipping lanes for the second time this year. Sri Lanka's Foreign Ministry said on Saturday that it was tracking the vessels but bore no responsibility for them and was providing them nothing. Thushara

JM Exclusive August 2026

Our Reporter

Aug 29, 2026 — 3 min read

A Jaffna Family Built a Life in Australia. Now All Four Are Missing in Nepal

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — A Sri Lankan Tamil couple who migrated from Jaffna to Australia and their two young sons have gone missing in flood-stricken Nepal, leaving relatives in Sri Lanka and Australia anxiously awaiting news of their whereabouts. Chandrasekaran Muralitharan, 47, a native of Kopay in Jaffna, his wife, Shylaja Muralitharan, 42, and their sons, Ashwin, 14, and Aarush, 11, disappeared while travelling in Nepal. All four hold Australian passports. Mr. Muralitharan and his wife are firs

August 2026

Our Reporter

Aug 29, 2026 — 1 min read

As ITAK Rivals Fight for Influence, Former LTTE Fighters Become the New Battleground

KILINOCHCHI, Sri Lanka — For more than 17 years since Sri Lanka’s civil war ended, many former Tamil Tiger fighters have lived on the margins, poor and jobless and carrying the injuries of the battlefield. Now, as a struggle for influence intensifies inside the country’s main Tamil political party, they are suddenly being courted. M.A. Sumanthiran and S. Sritharan, longtime rivals inside the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kadchi, or ITAK, are holding separate meetings in Kilinochchi with former members of

JM Exclusive August 2026

Aruliniyan Mahalingam

Aug 29, 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

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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North-East Landowners Unite Over Military and State-Held Land

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — Landowners and community representatives from seven districts across Sri Lanka’s north and east met in Jaffna on Friday to form a common front seeking the return of land they say has been taken over by the military and government agencies, arguing that successive governments have failed to resolve disputes that have persisted for years after the civil war. The meeting brought together representatives from all five districts of the Northern Province and from Batticaloa and Tr

August 2026 Monitor Memo

Our Reporter

Aug 28, 2026 — 1 min read

Sri Lanka Ranks Near Bottom in Global Minimum-Wage Comparison, but Data Are From 2024

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka has been placed 120th out of 130 countries in a global comparison of minimum wages, near the bottom of a ranking that has drawn attention in the country but is based on wage data from two years ago. The comparison, published on Aug. 26 by Visual Capitalist using 2024 data from the International Labour Organization, puts Sri Lanka’s monthly minimum wage at $200 after adjusting for purchasing power. That does not mean Sri Lankan workers were paid $200 a month. The

August 2026

Our Reporter

Aug 28, 2026 — 3 min read

Sri Lanka, Japan Begin Work on Export-Oriented Industrial Corridor

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka and Japan have begun work on plans for an export-oriented industrial corridor, setting up a joint working group to identify priorities and a timetable for the project. The first meeting of the Sri Lanka-Japan Joint Working Group on Export-Oriented Industrial Corridor Development was held at the Japanese Embassy in Colombo on Aug. 25. The group was established following an agreement reached at an intergovernmental economic policy dialogue in February, where the tw

August 2026 Economics

Our Reporter

Aug 28, 2026 — 1 min read

Bimal Says Government Has Final Say on Jaffna Airport and KKS. Critics Call It Racism

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka will decide when and how to develop Jaffna International Airport and Kankesanthurai Port even if India provides financial assistance for the projects, Transport Minister Bimal Rathnayake, a politician increasingly accused by Tamil critics of being hostile to the development of the north, said in Jaffna. Mr. Rathnayake, the minister of transport and highways and the governing National People’s Power’s chief coordinator for the Northern Province, has been accused by

August 2026 Economics

Our Reporter

Aug 28, 2026 — 5 min read