Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) leader and former parliamentarian Suresh Premachandran told reporters in Vavuniya that plans are afoot among some Tamil political parties to field a common Tamil candidate ahead of the upcoming presidential polls scheduled to be held later this year. Premachandran said that the Democratic Tamil National Alliance were liasing with the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi and Tamil Makkal Thesiya Kootani to field a candidate who would represent Tamil aspirations, including a political solution the Tamil national question. “This has become a topic of...
Sri Lanka’s Minister of Fisheries and government-aligned paramilitary leader Douglas Devananda was forced to flee on a motorcycle, after he was confronted by protestors in Kilinochchi last week.
A Training Centre for the National Cadet Corps has been established in Nandikadal, Mullaitivu this week as Sri Lanka’s continues to occupy the Tamil homeland. Sri Lanka’s State Minister of Defence Premitha Bandara Tennakoon, who attended the opening as a chief guest, claimed that the new training centre will “build unity and harmony” between the North-East and the South of the island. He said that cadets who acquire the fundamentals of life in this facility will become “a precious human resource and patriotic citizen with an attractive personality and balanced thinking.” The training centre...
Outside of the Diyakapanathota Buddhist temple in Getambe, Kandy, a former Sri Lankan soldier was tied to a tree and reportedly beaten to death for attempting to steal from the monastery. Chamila Sudheera Ratnayake, aged 43, was a resident of Menikhinna. He reportedly entered the temple at 3:30 am and was subsequently caught by villagers, tied to a tree and beaten for several hours. Read more here and here .
Leader of the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK) Sivagnanam Shritharan told Sri Lanka’s parliament of threats made on social media towards the judge who dismissed a case brought by Sri Lankan police against Tamil devotees in Vedukkunaari last month. Shritharan said it was concerning to find social media posts stating that the judge who presided over the case would be forced to flee the country, like another Tamil judge was forced to do last year. “After the eight individuals were arrested and subsequently released by a Vavuniya court, a Facebook page by the name of “The North is our heritage”...
A British Tamil man took his own life in 2005 after he was implicated in the Horizon IT scandal, but his family have now been denied compensation from the Post Office. 35 year old, Jayakanthan Sivasubramaniam, committed suicide after his Post Office branch in Putney came under investigation. The Post Office had alleged that £179,000 had gone missing from the cash machine and the safe. Between 1999 and 2015, around 900 postmasters and mistresses were charged with fraud and theft, based on evidence from a faulty computer system called Horizon. Sivasubramaniam’s wife gave an account to the MP’s...
Mira and Dipha Thiruchelvam, of the award-winning Tamil folk rock band 9 Grader Nord, sat down with Tamil Guardian to speak about their music; life in Norway as second-generation Eelam Tamils; and for Eelam Tamils to find their own voice. This interview comes as the band has just won the Spellemannsprisen, often described as 'Norway’s Grammy Awards’, for their latest album “Yalpanam”. “Yalpanam” is the historic Tamil name for Jaffna prior to colonialism. The band’s name is a reference to the fact that the coordinates for Jaffna are 9 degrees north of the equator.
Tamil National People's Front (TNPF) MP Selvarajah Kajendren has called for the removal of a Buddhist temple, the Tissa Raja Vihara in Thaiyiddy, Jaffna, which was illegally constructed on privately owned land and is being occupied by Sri Lanka's military.
Annai Poopathy's hunger strike and death were remembered by the Batticaloa Women's Organisation and the Tamil National People's Front (TNPF) today. A garland was laid and a flame was lit at Poopathy Kanapathipillai's - fondly known as Annai Poopathy - resting place in Navalady, Batticaloa, to mark 36 years since Annai Poopathy's fast unto death. On 19th March 1987, Annai began a hunger strike demanding an immediate ceasefire to the atrocities committed by the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) and peace talks between them and the the Liberation Tamil Tigers of Eelam (LTTE). Annai Poopathy was...
Sri Lanka’s military and police forces launched yet another investigation into what they saw as a dangerous threat last week – a flower decoration created for a school sports competition. The reaction from the security forces to the decorative display was because it was of a particular flower; the red and yellow karthigaipoo that is a symbol of Tamil Eelam. Soldiers visited the school and the management was instructed to attend the police station for questioning, with statements even recorded from the principal. Despite what Sri Lanka claims, this is neither peaceful nor normal.