(Image courtesy: Nitin Kanotra | Hindustan Times) Despite the presence of thousands of Eelam Tamils who continue to seek asylum and refuge in India, only one Eelam Tamil, Nalini Kirubakaran was given the civic right to vote in India’s Lok Sabha elections this year. According to a recent report submitted to the government in India, as of 2023, 58,200 Tamil refugees were living in 104 camps across Tamil Nadu, and over 33,200 of them were living outside the camps. As for their civil documentation, 95% have Aadhaar cards, 78% have bank accounts, 1% have Sri Lankan passports and 3% have Sri Lankan...
The Commander of Sri Lanka’s Army Vikum Liyanage has filed legal action against an individual under the newly legislated Online Safety Act, after a social media post accused him of war crimes and corruption.
Tamils in Jaffna have demanded the Northern Provincial Governor provide them unfettered road access to lands that were allegedly “released” by the Sri Lankan government but remain restricted by military checkpoints. Residents met Governor P.S.M Charles this week where they requested that she speak with the security forces and provide them access through the main road networks. The residents lamented that they had to circumvent several roads to reach their lands or rely on dilapidated roads, which undermined their efforts to clear and reside in those lands again. Several military checkpoints...
The family and community of a Tamil man, whom Sri Lanka Police officers assaulted at the Puliyankulam station, organized a protest outside the station. They demanded the arrest of the officer-in-charge and his presentation before the courts. Approximately 40 protesters carried placards and banners during the demonstration outside the office of the Senior Superintendent of Police of the Vavuniya division. Their primary demand was for the police to ensure justice is served. The family members also questioned why the police were protecting a foreign individual, whom they allege also assaulted...
Former Sri Lankan president and accused war criminal Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga recently addressed an event at the Science Po Paris, also known as the Paris Institute of Political Studies, despite her history of human rights abuses and crimes against humanity. Kumaratunga was invited to give introductory remarks at the inauguration of the French university’s South Asia program. She joined the session virtually while other members of the faculty and alumni presided over the event. The former president studied at the Science Po in 1968, known in French as Institut d'études politiques de...
All images courtesy of Phoenix TNG A multi-sensory art exhibition was held in Basel, Switzerland, over the weekend to commemorate and raise awareness on the 2009 Tamil genocide. The exhibition, organised by Phoenix TNG in collaboration with LOTTA, drew attention to the massacre at Mullivaikkal, where Sri Lanka's forces slaughtered an estimated 169 796 Tamils. The exhibition, which attracted over 200 visitors, guided them through the ten stages of a genocide, with artwork demonstrating each stage. The artwork also highlighted the parallels between the genocides in Tamil Eelam, and other...
As part of a series marking 15 years since the atrocities of Mullivaikkal, we share a reflection from the homeland. At the end of the Mullivaikkal genocide, it was estimated that there were almost 80,000 woman-headed households in the North and East. In this video, a Tamil woman whose husband and brothers were disappeared during the war, reflects on the struggles she goes through as the head of the household and the gender-based discrimination in the society she lives in. This interview was originally published in May 2020. _____ See more reflections on our website www.RememberMay2009.com
On this day 15 years ago, Stephen Sunthararaj, an activist who had exposed the trafficking of Tamil children into international prostitution rings, was abducted and forcibly disappeared in Colombo by armed men in military uniforms. As part of his work he had told the then United States Ambassador in Colombo about prostitution rings run by government aligned paramilitaries in Jaffna. The paramilitaries were trafficking children into sex rings in India and Malaysia with the help of immigration officials.
The Mullaitivu Magistrate court has urged Sri Lanka's Wildlife Department to reconsider its case against 130 Tamils in the North-East. The Department alleges that the Tamils have unlawfully occupied and cleared parcels of land, but the Tamils refute this, asserting ownership through centuries-old deeds. In its case, the Wildlife Department has charged that 130 Tamils from Chundikulam and Karialvayal have cleared land and initiated farming on these lands. The Tamil residents however stated that they have been farming on these lands since 1908. The Department said that the individuals had...
A tribute was held at the Tamil National People's Front (TNPF) office in Kokuvil in memory of Manickavasagam Kanagasabapathy Eelvanthan (born Kanagentran) who passed away in Canada last week, aged 89. Members of the TNPF placed floral tributes and discussed his life and drew inspiration from his effort to amplify the cause for a Tamil homeland. Eelaventhan’s activism began in his twenties when he joined the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK). His penchant for equal rights to Tamils intensified when the Sinhala Only Act was tabled in the Sri Lankan parliament. Following the mandate of the...