June 2025

“We’ve Funded Temples. We’ve Funded Bullets. Maybe It’s Time We Fund Trauma Centres and Teacher Salaries”:

“We’ve Funded Temples. We’ve Funded Bullets. Maybe It’s Time We Fund Trauma Centres and Teacher Salaries”:

When entrepreneur and strategist Abbi Kanthasamy published his deeply personal essay, ''A Beacon Amidst the Bleeding: What Jaffna’s Doctors Taught Me About Life'', he may not have anticipated the resonance it would spark. Yet within hours, the piece went viral across social media — striking a nerve in a nation numbed by crisis. Born in Jaffna to a Director of Education father and a university lecturer mother, Abbi spent much of his early life in the North. Today, he is a dynamic figure in globa
June 2025 special interview
Our Special Correspondent

Our Special Correspondent
Last Rite

Last Rite

Translated from the original Tamil short story கடைசிக் கைங்கரியம் from the 1964 collection of short stories titled அக்கா By : A. Muttulingam Translated by: Eḻuttukkiṉiyavaṉ Cry, Thaṇigāsalam, cry. Don’t stand silently like a tree. Your own wife, that saint who bent her head to receive your thāli in a promise to share in your joys and sorrows till death do you part, now lies here as a corpse. But you stand there staring at a distance. Is your heart made of stone! Or have you petrified into a sta
Story June 2025
Eḻuttukkiṉiyavaṉ

Eḻuttukkiṉiyavaṉ
The toll of the missing: narratives of impunity, homicides and grief

The toll of the missing: narratives of impunity, homicides and grief

People becoming unaccounted for as a direct result of, or in connection with armed conflicts and other situations of violence is unfortunately, a common phenomenon throughout the world. The continuous emotional struggle endured by families of missing persons is an incomparable suffering. Absence of credible answers on the fate and whereabouts of their missing relatives drives the families to search relentlessly for meaning and for: knowledge of the exact circumstances of the disappearance; Fami
June 2025 Guest Column
Jeevan Thiyagaraja

Jeevan Thiyagaraja
Untreated War Trauma Can Turn Soldiers Into Agents of Violence

Untreated War Trauma Can Turn Soldiers Into Agents of Violence

Dr. Ruwan M. Jayatunge is a Sri Lankan born medical doctor and mental health professional whose work has spanned continents and conflict zones. A former commissioned officer in the Sri Lankan Army, he treated soldiers at the Colombo Military Hospital, becoming one of the first in the country to study and document the psychosocial effects of PTSD. With advanced training in psychiatry, trauma informed therapy, addiction psychology, and neuropsychology from institutions in Canada, the UK, and the
June 2025 Interview
Our Special Correspondent

Our Special Correspondent
"The Quiet Power of Words”: Jaffna Monitor Speaks with Nadia Kandrusevich

"The Quiet Power of Words”: Jaffna Monitor Speaks with Nadia Kandrusevich

Jaffna Monitor speaks to Nadia Kandrusevich-children’s book publisher and co-recipient of the 2024 IPA Prix Voltaire-about censorship, courage, and why quiet storytelling can be the loudest form of resistance. The IPA Prix Voltaire honours publishers who have faced pressure, threats, and harassment in the pursuit of free expression. When you learned you had been named a co-recipient, what was your immediate reaction? What does this recognition mean to you personally-and to the wider community
June 2025 Interview
Jaffna Monitor

Jaffna Monitor
They Tried to Silence a Language - These Publishers Fought Back:Belarus’s Literary Rebellion

They Tried to Silence a Language - These Publishers Fought Back:Belarus’s Literary Rebellion

A Suitcase and a Mission On a brisk Lillehammer evening in June 2025, Dmitri Strotsev stood under the bright lights of the World Expression Forum (WEXFO) stage, speaking in his native Belarusian. Just moments earlier, he had been handed the IPA Prix Voltaire – a prestigious international award for courage in publishing – jointly with fellow Belarusian publisher Nadia Kandrusevich. Accepting the honor, Strotsev recounted the day he fled Belarus: “In March 2022, I left for the West with one small
June 2025 Special Article
Jaffna Monitor

Jaffna Monitor
A Mother’s Endless Wait

A Mother’s Endless Wait

You look better today,” I said as I absentmindedly began writing her prescription. She was one of my regular patients—a gentle old lady who had been coming to my clinic for years. Her main complaint had always been her lack of appetite. Each time she mentioned it, I reassured her that it was likely due to her chronic lung condition. I never thought to ask beyond the surface, never questioned what lay beneath this persistent symptom. Then, one day, she quietly revealed something that shook me.
Guest Column June 2025
Dr. Nalayini Jegathesan

Dr. Nalayini Jegathesan