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Twenty Years After Muttur Massacre, International Pressure Mounts for Justice

Twenty Years After Muttur Massacre, International Pressure Mounts for Justice

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Twenty years after the execution-style killing of 17 humanitarian workers from the French aid organization Action Against Hunger (ACF) in the eastern town of Muttur, a broad coalition of international governments, United Nations agencies and human rights organizations has renewed calls for Sri Lanka to deliver justice, warning that the failure to prosecute those responsible continues to fuel impunity for attacks on humanitarian personnel worldwide. The appeals, issued aroun


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India Presses Sri Lanka on Tamil Devolution, Unveils New Financing

India Presses Sri Lanka on Tamil Devolution, Unveils New Financing

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri called on Sri Lanka's government Wednesday to hold provincial council elections “at the earliest” and to fully implement the island’s constitutional provisions for the Tamil minority, India’s Ministry of External Affairs said, during his first stand-alone visit to Colombo since taking up the post. He met President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya, Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath, and Foreign Secretary Aruni Ra


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India's Foreign Secretary Arrives in Sri Lanka for High-Level Talks

India's Foreign Secretary Arrives in Sri Lanka for High-Level Talks

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — India's Foreign Secretary, Vikram Misri, arrived in Colombo on Wednesday for a one-day official visit, as New Delhi and Colombo seek to sustain momentum in their expanding bilateral relationship following a series of high-level engagements in recent months. Mr. Misri, a career diplomat who heads India's foreign service and previously served as ambassador to China, Spain, and Myanmar, is scheduled to meet President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya,


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India Signals Preference for Building on Existing Constitution as Tamil Alliance Seeks Political Progress

India Signals Preference for Building on Existing Constitution as Tamil Alliance Seeks Political Progress

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — India has privately indicated that Sri Lanka should exercise caution before abandoning its existing constitutional framework in favour of drafting an entirely new Constitution, according to leaders who attended a meeting Tuesday between the country’s newly formed alliance of six Tamil-speaking political parties and Indian High Commissioner Santosh Jha. Following the discussions, several participants told Jaffna Monitor that constitutional reform featured prominently during


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The Easter Bombings: Anatomy of a State Failure

The Easter Bombings: Anatomy of a State Failure

By Aruliniyan Mahalingam At 8:27 on the morning of April 21, 2019, a foreign intelligence service sent one last message to the head of Sri Lanka’s State Intelligence Service. The bombers would probably move between six and ten that morning, it said, and one of their targets was a Methodist church in Colombo. Surveillance teams were being deployed. The police, it added, had already been warned. The first explosions came shortly before nine, less than twenty minutes later. Over the course of th


Aruliniyan Mahalingam

Aruliniyan Mahalingam

U.N. Experts Urge Criminal Probe Into Chemmani Mass Grave

U.N. Experts Urge Criminal Probe Into Chemmani Mass Grave

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — International accountability experts, senior lawyers, and United Nations officials have called on Sri Lanka to immediately launch a full criminal investigation into the Chemmani mass grave, arguing that the recovery of nearly 500 human skeletons has already established sufficient grounds for a criminal inquiry and that excavation alone cannot deliver justice. Speaking during a special online discussion in Geneva organized by the International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP)


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Tamil Clergy Demand International Inquiry Into Chemmani Grave, Breaking With Their Own Church

Tamil Clergy Demand International Inquiry Into Chemmani Grave, Breaking With Their Own Church

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — Roman Catholic clergy in Jaffna demanded an international investigation into the Chemmani mass grave this week, pitting the Tamil priesthood of Sri Lanka's north against the leadership of their own Church. Its most powerful figure, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, spent years opposing international scrutiny of alleged wartime atrocities against Tamils — even as he now demands precisely such scrutiny for the mostly Catholic victims of the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings. The demand came


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Every Militant a Tiger: How the Meenambakkam Bombing Came to Be Blamed on the LTTE
The aftermath of the Meenambakkam Airport bombing on Aug. 2, 1984, one of the deadliest attacks in India up to that time.

Every Militant a Tiger: How the Meenambakkam Bombing Came to Be Blamed on the LTTE

By Aruliniyan Mahalingam A NAME FOR EVERY GUN In an earlier article, we examined the story of Panagoda Maheswaran and the Tamil Eelam Army (TEA), the militant group responsible for the bombing at Madras's Meenambakkam Airport on Aug. 2, 1984. Although the attack was carried out by the TEA, it has long been attributed to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). This article examines how responsibility for the Meenambakkam bombing came to be associated with the LTTE, and why that narrative


Aruliniyan Mahalingam

Aruliniyan Mahalingam