July 2026

The Fighters the Tamil Diaspora Left Behind
Female members of the LTTE during the Sri Lankan civil war.

The Fighters the Tamil Diaspora Left Behind

By M.R. Narayan Swamy Ex-Tamil Tiger N could not restrain himself when he saw a group of diaspora Tamils visit a rehabilitation centre to see for themselves how former combatants who had fought the Sri Lankan military were being treated by the government. The visitors came with Selvarasa Pathmanathan, alias Kumaran Pathmanathan, alias KP, a senior member of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) who had been captured in Malaysia just before the war ended in 2009. “You came in big vehicle
Guest Column July 2026
M.R. Narayan Swamy

M.R. Narayan Swamy
Gotabaya Rajapaksa Accused of Misleading Court as Arrest Battle Intensifies

Gotabaya Rajapaksa Accused of Misleading Court as Arrest Battle Intensifies

By Jaffna Monitor's Court Correspondent COLOMBO — Sri Lanka's Attorney General asked the Court of Appeal on Monday to throw out a petition by former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa seeking to block his arrest in the reopened investigation into the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings, contending that he had misled the court and that the case belonged before the Supreme Court. Mr. Rajapaksa is seeking a court order to prevent his detention as investigators revisit the coordinated suicide attacks, which k
JM COURTS July 2026
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Activists Accuse Sri Lankan Government of Concealing Scale of Deadly Prison Violence

Activists Accuse Sri Lankan Government of Concealing Scale of Deadly Prison Violence

COLOMBO — Prisoners' rights advocates escalated pressure on Sri Lanka's government on Monday, accusing it of concealing the scale of deadly violence at Negombo Prison and of neglecting the overcrowding, staff shortages, and inadequate medical care that they said had pushed the country's prison system beyond its capacity. At separate news conferences, the Prisoners' Rights Protection Association and Wasantha Mudalige, an activist with the People's Struggle Front, said the authorities had yet to
July 2026 Monitor Memo
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The Negombo Prison Killings: A System That Failed Long Before the Riot

The Negombo Prison Killings: A System That Failed Long Before the Riot

NEGOMBO, Sri Lanka — At around one o’clock on Sunday afternoon, in a prison built for a fraction of the men it holds, a rumour spread through the wards: that an inmate had informed on a drug-trafficking operation running inside the walls. Over the next twenty-four hours, as many as 25 people were killed and more than 100 injured. Some of the dead were beaten so badly that they could not immediately be identified. Once again, failures that the country has long documented and long ignored were ex
JM Exclusive July 2026
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Development, Division and Sovereignty in a Divided and Contested World
The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD): A source of pride and a model for development in the Global South. Source: Wikipedia

Development, Division and Sovereignty in a Divided and Contested World

Professor Mahesh Nirmalan MD, FRCA, PhD, FFICM, University of Manchester, UK Sri Lanka, is a nation shaped by paradoxes at every level. In 1819 missionary and future Bishop of Calcutta Reginald Heber captured this paradox in his poem as “What though the spicy breezes Blow soft o'er Ceylon's isle, Though every prospect pleases, And only man is vile” Despite the colonial prejudices that are evident in the above words, the verse does capture the paradoxes of Sri Lanka which stand true to
Guest Column July 2026
Prof. Mahesh Nirmalan

Prof. Mahesh Nirmalan
Karuna Amman Reportedly Tells Investigators Former Spy Chief Backed Pillayan's Network

Karuna Amman Reportedly Tells Investigators Former Spy Chief Backed Pillayan's Network

COLOMBO — Former Minister Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan, the one-time eastern commander of the Tamil Tigers better known as Karuna Amman, has reportedly told Sri Lanka's Criminal Investigation Department that the country's former intelligence chief helped arrange and finance safe houses used by a rival Tamil paramilitary group, according to a report published by a Sinhala-language news website. Jaffna Monitor could not independently verify the claims, as neither the Criminal Investigation Depart
July 2026 Monitor Memo
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'They Know They Will Lose': Mano Ganesan on Why Sri Lanka's Provincial Elections Remain Frozen

'They Know They Will Lose': Mano Ganesan on Why Sri Lanka's Provincial Elections Remain Frozen

By M.R. Narayan Swamy NEW DELHI — Sri Lanka’s JVP-led government will not go for the much-delayed Provincial Council elections because the results will dominantly go against them, ‘Indian Tamil’ leader and multi-time MP Mano Ganesan has said. “I will be happy to be proved wrong,” he quickly added, when asked why President Anura Dissanayake’s government had not kept its election pledge to hold the polls in all nine provinces within a year of taking office. “They will not hold the Provincial Co
JM Exclusive July 2026
M.R. Narayan Swamy

M.R. Narayan Swamy
India Names New Visa Contractor, Expands Consular Reach in Eastern Sri Lanka

India Names New Visa Contractor, Expands Consular Reach in Eastern Sri Lanka

COLOMBO, 5 July 2026 India will transfer its visa, passport, and consular processing in Sri Lanka to a new outsourcing contractor on Monday, the High Commission of India in Colombo has announced, reviving an intermediary system that its diplomatic missions had run themselves for the past eight months. Alhind Global Services, an arm of a Kerala-based travel and services group, has been appointed the outsourcing service provider for visa, passport, Overseas Citizen of India (OCI), and attestatio
July 2026 Monitor Memo
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