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…

Tamil journalist summoned by CID

A Tamil journalist has been summoned by Sri Lanka's Criminal Investigation Division (CID) on August 24. 

The journalist, Nadarajah Kuharajah was working for a private television station based in Jaffna

The investigation is in relation to the arrest and bail of 'Swiss Kumar', a suspect in the case of the murder of a Pungudutivu school girl. 

Sivaloganathan Vithiya, 18, was raped and murdered in May 2015. 

The violence and brutality of the crime shocked the North-East, with widespread protests calling for her perpetrators to face justice. 

Last year a tribunal sentenced seven men for the crime. 

 

Tamil UNP MP - not sorry for LTTE sentiments

The Tamil UNP MP, Vijayakala Maheswaran, who was forced to resign from her ministerial post after Sinhala politicians objected to her call last month for a resurgence of the LTTE to control the violent crime in the North-East, said she was not sorry for her comments. 

“I will not succumb to others’ sentiments or pay a price that I am not entitled to settle," she told Ceylon Today in an interview. 

“I was born on Tamil soil and if the people from the South had lived with us they will have the same sentiments I have expressed."

500 acres in North-East to be released from military occupation before December - Resettlement Ministry

500 acres of military-occupied land in the North-East is to be released at a cost of Rs 780 million to relocate the camps, the Sunday Times reports.

Around 500 acres of privately-owned land including some located in High Security Zones are to be released before December, the resettlement ministry secretary told the newspaper.

The Government would allocate Rs 780 million to relocate the camps, the secretary said.

Memorial for 1984 massacre of Tamil civilians opened in Kaithady

A memorial for a 1984 massacre of Tamil co-operative workers was opened on Saturday in Chavakachcheri.

On 13th August 1984, ten civilians including workers from the Thenmarachchi West Multipurpose Co-operative Society were killed by Sri Lankan soldiers.

Southern students taken on tour of Jaffna HSZ, which remains off limits to Tamils

The Sri Lankan military took students from a college in the south of the island on a tour of the Palali High Security Zone (HSZ) in Jaffna this week, an area that the army has blocked off to local Tamils that own private land there.

UN ‘cannot afford’ to fail on Sri Lanka warns GTF

The Global Tamil Forum (GTF) called on the newly appointed UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to ensure there is accountability for human rights violations committed in Sri Lanka, warning that not doing so would be “an undesirable failure the UN system cannot afford”.

In a statement released to welcome the appointment of former Chilean president Michelle Bachelet as the new UN human rights chief, the GTF called for Sri Lanka to continue “to be under the purview” of the UN Human Rights Council.

Sri Lankan navy seizes 83.5kg of cannabis in Jaffna

The Sri Lankan navy claims to have recovered parcels containing 83.5kg of Kerala cannabis, at Kankesanthurai in Jaffna earlier today.

Divisional Council passes resolution to remove Sri Lankan army camp in front of Tamil school

The Manthai East Divisional Council has passed a resolution to remove a Sri Lankan military camp that has been set up in front of a Tamil school.

The Divisional Council passed the resolution at a meeting this week following a proposal from Northern Provincial Council member T Ravikaran.

Teachers at the Manthai Paalinagar Vithiyalayam in Mullaitivu had told the NPC member that the presence of the camp was having an impact on the children’s education, with schoolchildren in fear of attending.

The resolution comes as the Sri Lankan military consolidates its presence in the North-East, with ongoing military involvement in activities in Tamil schools.

OMP says interim report will be released Aug 30

Sri Lanka's Office on Missing Persons (OMP) said on Thursday that it would be publishing an interim report with recommendations on August 30, to coincide with the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances. 

The interim report will be launched at a commemorative event organised by the OMP in Colombo's J. R. Jayawardene Centre, named after the former Sri Lankan president who oversaw the pogrom of Black July 1983. 

Sri Lanka's OMP has been repeatedly criticised by Tamil families of the disappeared as an "exercise in futility", stating it lacks independence and failed to take their views into account. 

Sri Lankan soldier describes use of LTTE uniforms to infiltrate defences

A Sri Lankan soldier has described how the military used to conduct operations disguised in LTTE uniforms to infiltrate LTTE defences. 

"We go for an operation dressed in a uniform similar to those worn by the LTTE and fitting sandal soles to the boots. Then the eight of us spread out. We have protected others and achieved our targets," the soldier, known as Sagara told the Daily Mirror in an interview about his time in the military.