• ‘The Vanni’ - In conversation with Benjamin Dix

    On the morning of September 16th 2008, Benjamin Dix was part of a United Nations convoy that was driving out of Kilinochchi. “Civilians were protesting outside our offices begging us not to leave,” he recalls. “As we drove out that morning a Kfir - a government fighter jet - flew over the top of us and into the Vanni… It almost haunts me”. 

  • Sinhalese rights activist added to Sri Lanka’s 'terrorist list'

    The Sri Lankan government announced that Viraj Mendis, the Sinhalese chairperson of the International Human Rights Association – Bremen (IMRV), has been added to their list of known “terrorists” in an updated gazette notification that has been slammed as a "escalation in political repression".

  • Reflections from Mullivaikkal: Kilinochchi

    As part of a series marking the atrocities of Mullivaikkal, families of the disappeared protesting in Kilinochchi shared their reflections on their experiences and the struggles they continue to face a decade on. 

  • Reflections from Mullivaikkal: Keppapilavu

    As part of a series marking the atrocities of Mullivaikkal, land protestors from Keppapilavu shared their reflections on their experiences and the struggles they continue to face a decade on. 

  • ‘A case to be answered’ - Jeremy Corbyn on Tamil genocide and accountability 

    If the Sri Lankan government continues to reject key tenets of a UN Human Rights Council resolution on accountability then “clearly something has to be done in another direction,” UK Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn told the Tamil Guardian in an interview this weekend.

  • It never goes away' says Tamil torture survivor suing Gotabaya

    Roy Samathanam, a Tamil torture survivor, who filed a civil lawsuit against Sri Lanka's former defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, described how his experience of torture at the hands of Sri Lankan security forces "never goes away" speaking in London today.

  • Interview with TNA MP M A Sumanthiran: the Constitution, Transitional Justice and the Budget

     

    Tamil Guardian sat down with Spokesperson for the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and MP, M. A. Sumanthiran at his home in Colombo last week to discuss matters of the constitution, transitional justice and the budget.

  • New roads but tough obstacles remain – Interview with C V Wigneswaran

    Tamil Guardian interviewed the Chief Minister of the Northern Provincial Council C V Wigneswaran in London last week.

  • We must be ‘tough and supportive’ on justice in Sri Lanka – Interview with Stephen Rapp

    The former US Ambassador-at-large for Global Criminal Justice Stephen Rapp speaks to the Tamil Guardian about the road to justice in Sri Lanka.

  • Though changes may be slow, no need to compromise demands - MA Sumanthiran

     

    Tamil Guardian caught up with Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian after his parliamentary speech on Sri Lanka’s constitutional assembly speech last week.

     

  • "As an artist I’m still dealing with being a refugee" - Interview with M.I.A.

    “I’ve always been vocal from day one about the fact that I was a refugee and not a migrant. There was no secret. I actually left Sri Lanka because we were bombed and shot at.” The global icon talks politics and life with Tamil Guardian.

  • Colombo has a stronghold on North-East of Sri Lanka: Interview with APPG-T Chair James Berry

     

     


    As discussions on how to deal with the findings of the UN investigation into Sri Lanka’s mass atrocities (OISL) reach fever pitch, the newly elected chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Tamils, James Berry, spoke to the Tamil Guardian last week.

    Speaking ahead of the release of the UN report into mass atrocities and after meeting the Chief Minister of the Northern Province, the APPG-T chair reiterated calls for normalcy in the North-East and stressed the need for any process to deal with the findings of the OISL to have the full confidence of the victims.

  • North-East demands international investigation' - Interview with MK Shivajilingam

    Photograph:eKuruvi


    Tamil National Alliance (TNA) member of the Northern Provincial Council, MK Shivajilingam has said the people of the North-East have now demonstrated to the international community their demands for a international independent investigation, with the unanimous passing of a Northern Provincial Council (NPC) resolution.

    In an interview with Tamil Guardian earlier this week, Shivajilingam stated that any domestic investigation by Sri Lanka should be rejected and only an international investigation can bring progress and justice, a demand stated in a NPC resolution passed earlier this year.

  • ‘Land grabs part of structural genocide’ - interview with Tamil Nadu journalist Maga Tamizh Prabhagaran

    Speaking to the Tamil Guardian, Indian film maker Maga Tamizh Prabhagaran condemned the procurement of Tamil land by the Sri Lankan government as part of a structural genocide, after the London screening of his film ‘This Land Belongs to the Army’.

    Prabhagaran, who was detained by Sri Lankan security forces whilst visiting the Tamil homeland in the North-East of the island, was eventually deported by Colombo. Upon arrival in London, Prabhagaran also described being held and interrogated for over 3 hours by British police, questioning him on the LTTE and on protests held by the Tamil diaspora.

    His film, detailing state procurement and Sinhalisation of the Tamil homeland, was screened at an international conference on land grabs earlier this month in London.

    Land grabs, the Sri Lankan state’s forcible and militarised procurement of Tamil owned land in the North-East, has seen international condemnation with a resolution having been presented to the US Senate this week outlining “ongoing concerns regarding landownership and property restitution”.

Subscribe to Interviews