High profile resignations, a US$1 billion lawsuit from the President of the United States, and a global storm of outrage. Controversy has engulfed the world’s oldest national broadcaster this week.

Writing in Himal Southasian, an observer of the 1999 Chemmani exhumations reflects on newly uncovered mass graves and Sri Lanka’s continued failure to deliver justice for Tamil victims of war-time crimes

When Harini Amarasuriya first entered Sri Lankan politics, she was hailed as a different kind of politician — a feminist academic, a human rights advocate, and a rare progressive voice willing to challenge entrenched power. Her early writings spoke about systemic discrimination, the “implicit exclusions and violence” that underpin the Sri Lankan state, and the need to confront Sinhala-Buddhist nationalism head-on.

Writing in The Diplomat last week, Tamil Guardian editor Thusiyan Nandakumar described Tamil frustration at the latest United Nations Human Rights Council resolution on Sri Lanka, which has “been widely panned by observers as the weakest on Sri Lanka since such measures on accountability were first introduced” at the global body. 

There was a time when it was the tradition of Eelam Tamils to regard the thuyilum illams, (LTTE cemeteries) where the heroes they saw as guardian deities rested, as temples.

Below is the English translation of the editorial published on 2 October 2025 in the Jaffna-based Tamil daily Kaalai Murasu.

Sri Lanka acts like a well-behaved child whenever the war crimes, crimes against humanity, human rights violations, and genocidal acts alleged to have been committed during the final stages of the armed conflict are discussed at the United Nations Human Rights Council. Once the session concludes, all the pledges given there disappear into thin air. This is the usual spectacle.

Sri Lankan president Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s call at the United Nations for a ceasefire in Gaza drips with hypocrisy. The very man who stood on platforms railing against peace for Tamils now speaks the language of international humanitarianism. For Tamils on this island, his words are hollow and an insult.

Sri Lanka’s Deputy Defence Minister Aruna Jayasekara wants you to believe that the genocide against Tamils consisted of just “unfortunate incidents.” A few massacres here, a mass grave there. Mere accidents, really. The kind of thing that just happens when your military shells hospitals, rapes civilians, and executes prisoners.

A December 2024 Boiler Room music event held at the former Rio Cinema, a site set alight during the 1983 anti-Tamil pogroms, has drawn scrutiny over its corporate backing, promotional narrative, and ethical implications. The event, a collaboration between the global music platform Boiler Room, South Asian collective DialledIn, and Colombo based creative agency Fold Media, was publicly promoted as a post-war reconciliation initiative when content was released during July 2025’s Black July memorial period.

As Israel faces global outrage for imposing its siege on Gaza by cutting off food, water, and supplies to 2.3 million Palestinians, observers of Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict hear chilling echoes.