Our Reporter

Our Reporter

‘Our Reporter’ is a collective byline representing a team of Jaffna- and Sri Lanka-based journalists and editorial staff who contribute to Jaffna Monitor.

After Passing Over Vijay, Sri Lankan Tamil Nationalist Leaders Seek His Support

After Passing Over Vijay, Sri Lankan Tamil Nationalist Leaders Seek His Support

CHENNAI, India — A delegation of Sri Lankan Tamil nationalist leaders who once passed over Vijay when he was an opposition politician met him Friday as Tamil Nadu's chief minister, marking a striking reversal as the actor-turned-politician completed his rapid rise to power. The seven-member delegation from the Tamil National People's Front-led Tamil National Council held talks with Mr. Vijay at the Tamil Nadu Secretariat in Chennai, presenting a memorandum on Sri Lankan Tamil political rights,
JM Exclusive July 2026
Our Reporter

Our Reporter
At Freedom 250 Celebration, U.S. Embassy Hails Cinema as America’s Global Gift

At Freedom 250 Celebration, U.S. Embassy Hails Cinema as America’s Global Gift

COLOMBO — Addressing several hundred guests on the floodlit grounds of the United States Embassy on Thursday evening, the senior American diplomat in Sri Lanka framed the 250th anniversary of American independence not around treaties or trade, but around the movies. "Tonight, we celebrate 250 years of American independence by honoring one of our nation's greatest gifts to the world — the art of cinema," said Jayne Howell, the chargé d'affaires who has run the embassy since January. For more th
July 2026 Monitor Memo
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Our Reporter
Former Sri Lankan Navy Chief Arrested Over Rajapaksa Son's Recruitment

Former Sri Lankan Navy Chief Arrested Over Rajapaksa Son's Recruitment

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka’s anti-corruption commission arrested a former navy commander, Admiral of the Fleet Wasantha Karannagoda, on Friday over the 2006 recruitment of a son of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa into the navy and his subsequent officer training in Britain at state expense, deepening an inquiry into how the country’s most powerful political family bent state institutions to its purposes. The Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption, known as CIABOC,
July 2026 Monitor Memo
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Our Reporter
The Pilgrim Dog That Walked Into a Religious Firestorm

The Pilgrim Dog That Walked Into a Religious Firestorm

JAFFNA — It began as a small miracle on a long road. Somewhere along the Pada Yatra, the two-month foot pilgrimage that winds from the Tamil north down to the shrine of Kataragama, in Sri Lanka’s deep south, a stray dog fell in step with the devotees and simply kept walking. Moved by the animal’s persistence, the pilgrims named him Subramani, another name for Lord Murugan, the deity to whom Kataragama is sacred. It is also the name of the puppy that Kamal Haasan and Sridevi dote on in Balu Mah
JM Exclusive July 2026
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Our Reporter
The Party at 105: China Makes Its Case to Sri Lanka

The Party at 105: China Makes Its Case to Sri Lanka

COLOMBO — China's ambassador to Sri Lanka, Qi Zhenhong, used a reception marking the 105th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China to defend Beijing's political system, promote its global development agenda, and signal deeper engagement with Sri Lanka's political parties under the leadership of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake. Addressing politicians from across Sri Lanka's political spectrum, diplomats and government officials, Mr. Qi said the Communist Party of China had
July 2026
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Our Reporter
Exiled Sri Lankan Muslim Woman Writer Renews Calls for Inquiry Into Easter Bombing Case

Exiled Sri Lankan Muslim Woman Writer Renews Calls for Inquiry Into Easter Bombing Case

A prominent exiled Muslim woman writer has renewed calls for Sri Lankan authorities to explain why a man who arranged covert medical treatment for the brother of the 2019 Easter Sunday bombing mastermind was released without ever being brought to trial. In a Facebook post this week, Sharmila Seyyid, a novelist and activist who has lived in the United States since 2021 after years of threats from Islamist extremists in Sri Lanka, said she had filed two formal complaints — with the Criminal Inves
July 2026 Monitor Memo
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Our Reporter
"Like Anura's Mouth": Pillayan Calls Charges 'False Accusations'

"Like Anura's Mouth": Pillayan Calls Charges 'False Accusations'

BATTICALOA, Sri Lanka — Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan, the former state minister better known as Pillayan, was ordered held in custody on Tuesday over a separate series of killings dating to 2008, even as the terrorism investigation that has kept him imprisoned for more than a year over the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings has yet to produce a single criminal charge. Mr. Chandrakanthan, a former chief minister of the Eastern Province and one-time commander of the breakaway Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pu
June 2026 Monitor Memo
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Our Reporter
Sri Lanka Sends Its Largest Force to Haiti. Its Past Goes With It.

Sri Lanka Sends Its Largest Force to Haiti. Its Past Goes With It.

COLOMBO — More than a thousand Sri Lankan soldiers and police officers are preparing to deploy to Haiti in August, the largest single contingent the country has ever sent abroad — and a return, after more than a decade, to the same Caribbean nation where its peacekeepers were once documented running a child sex ring that went unpunished. The deployment, announced by the government, comprises 900 army personnel drawn from several regiments, 189 officers of the Police Special Task Force, and, fo
JM Exclusive June 2026
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Our Reporter