‘Cry for Justice’: Tamils Rally as Chemmani Mass Grave Excavations Pass 100 Days

‘Cry for Justice’: Tamils Rally as Chemmani Mass Grave Excavations Pass 100 Days

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — Tamil civil society activists in northern Sri Lanka are beginning a four-day campaign on Friday to demand international justice and accountability for alleged wartime atrocities, as excavations at the Chemmani mass grave continue to uncover human remains. The campaign, called “Cry for Justice — 2,” is being organise by the Homeland Task Force and will run from Aug. 14 through Aug. 17, culminating in a demonstration near the Chemmani mass grave site outside Jaffna. The organ


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Sri Lanka’s Envoy to India Remembers Lakshman Kadirgamar, 21 Years After His Assassination
Lakshman Kadirgamar

Sri Lanka’s Envoy to India Remembers Lakshman Kadirgamar, 21 Years After His Assassination

By: Aruliniyan Mahalingam Twenty-one years after Lakshman Kadirgamar was assassinated in Colombo, Sri Lanka’s high commissioner to India has remembered the former foreign minister as the man who helped inspire her to join the diplomatic service and set a standard that continued to shape her career. Mahishini Colonne, herself widely regarded in Sri Lankan diplomatic circles as one of the country’s most accomplished career diplomats, said Wednesday that Kadirgamar was foreign minister when she e


Aruliniyan Mahalingam

Aruliniyan Mahalingam

Remembering Lakshman Kadirgamar: A Personal Account

Remembering Lakshman Kadirgamar: A Personal Account

In response to “Sri Lanka’s Envoy to India Remembers Lakshman Kadirgamar, 21 Years After His Assassination” (Jaffna Monitor, 13 August 2026, by Aruliniyan Mahalingam) To the Editor, I read with great interest your report marking the twenty-first anniversary of Lakshman Kadirgamar’s assassination, and High Commissioner Mahishini Colonne’s moving tribute to the standards he set for a generation of Sri Lankan diplomats. Her recollection of his insistence that “every word has meaning” in diplomacy


Jeevan Thiyagaraja

Jeevan Thiyagaraja

Malwatte Mahanayake Says President Did Not Reply to Letter

Malwatte Mahanayake Says President Did Not Reply to Letter

KANDY, Sri Lanka — One of Sri Lanka’s most senior Buddhist prelates said President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has not responded to a letter from the country’s chief Buddhist monks concerning the government’s proposal to extend the retirement age of senior judges. The Most Venerable Thibbatuwawe Sri Siddhartha Sumangala Thera, the Mahanayake of the Malwatte Chapter, said the chief prelates had not received even an acknowledgment that their letter had reached the President. “When the Mahanayake Th


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UNAFRAID AND UNBOWED

Archbishop, Archbishop, why hast thou forsaken us in our hour of sorrow and slaughter?

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


Kaniyan Pungundran

Kaniyan Pungundran

Jaffna Library Burning: The Day They Burned the buddha and his dhamma

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


Aruliniyan Mahalingam

Aruliniyan Mahalingam

Chemmani: Where Justice Was Buried

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


Kaniyan Pungundran

Kaniyan Pungundran

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Former Student Sues University of Colombo, Seeking Rs. 5 Million Over Alleged Exam Irregularities

Former Student Sues University of Colombo, Seeking Rs. 5 Million Over Alleged Exam Irregularities

COLOMBO — A former diploma student at the University of Colombo has filed a lawsuit seeking Rs. 5 million in damages, alleging examination irregularities, arbitrary marking and retaliation by lecturers. Sanath Kumara Athukorala filed the action in the Nugegoda District Court, naming several current and former university officials and lecturers as defendants. Athukorala was enrolled in the 2022/23 Advanced Diploma in Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management programme offered by the univer


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Group Says Tamil Police Officer Dismissed Over Alleged Pro-LTTE Posts

Group Says Tamil Police Officer Dismissed Over Alleged Pro-LTTE Posts

NEGOMBO, Sri Lanka — A Tamil police officer attached to the Negombo Police Station has been removed from the force over social media posts said to be supportive of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, according to the group that campaigned for action against him. The group, The Sri COM, said this week that the officer, Jenistran Coonghe, was dismissed after an investigation. Sri Lanka Police has made no public announcement of any dismissal, and Jaffna Monitor could not independently verify the


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A Colombo Tamil Family Looks Back at the Country It Lost

A Colombo Tamil Family Looks Back at the Country It Lost

By M.R. Narayan Swamy “For every Sinhalese soldier killed, we will kill a thousand Tamils!” This was the war cry echoing on the streets of strife-hit Colombo in July 1983 as Sharmala Kanagasundram and her family sped to safety in a car while vicious anti-Tamil violence swept the Sri Lankan capital. Sharmala, her husband Ajit, and their three young boys were part of the Colombo elite and led an idyllic life. They were sure they could be happy in the country until Ajit retired from the Central


M.R. Narayan Swamy

M.R. Narayan Swamy

Final Tributes Paid to Journalist Arumugam Sabeswaran in Jaffna

Final Tributes Paid to Journalist Arumugam Sabeswaran in Jaffna

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — The remains of Arumugam Sabeswaran, a Tamil journalist, editor and journalism lecturer who worked for years in northern Sri Lanka’s media, were brought to the Jaffna Press Club on Tuesday night, where journalists, academics and civil society representatives gathered to pay their final respects. Mr. Sabeswaran, known widely among colleagues as Sabes, died in Canada on July 29 after a period of ill health. He was 47. His death brought tributes from a journalistic community in


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