Exclusive Interview - Jaffna Monitor

“The Window Is Narrowing”: Former JVP General Secretary Lionel Bopage Warns NPP on Tamil Question

By Aruliniyan Mahalingam Lionel Bopage was General Secretary of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) from 1978 to February 1984. After the failed insurrection of April 1971, he was the second accused in the main trial before the Criminal Justice Commission, and he spent much of the next seven years in Welikada prison alongside the party's founder, Rohana Wijeweera. Together they drafted the JVP's policy declaration. The sections dealing with the Tamil-speaking people of the north, the east and t

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Aruliniyan Mahalingam

Oct 11, 2026 — 30 min read

‘Our People Were Failed by Both National and International Justice Systems’: Shankari Chandran

By Aruliniyan Mahalingam Shankari Chandran came to fiction the way some people come to prayer: after everything else had failed. For a decade in London she ran the pro bono programmes of one of the world's largest law firms. The work took her into more than thirty countries, into the question of who would represent the men held at Guantánamo Bay, and at one point into the office of a British prime minister. She believed what lawyers are trained to believe, which is that the law is a slow mac

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Aruliniyan Mahalingam

Jul 25, 2026 — 20 min read

Land, the PTA and a Postponed Vote: Europe's Ambassadors on the North's Unfinished Business

By: Aruliniyan Mahalingam When the French Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Rémi Lambert, and the German Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Dr. Felix Neumann, travelled together to Jaffna, the visit was more than a diplomatic stop in the island’s north. Over a series of meetings with political leaders, civil society representatives, academics and other local stakeholders, the two envoys heard first-hand about the region’s potential, hopes and frustrations as well as its unresolved challenges. In a joint intervie

Exclusive Interview July 2026

Aruliniyan Mahalingam

Jul 18, 2026 — 24 min read

Patience, Policy Consistency and Inclusive Growth Drive Viet Nam’s Success, Envoy Tells Jaffna Monitor

Viet Nam—a country that endured one of the most devastating wars of the 20th century and one of the heaviest aerial bombardments in modern history, its cities reduced to rubble and its society fractured by ideology and superpower rivalry—today stands among the fastest-growing economies in the world. The war left behind not only physical destruction but also enduring human images, none more searing than that of nine-year-old Phan Thị Kim Phúc, captured running in agony after a napalm attack. Nea

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Aruliniyan Mahalingam

Mar 20, 2026 — 11 min read

Dutch Ambassador Says Russia Tried to Censor Ukraine War Photos in Sri Lanka

COLOMBO — March 11, 2026 The Netherlands’ ambassador to Sri Lanka, Wiebe de Boer, has accused Russia of attempting to restrict what Sri Lankan audiences can see after the Russian Embassy demanded that photographs depicting Moscow’s war in Ukraine be removed from a traveling international photojournalism exhibition currently on display in the country. In an exclusive interview with Jaffna Monitor, Ambassador de Boer said the objections raised by the Russian Embassy reflected an effort to impose

Exclusive Interview March 2026

Our Special Correspondent

Mar 14, 2026 — 3 min read

“Tamil Elites May Call the NPP ‘Old Sinhala Nationalism in Disguise,’ but Ordinary Tamils See a Progressive Force” — Jayadeva Uyangoda

Jayadeva Uyangoda, Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Colombo, is one of Sri Lanka’s leading scholars on ethnic conflict, peace processes, nationalism, democracy, and leftist politics. Before becoming one of the country’s most influential political scientists, Uyangoda had been briefly involved with the early Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) movement founded by Rohana Wijeweera and was imprisoned after the 1971 uprising. A former activist with a Ph.D. from Colombo, he h

Exclusive Interview March 2026

Aruliniyan Mahalingam

Mar 8, 2026 — 24 min read

‘Because I Loved It’: The Jaffna Tamil Hailed as ‘Father of Italian Cricket’ Speaks to Jaffna Monitor

Italy’s recent victory over Nepal — a side widely regarded as far superior in the associate cricketing world — has raised more than a few eyebrows. For many, it was an upset. For those who know the deeper story of Italian cricket, it was something else entirely: a reminder of a forgotten past making itself heard once again. Cricket was once a visible presence in Italy. One of the country’s oldest sporting institutions, the Genoa Cricket and Football Club, founded in 1893, still carries the name

Exclusive Interview February 2026

Aruliniyan Mahalingam

Feb 14, 2026 — 10 min read

“Had Prabhakaran Accepted the International Rescue Plan, Thousands — Including Himself — Would Have Survived” — Erik Solheim

For a generation of Sri Lankans who came of age during the ceasefire years, the name Erik Solheim was never far from the headlines. As Norway’s chief peace facilitator in Sri Lanka’s conflict, he was a constant presence. For me personally, his name was woven into my teenage years. He was on the news almost daily — praised by some, vilified by others — yet always central to the unfolding drama of a country at war and searching, however briefly, for peace. Today, Solheim is known globally as an

Exclusive Interview February 2026

Aruliniyan Mahalingam

Feb 8, 2026 — 29 min read