Tamil Affairs

Tamil News

Latest news from and about the homeland

Sinnathurai commemorating Maaveerar Naal in London, 2022. Selvachandran Sinnathurai, the father of Lieutenant Shankar, the first fighter from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to be killed in the Tamil armed struggle, passed away in London earlier this month. Lieutenant Shankar holds a significant place in Tamil history as the first cadre to sacrifice his life in the early…

Sri Lanka's foreign minister meets with Modi, Swaraj

Sri Lanka's foreign minister, Tilak Marapana met with the Indian prime minister Narendra Modi on Saturday in New Delhi as well as his counterpart, Sushma Swaraj. 

Mr Modi tweeted: "Held wide ranging discussions on India-Sri Lanka ties with SL's Foreign Minister, Mr. Tilak Marapana."

Sampanthan to meet Buddhist clergy to garner support for new constitution

The Tamil National Alliance leader will meet senior Buddhist clergy later this month in a bid to win-over Sinhala-Buddhist support for the new constitution, reports the Uthayan.

The party leader R. Sampanthan will meet with the Mahanayakes of the different chapters to convince them to lend their support to the new constitution.

Mr Sampanthan will urge the monks to recognise the historic opportunity to end the ethnic strife on the island, claiming that the Tamils have dropped their separatist ideologies.

It is hoped that if the Buddhist clergy are on board then the Sinhala majority would also support the passing of a new constitution.

Sri Lankan admiral attends conference in Canada

A Sri Lankan admiral who oversaw naval operations during the armed conflict attended the ‘20th Asia-Pacific Chiefs of Defence Conference’, which was held in Canada last week.

Sri Lankan president inspects construction of new defence HQ

Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena paid a visit to Battaramulla last week, where the Ministry of Defence’s construction of a new headquarters is currently underway.

Sri Lankan army competes in British parachute competition

Members of the Sri Lankan army visited the United Kingdom last month to compete in the Armed Forces Parachutes Championship.

Wigneswaran discusses Tamil grievances with Mahanayake

The Chief Minister of the Northern Province met the Mahanayake Thero of the Malwatte chapter to discuss Tamil grievances on Saturday.

Chief Minister Wigneswaran described the problems faced by Tamils in their everyday lives to the senior Buddhist monk reports Uthayan.

Jaffna Muslims protest against Rohingya genocide

Muslims in Jaffna protested against the genocide of Rohingya Muslims by the Myanmar government.

Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi donates elephant to Sri Lankan president

Sri Lanka’s president Maithripala Sirisena received an elephant that was donated by the State Counsellor of Myanmar Aung San Suu Kyi, offering it to a Buddhist temple in Kandy.

Rajapaksa aide jailed over corruption during election bid

A senior civil servant under the former president Mahinda Rajapaksa was sentenced for 3 years on Thursday over corruption, AFP reported.  

Lalith Weeratunga was found guilty of misappropriating funds belonging to the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC), spending 600 million rupees on gifting textiles and other items to Buddhist devotees during Mr Rajapaksa's 2015 re-election bid 

The director of the TRC at the time, Anusha Palpita was also sentenced for three years for allowing the misappropriation of funds to take place. 

Bangladesh seeks FTA with Sri Lanka before end of 2018

Bangladesh's commerce minister called for a swift Free Trade Agreement with Sri Lanka by the end of next year. 

“Let us sign before end-2018, it is time that we focus on much broader trade levels,” Bangladesh's minister, Tofail Ahmed was quoted by LBO as saying in Colombo recently. 

“Bilateral trade has been on the increase but the volumes are not so great, we can do better.”