This week excavations took place in mass graves across Tamil Eelam, as even more bodies continued to be unearthed. Almost 15 years after the Mullivaikkal genocide, the grisly discoveries are a reminder. Sri Lanka’s bloody history of mass atrocities cannot be buried. The past will eventually resurface, and it must be reckoned with.
Tamil News
-
Michael Rasa Mary, the mother of Major Sothiya, has passed away in Nelliyady, Jaffna today.
-
Despite Sri Lanka's Office of Mission Persons (OMP) failure to trace a single disappeared person, the office has launched an advert calling for a suitable individual to assist fact-finding missions.
-
.jpg)
The Jaffna Christian Union served Mullivaikkal Kanji yesterday to remember the Tamils who were brutally killed by the Sri Lankan state 15 years ago.
From January 2009 to May 2009, Sri Lanka ramped up its genocidal offensive shelling Tamils trapped in the 'No Fire Zones'.
-
Photograph taken on May 6th 2009 inside the No Fire Zone.
A US State Department report says that on the 6th of May,
A local source reported that the remaining hospital facilities were continually hit by SLA shelling, even though their locations had been carefully reported to the government....
-
I am from Vadduvaakal, Mullivaaikaal. I was a fisherman before the war. I used to do all my work, no matter how much work I have.
I lost both my legs during a Kfir attack during the last days of the war.
I wanted to die when I knew that I lost my legs. I asked the doctors at the hospital I was being taken care of, to please kill me with an injection;...
-
The Tamil Eelam Football Association (TEFA) has unveiled its highly anticipated squad for the upcoming CONIFA Women's World Cup set to kick off in Bodø, Norway, from May 27 to June 9, 2024. Comprising 22 talented players from various corners of the Tamil diaspora, TEFA is gearing up to showcase its prowess on the global stage.
The CONIFA Women's World Cup, organised by the Confederation of Independent Football Associations (CONIFA), promises to be a thrilling spectacle of footballing...
-
Sri Lanka’s controversial truth and reconciliation mechanism, the Interim Secretariat for the Truth and Reconciliation Mechanism (ISTRM), which has been roundly criticised by international experts and Tamil civil society, was presented before high-ranking Sri Lankan military officials, Sri Lanka’s police officials, and members of the Sinhala...
-
File photograph: Ravikaran joined protesters to block the illegal installation of a Buddha statue at Kurunthurmalai, Mullaitivu, in June 2022.
-
The Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC) has been accused of corruption and favouring trade union members when selecting beneficiaries for houses constructed through an Indian grant.
-
Today marks the 42nd birthday of Isaipriya, a famed Tamil newsreader that was executed by the Sri Lankan military in 2009.
Shoba, better known by her nom de plume Isaipriya, was just 27 years old when she was killed.
-
.jpeg)
The Indian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka Santhosh Jha told reporters in Batticaloa that the ferry service between Kankesanthurai and Nagapattinam which was revived after 40 years and suddenly halted again, will resume later this month.
-
.jpg)
Excavation work commenced at a mass grave in Pungudutivu this week after construction workers found several human skeletal remains during the construction of a warehouse.
Sri Lankan police officers and the local magistrate watched as forensic officers began their excavation, unearthing several human skeletal...
-
.JPG)
Tamils in Mullaitivu thwarted the fourth attempt by Sri Lanka's land survey department to forcibly seize land belonging to Alampil Thuyilum Illam (LTTE cemetery), reportedly to extend the 10th Sinha Regiment’s military camp.
-
.jpg)
Vavuniya
The Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF) held a march in Vavuniya today reiterating the party’s stance in calling for justice, accountability, and an international mechanism to investigate allegations of human rights violations perpetrated by Sri Lanka.
-
The following account is written by a second-generation Tamil from London who was involved in organising the prolonged protest on Parliament Square in Westminster during April and May 2009, the peak of Sri Lanka's genocide of Tamils. Theeban (not his real name), then in his early twenties, was studying at a London university.
-
Former Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa issued a statement refuting allegations made against him by Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith and claimed the Catholic leader “glosses over the responsibility of, or expressly absolves” the role of Sri Lanka’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in the Easter Sunday attacks.
-
.jpg)
Tamil families of the disappeared held a rally in Vavuniya yesterday as they continue to call on the international community to investigate the fate of their loved ones, who were forcibly disappeared by the Sri Lankan state.
The families have been calling for international justice and...
-
The Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) has passed a resolution calling on Sri Lanka’s Public Security Minister, Tiran Alles, to stand down after encouraging police to shoot at suspects, adding that his...
-
Several human skeletal remains were uncovered in Muhamalai, alongside uniform believed to belong to an LTTE cadre, as yet another mass grave was discovered in the Tamil homeland.
-
The United States military concluded their four day Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training (CARAT) maritime exercise with the Sri Lankan Navy, which included training in “anti-terrorism security”, in Trincomalee.
...
-
The Canadian government said it “supports meaningful action leading to justice, accountability, peace and reconciliation,” when asked by the Tamil Guardian about the Sri Lankan government’s objection to the genocide monument in Brampton.
-
File photograph: Jaffna Press Club journalists remember Rajivarman and Sivaram in 2014.
Today marks 17 years since the killing of the young Tamil journalist Selvarajah Rajivarman.
The 25 year old, who was working for Jaffna-based newspaper Uthayan,...
-
A Sri Lankan court has sentenced five Sri Lankan police officers over their role in the killing of eight Tamils in 1998, an incident dubbed the Thampalakamam massacre, more than 26 years after the murders.
-
The US Ambassador to Sri Lanka celebrated the Tamil and Sinhala New Year alongside a Sri Lankan commander who is currently barred from entering the US over his role in executing Tamils.
-
Slain Tamil journalist Dharmeratnam Sivaram was remembered in Batticaloa, Jaffna, Mullaitivu and Vavuniya today to mark 19 years since his abduction and murder.
-
This month marked the anniversary of the deadly 2019 Easter Sunday attacks, which killed hundreds in hotels and churches across the island. Five years have passed, and there are now more questions than answers - particularly around the role of the Sri Lankan state. What has become increasingly clear, however, is that Sri Lanka remains incapable of transparency, and of delivering justice to...
-
Image courtesy of Tamil Narratives
Today marks the 19th anniversary since the abduction and murder of Tamil journalist Dharmeratnam Sivaram.
-
An extremist Sinhala Buddhist monk and lawmaker claimed that he has never used racist terms against Muslims, despite having repeatedly been racist and delivered hate speech against Muslims on the island.
-
The Sri Lankan government has leased out the Chinese-funded Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport to two companies, an Indian and Russian firm for the management of the airport once dubbed as “the world’s emptiest airport” for 30 years.
-
Sri Lanka’s president Ranil Wickrememsinghe said the island “can never return Aragalaya,” as he opened a new Indian-funded hotel at the site of the previous anti-government protests in Colombo.
“Two years ago this was the site of a huge struggle,” said Wickremesinghe. “Today we have a huge hotel in its place”.
World News
-
Canadian police on Friday arrested and charged three Indian men with the murder of Sikh activist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar last year and said they were probing whether the men had ties to the Indian government.
-
The International Criminal Court's prosecutor's office last Friday called for an end to what it called intimidation of its staff, saying such threats could constitute an offence against the world's permanent war crimes court.
-
Last week a US judge ruled that French bank, BNP Paribas, must face a lawsuit accusing the bank of helping the Sudanese government commit genocide between 1997 and 2011 by providing banking services that violated American sanctions.
U.S. District Judge in Manhattan, Alvin Hellerstein, found substantial evidence that showed a relationship between BNP Paribas' financing and...
-
Hundreds of bodies have been uncovered so far at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, central Gaza, and at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City in the north, responding to the harrowing discovery the international community is calling for independent investigations to guarantee accountability for any violations of international law.
-
Germany said on Wednesday that it plans to resume funding for the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) after an independent review found no credible evidence of Israel's allegations that 12 UNRWA staff participated in the October 7 attack on Israel.
The allegations led 16 donor countries including two of UNRWA's largest donors, the United States and Germany, to halt funding for...
-
The UK’s House of Lords currently considering a landmark piece of legislation which would see UK courts empowered to make a determination on if a genocide is occurring and compel the government to act.
-
The United States has once again used its veto power in support of Israel after it vetoed a widely supported draft resolution that would have granted the state of Palestine full UN membership.
Speaking to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) ahead of the vote, Ziad Abu Amr, UN special representative of the observer State of Palestine, emphasized that making Palestine a full...
-
Nicaragua has asked the UN's highest court to halt German weapons sales to Israel at the start of a landmark case.
A lawsuit in the German domestic courts will also ask judges to urgently direct the government to revoke all arms licences to Israel issued since October 7th,
Germany is accused of breaching the UN genocide convention by sending military hardware...
-
Ex-general Benedicto Lucas García, 91, has been indicted for genocide, crimes against humanity - including widespread rape - and forced disappearances.
The former general was accused of ordering the murder of more than 1,200 indigenous Ixil Maya people during Guatemala's civil war.
The alleged crimes occurred between 1978 and 1982, when...
-
A draft UN resolution that declares July 11 "The International Day of Reflection and Remembrance of the 1995 Srebrenica Genocide" will be submitted to the UN Assembly for scrutiny on April 17 and is to be voted by the 193 member states of UN General Assembly on May 2.
-
Over 10 million children in Sudan have been in an active war zone for the past year.
A recent analysis by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED) on behalf of Save the Children has revealed that 50 percent of children in Sudan are currently or have been within five kilometers of the frontlines of conflict within the last year.
-
The UN has confirmed that thirty-eight migrants, including children, have died after the boat they were traveling in capsized off the coast of Djibouti.
The boat carrying 66 migrants, primarily from Ethiopia, left Yemen for Djibouti around 2 am. At approximately 4 am on 8 April, about 200 meters from the northeastern coast of Djibouti the boat sank. 5 migrants are missing and...
-
Rwanda's president said the international community "failed all of us", as he marked 30 years since the 1994 genocide that killed around 800,000 people.
President Paul Kagame addressed dignitaries and world leaders who had gathered in Rwanda's capital, Kigali, to commemorate the bloodshed.
"Rwanda was completely humbled by the magnitude of our loss," he said.
"And the lessons we learned are engraved in blood."
-
A UN expert has expressed concerns over escalating gang violence in Haiti.
American human rights lawyer and UN human rights expert on Haiti, William O’Neill has voiced alarm over the rapidly deteriorating situation in Port-au-Prince. "There’s a level of intensity and cruelty in the violence that is simply unprecedented in my experience in Haiti," said O'Neill. The UN...
-
Brazil has issued its first-ever apology for the torture and persecution of Indigenous people during the military dictatorship, including the incarceration of victims in an infamous detention centre known as an “Indigenous concentration camp”.
The apology was made on Tuesday by an amnesty commission attached to the human rights ministry that is tasked with investigating the crimes of the 1964-85 regime.
-
On Tuesday, seven people working with a humanitarian organization delivering food aid in Gaza were killed after an Israeli airstrike hit their cars which were clearly marked with the charity's logo.
The airstrike on the World Central Kitchen (WCK) convoy killed a Palestinian, a Canada-US dual citizen, an Australian Citizen, a Polish citizen, and three UK citizens.
... -
The UN warns of a deteriorating situation in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo as M23 rebels continue to make gains, pushing hundreds of thousands of civilians from their homes.
Heavy fighting between the DRC government forces and armed group M23 has intensified in the eastern part of the country since February, forcing hundreds of thousands of...
-
Israel told four European countries on Monday that their plan to take steps towards recognizing a Palestinian state constitutes a “prize for terrorism”.
On Friday Spain joined Ireland, Malta, and Slovenia in agreeing to take the first steps toward recognizing statehood declared by Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
-
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, the United States abstained from the vote.
Resolution 2728 was proposed by 10 elected members of the council, 14 council members voted in favour.
-
The Indian government has enacted a controversial citizenship law that has been described as discriminatory towards Muslims by critics.
The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), proposed by the Modi government, explicitly makes religion the basis for acquiring Indian citizenship.
-
Source: Flickr, July 29, 2016
While attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea, about 60 migrants have died after the engine of their small dinghy broke down.
On Wednesday, the dinghy was spotted by a ship belonging to the humanitarian organization, SOS Mediterranee. The humanitarian group was able to rescue 25 survivors who were showing...
-
A UN fact-finding mission (FFM) has concluded that the Iranian regime’s human rights violations during its brutal suppression of protests in 2022 amount to crimes against humanity.
In November 2022, the UN Human Rights Council established an FFM two months after the Woman, Life, Freedom protests that swept the country. The protests were in response to the death of 22-year-old...
-
On 4 March the United States sanctioned eleven Zimbabwean officials including President Emmerson Mnangagwa for their connection to corruption or serious human rights abuses.
-
Five members of the SAS have been arrested by British military police on suspicion of allegedly committing war crimes while on operations in Syria.
The case against the five revolves around the alleged murder of a suspected jihadist in Syria who was killed on operations two years ago. Case files recommending prosecution of murder charges have been sent by service police to the Service Prosecuting Authority, the military equivalent of the CPS.
-
Human rights experts have condemned a decision by Indonesia’s outgoing president to award the rank of honorary four-star general to his presumed successor, Prabowo Subianto, a controversial figure accused of human rights violations.
-
On Friday, President Biden announced plans to carryout a US military airdrop of food and supplies into Gaza.
The announcement comes just a day after Israeli forces opened fire on thousands of Palestinians lining up for desperately needed food assistance. The massacre left more than 750 wounded and killed at least 112 Palestinans.
-
Nicaragua has filed a case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against Germany for providing Israel financial and military aid, and for suspending funding for the UN Palestinian Refugee Agency (UNRWA).
The case brought on by Nicaragua builds on South Africa's ICJ case against Israel. In it Nicaragua states that Germany is violating the 1948 Genocide convention and the 1949...
-
A member of the US Air Force has died after setting himself on fire outside of the Israeli Embassy in Washington in protest against Israel’s war on Gaza.
The 25-year-old US airman, Aaron Bushnell of San Antonio, Texas, died from his injuries on Monday according to the Metropolitan Police Department of Washington, DC.
...
-
The UN Human Rights Office has stated that warring sides in Sudan have committed abuses that could amount to war crimes, including indiscriminate attacks on civilian sites such as hospitals, markets, and refugee camps.
The 10-month conflict has killed thousands and displaced approximately 8 million people.
-
UN experts are calling for a full investigation into credible allegations that Palestinian women and girls have been subjected to sexual assault while in Israeli detention.
A panel of experts has stated that there is evidence of at least two cases of rape alongside other cases of sexual humiliation and threats of rape.