Tamil Affairs

Tamil News

Latest news from and about the homeland

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The Association for Relatives of the Enforced Disappeared in the North-East (ARED) has appealed to the United Nations to ensure an international investigation into enforced disappearances and mass graves across the Tamil homeland, including the ongoing excavations at Chemmani, where more than 380 human skeletal remains have been uncovered. In a letter dated 19 June 2026, the association called…

BBS leader threatens ‘second Aluthgama’

The leader of Sinhala Buddhist organisation Bodu Bala Sena made threats that there would be a ‘second Aluthgama’ where Muslims were killed in riots by Sinhala nationalists, in a speech earlier this month, stated the Muslim Council of Sri Lanka (MCSL).

In a letter addressed to the Sri Lankan police, the president of the Muslim Council of Sri Lanka, N. M. Ameen, called for urgent action to prevent any violence.

Galagodaaththe Gnanasara Thero, the Buddhist monk that leads BBS, reportedly addressed a rally in Mahiyangana, threatening riots if Sri Lankan police sided with Muslims in the town.

Sri Lanka 'cannot backtrack' on foreign judges – Sumanthiran

Tamil National Alliance MP M A Sumanthiran stated that the Sri Lankan government “cannot backtrack” on implementing a UN resolution which will see foreign judges involved in a accountability mechanism.

“The TNA is very firm on an investigation with the involvement of the foreign legal luminaries,” said the parliamentarian in an interview to Ceylon Today.

Speaking on his meeting with the UN human rights chief Zeid Raad Al Hussein, Mr Sumanthiran said “even the UNHRC Commissioner is firm on implementing whatever agreed upon by the Lankan Government in the resolution".

"So, the Lankan Government cannot backtrack from what it had agreed upon on accommodating the foreign legal luminaries.”

Unwarranted praise' will cause SL to further withdraw from commitments - TCSF

High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid al Hussain should identify the "fundamental transgressions in the approach of the Government to the resolution", the Tamil Civil Society Forum said on Monday, days before the release of the high commissioner's oral report.

Victim confidence in Sri Lanka's ability to deliver on accountability and justice fading - NGOs at UNHRC

More to follow
"Initial hopes for accountability and justice are fading fast in the Tamil population," said Mr. Mario Arulthas, Advocacy Director for People for Equality and Relief in Lanka (P.E.A.R.L.) during an informal event at the 32nd Human Rights Council on Friday June 24th. The panel moderated by David Whaley (a former UN Resident Coordinator), also featured Ms. Nimalka Fernando (IMADR), Mr. Rajith Keerthi Tennakoon (Campaign for Free and Fair Elections, CaFFE), and Mr. Ruki Fernando (INFORM).

Tamil North-East leads island in taxes from intoxicants

The Sri Lankan government gains the most amount of tax from intoxicants from the Tamil North-East stated Maithripala Sirisena.

The Sri Lankan president said that the areas were the government collects the most tax was from Jaffna, Nuwara Eliya and Batticaloa respectively.

Alongside a rises in alcohol use, there has been an increase of illegal drug usage across the North-East, which civil society activists and politicians say has been contributing to the breakdown of the social fabric of the North-East.

Protestors in Jaffna demand accountability for the missing and release of land

Tamil protestors took to the streets of Jaffna today to demand the Sri Lankan government deliver accountability for their disappeared relatives, as well as release land that continues to be occupied by the military.

Fonseka joins UNP, dissolves Democratic Party

Sarath Fonseka, current leader of the Democratic Party and former Commander of the Sri Lankan Armed Forces, will be receiving membership in the United National Party (UNP) this week.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe will be conveying membership to Fonseka this Thursday at the UNP Headquarters in Sirikotha. The Democratic Party will subsequently be dissolved. 

This past February Fonseka was given the vacant UNP National List seat in parliament.


Little progress on Tamil issues in North-East say US Congress members

In a letter to the US Secretary of State John Kerry 24 US Congress members expressed growing concerns about Sri Lanka’s “political will and ability” to implement the United Nations Council Resolution on accountability and justice that was co-sponsored by the government last year.

Stressing that there had been “little progress on the key issues o concern to Tamils in the North and East reflected in the text Resolution 30/1,” the joint letter called for,

“The release of hundreds of detainees under the PTA, the return of land held by military to Tamil and Muslim civilian owners, investigations into the tens of thousands of forcibly disappeared people, the safe return of internally displaced (IDPs), and the removal of the military from civilian affairs in the North and East.”

"Sri Lanka wants the world to forget about justice for war victims. Please don't" - Guardian

"With the Sri Lankan government winding back commitments to reconciliation and justice measures, it’s up to the international community to hold them to account," writes Tamil activist Nirmanusan Balasundaram in the Guardian.

"For Tamil war victims and survivors, the statements by the Sri Lankan president and prime minister are indeed disheartening. Apart from a few symbolic returns of occupied Tamil lands and the release of some political prisoners, unsurprisingly, there have been no constructive actions to address wartime accountability or end the culture of impunity."

‘Blaming Rajapaksa demons for lack of progress is a false pretence’ – GTF spokesperson

 

The Sri Lankan government cannot continue to blame members of the former regime for the lack of progress in furthering accountability said the Global Tamil Forum’s spokesperson Suren Surendiran, in a piece published in Colombo Telegraph on Saturday.

“Barely four months since [the] Government of Sri Lanka internationally committing by co-sponsoring Resolution A/HRC/30/L.29 in Geneva, the U-turn came in spectacular fashion from the highest authority in the country, the President himself,” said Mr Surendiran.

“As if there wasn’t enough trust deficit between communities in Sri Lanka, this major let down, haemorrhaged the trust of Tamils in the new President and in his new coalition government.”