Interview with TNA MP M A Sumanthiran: the Constitution, Transitional Justice and the Budget

Tamil Guardian sat down with Spokesperson for the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and MP, M. A. Sumanthiran at his home in Colombo last week to discuss matters of the constitution, transitional justice and the budget. The full transcript of the hour-long interview (with minor edits) is available here . On the Constitution Mr Sumanthiran was positive on the outlook of the recently released constitutional sub-committee reports, saying that a large percentage of what they contained “would be very acceptable to Tamil aspirations”. The parliamentarian said he believes that considering the Centre-...

New roads but tough obstacles remain – Interview with C V Wigneswaran

Tamil Guardian interviewed the Chief Minister of the Northern Provincial Council C V Wigneswaran in London last week.

We must be ‘tough and supportive’ on justice in Sri Lanka – Interview with Stephen Rapp

File photograph: Stephen Rapp at an event in London in 2014, highlighting sexual violence by Sri Lanka soldiers. (Photograph Timothy Anderson) The international community must be “tough and supportive” towards Sri Lanka whilst the government continues to undermine “trust and confidence” by rejecting foreign participation in an accountability mechanism, said the former US Ambassador-at-large for Global Criminal Justice Stephen Rapp, in an interview with the Tamil Guardian. “Progress has been slower than it should have been,” said the former ambassador, as he spoke to the Tamil Guardian in...

Though changes may be slow, no need to compromise demands - MA Sumanthiran

Tamil Guardian caught up with Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian after his parliamentary speech on Sri Lanka’s constitutional assembly speech last week.

"As an artist I’m still dealing with being a refugee" - Interview with M.I.A.

“I’ve always been vocal from day one about the fact that I was a refugee and not a migrant. There was no secret. I actually left Sri Lanka because we were bombed and shot at.” The global icon talks politics and life with Tamil Guardian.

Colombo has a stronghold on North-East of Sri Lanka: Interview with APPG-T Chair James Berry

As discussions on how to deal with the findings of the UN investigation into Sri Lanka’s mass atrocities (OISL) reach fever pitch, the newly elected chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Tamils, James Berry, spoke to the Tamil Guardian last week. Speaking ahead of the release of the UN report into mass atrocities and after meeting the Chief Minister of the Northern Province, the APPG-T chair reiterated calls for normalcy in the North-East and stressed the need for any process to deal with the findings of the OISL to have the full confidence of the victims.

Sexual violence against Tamils ‘systematic’, ‘part of policy framework’: Interview with Yasmin Sooka

Photograph SL Campaign As the global summit on preventing sexual violence in conflict gets underway in London, the Tamil Guardian spoke on Tuesday to Yasmin Sooka, one of the three co-authors of the 2011 UN Panel of Experts report into wartime mass atrocities in Sri Lanka and co-author of the ' An Unfinished War: Torture and Sexual Violence in Sri Lanka 2009—2014 ' report on post-war Sri Lanka. In comments ahead of an event on Wednesday focused on sexual violence in Sri Lanka and hosted by the Canadian High Commission, Ms. Sooka, Executive Director of the Foundation for Human Rights in South...

'North-East demands international investigation' - Interview with MK Shivajilingam

Photograph:eKuruvi Tamil National Alliance (TNA) member of the Northern Provincial Council, MK Shivajilingam has said the people of the North-East have now demonstrated to the international community their demands for a international independent investigation, with the unanimous passing of a Northern Provincial Council (NPC) resolution. In an interview with Tamil Guardian earlier this week, Shivajilingam stated that any domestic investigation by Sri Lanka should be rejected and only an international investigation can bring progress and justice, a demand stated in a NPC resolution passed earlier this year.

‘Land grabs part of structural genocide’ - interview with Tamil Nadu journalist Maga Tamizh Prabhagaran

Speaking to the Tamil Guardian, Indian film maker Maga Tamizh Prabhagaran condemned the procurement of Tamil land by the Sri Lankan government as part of a structural genocide, after the London screening of his film ‘This Land Belongs to the Army’. Prabhagaran, who was detained by Sri Lankan security forces whilst visiting the Tamil homeland in the North-East of the island, was eventually deported by Colombo. Upon arrival in London, Prabhagaran also described being held and interrogated for over 3 hours by British police, questioning him on the LTTE and on protests held by the Tamil diaspora. His film, detailing state procurement and Sinhalisation of the Tamil homeland, was screened at an international conference on land grabs earlier this month in London. Land grabs, the Sri Lankan state’s forcible and militarised procurement of Tamil owned land in the North-East, has seen international condemnation with a resolution having been presented to the US Senate this week outlining “ongoing concerns regarding landownership and property restitution”.

'A Fleeting Moment In My Country': Interview with Dr N Malathy

Tamil Guardian caught up with the author of ‘A Fleeting Moment in My Country’, Dr N Malathy, to speak about experiences described in her book. Dr N Malathy, a Tamil diaspora activist, currently working as an analyst and programmer at the University of Cantebury , has lived in New Zealand for over 4 decades. She spent 4 years working for various human rights and social welfare institutions, within the Tamil de-facto state in Vanni from 2005 to 2009. ‘A Fleeting Moment In My Country’ describes, Malathy’s experience and reflections of the LTTE administered de-facto state after returning to the region to engage in social welfare work. See below for a summarised transcript of our interview with Malathy.

Pages