Tamil Affairs

Tamil News

Latest news from and about the homeland

A newly published study has identified the earliest scientifically confirmed evidence of prehistoric human settlement on Velanai Island in the Jaffna Peninsula, dating back around 3,460 years and overturning an erroneous long-held Sri Lankan assumption that the region was largely uninhabited until much later. The study, published in the Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology and led by…

Sri Lankan and Indian troops take to the skies in training exercise

An Indian navy aircraft participated in a training exercise with Sri Lankan soldiers last week, despite concerns of rights abuses committed by the Sri Lankan military against Tamils on the island.

Sirisena 'not aware' of new constitution and instead warns of ‘foreign forces’

Sri Lanka’s president said that he was "not aware" of moves to bring about a new constitution for the island and warned that “foreign forces” were operating on the island after meeting with Buddhist monks in Horana this week.

Illegal Buddhist temple built in Vavuniya forest

A Buddhist vihara is being built illegally in the forested land of a Tamil village in Vavuniya.

Residents of Nedunkeni informed divisional council officials that they had seen areas of forest cut down and huts built up in the village of Oottrukulam, a Tamil village bordering the Anuradhapura district.

Temple for Tamil king Ravanan opened in Jaffna

A new Saiva Tamil temple paying tribute to the legendary Tamil king Ravanan has been opened in Moolai - Ponnalai in the Jaffna district.

Sri Lankan army's claymore attack on Vanni school bus remembered

The massacre of twenty civilians, including eleven school children in Vanni by a claymore attack by the Sri Lankan army in 2008 was remembered on Tuesday by families of the dead. 

Local Sri Lankan intelligence officers threatened families, warning them not to hold the event. Families remained defiant however, and held a remembrance event at the site of the claymore attack.   

Forestry officials block landowners from entry in Kilinochchi

Sri Lanka's Forestry Department officials blocked Tamil landowners from entering their land in Jeyapuram, Kilinochchi this week. 

As landowners tried to visit their land, they were stopped by officials who claimed the 548 acres of land, which includes fertile, agricultural lands as well as residential areas, belonged to the department. 

Jeyapuram landowners have filed a complaint with Sri Lanka's Human Rights Commission. 

 

Vavuniya students protest against lack of principal

School students in Vavuniya protested on Monday against the authorities' failure to appointment a principal to the school, despite repeated requests citing the negative impact on student education. 

Parents and alumni of Chinna-adampan Bharathi Vidyalayam joined students in their portest, which took place outside the building before school began. 

Thampalakamam massacre by Sri Lankan police remembered in Trinco

The Sri Lankan police's massacre of 8 Tamil civilians, including two schoolchildren in Thampalakamam, was remembered yesterday at the Trincomalee village, twenty years on. 

On February 1, 1998 civilians working at the local paddy fields were taken to the nearby police station where officers and home guards began shooting at them, before mutilating the dead bodies by stabbing and kicking them. One dead Tamil man's penis was cut off and stuffed inside his mouth. 

Militarisation: More Sri Lankan troops at a Tamil pre-school

The Sri Lankan army continued with its miltiarisation of the North-East, by deploying soldiers to a Tamil pre-school in Kilinochchi to help pick up litter.

According to an official military website, 15 Army members of the 652 Brigade of the 65 Division cleaned up “garbage and other pollutants” from the Haridas Pre-school “under the supervision of Colonel Prabhath Kodithuwakku, Brigade Commander, 652 Brigade”.

People’s Alliance for Right to Land condemns intimidation of protesting Keppapulavu families

The People’s Alliance for Right to Land released a statement this week, condemning the Sri Lankan security forces’ intimidation of Tamil families from Keppapulavu who were protesting and demanding the release of their land from Sri Lankan military occupation.