The United States has agreed to lend US$553 million to build a new container terminal in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo’s port – a deal that that will see Washington work with India on the island as it grows ties across Asia.
Former British Prime Minister David Cameron has been appointed as the UK’s new foreign secretary, a move that will see a familiar face return to the frontline of British politics. David Cameron has twice written in the Tamil Guardian. We take a look back at his previous time in office, remarks on Sri Lanka and Tamils, as well as his involvement on the island after his previous departure.
Hundreds of mourners paid tribute to BBC News presenter George Alagiah at a memorial service in London this week. Alagiah, one of British television's best-loved figures, was a Tamil who fled Sri Lanka in the wake of the 1958 pogrom and ongoing ethnic discrimination on the island.
India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman concluded a visit to Sri Lanka last week, where she travelled to both Jaffna and Trincomalee before addressing a business summit on “Enhancing Connectivity”, as New Delhi aims to grow closer ties to the Tamil homeland.
The Tamil-owned telecoms company Lycamobile has had its former CEO convicted and was ordered to pay a fine of €10 million after being found guilty of money laundering and fraud by a French court last month, just weeks after the company launched a Sri Lankan production arm looking to boost Sinhala-language cinema. The verdict in the Parisian court comes after years of controversial practices by the multimillion-dollar company, which is reported to have links with the war crimes accused Rajapaksa family in Sri Lanka, and is looking to expand its operations on the island further.
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian M A Sumanthiran revealed how he, and others in the party, had called on leader R Sampanthan to step down, but the 90-year old politician refused to do so. Sampanthan has led the TNA since its formation in 2001, but in recent years has fought growing unpopularity, rifts within the coalition, and bouts of ill health.
Today marks 27 years since two Tamil activists were shot dead in a Parisian neighbourhood, a murder that shocked the Tamil diaspora worldwide and remains unsolved to this day. Kandiah Gajendran, also known as Gajan, was the editor of Paris based Tamil weekly 'Eelamurasu' and Kandiah Perinpanathan, known as Nathan, was in-charge of LTTE's international finance. The two men aged 30 and 32-years old respectively, were strolling down Boulevard de La Chapelle on the 26th of October 1996 - a neighbourhood which had a long established and thriving Eelam Tamil community.
The former British Prime Minister once spearheaded efforts on accountability for war crimes on the island. Now, he is drumming up investment for a controversial multibillion-pound Chinese project in Colombo.
The British Minister of State for the Indo-Pacific, Anne-Marie Trevelyan, recently paid a visit to Jaffna where she met with Tamil parliamentarians and other officials, as part of her first visit to the island.
The 36th anniversary of Thiyagi Thileepan’s martyrdom is being commemorated throughout the North-East, with multiple organisations, groups and thousands of people participating in various commemorative events across the homeland.