Following the release of a new documentary on Tamil politician and human rights activist Ananthy Sasitharan on Al Jazeera Witness last week, she spoke and on how only an international mechanism can deliver justice for enforced disappearances in Sri Lanka and detailed the struggle that she has been through in her journey so far. Sasitharan spoke to the Tamil Guardian on the failure of Sri Lanka’s domestic accountability mechanisms, and on the filmmaker Kannan Arunasalam’s latest documentary, entitled ‘Sri Lanka’s Rebel Wife’. Read her full interview below. At the time of filming, you said that...
Filmmaker Kannan Arunasalam has released his latest documentary, entitled ‘Sri Lanka’s Rebel Wife’, on Al Jazeera Witness this week, following Tamil politician and human rights activist Ananthy Sasitharan, as she continued her fight to seek justice for her forcibly disappeared husband. He spoke to the Tamil Guardian on his experiences of filming the documentary despite military surveillance, the struggle that Tamil families face when trying to find answers for disappearances and on Sasitharan’s continued fearlessness.
“Ever since the 13th Amendment was passed 34 years ago, the Tamils have rejected it in total,” said Tamil parliamentarian Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam as he warned Tamil leaders against voting for a new constitution in Sri Lanka that may include it, labelling the move a “death knell”. Ponnambalam’s party, the Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF), has firmly opposed recent moves by other Tamil parties calling on India to ensure the full implementation of the 13th Amendment, in an interview with the Tamil Guardian .
The United States is “not satisfied” with progress in Sri Lanka and is eyeing up a broader involvement in the island’s ethnic turmoil, said Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian MA Sumanthiran, who held a series of high-level meetings in Washington DC, New York, Toronto and London last month. Speaking to the Tamil Guardian in London, the lawmaker said that there had been discussions regarding “greater involvement by the US, broadly speaking, in the Tamil affairs in Sri Lanka”.
World-leading expert in international rights and humanitarian law Wayne Jordash QC is calling on the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the UK to investigate crimes perpetrated against Sri Lankan Tamils. “It’s crystal clear that the [Sri Lankan] government has been involved in a policy of persecuting the Tamils,” he told the Tamil Guardian in an interview this week. “The evidence is quite overwhelming that these crimes are occurring, and it is quite crystal clear from the 200 victims that we represent, that there are thousands, if not tens of thousands more.” Wayne is the co-founder and...
With Tamil Nadu Assembly elections set to take place on April 6 and electioneering underway in full swing across the state, Tamil Guardian spoke to Naam Tamilar Katchi (NTK) State Youth Wing Coordinator, Dhuruvan Selvamani. Naam Tamilar Katchi (NTK), is a Tamil nationalist party that formed following the genocide that took place in Mullivaikkal in 2009. We asked Selvamani about a number of issues including the NTK’s strategy for the elections, its stance on the intensifying Sinhalisation and colonisation of the Tamil homeland and its views on India-Sri Lanka relations.
Tamil-Swiss singer Priya Ragu has defined her own style of music - which uniquely blends soulful vocals and electro-pop beats that she refers to as 'Ragu Wavy'. She is rapidly growing worldwide acclaim, as has already been named one of the 6 Musicians About to Blow Up in 2021 by Vogue, featured as one of the top 100 Essential emerging artists for 2021 by NME and had her single “Good Love 2.0” included on FIFA 21’s official soundtrack.
Following the release of Deepa Mehta’s ‘Funny Boy’ trailer, the film came under fire and faced calls for a boycott over Mehta’s links to the Rajapaksa regime and the lack of Tamil representation in the film. As ‘Funny Boy’ was being released on Netflix last week, Tamil Guardian spoke to Sinthujan Varatharajah, a researcher essayist and political geographer based in Berlin, who brought the controversies of the film to the forefront in a series of powerful infographics posted across social media.
Sir Ed Davey, the newly elected Liberal Democrats leader, has backed calls for sanctions against Sri Lankans accused of war crimes and called for greater recognition of the genocide of Tamils, as he spoke on the issues Eelam Tamils face in their pursuit for justice with the Tamil Guardian last week. Speaking to Tamil Guardian on his plans for the party’s policy on Sri Lanka, Davey slammed Colombo’s withdrawal from commitments made to the UN Human Rights Council and pledged to ensure that any future British trade and economic engagement with Sri Lanka has human rights at its centre.
In this interview, we speak to the leader of the Tamil National Peoples’ Front (TNPF) Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, who won a seat in Sri Lanka's parliamentary elections yesterday. We discuss the path forward for international accountability, Tamil-Muslim politics, the role of the Tamil diaspora and his response to criticism the party has faced in the past.