Features

Features

Latest news from and about the homeland

Remembering Pon. Sivakumaran 52 years on
Today marks 52 years since the death of Ponnuthurai Sivakumaran, the first Tamil to die in the liberation struggle.  Sivakumaran was a member of the Tamil Manavar Peravai (or Tamil Student Federation, TSF) and a leading militant in the early armed Tamil struggle. With decades of Sri Lankan state repression and deadly anti-Tamil pogroms already having taken place, Tamil militant…

I had hoped he would carry me, now I have to carry him

Jul 17, 2007
Displaced since 1990, a Tamil fisherman tells a tale of fleeing one tragedy only to find another catastrophe. Aloysius Premathas, having just seen his son loose his legs in a SLAF air-raid, recounts his familiy’s woes.

Life for ordinary Tamils gets worse

Jun 20, 2007
Mel Gunasekera
Every time 16-year-old Suresh Subramanium steps out of his home in Sri Lanka's heavily-guarded capital, his father says a silent prayer for his son's safe return.
 
The Subramaniums are ethnic Tamils, and run a grocery store in Colombo. They have lived in the city all their lives, and have little connection to the north and east where government troops are fighting Tamil Tigers.
 
But they say life for ordinary Tamils in Colombo is getting worse.
 
"I can't step out of the house without my identity card and police papers.

‘Every night now, I am afraid’

Jun 20, 2007
Sri Lankan authorities were rounding up hundreds of ethnic minority Tamils in the capital of Colombo, forcing them onto buses to destinations unknown.
 
They were allowed to return two days later , after an international uproar , but many Tamils are afraid the expulsions could mark the beginning of a new wave of persecution, and that the next knock on the door might be even more dangerous.
 
"I'm scared about what will happen," said the woman, Sanmugam Rasamma, who came back to Colombo after her expulsion.

Tiger planes change war dynamics

Apr 30, 2007
Amal Jayasinghe

The new capability of the Tamil Tigers to carry out airborne attacks has not only made them a rarity among the world's guerrilla outfits but has also badly shaken an entire country.

Sri Lanka's defence ministry has acknowledged that the Tigers may be operating at least five light aircraft, used in three headline-grabbing raids against military and civilian targets over the past month.

The Tigers already possess an effective naval unit known as the Sea Tigers.

Life in embattled Batticaloa

Apr 10, 2007
PK Balachandran
There was not a town in the government-held areas which was not dotted with Karuna's offices or camps, which significantly, were almost always close to the camps of the government forces.

No going back until peace is restored, refugees say

Apr 10, 2007
P. K. Balachandran
The attacker can't be seen. There is no warning that he is going to come. There is no escape!'

Human rights group deplore Sri Lanka abductions

Apr 10, 2007
The levels of killings, disappearances and abductions make clear there is a growing climate of impunity'

Karuna doing Colombo’s ‘dirty work’ - HRW

Mar 28, 2007
Despite promises to investigate abductions of children by the pro-government Karuna group, Sri Lankan authorities have taken no effective action and abductions continue, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Thursday.
 
“The Karuna group’s use of child soldiers with state complicity is more blatant today than ever before, ” Brad Adams, Asia director at HRW said in a statement. HRW also accused the LTTE of recruiting child soldiers.
 
“The Karuna group is doing the government’s dirty work,” Adams said.

‘We did not even take our clothes’

Mar 6, 2007
Neomi Kodikara
Over 200,000 people have been displaced by the recent spate of violence in the north and east of the country.

Whither Karuna, three years on?

Mar 6, 2007
Amid changing political and military dynamics, the former LTTE commander contends with his backers´ dislliusionment.
I had hoped he would carry me, now I have to carry him
Life for ordinary Tamils gets worse
‘Every night now, I am afraid’
Tiger planes change war dynamics
Life in embattled Batticaloa
No going back until peace is restored, refugees say
Human rights group deplore Sri Lanka abductions
Karuna doing Colombo’s ‘dirty work’ - HRW
‘We did not even take our clothes’
Whither Karuna, three years on?
I had hoped he would carry me, now I have to carry him
Life for ordinary Tamils gets worse
‘Every night now, I am afraid’
Tiger planes change war dynamics
Life in embattled Batticaloa
No going back until peace is restored, refugees say
Human rights group deplore Sri Lanka abductions
Karuna doing Colombo’s ‘dirty work’ - HRW
‘We did not even take our clothes’
Whither Karuna, three years on?