April 2026

Delivering the S.J.V. Chelvanayakam Memorial Oration at Jaffna Central College, the legal scholar and former minister traced decades of missed opportunities for political accommodation. The full text of his address is published below. JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — On the forty-ninth anniversary of the death of S. J. V. Chelvanayakam — the lawyer who founded the Federal Party and gave the Tamil demand for self-rule its modern political form — G. L. Peiris on Sunday delivered the S.J.V. Chelvanayakam Memor

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — The Sri Lanka Air Force has denied that it plans to install a radar system within the Fort Frederick precinct in Trincomalee, rejecting concerns raised by trustees of the Thirukoneswaram Temple, who had urged the public to oppose what they called a fresh encroachment on sacred land. Air Force officials, speaking to Jaffna Monitor on condition of anonymity in line with service protocols, said no proposal had been advanced to place radar equipment within the temple grounds or

They came through the doors shortly after ten at night, a small procession of exhausted travellers shuffling beneath an arch of blue-and-white balloons. A red carpet had been unrolled across the polished floor of Terminal 1. In the distance, a loudspeaker played “Oseh Shalom,” the old peace song that has become a runway anthem for Israeli homecomings. The men wore knitted kippot or hats. The married women wore head coverings, as is customary in Orthodox Judaism. Many were weeping. There were m

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — A proposal by the Sri Lanka Air Force to install a radar system on land within the historic Fort Frederick precinct in Trincomalee has drawn opposition from trustees of the Thirukoneswaram Temple, who say the move threatens the sanctity of the site and extends a decades-long pattern of military encroachment. The temple, which is associated in local tradition with King Ravana, is a Hindu shrine perched on a rocky promontory overlooking the Indian Ocean in eastern Sri Lanka.

BRAMPTON, Ontario — A 30-year-old Tamil man from Jaffna has died in this Toronto-area city under circumstances that have drawn allegations of police negligence and calls for an independent investigation from within the Tamil community in Canada and Sri Lanka. The man, Robert Kennedy, a native of Palaly in Jaffna and an alumnus of St. Patrick’s College, collapsed on a street in Brampton on April 13, according to family members and community sources familiar with the case. He was taken to hospita

CHAVAKACHCHERI, Sri Lanka — The Chavakachcheri Magistrate’s Court is to decide next week whether to initiate contempt of court proceedings against Balangoda Kassapa Thero, following submissions by a group of lawyers who allege that statements he made at a press conference in Colombo amount to contempt. The issue arises in connection with an ongoing case involving a Buddhist monk accused of attempting to sexually assault a minor at the Navatkuli Vihara. The accused monk was arrested, remanded, a