Tamil Affairs

Tamil News

Latest news from and about the homeland

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Thirteen more skeletal remains were exhumed from the Chemmani mass grave on Monday and a further seven newly identified, bringing the total identified at the site to 412, of which 390 have now been exhumed, as the excavation, the largest at any mass grave on the island, entered its 31st day. Monday, the 31st day of the third phase of the court-supervised process, saw three sets of remains…

US courts Colombo on trade and the Indian Ocean

The United States Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, S. Paul Kapur, met the Sri Lankan president Anura Kumara Dissanayake at the Presidential Secretariat during a three-day visit to the island, in talks centred on trade, investment and security cooperation.

‘Before we too pass away’ - Tamil families appeal to UN over Chemmani mass graves

The Association for Relatives of the Enforced Disappeared in the North-East (ARED) has appealed to the United Nations to ensure an international investigation into enforced disappearances and mass graves across the Tamil homeland, including the ongoing excavations at Chemmani, where more than 380 human skeletal remains have been uncovered.

Chemmani excavations pass grim milestone with 405 remains identified

The excavation of the Chemmani mass grave entered the 30th day of its third phase on Sunday, with seven sets of human skeletal remains exhumed and a further eleven sets newly identified at the site.

As Burnham eyes Number 10, British Tamils face a largely untested record

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.

STF officers filmed assaulting woman during Kilinochchi arrests of children and elderly

Footage from in Umaiyalpuram, Kilinochchi, shows officers of Sri Lanka's Special Task Force (STF) assaulting a woman during a confrontation with residents, after which fourteen Tamil civilians, among them young children, schoolgirls and elderly residents, were remanded, in an operation that began over alleged illegal sand mining.

Keir Starmer, British Tamils and the promises still unmet

Keir Starmer at Downing Street Thai Pongal reception with British Tamils

Keir Starmer's announcement that he will resign as Labour leader, and remain in Downing Street only until his successor is chosen, brings to an end a premiership that began on the back of some of the strongest pledges a British party leader had ever made to Tamils.

Suresh Sallay's wife alleges surveillance of children, seeks independent probe

The wife of former State Intelligence Service Director Major General (Retired) Suresh Sallay has lodged a complaint with Sri Lanka's National Authority for the Protection of Victims of Crime and Witnesses, alleging that her children were subjected to surveillance by an individual believed to be linked to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

Fifty years on, Jaffna conference reaffirms the Vaddukoddai call for self determination

The Vaddukoddai-50 Ezhuchi (Resurgence) Conference was held at the Thanthai Selva Auditorium in Jaffna on Saturday, marking fifty years since the 1976 Vaddukoddai Resolution, in which the Tamil political leadership first declared the goal of an independent, sovereign state of Tamil Eelam.

Shritharan takes Tamil grievances to the BJP's Tamil Nadu leadership

The leader of the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK) and parliamentarian Sivagnanam Shritharan met the Bharatiya Janata Party's Tamil Nadu state president, Nainar Nagenthran, in India on Friday, during a three-day visit in which discussions centred on the political and livelihood challenges facing Tamils in the North-East of Sri Lanka.

The arithmetic of a grave

This week, the number of skeletal remains uncovered at Chemmani reached a stark record of 387. With that figure, a patch of earth on the edge of Jaffna town became the largest mass grave ever uncovered on the island, surpassing the 376 remains recovered at Mannar. Recent days alone have seen the bodies of several children exhumed, alongside beads and bangles. These are the contents of the largest crime scene in the Tamil homeland, being catalogued one body at a time.