The Boy We Never Answered For

The Boy We Never Answered For

By Che Ran Sri Lanka has a strange relationship with accountability. We adore the theatre of justice. The press conference. The dramatic raid. The minister standing behind a microphone, sleeves metaphorically rolled up, promising to finally hunt down the untouchables. Every election, another government arrives carrying a moral broom the size of Adam’s Peak, vowing to sweep corruption out of the republic. And every few years, we discover the same depressing truth. The truly powerful rarely g


Che Ran

Che Ran

Batticaloa Opens Long-Delayed Library as President Tours Eastern Province

Batticaloa Opens Long-Delayed Library as President Tours Eastern Province

BATTICALOA, Sri Lanka — President Anura Kumara Dissanayake is scheduled to visit Batticaloa on Wednesday to inaugurate what the government describes as Sri Lanka’s second-largest public library after the Colombo Public Library, before attending a series of development and administrative events across the Eastern Province. The new Batticaloa Public Library, built at a reported cost of 435 million rupees, is scheduled to open at 9:30 a.m. The facility replaces one of the country’s oldest public l


Our Reporter

Our Reporter

Could Prabhakaran Have Ever Succeeded?

Could Prabhakaran Have Ever Succeeded?

By M.R. Narayan Swamy When Velupillai Prabhakaran walked into Chanakya cinema in Delhi in 1985, no one packing the air-conditioned hall could have guessed that this man would soon become one of the world’s most feared and powerful insurgents. But for his stocky build, there was nothing to distinguish him from the three other Sri Lankan Tamils with him who, away from the war theatre, had decided to see an English movie. The young men were in Delhi to meet Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and his of


M.R. Narayan Swamy

M.R. Narayan Swamy

D.B.S. Jeyaraj, Fearless Chronicler of Sri Lanka’s War, Dies in Exile

D.B.S. Jeyaraj, Fearless Chronicler of Sri Lanka’s War, Dies in Exile

By M.R. Narayan Swamy The world of Sri Lankan journalism will never see another D.B.S. Jeyaraj. Forced into exile by extremists among Tamil nationalists, Jeyaraj braved death threats and persistent danger to keep the world informed about the twists and turns during the long years a horrific separatist war raged in Sri Lanka. There were many journalists at work during those turbulent years, but few enjoyed the kind of access he had to virtually all the Tamil actors, and fewer still earned the


M.R. Narayan Swamy

M.R. Narayan Swamy

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


Kaniyan Pungundran

Kaniyan Pungundran

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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WESTERN PROVINCE GOVERNOR HANIF YUSOOF ANNOUNCES RESIGNATION

WESTERN PROVINCE GOVERNOR HANIF YUSOOF ANNOUNCES RESIGNATION

COLOMBO — Western Province Governor and business tycoon Hanif Yusoof has announced his resignation, submitting his letter to President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, according to senior government sources. Following the submission, the President is said to have requested that he remain in office for approximately one more month to ensure administrative continuity during the transition period, according to credible sources who spoke with Jaffna Monitor. The resignation, if formally accepted, ends one


Our Reporter

Our Reporter

Sumanthiran Invokes Mullivaikkal to Renew Calls for War Crimes Accountability

Sumanthiran Invokes Mullivaikkal to Renew Calls for War Crimes Accountability

POINT PEDRO, Sri Lanka — M.A. Sumanthiran, acting general secretary of the Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi, used a Mullivaikkal remembrance ceremony to renew calls for accountability over the final stages of Sri Lanka’s civil war, telling mourners that the mass killing of Tamil civilians must remain at the center of Tamil political consciousness. “We will never forget, and we will never forgive,” Mr. Sumanthiran said at the gathering in Munai, Point Pedro, the fifth event of ITAK’s annual Mullivai


Our Reporter

Our Reporter

Rain Fails to Deter Tamil Families Protesting Decades-Long Military Occupation of Valikamam North Lands

Rain Fails to Deter Tamil Families Protesting Decades-Long Military Occupation of Valikamam North Lands

Braving torrential rain, displaced Tamil residents of Valikamam North gathered for the fourth consecutive Friday outside the gates of the Sri Lanka Army’s Commando bungalow in Jaffna, demanding the return of approximately 651 acres of ancestral land from which they were forcibly displaced in June 1990 and to which they have been denied access for 34 years. The demonstration, which began on April 24 as a weekly series, is being carried out by landowners belonging to Grama Sevaka divisions 248, 2


Our Reporter

Our Reporter

Inside Aravinda de Silva’s Home: Testimonies Reveal Kapila Chandrasena’s Final Night

Inside Aravinda de Silva’s Home: Testimonies Reveal Kapila Chandrasena’s Final Night

At around 11:30 on the night of May 7, Kapila Chandrasena telephoned his domestic worker at his Barnes Place home in Colombo. He gave her a list: nightclothes, medicines, and two pairs of spectacles. Then he called again and added a fourth item — a blue cloth belt he kept beneath his sarong and used for exercise. He told her to pack everything into a bag and have it ready. Two men arrived by vehicle and took it away. The following morning, at approximately 7:35 a.m., that same room at the Pedri


Jaffna Monitor

Jaffna Monitor

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