Features

Features

Latest news from and about the homeland

Burnham at the EU Mayors' Conference in 2018. As Andy Burnham emerges as the frontrunner to succeed Keir Starmer as Labour leader and British prime minister, British Tamils are weighing a record on Tamil justice that is far thinner than the outgoing premier's, yet not quite the blank slate it might first appear. Starmer, who announced on Monday that he would resign as Labour leader and…

From presidency to police custody - Who is Ranil Wickremesinghe?

Following the arrest of Ranil Wickremesinghe, we look into the former Sri Lankan president's record and the reasons behind his arrest.

Father Jim Brown’s disappearance and Sri Lanka’s enduring impunity

On 20 August 2006, a young Tamil Catholic priest Father Thiruchelvam Nihal Jim Brown disappeared along with his lay assistant in the Sri Lankan military occupied Jaffna peninsula. Nineteen years later, his fate remains unknown, shrouded by silence and unanswered questions. 

Remembering the Sencholai massacre 19 years on

Today marks the 19th anniversary of the massacre of 53 school girls by the Sri Lankan Air Force. 

UN report condemns Sri Lanka’s ‘entrenched’ impunity

A new report from the United Nations Human Rights Office has called on the Sri Lankan government to address the “human rights violations and international crimes” as well as the “root causes” of the island’s ethnic conflict – but stopped short of endorsing a fully internationalised accountability mechanism.

Beaten, disappeared, dumped: Inside the killing of Kapilraj

Eyewitness testimonies detail the final hours of a Tamil man who was killed after a Sri Lankan army assault

French MPs call for international investigation into mass graves and war crimes in Sri Lanka

A group of French parliamentarians have issued a joint statement calling for an independent international investigation into war crimes and crimes against humanity committed against Tamils in Sri Lanka, following the recent discovery of mass graves in the North-East.

North-East unites in call for international probe into Tamil genocide

Protest across north east

Widespread protests were held across the North-East this weekend as Tamil families of the disappeared, civil society organisations, and human rights defenders rallied to demand an international, independent investigative mechanism into the genocide committed against the Tamil people.

Explainer: Another mass grave and the 1990 Sampur Massacres 

Following the discovery of another set of human remains in Sampur this week, just metres from where at least 57 Tamil civilians were murdered by Sri Lankan government forces in July 1990, we re-examine the massacres.

Remembering Black July 42 years on

Today marks 42 years since the horrors of the anti-Tamil pogrom of 1983, when thousands of Tamils were killed by Sinhala mobs backed by the then UNP government and state forces.