Monitor Memo

Tamil Progressive Alliance leader Mano Ganesan has appealed to the United Nations to intervene in what he characterised as the systematic exclusion of Hill Country plantation communities from Sri Lanka's post-disaster reconstruction programme following Cyclone Dithwa. In a meeting with UN Resident Coordinator Marc-André Franche at the UN office in Colombo, Mano Ganesan said the government's Rebuilding Sri Lanka housing scheme had failed to include plantation families displaced by the December c

Senior religious figures from the Tamil community have now lent their moral weight to a controversial and arguably ill-judged plan by Jaffna University students to observe Sri Lanka’s Independence Day on February 4 as a “Black Day” in the Northern and Eastern provinces. The Jaffna University Students’ Union has announced that it will stage demonstrations and mark February 4 — Sri Lanka’s Independence Day — as a Black Day and a day of protest. In preparation, student representatives recently pai

Tamil National People's Front (TNPF) President and Jaffna MP Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam has declared that the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK) has no moral authority to lead protests against the government's Kivul Oya irrigation project, accusing the party of having previously facilitated the Sinhalisation of Tamil areas. Addressing a press conference in Jaffna, Ponnambalam argued that civil society organisations, rather than ITAK, should take the lead in organising resistance to the controver

The essay collection Uthuru Kona Arumasiya (Wonder of the Northern Corner), authored by Dr Viduni Basnayake, was launched at the Clinical Training and Research Block (CTRB) of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Jaffna. The event was organised jointly by the Jaffna Medical Students' Union, the Department of Community Medicine, and the Student Welfare Unit. The Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Professor R. Surenthirakumaran, attended as the chief guest. The book is a compilation of essays wr

Maravanpulavu K. Sachithananthan, leader of the Ilankai Siva Senai organisation, has levelled serious allegations against Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK) Acting General Secretary M.A. Sumanthiran, accusing him of systematically undermining the party through mass expulsions and attempting to impose a sectarian religious agenda. Speaking to the media, Sachithananthan claimed that Sumanthiran has been the driving force behind the removal of numerous ITAK members over the past twelve years, alle