The construction of a Buddhist shrine on the island of Katchatheevu, a notable place of pilgrimage for Tamil Catholics, has raised fears around the possibility of Sinhala colonisation. The shrine has been erected in a section of land cordoned off, around 500 meters away from the historic St. Anthony’s Shrine. Additionally, security has been put in place to prevent pilgrims from entering the Buddhist shrine. Locals are suspicious that the shrine has been erected in an attempt to encourage Buddhist pilgrims in the future.
Tamil News
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A passenger ferry service between Kakesanthurai (KKS), Jaffna, and Tamil Nadu is set to be launched by the end of April this year.
According to the Ports, Shipping and Aviation Minister, Nima Siripala de Silva, the Indian authorities will be handling ferry services, whilst the Sri Lankan government will be facilitating the process.
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On Thursday, FIFA’s congress upheld its decision to suspend Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe from voting during its elections.
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The International Monetary Fund said Monday that its executive board has approved a nearly $3 billion bailout program for Sri Lanka over four years to help salvage the country’s bankrupt economy.
An IMF statement said about $333 million of the funding will be disbursed immediately and the approval will also open up financial support from other institutions.
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The Tamil Students Initiative held their inaugural International Women’s Day Brunch showcasing up-and-coming female performers at The Cottons in Shoreditch on 19th March 2023. The exclusively female event looked to celebrate and empower women. Featured acts included Mathura, Vinika Vara, Vyshna, Thanu and Kingston Tamil Society.
The event was hosted by Shangavi - a talented model and dancer. Shangavi has participated in both Kings of Gaana and Mega Maalai 2023, as well as...
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Speaking at the Progress Review Meeting on Aluth Gamek, Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardene, slammed trade unions and claimed that their “vengeful demands” were undermining the rights of workers, the right to unionise and workers’ bargaining power.
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Speaking at the inauguration of a new exhibition dedicated to Sri Lankan architect Geoffrey Bawa, India’s external affairs minister, S Jaishankar, reiterated India’s ongoing support for Sri Lanka during its economic crisis.
“Blood is thicker than water. It was natural for India to see what it could do to stand by Sri Lanka at this very difficult time”, told...
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The leader of the Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF), Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, has called on the Sri Lankan state to reveal the amount they had paid to the British mercenary organisation known as Keenie Meenie Services (KMS) to support their suppression of the Tamil armed resistance.
“The Sri Lankan state needs to come clean and tell parliament how much...
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Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister, Ali Sabry, is set to journey to London to attend the Commonwealth Foreign Affairs Ministers’ Meeting (CFAMM) next Wednesday, where he is expected to meet several international dignitaries.
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US Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Julie Chung, has stressed that Local Government elections are critical for Sri Lanka's democracy.
Chung spoke as the Chief Guest at the National Law Conference organized by the Bar Association of Sri Lanka in Colombo on 12 March.
During her speech, the Ambassador said, "democracies are under strain across the globe and no democracy stands...
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Speaking in Sri Lanka’s parliament on Thursday, Sri Lanka’s State Minister of Tourism, Diana Gamage, encouraged violence against student demonstrators to end their protests.
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Marcia V. J. Kran, Canadian lawyer and expert member of the UN Human Rights Committee, pressed Sri Lanka delegate Major General Kulatunga about his role in overseeing the Joseph Camp in Vavuniya, plagued with allegations of torture, and the Army Court’s denial of war crimes.
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Following N Kalyanakrishnan’s debut with 2015’s ‘Bhooloham,’ Jayam Ravi joins hands with the director once again for ‘Agilan.’ ‘Bhooloham’ was not particularly well received by critics or the audience, therefore one cannot help but wonder what drew Ravi back to Kalyanakrishnan. Perhaps it was because on paper the film has an interesting premise: an exploration of the world of smuggling in shipping. However, due to failures in...
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On 8 March, the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) petitioned India's Ministry of Home Affairs to remove the Liberation of Tamil Tigers (LTTE) from the "unlawful association "list. The petition was a response to the Indian Home Affairs Ministry's prior designation of the LTTE as a "...
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Sri Lankan police have arrested the head of the Association of Relatives of the Disappeared, Kasipillai Jayavanitha, for allegedly illegally obtaining electricity for the shed which has served as the base for their six-year-long protest.
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British MP and Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Tamils (APPGT), Elliot Colburn, has written to the UN Human Rights Committee to urge the committee to question the attendance of Maj. General Kulatunga during its 6th-period review and noted his role in overseeing the Joseph Camp in Vavuniya.
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Sri Lanka’s Chief of National Intelligence, and accused war criminal, Ruwan Kulatunga, is to virtually attend the UN Human Rights Committee’s 6th periodic review, on behalf of the government despite concern over his human rights record.
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The 15th anniversary of the assassination of Tamil MP Kiddinan Sivanesan was commemorated in Jaffna and Mullaitivu yesterday.
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Tamil Refugees have sought legal help to bring a judicial review to British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) high court over the commissioner's intention to return around 94 refugees to Sri Lanka
For over a year, around 94 refugees – including families with children – have been held in prison-like conditions in Diego Garcia, the largest island of the BIOT.
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Concluding the 42nd Universal Period Review of human rights, the Council urged the Sri Lankan government to address issues affecting the North and East which included continued land grabs and missing persons.
The general statement notes:
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Addressing Sri Lanka’s Air Force Officer Cadets at the Trincomalee Air Force Base yesterday, Sri Lanka’s President Ranil Wickremesinghe thanked the armed forces for their intervention during the popular unrest in June and maintained that a change of government would only be possible via a parliamentary election.
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During the 42nd Universal Period Review of human rights, UK permanent representative to the UN in Geneva, Simon Manley CMG urged Sri Lanka to address the issue of land grabs in the North and East, the Tamil homeland, and allow memorialisation activities.
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On Monday, Sri Lanka’s foreign minister Ali Sabry met with a delegation led by the director of Saudi Fund Development (SFD) Mohammed Almasoud, during which Sabry expressed his gratitude of Saudi Arabia’s “continuous assistance despite challenges” as well its support for an extension of an International Monetary Fund loan.
On...
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Responding to the death of a protester in Colombo, and the injuring of dozens, Amnesty International has issued a statement calling on Sri Lankan police to show restraint in dealing with protesters and urgent for an independent investigation into allegations of human rights violations.
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The Jaffna Municipal Council remains without a working budget after the latest attempt to pass one was defeated today.
The latest budget presented by Emmanuel Arnold, himself initially ousted in 2020 following a defeated budget, was defeated by 6 votes with 16 council members voting for the budget, 22 against and 1 abstaining.
This follows the resignation of former mayor Viswalingam Manivannan whose budget was defeated in December 2022.
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Overall, ‘Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam’ is a film about duality: both a wonderful slice of life film and a philosophical work of magical realism. Equally importantly, it is a masterful display of fantastic filmmaking, both simple and brilliant.
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Sri Lanks's board of investment approved the construction of two wind power plants by India's Adani Green Energy to be developed in the Mannar and Ponneryn area of the North.
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Sri Lanka has again abstained on a UN resolution calling for an immediate end to the conflict in Ukraine and for Russia to withdraw its presence from Ukrainian territory.
The nonbinding resolution comes on the anniversary of Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine and reaffirms support for Ukrainian sovereignty and maintains...
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MP Professor Channa Jayasumana, a former member of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), has alleged a plot by members of the SLPP to force the resignation of current Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena and replaced him with disgraced former President and Prime Minister, Mahinda Rajapaksa.
World News
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The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued an arrest warrant for Russian premier, Vladimir Putin, for war crimes committed during his illegal invasion of Ukraine.
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In a speech on 21 February, Tunisian President Kais Saied made racist remarks about Black African migrants inciting violent anti-Black mobs.
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60 people including 12 children have been killed after a wooden sailing boat carrying migrants to Europe crashed against rocks near the southern Italian coast according to authorities. The crash occured in the early hours of 25 February near Steccato di Cutro.
The boat was sailing from Turkey and carried migrants from Afghanistan, Iran and several other countries.
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Dozens of Australia’s leading social justice and civil society bodies are launching a new partnership to support the Indigenous voice to parliament referendum.
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Uganda has stated that it will not be renewing the mandate of the United Nations human rights office, the Ugandan government argues that it has sufficient capacity to monitor rights compliance.
On 3 February, the Ugandan Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent a letter to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). The letter cites Uganda's progress regarding developing a domestic...
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Former president Jair Bolsonaro should be investigated for genocide, Brazil’s environment minister, Marina Silva, has said, as she prepares an operation to drive illegal goldminers from the site of a humanitarian disaster on Indigenous land.
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Descendants of victims of the genocide in Namibia have called on Germany to “stop hiding” and discuss reparations with them directly, as they take their own government to court for making a deal without their approval.
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The Indian government has invoked emergency laws to block a BBC documentary examining the role of the prime minister, Narendra Modi, during riots in the western state of Gujarat in 2002.
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Officials say about 1,500 people have been arrested following the storming of the National Congress in Brasília.
Supporters of the former president, Jair Bolsonaro, stormed Congress and other official buildings including the presidential palace and the Supreme Court on Sunday.
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The National Liberation Army (ELN), says it is not part of a ceasefire with the goverment that had been announced by the Presidient last week. -
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will be sworn in as president of Brazil for a historic third term on Sunday.
The inauguration in Brasília, exactly two decades after the veteran politician first assumed office, is expected to attract hundreds of thousands of people for a festival-style celebration with live music.
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A Vigil was held at Ahmet Kaya Cultural Centre where hundreds continue to pay their respects to the three Kurdish activists killed in Paris last week.
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Irmgard Furchner 97, a former secretary who worked for the commander of a Nazi concentration camp has been convicted of complicity in the murders of more than 10,500 people.
Irmgard Furchner, 97, was taken on as a teenaged shorthand typist at Stutthof and worked there from 1943 to 1945.
Furchner, the first woman to be tried for Nazi...
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Friday, 16th December 2022, Japan's cabinet approved a new national security strategy for the first time in nine years, which includes doubling the country's military budget.
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Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić met with his national security council amidst rising tensions between authorities in Kosovo and ethnic Serbs.
Unknown attackers in Northern Kosovo exchanged gunfire with local police and threw a stun grenade at European Union officers.
Ethnic Serbs set up roadblocks in response to Kosovan police being deployed in a dispute over car license plates...
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Guinea’s former dictator Moussa Dadis Camara denied responsibility when he took the stand Monday at a trial of officials implicated in a 2009 massacre.
Camara and 10 other former military and government officials are accused of the killing of 156 people and the rape of at least 109 women by forces supporting the military government at a political rally in...
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The civilian death toll from what it calls a massacre by the March 23 movement, known as M23 rebel group, has risen to 272, said the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The increased death toll was announced at a press briefing Monday in Kinshasa by Minister of Industry and former governor of North Kivu province, Julien Paluku.
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A court in Argentina has sentenced Vice-President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner to six years in jail and have disqualified her from holding public office after being found guilty in a $1bn fraud case related to public works.
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Al Jazeera Media Network has submitted a formal request to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate and prosecute those responsible for killing veteran Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh.
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More than half of Tigrayan forces have been withdrawn from the frontlines, a month after a ceasefire agreement was signed.
Following last month's ceasefire agreement which sought to bring an end to the two-year conflict, Tadesse Wereda commander-in-chief of the Tigray People Liberation Front (TPLF) has said,
"We have accomplished...
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Sweden deported a Kurdish man with alleged ties to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) to Turkey.
Mahamut Tat had sought asylum in Sweden in 2015 after being sentenced in Turkey for six years and 10 months for alleged links to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). His final application was denied last year by the Swedish migration agency.
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On Wednesday, the District Court of The Hague concluded that the 2007 airstrike mounted by the Dutch armed forces on an Afghan residential compound violated international humanitarian law.
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Many of the world’s largest asset managers and state pension funds are passively investing in companies that have allegedly engaged in the repression of Uighur Muslims in China, according to a new report. -
The supreme court has ruled that the Scottish government cannot hold an independence referendum without the UK government's consent.
Nicola Sturgeon had planned to hold a referendum on 19 October 2023 but the supreme court ruled unanimously that she does not have the power to do so, stating that the issue is reserved to Westminister.
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A man who arrived in the UK on a small boat a week ago and was being processed at Manston has died, the Home Office said on Saturday. He became ill while at the Kent detention site and was taken to hospital, but later died.
t is understood that he arrived on 12 November and was taken ill on...
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The Tigray region has recieved humanitarian aid for the first time since the peace agreement, departing from two years of a devestating blockade.
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Following the coup and a brutal crackdown on unarmed protestors, the people of Myanmar have taken up arms against the military which now only has stable control over 17 per cent of the country.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused Russian soldiers of committing war crimes and killing civilians in Kherson, which was retaken by Ukraine last week.
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The European Union and the United Kingdom have imposed additional sanctions on Iranian officials in response to the widespread use of force against protestors.
So far, 336 demonstrators have been killed in the unrest and nearly 15,100 detained, according to the activist HRANA news agency.
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A court in Tehran has issued the first death sentence to a person arrested for taking part in protests.
A human rights group warned authorities might be planning "hasty executions".
At least 20 people are currently facing charges punishable by death, Norway-based Iran Human Rights said, citing...
