The Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF) leader, Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, expressed his concerns and “sadness at Jaffna University turning a blind eye” to Jaffna-based lawyer Dr Kumaravadivel Guruparan’s resignation as Senior Lecturer of the Department of Law at the University of Jaffna, last week. 

Following months of state-led harassment, Dr Kumaravadivel Guruparan handed in his resignation to the University of Jaffna last week. Not only is this a massive loss to academia on the island, but it is a stark and dangerous marker of the road that Sri Lanka is hurtling down, writes Thusiyan Nandakumar.

Canada’s prime minister joined politicians across the aisle in commemorating the anniversary of Black July today, a week of anti-Tamil pogroms thirty-seven years ago that killed thousands of people across the island.

Canada shares an important history with Tamils, housing the largest fraction of Eelam Tamils outside of South Asia. Approximating 140,720 residents who identify as “Tamil” according to a census released by Statistics Canada in 2016.

Following a downgrading of Sri Lanka’s sovereign credit to ‘-B’, Fitch warns that Sri Lanka’s GDP will contract 1.3 per cent in 2020 and has stated that bad loans will continue to increase from the reported 5.1 per cent stated for the first quarter of 2020.

 Commenting on their rating, Fitch stated that;

“There is a strong link between the sovereign credit profile and the operating conditions for banks in Sri Lanka”.

With an opening ceremony replete with Sinhala Buddhist monks, military officials and Sinhalese musicians and dancers, the Sri Lankan army facilitated the opening of a Buddhist school in Batticaloa, in another move abetting the Sinhalisation of the Eastern province.

This was my father’s lorry that he used for his business, he actually owned two of them and would deliver goods across Sabaragamuwa Province in Sri Lanka. He also owned two shops in Ratnapura. He was doing well in life. 

In 1981, the anti Tamil violence by Sinhala mobs reached Ratnapura and my father’s lorries and shops were looted and burnt to the ground. People were killed, businesses destroyed and women raped.

Students at the University of Jaffna held a remembrance event to mark 37 years since the pogrom of Black July in 1983.  

A video from Sri Lanka which purportedly shows campaigners for a Sinhala politician canvassing for votes has gone viral on the island, after they explained on camera that their candidate was only looking for “Sinhala Buddhist and Catholic” votes.

The video captures two women canvassing on behalf of Sinhala nationalist politician and Assistant Leader of the Pivithuru Hela Urumaya (PHU), Madumadawa Aravinda.

Sri Lanka’s Registrar General's Department has issued a statement clarifying initial reports that all new birth certificates will not refer to any race or religion and will issued as “Sri Lankan,” in a move that has raised concern over the erasure of ethnic identities on the island.
 

Selvarajah Yogachandran, referred to as Kuttimani, and Nadarajah Thangavelu, alias Thangathurai were the co-founding leaders of TLO (Tamil Liberation Organisation). The group consisted of student revolutionaries working for a common goal – a free Tamil Eelam. TLO was informally formed in 1969, in Valvettithurai. It then later became the centralised notion for Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO). It was rumoured that they robbed banks to fund their radical activities.

In 1976, Kuttimani’s name appeared on the list of 47 Tamil prisoners held without trial under Emergency Regulations. Martin Ennals of Amnesty International had constructed the Report of Amnesty International Mission (Jan 1975) in which it indicates that Kuttimani was a “prisoner whose case is under investigation by Amnesty International”. The report further discloses that Kuttimani was kept in Welikada and was arrested in August 1975. He was released in 1977.

On March 21st, 1981, Neervely’s Bank robbery of 8 million Sri Lankan rupees led the Sri Lankan police officials to accuse Kuttimani as the orchestrater. He was arrested on April 5, 1981 along with Thangathurai and Selvadurai Sivasubramaniam alias, Devan, while bidding to escape in a boat to Tamil Nadu. The following year, in August, Kuttimani and Jegan were served a death sentence by Colombo High Court, under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA).

Ganeshanathan Jeganathan, nicknamed Jegan was a political writer and one of the members of TELO. He hailed from Thondaimanaru. The abrupt death of TULF’s Vaddukoddai MP T. Thirunavukkarasu in 1982, allowed an open seat for Kuttimani. Despite a multitude of pressure to nominate Kuttimani as their sponsored candidate in the first Presidential election, the leader of TULF, A. Amirthalingam feared the wrath of Jayewardene.

Caving to the will of the people, Amirthalingam informed the Elections Commissioner of his decision to nominate Kuttimani as the new MP of Vaddukoddai. Still, Kuttimani would not be released from prison to take his oaths, and legally, he was disqualified from membership of parliament.

On November 2nd, 1981, the trials of Kuttimani, Thangathurai and Devan began under the Sri Lanka Prevention of Terrorism Act. The outcome of the trial was a death sentence. Famously, Kuttimani stated:

“I request that I should be hanged in Tamil Eelam… I request that my eyes be donated to some blind person, so that Kuttimani will be able to see through those eyes the reality of Tamil Eelam”.

Whilst their trials were still pending, Kuttimani and Thangathurai were brutally murdered in Welikada Maximum Security Prison. Kuttimani’s tormentors “gouged out” his eyes - an allusion to the request that he had made and Thangathurai’s tongue was cut off for his speeches of nonconformity. According to Amnesty International the Sinhala prisoners were offered alcohol and permitted to attack the Tamil prisoners.

Along with Kuttimani and Thangathurai, the Tamil prisoners who were massacred in Welikada on 25th July 1983 were:

Nadesathasan, Jegan, Alias Sivarasa, Sivan Anpalagan, A. Balasubramaniam, Surash Kumar, Arunthavarajah, Thanapalasingham, Arafat, Anpalagan Sunduran, P. Mahendran, Ramalingam Balachandran, K. Thillainathan, K. Thavarajasingham, S. Subramaniam, Mylvaganam Sinnaiah, G. Mylvaganam, Ch. Sivanantharajah, T. Kandiah, S. Sathiyaseelan, Kathiravelpillai, Easvaranathan, K. Nagarajah, Gunapalan Ganeshalingam, S. Kularajasekaram, K. Krishnakumar, K. Uthaya Kumar, R. Yoganathan, S. Sivakumar, A. Uthayakumar, A. Rajan, G. Amirthalingam, S. Balachandran, V. Chandrakumar, Yogachandran Killi, Sittampalam Chandrakulam and Master Navaratnam Sivapatham.