Jaffna Monitor - Unafraid and Unbowed

Did Sri Lanka Really Repay $8 Billion?

A claim that Sri Lanka repaid $8 billion in debt during the first quarter of 2026 has spread widely across pro-government social media and political messaging in recent weeks. Supporters of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake have cited the figure as evidence that the country's economic recovery has accelerated and that the government is restoring financial stability after the crisis that culminated in the sovereign default of 2022. At first glance, the claim appears remarkable. Eight billion do

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

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

May 2026 Obituary

Jaffna Monitor

Jun 3, 2026 — 3 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

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

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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A Former Tiger's Death in France Raises Questions About Unhealed Wounds

By M.R. Narayan Swamy The killing of a former Tamil Tiger in Paris by the police has brought to the fore psychological issues that still affect a huge mass of ex-combatants who mostly lead broken lives after fighting one of the world’s bloodiest insurgencies, which at one point almost broke up Sri Lanka. A large but mostly undocumented army of former guerrillas of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) now eke out a low-key existence in Sri Lanka, India, and several countries in the West,

Guest Column May 2026

M.R. Narayan Swamy

Jun 2, 2026 — 5 min read

The Jaffna Bar Association's Letter the Government Did Not Want Written

By Aruliniyan Mahalingam JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — The letter ran to a few hundred words, but its message to the President of Sri Lanka was unambiguous: lawyers in Jaffna, the country's Tamil heartland, believed that the executive branch had reached into the judiciary and moved a judge who had displeased it. That document — an appeal from the Jaffna Bar Association to President Anura Kumara Dissanayake over the abrupt transfer of High Court Judge A.G. Alexraja — was precisely the kind of accusation

JM Exclusive May 2026

Aruliniyan Mahalingam

Jun 1, 2026 — 6 min read

Mano Ganesan Seeks Inquiry Into Whether Government Diverted Election Funds Without Parliamentary Approval

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Mano Ganesan, leader of the Democratic People’s Front and a member of Sri Lanka’s opposition, has asked Parliament’s chief financial oversight committee to investigate whether funds allocated for long-delayed Provincial Council elections were diverted to post-cyclone reconstruction efforts without legislative approval. In a letter sent Monday to Dr. Harsha de Silva, chairman of Parliament’s Committee on Public Finance (COPF), Mr. Ganesan requested an inquiry into remarks at

May 2026 Monitor Memo

Our Reporter

Jun 1, 2026 — 2 min read

Jaffna Lawyers Urge President to Investigate Transfer of High Court Judge

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — The Jaffna Bar Association has appealed directly to President Anura Kumara Dissanayake to investigate the sudden transfer of High Court Judge A.G. Alexraja, warning that the move risks undermining public confidence in the judiciary and raising concerns about interference in judicial administration. In a letter dated May 30 and addressed to the President through the Presidential Secretariat, the association expressed its "complete disbelief and shock" at the transfer of Judge

May 2026 Monitor Memo

Our Reporter

Jun 1, 2026 — 2 min read