Jaffna Monitor - Unafraid and Unbowed

‘India Will Always Stand Firmly With Sri Lanka,’ Rajnath Singh Says

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — India will stand by Sri Lanka whenever it faces a crisis, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said Tuesday as he began a three-day visit focused on expanding defence and security ties. “India will always stand firmly with Sri Lanka whenever the island nation faces a crisis,” Mr. Singh told members of the Indian community in Colombo, according to India’s Ministry of Defence. Mr. Singh is scheduled to meet President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who also holds the defence portfolio,

Our Reporter

Sep 8, 2026 — 2 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

‘Tell Me What I Have Done Wrong’: Shavendra Silva Defends 2009 as Families of the Disappeared Wait for Answers

September 2026 Monitor Memo

Our Reporter

Sep 8, 2026 — 6 min read

British MP Launches Campaign for Direct London-Jaffna Flights

JM Exclusive September 2026

Jaffna Monitor

Sep 7, 2026 — 3 min read

India’s Defence Minister Arrives in Sri Lanka, First Such Visit in 38 Years

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — India’s defence minister, Rajnath Singh, arrived in Sri Lanka on Tuesday for a three-day visit, the first by an Indian defence minister since 1988, as the two countries prepare to sign three military agreements and New Delhi presses a security relationship it now describes as central to its position in the Indian Ocean. Mr. Singh is scheduled to meet President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who also holds the defence portfolio, on Wednesday morning at the Presidential Secretaria

September 2026

Our Reporter

Sep 8, 2026 — 4 min read

Sri Lanka’s Main Tamil Party Says Government Has Failed to Deliver on War Accountability

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka’s largest Tamil political party said Tuesday that the government had failed to take meaningful action on wartime accountability, enforced disappearances, or the return of military-held land, nearly two years after coming to power promising reform. The Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kadchi, or ITAK, issued the statement as Sri Lanka’s human rights record came under renewed scrutiny at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva. The party said it welcomed a written updat

September 2026

Our Reporter

Sep 8, 2026 — 3 min read

Sri Lanka Cannot Outrun Its Human Rights Past, Tamil MP Warns Government

By Asela Kuruluwansha KANDY, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka’s new political leadership cannot distance itself from the country’s unresolved human rights record simply because the abuses occurred under previous governments, Tamil lawmaker Shanakiyan Rasamanickam said, warning that international scrutiny would persist until the underlying issues were addressed. Changes in the presidency, Cabinet or governing party do not erase the state’s responsibility to confront past violations or act on international

September 2026 Monitor Memo

Asela Kuruluwansha.

Sep 8, 2026 — 2 min read

Tamil Society Cannot Confront Its Past Until It Acknowledges Its Own Victims

By: Jeevan Thiyagaraja The recent public statement by PLOTE leader Dharmalingam Siddharthan perfectly illustrates the central tragedy of the Tamil militant struggle in Sri Lanka: the transition from armed groups that eliminated their own people. Speaking at a memorial for his father, V. Dharmalingam, a former Member of Parliament, Siddharthan publicly accused the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO)—a group that now sits in the same political alliance as his own—of carrying out the assass

Guest Column September 2026

Jeevan Thiyagaraja

Sep 7, 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

AKD Vows to Press Ahead With Judicial Amendment

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — President Anura Kumara Dissanayake said on Sunday that his government would not withdraw a proposed constitutional amendment extending the retirement ages of Sri Lanka's senior judges, and that he intended to move it through Parliament as soon as the Supreme Court delivers its determination on a record number of legal challenges. Speaking at a public rally in Bulathsinhala, in the Kalutara district south of Colombo, Mr. Dissanayake presented the proposed 22nd Amendment as p

September 2026

Our Reporter

Sep 7, 2026 — 4 min read

Aid, poverty and the illusion of better health

By Mahesh Nirmalan, MD, FRCA, PhD, FFICM, and Jared Mecha, MD, MPH Mahesh Nirmalan is Professor of Medical Education and Associate Vice President at the University of Manchester, United Kingdom. Jared Mecha is a Lecturer, Consultant Physician and Global Health Specialist at the University of Nairobi, Kenya. International development agencies, philanthropy, and health research funding agencies largely approach health outcomes in less developed countries (LDCs) as a problem to be solved within

Guest Column September 2026

Prof. Mahesh Nirmalan

Sep 7, 2026 — 10 min read

Rajnath Singh Heads to Sri Lanka Tuesday as India Deepens Defence Ties

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — India’s defence minister, Rajnath Singh, will arrive in Sri Lanka on Tuesday for a three-day official visit, leading a high-level delegation for talks aimed at strengthening the two countries’ defence and maritime partnership. The visit, from Sept. 8 to 10, will be a rare one at the ministerial level: Mr. Singh is set to become the first Indian defence minister to visit Sri Lanka in nearly four decades. The last such visit was by K.C. Pant, who served as defence minister un

September 2026

Our Reporter

Sep 6, 2026 — 2 min read

Thirty Years On, Krishanthi’s Memorial Becomes a Campaign for Mass-Grave Investigations

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — Groups organising a memorial for Krishanthi Kumaraswamy on Monday, 30 years after the schoolgirl was raped and murdered by soldiers at an army checkpoint outside Jaffna, said the event will also launch a campaign to identify suspected mass graves across the Northern and Eastern Provinces and to press the courts for their excavation. The organising committee announced the plans at a news conference. The main event begins at 3:30 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 7, and will open with a f

September 2026

Our Reporter

Sep 5, 2026 — 2 min read