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Bimal Rathnayake’s Ports Docked and Aviation Grounded by His Own Racist Politics

Bimal Rathnayake’s Ports Docked and Aviation Grounded by His Own Racist Politics

Bimal Rathnayake, arguably the most controversial minister in Anura Kumara Dissanayake's government and widely accused by Tamil parties of obstructing Northern development for racist reasons, has been removed from his powerful Ports and Aviation portfolio and reassigned as Minister of Transport, Highways and Urban Development. Tamil political circles have long accused Rathnayake of personally blocking the development of Palaly Airport and Kankesanthurai (KKS) Harbour — two projects viewed as cr


Our Reporter

Our Reporter

Neelan Unsilenced : The Life and Death of a Pluralist in a Divided Sri Lanka
Neelan Unsilenced : The Life and Death of a Pluralist in a Divided Sri Lanka

Neelan Unsilenced : The Life and Death of a Pluralist in a Divided Sri Lanka

“The way for emancipation  is to renounce language pride, national pride, religious pride, and caste pride.” – Periyar. Neelan Tiruchelvam – Unsilenced Directed by peace activist and filmmaker Pitasanna Shanmugathas, Unsilenced revisits the life and assassination of one of Sri Lanka’s most courageous liberal thinkers. The documentary traces Neelan’s relentless commitment to pluralism, constitutional reform, and democratic values at a time when both state repression and militant authoritariani


Chinniah Rajeshkumar (Ragavan)

Chinniah Rajeshkumar (Ragavan)

Sri Lanka’s Darkest Night: The Sathurukondan Massacre Still Awaits Accountability
Sri Lanka’s Darkest Night: The Sathurukondan Massacre Still Awaits Accountability

Sri Lanka’s Darkest Night: The Sathurukondan Massacre Still Awaits Accountability

On the 35th anniversary of one of Sri Lanka’s most horrific wartime atrocities against Tamils—where 42 children under the age of ten, including five infants less than a year old, were among the victims—justice remains elusive. The Sathurukondan massacre of September 9, 1990, claimed the lives of 184 Tamil civilians, yet three and a half decades later, accountability has still not been achieved. Marking the anniversary, families of victims and civil society leaders filed a fresh complaint demand


Jaffna Monitor

Jaffna Monitor

Can Sri Lanka Really Go Mine-Free by 2028?
Can Sri Lanka Really Go Mine-Free by 2028?

Can Sri Lanka Really Go Mine-Free by 2028?

In Sri Lanka, landmines claimed countless lives and left many more—combatants and civilians alike—crippled, limbless, or permanently scarred. Yet their true infamy is often traced to one shattering moment: the first-ever landmine explosion in Jaffna on 23 July 1983, an event that many regard as the spark that ignited the civil war. On that fateful day, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) buried a landmine on the Jaffna–Palaly main road, barely two kilometers from the heart of the city.


Dr. Gamini Goonetilleke

Dr. Gamini Goonetilleke

Ali Uthuman’s Memory Revived: Truth and Poetry Beyond Assassination
Ali Uthuman

Ali Uthuman’s Memory Revived: Truth and Poetry Beyond Assassination

Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) leader Rauff Hakeem sparked controversy this week when, during a condolence speech for former Deputy Minister Cegu Issadeen, he claimed that Ali Uthuman — a former member of the merged North–East Provincial Council — had been killed by the LTTE. The claim was swiftly challenged on social media by members of both the Muslim and Tamil communities. Users pointed out that the statement was factually incorrect: Ali Uthuman, a respected provincial politician and commu


Our Reporter

Our Reporter

She Only Asked for One More Doll
She Only Asked for One More Doll

She Only Asked for One More Doll

It was just another afternoon. The clinic was settling down. The rush of patients had slowed, the noise had faded, and there was a calmness in the air. My mind had started to relax—finally—when she walked in. She was quiet. Almost unsure of herself. She held an X-ray in her hand and walked up to the doctor sitting beside me. I had just seen off my last patient, and I was just watching now. But the moment I saw her, I was drawn in. She looked so young—maybe in her early 20s. Slim, dark brown sk


Dr. Nalayini Jegathesan

Dr. Nalayini Jegathesan

The Political Murder of Alfred Duraiappah and the Discourse on “Traitors” in Tamil Nationalist Politics
Alfred Duraiappah (fourth from left) in 1952, after being elected Deputy Mayor of the Jaffna Municipal Council at the age of 26.

The Political Murder of Alfred Duraiappah and the Discourse on “Traitors” in Tamil Nationalist Politics

Alfred Duraiappah was killed 50 years ago, on 27 July 1975, by my early friend—who would later become the LTTE supremo—Prabhakaran, along with a few other young men. Although I had no role in the killing, at the time I felt a deep sense of satisfaction, believing that a “traitor” had been removed and that, for the liberation of our people, such individuals had to be eliminated. After the murder, Prabhakaran came to my village, Punnalaikadduvan, and I sheltered him for almost a year in my grandm


Chinniah Rajeshkumar (Ragavan)

Chinniah Rajeshkumar (Ragavan)

THIRUKETHEESWARAM: THE TEMPLE THAT TIME COULDN’T ERASE
THIRUKETHEESWARAM: THE TEMPLE THAT TIME COULDN’T ERASE

THIRUKETHEESWARAM: THE TEMPLE THAT TIME COULDN’T ERASE

There’s a dry wind that blows through Mannar, the kind that tastes like salt and history. It howls over lagoons thick with flamingos, nudges the rusted skeletons of colonial forts, and settles like incense among the stone pillars of a temple that refuses to die. This is Thiruketheeswaram, one of the five ancient Iswarams of Lord Shiva in Sri Lanka. For thousands of years, pilgrims have whispered mantras here. Armies have marched past it, priests have anointed it, colonizers have desecrated it,


Abbi Kanthasamy

Abbi Kanthasamy