As India, the world’s largest democracy, heads to the polls, much focus has been on the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its campaign in Tamil Nadu – a powerhouse state of more than 70 million Tamils. The North Indian party has been intensely campaigning as it looks to expand southwards into an area where it currently holds no seats. Though projections suggest an increase in vote share, it is unlikely to translate into more than a handful of seats - if any. Few in the region see the party as being able to commit to or foster the Tamil people and their interests. New Delhi’s policy on Sri Lanka and its lack of support for Eelam Tamils just a stone’s throw away, demonstrates exactly why.
Tamil News
-
Tamil residents and members of the Tamil National People's Front (TNPF) held another protest to demand the removal of a Sinhala Buddhist shrine, the Tissa Rahamaha Vihara, which was built illegally and on land occupied by Sri Lanka's military.
-
Tea plantation workers in the island's hill country, a majority of whom are Malayaga Tamils staged a token strike demanding that their daily wage be increased to Rs.1700 ($5.67 USD) in keeping with the rising cost of living.
They accused the tea companies of ignoring a directive from the Sri Lankan president who assured that their daily wage would be increased to Rs.1700 per day. The protest was organized by the Ceylon Workers Congress along with the support of several...
-
Services were held to mark 16 years since the assassination of Father Xavier Karunaratnam who was killed in a claymore attack by Sri Lanka's Deep Penetration Unit.
On April 20, 2008, Father Karunaratnam's vehicle was attacked by a command-detonated landmine while it was being towed after breaking down on Father Karunaratnam's journey home following Sunday Mass. Father Karunaratnam, was seated in the driver seat steering the vehicle when shrapnel hit his...
-
Speaking to the media, Colombo Archbishop Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith claimed he was tricked by ousted former President, and accused war criminal, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, into extending support for his candidacy in 2019 under the promise that...
-
.jpg)
Tamil fishermen from Mullaitivu have criticised Sri Lanka's Fisheries Miniser Douglas Devananda, and leader of the notrious government-aligned EPDP paramilitary group, ...
-
A Tamil journalist who had attended a public meeting chaired by Sri Lanka’s Fisheries Minister and government-aligned paramilitary leader Douglas Devananda was threatened by his security for filming an argument between residents and the minister.
-
Tamils across the North-East commemorated Annai Poopathy on Friday to mark 36 years since she fasted unto death in protest of the atrocities committed by the Indian Peace Keeping Forces (IPKF).
-
Tamil Guardian sat down with national winners of the 2024 Canadian Wrestling Championships, Adsaya and Aaharen Piranavan, accompanied by their parents, to discuss their passion for martial arts, healthy sibling rivalries, and the challenges immigrant parents face when trying to provide a better life for their children.
-
US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan spoke with Sagala Ratnayake, Sri Lanka’s national security advisor, on US “support to Sri Lanka’s security and sovereignty” earlier this month, as ties between the two governments continue to grow.
-
Chief Delegate of the Delegation of German Industry and Commerce in Sri Lanka, Marie Antonia von Schönburg said that Sri Lanka’s lack of transparency and consistency “are significant hurdles in attracting and retaining foreign investments in Sri Lanka.”
-
Sri Lanka police arrested a 31-year-old man this week, accusing him of “distorting” a Sinhala song on TikTok.
The individual, a 31-year-old man from Wariyapola, posted a TikTok video singing along to a version of the song usually played as part of New Year festivities, with his own lyrics.
-
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi is set to arrive in Sri Lanka on a one-day official visit to inaugurate an Iranian-funded Uma Oya multipurpose development project with 120MW hydropower generation capacity.
-
On 5 April, the UK has updated its travel advisory for Sri Lanka to no longer include mention of shortages of food, fuel and medicine.
-
Five Eelam Tamil children stranded on the remote island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean since October 2021 have won a case in the British Supreme Court to be protected from harm in the same way as British children.
-
The Indian High Commission organised an event in Colombo last week where it showcased weapons for sale to senior Sri Lankan officials, including those accused of war crimes.
-
After weeks of conflicting statements and rumours of infighting among members of the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), MP Rohitha Abeygunawardena told reporters that any discussion or decision over the party’s nominee will only be undertaken by former president and accused war criminal Mahinda Rajapaksa.
-
The Sri Lankan army has announced a general amnesty for one month for all deserters in an attempt to formally discharge the officers from duty and recover any weaponry provided, after reports that Sri Lankan soldiers had fled the island to serve for Russia in its war in Ukraine.
-
.jpg)
Storekeepers of clothing outlets and vendors selling firecrackers across the North-East said there was a noticeable decline in sales this year as Tamils celebrated the New Year, amidst the high cost of living and ongoing economic turmoil.
-
.jpg)
Tamil residents of Nagathalvu village in the Mannar District have complained about Sri Lanka’s continued occupation of a public cemetery in the region and have appealed for at least another site that could be used, as locals are forced to find vacant plots of land to bury their dead.
-
The All Ceylon Shasanarakshaka Bala Mandalaya presented a set of proposals last week, calling on the Sri Lankan government to ‘secure temple lands and safeguarding Theravada Buddhism nationally and internationally’.
The Buddhist monks presented the proposals to Secretary to the President, Saman Ekanayake, at the...
-
As Sri Lanka’s presidential elections draw closer and Tamil parties debate whether a common candidate should be selected, Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK) MP Charles Nirmalanathan said that Tamils were “yet to identify a Tamil leader of the likes of Velupillai Prabhakaran,” referring to the leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
-
Tamils in Mullaitivu commemorated Annai Poopathy as a memorial float dedicated to her travelled through Mullaitivu today.
The Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF) organised a memorial float to travel through the homeland to mark 36 years since Annai Poopathy’s fast unto death.
-
Image courtesy of Virakesari
A Buddha statue has been secretly inaugurated at the Veerakathy Pillaiyar temple in Madathady, Trincomalee, after it was installed illegally last month.
-
The Sri Lankan military carried out a series of events across the North-East, as the occupation marked both Tamil and Sinhala new year.
In Jaffna, the Consulate General of India in Jaffna, the Additional Secretary of the Presidential Secretariat in Jaffna and government officials took part...
-
Tamil National People's Front (TNPF) MP Selvarajah Kajendren has written to Sri Lanka’s prime minister urging him to “prioritise the needs” of the Tamils who have been longing for a separate divisional secretary in Kalmunai North.
-
The latest report released by the World Bank has revealed that poverty in Sri Lanka has increased over the past four years from 11 percent in 2019 to 26 percent in 2024 putting more than a quarter of the Sri...
-
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recognised the "important contributions" made by Tamils in Canada, in his statement marking Tamil New Year.
-
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak extended his wishes to the Tamil community celebrating the new year and thanked them for their 'tremendous contribution' to the country.
-
Tamil families of the disappeared in Vavuniya marked 2611 days of continuous protests on Tamil New Year as they continue to campaign to know the fate of their forcibly disappeared relatives.
-
Last week, the leader of Sri Lanka’s Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and National People’s Power (NPP) coalition undertook a tour of the Tamil homeland. Though the party trumped up the visit, Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s speeches lacked substance. His explicit ruling out of political solutions to the decades-old ethnic conflict will...
World News
-
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.
-
The UK’s minister for veterans, Johnny Mercer, has effectively admitted in front of a public inquiry that he believed members of the SAS had engaged in dozens of unlawful killings of Afghan civilians between 2010 and 2013.
Asked by the chair of the inquiry to clarify that he was describing "allegations of straight murder" by the SAS, Mr Mercer replied, "Yes."
-
The Foreign Secretary has announced sanctions on 4 extremist Israeli settlers who have committed human rights abuses against Palestinian communities in the West Bank.
There have been unprecedented levels of violence by extremist settlers in the West Bank over the past year. Some residents of illegal Israeli settlements and outposts have used harassment,...
-
In a joint statement published on Wednesday, the leaders of Canada, New Zealand, and Australia call for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza in response to Israel's planned military operation in Rafah.
The statement emphasizes that Rafah is currently providing refuge for 1.5 million Palestinians and that an expanded military operation would be catastrophic.
-
Ethiopia’s federal security forces killed at least 45 civilians in a massacre in Amhara state in late January, the independent state-affiliated Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said on Tuesday.
It is one of the worst episodes of violence in the Amhara region since last August, when...
-
On Monday a Dutch appeals court ordered the Netherlands to block all exports of F-35 jet parts to Israel due to concerns they are being used to violate international law in Gaza.
The court has stated that the government has seven days to comply with the order.
The lawsuit against the Dutch government over F-35 jet exports to Israel was brought on by various rights groups...
-
Thousands of people are fleeing violence in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo as fighting intensifies between the Congolese army and the M23 armed group.
Fighters reportedly surrounded the strategic town of Sake on Wednesday, a crucial step before reaching Goma, the capital of North Kivu. Capturing Sake would deal a logistical blow to Congolese...