Tamil Affairs

Tamil News

Latest news from and about the homeland

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  The lawyer representing detained Tamil rapper Sangeethsan Ganeskumar challenged allegations that his client sought to revive the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) during proceedings before the Jaffna Magistrate's Court this week, arguing that the material cited by police contains no reference to the organisation or its leadership. Sangeethsan, better known by his stage name…

It's our land: Our Nilam' - Advert in Scottish paper speaks out against Tamil land grabs


Ahead of the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, also known as COP26, an advert in The National, a Scottish paper, speaks out against continued deforestation and land grabs undertaken by the Sri Lankan military against Eelam Tamils.

Jaffna Councillor interrogated by Sri Lanka’s Terrorism Division over uniforms

Municipal Councillor V. Parthiban was summoned to the Terrorism Investigation Division (TID) for a five-hour interrogation regarding the uniforms of a Jaffna Municipal Council task force.

'This is completely unacceptable!' - UK and Canadian parliamentarians speak out against Facebook's censorship of Tamil Guardian

UK and Canadian parliamentarians called on Instagram to reinstate Tamil Guardian's page after it was disabled yesterday without prior warning.  

Elliot Colburn, MP for Carshalton and Wallington and Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Tamils (APPGT) called the ban "completely unacceptable" and that the APPGT will be making representations to the social media platform. 

Simply appalling' - British MPs slam meeting between UK and Sri Lanka Foreign Ministers


British MPs have condemned the UK Foreign Secretary, Elizabeth Truss, following her meeting with Sri Lanka's Foreign Minister, GL Peiris, in which they discussed "boosting economic ties", "deepening trade and investment links", and "strengthening security ties".

The meeting follows the appointment of the convicted extremist monk, Galagodaaththe Gnanasara, to head a Presidential Task Force focused on achieving "One Country One Law". Responding to this announcement, the International Commission of Jurists have raised concerns over the targetting of religious minorities tweeting:

Mullaitivu families of the disappeared bravely stage protest amidst intimidation by Sri Lanka's security forces

Tamil families of the disappeared staged a protest in Mullaitivu today to mark the 1696th day of their roadside protest while Sri Lankan security forces watched over the demonstration. 

In an act of intimidation, Sri Lankan security force officers took photographs and monitored the families as they demonstrated outside the hut where they began their protest on March 18, 2017. 

How Sri Lanka’s CID tried to take down Tamil Guardian’s Twitter

In December 2020, Twitter notified the editors of the Tamil Guardian that Sri Lanka’s Criminal Investigations Department had formally written to the social media platform, calling for posts by the news website to be removed.

“In the interest of transparency, we are writing to inform you that Twitter has received a request from Sri Lanka's Criminal Investigation Department,” reads an email from Twitter sent on Monday, December 7th 2020.

One Country One Law' taskforce may target minority communities warns ICJ

The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) expressed their concern over Sri Lanka's new Presidential Task Force which is focused on achieving "One Country One Law”, as it may target minority communities on the island. 

STATEMENT - Instagram disables Tamil Guardian’s page in act of online censorship

This morning Instagram disabled Tamil Guardian’s page without any prior warning or explanation, a move that amounts to a dangerous and unwarranted form of online censorship.

???????/UNBUDDHISM

I don’t call myself Buddhist any more. There was a long time when I still automatically used it as an identifier in forms and affidavits, but even that has passed many years ago. But because Buddhism is racialized in Sri Lanka, it’s also impossible to entirely escape it: regardless of what you believe or don’t believe, practice or don’t, Buddhist privilege is inescapable if you have a Sinhala name or had a Buddhist childhood. For example, I know the ??????, which is a short prayer of praise for the Buddha, now most notable for its use as a shibboleth to distinguish Tamil speakers from Sinhala speakers during the 1983 pogrom. Once you know things like that, I feel, this prayer—and all the other Pali prayers—become unspeakable. They stop meaning what they say; they stop meaning what they might have once meant. Now they mean something else.

Submission filed with International Criminal Court to investigate Sri Lanka

A landmark legal submission has been filed with the International Criminal Court (ICC) calling on the Chief Prosecutor to “investigate and in due course arrest” several senior Sri Lankan officials for crimes against humanity.

The submission, filed by Global Rights Compliance LLP on behalf of 200 Tamil victims in the United Kingdom, is being made under Article 15 of the Rome Statute, which allows the prosecutor to initiate investigations “on the basis of information on crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court”.