June 2026

In Colombo, 5,000 Bharatnatyam Dancers Move in Unison—and Into the Record Books

In Colombo, 5,000 Bharatnatyam Dancers Move in Unison—and Into the Record Books

COLOMBO – More than 5,000 Bharatnatyam dancers from Sri Lanka, India, and other countries gave a scintillating, choreographed performance in Colombo on Sunday (June 14) to earn a Guinness World Record citation for the largest dance lesson in one of India’s oldest classical dance forms. The colourful and mesmerizing event was organised jointly by the Sangamam Global Academy of India and the Samgamizh Liya of Sri Lanka at the Galle Face Green promenade in the capital. After the performers, dress
June 2026 Monitor Memo
Our Reporter

Our Reporter
The Government, the Spy Chief, and the Danger of Hunting Monsters

The Government, the Spy Chief, and the Danger of Hunting Monsters

By Che Ran There is a particular smell to Colombo politics after rain: diesel, wet dust, sea salt, old files, new lies, and that faint colonial rot of a state that has never really confessed to itself. The ministries dry out. The uniforms return to their posts. The priests keep waiting. The widows keep waiting. The politicians, of course, discover justice exactly when it becomes useful. Into this humidity walks the case of Suresh Sallay — soldier, intelligence man, Rajapaksa insider, spymaste
Guest Column June 2026
Che Ran

Che Ran
TELO Dissidents Allege Power Grab Ahead of National Convention

TELO Dissidents Allege Power Grab Ahead of National Convention

JAFFNA — A faction of senior leaders within the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO) has accused the party's top leadership of subverting internal democracy by delaying the organization's national convention and manipulating district-level selections to entrench themselves in power, according to statements made at a press conference held Saturday at the Jaffna Media Centre. The dissidents said the party has suffered repeated electoral losses, administrative dysfunction, and a string of co
June 2026 Monitor Memo
Our Reporter

Our Reporter
Aid without accountability: Why fragile states remain fragile
Nobel laureate Angus Deaton.

Aid without accountability: Why fragile states remain fragile

By: Prof Mahesh Nirmalan MD, FRCA, PhD, FFICM University of Manchester. The dependence on the unimpeded flow of overseas ‘aid’ runs firmly through many countries in the global south. Grants, concessionary loans, and development assistance have been presented as honourable lifelines and viewed as the ‘magic wand for poverty alleviation’. But it is a dogma that deserves closer scrutiny in a world that treats ‘Aid’ as an extension of foreign policy. The Nobel prize winning and centre-left leani
Guest Column June 2026
Prof. Mahesh Nirmalan

Prof. Mahesh Nirmalan
"Land Was the One Issue Raised Everywhere I Went" — Australian High Commissioner Matthew Duckworth
Australian High Commissioner Matthew Duckworth, dressed in traditional Tamil attire, participates in Pongal celebrations in Jaffna

"Land Was the One Issue Raised Everywhere I Went" — Australian High Commissioner Matthew Duckworth

Matthew Duckworth assumed office as Australia’s High Commissioner to Sri Lanka in the latter part of 2025. Within his first six months in the role, he visited the Northern Province twice — first during Thai Pongal in January and again in May — travelling through Jaffna, Mullaitivu and other parts of the North. In a wide-ranging interview with Jaffna Monitor, he reflected on Australia’s development engagement in the North and East, land return and the military presence, transitional justice, the
June 2026 Special Interview
Aruliniyan Mahalingam

Aruliniyan Mahalingam
The Suresh Sallay Affair, Explained

The Suresh Sallay Affair, Explained

By M.R. Narayan Swamy If the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) government is to be believed, it has uncovered a treacherous Kim Philby, the Cold War's most infamous double agent, in Sri Lanka, who committed a bloody horror against the country and its people. No, Suresh Sallay did not send trained agents behind the now routed Tamil Tiger lines to die; far worse, he colluded with the Islamic State to orchestrate a string of bomb attacks that killed around 260 people on Easter Day in 2019. Some of
Guest Column June 2026
M.R. Narayan Swamy

M.R. Narayan Swamy
The Meccan Shawl: S.L.M. Hanifa’s Stories Reach the World as Jaffna Monitor Enters Publishing

The Meccan Shawl: S.L.M. Hanifa’s Stories Reach the World as Jaffna Monitor Enters Publishing

After more than six decades of writing about life in Sri Lanka’s Eastern Province, S.L.M. Hanifa’s stories are reaching an English-speaking audience around the world. The Meccan Shawl, a collection of fifteen of his short stories translated from Tamil into English, will be launched on Sunday, June 14, at 4:00 p.m. at the Olympic Auditorium Hall on Independence Avenue in Colombo 7. The book is jointly published by Jaffna Monitor and Ghazal Publications. For Jaffna Monitor, it marks a new ventur
June 2026 Monitor Memo
Jaffna Monitor

Jaffna Monitor
The Spymaster Has Discovered the PTA Is Evil. He Is Forty-Seven Years Late — but He Is Right.

The Spymaster Has Discovered the PTA Is Evil. He Is Forty-Seven Years Late — but He Is Right.

A few weeks before the arrest of former spy chief Suresh Sallay, an article arrived at Jaffna Monitor for review. It argued that a country needs sweeping laws such as the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) to tackle terrorism. I did not publish it. It was, to put it plainly, bloody one-sided. As a Tamil born and raised amidst the war, I know what the PTA is. I know what it has done to people. In this issue of Jaffna Monitor, our Consulting Editor, M.R. Narayan Swamy, pens the agony of a pastor,
Editorial June 2026
Kaniyan Pungundran

Kaniyan Pungundran