Tamil Affairs

Tamil News

Latest news from and about the homeland

Tamil families of the forcibly disappeared in the North-East have announced that they will convene an international conference on 30 August, marking the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, to renew their rejection of Sri Lanka's domestic accountability mechanisms and their demand for international justice. The announcement was made by representatives of the Association…

Facebook a plague' - Mahinda Rajapaksa

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa labelled Facebook a 'plague' which was affecting the younger generation, at a speech given at a school in the south of the island, earlier this month.

Despite this, the ruling government have refused to state whether they will ban Facebook, after it was brought up in the Sri Lankan parliament by UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Hindu temple in Dambulla demolished


A thirty-year-old Hindu temple in the Central Provincial town of Dambulla, was demolished overnight reports Colombo Telegraph.

The shrine to Badhrakaali Amman was razed to the ground, despite appeals made to the President by Tamil politicians, and joins a long list of non-Buddhist places of worship that have come under attack.

Western Provincial Councillor N Kumar Guruparan, who had personally taken up the matter said:

No Fire Zone to be broadcast on Channel 4

The third documentary by Director Callum Macrae about the final months of the armed conflict in Sri Lanka, No Fire Zone, will be screened on British television by Channel 4 on Sunday at 22:50.

Macrae, who was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for his movies on the conflict, announced the broadcast at a panel discussion on Sri Lanka in Parliament last week, saying that there would be new, previously unseen material.

SL Navy opens fire on Indian fishermen

The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister has written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh,calling on him to 'unequivocally condemn' an attack on Indian fishermen by the Sri Lankan Navy on Sunday.

According to reports, the Navy fired on 6 fishermen from Tamil Nadu, without warning.

In her letter to the Prime Minister Jayalalithaa said,

‘Role model’ Suresh Sriskandarajah sentenced to two years in New York

A Canadian Tamil was found guilty of providing material support to a banned terrorist organisation and sentenced to two years in prison.

Suresh Sriskandarajah, who was extradited to the US last December and has been in detention since, pleaded guilty to the charge in July and asked to be sentenced to time already served.

Rajapaksa brothers to control 47% of the Sri Lankan budget

Almost half of the 2014 budget expenditure has been allocated to ministries under the President and his brothers, outlined Sri Lanka’s opposition, the United National Party (UNP) today.

Speaking at press briefing, the General Secretary of the UNP, Tissa Attanayake, reiterated,

Doctors go on strike after 2 years of failed agreements

The Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA), announced today that it would carry out an island wide strike during the month of CHOGM.

Highlighting the government’s failure to implement an agreement made over 2 years ago, the GMOA said that the only option left was to go on strike.

Army threatens journalists investigating home demolitions

Five Tamil journalists were reportedly threatened by soldiers while trying to investigate the demolition of houses in Valikamam North’s ‘High Security Zone’.

The journalists from mainstream media outlets Valampuri, Thinakkural, Shakthi TV, Tamil Mirror and Uthayan had their cameras and equipment snatched by soldiers, and were violently threatened to delete all videos, photographs and audio clips of the demolitions.

British Tamils protest Cameron's decision to attend CHOGM

British Tamils gathered outside 10 Downing Street today, to further calls for the Prime Minister to boycott he upcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Colombo.


Braving the aftermath of the Storm St Jude, which hit the south of England earlier today, the demonstrators called for David Cameron to boycott CHOGM, Sri Lanka to be expelled from the Commonwealth, and an international independent investigation into war crimes and genocide committed in Sri Lanka.

Profiling Rajapaksa - The Observer

Leading up to the Commonwealth Heads Of Government Meeting due to be held in Colombo next month, the Observer profiled Sri Lankan Presidet Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Extracts have been reproduced below. See the full piece here.
"Mahinda Rajapaksa: Sri Lanka's saviour or war criminal?"

"The summit is controversial. Rajapaksa, now in his eighth year of power, is much reviled – at least in the west. The chief charges against him are serious: that he ignored, condoned or even encouraged war crimes committed by Sri Lankan troops in the final bloody phases of the campaign to crush the brutal Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (popularly known as the Tamil Tigers); that he has again ignored, condoned or possibly even ordered a wave of repression directed at those who contest his or his government's authority; that he has made no serious effort to reach out politically to Sri Lanka's Tamil minority; that he aims to ensure that his family's grip on the island nation is without challenge for decades to come."


"One problem for his critics is that, though elections are marred by intimidation, violence and the misuse of state resources, few deny that Rajapaksa's successive poll victories reflect a genuine mandate. Even his opponents in Colombo admit that he remains without a serious local political challenger. His heartland is rural, conservative, Buddhist and dominated by the Sinhalese majority."